Customer Reviews

Celebrating the Sabbath: Finding Rest in a Restless World

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The author gives excellent motivations for a true Sabbath rest with scripture to back him up. This is not a "how-to" book, but rather, it is a "why" book. I would have liked to seen the author discuss ways to make the Sabbath more meaningful and enjoyable for children.

This is the first of a few Sabbath books that I have read now. I believe it was a good starting point. It gave a simple explanation for why the Sabbath is important to keep holy, and what it should mean to Christians today. I realized the significance of stopping my productivity in order to allow the Lord to be God of my life... in order that I don't lead myself to believe that I'm making my own way in the world.

Also, I particularly appreciated the contrasting discussions of how the Sabbath can be abused with too much laxness of observance (like today's society) or with too much legalism of man-made rules (as with the Pharisees). The book didn't spend much time on the argument of whether it should be observed on Saturday or Sunday, which I was glad because that is not a concern of mine.

So what is the Sabbath to you? Is it an infringement upon your personal liberty and success? Or is it a gift that the Lord has given for rest, worship, and celebration?

With the conclusion of this book, I read my next choice by Marva Dawn "Keeping the Sabbath Wholly." It was a great second choice with a much more indepth approach. It also included more details of what activities can make up a Sabbath day observance.

In Celebrating the Sabbath, Ray emphasizes the true significance of the Sabbath. It is a wonderful gift from God. The author's style in straight forward and the illustrations are helpful. A key element of Ray's work is its tone. He does not beat the reader over the head. Instead, he concisely and convincingly discusses the meaning and importance of the Fourth Commandment for the Church. The subtitle of the book, " Finding rest in a restless world," epitimizes Ray's message. This presentation is not polemic but pastoral. Even those who do not agree that the Sabbath principle extends to the church age will receive benefit from this book.

Ray's little book (125 pages) is an encouraging and helpful examination of the Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath. This is not an apologetical treatise defending Sunday over Saturday, but is meant to inspire the believer to keep the Sabbath as a delightful Holy Day. It instructs, edifies, and provides practical application of the OT/NT principles to induce a heart-felt obedience without the bondage of legalism.

The author is correct that legalism is not much of a contemporary problem within most churches (although it still rigidly clings to some) or the Western culture. Nevertheless, anti-nomianism is a large problem in regard to Sabbath observance in modern America.

James Boice and Walter Chantry offer their recommendation on the back cover and Chantry writes a short Forward.

Ray quotes Calvin, Augustine, Pink, Rushdoony, Ryle, Newton, M'Cheyne, Vos, Pipa, Winthrop, and more.

Chapters include:
- McSabbath
- The Fourth Commandment
- Sabbath or Lord's Day: An OT Look
- A NT Look
- Sabbath Wars
- Keeping the Sabbath Holily, Happily, Honestly, Humbly

This is not a massive volume aimed at answering every question on the Sabbath. It is a soft read on deep points meant to inspire one to look forward to keeping a joyful Christian Sabbath every week. I recommend this book for the minister or lay person.
Mike A Robinson, author of God Does Exist! and other apologetic works.
Letter to an Atheist Nation: Presupositional Apologetics Responds To: Letter to a Christian

The book has very good and practical ways of enjoying the Sabbath. If you are only satisfied with the "How" question, then this book is for you. If you are also concerned about the "When", this book, intentionally or otherwise, gives a very wrong conclusion on the question on that question.

From the biblical record, it is very clear that the Sabbath is what we call Saturday today, not Sunday. But the writer's conclusion is that Sunday is the Sabbath - a bad and very wrong conclusion.