Lebell

Dear clavus,

As you've rightly pointed out, it is in the 10 commandments that God commanded Moses and the Israelites to keep the Sabbath Holy:

And yes, people still argue about what actually is the "Sabbath" day.

So lets pull this apart and examine it a bit.

First, it should be remembered that for much of western history, the Bible was considered a verbatum history of the creation of mankind. In otherwords, God really did create the entire world in six 24 hour periods and then rested on the seventh day. If a person believes this, it becomes easy to see why they would want to figure out exactly what day of the week this "resting day" or Sabbath falls on.

And this is exactly what the Hebrews and later Christians have tried to do.

The Jews and some Christian denominations (e.g. Seventh Day Adventists) believe that that Sabbath is on Saturday and therefore do all their worshiping on that day. Other denominations (Catholics, Methodists, etc.) believe that the Sabbath falls on a Sunday and therefore that is the day that is set aside for worship and rest.

And in this viewpoint, one day is clearly right and 6 others are clearly wrong.

With me so far?

Ok. So the interesting question becomes, what if you don't believe in a literal 24/6 creation of the Universe and there is no specific day that you can point to that God "rested"?

Well, contrary to what some more fundemantalist individuals may claim, this really poses no problems. Looking at the text and seeing what it is trying to say, it is clear that it was important that God intended that people take time to relax from their daily grind and focus on the important things in life: self, family, friends, and God. In otherwords, BALANCE is important in one's life.

Today, we see the importance of this early wisdom. Men (and women) work work work and ignore their spouses and children. Family dinners are rare, relationships deteriorate and perhaps break, children grow up feeling alienated from parents, etc. We then wonder why why why our lives are screwed up and we go to therapists who tell us all these things that deep down inside we already knew.

So, in the end, I don't believe that it is necessary to argue that one day is the "Sabbath", but in reality, it IS important to actually TAKE a day and MAKE it your "Sabbath" and as God commanded, keep it holy

Thanks for a great question!

__________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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