Jan 24, 2020
By Rev. Dr. Dale D. Thorngate
How does your belief about the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit influence what you believe about the Sabbath? I think the response of most Seventh Day Baptists to that question would be more biographical than theological. For me, that is certainly the case.
As a lifetime SDB I can’t separate the Sabbath truth from my own biography. So I want to share a personal reflection on my experience of dealing with the importance of the seventh day Sabbath. I was born in the home of my parents, Ernest and Leona Thorngate in Battle Creek, Michigan, parents that raised me to be a Seventh Day Baptist Christian. When I was ten years old, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior and was baptized by my pastor, Rev. Alton Wheeler, in the Battle Creek, Michigan, Seventh Day Baptist Church, while at Camp Holston.
As many who know me remember, before I entered the Seventh Day Baptist ministry, I spent twenty-one years in the US military: twelve in the US Air Force and nine in the US Army. I have since realized that during that time, I was actually trying to ignore some of my SDB upbringing.
During the whole time in the military I was involved in the chapel program at all the bases or forts where I was assigned both in the States and in other countries. While a training instructor at the US Air Force Academy, I directed the Prep School chapel choir of pre-cadets preparing for attendance at the Academy. Over the years, I also tried worshiping in several Sunday Baptist churches but I must admit that I just didn’t experience a Sabbath on Sunday.
During my last five years in the Army, I was stationed at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, just south of Washington DC. While there I was able to attend the Seventh Day Baptist Church on 16th Street in Washington DC. I immediately felt at home. It was like returning to the family—and to the importance of the seventh day (Saturday) Sabbath with all its blessings of rest and renewal of my personal relationship with God.
It is my personal understanding that, although we agree that the seventh day (Saturday) Sabbath is affirmed in the Bible as being instituted by God at creation, reaffirmed by the Ten Commandments, and by the teachings and life of Jesus, the Christ, for me, my personal attempt to find a Sabbath on Sunday, just didn’t work. It was in my childhood that I had truly experienced the Sabbath in the atmosphere of the church family where I grew up. So when I returned to a Seventh Day Baptist church for worship and fellowship, I personally felt that Sabbath experience again. Today, I can say with full confidence, that I keep the Sabbath not just because Jesus did (He never changed it) but because I have personally experienced its rest and blessing in my own life.
And I am able to comprehend what God had in mind when He created the Sabbath in the first place and why Jesus, His Son, reaffirmed it in His life and teaching for us. We know that God knows us better than we know ourselves. So when Jesus says that the Sabbath is made for people, we know that God established it because He knew what we would need, at least once a week.
Below are the pertinent references to the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and the Sabbath contained in the SDB Statement of Belief and in the 2015 General Council Vision Statements about the Core Values of Seventh Day Baptists. The latter I personally contributed to as a member of that General Council. The Core Values, like the Statement of Belief, because we are Baptists, are descriptive of what SDBs believe, rather than prescriptive of what we must believe. Our connection to God through Christ is more a matter of relationship than of mere belief.
Excerpts from SDB Statement of Belief:
Preamble: “Seventh Day Baptists consider liberty of thought under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be essential to Christian belief and practice. Therefore we encourage the unhindered study and open discussion of Scripture. We uphold the individual’s freedom of conscience in seeking to determine and obey the will of God.”
…
“We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and is our final authority in matters of faith and practice. We believe that Jesus Christ, in his life and teachings as recorded in the Bible, is the supreme interpreter of God’s will for mankind.”
…
“We believe in the Holy Spirit of God, the comforter, who gives birth to believers, lives in them, and empowers them for witnessing and service. We believe the Holy Spirit inspired the scriptures, convicts of sin and instructs in righteousness.”
…
“We believe that the Sabbath of the Bible, the seventh day of the week, is sacred time, a gift of God to all people, instituted at creation, affirmed in the Ten Commandments and reaffirmed in the teaching and example of Jesus and the apostles. We believe that the gift of Sabbath rest is an experience of God’s eternal presence with His people. We believe that in obedience to God and in loving response to His grace in Christ, the Sabbath should be faithfully observed as a day of rest, worship, and celebration.”
Excerpts from SDB Vision Map
Core Values (2015)
“Bible and Spirit Led
The Bible is the Word of God and our standard for our Faith and practice. We expect the Holy Spirit to inspire and lead us as we fulfill our mission.”
“7th day Sabbath
We are a people who lovingly observe the 7th day Sabbath (Saturday) as a day of blessing and rest.”