May 11-14, 2010 Debate with Sam Waldron & Rod Henry: “Saturday or Sunday: Which Day is the Christian Sabbath?”

Welcome to Iron Sharpens Iron, the only daily live broadcast in the New York metropolitan and greater Long Island area, on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians have a platform to address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27, 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation, to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. And now, here's our host, Chris Arnson.

Good evening, Long Island, New York, Connecticut, and those listening internationally over the internet. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Tuesday on this 11th day of May, 2010.

I'm so excited because this week is the Sabbath debate week. Saturday or Sunday, which day is the Christian Sabbath? This is a debate that we are holding every night from tonight through Friday night, right here on Iron Sharpens Iron.

Our two participants in this debate are Rod Henry, who is the pastor of the Next Step Christian Church, which is a Seventh-day Baptist congregation in Thornton, Colorado, and Sam Waldron, who is pastor of Heritage Baptist Church, a Reformed Baptist congregation in Owensboro, Kentucky.

Tonight, Rod Henry of the Next Step Christian Church, the Seventh-day Baptist congregation, is going to be presenting his defense on why Saturday is the Christian Sabbath. This is night number one, or part one, of the Saturday versus Sunday debate, which day is the Christian Sabbath, a debate between Baptists and our guest tonight.

In fact, he's our guest for the very first time on Iron Sharpens Iron. To defend the Saturday Sabbath is Rod Henry, pastor of Next Step Christian Church in Thornton, Colorado, and Rod's first calling was to be a missionary to the Philippines, where he did evangelism church planting and developed a program for training Filipino pastors.

He is the author of The Filipino Spirit World, A Challenge to the Church, and Rod received his Master of Theology degree in the field of missions from Flores Seminary. For 14 years, he served as director of extension, director of pastoral services, and interim executive secretary of the Seventh-day Baptist General Conference.

He developed a training and ministry by extension program to train pastors in the U .S. and around the world. He also wrote the book The Sabbath, God's Creation for Our Benefit. And it is our honor and privilege to have for the very first time on Iron Sharpens Iron, Pastor Rod Henry.

Chris, it's my pleasure to be on this program. I'll tell you, it is, I've been excited for weeks, and I'm really excited because it'll give your listeners an opportunity to hear a Baptist perspective on the Seventh-day Saturday Sabbath.

And one that's not legalistic, one that I believe honors the Word of God, because for Seventh-day Baptists, the Bible is our only guide to faith and practice.

Rod, as I said, it's a pleasure to have you on. Why don't you begin by defining the Sabbath, and then give us your presentation on why you believe the day has not changed from the Old Covenant to the New.

Well, thank you, Chris. It's kind of hard to know where to begin, so I'll play it safe and begin with the words of Jesus. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man. In Mark 2, 27 and 28, Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

In this text, Chris, Jesus was dealing with the Jewish misconception of the Sabbath. He was arguing with the Pharisees, really. So Jesus told the Pharisees that the purpose of the Sabbath was for man's benefit.

According to Jesus, the Sabbath has its origins at creation. Jesus said the Sabbath was made, and Jesus would know this as God the Son, since all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

I think that's King James, by the way, Chris. Sometimes I revert to my youth. Anyway, this statement that the Sabbath was made takes us back to the week of creation to see the origin of the seventh-day Sabbath.

So in Genesis 2, verses 1 to 3, it says,. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. The story of God's creation of the seventh day really tells us three things that God did on and to the seventh day of creation.

God rested on the seventh day, God blessed the seventh day, and God sanctified, or made holy, the seventh day. First, God rested on the seventh-day Sabbath. Here, rest simply means that God stopped or ceased his work of creation.

It was at creation that God set the example of seventh-day Sabbath rest that was used later as the reason for man to keep the Sabbath holy in the fourth commandment. So God rested on the seventh day.

Then God blessed the seventh day. This is just a wonderful concept here. Barak, to bless, means that God infused in the seventh day itself a special quality of goodness. The German theologians Keil and Delitzsch say about the blessing of the seventh day, this is a quote from their commentary on Genesis, they said, The divine act of blessing was a real communication of powers of salvation, grace, and peace.

End quote. God blessing the seventh day made the seventh day to be blessed time. So God rested, God blessed the seventh day, and third, God sanctified or made holy the seventh-day Sabbath. God created the seventh day to be separated or holy time.

Again, Keil and Delitzsch say, Sanctifying was not merely declaring holy, but communicating the attribute of holy. So here's the way I think of it, Chris. I think God didn't just create another day of the week.

The seventh day came around, and it's what God did to the seventh-day time itself. It's like He took the seventh day and spoke words of creation into that period of time. Blessing is not just pronouncing, like, bless you if you sneeze, or, well, have a blessed day.

No.

These are words from God, words of creation. And He blessed, He pronounced into time itself the qualities of goodness. And God made holy the seventh day, which means He, like Keil and Delitzsch said, it wasn't just declaring holy, it was communicating the attribute of holy into time itself.

The seventh day was separated from the other six days by resting, blessing, and making the seventh day holy. God did not bless and make holy any other day of creation. God did not bless and make holy the first day of the week of creation.

God did not bless and make holy the principle of keeping one day in seven as a day of rest. God did bless and make holy the seventh day of the week, His Sabbath. And here's my point. To change the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week or any other day would require a change in the nature of creation itself.

In this event of creating the seventh day, there is no mention of man resting. So how do we know that the creation of the seventh day Sabbath had anything to do with people? Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man.

So Mark 2 and Genesis 2 are the central texts for me of the seventh day Sabbath. And even the fourth commandment, which we'll get to in a little while, points to creation itself as the origin of the seventh day Sabbath.

So do we want to talk a little bit about this part of it before we move on?

Well, yeah, just out of curiosity, we obviously know that Christ, Jesus Christ, when He was alive before His resurrection and ascension, He was living under the Mosaic Law. Do we have New Testament example for His disciples, especially the Gentiles that would later come in, regularly worshiping on Saturday and observing the seventh day Sabbath?

Yes, as a matter of fact. Now, when we talk about the disciples or the early church keeping the Sabbath, we've got, when we go to the book of Acts, the seventh day of the week is called the Sabbath, is still given the title Sabbath on nine occasions.

We're told in Acts 18 .4 that every Sabbath, He, Paul, reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. Now, people would say, and I've heard this argument, that, well, Paul was, that was his strategy.

It wasn't his theology, but this is 18 months that Paul was in Corinth, and it says here that he reasoned to persuade Jews and Greeks. So we do have Paul on a regular basis meeting in the book of Acts on the Sabbath.

We're told in Luke 4 that, of course, this is Jesus was, this is before the resurrection, but Jesus, it was His custom to meet in the synagogue every Sabbath.

Now, why do you believe that the New Testament does make a point of mentioning the phrase first day on the first day, when the disciples met on the first day, broke bread on the first day, etc.? Why is that being made a special point of mentioning that it was the first day in the New Testament?

Well, it would sound like that there's lots of mention of this, but actually the first day, the word first day of the week is mentioned nine times. Seven of those times refer to the events surrounding the resurrection.

There is only two times that the first day of the week is mentioned in the New Testament outside of the context of the resurrection. One of those times is when Paul is in Troas in Acts chapter 20. Now, we can look at that text.

In particular, when you read, it says that they broke bread together, that Paul spoke to them, and it was the first day of the week, but something incredible happened at that time. A guy, Eutychus, was sitting in the window while Paul, quote, kept on talking, and he was long-winded, and this guy was overcome by sleep.

He fell out of the window and was, quote, picked up dead. Paul ran downstairs, held him up, and he was brought back to life. So, we have one event that was mentioned on the first day of the week where something extraordinary happened.

Lots of details given us in this, like the day, the times during the day, even the lighting in the room, because I think, in my interpretation of this, this isn't about a habitual meeting on the first day of the week.

This is a single, special event. We're even told in the text that the Apostle Paul was leaving the next morning. Now, I've been a missionary, as you well know. I've done a lot of traveling around the world.

I have preached every day of the week. I have had communion every day of the week. Just because Paul preached and they had communion doesn't mean, in my opinion, that the first day of the week is established as a regular time of worship.

There is no mention of rest or keeping the first day holy. There is not a suggestion that Paul has set an example of first day worship for the people of Troas, and there is certainly no mention of the title for the first day, the Lord's Day.

So that's kind of my interpretation of that one thing.

And do you believe that the Sabbath, even though the day hasn't changed from the Old Covenant, do you believe the Sabbath itself has changed since the Old Covenant?

No, because I believe the Ten Commandments still apply to us today, and I believe that creation itself hasn't changed. In fact, maybe we could go to the Fourth Commandment. That would kind of help us.

Can we do that?

Yes.

How important is the Sabbath to God? Well, it made God's top ten list, the Ten Commandments. Let's read the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20, verses 8 and following. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle or your sojourner, it stays with you.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So, God calls His people to remember not a new thing.

He's calling them to not forget to do what they were already doing regarding the Sabbath manna. You remember the giving of the manna in Exodus chapter 16. They were given it for six days. On the sixth day they had to pick up double because nothing came on the seventh day because it was a day of rest.

This was to prepare people for the Sabbath commandment. Now, this text is also a call to remember creation and the creator of the seventh-day Sabbath. The Sabbath is memorial to God.

And we do have a caller on the line. If you could please give us your first name and the city and state you're calling from. Welcome to Iron Sharpens Iron.

Yes, my name is Rob.

Yes, and the city and state you're calling from?

I'm calling from Janesville, Wisconsin.

Great. Welcome to Iron Sharpens Iron, Rob.

Thank you.

Do you have a question for Rod Henry?

I do have a question. Rod, my understanding of the Sabbath was it's sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. And I'm wondering, this scripture that you were quoting in Acts when it was talking about the first day of the week, couldn't this be after sundown on a Saturday and he was speaking until midnight, leaving on a Sunday morning as we think of it today, rather than thinking of it as we think of getting up in the morning and that's the day, or after midnight, it's the day.

The Jews did things from sundown to sundown, and it's possible this could have been done on what we would call today a Saturday night. Is that an interpretation maybe that you would understand?

No, and here's why. I would say that this text is talking about what happened on the first day of the week, and what gives it away is it says that on the first day of the week they were meeting. So if the text says this is the first day of the week, then I believe it's the first day of the week.

But a single event does not create a theology. See, that's my point. My point is, it is the first day of the week. There is preaching going on. There is communion going on. Something I've done every day of the week.

But this is a special single event in which a guy was resuscitated from the dead. And, of course, it's included. But this isn't about first-day worship as much as it is about a guy being resuscitated from the dead.

Okay, thank you, Chris.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Rod.

Thank you.

This would be a good time for us to go to our second station break so we don't have to interrupt Rod mid-sentence. We'll be right back with our continuation of night number one of the four-day Sabbath debate between Seventh-day Baptist Rod Henry and a First-day Baptist Sam Waldron.

And this is night number one. We'll be right back, and we look forward to hearing from you and your phone calls. Don't go away. Welcome back. This is Chris Arns. And if you've just tuned us in, our guest tonight is Rod Henry.

He is the pastor of the Next Step Christian Church in Florentine, Colorado. This is a Seventh-day Baptist congregation. Tonight is night number one of our four-part debate with Rod Henry, who is a Seventh-day Baptist, defending the Saturday Sabbath, and Sam Waldron of Heritage Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky, who will be defending the First-day Sabbath.

Rod, before you move on to whatever point you'd like to make next, what is the general consensus, if there is one, from Seventh-day Baptists as to why they believe the majority of Christendom for nearly two millennia has worshiped on Sunday as a specific and unique and special day?

And I know that both participants in this debate, both you and Sam Waldron, believe in the doctrine of sola scriptura, that the Scriptures are our only source of infallible and inerrant authority. I recognize that.

But I was just curious as to why historically you believe that the majority of Christendom for nearly two millennia has worshiped weekly on the first day rather than the seventh.

As you said, I don't think any Baptist establishes their theology based on the polling of the population. All Baptists hold to, as you say, sola scriptura, that the Bible is our only guide to faith and practice.

That's what we say in our Seventh-day Baptist Statement of Belief. I think we would all, both Sunday and Saturday, Baptists would agree on what happened in history, that there was an early switch in the Church from Seventh-day Sabbath worship to First-day worship.

But we would look differently at an interpretation of that history. Before and at the time of Christ, Judaism was a recognized religion in the Roman Empire, which was kind of unique for Israel, because in the Roman Empire they worshipped the emperor, they worshipped the sun, the moon, the planets, other deities.

And then Christianity, early on, was seen as a sect of Judaism, and they were afforded this same religious freedom. Well, things began to turn south in the Roman Empire toward Jews and Christians. In 64 A .D., Nero blamed the burning of Rome on the Jews.

By 70 A .D., we see the first Jewish revolt against Rome. Jerusalem was destroyed. Vespasian abolished the Sanhedrin and high priests. We see widespread Jewish persecution in the Roman Empire, and Rome condemning circumcision and Sabbath-keeping as, quote, degrading Jewish superstitions.

By 135 A .D., Hadrian had outlawed the practice of Judaism. So, what happened? Well, by the end of the first century, in our understanding, by the end of the first century, early Christians were moving away from the Seventh-day Sabbath, because it was an obvious way to observe who was a Jew or a Christian.

And they moved to a first-day celebration. Sunday celebration was very prevalent all over the Roman Empire, and you wouldn't be noticed, you know, celebrating on the day of the sun. There are many Sabbath-keepers who believe that in 321 A .D., Constantine is the one who changed the day from the seventh-day to the first-day.

I believe, and I think most Seventh-day Baptists believe, that the change happened long before then. But in 321 A .D., Constantine made it law, and he proclaimed, let all people rest upon the venerable day of the sun.

And so Constantine, in my opinion, Constantine made law what was already the practice of the Church.

We do have another caller on the line. If you could give us your first name and the city and state you're calling from. Welcome to Iron Sharpens Iron.

David of Escondido, California.

Hey, David, how are you?

Hi, David.

I'm doing okay. I have just a general question for you to flesh out your ideas. And I was curious, would you look at the Sabbath as not only a creation ordinance, but also a day of remembrance of being saved by God from Egypt?

And I'm thinking of Deuteronomy 5, 14, or 15. Or a day of just general remembrance of what God has done.

Yeah, it's fair to do that, because in Deuteronomy 5, we have a retelling of the Ten Commandments, don't we? It's not the original version, if you will, but it's the version that Moses is giving to the people.

It's a restatement. And instead of the reason, or not instead of, in addition to the reason for keeping the Sabbath holy, given in the fourth commandment in Exodus 20, verse 11, which is four and six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, which is we keep the Sabbath holy because God made it holy by resting.

The Deuteronomy 5 text says that we keep the Sabbath holy in honor of the redemption of Israel from Egypt. So redemption is an additional theme of remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy.

That was an excellent question, Bev.

Thank you.

All right, well, keep listening to Iron Sharpens Iron, and keep spreading the word about the program in California.

Okay.

And speaking of the Ten Commandments, I'd like to kind of go on with the fourth commandment from Exodus. Yeah, remember the Sabbath day, the text begins, to keep it holy. Man's task from this command is to remember to keep holy what God made holy, the seventh day.

As holy time, it is to be separated, set apart by six days of working and the seventh day of not doing any work. Then in verse 10, we are told, and this is a crucial text, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

Right here, the Sabbath is defined. The Sabbath is, by divine definition, the seventh day. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. As a Sabbath to the Lord, it is a day dedicated to him. Not just any day was dedicated to him.

The divine definition that the seventh day is the Sabbath are words written by the finger of God on tables of stone. Then we go to verse 11, and now we're given the reason for keeping the Sabbath, the reason for resting.

Verse 11 says, four, the word four introduces the reason. Four, in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and rested on the seventh day. The reason man is to keep the Sabbath is because God did it at creation.

God set the example at creation that his people were and are to follow as part of their covenant responsibilities. The text goes on. Therefore, when you see the word therefore, you ask, what is it there for?

It's a conclusion. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Therefore, introduces the conclusion that the seventh day Sabbath is a blessed and holy day because God himself blessed the day and made it holy at creation.

The seventh day is sacred time by virtue of its creation. Now, this is from the fourth commandment. God did not bless the seventh day and make it holy at creation just for the Jews because, well, there were no Jews at creation.

And what really gives it away for me is when Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, anthropos, the Greek word. It was blessed, the seventh day Sabbath was blessed and made holy for people in relationship with God.

So we have Mark 2 .27, the Sabbath was made for man. We have the creation of the Sabbath in Genesis 2 where God made the seventh day to be blessed and holy time. We have the fourth commandment which tells us that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God.

This is the God-given definition of the Sabbath. We're told that we're to rest because God rested on the seventh day of creation. Finally, we end with the words of Jesus. The Sabbath was made for man.

Those are the primary arguments. The foundation upon which seventh-day Baptists build their theology of the seventh-day Sabbath.

Just out of curiosity, what would your opinion be on, it seems to be a dual command for the Sabbath, whether you're a seventh-day Sabbatarian or a first-day Sabbatarian, that you shall work six days.

Do you believe that that is a command as well? For instance, even if you're not employed the other six days of the week, that you must work on six and not five as many do?

You know, for me, it's interesting. When I was a missionary in the Philippines, I preached as much about working six days as resting on the seventh because it was important for people to work. There's no appreciation of rest.

In fact, the word rest means to stop. And if you're not working, rest has no meaning. So it's the cycle of work and rest that makes the Sabbath sweeter. The Sabbath is a wonderful thing. God the Son made the Sabbath for our benefit.

Pharisees had it all twisted up and messed up. They had made all of these rules and regulations surrounding the Sabbath, and they made it a burden. And Jesus jumps in and says, you don't get it. The Sabbath is made for man's benefit.

It is a sweet and wonderful thing. And what makes the Sabbath sweet, that day of rest, is six days of labor.

And how do you view, I already know the answer to this question, but some of our listeners might not. How do you view those who profess to be Christians, who believe Sunday is the Sabbath? Do you believe these are true Christians and true churches?

Or as some Sabbatarians do, who worship on the seventh day. And I know that most seventh-day Baptists would be very quick to admit and even warn people that there are a lot of cults that worship on the seventh day and view it as the Sabbath and so on.

But how do you view those within Christendom who believe Sunday is the Sabbath and they do not view Saturday as the Sabbath day?

Listen, we are saved by grace through faith alone. So the Sabbath is an issue of obedience, of love. There are Sunday-keeping denominations who are being obedient in areas in a better way than seventh-day Baptists are.

I believe that seventh-day Baptists are being obedient in the area of seventh-day Sabbath worship. It's not an easy thing. You're swimming upstream culturally here. I mean, we understand that. We see that.

If we were to take a poll of people who think this is the craziest thing they ever heard, everybody would think that. But we are saved. We are brothers and sisters in Christ by faith. And we link arms with not just other Baptists but with everyone who accepts Jesus Christ by faith.

Amen.

We have to go to our final break. This is your final opportunity to call into the question for Rod Henry, who is now defending the seventh-day Saturday as the Christian Sabbath. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Pastor Rod Henry.

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen, and this is our last segment of tonight's interview with Rod Henry as he defends the Saturday Sabbath. And we do have a caller on the line. Please give us your first name and the city and state you're calling from.

Welcome to Iron Trepans Iron.

Hey, Chris.

This is Steve from Boulder, Colorado.

Hey, Steve. How are you?

I'm doing all right.

How are you?

Good.

Great.

Hey, Pastor Rod, I was wondering, what do you do with the phrase, the Lord's Day, like at the beginning of Revelation? Doesn't that give us an indication that believers were meeting on that day that that was a special day for them?

Well, Steve, the Lord's Day is found one place in the entire Bible. And that is in Revelation 1 .10. It says in Revelation 1 .10 that John the Revelator says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. Now, we are not told, and I heard him behind me, a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, so forth.

We're actually not told which day of the week that is. The Fourth Commandment says the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Here's what I know. Very quickly in history, the first day of the week became the, got the title, the Lord's Day.

Here's the difficulty. History of the church is not inspired like the Bible is. There is no place in the Book of Acts, or in any place else in the New Testament, where the first day of the week is given the title, the Lord's Day.

The first day of the week is mentioned when Paul was in Troas. Why wasn't it given the title, Lord's Day, if it had been changed? However, on every occasion, about nine occasions, in the Book of Acts, where the seventh day is mentioned, it is always given the title, Sabbath.

So, the Lord's Day is a historic edition, not a biblical edition. Does that help, Steve?

Yeah, thanks for pointing that out.

Well, keep listening to the show, and please keep spreading the word about the program in Colorado.

Okay, will do, thanks.

Rod, here's a question that would apply both for you and for Sam Waldron, anyone who is a Sabbatarian, regardless of the day he believes the Christian Sabbath is, and I'm sure you already have guessed what the question is from Romans 14 .5, One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. How do you, as a seventh-day Baptist, respond to that?

You know, there are two texts that Dr. Waldron, it's going to be interesting for both of us to deal with these texts. The one text is, as you mentioned in Romans 14, and the other one is in Colossians 2, and if you look at Romans 14, just about the entire chapter deals with the issue of foods.

It talks about being a vegetarian versus eating meat, about clean food versus unclean food, and then inserted in just a couple of sentences this issue. It says, one person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.

Let each person be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it for the Lord, and he who eats does so for the Lord. Again, before and after, it's all about food. To my way of thinking, this isn't talking about matters from the moral law.

It's talking about matters of eating certain food, which is about the ceremonial law. See, I differentiate between the ceremonial law, the civil law, and the moral law. This is a distinction I picked up from Dr. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., the president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell and Old Testament professor.

He contends that there are three aspects to the law. I think Paul here is talking about the ceremonial aspect of the law. Now, if Paul were speaking about the seventh-day Sabbath, he'd be addressing an item from the moral law.

He'd be saying that the moral law is dependent on whether people were being convinced by it or not. See, here's the example I'd like to use. Can you imagine Paul saying, one man likes to remain faithful to his wife.

Another man likes to commit adultery. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. You see, if Paul were speaking of the seventh-day Sabbath, then he would put the moral law up for grabs. The moral law then would apply only to those who were fully convinced in their own minds of its importance.

So this isn't about the weekly Sabbath, the seventh-day or the first-day Sabbath. This isn't about the Sabbath at all. It is about festival days and even festival Sabbaths, which were festival Sabbaths, days of rest and holy convocation, which were Sabbaths that weren't the weekly Sabbaths.

And that's what it's referring to in Colossians 2, by the way, in my opinion.

Rod, if you could, just sum up your first argument tonight in about a minute or so.

You don't need to do that, Chris. Again, it begins with the Sabbath was made for man. These are the words of Jesus. For me, that phrase summarizes the whole thing. The Sabbath is for our benefit. What a gift.

Then we have the creation. That points us back to creation in Genesis 2, where God took the seventh-day. He blessed it. He infused it with qualities of goodness. He made it holy time. Then we move on to the fourth commandment, which tells us that the seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

This is the definition of the Sabbath. The seventh-day is the Sabbath. We are told that we are to rest, because God rested on the seventh-day of creation. Then again, the sweet words of Jesus, that the Sabbath was made for man.

That kind of summarizes the foundation for Sabbath-keeping for me and for Seventh-day Baptists.

Thank you so much, Rod Henry, for giving a very well-done presentation defending the Saturday Sabbath. I want to thank you so much, Rod, for being on the program. We look forward to having you back on Thursday and Friday as you and Sam Waldron cross-examine one another.

Tomorrow night is the night that Sam Waldron, who believes that the first day or Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, he will be giving his presentation. So be sure to tune in and call in tomorrow with any questions you have for Sam Waldron of Heritage Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky.

I want to thank everybody who listened. I want to thank especially those who took the time to call in. I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far, far greater Savior than you are a sinner.

God bless.

Amen.

Good evening, Long Island, New York, Connecticut, and those listening internationally over the Internet. This is Chris Arnsen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Wednesday on this twelfth-day of May, 2010.

I'm very excited that this is night number two for our four-night debate on the Sabbath, Saturday or Sunday. Which day is the Christian Sabbath? This is a debate that began last night with Rod Henry of the Next Step Christian Church, which is a Seventh-day Baptist church in Thornton, Colorado, and continues tonight with Sam Waldron, who is the pastor of the Heritage Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky, which is a church, a congregation within the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America, a Reformed Baptist congregation that believes Sunday is the Christian Sabbath.