Welcome… and thank you for your interest in
“Rethinking Rest: Why Our Approach to Sabbath Isn’t Working.”

1. Author Information

Gregory D. Hall
[email protected]
503-932-3478 cell

Education
Doctor of Ministry – Biblical Teaching & Preaching – Knox Theological Seminary (Fort Lauderdale, FL) – Fall 2013 – Spring 2017
Master of Arts in Theological Studies – Interdisciplinary Studies – Faith Evangelical Seminary (Tacoma, WA) – Winter 2002 – Spring 2007
Bachelor of Arts in Education – Speech Teaching Major/English Minor – Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA) – Fall 1987 – Spring 1991

Professional Experience

Adjunct Professor

George Fox University, Newberg, OR – Bible Survey & Theology
Corban University, Salem, OR – Bible Survey
Reach Training Institute, Salem, OR – Bible Survey

Associate Pastor – Salem First Church of the Nazarene

2008-2017 Served in various associate roles overseeing mid-high, high-school, college, young adults, adult Sunday school, and small groups.

Event/Retreat Speaker

’03 – Present – Present to various groups on biblical topics

Holy Land Tour Leader

Organized and lead tour groups of 15-40 people to Israel & Jordan.
Tours in: ’04, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’13 (x2), & ’17

Real Estate Broker/Small Business Owner (Spring 1994-Winter 2009)

Owned and managed two real estate offices with up to 30 independent brokers – ’01-’09
Worked as real estate broker/independent contractor – ’94-’01
Association Board President, Salem Association of Realtors – ’08

Secondary Education Teacher

Taught English, journalism, and Speech/Drama in Puyallup, WA – ’91-’94

Other Publications

Doctor of Ministry Major Project

- Title: Beyond the Sabbath’s Shadow; A Biblical Understanding and Application of Godly Rest.
- This was a limited institutional printing and copies are not available in print. It is the academic version of the Rethinking Rest book. PROJECT DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE HERE.

Biography

Long Bio: Gregory D. Hall is a husband to his high-school sweetheart, and father to two fine young men. He hosts the Rethinking Scripture Podcast (and RethinkingScripture.com), where he challenges listeners to rethink what they thought they already knew about the Bible. He’s been a college athlete, public school teacher, real estate broker, triathlete, small-business owner, pastor, tour-leader to Israel, and university professor. Recently he added published author to the list with the release of his first book, Rethinking Rest; Why Our Approach to Sabbath Isn’t Working. This medley of life-experiences has meshed nicely with Greg’s biblical training (MA in Theological Studies and Doctor of Ministry in Biblical Preaching and Teaching) producing a unique perspective on some of life’s most important themes. Greg lives in the Pacific Northwest. He teaches whenever he can, enjoys swimming laps, and doesn’t spend enough time at the Oregon coast.

Medium Bio: Gregory D. Hall hosts the Rethinking Scripture Podcast (and RethinkingScripture.com), where he challenges listeners to rethink what they thought they already knew about the Bible. He’s been a real estate broker, triathlete, pastor, tour-leader to Israel, and university professor. Recently he added “published author” to the list with the release of his first book, Rethinking Rest; Why Our Approach to Sabbath Isn’t Working. Greg lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife Lisa.

Short Bio: Gregory D. Hall (MATS/DMin) is the host of the Rethinking Scripture Podcast (and RethinkingScripture.com). He and his wife, Lisa, live in the Pacific Northwest.

Websites/Social Links

2. Book Information

Title: Rethinking Rest: Why Our Approach to Sabbath Isn’t Working
Author: Gregory D. Hall
Publication date: January 19, 2023
Available: On Amazon
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1632695936 / ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1632695932
Retail price: $15.99
Page count: 202
Genre/subgenre: Christian Non-Fiction

Rethinking Rest – Front Cover Download

Rethinking Rest – Full Cover Download

Book Excerpt

Not for Distribution – Rethinking Rest – Intro:Chapter 1 Download

Audiobook Introduction and Chapter 1

3. Interview Resources

Sample Interviews:
As Guest:
Guest Appearances Page at RethinkingScripture.com

As Host:
Rethinking Scripture Podcast – Episode 67 – “Morris Dirks – 80’s Youth Group Culture”

Potential Questions/Answers for Interviews

Question: I see that the author John H. Walton has written the forward for your book. I understand there’s a story about how that came about. Can you tell us what happened?

Answer: Walton is very well-known in academic circles. In one of his books, he discusses what it could mean when it says that God rested at the end of the creation account. For my book, I took some of his ideas and applied them to the idea of sabbath rest. I had never communicated with Dr. Walton before, but I found a way to contact him and randomly reached out in the middle of the pandemic. I wanted to know if anyone else that had applied his concepts to a practical book on rest. Surprisingly he responded via email. I suspect he had a little extra time on his hands because he asked for a copy of the manuscript, read it, and offered to work with me on some edits. He tells me this is not normally something he offers. So, I’m super excited that he was involved with my book. It’s a real honor. My wife and I were able to meet with him face to face last summer over dinner.

Question: In the opening line of the book you suggest that “rest… isn’t working”. I suppose you’re not just defining what rest is. So, what else isn’t working about rest?

Answer: So, I’ll start with myself. I grew up in the church and it seems like there are so many different opinions about what rest is… and what it should look like. In my experience it seems like most of the conversations I hear are disagreements about what the sabbath is – talking about the 4th commandment. We get into arguments about what day the sabbath is, and what types of things we should… or shouldn’t be doing on such a day. We rarely get past a simple definition of the terms. And I feel these arguments have cause a general apathy about the topic. Most people I know have completely abandoned the topic. That’s why I say, “Whatever rest is supposed to look like… it’s not working”.

Question: You’ve described your book as a “biblical theology of rest”. So how is this different than other books that we’ve seen that talk about how to observe the sabbath?

Answer: In preparation for writing this book, I read a lot of books about sabbath rest. Most of them focus in on the 4th commandment and assume that’s the crown-jewel of the topic. But the 4th commandment is only a small sub-section of biblical rest. There is a full-blown theology of rest presented literally from the first chapter in Genesis all the way to the last chapter in Revelation. So, my book is completely different than most on the topic, because I attempt to present the whole theology of rest that the Bible offers. In the process, I show how the 4th commandment fits into the bigger picture. I also spend some time discussing what Jesus had to say on the topic.

Question: You discuss God’s rest on the 7th day of the creation from a different perspective. Can you explain how we can understand God’s rest differently than we’ve thought about it before?

Answer: There are several aspects about the 7th day of the creation account that are misunderstood. First, if resting is supposed to be understood as “taking a day off for purposes of refreshment” … why would an all-powerful God need to tak a day off? The best answer we have is that He’s modeling for the rest of us what we should be doing. That answer always seemed a bit off. It just didn’t make sense. This is where John Walton’s work contributed to the discussion. He does a lot of work with extra-biblical sources as well. There are Ancient Near Eastern creation stories where pagan gods set up the cosmos at the end of which they build a temple they “rest”. In that context, resting is equated with ruling. That’s the ancient understanding of rest. So it could be that the 7th day of the biblical account of creation describes the beginning of God’s active rule… not a day of inactivity.

Question: How do you think the 4th commandment (the one about observing the sabbath day) fits into the discussion about rest?

Answer: I think the mistake most of us make… is when we view the 10 commandments as separate from the rest of the Old Testament law. We do this a lot in the modern church because we are asking different questions than the original audience. To the original recipients, the sabbath day commandment was small part of a bigger theology of rest. There were other sabbath days they observed that were attached to the yearly festivals. There was a sabbatical year in the law. Then there was the crazy year of Jubilee that was really the culminating picture of sabbath rest. And… this law was intended to be observed in a land that is often referred to as a “land of rest”. So whenever we talk about the 4th commandment… I think, even today, we need to examine it within this larger context.

Question: The book has a section that discusses how humanity bears God’s image. So, what does “being made in the image of God” connected to the idea of biblical rest?

Answer: It’s interesting when you look at the “image bearing” statements in Genesis 1. Those statements are followed with a job description. That’s where humanity is given the responsibilities to rule and subdue and to be fruitful and multiply. There are a lot of different things we could talk about when think about how we bear God’s image… but in the original context… that image bearing is directly tied to the work that we do. In other words, when we do what we were meant to do, in the way God would have us do it we are bearing God’s image. We are showing people what God is like.

Question: In chapter 3, you talk a little about Greek philosophy. Why did you decide to discuss secular philosophy in a book about biblical rest?

Answer: Yeah… I talk about Plato a little in the book. Specifically, I talk about his analogy of the Cave. It’s a story that describes the world we live in as a type of shadow world… and he describes an unseen world “the world of the forms” where everything is perfect. I bring this up because Plato lived between the testaments. After the Old… but several hundred years before the story of Jesus starts. Scholars have recognized how much influence Plato and those who followed him has influenced Christian thought. A couple of New Testament authors, Paul and the author of Hebrews both refer to the OT law as a shadow. Many people think they may be describing the Jewish law in terms that the larger Hellenistic world would have understood. Sabbath is mentioned as one of those shadows. If that’s how we are to understand those references, then it would suggest that the true sabbath is something other than what we see in the law. There’s something else we should be looking for.

Question: How can we understand Jesus’ ministry with regards to rest?

Answer: Wow… that’s a big question. There are so many times Jesus interacts with the sabbath. It’s clear that Jesus is challenging the sabbath norms of His day. But one gets the sense that it’s bigger than just making some changes to their norms. Jesus upends the whole concept. But He does that with the other commandments too. He challenges us to rethink what murder and adultery are. Why wouldn’t He do the same with sabbath rest? It’s one of Jesus’ statements that stands out to me, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” Interestingly… Jesus offer of rest is directly associated with his yoke. But a yoke is an instrument of work. So, it seems that according to Jesus, we find rest when we are working under His direction. Work is an instrument of our rest.

Question: You talk about how different Bible passages are co-dependent. In normal life codependency usually isn’t good. So, what’s that mean for Bible passages?

Answer: When a biblical author uses another part of the Bible to teach its usually called a cross-reference. It’s when they link to another passage and expect us, as readers, to understand that connection. My wife’s a counselor, so co-dependency is a part of the vocabulary around our house. In human relationships, co-dependency is bad… but sometimes biblical authors make their writing co-dependently linked to another passage. And that’s a good thing. When we don’t recognize the co-dependency, we are more likely to misinterpret the author’s meaning. This is what happens Hebrews 3-4, the biggest passage about rest in the whole of the New Testament. The author of Hebrews creates co-dependent relationships with several OT passages. If we are to understand what Hebrews is saying… we must understand those other passages first.

Question: In chapter 7 you talk about “testing the waters” of rest. Can you describe what it would look like for someone to do that?

Answer: The idea of “testing the waters” is included because I swim every week for exercise. And I absolutely hate getting into cold water. So, I’ve developed a process that takes several minutes… at the end of which I fully enter the pool. I think we can use a similar process when it comes to finding the work that brings us to a place of rest. Sometimes we should dip just one foot into a new situation to see how it feels. That might lead pulling it right out and looking for something else… or we might be surprised how comfortable it feels. If Jesus is really expecting us to hitch ourselves to His yoke… He’s likely to want us to try out things that we wouldn’t normally choose on our own. That’s why we should be willing to test the waters of rest.

Rethinking Social...

Why our approach to sabbath isn't working.

Media Resources