The Lord's Day Article in the BF&M

The Baptist Faith & Message, which is a commonly used statement of faith for Southern Baptist churches and is the official statement of faith for Convention entities, is a document of core Christian doctrine. The Baptist Faith & Message, first adopted in 1925 by Southern Baptists, used the New Hampshire Confession of Faith as a working document from which to craft the new statement of faith.

The Baptist Faith & Message has been revised two times, one in 1963 and again in 2000 with additional amendments being added infrequently. One particular change made from the 1963 BF&M and adopted in the BF&M 2000 occurs in the article addressing the Lord's Day. Here is the article on the Lord's Day as it appears in both the BF&M 1925 and 1963:

The first day of the week is the Lord's day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private, and by refraining from worldly amusements, and resting from secular employments, works of necessity and mercy only excepted.

Here is how the article is stated in the BF&M 2000:

The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The main changes in the document are the removal of the statement, "refraining from worldly amusements," and the addition of this statement, "Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Christ."

Do you agree with the change? Or do you think the change has weakened the article?

I believe in light of Paul's teaching in Colossians 2:16-17 and in Romans 14:1-12, the BF&M 2000 is more faithful to the biblical witness despite the fact that it really says less.

It would be good reading to find a tabletalk session of those on the BF&M committee who made the revision to this particular article.