Is the Sabbath a creation ordinance? Part 2.

The following article is Part 2 of my comments regarding Chapter III of Dr. Fruchtenbaum’s book, The Sabbath. In Part 1 of my comments, I critiqued the first three reasons why Dr. Fruchtenbaum asserts that the Sabbath is not a creation ordinance. Dr. Fruchtenbaum’s continues his Chapter III Sabbath analysis by stating:

The fourth way this [that the Sabbath is not a creation ordinance] is seen is that there is no command in the Book of Genesis to observe the seventh day, it only states what God did on the seventh day. It is not found among the Noahic commandments or among the commands God gave to Abraham, Isaac , or Jacob. Furthermore, there is no record of its practice between Adam and Moses.

The fifth way this is seen is that the Sabbath is never treated as a creation ordinance in the New Testament. Mark 2: 27 states: The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. Some try to use this verse to prove that the Sabbath was a creation ordinance. However, the point of this verse is not to deal with the origin of the Sabbath, but to deal with the purpose of the Sabbath: The sabbath was made for man. Furthermore, what Yeshua said was to contradict the Pharisaic teaching that Israel was created for the purpose of honoring the Sabbath. A second passage used to try to prove that the Sabbath was a creation ordinance is Hebrews 4: 3-4, but this passage is simply teaching about salvation rest on the basis of the Old Testament. The Book of Hebrews treats Genesis eschatologically for salvation rest, not as a creation ordinance. It also treats the Genesis Sabbath typologically of the future, heavenly rest.

Is the Sabbath a creation ordinance? Part 1.

I’m in a bible study where we are going through Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s book entitled “The Sabbath” and in this book Fruchtenbaum comprehensively reviews all verses in the bible dealing with the topic of the Sabbath. It is a thorough book and one that is enlightening and instructive. I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for a resource that gives valuable insight into the bible verses that talk about the Sabbath day. Though having said this, I should inform the reader that I actually disagree with Dr. Fruchtenbaum on the conclusions that he draws in a number of his chapters on the Sabbath. I will spend the next couple of blogs walking through this insightful book and discussing areas in which I disagree and why so as to give potential readers of this book more things to think about.

Regarding whether the Sabbath is a creation ordinance, Dr. Fruchtenbaum states in the prefacing comments to his argument:

Is the Sabbath a creation ordinance? At this point, let us assume that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance. If so, it would mean that it is obligatory for both Jews and Gentiles, since it was given before there was any distinction between Jews and Gentiles, a distinction that only began with Genesis 12, not Genesis 2.