NEW TESTAMENT COMMANDMENT FOR KEEPING THE SABBATH
By G. B. T.
THOSE who keep Sunday, a day for which there is no Scriptural warrant, sometimes, in the dilemma in which they find themselves, ask, “Where is there a command in the New Testament for keeping the Sabbath?” While such a command is quite unnecessary, so long as there is no command abrogating the precept which commands its observance, there is, however, an abundance of evidence showing that the seventh-day Sabbath is enjoined in the New Testament as well as in the Old Testament. Speaking to His disciples concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and giving them instruction what to do in that awful time, Jesus said, among other things, “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.” Matt. 24:20.730 The destruction of Jerusalem, of which the Saviour was here speaking, took place in A. D. 70. The words of the Saviour show conclusively that He recognized the seventh-day Sabbath in existence as late as A. D. 70, and that they were to pray that their flight from the city and from Judea might not take place on this holy day. The Sabbath was not, therefore, abrogated at the cross. Nothing more positive in reference to the perpetuity of the Sabbath, and our duty to observe it, even in the most troublous times, could be given. And surely if the seventh-day Sabbath was binding in A. D. 70, it is equally so at this time, for no power has arisen since Christ to change the laws and ordinances of God. In fact, no power has arisen wicked enough to claim to do so except one, which is noted in the Scriptures of truth as the “man of sin,” and “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” The Sabbath of Jehovah still stands, and in keeping it there is a great reward.
G. B. T.