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SABBATH VERSUS SUNDAY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 28.

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SABBATH VERSUS SUNDAY.

By O. E. Jones

THAT Sunday is the first day of the week is universally admitted. Saturday is the day held by the Jews to be sacred throughout the world. And there is no room to doubt that they hold to the seventh day; for there is absolutely no proof to the contrary.
The first day of the week is mentioned only eight times in the New Testament:—
1. “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.” Matt. 28:1.
2. “And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.” Mark 16:1, 2.
3. “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.” Mark 16:9.
4. “And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.” Luke 23:55, 56; 24:1.
5. “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher.” John 20:1.
6. “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” John 20:19.
The reader will note that in these six texts, the only ones in the Gospels which speak of the first day of the week, not a word is said as to a change of the Sabbath. The first day is not called the Sabbath. It did not come till the Sabbath was past. The holy women rested on the Sabbath, as God commanded, and did work on the first day of the week they would not do on Sunday. So far as the meeting together of the disciples is concerned, it was simply their gathering home at night to their own abode; for they had one common living place at Jerusalem. “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.” Acts 1:13. The meeting of John 20:19 was therefore a mere coming together at night to their common abode. Mark, speaking of the same appearing of Jesus to his disciples, says: “Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.” Mark 16:14. Jesus appeared unto his disciples as they sat at meat at their place of abode.
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. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep; and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot. And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene.” Acts 20:7–14.
No change of Sabbath is intimated in this scripture. If the breaking of bread made that first day holy, then when the disciples broke bread “daily” (Acts 2:46), every day was a holy day. The mere fact of the breaking of bread, which occurred after midnight, proves nothing. The meeting lasted all that night (answering to our Saturday night, for in the Bible day the evening comes first, the day begins at sunset Gen. 1:5, 8; Mark 1:32; Luke 4:40), and the light part of that day the apostle spent in walking to Assos, a distance of twenty miles, while his companions took the boat around the promontory. The only reason doubtless why the meeting at Troas was mentioned was because of the noted miracle of raising a young man to life.
8. “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 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.” 1 Cor. 16:1, 2.
The first day of the week is here set forth as a day of business. “Let every one of you lay by him in store.” This demands an accounting of his business. It is not a collection in churches, but laying by him at home.
There are no other texts in the New Testament where the first day of the week is mentioned. In none of them is the first day of the week called the Sabbath, but it is shown to be the day that came just after the true Sabbath, the seventh day. It is everywhere shown to be a day of secular labor, of activity, but is never indicated by name or character to be other than a secular day. It was observed as a Sabbath by neither Christ nor his apostles; why should it be by his followers?
On the other hand, while the Scriptures throughout, in unmistakable terms, speak of the first six days of each week as days for labor, we are told that the “seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” See Ex. 20:8–11. It is given for a memorial.
After the Lord had finished his six days’ work of creation, he rested upon the seventh day, and because that in it he had rested from all his works, God blessed and sanctified (set apart for holy use) the seventh day for time to come in memory of his own rest from the work of creation. It is therefore incontrovertible that the seventh day was appointed to a holy use, in order that God’s rest from creation might be remembered; and this appointment must have been made to Adam and Eve, for they were the ones who had the days of the week to use.
The fact, therefore, is undeniable that God bade Adam set apart the seventh day for sacred rest in memory of his own rest upon that day, and to keep in memory God’s creative power. Here, then, we find the memorial of the creation of the heavens and the earth. The psalmist says: “His work is honorable and glorious; and his righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered.” Ps. 111:3, 4. Again, in speaking of the Sabbath, the Lord says: “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” Ex. 31:17.
As long as it remains a fact that God created the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and all that in them is, in six days, and rested on the seventh day, so long the Sabbath will stand as a memorial of that event, a sign of the one true God, even over into the new-earth state, where “we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13. And in Isa. 66:22, 23: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and, from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”
“What says the Bible, the blessed Bible? This should my only question be; Teachings of men so often mislead us, What says the Book of God to me?”
O. E. JONES.
College View, Nebraska.