Sunday Is not the Sabbath.
By C. P. WHITFORD
THERE is not one text in all the Scripture from which even a plausible inference can be drawn that the first day of the week, or Sunday, is the Sabbath. Not one. I weigh my words carefully. I speak soberly when I say that God has never claimed that day as his, never. He never has promised a blessing upon a man for keeping it. He has never said that a man should be punished for doing common labor on that day. Has God ever claimed any day as his, and reserved it unto himself? He has. “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. 2:3. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. Then why insist upon calling Sunday the Sabbath? Is not one plain text of Scripture worth more than a dozen mere arguments? Logic can be met with logic, but God’s words can never be altered or changed. Your opinion will convert nobody. Your say-so’s possess no authority. Your thoughts may be profound, but no one will expect to be damned for not receiving them. But from a “thus saith the Lord,” there is no appeal. Metaphysical dissertations may confound the intellect, historical statements may instruct, rhetorical flourishes may captivate the imagination, but the conscience will remain untouched. Again we repeat, “Sunday is not the Sabbath.” Every careful reader of the Bible knows that God has made only one day the Sabbath, and that is the day upon which he rested; and every careful student of church history knows equally well that the Sunday was never deemed a Sabbath by virtue of the fourth commandment until the time of the Puritans. The earliest and main reasons given for its observance were vague and fanciful, not even claiming to be scriptural. Its first character as a rest day came from a civil enactment of Constantine, a Roman Emperor, A. D. 321. With such authority for Sunday-keeping, we again inquire, Why insist upon calling Sunday the Sabbath? Those who would speak the truth should call things by their right names. Those who claim that the first day of the week, or Sunday, is called the Sabbath in the New Testament, proclaim either their ignorance or (shall we say it?) dishonesty. If we give the title of Sabbath to a day to which the Scriptures never gave it, do we not contradict that record which always gave it to the seventh, and to no other? Is it not presuming upon the goodness of God to steal the title belonging to his blessed rest day and place it upon a day which he never claimed as his? Would it not be better to honor that day with the title of Sabbath which all inspiration calls by that sacred name? Is it safe to thus trifle with God and his sacred words, uttered with his own voice, and written with his own finger? Reader, we entreat you to beware. Whenever you are tempted to call the first day of the week the Sabbath, please stop and reflect concerning the authority by which you do it. Never abuse the sacred term Sabbath by applying it to that to which it never was applied by its divine Author. If you would speak the truth, you must call things by their right names. C. P. WHITFORD.