Overtures 2 & 9 - Changes to the Confession on the Sabbath

The Westminster Assembly 1643

Overtures 2 and 9) Propose Revisions to the Westminster Confession Language on the Sabbath. Two overtures before the Assembly are suggesting that we begin the process of amending the Westminster Confession of Faith by erecting a study committee, which is a far more involved process than amending our Book of Church Order or Rules of Assembly Operations. The suggestion is that we consider removing the prohibition against “recreations” which are lawful on other days of the week, but forbidden on the Sabbath. I will vote against these suggestions, but the battle concerning the Sabbath is currently largely lost in the PCA. We go on and on about tossing a football with our kids, but the truth is that our Puritan forebears would have been far more troubled about our unrestrained consumption of worldly entertainments on the Sabbath – cheering the spectacle of professional sports and the flood of Christians into restaurants after the Sunday service so that poorest among us can serve us so WE can have a Sabbath. In the Old Testament, God didn’t permit Israel to work their animals or servants on the Sabbath. It seems that God is less concerned with today’s poor than yesterday’s oxen. I think the issue of throwing a Frisbee or football with our kids on Sunday is so beside the point as to be irrelevant.