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From Sabbath to Lord's Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation
A series of authors assert the premise that Sunday is "a new day of worship that was chosen to commemorate the unique, salvation-historical event of the death and resurrection of Christ, rather than merely being another day for celebrating the Sabbath"
444 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
20 people are currently reading
345 people want to read
About the author
D.A. Carson
339 books738 followersDonald A. Carson is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1978. Carson came to Trinity from the faculty of Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also served for two years as academic dean. He has served as assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Carson received the Bachelor of Science in chemistry from McGill University, the Master of Divinity from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, and the Doctor of Philosophy in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world. He has written or edited about sixty books. He is a founding member and currently president of The Gospel Coalition. Carson and his wife, Joy, reside in Libertyville, Illinois. They have two adult children.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 13, 2016
Tremendous and thorough read. Carson is one of the best commentators there is; he brilliantly relays difficult concepts in a concise and cogent manner.
The team that he assembled to tackle this difficult concept was well-organized and objective. They fairly analyzed all of the relevant views, and confronted differing opinions squarely, but graciously.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested how Christians ought to approach the Sabbath Day, the Decalogue, and the Lord's Day. If one doesn't have time to read the entire book, the final chapter provides a succinct summary that is indicative of the book in its entirety.
The team that he assembled to tackle this difficult concept was well-organized and objective. They fairly analyzed all of the relevant views, and confronted differing opinions squarely, but graciously.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested how Christians ought to approach the Sabbath Day, the Decalogue, and the Lord's Day. If one doesn't have time to read the entire book, the final chapter provides a succinct summary that is indicative of the book in its entirety.
December 15, 2020
First, read the conclusion which extensively resume every things in the book ; then if you want to go deeper in a specific subject, go pick the corresponding chapter. This way you’ll save some previous time.
Half of the book is Bauckham’s analysis of the historical development...
Half of the book is Bauckham’s analysis of the historical development...
July 31, 2015
Horrível! Totalmente anti-reformado!
August 20, 2018
This is a great book on the subject of the Sabbath day. There are several articles from sound scholarship discussing the history of the church's observation of the Sabbath day as compared to the observation of the Lord's day. This is a fair treatment of the subject and goes into great detail to clearly depict the various views that the church has had in the past and some of the differing views it still holds. I would highly recommend this book to those who are still struggling with where you fall in the continuity/discontinuity debate and am sure that this work will give you plenty to chew on.
May 16, 2022
Excellent (but predominantly academic) analysis of the how the Sabbath is fulfilled and transformed in Christ and how Sunday became the focus for Christian worship.
Andrew Lincoln's concluding synthesis is a wonderful example of pulling biblical and theological threads together, fair engagement of opposing views, and firm expression of convictions.
Andrew Lincoln's concluding synthesis is a wonderful example of pulling biblical and theological threads together, fair engagement of opposing views, and firm expression of convictions.
August 12, 2025
This is the best book I have found dealing with the issues related to Israel's Sabbath, a Christian Sabbath, a Christian Sunday Sabbath, and Sabbath as rest in the gospel. The book is big on theology, exegesis, and historiography.
Much of this book, with chapters written by various international evangelical scholars, reads like a doctoral dissertation. The book assumes fluency in theology and the biblical languages. Contributors include Max Turner and A. T. Lincoln as well as Canadian/American D. A. Carson. Carson introduces the theological challenge:
"On what basis should Christians adopt or reject Old Testament laws concerning slavery? On what basis should one applaud the insistence on justice in Deuteronomy and Amos, but declare invalid the racial segregation of Nehemiah and Malachi? Small wonder, then, that the Sabbath\Sunday question continues to attract attention. It is one of the most difficult areas in the study of the relationship between the Testaments, and in the history of the development of doctrine." (17)
In short, how does the contemporary Christian deal with OT laws regarding Sabbath? Has God transferred Israel's Sabbath to a Sunday Christian Sabbath? Many in the reformed traditions and creeds have argued this. But the theological precision found, for example, in the Wesminster Confession, is not found in Scripture. The authors take the position that the Puritans--with their over-the-top commitment to the Decalogue--logically and hermeneutically fail to distinguish that the Sabbath commandment is treated differently than the other nine commandments by God and the human authors of the NT. So what do we do with Sunday and the Sabbath? Each uber-competent author addresses his assigned domain comprehensively.
THE AUTHORS REJECT the Sunday Sabbatarian theology of The Westminster Confession of Faith:
Chapter XXI, VII. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in His Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, He has particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him:[34] which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week: and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week,[35] which, in Scripture, is called the Lord's Day,[36] and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.[37]
VIII. This Sabbath is to be kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations,[38] but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.[39]
They conclude the NT supports the theology of The Heidelberg Catechism:
103 Q. What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment?
A. First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I diligently attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.
Second,that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin in this life the eternal Sabbath
Quotes:
There is no hint anywhere in the ministry of Jesus that the first day of the week is to take on the character of the Sabbath and replace it. (85)
Paul's contribution to our quest, then, is limited but of significance. While he forbids us from stating that Christians may _not_ observe Sunday as the Christian day "par excellence," he also forbids us from imposing such observance as a duty upon our fellow believers. Since, at least in much of the world, Sunday is allowed to the majority of us as a day of rest and a day suitable for worship, we may surely gratefully receive it as such; but our study of Paul forbids us from erecting any theological edifice upon this convenient, but fortuitous, fact. (185-86)
In short the physical rest of the Old Testament Sabbath has become the salvation rest of the true Sabbath. In fact the Sabbath keeping now demanded is the cessation from reliance on one's own works (Heb. 4:9, 10). [215]
There is no convincing reason from the New Testament evidence why this [weekly Sabbath rest] has to be associated with Sunday. (216)
To claim that Revelation 1:10 refers to Easter (or to the Sabbath) is mere speculation with no evidence whatever to support it. (231)
Sunday worship appears, when the evidence becomes available in the second century, as the universal Christian practice outside Palestine. (236)
AUGUSTINE on the Sabbath:
Our Sabbath is filled in hope, because God is working in us; it's full reality will come when God "rests in us." Thus "we shall not expect rest now, in this life, but all our good works shall have no other end but that eternal rest to come." The Sabbath commandment is singled out as precisely the one commandment of the Decalogue that Christians are not to take literally . . " (301)
Peter, Comestor (d. 1179) may have been the first exegete to apply the Sabbath commandment literally to Christian observance of the first day. (304)
LUTHER on the Sabbath:
Moses is dead, not one iota of Moses concerns us, God has not led the Germans out of Egypt. (313) if anywhere the day is made holy for the mere day's sake – if anywhere anyone sets up it's observance on a Jewish foundation, then I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on it, to do anything that shall remove this encroachment on Christian liberty. (314)
That seventh-day observance should have won vigorous advocates in England in the period when the Puritans were urging obedience to the whole Decalogue as moral is not surprising. (333)
Finally, Sabbath transference theology requires that once the change of day has been assumed, the Mosaic Sabbath and the Christian Sunday should be seem to have the same principle at the heart of each so traditionally it has been held that both are a day of rest for worship. This, however, is to blur the distinction between the Old and New covenants. It plays down the rigor of the Mosaic Sabbath, which was primarily a day of physical rest from work rather than a day for special acts of worship, and misinterprets the Christian Lord's Day, which was the appropriate day for worship but by no means necessarily involved a day of rest. (393)
Much of this book, with chapters written by various international evangelical scholars, reads like a doctoral dissertation. The book assumes fluency in theology and the biblical languages. Contributors include Max Turner and A. T. Lincoln as well as Canadian/American D. A. Carson. Carson introduces the theological challenge:
"On what basis should Christians adopt or reject Old Testament laws concerning slavery? On what basis should one applaud the insistence on justice in Deuteronomy and Amos, but declare invalid the racial segregation of Nehemiah and Malachi? Small wonder, then, that the Sabbath\Sunday question continues to attract attention. It is one of the most difficult areas in the study of the relationship between the Testaments, and in the history of the development of doctrine." (17)
In short, how does the contemporary Christian deal with OT laws regarding Sabbath? Has God transferred Israel's Sabbath to a Sunday Christian Sabbath? Many in the reformed traditions and creeds have argued this. But the theological precision found, for example, in the Wesminster Confession, is not found in Scripture. The authors take the position that the Puritans--with their over-the-top commitment to the Decalogue--logically and hermeneutically fail to distinguish that the Sabbath commandment is treated differently than the other nine commandments by God and the human authors of the NT. So what do we do with Sunday and the Sabbath? Each uber-competent author addresses his assigned domain comprehensively.
THE AUTHORS REJECT the Sunday Sabbatarian theology of The Westminster Confession of Faith:
Chapter XXI, VII. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in His Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, He has particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him:[34] which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week: and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week,[35] which, in Scripture, is called the Lord's Day,[36] and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.[37]
VIII. This Sabbath is to be kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations,[38] but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.[39]
They conclude the NT supports the theology of The Heidelberg Catechism:
103 Q. What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment?
A. First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I diligently attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.
Second,that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin in this life the eternal Sabbath
Quotes:
There is no hint anywhere in the ministry of Jesus that the first day of the week is to take on the character of the Sabbath and replace it. (85)
Paul's contribution to our quest, then, is limited but of significance. While he forbids us from stating that Christians may _not_ observe Sunday as the Christian day "par excellence," he also forbids us from imposing such observance as a duty upon our fellow believers. Since, at least in much of the world, Sunday is allowed to the majority of us as a day of rest and a day suitable for worship, we may surely gratefully receive it as such; but our study of Paul forbids us from erecting any theological edifice upon this convenient, but fortuitous, fact. (185-86)
In short the physical rest of the Old Testament Sabbath has become the salvation rest of the true Sabbath. In fact the Sabbath keeping now demanded is the cessation from reliance on one's own works (Heb. 4:9, 10). [215]
There is no convincing reason from the New Testament evidence why this [weekly Sabbath rest] has to be associated with Sunday. (216)
To claim that Revelation 1:10 refers to Easter (or to the Sabbath) is mere speculation with no evidence whatever to support it. (231)
Sunday worship appears, when the evidence becomes available in the second century, as the universal Christian practice outside Palestine. (236)
AUGUSTINE on the Sabbath:
Our Sabbath is filled in hope, because God is working in us; it's full reality will come when God "rests in us." Thus "we shall not expect rest now, in this life, but all our good works shall have no other end but that eternal rest to come." The Sabbath commandment is singled out as precisely the one commandment of the Decalogue that Christians are not to take literally . . " (301)
Peter, Comestor (d. 1179) may have been the first exegete to apply the Sabbath commandment literally to Christian observance of the first day. (304)
LUTHER on the Sabbath:
Moses is dead, not one iota of Moses concerns us, God has not led the Germans out of Egypt. (313) if anywhere the day is made holy for the mere day's sake – if anywhere anyone sets up it's observance on a Jewish foundation, then I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on it, to do anything that shall remove this encroachment on Christian liberty. (314)
That seventh-day observance should have won vigorous advocates in England in the period when the Puritans were urging obedience to the whole Decalogue as moral is not surprising. (333)
Finally, Sabbath transference theology requires that once the change of day has been assumed, the Mosaic Sabbath and the Christian Sunday should be seem to have the same principle at the heart of each so traditionally it has been held that both are a day of rest for worship. This, however, is to blur the distinction between the Old and New covenants. It plays down the rigor of the Mosaic Sabbath, which was primarily a day of physical rest from work rather than a day for special acts of worship, and misinterprets the Christian Lord's Day, which was the appropriate day for worship but by no means necessarily involved a day of rest. (393)
March 28, 2025
Ok, admittedly I was not at all prepared for how academic this book was. Easily one of the harder theological books I've read. However, it decisively accomplished the intended goal of helping me understand this topic better. I picked this up because I was unsure about my own thoughts concerning Sabbath/Lord's Day theology and I came away feeling like I have a thorough understanding of the debate and a solid conviction.
I wish a distilled, less-academic form of this book existed to communicate the arguments it contains in a more readable language. However, I do think these couple sentences from page 240 summarize it nicely:
"Our study of the origins of the Lord's Day has given no hint of properly sabbatical associations; for the earliest Christians it was not a substitute for the Sabbath nor a day of rest nor related in any way to the fourth commandment. It was simply, by the normative custom of the apostolic church, the day on which Christians met to worship, and, for us, the use of its title, the Lord's Day, in Revelation 1:10 gives that custom the stamp of canonical authority."
I wish a distilled, less-academic form of this book existed to communicate the arguments it contains in a more readable language. However, I do think these couple sentences from page 240 summarize it nicely:
"Our study of the origins of the Lord's Day has given no hint of properly sabbatical associations; for the earliest Christians it was not a substitute for the Sabbath nor a day of rest nor related in any way to the fourth commandment. It was simply, by the normative custom of the apostolic church, the day on which Christians met to worship, and, for us, the use of its title, the Lord's Day, in Revelation 1:10 gives that custom the stamp of canonical authority."
June 9, 2023
This is "the one" everyone else quotes. It's definitely dry, though not so overly academic it's not readable. . . . I had a feeling I'd be convinced by this book before I read because of previous research I'd done, but I do think the authors present the various material in a rather neutral way (it's actually kind of odd in the first few chapters). The argument only really begins to build several chapters in. . . . The chapter on Eschatology and the Sabbath (interpretation of Hebrews) is the most illuminating chapter here. . . . I really really wish someone would include a true Biblical Theology exploration of Sabbath. I've yet to see it in book or chapter form, only in small articles. Otherwise, this pretty much covers all the categories.
June 27, 2018
Very technical book. Took me a while to get through it, but extremely well founded and argued. It challenged me in some ways and helped to put into place some things I have always found to be a bit tough to explain. A very thoughtful, strongly exegetical and well balanced approach to this topic.
August 23, 2021
This book has some serious flaws, they don't seem to know Greek. They follow poor translations at crucial points instead of the Greek.
May 25, 2023
Some good exegetical and historical work. Not agreeing with all the conclusions, but it is a worthy read on the subject.
January 27, 2014
Very worthwhile read. Long ago, I was told to read this by Walter Martin, the Bible Answer Man, when I asked him for a title on the Sabbath question. I think I subsequently located the book in a Christian book store and skimmed what I needed to answer my questions. But it was still on my list of books to read more thoroughly some day. I decided recently to order a number of books on that list that had bubbled up to the top, and this was the first to be read. Great contents. There are more pertinent texts on the subject than I had imagined and more nuance to certain of the arguments of mediating positions. This book offered both exegesis of the relevant texts, and historical survey of sabbath beliefs in the history of the church. It was slow going. I probably averaged ten pages in a reading session. I took the time to underline, to make notes, and to look up Bible references. It was well worth the time.
August 20, 2015
Very helpful.
November 14, 2018
Excelente material. Aborda o assunto tanto historicamente quanto textualmente.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews