Andy Naselli

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Tom Wells and Fred Zaspel on the Sabbath

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Here’s another recent book on the Sabbath:

Tom Wells. The Christian and the Sabbath. West Chester, OH: Tom Wells, 2010. 141 pp.

It lines up with Craig Blomberg’s view in Perspectives on the Sabbath: 4 Views and argues primarily against the Reformed view that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath.

Wells suggests that “this controversy has dogged Reformed churches” for two reasons (pp. 109–16):

  1. Leaning too heavily on creeds
  2. Undue influence of the OT

Compare chapters 13–14 in Tom Wells and Fred G. Zaspel, New Covenant Theology: Description, Definition, Defense (Frederick, MD: New Covenant Media, 2002).

  • Ch. 13: Fred Zaspel, “The Sabbath: A Test Case,” pp. 211–37.
  • Ch. 14: Tom Wells, “The Sabbath: Some Critical Texts in Paul,” pp. 239–57.

Doug Moo writes the book’s foreword, and D. A. Carson and Tom Nettles endorse it.

(Fred Zaspel authored the recent book on B. B. Warfield’s theology.)

 

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  1. For a critique of Wells’ rejection of the Christian Sabbath, see Richard Barcellos’ first review article in the latest Reformed Baptist Theological Review (Part 1 is in Vol. VII No. 1, Spring 2010): http://www.rbtr.org/index.php?id=1303337827&page=1

    His review articles are a revision of Barcellos’ ongoing blog series reviewing Wells’ book:

    http://www.mctsowensboro.org/2010/11/tom-wells-book-on-the-sabbath-foreword-and-chapter-1/
    http://www.mctsowensboro.org/2010/11/wells-chapter-two/
    http://www.mctsowensboro.org/2010/11/wells-book-sabbath-two-ii/
    http://www.mctsowensboro.org/2010/11/wells-on-the-sabbath-two-iii/
    http://www.mctsowensboro.org/2011/05/tom-wells-sabbath-chapter-three-i/
    http://www.mctsowensboro.org/2011/05/wells-sabbath-chapter-three-ii/

    Barcellos also reviewed Wells and Zaspel’s book in a previous issue of RBTR. It is available online here:

    http://www.reformedreader.org/rbb/bom/newcovenanttheologycritique.htm

    I have found Barcellos’ case to be persuasive. Additionally, I think it is important to note that while Tom Nettles endorsed the Wells and Zaspel book, he did so in a desire to move the debate over NCT forward, not because he agreed with their views. He holds to the Lord’s Day as the Christian Sabbath and the threefold division of the Law.

  2. I’m a former Seventh-day Adventist pastor who was terminated from ministry after I discovered the “authentic Gospel” and preached it so that my congregation could know that they can know if they are truly saved, through Christ alone, by grace alone, by faith alone, based upon Scripture alone; and I refused to stop preaching it.

    The NCT book by Wells and Zaspel is excellent! It would be wonderful if every professing Christian could/would read this book. It may help to clean their window of perception so that they can see truth as it is in Jesus!

  4. I’m very thankful for Christian writers such as D. A. Carson, Thomas Schreiner, Craig Blomberg, John Reisinger, Tom Wells, Fred Zaspel, and Blake White who are teaching New Covenant Theology. Without NCT, I would still be in the cultic Seventh-day Adventist Church. I praise God for former-SDA pastor Dale Ratzlaff’s book Sabbath in Christ, which I read three years ago. Without the understanding that the Sabbath command of the OT is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, I would still be a Seventh-day Adventist and holding to a false gospel. I hope NCT reaches many SDAs and other (even Sunday) sabbatarians. http://www.sabbatismos.com

    In Christ my Sabbath Rest,

    Jennifer

  5. If one is committed to Covenantism, he will not be happy with what Wells has argued for. However, if you do not start with the speculative covenants as the grid over the Bible, then you could appreciate the biblical arguments Wells makes.