The So-called Change of the Sabbath.
THERE is a great deal said about a change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Some advocates of Sunday observance in lieu of Sabbath-keeping maintain that Christ effected the change. Others, knowing that Christ Himself kept the Sabbath, and that His revealed Word contains no command for a change, are content with the assertion that the apostles wrought the change. Roman Catholic authorities tell us that “the holy Catholic Church” did it. But the greater part of those who observe the day do so because of the universal custom, regardless of its origin. However, to the oft-repeated question, “Who changed the Sabbath?” the simple, truthful answer is, No one; the Sabbath never has been changed. Those who hold that Christ changed His law must assume that He stultified His own Word. He stated positively that He did not come to destroy even “one jot or one tittle” of the law; but to change the Sabbath would have necessitated the elimination of the word “seventh” in the Sabbath commandment, as also all that portion which states the purpose of the Sabbath. But, notwithstanding the assumption that Christ changed the commandment in these respects, no professed Protestant ever has dared to write or print the commandment in conformity to the alleged change. Those who maintain that the apostles changed the Sabbath must assume that the Lord’s ambassadors did that which their Master had declared could not be done while heaven and earth should stand. The scripture references which are cited to sustain the assumption that the apostles would attempt such a presumptive act do not carry out the theory. The first of these is Acts 20:7, 11, where it is stated that Paul broke bread with the brethren at Troas. The facts are, that Paul and his company had been in Troas for seven days, having stopped over a while on a journey from Greece to Syria. This first-day meeting was held on Saturday night, their days being reckoned from sunset, and Paul designed to resume his journey in the morning. In fact, his company had already started in the boat, sailing around an extended point of land to Assos, where Paul, going across the country on foot, would meet them the next day. This being his last meeting with the brethren, they celebrated the Lord’s supper. But that act did not make that first day of the week the Sabbath-day. Those who rely on such evidence in behalf of the Sunday-sabbath must also admit that every day is the Sabbath; for the earlier disciples at Jerusalem continued “daily in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house.” The incident at Troas was merely a farewell occasion, and Paul resumed his journey in the morning—on the same first day of the week. Another Scripture reference which it is claimed sustains apostolic authority for a first-day Sabbath is 1 Cor. 16:2. Paul had asked the brethren in different parts to assist those in Judea, who were at that time in great need. So he wrote to the Corinthian brethren to lay by their donations, and have them ready when he came. Every one was to “lay by him in store” against the apostle’s arrival. In order that the matter might be surely attended to, he enjoined them to make it the first business of the week. It was not a collection at meeting, but a systematic laying up at home for the designated purpose, previous to his coming. Did this act make a Sabbath? No, there is not the slightest reference to the Sabbath-day. It was solely a benevolent business transaction. The next Scripture reference that Sunday-sabbath advocates cite in support of their doctrine is Rev. 1:10. John, then a prisoner on the island of Patmos, says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” It is claimed that the Lord’s day is the first day of the week, but this is sheer assumption, as there is no scripture to sustain the claim. There is but one day in the week that the Lord has specifically designated as His day, and that is the seventh day—the day that He sanctified (Gen. 2:3), and commanded to be kept holy (Ex. 20:8-11); the day that He calls “My holy day” (Isa. 58:13). The “Sabbath of the Lord thy God” is pre-eminently the Lord’s day. In considering the claim of the Roman Catholic Church to having changed the Sabbath, we must go back to the prophecy of Daniel to find the root of the matter. In the seventh chapter of this prophecy is the record of a vision which the prophet had, in which he saw four beasts coming up before him in succession. These represented four successive universal kingdoms that should rule the earth. It was explained to him by an angel that “the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth.” Babylon was the first of these kingdoms, Medo-Persia was the second, Grecia was the third, and Rome was the fourth. This is self-evident, for the reason that these are the only universal kingdoms that the world has known, and the next one mentioned in the prophecy is the kingdom of the Most High. There is no gainsaying the fact that the fourth beast is Rome, and here is what the prophecy says concerning it. “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law.” Verse 25, R.V. That Rome fulfilled this prophecy is amply shown in history and in her7own claims. After the Papacy became the dominant power in the government (A. D. 538) until her power was broken by the influence of the Reformation, millions of Christians who opposed her blasphemous sway were put to death. As to thinking to change the law, Rome did think to do so, and boasts that she has done it, and claims the right and power to do it. For her own use and purpose the Roman Church has so mutilated the fourth commandment as to strike out the day of the Sabbath and the purpose of its institution. Rome sets up her alleged change of the Sabbath as the irrefutable proof of her power to change the law of God. And the fact that Protestants acknowledge this change is set forth as proof of Protestant inconsistency in not acknowledging the papal power to further manipulate the Word of God. It must be admitted, too, that there is a logic in this charge of inconsistency which Sunday-keeping Protestants can not evade. And it is a logic before which they are gradually but surely giving way. This is manifest in their ignoring the ordinance of feet-washing, their perversion of the ordinance of baptism, and their celebration of Easter, and other Romish institutions. But Rome has only thought to change the law. She has no authority to do so in reality. She has only perverted the purpose of the law, and deceived a great multitude of people in whose minds the papacy stands in the place of God. This is the work of the “man of sin” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4), the transgressor of the law (1 John 3:4). It is the development of the “mystery of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:7, 8). But “the law of the Lord is perfect” (Ps. 19:7), and all that the lawless one can do is to deceive for a time, a short time, when the coming of the Lord will expose the error of those who follow the traditions of men instead of His infallible Word. Rome has only thought to change the Sabbath. Man has no such authority. God Himself placed sanctity upon that day, and He alone can remove it. He has not done so, nor has He intimated that He would do so. The Sabbath has not been changed. It is a “perpetual covenant” (Ex. 31:16), and God never yet broke a covenant. He is the covenant-keeping God. Ps. 89:34. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”