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Rest in GodA calamity in contemporary ChristianitySunday SOSREST IN GOD The sub-title of this brief pamphlet, A Calamity in Contemporary Christianity, expresses the concern behind it. It tackles head-on the widely held contemporary assumption that the fourth commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy’, belongs to the Jewish dispensation and is not relevant to Christian believers. It begins, therefore, by asking the question, ‘Is Genesis 2.3 (‘And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done’) for us?’ It then argues convincingly that God’s example is stated for our imitation and instruction. The pamphlet reveals the author’s wide reading of contemporary Christian authors on his subject, as well as those of earlier generations. In a chapter entitled Calvin’s Correction, he illustrates how Calvin’s position changed, so that in his commentary on Genesis — written 16 years after the Institutes — he declared that God ‘dedicated every seventh day to rest, that his own example might be a perpetual rule’. It is not easy to deal with the use of the Lord’s Day positively in our contemporary society, but Iain Murray achieves this, placing the emphasis on the Christian believer’s love for God’s law and underlining that to regard careful obedience to it as ‘legalism’ is a serious misunderstanding. With so many churches having home Bible study groups, I wonder if this booklet might provide helpful material for them. It encouraged me to remember the Puritans’ lovely description of Sunday as the market day of the soul. Derek Prime,
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