IN DEFENSE OF THE FAITH
The
Truth About Seventh-day Adventists
A
REPLY TO CANRIGHT
by
William
H. Branson
8. THE SABBATH OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT
MR. CANRIGHT the
Baptist makes a strong effort to prove that the seventh-day Sabbath was
not carried
over into New Testament
times. We wish to call attention here to some of the very extravagant
statements
made by him on this
point. Let the reader note carefully the following quotations from his
book.
Strange to say, the
duty to keep the seventh day is not once mentioned in the whole New
Testament.'
Seventh-day Adventism
Renounced, p. 267.
On all other points
the New Testament is clear and full. In it we have chapter after
chapter, epistle after
epistle, and book after
book packed full of instruction on every Christian duty in every
possible phase of it.
The duty or the sin
covered by each of the other nine commandments is directly named many
times over in
the New Testament. But
the duty to keep the seventh day is not once mentioned. . . . 'Another
remarkable
fact is that the fourth
commandment is not repeated in the New Testament, that no Christian was
ever
commanded to observe
it.' Ibid., pp. 265, 266.
This looks pretty bad
for the Sabbath, doesn't it? With all these references to the other nine
commandments
of the moral law, and
not even one mention of the Sabbath, or the fourth, commandment. Not
even one
reference to it in
the whole New Testament!
The strange thing is
that after making this very positive statement that there is no mention
made in the New
Testament of our duty
to keep the Sabbath, he devotes an entire chapter of his Seventh-day
Adventism
Renounced (chapter l2)
to an effort to refute the New Testament scriptures in which the
seventh-day
Sabbath is mentioned,
and finally admits, on page 273, that it is mentioned fifty nine times
by New
Testament writers! On
page 267 he asserts with great emphasis that there is not one such
mention of it; on
page 273 he finds that
there are fifty-nine such references. Here is a discrepancy that is
certainly difficult to
understand.
But let us permit Mr.
Canright as a Seventh-day Adventist to reply to Canright as a Baptist on
this point
also. Before he
renounced the moral law and became a no-law advocate, he wrote:
It is claimed that
nine are referred to while the fourth is, not; but this is false. The
Sabbath is mentioned in
the New Testament
oftener than any other of the Ten Commandments, being not less than
fifty-nine times
in all. It is worthy of
notice that in all these numerous references not one word is spoken
derogatory to the
honor and sacredness
which it had always possessed. - The Two Laws, p. 120.
The New Testament
was written by Christians, in the Christian dispensation, for
Christians. It was written
by Inspiration; hence
it uses Christian language, and tells us what Christians did. Every word
of it was
written years after the
resurrection of Christ. Now let us see what these Christian Scriptures
say upon the
Sabbath question. [Let
the reader keep in mind his later statement that it is not once
mentioned.]
The Son of God
Himself lived upon our earth over thirty years. He worked with His
father as a carpenter.
He labored six days in
a week, and rested upon the Sabbath. 'And He came to Nazareth, where He
had been
brought up; and, as His
custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up
for to
read.' Luke 4:16.
Returning to the place of His nativity, it is particularly mentioned
that He still observed
the Sabbath according
to His former custom. We have, then, the example of God's own Son for
keeping the
seventh-day Sabbath.
'When questioned on
this subject of the Sabbath, He said, 'The Sabbath was made for man.'
Mark 2:27. And
the book of Genesis
tells us just when and how God made the Sabbath for man. If it was made
for man, it is
because man needed it.
Next, Christ says of Himself, 'Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of
the
Sabbath.' Verse 28.
Which day is this? - The seventh, as all know. This, then, is the Lord's
day-the day of
which He is Lord.
In Matthew 12:1-12,
the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath because He
disregarded their
silly regulations
concerning it. He simply taught His disciples to eat upon the Sabbath
when they were
hungry. Jesus defended
what He had done by referring to the example of David and the priests as
recorded
in the Old Testament,
and concluded by saying, 'Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the
Sabbath days.'
Verse 12. Thus He
recognizes not only the Sabbath, but the law of the Sabbath, in the New
Testament.
'When predicting the
overthrow of Jerusalem, which occurred thirty-nine years after His
resurrection, He said
to His disciples, 'But pray you that your flight be not in the winter,
neither on the
Sabbath day.' Matt.
24:20. Here He points them forward thirty-nine years into the gospel
age. He, tells them
that they will have to
flee for their lives, but commands them to pray the Lord that they may
not be
compelled to flee
either in the winter or on the Sabbath day. If they should go in winter,
they might perish.
But why not flee upon
the Sabbath day? If it was not a sacred day, they could flee on 'that
day as well as on
any other. This text,
then, plainly shows that not only was the Sabbath to exist so many years
after the
resurrection of Christ,
but that it was still to be regarded as a holy day. If not, there would
be no ' reason in
this command. Here,
then, we find a New Testament command from the lips of Jesus Himself for
the
observance of the
seventh-day Sabbath.
WHICH DAY IS THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH?
Sunday keepers
assert that the first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath, or the
Sabbath of the New
Testament. Seventh-day
Adventists maintain that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the New
Testament. Go
into a church on the
first day of the week, and you hear the minister call it the Sabbath. Go
among the
seventh day people on
Saturday, and they call that the Sabbath. Now, who is right? We appeal
to the New
Testament.
'In the end of the
Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary
Magdalene,'
etc. Matt. 28:1. Notice
particularly; here are two days. One is the Sabbath day. 'In the end of
the Sabbath.'
Very well, there is one
day, then, that is the Sabbath. Now which day is this? Sunday keepers
say it is the
first day of the week,
and we say that it is the seventh day. Read further. 'In the end of the
Sabbath, as it
began to dawn toward
the first day of the week.' Reader, which is the Sabbath day? It cannot
be the first
day, because the one
which is called the Sabbath is the day before the first day. The Sabbath
is ended
before the first day
comes. Remember this is not the testimony of the Old Testament. It is
from the Gospel
that we are reading,
the Christian Scriptures, the New Testament; and hence, if you please,
the Sabbath here
mentioned is the
'Christian Sabbath.'
Here is another
text: 'When the Sabbath was past. . . . very early in the morning, the
first day of the week,
they came unto the
sepulcher.' Mark 16:1,2. Notice carefully; here are two days spoken of
again. One of
them is the Sabbath.
Which day is it? Is it the first day? Surely not, because ,the Sabbath
is past before the
first day comes. 'When
the 'Sabbath was past. . . . the first day of the week, they came unto
the sepulcher.'
Remember this is New
Testament, not Old - gospel, not law, - Christian, not Jewish,
testimony. To this we
appeal. Which day is
the Christian Sabbath? This was written a long time after the
resurrection, written by
a Christian, and for
Christians. Reader, which is the Christian Sabbath?
Once more: 'And they
returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day,
according
to the commandment.'
Luke 23:56. Thus did the holy women who had followed Christ all His life
and were
acquainted with all His
teaching. This was written thirty years after the resurrection. It is in
the Christian
Scriptures. What does
it say? They kept the Sabbath day. What Sabbath day? 'The Sabbath day
according to
the commandment.' Then
it is the right Sabbath, the one the law requires. Now what day was
this? The next
verse will settle it.
'Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they
came unto the
sepulcher.' Notice, the
next day after the day they had kept, was the first day of the week.
Thus, reader, the
first day of the week
cannot be the Sabbath day according to the commandment, because the
Christians had
kept the Sabbath day,
the day before the first day of the week. Do not think we are reading
from the Old
Testament. No, indeed;
this is New Testament Scripture.
THE SABBATH IN THE BOOK OF ACTS
We turn to Acts,
which was written some thirty-three years this side the commencement of
the gospel age,
and written by a
Christian. It shows us the language of the apostolic Christians touching
the ancient
Sabbath, and how they
used it. We find them always calling it 'the Sabbath,' just as it had
been called in the
old dispensation, and
using it for religious worship as of old. Of Paul and Barnabas it says:
'They came to
Antioch in Pisidia, and
went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.' Acts 13:14.
This was
the seventh day, the
day on which the Jews worshipped. Inspiration here calls it the Sabbath
day, not a
Sabbath day, nor the
old Sabbath day, nor the Jewish Sabbath day, nor the day that used to be
the Sabbath,
but 'the Sabbath day.'
. . .
'Paul, in his sermon
referring to that day, says that the prophets 'are read every Sabbath
day.' Verse 27. Here
the apostle calls it
definitely 'the Sabbath day.' When he had finished his discourse, 'the
Gentiles besought
that these words might
be preached to them the next Sabbath.' Verse 42. Here even the Gentiles
called it the
Sabbath. Once more:
'And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together.' Verse
44. Luke, the
historian, here calls
it the Sabbath, and records the meetings they held upon it. James, in
Acts 15:21, says
the Scriptures are
'read in the synagogues, every Sabbath day.' Thus, James still
designates that as the
Sabbath day.
Once more: 'And on
the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was
wont to be
made.' Acts 16:13. On
what day? The Sabbath. Who will contradict the Scriptures, and say that
it was not
the Sabbath? Every one
holds that the day here referred to was the seventh day; and this record
is in the
New Testament. This
day, then,, is the 'Christian Sabbath.'
Again: Paul, as his
manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the
Scriptures.' Acts 17:2.
It was Paul's custom to observe the Sabbath, as we here see. On what
days did he
preach there? On the
Sabbath days. But this was on the seventh day, not on the first. Which,
then, is the
Sabbath day, according
to Paul? Thus we find that the seventh day is always and invariably
termed 'the
Sabbath' in the New
Testament, while the first day is never so called. . . .
Here we think we
have plainly found the 'Christian Sabbath;' that is, the Sabbath day
which the Christian
Scriptures plainly
teach. We ask, then, By what authority do you apply the term 'Sabbath'
to the first day of
the week? God has never
changed it, and why should you?
In conclusion we
ask, Where did the Lord ever give you permission to work on His holy
day? Who gave
you liberty to use it
for secular work? When was the blessing or sanctification removed from
it? Where do
you find in the New
Testament that a Christian ever worked on the seventh day? We pray you
to consider
these things in the
light of the judgment. D.M. CANRIGHT, The Christian Sabbath, pp. 2-7.
A FATAL ADMISSION
Mr. Canright the
Baptist makes another admission in his book which is fatal to his
Sabbath-abolition
argument, when he says:
All church
historians agree that the Jewish Christians continued to observe the
seventh day, even for some
time after the fall of
Jerusalem, as we have seen.
Philip Schaff, the
greatest of living authors, in his 'History of the Apostolical. Church,'
page 118, says: 'So
far as we know, the
Jewish Christians of the first generation, at least in Palestine,
Scripturally observed the
Sabbath.' Seventh-day
Adventism Renounced, p. 277.
This is very important.
The Jewish Christians all continued to observe the Sabbath for the
first generation
of the Christian Era,
even for some time after the fall of Jerusalem. That, then, took
in Paul, Peter, James,
Andrew, Philip, Thomas,
Bartholomew, Matthew, and John the revelator. It included the New
Testament
writers, with the
exception of Luke, who was probably a Greek. These persons were
observers of the
seventh-day Sabbath
throughout the first generation, that is to say, as long as they lived,
for they died
before the first
century of the Christian Era was passed. They kept the Sabbath till they
died. They spoke of
no change when they
wrote their Gospels or Epistles, whether writing to Jews or Gentiles,
and they made
no change in their
practice; they Scripturally observed the Sabbath. That is, they
recognized that the
Scriptural injunctions
to keep the Sabbath are still binding in the Christian Era, and they
kept it according
to the Scriptures. To
this agree the words of Luke, the Greek, as he speaks of Christ's
followers in
connection with His
death and burial: They returned, and prepared spices and ointments;
and rested the
Sabbath day according
to the commandment. Luke 23:56.
Mr. Canright the
Baptist inquires:
How much, then, does
it prove in favor of the Jewish Sabbath to find that it was still called
'the Sabbath,
or that it was kept by
the Jewish Christians, or even by Paul himself? Ibid., p. 278.
We answer, Much every
way, chiefly because these facts clearly reveal that the church of the
apostles knew
nothing whatsoever of
any change having been made in the Sabbath. They knew nothing of the
original
Sabbath having been
abolished or of Sunday having taken its place.
But did not the Gentile
Christians who lived in the days of the apostles perhaps make the
change? No, for
they became Christians
through the labors of these Jewish Christians and were instructed by
them.
The Gentiles were never
commissioned to take over and remodel the cause later. The Lord did not
give one
line of instruction to
the new church through the Jewish Christians and 'another line through
Gentile
converts. All the
teaching was the reverse of that. If men accepted Jesus, they were then
members of His
family and counted as
Christians. They were all to be governed by one rule, to be of one mind,
and to speak
the same thing. As
many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There
is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all
one in Christ
Jesus. Galatians
3:27, 28.
Therefore, if the
Christians of Christ's time were all one, and if all the Jewish
Christians kept the
Scriptural 'Sabbath
during the first century, the Gentile converts must also have done the
same. The entire
Christian church
started out as a Sabbath keeping church, and there was no thought of
changing to Sunday
until apostasy set in
later on, and the church began to depart from the plain commandments of
God and to
follow the traditions
of men.
In chapter 10 of his
book Mr. Canright tries to build up an argument for Sunday observance on
apostolic
example, but the
admission that for the first century all Jewish Christians continued to
keep the Sabbath
completely demolishes
his argument. The apostles were all Jewish Christians, and if they all
continued to
keep the Sabbath during
the first century, or as long as they lived, then the apostolic example
is all on the
Sabbath side. It is
wholly in favor of seventh-day observance.
Not one of the apostles
or disciples of Christ ever once kept Sunday or indicated that he knew
anything
about a change having
been made in the Sabbath. No mention is made of the first day of the
week as having
become a holy day or a
day of rest and worship. No command is given for anyone to keep it. God
never
rested on it; Christ
never kept it; the apostles knew nothing about it; and for at least a
century of the
Christian Era the
church members all continued to keep the Scriptural Sabbath.
This Scriptural Sabbath
is mentioned fifty-nine times in the New Testament, as Mr. Canright
admits. 'It is
called the Sabbath, and
Jesus declares Himself to be Lord of it. (Mark 2:28.) But Sunday keeping
is not
mentioned at all, and
wherever the first day of the week is spoken of, it is referred to as
one of the six
working days to which
no holiness was attached.
But we shall permit Mr.
Canright as a Seventh-day Adventist to speak on this point. He has
already shown
his ability to find
fifty-nine references to the Sabbath in the New Testament, and now we
will let him tell us
what he knew about
Sunday in the New Testament. The following is from his pen:
'Paul says, 'Where no
law is, there is no transgression.' Rom. 4:15. As there is no law of God
for keeping
the first day, there
can be no sin in working on it; for Paul says again, 'Sin is not imputed
when there is no
law.' Rom. 5:13. Then
why keep Sunday? God does not leave men to guess at their duty, but He
states
plainly whatever He
wishes done. Does He wish men to keep the seventh day? How explicitly He
has said
so. Ex. 20:8-11. How
plainly baptism and the Lord's supper are enjoined. Mark 16:15, 16; 1
Cor. 11:23-26.
So if the Lord wished
us to keep the first day, would He not have plainly said so? Certainly;
but He has said
no such thing.
CANRIGHT EXAMINES FIRST-DAY TEXTS
Let us examine every
text in which the first day of the week is mentioned in the New
Testament, and we
shall thus learn all
the Lord has said about it. There are but eight texts. Here is the
first: 'In the end of the
Sabbath, as it began to
dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary to
see the sepulcher.'
Matt. 28:1. This is all that Matthew says about it. He relates that the
angel opened the
tomb; that the women
saw him, ran to tell the apostles, and met Jesus on the way; but not a
hint is given
'that there is to be
any change of the Sabbath, not a word is said about keeping the first
day in honor of the
resurrection. Think of
this.
Next, Mark mentions
the first day twice. 'And very early in the morning the first day of the
week, they
came unto the sepulcher
at the rising of the sun.' 'Now when Jesus was risen ,early the first
day of the week,
He appeared first to
Mary Magdalene.' Chap. 16:2,9. This is all the mention he makes of the
day. Here,
again, there is a
profound silence as to any change of the Sabbath or any sacredness for
the first day. There
is not the slightest
intimation of any such thing. Read the whole chapter and see for
yourself.
Luke mentions the
first day only once. 'Now upon the first day of the week, very early in
the morning,
'they came unto the
sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain
others with them.'
Chap. 24:1. What does
this say about the change of the Sabbath? Nothing. They had kept the
Sabbath
according to the
commandment the day before. Chap. 23:56. What intimation is there here
that the first day
then became a holy day?
The candid reader will admit that there is not the slightest reference
to such a
thing. Yet these are
the texts always relied upon by Sunday keepers to sustain their
position. Luke does
state that two of the
disciples went that day seven and a half miles, on foot, to Emmaus.
Verse 13. What
were they going there
for? The circumstances indicate that they resided there, and they were
going home.
Jesus walked with them
and made Himself known to them. Verses 15-31. Then they went back to
Jerusalem to tell the
others. Fifteen miles they walked that day. . . . Mark 16:12, 13. While
they were eating
supper, and doubting
and disputing about the resurrection, Jesus came in and upbraided them
for their
unbelief. . . . Luke
24:38-43. Certainly, then, they were not keeping that day to commemorate
an event in
which they did not yet
believe! . . .
John mentions the
first day twice, stating substantially the same facts as the others.
'The first day of the
week comes Mary
Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and sees the
stone taken
away from the
sepulcher.' Chap. 20: 1. She ran and told Peter and John. Then they went
to see if it was so.
Later, Jesus appeared
to Mary, and sent her to tell the others. Verses 11-18. 'Then the same
day at evening,
being the first day of
the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled
for fear of the
Jews, *came Jesus and
stood in the midst, and says unto them, Peace be unto you.' Verse 19.
This is all that
John says of the first
day. Reader, how much do you find here about the change of the Sabbath?
Like the
others, John is silent
upon this subject. He makes no reference to it; he simply states the
events that
occurred at the
resurrection of Jesus. There he leaves it.
But were not the
apostles assembled together when Jesus met them? Yes, at their own home,
eating
supper. John 20:10;
Mark 16:14. (See Acts 1:13) And, where else should they be? So there is
no evidence
here of any religious
meeting held on that day.
John mentions the
first day twice, but does not call it the Sabbath, the Lord's day, nor
by any other stated
title. He says nothing
about the disciples' keeping it, nor does he record any intimation from
the Lord that
they should keep it.
There is not even an inference to that effect in the four Gospels, and
the whole
argument in favor of it
is pure assumption.
Another Sunday
meeting is claimed from verse 26: 'And after eight days, again His
disciples were within,
and Thomas with them;
then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said,
Peace be
unto you.' This did not
occur on Sunday, but as late as Monday evening. Verse 19. After eight
days is not
on the eighth day. . .
.
But suppose it had
been the first day of the week; that does not prove that it was the
Sabbath, nor that
there was any
sacredness to the day. The disciples were not even holding a meeting.
They were 'within,'
that is, at home. Verse
10, 'Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.' This is
where they
were when the event
occurred which is 'recorded in verse 26. (See Acts 1:13.) Jesus came
because Thomas
was there; but there is
not a word, or even a hint, that the day was sacred.
The next time Jesus
met them was on a fishing day. John 21:16. They all went fishing, and
toiled
all night, but caught
nothing. In the morning Jesus stood on the shore, and told them where to
cast the net
to get a good draught.
Was this on Sunday? Then it is a working day.
If it were not on
Sunday, then Jesus met them on any day, just as it happened. So we see
from Acts 1:1-4
that His farewell
meeting with them was on Thursday. It was on the fortieth day after His
resurrection.
Verse 3. By a moment's
reckoning it will be seen that it fell on Thursday, as all agree.
Thursday is
ascension day the world
over. So the aim that Jesus always met with His disciples on the first
day of the
week is utterly false.
As we have seen, the day of His resurrection was one of the greatest
confusion among
His disciples; the next
time He met them was on Monday evening, the next time was on a fishing
day, and
the last was on
Thursday. So much for the example of Christ in favor of Sunday keeping.
. . .
Next, Acts 20:7-11
is supposed to furnish some little proof for first-day observance. 'And
upon the first
day of the week, when
the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them
ready to depart
on the morrow; and
continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the
upper chamber,
where they were
gathered together.' Then a young man fell from a window, and being taken
up dead, was
restored to life by
Paul. And when he 'had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while,
even till break
of day, so he
departed.' We notice these facts: 1. The first day is not called the
Sabbath, Lord's day, or by
any other sacred title.
2. This is the only religious meeting upon the first day of the week of
which we have
any record in the New
Testament. This is remarkable, if that were the common day of meeting.
But we
have a record of
eighty-four Sabbaths which Paul kept, and on which he preached. (See
Acts 13:14, 44;
16:13; 17:2; 18:14,
ll.) 3. Nothing is said about its being their custom to meet on that
day. 4. There is no
record that they ever
met on that day before this occasion or afterward. 5. But what settles
the whole matter
is the simple fact that
it was only an evening meeting. When they assembled, Paul began to
preach to them,
and 'continued his
speech till midnight.' After breaking bread, he again talked till break
of day,' and then
went on his journey.
Evening meetings are frequently held, on all days of the week. No one
thinks of
calling a day holy for
this reason. So in the above case this meeting does not furnish the
slightest evidence
that Sunday was a holy
day. Moreover, this was not an ordinary meeting, but a very uncommon
one. It was
Paul's farewell meeting
(verse 25); hence it lasted all night. A dead man was raised. It was for
these reasons
that it was mentioned,
and not because of any sacredness belonging to the day. Then there is
not an article
of evidence here for
Sunday observance.'
Only one more text
mentions the first day; viz., 1 Corinthians 16:2: 'Upon the first day of
the week let
every one of you lay by
him in store, as God bath prospered him, that there he no gatherings
when I come.'
From this a public
meeting for Sabbath worship on the first day is inferred. But what is
said here about
keeping that day as the
Sabbath, or even holding meetings on that day? Not an intimation of such
a thing is
given. Paul does not
say that when they came together for meetings they should bring their
gifts, nor that
they should put them
into the public collection box, nor anything of that nature. 'Let every
one of you lay
by him in store,' is
the direction; that is, at home, by himself. The original Greek term
means by himself, at
home, as the best
critics say on this passage.
Now, reader, you
have before you all the texts in the New Testament that mention the
first day of the
week in any manner. You
must see that they do not intimate that the ay has any sacredness, or
that there is
an example for keeping
, or any commandment that any one should observe it. The Lord's day' of
Revelation 1:10 is the
seventh day, as may be seen by Exodus 20:8-11; Isaiah 58:13; Mark
2:28.-1) D. M.
CANRIGHT, Sunday Not
the Sabbath, pp. 1-8.
That is well done, Mr.
Canright. Now we will give you an opportunity to answer another one of
your
Sabbath objections. In
his book under review Mr. Canright the Baptist declares:
That the day of
Pentecost (Acts 2) fell on Sunday has been believed and maintained by
Christians in all
ages. Seventh-day
Adventism Renounced, p. 200.
But just a few years
before, he had completely exploded this theory in a leaflet entitled
Sunday Not the
Sabbath, from which we
quote the following:
A desperate endeavor
is made to find evidence for Sunday keeping from the day of Pentecost
(Acts 2:14) ;
but there is not the
remotest hint of it here. 'And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all
with one accord in one
place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing
mighty wind.'
Verses 1, 2. Then the
Holy Spirit rested upon them. But what has that to do with Sunday
keeping? Sunday
observance is not
mentioned, nor even referred to. It is not stated what day of the week
it was, as that was a
matter of no
importance.
It was the Pentecost
which was to be signalized, and not the day of the week. The very best
scholars, even
among the observers of
Sunday, admit that Pentecost fell that year upon the Sabbath, or
Saturday. Professor
Hackett says, 'It is
generally supposed that this Pentecost, signalized by the outpouring of
the Spirit, fell on
the Jewish Sabbath, or
Saturday.' Comment on original text.
Shausen says, 'The
fiftieth fell; therefore, it appears, upon Saturday.'
Dean Alford, in his
'New Testament for English Readers,' remarks, 'It is probable, however,
that it was on
the Sabbath, i.e., if
we reckon from Saturday, the 16th of Nisan.' If the day of the week on
which that
Pentecost fell was to
be observed, we should at least expect that we should be informed which
day it was.
But we are not.
Pages 5, 6.
In the last analysis
Seventh-day Adventists are not really concerned at all as to whether
Pentecost came on
Sabbath, Sunday, or
some other day of the week, for they have never rested their case on so
uncertain and
vague a basis as the
supposed relationship of the Sabbath to various ceremonial festivals of
the Jews, such
as Pentecost.
Seventh-day Adventists build their claim for the sacredness of the
Sabbath in the Christian
Era on the firm
foundation of a clear-cut. Thus says the Lord, found in the fourth
precept of the divinely
given Ten Commandments,
which commandments virtually all the Christian world confesses to be the
moral code for all time
and all ages. It is interesting to note, however, that opponents such as
Mr. Canright
attempt to make a, last
stand on the claim that Pentecost came on Sunday, but even among Sunday
keeping
theologians themselves
there is no agreement that Pentecost came on Sunday. This is a strange
plight
indeed for the
advocates of Sunday!
In renouncing
Seventh-day Adventism, Mr. Canright argues that Sunday should be kept as
a memorial of
Christ's resurrection,
saying:
It is the grandest
and best-known fact in all the earth today, that the Christian church
has a memorial day,
the day of the Lord's
resurrection. Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, p. 196.
To which argument he
himself had formerly replied as follows:
Should we not, then,
celebrate the resurrection of Christ? Yes, but the Lord never told us to
keep Sunday
for that, purpose. God
has given us baptism, burial in water, as the fitting memorial of this.
'Therefore we
are buried with Him ,by
baptism.' Rom. 6:4. We are buried in the water just as 'Jesus was in the
earth. Then
we are raised up out of
the Water, also in the likeness of His resurrection.' Verse 5. Again,
Buried with
Him in baptism, wherein
also you are risen with Him.' Col. 2:12. Baptism, then, is the divinely
pointed
memorial of the burial
and resurrection of Jesus. It is appropriate. To be buried in the water
and raised out
of it, resembles the
burial and resurrection of Christ, which commemorates. Sunday Not the
Sabbath, p. 8.
WAS SUNDAY COMMANDED BY CHRIST AFTER CALVARY?
Mr. Canright the
Baptist quotes a priest of New York in the matter
of Sunday observance as
follows:
John Ankatell, A.
M., priest of the diocese of New York, writing in the Outlook, July,
1889, says of
Sunday, the Lord's day:
'We think it was given by our Lord to the apostles during the great
forty days after
His resurrection, but
we cannot prove this.' He states the Catholic doctrine exactly; viz.,
that the change was
made by Christ and the
apostles, but that the Scriptures are not plain enough on this point to
prove it; hence
we have to rely upon
Catholic authority, which says it was made in New Testament times.
Seventh-day
Adventism Renounced, p.
214.
It seems to us that
this is as clear a case of groping in the dark as we have ever
witnessed. No
evidence can be found
for Sunday observance, but that fact does not deter those who are
determined to
substitute that day for
God's Sabbath. Failing to find a Thus says the Lord for their
doctrine on this point,
they find the next best
thing - a Catholic priest of New York, who thinks the Sunday command was
given
to the disciples by the
Lord during the forty days after His resurrection! Of course, this
priest is honest
enough to add that he
cannot prove this, but then the very fact that he thought it, was
evidence to Mr.
Canright that it must
be true.
We wonder now what this
priest's supposition is based upon? Paul says that he shunned not to
declare all
the counsel of God, and
yet he declared nothing: about Christ's having secretly told the
disciples about
Sunday's taking the
place of the holy Sabbath. Strange, isn't it, that he should have
forgotten so important a
matter as that! And one
would think that Luke or John would have thought to mention it, but no,
they must
have forgotten also.
What a pity that the New Testament should have been marred by this
failure on their
part! Surely, if they
expected plain, ordinary folk down here in the twentieth century to
know!
Let it be known that
there is one thing on which the Scriptures are clear, all the way from
Genesis to
Revelation, and that is
that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God (Exodus
20:10). That this
day was sanctified in
Eden, set apart for the holy and religious use of men, as a great
memorial of creation;
that it is God's holy
day (Isaiah 58:13); that Jesus is Lord of it (Mark 2:28); that Jesus
kept it (Luke 4:16);
that the disciples,
still kept it after the resurrection of our Lord (Luke 23:56) ; and that
it was the Lord's
day (Revelation
1:10).
There is no need to
find out what the New York Catholic priest thinks about that. It is
written in letters of
fire, as it were, and
was dictated by the Holy Ghost. It was spoken from heaven by the
omnipotent God. It
was engraved on stone
with His finger; it was substantiated by Jesus by both precept and
example; it was
accepted without
question by all the inspired writers. In fact, it is so plain that
the wayfaring men, though
fools, need not err
therein. (Isaiah 35.8)
Shall all this clear,
shining testimony be discarded for the passing thought of a New York
Roman Catholic
priest ?
THE LORD'S DAY
In an attempt to prove
that Sunday is the Lord's day, Mr. Canright the Baptist says:
Those who observe
Sunday say that they do it in honor of the resurrection of Christ upon
that day, and that
this practice was
derived from the apostles and has been continued in the church ever
since. Let us see. 'The
Lord's day' is a term
now commonly applied to the first day of the week, in honor of the
Lord's resurrection
on that day. Thus: 'We
believe the Scriptures teach that the first day of the week is the
Lord's day.' - Baptist
Church Directory,' p.
171. . . . So every dictionary, lexicon, and cyclopedia applies that
term to the first
day. Seventh-day
Adventism Renounced, p. 186.
Here Mr. Canright
begins his great adventure among the lexicons, dictionaries,
encyclopedias, church
Fathers, etc., in a
desperate effort to turn up some semblance of proof for Sunday
observance. He can find
nothing whatsoever in
the Bible, as he has so frequently and emphatically stated in the
quotations we have
cited from his own
writings, so in his desperation he is driven to other, sources. He
starts in with the Baptist
Church Directory, and
then wanders through the annals of medieval ecclesiastical history,
searching for
what cannot be found in
Scripture. In this field he fares far better than when he, Seeks proof
in the New
Testament. Calvin is
quoted by him as saying:
'The ancients have, not
without sufficient reason, substituted what we call the Lord's day in
the room of the
Sabbath.' Ibid.
But, we inquire, how
does this help us in this matter? Who were these ancients? In what
generation did
they live? Were they
Catholics, pagans, or early Christians? And if they were either, what
authority did
they have to tamper
with the immutable law of the great God? 'Who made these ancients to be
our
lawgivers? There is
one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. James 4:12. The
Lord is our
judge, the Lord is our
Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us. Isaiah 33:22.
Who, then, are these
ancients who presume to tamper with what God has done? Away with them!
If it
seem evil unto you to
serve the Lord, choose You this day whom you will serve. Whether the
gods which
your fathers served
that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land you
dwell: but as for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said,
God forbid
that we should forsake
the Lord, to serve other gods. Joshua 24:15, 16.
JESUS VERSUS HUMAN AUTHORITY
Mr. Canright quotes
from statutes of the kings of England; from Danish and Saxon laws; from
Catholic
councils; from Emperor
Constantine; and a score of so called Catholic Fathers, several of whom
are proved
impostors and
tricksters, in a further effort to bolster up his Lord's day theory. Now
the thing that strikes
one as more than
passing strange is the fact that, in an effort to prove which day is the
Lord's day, the
testimony of almost
everyone else is sought except that of the Lord Himself.
Why not inquire of the
Lord as to which is His day? Perchance He would know more about it than
the
learned writers of
dictionaries, the pagan emperor Constantine, or Henry IV of England. Why
not at least
hear what He has to say
about the matter? What harm could it have done for Mr. Canright to tell
us what is
written in the Book of
books about the Lord's day? Just this: it would have completely upset
his entire
theory. For the Lord
and Mr. Canright the Baptist are not in agreement on this matter.
Let us first note a
statement in the fourth commandment: The seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy
God. Whose Sabbath
is it? The Sabbath of the Lord. It is His day. He claims it. As His
voice rolled
through the earth He
declared this one day to be His. When, we inquire, has His voice been
heard again,
releasing this claim?
When did the earth shake with the announcement from the throne that
Sunday was
now to be substituted
for the Sabbath? When? Never! That change was made by man, not God.
Again the Lord
declares: If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy
pleasure on My
'holy day. Isaiah
58:13. Which day is the Lord's day? He definitely claims the Sabbath,
the seventh day, as
His. He declares it to
be holy, and calls upon His people not to trample it underfoot and
disregard it, as Mr.
Canright would so
gladly have them do.
But this is not all.
When Jesus was here in the flesh, He made another pronouncement on this
question
which 'leaves
absolutely no room for doubt or quibbling. His words are recorded in
Mark 2:27, 28: He
said unto them, The
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son
of man is
Lord also of he
Sabbath. So the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. That day, then,
must of necessity be
the Lord's day. It is
the day which He made for man's rest and benefit.
No such claims were
ever made by the Lord regarding Sunday. Jesus said nothing about a
Sunday Lord's
day. That is found only
in the dictionaries, and the musty volumes of history written after the
papal
apostasy set in. That
idea is absolutely foreign to the Bible. Only one Lord's day is
recognized in the
Scriptures, and that is
the original Sabbath. It was, therefore, the seventh-day Sabbath of
which John spoke
when he said, I was
in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Revelation 1:10. John was one of
those Christians of
the early church whom
Mr. Canright admits kept the Sabbath during the first century, hence he
speaks of
that day just as Jesus
had spoken of it. Jesus said He was Lord of the Sabbath day, and John
records that he
had a heavenly vision
on that day. How anyone could possibly read Sunday into this text we
cannot
understand.
On this point Dr.
Summerbell, of the Christian Church, says:
Many suppose that
they must denominate the first day of the week the 'Lord's day; but we
have no certain
scripture for this. The
phrase 'Lord's day' occurs but once in the Bible: 'I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's
day,' and there
probably refers to the day of which Christ said: 'The Son of man is Lord
even of the Sabbath
day,' as the whole book
of Revelation has a strong Jewish bearing. N. SUMMERBELL, D.D.
(professor of
Moral Philosophy, and
first president of Union Christian College: editor of the Christian
Pulpit,
Discussions, Church
History), History of the Christian Church, p. 152.
CANRIGHT APPEALS TO THE FATHERS
Mr. Canright's chief
appeal on his Sunday-Lord's day theory is to the Catholic Fathers, and
he offers their
testimony as a ground
of faith for the Christian church. Regarding the reliability of these
sources of
Christian doctrine we
wish to quote the following statements from recognized church leaders
and,
historians:
The Fathers of the
second and third centuries were not regarded as safe guides even by
their Christian
contemporaries. . . .
Tertullian, who, in point of learning, vigor, and genius, stands at the
head of the Latin
writers of this period,
was connected with a party of gloomy fanatics. Origen, the most
voluminous and
erudite of the Greek
Fathers, was excommunicated as a heretic. If we estimate these authors
as they were
appreciated by the
early Church of Rome, we must pronounce their writings of little value.
Tertullian, as a
Montanist, was under
the ban of the Roman bishop. . . . Origen was treated by the Roman
Church as a man
under sentence of
excommunication....
Nothing can be more
unsatisfactory, or rather childish, than the explanations of Holy Writ
sometimes
given by these ancient
expositors. . . . Very few of the Fathers of this period were acquainted
with Hebrew,
so that, as a class,
they were miserably qualified for the interpretation of the Scriptures.
Even Origen
himself must have had a
very imperfect knowledge of the language of the Old Testament. In
consequence
of their literary
deficiencies, the Fathers of the second and third centuries occasionally
commit the most
ridiculous blunders.
DR. WILL1AM D. KILLEN, The Ancient Church, period 2, sec. 2, chap. 1,
pars. 33,
34.
There are but few of
them [the Fathers] whose pages are not rife with errors, errors of
method, errors of
fact, errors of
history, of grammar, and even in doctrine. This is the language of
simple truth, not of
slighting
disparagement. ARCHBISHOP F. W. FARRAR, D.D., The History of
Interpretation, pp. 162,
163.
The writings of the
so-called Apostolic Fathers have unhappily, for the most part, come down
to us in a
condition very little
worthy of confidence, partly because under the name of these men, so
highly venerated
in the church, writings
were early forged for the purpose of giving authority to particular
opinions or
principles. And partly
because their own writings which were extant, became interpolated in
subservience
to a Jewish
hierarchical interest, which aimed to crush the free spirit of the
gospel. DR. AUGUSTUS
NEANDER, General
History of the Christian Religion and Church, vol. 1, Appendix, Sec. 4.
Notices of
the More Eminent Church
Teachers, p. 657.
Books bearing
venerable names-Clement, Dionysius, Isidore-were forged for the purpose
of supplying
authorities for
opinions that lacked the sanction of antiquity. - JOHN EMFRICH EDWARD
DALBERGACTON
(R.C.), The History of
Freedom, p. 513.
Several works
ascribed to these Fathers, are known to be spurious; others are
doubtful; and those which
are generally received
as genuine are not free from interpolations. WHAREY, Sketches of
Church
History, First Century,
p. 26.
But of these [the
Fathers] we may safely state that there is not a truth in the most
orthodox creed that
cannot be proved by
their authority nor a heresy that has disgraced the Romish Church, that
may not
challenge them as its
abettors. In points of doctrine, their authority is with me, nothing.
The word of God
alone contains my
creed. - DR. ADAM CLARKE, Comment on Proverbs 8.
'When God's word is by
the Fathers expounded, construed, and glossed over, then, in my
judgment, it is
even as when one
strains milk through a coal sack, which must needs spoil and make the
milk black. God's
word of itself is pure,
clean, bright, and clear; but through the doctrines, books, and writings
of the Fathers,
it is darkened,
falsified, and spoiled. -MARTIN LUTHER, Table Talk, P. 281.
CANRIGHT SHIFTS TO ROMAN CATHOLIC POSITION
This, then, is the
ground on which Mr. Canright chose to stand after he forsook the law of
God, and surely
he was sinking in the
mire. He had clearly forsaken the commandments of God for the traditions
of men.
Had he become a
Catholic, we could better understand his appeal to these questionable
Catholic sources.
But he claimed still to
be a Protestant, and yet stepped down from the solid Protestant platform
of the Bible,
and the Bible only, as
the rule of faith and practice, onto the shifting sands of the Catholic
position of the
Bible plus tradition,
with tradition above the Bible.
The Roman Catholic
position on this point is clearly set down in the following terse
quotations:
A rule of faith, or
a competent guide to heaven, must be able to instruct in all the truths
necessary for
salvation. Now the
Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is
bound to believe, nor
do they explicitly
enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to practice. . . . We must,
therefore, conclude that
the Scriptures alone
cannot be a sufficient guide and rule of faith, because they cannot, at
any time, be
within the reach of
every inquirer; because they are not of themselves clear and
intelligible even in matters
of the highest
importance. And because they do not contain all the truths necessary for
salvation.
CARDINAL GIBBONS,
Faith of Our Fathers, p. 111.
The following
quotations will show what the Catholic Church teaches as to the
authority for its doctrine:
-Question. Has
tradition any connection with the rule of faith?
Answer. Yes; because
it is a part of God's revealed word, properly called the unwritten word,
as the
Scripture is called the
written word.
Question. What is
tradition?
Answer. The
doctrines which the apostles taught by word of mouth, and which have
descended through
every successive
generation even to our times.
Question. Are we
obliged to believe what tradition teaches, equally with what is taught
by Scripture?
Answer. Yes; we are
obliged to believe the one as firmly as the other. REV. STEPHEN
KEENAN,
Doctrinal Catechism,
.pp. 86, 87.
Like two sacred
rivers flowing from Paradise, the Bible and divine tradition contain the
word of God, the
precious gems of
revealed truths. Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on
account of their
divine origin, of equal
sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still, of the two,
tradition is to us
more clear and safe.
- BRUNO'S Catholic Belief, p. 45.
How contrary this all
is to the clear teachings of Jesus. In Mark 7:6-9 it is recorded that He
said:
Well
hath Esaias
prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honor Me
with their
lips, but their heart
is far from Me. Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for
doctrines the
commandments of men.
For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men,
as the
washing of pots and
cups: and many other such like things you do. And He said unto them,
Full well you
reject the commandment
of God, that you may keep your own tradition.
It is this leaving of
the written and inspired Word of God to follow the conflicting,
confusing
traditions of the
ancients, that has repeatedly led the church into error and apostasy. If
tradition is as good
as the Bible, if the
hearsay of what has been taught in past ages must be accepted, then
there is no fixed
standard of truth. The
teachings of one church are as reliable as any other. But think of the
confusion to
which this leads us!
Surely, it is worse than the confusion of languages at the tower of
Babel. A thousand
voices from as many
religions and sects shout in our ears, This is the way. The fathers
believed thus and
so. And yet no two
of them agree!
It may be truly said
that the Bible and tradition are like two rivers, as stated above by Dr.
Bruno,
but while the Bible is
the pure word of God, tradition is foul with error and sophistry. The
Bible flows forth
from the very throne of
God, and its sparkling waters, which are clear as crystal, come down to
us as the
water of life. Those
who drink deeply of it shall never thirst again. But the river of
tradition has become
polluted with the
errors and commandments of men; its waters have been contaminated
through the work of
God's great archenemy
in his effort to deceive and destroy the faith of God's children. The
Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, in the
Scripture text above quoted, declares the commandment of God supreme
above all
human tradition. God's
will, expressed in the Ten Commandments, cannot be set aside by any
man-made
ordinance.
Now it is of course,
known by everybody that Catholics all observe Sunday, the first day of
the
week, instead of
Saturday, the seventh day, but their reason for doing this is clearly
stated in their official
catechisms. They do not
'claim to have Scriptural authority for this practice, but, on the
contrary, they
frankly and clearly say
that there is no such authority, and that in this matter they are
following tradition
only. Note carefully
the following quotations bearing directly upon this point, from one of
their recognized
works:
Question. When
Protestants do profane work on Saturday, or the seventh day of the week,
do they follow
the Scripture as their
only rule of faith, do they find this permission clearly laid down in
the Sacred
Volume?
Answer. On the
contrary, they have only the authority of tradition for this practice.
In profaning Saturday,
they violate one of
God's commandments, which He has never clearly abrogated- 'Remember thou
keep
holy the Sabbath day.'
Question. Is the
observance of Sunday, as the day of rest, a matter dearly laid down in
Scripture?
Answer. It certainly
is not; and yet all Protestants consider the observance of this
particular day as
essentially necessary
to salvation. To say we observe the Sunday, because Christ rose from the
dead on that
day is to say we act
without warrant of Scripture; and we might as well say that we should
rest on Thursday
because Christ ascended
to heaven on that day, and rested in reality from the work of
redemption. - REV.
STEPHEN KEENAN,
Doctrinal Catechism, p. 352.
Question. What do
you conclude from all this?
Answer. That
Protestants have no Scripture for the measure of their day of rest; that
they abolish the
observance of Saturday
without warrant of Scripture; that they substitute Sunday in its place
without
Scriptural authority;
consequently, that for all this, they have only traditional authority. .
. . Hence we must
conclude, that the
Scripture, which does not teach these things clearly, does not contain
all necessary truths,
and, consequently,
cannot be the only rule of faith. Ibid., pp. 354, 355.
So there we have it.
That clearly states the Catholic position. Tradition is safer than the
Bible. And it was
on this platform that
Mr. Canright took his stand in trying to prove Sunday sacredness. He
found it only in
tradition. And every
individual must take his choice. Either his faith must be planted on the
solid rock of
Scriptural truth, the
word that lives and abides forever, or on the quagmire of tradition. In
the one are found
the Ten Commandments,
the Sabbath, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to enable us to keep
them. In
the other are apostasy,
uncertainty, and shipwreck of faith. Choose you this day whom you
will serve.
Howbeit in vain do
they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For
laying aside
the commandment of God,
you hold the tradition of men. Mark 7:7, 8.
CANRIGHT PRESENTS 100 BIBLE FACTS TO SUPPORT THE
SABBATH
We present herewith a
reprint of a tract published in 1885 by D. M. Canright in which he
argues
convincingly for the
keeping of the seventh day as the Bible Sabbath.
Why keep the Sabbath
day? What is the object of the Sabbath? Who made it? When was it made,
and for
whom? Which day is the
true Sabbath? Many keep the first day of the week, or Sunday. What Bible
authority have they for
this ? Some keep the seventh day, or Saturday. What Scripture have they
for that?
Here are the facts
about both days, as plainly stated in the Word of God:
Sixty Bible Facts Concerning the Seventh Day
1. After working the
first six days of the week in creating this earth, the great God rested
on the seventh
day. Genesis 2:1-3.
2. This stamped that
day as God's rest day, or Sabbath day, as Sabbath day means rest day. To
illustrate:
When a person is born
on a certain day, that day thus becomes his birthday. So when God rested
upon the
seventh day, that day
became His rest, or Sabbath day.
3. Therefore the
seventh day must always be God's Sabbath day. Can you change your
birthday from the
day on which you were
born, to one on which you were not born? No. Neither can you change
God's rest
day to a day on which
He did not rest. Hence the seventh day is still God's Sabbath day.
4. The Creator blessed
the seventh day. Genesis 2:3.
5. He sanctified the
seventh day. Exodus 20:11.
6. He made it the
Sabbath day in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:1-3.
7. It was made before
the fall; hence it is not a type; for types were not introduced till
after the fall.
8. Jesus says it was
made for man (Mark 2:27) ; that is, for the race, as the word man is
here unlimited;
hence, for the Gentile
as well as for the Jews.
9. It is a memorial of
creation. Exodus 20:11; 31:17. Every time we rest upon the seventh day,
as God did
at creation, we
commemorate that grand event.
10. It was given to
Adam, the head of the human race. Mark 2:27; Genesis 2:1-3.
11. Hence through him,
as our representative, to all nations. Acts 17:26.
12. It is not a Jewish
institution; for it was made 2,300 years before ever there ' was a Jew.
13. The Bible never
calls it the Jewish Sabbath; but always, 'the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God.' Men should
be cautious how they
stigmatize God's holy rest day.
14. Evident reference
is made to the Sabbath all through the patriarchal age. Genesis 2:1-3;
8:10, 12; 29:27,
28, etc.
15. It was a part of
God's law before Sinai. Exodus 16:4, 27-29.
16. Then God placed it
in the heart of His moral law. Exodus 20:117. Why did He place it there
if it was
not like the other nine
precepts, which all admit to be immutable?
17. The seventh-day
Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God. Deuteronomy 4:12,
13.
18. Then He wrote the
commandment with His own finger. Exodus 31:18.
19. He engraved it in
the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature. Deuteronomy
5:22.
20. It was sacredly
preserved in the ark in the holy of holies. Deuteronomy 10:1-5.
21. God forbade work
upon the, Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times. Exodus 34:21.
22. God destroyed the
Israelites in the wilderness because they profaned the Sabbath. Ezekiel
20:12, 13.
23. It is the sign of
the true God, by which we are to know Him from false gods. Ezekiel
20:20.
24. God promised that
Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath.
Jeremiah 17:24,
25.
25. He sent them into
Babylonish captivity for breaking it. Nehemiah 13:18.
26. He destroyed
Jerusalem for its violation. Jeremiah 17:27.
27. God has pronounced
a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep it. Isaiah 56:6, 7.
28. This is in the
prophecy which refers wholly to the Christian dispensation. See Isaiah
56.
29. God has promised to
bless any man who will keep the Sabbath. Isaiah 56:2.
30. The Lord requires
us to call it 'honorable.' Isaiah 58:13. Beware, you who take delight in
calling it the
'old Jewish Sabbath,'
'a yoke of bondage,' etc.
31. After the holy
Sabbath has been trodden down 'many generations,' it is to be restored
in the last days.
Isaiah 58:12, 13.
32. All the holy
prophets kept the seventh day.
33. When the Son of God
came, He kept the seventh day all His life. Luke 4:16; John 15:10. Thus
He
followed His Father's
example at creation. Shall we not be safe in following the example of
both the Father
and the Son?
34. The seventh day is
the Lord's day. See Revelation 1:10; Mark 2:28; Isaiah 58:13; Exodus
20:10.
35. Jesus was Lord of
the Sabbath (Mark 2:28) ; that is, to love and protect it, as the
husband is the lord of
the Wife, to love and
cherish her. 1 Peter 3:6.
36. He vindicated the
Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man's good. Mark 2:23-28.
37. Instead of
abolishing the Sabbath, He carefully taught how it should be observed.
Matthew 12:1-13.
38. He taught His
disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was
'lawful.'
Matthew 12:12.
39. He instructed His
apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded 40 years after
His
resurrection. Matthew
24:20.
40. The pious women who
had been with Jesus carefully kept the seventh day after His death. Luke
23:56.
41. Thirty years after
Christ's resurrection, the Holy Spirit expressly calls it 'the Sabbath
day.' Acts 13:14.
42. Paul, the apostle
to the Gentiles, called it 'the Sabbath day' in A. D. 45. Acts 13:27.
Did not Paul know?
Or shall we believe
modern teachers, who affirm that it eased to be the Sabbath at the
resurrection of
Christ?
43. Luke, the inspired
Christian historian, writing as ate as A. D. 62, calls it 'the Sabbath
day.' Acts 13:44.
44. The Gentile
converts called it the Sabbath. Acts 13:42.
45. In the great
Christian council, A. D. 52, in the presence of the apostles and
thousands of disciples,
James calls it the
Sabbath day. Acts 15:21.
46. It was customary to
hold prayer meetings upon that day. Acts 16:13.
47. Paul read the
Scriptures in public meetings on that day. Acts 17:2, 3.
48. It was his custom
to preach upon that day. Acts 17:2.
49. The book of Acts
alone gives a record of his holding eighty-four meetings upon that day.
See Acts
13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2;
18:1, 11.
50. There was never any
dispute between the Christians and the Jews about the Sabbath day. This
is proof
that the Christians
still observed the same day that the Jews did.
51. In all their
accusations against Paul, they never charged him with disregarding the
Sabbath day. Why
did they not, if he did
not keep it?
52. But Paul himself
expressly declared that he had kept the law. 'Neither against the law of
the Jews,
neither against the
temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.' Acts
25:8. How could
this be true if he had
not kept the Sabbath?
53. The Sabbath is
mentioned in the New Testament 59 times, and always with respect,
bearing the same
title it had in the Old
Testament, 'the Sabbath day.'
54. Not a word is said
anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath's being abolished, done
way,
changed, or anything of
the kind.
55. God has never given
permission to any man to work upon it. Reader, by what authority do you
use the
seventh day for common
labor?
56. No Christian of the
New Testament, either before or after the resurrection ever did ordinary
work upon
the seventh day. Find
one case of that kind, and we will yield the question. Why should modern
Christians
do differently from
Bible Christians?
57. There is no record
that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the
seventh day.
58. As the Sabbath was
kept in Eden before the fall, so it will be observed eternally in the
new earth after
the restitution. Isaiah
66:22, 23.
59. The seventh-day
Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from His own
mouth, and
was written by His own
finger upon stone at Sinai. See Exodus 20. When Jesus began His work, He
expressly declared that
He had not come to destroy the law. Think not that I am come to
destroy the law,'
or the prophets.
Matthew 5:17.
60. Jesus severely
condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God, while
at the same
time they made void one
of the Ten Commandments by their tradition. The keeping of Sunday is
only a
tradition of men.
We have now
presented 60 plain Bible facts concerning the seventh day. What will you
do with them?
Forty Bible Facts Concerning the First Day of the
Week
1. The very first thing
recorded in the Bible is work done on Sunday, the first day of the week.
Genesis
1:13. This was done by
the Creator Himself. If God made the earth on Sunday, can it be wicked
for us to
work on Sunday?
2. God commands men to
work upon the first day of the week. Exodus 20:8-11. Is it wrong to obey
God?
3. None of the
patriarchs ever kept if'
4. None of the holy
prophets ever kept it.
5. By the express
command of God, His holy people used, the first day of the week as a
common working
day for 4,000 years, at
least.
6. God Himself calls it
a 'working' day. Ezekiel 46:1.
7. God did not rest
upon it.
8. He never blessed it.
9. Christ did not rest
upon it.
10. Jesus was a
carpenter (Mark 6:3), and worked at His trade until He was 30 years old.
He kept the
Sabbath and worked six
days in the week, as all admit. Hence He did many a hard day's work on
Sunday.
11. The apostles worked
upon it during the same time.
12. The apostles never
rested upon it.
13. Christ never
blessed it.
14. It has never been
blessed by any divine authority.
15. It has never been
sanctified.
16. No law was ever
given to enforce the keeping of it, hence it is no transgression to work
upon it. 'For
where no law is, there
is no transgression.' Romans 4:15; (1 John 3:4.)
17. The New Testament
nowhere forbids work to be done on it.
18. No penalty is
provided for its violation.
19. No blessing is
promised for its observance.
20. No regulation is
given as to how it ought to be observed. Would this be so if the Lord
wished us to keep
it?
21. It is never called
the Christian Sabbath.
22. It is never called
the Sabbath day at all.
23. It is never called
the Lord's day.
24. It is never called
even a rest day.
25. No sacred title
whatever is applied to it. Then why should we call it holy?
26. It is simply called
the 'first day of the week.'
27. Jesus never
mentioned it in any way, never took its name upon His lips, so far as
the record shows.
28. The word Sunday
never occurs in the Bible at all.
29. Neither God,
Christ, nor inspired men, ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a
holy day.
30. The first day of
the week is mentioned only eight times in all the New Testament. Matthew
28:1; Mark
16:2, 9; Luke 24:1;
John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.
31. Six of these texts
refer to the same first day of the week.
32. Paul directed the
saints to look over their secular affairs on that day. 1 Corinthians
16:2.
33. In all the New
Testament we have a record of only one religious meeting held upon that
day, and even
this was a night
meeting. Acts 20:5-12.
34. There is not an
intimation that they ever held a meeting upon it before or after that.
35. It was not their
custom to meet on that day.
36. There was no
requirement to break bread on that day.
37. We have an account
of only one instance in which it was done. Acts 20:7.
38. That was done in
the night after midnight. Verses 7-11. Jesus celebrated it on Thursday
evening (Luke
22), and the disciples
sometimes did it every day. Acts 2:42-46.
39. The Bible nowhere
says that the first day of the week commemorates the resurrection of
Christ. This is
a tradition of men,
which makes void the law of God. Matthew 15:1-9. Baptism commemorates
the burial
and resurrection of
Jesus. Romans 6:3-5.
40. Finally, the New
Testament is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath day
or any
sacredness for the
first day.
Here are 100 plain
Bible facts upon this question, showing conclusively that the seventh
day is the
Sabbath of the Lord in
both the Old and New Testament.
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