A Whole New View of Sabbath? Dr. Sigve Tonstad Presents at Music and Worship Conference
by Debbonnaire Kovacs
Have we as Seventh-day Adventists been misrepresenting the Sabbath for the century and a half that we’ve been in existence? Might the rest of the world have a better chance of understanding its blessings if we saw it in its fullness, ourselves? These questions were explored by one of the general session presenters at the recent Music and Worship Conference, held at Andrews University March 7-9, 2013.
Dr. Sigve Tonstad, a native of Norway, has an amazingly broad background and education. He has degrees in theology, medicine, Biblical Studies, and New Testament Studies, from Middle East College in Beirut, Lebanon, Andrews University, Loma Linda University, and the University of St. Andrews, besides studying at Duke University. He has worked as pastor, physician, theologian, and writer, sometimes all at the same time.
His two presentations at the conference will be the subject of two feature articles here at Adventist Today. The first was called “ ‘Or the alien in your towns: Sabbath and Justice in the Commandments.”
Dr. Tonstad began by talking about “resident aliens,” a subject of great controversy here in the United States and elsewhere. We divide them into “legal” and “illegal” aliens, but Dr. Tonstad pointed out that the most extreme example is a refugee. In the days before his presentation, news reports had stated that the number of Syrians fleeing their country had now passed one million—and that was only the registered ones. Dr. Tonstad’s daughter works with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and had sent her father a copy of the speech the Commissioner had recently made. In that speech, the Commissioner referred to the fact that many faiths work to help refugees. “There is a sense,” said Dr. Tonstad, “in which people’s perception of God is someone who would be kind to refugees.”
And that would be the center of his talk. Numerous times in the Torah (he took attendees through several, reading aloud together, just in Deuteronomy alone) God says, “Remember that you were an alien” (italics supplied). He began with what he called “a quiz question,” and promised that the first one with the right answer, at the end of the session, would receive a free copy of his book, The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day.
Is the radical message of the Sabbath in the Torah a more considerate view of the poor or a new view of the self?
Tonstad began by looking at the two iterations of the fourth commandment. In Exodus, the one with which most Seventh-day Adventists are most familiar, the Sabbath is given as a memorial of creation. Specific and exhaustive instruction is given as to just who gets the day off: “you,” (“thou,” actually, a lost English singular form of close personal “you,” used only to close family members and friends or to those who are younger or lower caste than the speaker), male servants, female servants, oxen, donkeys, cattle, and the aliens in your towns.
In Deuteronomy, rather than memorializing the Sabbath, the Sabbath memorializes deliverance. “Remember that you were a slave in Egypt.” Tonstad thinks that Adventist emphasis on Sabbath as a memorial of creation, while vitally important, has left out equally important aspects of Sabbath. “The Sabbath has a socio-economic and a socio-ethnic dimension,” he said. “The economic dimension is about non-labor and is specific for slaves and the underprivileged. The socio-ethnic dimension is specific to resident aliens. It singles out and recognizes concern for these groups. Immigrants and the economically vulnerable have favored status in Sabbath. Equality that may not exist anywhere else exists on Sabbath.”
He believes that, just as the Sabbath is meant to remind us that we were created by God, then enslaved, and now delivered, so we are to remember that we may, in our turn, deliver. “The Sabbath,” Dr. Tonstad said, “is meant to create and uphold a sensitivity to the disadvantaged and displaced person. Networks of Sabbaths, from weekly Sabbaths to seven-year Sabbaths to the great year of Jubilee, were meant to “sabbatize” society. Especially the Jubilee, which re-equalizes the economic layers of society.”
Tonstad listed what he called the Sabbatarian tenets:
1—weekly Sabbath is rest and dignity for poor
2—Sabbath year is rest for land
3—jubilee is re-set to prevent huge inequalities from growing
“We don’t talk about economics much in our churches, but the Bible talks about it a lot, especially in the context of the Sabbath. Economic and political issues have somehow been washed out of Adventist theology.”
He said that the U.S. “housing bubble” came from whole idea that land has a monetary value and people can own it. In the Bible, God owns the land and it can’t be sold in perpetuity. He went on to speak of some of the increasing number of non-Adventist authors who are writing about the importance of the Sabbath. Here are a few:
Jurgen Moltmann, God in Creation
Walter Brueggemann, The Land: place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith (Tonstad pointed out that he disagrees “profoundly” with some of what Brueggemann, in particular has to say, but that concerning the Sabbath, “he is right on.”)
Norman Habel, Moral Ground
In conclusion, Dr. Tonstad said that the Sabbath has a socio-economic import that has not received its due. The Sabbath is a divine commitment more than a divine commandment—God commits himself to stand up for the poor.
A young person won the free book by saying that the answer to the “quiz question” was both—a radical new view of the self and of the poor. Dr. Tonstad agreed. “The Bible inscribes slavery on all believers. The one thing not to be forgotton, then, is who I am—who we are. Really, it’s a new view of God.”
Perhaps it's time for Adventists to catch up with others who are seeing Sabbath, not as a doctrine or thou-shalt-(not) but as a remedy for the problems of society.
Sigve comes through again. Congratulations! Great biblical study. Wonderful implications for God's people and for society.
Amen! What a breath of fresh air in a room filled with old (and sometimes smelly) ideas! As much as we should remember that there is far more to learn about God than we have ever imagined, we also have much to learn in and about the Sabbath that we have either not considered or hidden under a rug of legalism.
Both accounts in Exodus and Deuteronomy of the giving of the Decalogue begin with telling them that they were brought out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery, as the reason they should observe these commands.
What is the reason given for observance of the Sabbath? Memorial of creation or memorial of deliverance from slavery, or both? Creation is the only reason given in Adventism.
For those Christians who observe the first day of the week, it is celebrating the Resurrection. Without that one event, there would be no Christians and thus no Adventists.
For Jews and Adventists who observe the seventh day, they are celebrating Creation and deliverance from slavery, but no recognition of the Resurrection as the birthday of Christianity. Are Adventists following Judaism or Christianity? Are they truly Christians if the Resurrection is not given special recognition and honor? After all, they would not be Adventists, Protestants or Christians if they observed only the Jewish special days (Lev. 23).
Yes, it is a deliverance from slavery–the slavery of sin. The creation is only part of it–to say it is a memorial only is to make it sound dead, as memorials are for the dead! It celebrates creation of the world and recreation of the human heart.
The symbolism of the Sabbath is quite clear through scripture–it is rest from our works for salvation. It is a symbol of Christ who is our rest. There is no other reason to say that Sabbath is holy. Any other benefits are just an addition for our personal and community needs.
Because the church has not preached that Gospel of Christ in the Sabbath is the reason that other Christians do not see it. Though innocent through lack of knowledge (after the early church), the hi-jacked Christian church became a type of Rome and substituted this holy day for a pagan one to fit in and then used the guise of the resurrection. The church has progressed beyond those dark ages, but still does not understand the meaning of Sabbath as our rest in Christ. This is the fault of those who have been preaching the Christless seventh-day sabbath for many years.
If he is intending to say that we should welcome illegal aliens then the result is just an intellectual meandering that has little of substance and absolutely no meaning to the hoi polloi.
Legalism? If we keep the Sabbath as a reflection of our obedience to Christ's command how is that legalism? Too often, it seems, those who either style themselves as intellectuals or others recognize them as such, loftily proclaim there is a much deeper meaning to a particular simple element of faith and then proceed to expand it beyond what is even remotely implied in Scripture.
Maranatha
Interestingly, if you actually study the laws re the Cities of Refuge, one didn't gain automatic assylum. Rather, one had to stand outside the City Gate and plead to the Elders. It was only after the Elders had 'processed a claim' and found it genuine was one allowed admission. Not just anyone was allowed in.
How would the "blessings of the sabbath" be extended to the "whole world"? Aren't Adventists opposed to religious laws? And how else could such a practice be introduced?
Constantine was the first to make a law designating the first day of the week as a day for rest and no work; but that was because he controlled the Roman Empire at that time. The world is so much larger now with so many religions and cultural practices, such a suggestion could only come from an idealist.
"Blessings" cannot be ruled by law; they are very subjective and impossible to universally apply. Sabbath was surely not a blessing as given originally, as it was punishable by death if not strictly obeyed. Today, no one observes the sabbath as originally set forth in the Bible, as it was calculated by the moon, very impractical in today's world. Both the Exodus and Deuteronomy account are introduced by recalling their former slavery, not just the Deut. record.
All first world democracies today have instituted the 5-day week, some even shorter. So there is no reason to introduce a "blessing law" establishing either week end day to be observed, a most people enjoy their blessings in sports, leisure, travel, eating out and in personally selected activities.
Has anyone defined "blessing"?
When Tonstad speaks of private property, it is a challenge to the founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution that only by providing for private property could the people become free. The feudal system was practiced for more than a thousand years, essentially creating a master and slave class. The ability to own property is the foundation of human freedom.