Calvin on Having to Keep the Sabbath

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Romans922

Romans922

Puritan Board Professor
Talking with a friend. He was reading in the Institutes, Book 2.8.28-34, and he was asking why Calvin basically says that he thinks it is good to meet regularly but because the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Christ we aren't forced into that by a command to, for example, meet on the Lord's Day. He uses Acts 2:42 as an example that it would be good to meet regularly. But by regularly it doesn't seem he means each Lord's Day.

Any clarification to this? I was also wondering if this section was written early in Calvin's life and if then his sermons in Deuteronomy shed greater light into his view towards the end of his life.
 
Some clarification might be found in Calvin's Catechism. Here is an excerpt on the 4th Commandment. You can note that Calvin states that the ceremonial aspect of the 4th Commandment is fulfilled and done away with, but that it still has uses for the church. The last question and answer of the excerpt clearly shows his view that God's people are to meet on the Lord's Day.

166. Let us come to the fourth commandment.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Sis days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made haven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, and hallowed it.

167. Does He order us to labour six days a week that may rest on the seventh?
Not precisely, but in allowing us to labour for six days, He excepts the seventh, on which it is not right to be engaged in work.

168. Does He thus forbid us all work one day a week?
This commandment has a particular reason, for the observance of rest is part of the ceremonies of the ancient Law, which was abolished at the coming of Jesus Christ.

169. Do you mean that this commandment properly belongs to the Jews, and that it was given for the time of the Old Testament?
I do, in so far as it is ceremonial.

170. How is that? Is there anything else in it besides the ceremony?
It was given for three reasons.

171. What are they?
To represent spiritual rest, in aid of ecclesiastical polity, and for the relief of servants.

172. What is this spiritual rest?
It is to cease from our own works, that the Lord may work in us.

173. How is that done?
By mortifying our flesh, that is, renouncing our own nature, so that God may govern us by His Spirit.

174. Is this to be done only one day a week?
This is to be done continually. After we have once begun, we must continue all our life.

175. Why, then, is a certain day appointed to represent this?
It is not required that the representation should be altogether identical with the truth, but it is sufficient that there should be some resemblance.

176. But why is the seventh day appointed rather than any other day?
The number seven implies perfection in Scripture. Thus it is suited to denote perpetuity. It reminds us also that our spiritual rest is only begun in this life, and will not be perfect until we depart from this world.

177. But what is meant when our Lord asserts that we must rest as He did?
After having created all His works in six days, He dedicated the seventh to the contemplation of His works. And in order better to induce us to do this, He set before us His own example. For nothing is so desirable as to be conformed to Him.

178. Must we meditate continually on the works of God, or is it sufficient on one day out of seven?
We must do it every hour, but because of our weakness, one day is specially appointed. And this is the polity of which I spoke.

179. What order, then, is to be observed on that day?
That the people meet to hear the doctrine of God, to engage in common prayer, and bear witness to their faith and religion.
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Here is a link to Calvin's Catechism put up by Matthew McMahon: http://www.apuritansmind.com/Creeds/CalvinsCatechismIntro.htm
 
Many ppl do use Calvin as an excuse not to observe the Sabbath. I did for awhile myself bc I only read comments he made about the Sabbath. That was until I read a book about his life. He observed the Sabbath more fully than anyone I know. He dedicated his whole life to preaching God's Word and he certainly dedicated the Sabbath to God.
 
Primus writes, "Calvin calls for a literal, physical cessation of daily labor on the Lord’s Day, not as an end in itself, but to provide time for worship of God. Recreational activity should also be suspended, for such activity interferes with worship as certainly as daily labor does. ‘If we spend the Lord’s day in making good cheer, and in playing and gaming, is that a good honouring of God? Nay, is it not a mockery, yea and a very unhallowing of his name?’"
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Mr. Calvin apparently never quite got to the understanding of the Westminster Divines nor the London Baptist Confession.

He did appear to move toward a "good and necessary consequence" basis for ceasing both work and recreation one day a week. In practice, it would look very similar to the Westminster Standards or London Baptist Confession.

It's interesting, I once read Mr. Lorraine Boettner in a book introduction saying we are "Calvinist" but not "Calvinistic" due mainly to his reasoning regarding the fourth commandment.

And it is a reminder, that while Mr. Calvin was very, very good- the greatest theologian of all time, he was not perfect, did not refine every systematic doctrine, nor ought we expect that.
 
Here's an interesting quote from Calvin on this subject:

“We must refrain from our own business which might hinder us from the mining of God’s works, and we must call upon His name and exercise our selves in His word. If we spend the Lord’s Day in making good cheer, and in playing and gaming, is that a good honoring of God? Nay, it is not a mockery, yea a very unhallowing of His name? Yes. But when the Shop-windows are shut in on the Lord’s Day, and men travel not as they do on other days, it is to the end [that] we should have the more leisure and liberty, to intend to the things that God commandeth… Yet notwithstanding it is so common a thing, as is pity to see (i.e. that people refuse to come to the sermon, conduct their own affairs, indulge in gluttony and withdraw into their homes away from the church on the Lord’s Day), and would God that [these] examples were more rare and further off to be found. But the world sees how all things are unhallowed, insomuch that most folk have no regard at all of the using of that Day, which was ordained to withdraw us from all earthly cares and affairs that we might give ourselves wholly unto God. But if the Lord’s Day be spent not only in games and pastimes fully contrary to God, so as men think they have not kept holy the Lord His Day, except God be offended divers ways; if the holy order which God ordained to bring us to Him be broken after that fashion, is it any wonder though men play the beasts all the week after?”

Sermon 34 on Deuteronomy, in The Sermons of John Calvin upon the Fifth Book of Moses Called Deuteronomy, translated by Arthur Golding, London, 1583, page 204. Also translated in John Calvin’s Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley, 1980.
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From my personal research of Calvin's Institutes, I've deduced that:

-Calvin recognizes that Christians in the New Covenant have a responsibility to obey the 4th commandment, and that it can be broken. II.8.28: "The early fathers customarily called this commandment a foreshadowing because it contains the outward keeping of a day which, upon Christ's coming, was abolished; but they touch upon only half the matter. Hence, we must go deeper in our exposition, and ponder three conditions in which, it seems to me, the keeping of this commandment consists."

-Calvin on what should guide our worship: "Meetings of the church are enjoined upon us by God's word; and from our everyday experience we well know how we need them. But how can such meetings be held unless they have been established and have their stated days?" And then he goes on to say "if we are subject to the same necessity as that to alleviate which the Lord established the Sabbath for the Jews, let no one allege that this has nothing to do with us". Here he states that the order of corporate worship has been established by the 4th commandment.

He goes from there to clearly affirm that we should "obey the order we see laid upon us by God's will", in that weekly worship is demanded by the 4th commandment.

-However, Calvin also, very confusingly, calls Sunday the Sabbath: "in the churches founded by him [Paul], the Sabbath was retained for this purpose [Christian fellowship]. For he prescribes that day to the Corinthians for gathering contributions; 1 Cor 16:2.”

He then says: "because it was expedient to overthrow superstition, the day sacred to the Jews was set aside; because it was necessary to maintain decorum, order, and peace in the church, another was appointed for that purpose." That is, another Sabbath, was appointed, per 1 Cor 16.

He also affirms, in II.8.34: "the ancients did not substitute the Lord's Day (as we call it) for the Sabbath without careful discrimination. The purpose and fulfillment of that true rest, represented by the ancient Sabbath, lies in the Lord's resurrection."

Hope that helps...
 
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