The True Christian Sabbath
By L. A. S.
A FRIEND has sent us a copy of the Herald and Presbyter, a well-known Presbyterian organ in the West, in which appears editorially a defense of the popular practise of observing the first day of the week as the Christian sabbath. The substance of the argument given is as follows:— The change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week was made in apostolic times, and is distinctively indicated in the books of the New Testament. The attempt to dissever apostolic teachings and practises from those of Christ, and to make them of less authority than his own, is an insult to Christ, instead of an honor, and is a distinct discrediting of the Holy Spirit. Here, then, is the origin of the use of the first day of the week, and there is no possibility of going back to the seventh day without turning our backs upon that which connects our faith with our risen Lord. There is strong, safe ground to stand on in observing the first day of the week as we do. Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. He said that he was. He changed the day by directing his disciples to observe the day of his resurrection, the Lord’s day, as the Christian sabbath. There is a great deal of assertion in this statement, but an entire absence of Scripture proof, so far as the argument for the first-day sabbath is concerned. We are cited to no text supporting the alleged change of the Sabbath in apostolic times, or showing how such a thing is “distinctively indicated” in the books of the New Testament; nor is any text mentioned which states that Christ “changed the day by directing his disciples to observe the day of his resurrection.” Would not such texts have been cited if there were any such in existence? Aside from this cluster of mere assertions, the only argument advanced by the Herald and Presbyter in support of Sunday is a reference to Christ’s resurrection from the dead on that day, the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the statement that Sunday was the day for “nearly all the religious services mentioned in the New Testament, except those occasions when the apostles went to the Jewish services in the synagogue.” The force of the word “except” in this statement may be seen from the fact that in the whole New Testament there is mentioned only one religious service which was held on the first day of the week, that where Paul preached to the disciples at Troas, which appears to have been held on the evening following the seventh-day Sabbath, the first day of the week by Bible reckoning of the day from sunset to sunset, but not on the first day by the Roman reckoning, which is now followed. But whether this meeting was held on Sunday or not is not an essential question. One Sunday meeting, or a number of Sunday meetings, would not make Sunday the Sabbath. Neither does the resurrection of Christ on that day make it the Sabbath, nor the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost. “Important religious duties,” says the Herald and Presbyter, “were assigned to the first day of the week, thus designating it as the day for public worship, and on this day John had his vision of the opened heavens and the glorified Saviour.” Here, as before, this organ of Presbyterianism omits any reference to Scripture proof, leaving the reader to take such proof for granted, which seems to be the best way of adducing proof in support of Sunday. The “important religious duties” no doubt refer to Paul’s instruction to the Corinthian brethren to lay by them in store on the first day of the week. 1 Cor. 16:2. It may well be doubted whether this was a task suitable to the proper observance of the Sabbath. Of the day of John’s vision on Patmos it is stated, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” but the evidence that this day was Sunday, rests, like the other evidence in this Sunday argument, upon mere assumption. Opposed to this, clear Bible evidence may be given that the Lord’s day is the seventh-day Sabbath. This argument in behalf of Sunday is not in itself worthy of any notice. We have noticed it, not because it has any basis of fact or logic, but because it has not. It may be well to note the utter weakness of all that can be said by a well-known organ of a leading denomination in support of Sunday as being the Christian Sabbath. The Christian Sabbath has solid support in Scripture. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” said the voice that spoke from Sinai, and all Scripture is in harmony with this declaration. The Sabbath of the Lord is the Lord’s day, the Christian Sabbath. It was Christ who created all things, and who rested on the seventh day of creation week. John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2. It was Christ who instituted the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It is Christ who redeems the sinner, by the exercise of creative power, of which power the Sabbath is the sign. 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15. Hence that Sabbath is indispensable to the Christian, and is properly placed in the bosom of God’s holy and immutable law. L. A. S.