Recognized by Paul by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 16, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 29.

Recognized by Paul.

By G.

When Paul and Barnabas came to Antioch in Pisidia, “they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.” Acts 13:14. After the regular reading by the leaders of the meeting, they invited the strangers to speak, if they so desired. Paul delivered a Gospel discourse, in which he alluded to the prophets, “which are read every Sabbath day.” In both of these expressions, both the apostle and the writer of the Acts recognized the day observed by the Jews as the Sabbath. Their reference to it is without qualification. After Paul’s discourse, it is said that “when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.” Had a change of the Sabbath day been really instituted, or in any authoritative manner contemplated at that time, this would have been an excellent opportunity to have so informed these Gentiles, and to have put the matter on record for the information of others. But so far the Lord had not revealed any such design to His servants.

On one of his long tours, Paul came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews, and “as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.” Here the Jews were highly incensed because of the preaching of Jesus, and were exceedingly anxious for some plausible accusation. But not a word was said about their changing the Sabbath. So pressed were the Jews for some charge, that they had to resort to the subterfuge that the apostles did “contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.” Ch. 17:7.

Paul passed on from there, and shortly afterward came to Corinth. Here, in accordance with his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. “And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” When the Jews rejected his preaching, he left the synagogue, and held meetings in a house adjoining. This change of meeting place from the synagogue to a private house, and the audience being changed from one mostly of Jews to one mainly composed of Gentiles, would have been a most auspicious time and place for a mention of a change of the Sabbath—if there had been any change. Indeed, such an important and far-reaching matter as a change in the law which Christ declared would not be changed, certainly would have been a prominent feature of some apostolic discourse. But Paul “continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them,” without a single reference, as far as the record goes, to any other Sabbath day than that enjoined in the commandment.

Conybeare and Howson’s “Life and Epistles of the Apostle Paul” was written by men who believed in the Sunday institution; yet, in referring to the situation at Corinth, they assume that the Jewish and the Christian congregations both assembled on the same day. On page 328 we read: “The Jewish and Christian congregations would often meet face to face in the street, and all the success of the Gospel would become more palpable and conspicuous.” The authors of this popular work would not have made such a reference, if there could have been found any plausible inference in the Scriptures that the Sabbath which the Christians observed was the day following that observed by the Jews. It is a noticeable fact in this connection, that in all the fifty-nine references in the New Testament to the weekly Sabbath, every one clearly applies to the seventh day, the day observed by the Jews, and by Christians in the apostolic age. Moreover, the lack of mention of any controversy on the subject of the Sabbath between Jews and Christians in the New Testament, is indisputable evidence that there was no Sabbath question between them during the administration of the apostles. In after years, when the question did arise, the controversy was a bitter one. G.