REVIEW OF STORR. The Example of the Apostles.
By A. Smith
Eld. Storr: “I consider the practice of the apostles as good as their precept for establishing a rule of faith or point of doctrine.” Ans. Then certainly they confirmed the Sabbath of the decalogue; for it was their custom, especially that of Paul, to meet with both Jews and Gentiles on that day for worship. See Acts 16:13; 18:4, 11. It was the custom of the Jews to keep the Sabbath; and Paul said in his defense before them that he had done nothing against their customs. Acts 28:17. But if Paul or his contemporaries had labored on the Sabbath, or taught a change of the Sabbath, his words would have been untrue, and a great commotion would have been excited among the people. Paul met with the people on the Sabbath for worship, at least seventy-nine times, but only once that we have any account of on the first day of the week. Acts 20:7. Eld. S.: “The disciples kept the day following the crucifixion, as the Sabbath, for the last time.” Ans. Thanks for the concession. He thus admits the binding obligation of the Sabbath this side of the cross. But what proof is there that the Sabbath was then kept for the last time? Eld. S. offered none. We have only his statement for it. Eld. S.: “The first-day Sabbath was instituted and kept as a memorial of the finished work of redemption. Which is the greater, creation or redemption?” Ans. Redemption was not completed on the first day of the week following the crucifixion, nor is it yet complete. See Rom. 8:22, 23; Acts 3:19–21. Baptism is the Bible-instituted memorial of the burial and resurrection of our Lord. Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12. If we wish to keep any particular day of the week as a memorial of redemption, why not keep the sixth day, on which Christ was crucified? The apostle says, “We have redemption through his blood.” Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Rom. 5:9. The Bible memorial of that event is the Lord’s supper. 1 Cor. 11:23–26. Perhaps the work of redemption is greater than that of creation; but we do not know that it is, as the Bible is silent on that point. Eld. S.: “Jesus sanctioned the observance of the first day as the Sabbath by meeting with his disciples on that day.” Ans. There are only eight texts in the New Testament that mention the first day of the week at all, and six of these refer to the same day, the day of the resurrection; but the disciples did not believe that he had risen on that day, and hence could not have been keeping it as a Sabbath. Mark 16:11–14; Luke 24:9, 11, 13–41. The women also, who, on the sixth day, prepared spices to embalm the body of Jesus, on first-day had no scruples about completing a work that they had begun on a secular day, but which they would not continue on the Sabbath; thus proving that they did not regard the first day as holy time. See Luke 24:56; 25:1. Jesus met with his disciples once at the sea of Tiberias, where they were fishing, and wrought a miracle for them. If it was on Sunday it proves it right to go fishing on that day; but if it occurred on some other day of the week, according to Eld. Storr’s reasoning that day ought to be kept as a Sabbath too. Eld. S.: “The disciples met at Troas on the first day of the week to commemorate Christ’s resurrection by breaking bread.” Ans. The day, Bible time, begins at sunset. The meeting at Troas must therefore have been on what we call Saturday night, Roman time. Sunday morning Paul started on his journey; but his traveling companions sailed during the night (on the so-called Christian Sabbath), while he was preaching, about twenty miles, around the peninsula, to Assos, where they awaited his coming in the morning. Acts 20:13. It is right, therefore, according to Paul’s example, to travel on Sunday. The account does not say they met on that day to break bread to commemorate the resurrection of Christ; these are Eld. S.’s words, and should be received with caution. The literal reading is, “When the disciples came together to break bread.” Mr. S. quoted Eze. 43:26, 27, as a prophetic declaration of a change of the Sabbath, and said that the priests spoken of in the twenty-seventh verse referred to ministers of the gospel; and that the eighth day referred to the first day of the week as changed into the Sabbath. Ans. In the nineteenth verse of this chapter God, through the prophet, declares that the priests are Levites of the seed of Zadok. We need no stronger testimony. The conclusion that the eighth day spoken of refers to the so-called Christian Sabbath is far-fetched, as any one who will carefully read the entire chapter will see. For the benefit of Eld. S., and others whom it may concern, we quote a few texts referring with more precision to a change of the Sabbath:— “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Dan. 7:25.
“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant.” Isa. 24:5; Deut. 4:13; see also Isa. 58:12–14.