Bible Names for Bible Things
THE Christian Evangelist pleads for the use of Bible names for Bible ceremonies and institutions. For instance, it thinks that the Lord’s Supper should not be called “the sacrament,” and that the first day of the week should not be called “the Sabbath,” but that it should be called “the Lord’s day.” There should be no contention over the name to designate the Lord’s Supper; and if we will take the Bible, and the Bible only, for our authority, as the Evangelist often exhorts us to do, there should be no contention over the question of the Lord’s day. The term “Lord’s day” occurs in Rev. 1:10, but there is not a particle of evidence in that text as to which is “the Lord’s day.” Sunday is nowhere in the Bible called “the Lord’s day,” but in Mark 2:28 Christ affirms that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. The commandment says that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and in Isa. 58:13 the Lord claims the Sabbath as “My holy day.” So it would be well, if we desire to be in harmony with the Bible, to speak of “the Sabbath day”; and as we speak of the Sabbath, to understand that the only day recognized as such in the Bible is the seventh day of the week, and it is also the only day that is recognized as “the Lord’s day.” The evidence is altogether on the one side.