QUESTION:

Why do Reformed Baptist churches not observe holy days ( holidays) such as Good Friday, Christmas Day, Prayer Day, Thanksgiving Day with a church service ?

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Summary

The discussion centers around whether churches, particularly Reformed Baptist churches, should observe holy days like Good Friday, Christmas, and Thanksgiving with special church services. The pastors explain that their churches observe the Lord’s Day (Sunday) as the primary holy day, as commanded in Scripture. They emphasize the importance of Christian liberty and the regulative principle of worship, which means they do not add or remove practices that are not explicitly commanded in the Bible. The pastors acknowledge that some church traditions and family customs can become burdensome, especially for those coming from more liturgical backgrounds, and they aim to handle these matters carefully to avoid binding consciences.

Outline

I. Reformed Baptist View on Holy Days

• Observance of the Lord’s Day (Sunday) as the primary holy day
• Emphasis on Christian liberty and the regulative principle of worship

II. Handling Church Traditions and Customs

• A. Pastors’ experiences with new members’ questions about holy days
• B. Importance of well-attended evening services
• C. Focusing on seasonal themes within the Lord’s Day worship

III. Regulative Principle of Worship

• Not adding or removing practices not explicitly commanded in Scripture
• Avoiding the binding of consciences to non-biblical traditions
• Sensitivity towards those from more liturgical backgrounds

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Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

day, lord, church, worship, commanded, god, conscience, confession, sinclair ferguson, friday, holy, worshiper, service, christmas, traditions, regulative principle, liberty, religious, call, reformed baptist

SPEAKERS

Wim Kerkhoff, Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick, Pastor Jim Butler

Wim Kerkhoff  00:07

Okay. Next question is, should churches observe holy days? So why do Reformed Baptist churches not observe Holy Days holidays like Good Friday, Christmas Day, Prayer Day, Thanksgiving, and you can put a whole list there with a church service on that day.

Pastor Jim Butler  00:23

Well, we do observe a holy day. It’s every Sunday. We call it the Lord’s Day or the Christian Sabbath. Our confession has, I think, a very fine chapter on that in chapter 22 which is of religion, religious worship and the Sabbath day, but recognize that chapter 22 follows chapter 21 and chapter 21 deals with Christian liberty and liberty of conscience. And so when these men wrote the confession, they had different, I don’t want to say targets, different opponents, perhaps would be a better word that they had to answer and guard against. On the one hand, you had the civil state. If the civil state was Roman Catholic, or if it was Anglican, then there would be certain things thrust on worshipers by the state. But also they had religious tyranny, on the other hand. Roman Catholics and Anglicanism. So in our confession, it says God alone is Lord of the conscience and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to His Word or not contained in it. So the argument’s pretty simple. God never commanded us to have a good Friday service. He never commanded us to have a Christmas service. He never commanded those holy days of obligation. He has, however, commanded Lord’s Day worship with the people of God in the house of God. So it’s a liberty of conscience issue, and it does do disservice to people when we present as law preferences or things that have arrived or sort of evolved in the life of the church,

Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick  02:10

And just kind of anecdotally, as people have come into our churches, at least recognized in my church, they has have an issue with the Lord’s Day and the Sabbath and the fourth commandment, but they’re always curious to know why we don’t have a good Friday or a Christmas Eve, because they do have, you know, good intentions they want, you know, people typically come during those times of year and they want some sort of evangelism, but, you know, it’s good to then teach them about the importance of the Lord’s day and what that means, and the blessing that that is, and one thing I have often joked about with with my people, is I’ve said we will have perhaps an evangelistic service when the evening service is just as well as attended as the morning service. Because I think it was Sinclair Ferguson who said that the Word of God is measured by the evening service and the attendance that is there, not so much by whether you come on Christmas or whether you come to Good Friday. And I’ve joked with the people, I’ve said I think that will be when pigs fly, and I do hope pigs do fly, so that more people come in the evening and and appreciate the full Lord’s day.

Pastor Jim Butler  03:16

And as far as a Good Friday service, in particular, we are commanded to remember the Lord’s death at the Lord’s Supper, which, again, depending on what church you’re in, it could be weekly. It could be, you know, monthly. So in terms of specific time out of the year that we’re called to reflect upon the death of our Savior, it’s not good Friday. And then, of course, every Sunday would be an Easter Sunday, a Resurrection Sunday. I mean, when the people of God, you know, walk into the house of God, there is that tacit confession that He is risen. He is Lord! We’re here to worship the living and true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick  03:58

And that’s not to say that during those times a year, we don’t, on the Lord’s Day, focus on some of those subjects, like, typically, I do a Christmas or Advent series or whatnot, but it’s always on the Lord’s Day. And as we gather for worship on that day, that’s usually when we can meditate on those things and consider them. But as pastor Butler said, we we meditate on those things every Lord’s Day and we get to celebrate the new creation and being found in Christ on that day. So it is. It’s important to recognize that and appreciate what the Lord’s Day is. And I know I’ve appreciated more and more and some of those extra holidays became less and less important as I’ve appreciated the Lord’s Day.

Wim Kerkhoff  04:41

We come with a lot of traditions, and family traditions, church traditions, and yes, that’s, yeah, we get attached to those. Yeah. Some people say, Well, what’s it’s not commanded to do these days, but it’s not commanded not to do them. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s always good to go to church, but to your point, it’s still binding consciences and liberty, right?

Pastor Jim Butler  05:00

Well, I think that, you know, there are those occasional seasons where we can gather that aren’t specifically Lord’s days. So in chapter 22 paragraph five, it says, toward the end thanksgivings upon special occasions ought to be used in an holy and religious manner. So it’s not the argument isn’t No, we can’t gather the church together any other time, but when we obligate the worshiper to a tradition, we’ve overstepped our boundaries as ecclesiastical officers. So, we enforce what Scripture teaches relative to the worship of God. We call that in the reformed tradition the regulative principle of worship. So we don’t add things, we don’t take things away. We seek to do what God’s Word says. And yeah, if we say we’re having a Christmas service, I mean, you know, people would say, Well, what’s wrong with that? Well, for somebody that perhaps has come out of Roman Catholicism. And, you know, there’s a lot of bondage there it is to then bind that person’s conscience in a way that that isn’t conducive to the glory of God.

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