Facts about the First Day of the Week, or Sunday.
By J. H. W.
The women brought spices to the grave of the Saviour on that day. Luke 24:1. (Which they would not do on the Sabbath. See Luke 23:56.) Christ appeared to his disciples on that day, the doors being shut for fear of the Jews. John 20:19. (They were not assembled to keep the Sabbath, but had closed the doors for personal safety.) Paul once preached on the evening of the first day, Acts 20:4, corresponding with our Saturday night. (But the next morning, answering to our Sunday morning, he continued his journey toward JERUSALEM, nine hundred miles distant!) The Corinthians were commanded to lay by a “collection for the saints” on the first day. 1 Cor. 16:2. (This might be money or goods. It was not a public donation, but a private setting apart.) The foregoing, dear reader, are ALL the texts which speak of “the first day of the week.” There are just eight of them. But what do they prove? Nothing at all, in favor of Sunday. Carefully examined they prove the reverse. The Bible tells us that “sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. But what law do we “transgress” when we work on Sunday? If the reader will find a text which says, “Thou shalt do no work on the first day of the week,” or, “Remember Sunday to keep it holy,” or its equivalent, then will his Sunday observance, in place of God’s Sabbath, stand the test of the Judgment; otherwise it will not. Will you consider this point? The Saviour says, “Blessed are they that do His [i. e., God the Father’s ten] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14. But where is that commandment that speaks about Sunday? It is not in the Bible, but it is in the Roman Catholic catechisms. Read your Bibles through a hundred times with reference to this subject, and you will each time become more and more convinced of the truthfulness of the following notable facts:— 1. There is no divine command for Sunday observance. 2. There is not the least hint of a Sunday institution. 3. Christ never changed God’s Sabbath to Sunday. 4. He never observed Sunday as the Sabbath. 5. The apostles never kept Sunday for the Sabbath. 6. There is no prophecy that Sunday would ever take the place of the Sabbath. 7. The word Sunday never occurs in the Bible. 8. Neither God, Christ, angels, nor inspired men, have ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy day. These are the facts in the case in regard to the first day, or Sunday, and it is hoped the reader will search the Bible to see whether these things are so. (See Acts 17:11.) BIBLE REASONS FOR THE SEVENTH DAY AND THE CLAIMS OF FIRST-DAY CONTRASTED.
God claimed the seventh day as his own in many scriptures, and at many different times. He never so claimed the first day but gave it to man for labor. He blessed and sanctified the seventh day. He neither blessed nor sanctified the first day. He commanded that the seventh day be kept holy. He never commanded to keep the first day. There is but one commandment in Bible for a weekly Sabbath, and that says the seventh day. God uttered fearful threatenings against those who profane the seventh day. He has spoken nothing against laboring on the first day. He has given great and precious promises to those who keep holy the seventh day. He has not spoken one word of promise or blessing for keeping the first day. Everything that is necessary to give importance to the day—that is calculated to induce a proper observance of the day—is produced in favor of the seventh day. But nothing of this kind can be produced in favor of the first day—no sanctity, no commandment, no penalty, no blessing.