Is the Seventh-Day Sabbath Christian?
by Desmond Ford Many of my friends disagree with me on this topic, and some of them are certainly brighter than I. My convictions in these few pages, however, were hard won. I did not inherit the doctrine of the Sabbath. I accepted it reluctantly, in the face of pressures of culture, church, family, and employment. Many years later when my friend Robert Brinsmead gave up Sabbath observance and wrote at length against it, I reviewed the whole matter and consequently published The Forgotten Day. This rest day has had no rest from controversy over the centuries. Researchers are surprised at how many hundreds of articles and books Christians have circulated on the subject of the Sabbath. The most scholarly anti-Sabbatarian book of recent times, From Sabbath to Lord’s Day, reminds us that those who think the question can be easily settled don’t understand the theological vastness of the issues involved. As editor D. A. Carson points out, “It is one of the most difficult areas in the study o
