Introduction
Most Christians agree that Sunday is the day where we all go to our churches to attend our church service. Yet there are distinct differences on how one is to behave and keep the Lord’s Day. Some would argue that Christians can play sports on the Lord’s Day if they have to. Modern Evangelicalism today has moved far from the Biblical understanding of keeping the Fourth Commandment. If you go into most churches and most places where Christians meet, you will find that if you ask anyone if they keep the Sabbath 8 out of 10 will tell you ‘the Sabbath is not binding for the believer’ ‘we are not under law’ or ‘keeping the Sabbath was part of the ceremonial rules added in the Old Testament’. My point is: no one sees the obligation of keeping the Lord’s Day holy. And sadly what I am about to share with you is the result of such a problem. The following examples which I will share below are not presented in order to make critical judgement. But it is show and helps us understand that people who do not follow the keeping of the Sabbath have never been told that they ought to keep it because of the bad theology which is thrown in their churches. Unsound churches results in spiritually unhealthy Christians. Some people are victims of this bad theology and some, knowing that what they are doing is wrong, remain in it nonetheless.
This video which I found recently online showed an interview with a player of the Women England’s Rugby who said that when she a little girl her parents found away to go to both church and rugby games on Sunday. She revealed that they went to the earliest service in the morning and then went straight away to the sporting event in the morning. She later adds “When I became an adult, to play adult rugby it was a bit hard because the decision came down to me. And being in university and a teenager at school; that decision was left to me to make. So I couldn’t go to church every Sunday because I was playing rugby; but I prayed about it deeply, and through the conversation with my, sort of, ministers, pastors and Christian friends, and through charities of Christian sports; made me realize that I can glorify God and worship Him through playing my sport”[1].
The same website was clear no their belief that “it does seem that when the Sabbath comes up in the New Testament ‘keep the Sabbath day holy’ is not a command that is binding on Christians”[2]. They teach Christians involved with sports that Sunday can become an opportunity to evangelize the Gospel to the unbeliever. In other words, their reason’s for playing sports is because they see it as evangelism. The argument is as one put it “Worship is still tied to the temple; but the new temple of the Holy Spirit – our bodies, and not the old temple at Jerusalem. Consequently, wherever our bodies go, there is a sphere of worship. Of course then the very bodily activity of sport can be an act of worship if it is offered to God in light of his mercies”[3]. These are the words of Pastor Peter Nicholas from Inspire Church London wrote:
“Think of the difference it can make to sport. What an impact this truth can have on children. The world tells them that Christ is a cultural irrelevance to be kept barred-up behind church doors. This truth tells them that Christ is the Lord of all who claims every sphere of life for his own!” “Rather than retreat from sport to prioritise ‘worship’, we need to engage with sport as worship. Have we thought that if we want to prioritise our children’s spiritual development that an important sphere for this could be on the sports pitch?”[4].
But to say that sports can be used as a means for evangelism isn’t biblical first of all because it is nowhere found in the Scriptures. There is simply no warrant for it. In fact, it was the refusal to play any sport on the Lord’s Day which attracted more and more unbelievers to wonder and to ask questions. The famous Christian athlete Eric Lidell was one of them. His convictions were known to all people for not playing on Sunday because it is the Lord’s Day, the Holy Day of the Lord.
Secondly, as we shall study the issue on recreation (which includes sports) we shall discover what God has to say concerning this issue. That actually God has much to say on the way we ought to be keeping the Sabbath Holy.
To be continued..
[1]http://www.christiansinsport.org.uk/resources.asp?itemid=6267&itemTitle=Video+Bible+Study%3A+Sabbath+%28Sunday%29§ion=27§ionTitle=Resources
[2] http://www.christiansinsport.org.uk/resources.asp?section=27&itemid=6329
[3] http://www.christiansinsport.org.uk/news.asp?itemid=7548&itemTitle=Church+and+Sunday+sport%3A+The+dilemma+we+can%27t+ignore§ion=22§ionTitle=Stories
[4] http://www.christiansinsport.org.uk/news.asp?itemid=7548&itemTitle=Church+and+Sunday+sport%3A+The+dilemma+we+can%27t+ignore§ion=22§ionTitle=Stories
The Pilgrim's Blog 