Van Wyk Responses to John MacArthur’s “Understanding the Sabbath”

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

7 April 2011

Before we read John MacArthur it is well to keep in mind that the man operates his exegesis with scissors and waste basket in the hand.

He allocates all commandments as binding and moral and permanent but one, the fourth, the sabbath, is temporal and may be cut out and cast into the wastebasket. Notice that the ratio dicidendi for singling out the Sabbath or fourth commandment came from outside the Bible and not inside. Cardinal James Gibbons said in his book that not from Genesis to Revelation is there a single verse authorizing Sunday as day of worship. The Catholic church authorized it and Johannes von Eck (Catholic) was proud of that fact that it was a catholic church creation outside the Bible superimposed on Christians, Sunday keeping Protestants included.  

"Understanding the Sabbath" by John MacArthur

Source:

http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/90-379

"Those are all moral mandates, moral commands, with the exception of verses 8 through 11, the fourth command regarding the Sabbath."

Who is John MacArthur to say that there are nine moral laws in the Ten Commandments and vv. 8-11, also instructed by God, also to be dedicated and kept for Him and to Him, is not a moral obligation?

Odd. To say it mildly. The logic escapes me and the rest of the Bible.

1. moral                      permanent

2. moral                      permanent

3. moral                      permanent

4. non-moral? [odd]           temporal? [odd]

5. moral                      permanent

6. moral                      permanent

7. moral                      permanent

8. moral                      permanent

9. moral                      permanent

10. moral                     permanent

"Now, you do not hear in those three verses anything about people resting.  There's nothing here about man resting, nothing here about Adam resting, and  because he was without sin and a perfect man in every sense, there was no  depletion of his energies when he was doing whatever the simple tending of  the Garden called for."

Answer:

You may not hear anything about resting by Adam and Eve and Henoch and Methusaleg etc. simply because Moses excerpted very briefly from the Book of  Adam (Genesis 5:1) information to fit into chapters 1-5. Moses fits in five chapters 1656 years! Why must he put in a sentence that is anyhow routine among Hebrews all the time? How do we know that? Mannah fell on Friday twice, before Sinai(!) thus one can assume it was a regular practice all  along. Moses described the event so matter of factly, that it was not a new command. The reason it was detailed in Exodus 20 is because people, like modern Sunday keepers, rationalize why they do not need to do those things, and thus abandon and break the law code, including the Sabbath. Remember, our hermeneutics should be sola scripture and that is the whole of the Protestant Bible, not just our own selected here and there citings.

Sabbath in Heaven?

John MacArthur says no. I say yes.

"There's no Sabbath law given here for Adam...none at all."

Answer:

John argues that in the Paradise there was no Sabbath keeping by Adam and Eve. I say there was. Moses wrote cryptic putting in five chapters the history of 1656 years. Heaven to come is Eden restored. It is from Eden to Eden. God places the train back on track. What will be in Heaven to come is what He intended for Adam and Eve in Eden before, but due to their Fall failed. John missed the important verse in Isaiah 66:22 talking about the New Heaven and New Earth that we will keep Sabbath there, see Isaiah 66:23.  If we keep it in Heaven to come, Adam and Eve had to keep it in Eden as  well.

Shall we eat pig in heaven or can we eat pig now?

Isaiah 66:16 describes Hell, taking place after the Millennium in which all  evil is exterminated before a New Heaven and Earth is created. Destroyed are  "who eat swine's flesh, destestable things, and mice".

Sabbath remembers God as Creator and Sunday remembers God as Redeemer (MacArthur 3:6)

"Saturday is a perpetual witness to God as Creator. Sunday, on the other hand, is a perpetual witness to God as Redeemer."

There is from Genesis to Revelation not a single verse that supports MacArthur's assertion here.

Mannah event is considered by MacArthur as a "little preview" of Sinai command

"The first time the Sabbath is mentioned in some significant way is in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus when God feeds the people manna from heaven as they wander in the wilderness and the manna comes every day except the Sabbath day and the day before they get enough for that day so that they don't have to work on that day. And that gives them a little preview of what's coming because in the twentieth chapter you have the Ten Commandments and in the Ten Commandments, which I just read to you, prescriptions are given that do set down laws for the Sabbath day."

Answer:

It is not just a little preview of the Sabbath command. God did not create the Sabbath for the Lord but for man (Mark 2:27-28). Man existed since Adam and thus the Sabbath too. It was also for Adam and Eve. Moses wrote cryptic writing five chapters on 1656 years, so that detail amiss can be understood.