Comment on The Origin of the Sabbath and the 7-Day Week by Sean Pitman.
@Ken:
It is certainly arguable that God made the Sabbath , but not necessarily the whole week, for the benefit of mankind. Ever consider that God created the heaven and earth for his own pleasure , not necessarily for the benefit of mankind?
The God of the Bible finds His pleasure in providing for the needs of and giving pleasure to others – to us. The Bible describes God as finding His greatest pleasure in selfless service to others – to include those sentient intelligent beings that He has created (to include humans, angels, and other created intelligences). Consider that Jesus actually took pleasure in washing the feet of his disciples – in being of service to them in both the lowest as well as the highest aspects of their needs. It is similar, I would think, to the pleasure parents realize in being of service to their children – even when it comes to their most basic needs. I know that is true in my own experience with my two-year old and four-month old boys.
Also, the Sabbath is defined, in the Bible, as the seventh day of the weekly cycle. This is not just some vague implication from the biblical passages. It is directly defined in this manner. Therefore, if the Sabbath was made for our benefit as Jesus claims, then so was the weekly cycle of which the Sabbath is defined as the seventh day. The two go hand in hand in the Bible. Clearly then, one simply cannot have the blessings of the Sabbath of the Bible without observing a seven-day weekly cycle at the same time.
By the way, you only quoted the first part of the 4th commandement of Exodus 20. The rest goes like this:
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” – Exodus 20:8-11
Notice that God defines the Sabbath as the 7th day of a 7-day weekly cycle and tells us to remember to observe it and to allow our animals to observe it as well… most interesting. Again, according to Jesus, such a command was given for our benefit, not just as an arbitrary act of God to satisfy just His own personal whims or desires without any benefit to those who obey His commands.
Why for example would God make creatures that had no benefit to mankind outside of the Garden of Eden? Dinosaurs, tigers, sharks! Yikes! And if heavens includes a black hole in our galaxy, double yikes!
According to the Bible, there was no death or predation for any sentient creature anywhere in the universe – this planet included. There were no predatory dinosaurs, tigers, or sharks. All had a vegetarian diet. That’s right, William Blake was wrong. God never intended the tiger to be carnivorous in his original creation of life on this planet. Meat eating sharks and tigers and other carnivores devolved after the moral fall of mankind when death and suffering for sentient beings (like humans and tigers and dinosaurs) started to occur for the very first time in all of God’s creation.
Sean, my point is not merely pedantic, it is too demonstate that your circaseptan implication is not necessarily empirical or as cut and dried as you may first have thought.
I know that is your goal, but I for one don’t see how you’ve shown that the seven-day weekly cycle is not in fact very clearly claimed, by the Bible, to have been created by God for the benefit of both humans and animals? It seems to me, and even to those who don’t believe the Bible, that the biblical authors are quite clear in their claim that God desires both us and our animals to observe the seventh-day of a seven-day week as a day of rest and worship and grateful thanksgiving to God. I know you want to challenge this concept, but I think you’re making yourself look rather obtuse on this particular issue. Even liberal Biblical scholars would concede this much as far as the intent of the Biblical authors is concerned regarding the Sabbath and the 7-day weekly cycle by which it is defined – and a promised blessing for those who observe this pattern. I’m not sure how the biblical language could have been made any more clear in this regard?
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
Sean Pitman Also Commented
The Origin of the Sabbath and the 7-Day Week
@ken:
No, since the God of the Bible called everything “Good” at the end of creation week – which he would not have done if predation of sentient creatures existed on this planet before the moral fall of mankind. After all, the God of the Bible is pictured as experiencing pain in sympathy with animal as well as human suffering.
Given this background, it is quite clear that the eating of the fruit was only symbolic of allegiance. God made the tree and the fruit on it after all. It had no inherent power of its own, outside of God’s will and creative power, to prolong life…
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
The Origin of the Sabbath and the 7-Day Week
@Ken:
I do not disagree that there are numerous factors involved, to include genetics and overall lifestyle. However, it is interesting to me that there are other healthy groups of people out there who are also ethnically diverse. Yet, Adventists, in particular, live the longest among such ethnically diverse groups of people (note that the Okinawans are not ethnically diverse).
Again, all I can suggest is to try it out for yourself and see if you don’t notice a difference in your own personal experience…
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
The Origin of the Sabbath and the 7-Day Week
@Ken:
Consider that I’m presenting three different arguments at the same time. One argument is that there appears to be this intrinsic genetically-coded rhythm in all living things that is based on a 7-day cycle. That, by itself, is quite surprising and non-predictable form a naturalistic perspective – but not from a Biblical perspective.
After all, it was only the Bible that proposed, long before the circaseptan science came on the scene, to explain the origin of this 7-day rhythm as a creative act of God. The Bible also tells us how to best take advantage of this 7-day pattern by working six days and resting on every seventh day (my second argument) and that this work/rest cycle was given to us for our benefit (“The Sabbath was made for man”). In addition to this, the Bible claims that the original order of the days is important to God as a symbol between him and his people of their allegiance to God and he promises an additional supernatural blessing on those who strive to keep holy the true Sabbath day of his original blessing (my third argument).
In my opinion, these are all testable statements. The weekly cycle, by itself, has been shown to have intrinsic elements or biorhythms within all living things (first argument). If certain things are done in accordance with this pattern, living things function better (to include a lengthening of life for different kinds of creatures). On top of this, adding a “Sabbath” day of rest every 7th day appears to be beneficial to mind and body regardless of the actual 7th day chosen for rest – be that day Sunday or Saturday or Friday or whatever 7th day is chosen (second argument). So far, I don’t think there is very much disagreement with these arguments – even within the scientific community at this point (given the new information on circaseptan biorhythms within humans and all other living things and the general benefits of resting mind and body one day a week).
But, beyond this, it seems to me, from my own personal experience and the experience of certain key individuals that I have known, that if one strives to keep Holy the Biblical 7th day in particular (i.e., the Sabbath of the Jews or Saturday), that God actually gives such an individual an additional supernatural blessing (third argument).
Now, I’m sure that many will scoff at my last proposal. But, don’t be too hasty if you haven’t tried it out for yourself… If you haven’t actually tried to keep the Biblical Sabbath, Saturday, holy as the Bible describes. I think that this element plays a role in explaining why Adventists, among all ethnically diverse peoples of the world (to include other groups of people who try to be religious, healthy, and even vegetarian) live the longest and are generally the most blessed ethnically diverse group of people in the world.
Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com
Recent Comments by Sean Pitman
After the Flood
Thank you Ariel. Hope you are doing well these days. Miss seeing you down at Loma Linda. Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!
The Flood
Thank you Colin. Just trying to save lives any way I can. Not everything that the government does or leaders do is “evil” BTW…
The Flood
Only someone who knows the future can make such decisions without being a monster…
Pacific Union College Encouraging Homosexual Marriage?
Where did I “gloss over it”?
Review of “The Naked Emperor” by Pastor Conrad Vine
I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.
Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).
Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.
