Weaker and Weaker by D. T. Bourdeau

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 13, 1874

Weaker and Weaker.

By D. T. Bourdeau

So-called Arguments from the Types and from Prophecy in Favor of the First-day.

THE EIGHTH DAY.

It is claimed by some that the frequent reference to the eighth day under the law, as being a great day; and even a Sabbath in connection with certain feasts, Lev. 23, as being the day on which the rite of circumcision was performed, etc., clearly prefigured that the eighth day, or first day of the week, would be exalted as the Sabbath under the gospel. If there was even one plain declaration in the New Testament that the Lord had exalted the first day as a weekly Sabbath, and if the expression, “the eighth day,” in the cases before us, always meant the first day of the week, then would there be some plausibility in the claim under consideration. But as these points cannot be maintained by Holy Writ, the claim before us is but a bare assumption, and an abuse of the law of types, which makes it necessary that types relating to events and ordinances in the gospel be interpreted in harmony with plain gospel facts.

Every male child was to be circumcised on the eighth day, reckoning from the day of his birth, and as there were male children born every day in the week, circumcision would be performed every day. Should we therefore keep every day as the Sabbath? So of the eighth day of certain feasts which commenced with certain days of certain months. Thus the eighth day would one year fall on one day of the week, and another year on another day of the week, the same as New Year's day and the fourth of July.

THE PENTECOST.

Some pretend that this feast always fell on the first day of the week, while others deny this. But whether this feast did or did not fall invariably on the first day, the vital question to be settled is, whether the Pentecost did typify a weekly first-day Sabbath. In the absence of any Bible statement to this effect, and, more than this, in the absence of any Bible testimony, proving the first-day Sabbath of divine origin, we safely conclude that God never designed to have the Pentecost merged into a weekly Sabbath. If this had been his design, he would have said so in his word. Certainly God would not institute the Pentecost to typify a human institution conflicting with his immutable law.

THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE.

“The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Ps. 118: 22–24, 26.

Several passages of the New Testament apply this prophecy unmistakably to Christ; Mark 12: 10, 11; Luke 20: 17; Acts 4: 11; Eph. 2: 20; 1 Pet. 2: 4, 7; etc.; but none of these state, or even give the most distant intimation, that “the day” mentioned therein is the resurrection day, or the first day of the week, or a new Sabbath, or a day which should receive any more honor than other secular days. The best authority on the true meaning of a prophecy is those scriptures in which is recorded its fulfillment. These scriptures are its inspired commentary, and we should not go beyond what is written.

As the last words of this prophecy, “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” were fulfilled at the time of Christ's entry into Jerusalem and before the resurrection, and evidently set forth some of the rejoicing figured in the prophecy, we give to the term day before us a broader scope than that given to it by some of our first-day friends. As an illustration, we refer to the declaration of Christ: “Abraham rejoiced to see my day.” John 8: 56. In this day Simeon rejoiced, and in the same day the disciples rejoiced as Christ entered Jerusalem; and though their joy was taken away by the death of their divine Lord, yet it was revived by his resurrection, of which we have a fit and divinely-appointed memorial in the ordinance of baptism. John 6: 4, 5, etc. Hence, there is no necessity of commemorating the resurrection by keeping the first day of the week.

D. T. BOURDEAU.