BIBLE TEXTS CONCERNING SUNDAY
By R. C. P.
Do They Show It to Be the Sabbath? — Able Testimony on the Question
Last week Elder Porter examined six of the eight New Testament texts that speak of the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday. This week he considers the remaining two, and draws his conclusions as to the transfer of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. His article this week is well worth a careful reading, even if you did not get to read the one last week. And all who read what he had to say last week, will be anxious to read what is said this week. EDITOR. THE seventh reference is in Acts 20:7: “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.” This record merely informs us of a meeting held for religious service on250the first day of the week. There is no reference to a repeal or revision of the Sabbath statute. Hence this text is not evidence of a revision of the Sabbath statute. On the contrary, in Acts 13:14, 42-44; 16:13; 17:1, 2; 18:1-4, 11, we have the record of eighty-four Sabbath meetings held on the seventh day of the week. Paul’s example stands eighty-four to one in favor of the seventh day of the week as the day of worship in the Christian dispensation. Besides, in these eighty-four instances, the day upon which the religious meetings were held is declared to be the Sabbath, while in Acts 20:7 no such intimation is made in regard to the first day of the week. Paul does not leave us in doubt as to his custom in the matter of the day upon which he held Sabbath meetings. He declares plainly that it was his “manner,” or regular practice, to hold them on the Sabbath day: “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.” Acts 17:2. Sunday a Business Day at Corinth
The eighth and last text in which the “first day of the week” is found is 1 Cor. 16:2: “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” Here, as usual, we find no change or repeal of the Sabbath statute. Not a word is said about the Sabbath. In fact, the text plainly teaches that the first day of the week was a day for performing common business. It was not a meeting day at all. Paul instructs that each, on the first day of the week, begin the common labor of the week by casting up his accounts, and ascertaining how much he had been prospered the previous week. This is evident from the fact that they were to give as they had been prospered. There is not the slightest reference to the Sabbath day, in this passage. To show that the expression, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store,” does not refer to the taking of a collection in a public meeting, the following renderings of the text are given: Greenfield, in his lexicon, translates the Greek term, “With one’s self, that is, at home.” Robinson gives it, “By or with one’s self, at his own house — at home.” Three French translations, those of Martin, Osterwald, and De Sacy, give it, “At his own house; at home.” The German of Luther reads, “By himself; at home.” Justin Edwards says of it: “Lay by him in store; at home. That there be no gatherings; that their gifts might be ready when the apostle should come.” From these high authorities, it is evident that it was not the intent of this passage to suggest a public meeting on the first day of the week. On the contrary, they declare it was the intention that common labor should be performed at home. What the Apostles Did on Sunday
This agrees with the manner in which Paul regarded the first day of the week, as recorded in Acts 20:7. While he preached on that first day of the week, he directed the disciples to go by boat around the peninsula from Troas to Assos, a distance of forty-seven miles. When the morning of that first day of the week came, Paul walked across the country nineteen and a half miles to meet the disciples at Assos, to go with them to Jerusalem. This shows that he regarded the day as a working day. This is in harmony with what other disciples had done on the first day of the week, when they came to the grave of Christ to anoint His body for burial,—work which they refused to do on the Sabbath. Luke 23:56; 24:1. Paul declares that he kept back nothing that was profitable to the church. Acts 20:20. In verse 27 he said, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” But not once in all his writings did he declare a first-day-of-the-week Sabbath or Lord’s day. Christ’s Method of Recording the Introduction of New Institutions
In the articles last week and this, we have examined every text in which the term “first day of the week” is mentioned in the New Testament. There is not the slightest intimation, in any of them, of a revision or repeal of the Sabbath statute, or a change of the day. John gives a full record of the introduction of the ordinance of humility, or feet washing. John 13:1-17. Matthew gives a record of Christ’s baptism. Matt. 3:13-15. But where is the record of the introduction of the first day of the week as the Sabbath or Lord’s day? No such record can be found, for the reason that no such thing ever occurred. The original Sabbath statute still stands, as it has never been repealed or abrogated. It was Christ’s custom to observe the seventh day as the Sabbath. Luke 4:16. The Day Was Not Transferred
Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of “The Baptist Manual,” used in all the Baptist churches, has examined the evidence in support of the change of the Sabbath, from the standpoint of a scholarly clergyman who observes the first day of the week. His words follow: “There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, Where can the record of such a transaction be found?—Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week. I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in this aspect of it, is the gravest and most perplexing question connected with Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people; and the only reason that it is not a more disturbing element in Christian thought and in religious discussions, is because the Christian world has settled down content on the conviction that somehow a transference has taken place at the beginning of Christian history.” “To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years’ intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false glosses, never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated. Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that He had said unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach this subject. “Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!”—A paper read at the Chautauqua Assembly, New York, by Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of “The Baptist Manual.” In the very bosom of that wonderful, holy, unchangeable moral code, Jehovah placed the law: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” In “The Lord’s Day the Test of the Ages” there is found this striking passage: “Note again the position of the Sabbath commandment in the law. It is not at the beginning or at the close. Were it at the beginning, it might be declared to be no part of the law. Were it at the close, it might be declared to have been added. But divine wisdom placed it in the very heart of the moral law, so that three immutable precepts guarding man’s duty to God must be passed over on the one hand, and six immutable precepts guarding man’s duty to his fellow, crushed out on the other hand, before the impregnable fortress of the Sabbath can be reached in order to attack it. But not one of these massive walls which surround it can be successfully assaulted. The Sabbath law is a part of the Decalogue, and no sophistry can evade it.” In view of the truth set forth in the preceding paragraphs, we may read, as a suitable conclusion, the words of the Rev. George Elliott in his “Abiding Sabbath”: “Long should pause251the erring hand of man, before it dares to chip away with the chisel of human reasoning one single word graven on the enduring tables by the hand of the infinite God. . . . Is the eternal tablet of His law to be defaced by the creature’s hand? He who proposes such an act should fortify himself by reasons as holy as God and as mighty as His power.” R. C. P.