Learning to Respect the Sabbath

Tinenenji Banda’s prize-winning essay on Sabbath keeping addresses how attending university affected her ability and desire to keep the Sabbath, and why she believes Sunday isn’t the biblical day of rest and worship.

Personally, going to university posed a plethora of interesting challenges for my Sabbath observance. Away from the protective confines of home and the watchful eyes of parental authority, Sabbath observance for me necessitated a paradigm shift, one that involved moving away from Sabbath keeping because my parents ‘commanded it’, to keeping the Sabbath out of my own will, volition and desire to please God.

Challenges at university

Two specific challenges come to mind. The first of course was (and is) the incredible workload that inevitably comes with doing a law degree: Abstaining from schoolwork for the 24-hour period while fellow students were making headway, and not being able to attend tutorials and seminars scheduled for Saturday proved to be a test.

Secondly, on the social front, being a fresher I was keen to forge friendships and ‘fit in’ during the first year of my university experience and, on the whole, most socialising activities would happen on Friday night or Saturdays.

Respectful but assertive

The goals I set for myself were as follows: from the onset I resolved to tell any potential friends or associates of my convictions so that they would respect my Sabbath observance and not pressure me to break the Holy Day. I also resolved to work efficiently during the week so I could afford to take out the 24 hours of commanded Sabbath rest.

I resolved to get in touch with a local Sabbath-keeping church to ensure that I keep the Hebrews 10:25 exhortation not to forsake meeting together with brethren of like minds.

Most importantly I set the goal that I would be respectful but assertive with the university authorities concerning my beliefs well in advance. That way, if I had to write any tests on the Sabbath or attend any tutorials or teaching sessions, an alternative arrangement could be made.

Beyond university, my goals to ensure that I continue to keep the Sabbath are similar. When I enter the working sphere I plan to inform my employer that I can diligently work six days of the week but the seventh day belongs to my Lord. I have also set the goal to continue regularly attending Sabbath services with my local congregation.

I have set the all-important goal not to be ‘unequally yoked’ with an unbeliever as this may weaken my resolve to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. I am praying that God will provide a marriage partner in due season who will of his own accord respect and observe the Sabbath which I am convinced is an immutable and sacrosanct commandment of the living God.

Is the Sabbath obsolete?

To debunk Sunday keeping I am going to confront the argument often used in mainstream Christianity circles, namely that the Sabbath is of the Old Covenant, of the Jews and therefore obsolete and irrelevant for the modern-day Christian.

As a point of departure, the words of Jesus Christ Himself [the Mediator of the New Covenant] recorded in Matthew 5:18 are opposite. There, He unequivocally asserts that He did not come to destroy the law or the prophets (as He probably foresaw that some would in future contend that He did) but that ‘one jot or one tittle [would] by no means pass from the law until all was fulfilled’ (Matthew 5:17-19, emphasis added throughout).

Indeed Jesus Christ went on to say that whatever man would break the least of the commandments and teach others to do so, would be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. This passage unambiguously states that the Sabbath (it is one of the commandments and part of the law) was not done away with. It is part and parcel of the New Covenant, and needs to be kept and observed as scrupulously as the other commands of God.

Understanding Romans 14:1-6

To justify Sunday keeping and dismiss the seventh-day Sabbath, the writings of the apostle Paul in Romans 14:5-6 are often used, where he states that ‘One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike . . . He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.’ To some this passage suggests that Paul was insinuating that any day of worship is acceptable as long as the worship is ‘to the Lord’.

I submit that this a gross misunderstanding of Paul’s writings.

It soon became clear that if I was to hold fast to my faith and convictions, I would have to set clear goals and standards.

The apostle Peter stated in his epistle that the writings of Paul are hard to understand and some men twist them to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16). Nowhere in this passage does Paul indicate that the reference to days is to the seventh-day Sabbath. Indeed it is Paul himself who stated that ‘The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good’ (Romans 7:12).

The Sabbath is not only for the Jews. As Jesus said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man’ (all men). Indeed, in Acts it is clearly recorded that the gentiles, the so-called ‘New Testament Christians’, were keeping the Sabbath. Acts 13:42 says: ‘The Gentiles begged that these words be preached to them next Sabbath.’

If the Sabbath were an Old Coven-ant requirement, irrelevant to the New Covenant gentiles, then they would not have been keeping the Sabbath. They would not have waited for the words to be preached next Sabbath, but would have advocated for any other day . . . perhaps a sooner day!

A Sabbath rest

If there is any doubt as to whether the Sabbath is relevant, it is my belief that the book of Hebrews should lay all such doubt to rest. The author of Hebrews emphatically states that ‘there remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God’ (Hebrews 4:3-11). Sunday keeping is not biblical and is a tradition of man, not God.

The Sabbath day is as relevant today as it was at creation, at Sinai, in Jesus’ time and in the time of the apostles. We must all aim to keep it vigilantly as the Bible states: ‘Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city’ (Revelation 22:14).

Let us therefore, as the book of Hebrews exhorts us, ‘Make every effort to enter that rest.’

Tine Banda, Cape Town, South Africa

2005 Scholarship Essay Contest The Bible Sabbath Association has sponsored a Sabbatarian youth essay scholarship program for the last several years. In this year's contest, there were 29 entries representing seven countries. The first-place winner was 23-year-old Tinenenji Banda, daughter of elder Kambani Banda and his wife, Shirley, of Zambia. At the time of writing the essay, Tinenenji ('Tine' for short) was a student in the University of Cape Town Law School. She is of the United Church of God. Tinenenji keeps a very active schedule. She represented her school in the Model United Nations competition in Kenya and was a representative of her university in the All Africa Annual Moot Court competition in Tanzania. She has worked as a pro bono legal aid advisor in the university legal-aid clinic assisting indigent refugees, and has served as an aide iat the Italian Orthopeadeic Hospital in her native Zambia. After being employed part time as a writing consultant in the Law Faculties Writing Centre in the Cape Town Law School, Tine is now doing an internship. She is at present residing in London, England for three months and attending services there.