May one eat at a restaurant on the Lord’s Day? Fentiman in a new article defends that on any view of the Lord’s Day, even the most outwardly stringent, it may be moral to eat at a restaurant, from Scripture, natural law, numerous puritans and the original, historic intent of Westminster.
Just as paying for electric heating on the Lord’s Day allows everyone to do less work than using wood heating, so profitable restaurants are more efficient at preparing and cleaning up meals than every individual (or family) doing it themselves, resulting in less work being done. As eating is necessary, whereas not every other activity is, so this reason of efficiency does not necessarily apply to everything else. It is shown Nehemiah barring traders from entering Jerusalem on the Sabbath (Neh. 13) makes nothing against this.
See if the article’s reasons hold up, and follow the Lord with all of your heart!