The author, a former Seventh-day Adventist minister, takes the position that God gave Israel the fourth commandment Sabbath as a sign to remember continuously. He states that both circumcision and the Sabbath were aspects of the Sinaitic covenant. In his opinion, the sabbaton—rest of the old covenant—represents a type of the sabbatismos rest of the new covenant. The former demands observance while the latter becomes a part of the believer's experience.
Ratzlaff rejects both the transfer-modification and the reformation-continuation theories regarding the Sabbath, opting for the fulfillment-transformation view. In his opinion Jesus fulfilled the Creation Sabbath, and Old Testament symbols such as physical rest, Sabbath, and the seventh day "have been trans formed into other vehicles in the new covenant.''
He says that as a symbol the Sabbath represented three main streams of truth. It memorialized Creation rest, stood as the sign of the covenant, and served as the day for worship. He maintains that the new covenant transforms these three ideas. Creation rest, for example, finds its fulfillment in Jesus as the one who provides true rest. In the new covenant this Creation rest is no longer the seventh-day Sabbath, but rather the eschatological rest of grace.
Similarly, in the old covenant the Sabbath was essentially a day of rest. Only with the introduction of the synagogue after the Babylonian captivity did the Sabbath become a day of worship. The new covenant does not command Sunday worship either, history indicating that it was a later development.
The author has made a comprehensive study of the Sabbath question, using in part an inductive approach. He presents his material in a popular style, making it easy reading. But the book has serious problems. I disagree with the author's main thesis, which identifies the Creation Sabbath with a permanent rest rather than with a literal seventh day. The author contends that sin interrupted this Sabbath rest and that the Sinaitic Sabbath only acted it out. When Christ came, He restored the true Sabbath rest—that is, permanent, redemptive rest in Him.
While it is true that the seventh-day Sabbath represents the rest into which the believing Christian enters, nothing indicates that Christ's saving work replaced the Sabbath.
Ratzlaff uses the fulfillment-trans formation schema, which is basic to his thesis, to draw a direct line between the Sabbath and the Lord's Supper. I find no biblical support for this. More fundamentally, this schema is based on a false understanding of the law in the New Testament, especially in the teachings of Paul. The author hardly touches on key passages, such as Romans 7. Thus one gets the impression that Ratzlaff is moving in the direction of antinomianism.
The New Testament does not reveal any transformation of the Sabbath. Rather, it clearly teaches that in the new covenant God's people will experience a transformation of the heart (Jer. 31:34; cf. Heb. 8:8-12; 10:16, 17). It is the human race that needs transformation, not the Sabbath.
