Sabbath in Christianity - Non-Sabbatarianism

Non-Sabbatarianism

Justin Martyr, writing in the 2nd century, rejected the need to keep literal seventh-day Sabbath, arguing instead that "the new law requires you to keep the sabbath constantly." Similarly, Irenaeus wrote that the Christian "will not be commanded to leave idle one day of rest, who is constantly keeping sabbath", and Tertullian argued "that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all servile work always, and not only every seventh-day, but through all time". This early metaphorical interpretation of Sabbath applied it to the entire Christian life. Augustine, Luther and Calvin taught that the Sabbath commandment of the Decalogue is not binding on Christians as a legal requirement. Other historical non-Sabbatarians from more recent times include the Anglicans Peter Heylin, William Paley and John Milton; the nonconformist Philip Doddridge; the Quaker Robert Barclay; and Congregationalist James Baldwin Brown.