DISCUSSION IN KANSAS by G. H. Rogers

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 9, 1878

DISCUSSION IN KANSAS.

By G. H. Rogers

Our meetings at Clarion, Sedgwick Co., continued without interruption until April 3, when, the arrangement being completed, the discussion began. The proposition read as follows: “Do the Sacred Scriptures authorize the keeping of the first day of the week as the day of special rest and worship during the Christian dispensation?”

Eld. Crobarger, who planned and agreed to affirm the proposition, promising to continue the debate for three evenings, began by reading Gen. 2:1-3. His first argument was that God blessed and sanctified that one seventh day for himself, and not for man.

Bro. Lamont replied: He blessed it because

he had rested in it; sanctified it, i. e., set it apart to a holy or religious use, so necessary for holy or religious beings. The Sabbath was made for man. Mark 2:27.

ARG. 2. God instituted the Sabbath at the giving of the manna. Ex. 16.

ANS. 2. There is no mention of its institution here. He had given it a long time before. See verses 28, 29; Gen. 2:2, 3.

ARG. 3. The Sabbath of the ten commandments was associated with perishable things, and went down at the crucifixion. Heb. 8:13; 10:1.

ANS. 3. Not so, but it is associated with other moral precepts, that are eternal in their nature. Read the law. Ex. 20:3-17.

ARG. 4. The ten commandments, as Jewish law, were a part of the old covenant; Gal. 3:21-25; Ex. 34:28; Deut. 4:13; and abolished at the cross; 2 Cor. 3:13; and nailed to it; Col. 2:14; and are dead; Rom. 7:6.

ANS. 4. The ten commandments could not be the old covenant; for that was written by Moses in a book, and dedicated by being sprinkled with blood. Ex. 24:7, 8; Heb. 9:18-20. This was done before Moses was called up into the mountain to receive the tables of stone and the law that God had written; Ex. 24:12; and about three months elapsed between the dedication of the old covenant and the time when the tables of stone came into the possession of the Israelites. Ex. 24:18; 34:28.

ARG. 5. Christ fulfilled the types, thus doing them away; but I cannot see how Christ could fulfill the ten commandments, yet as part of the law, they were done away also. Matt. 5:17-19. Upon this point I shall hope to receive some light from my worthy opponent.

ANS. 5. In Christ the types met their antitype, and so passed away, having served their purpose. Gal. 3:19; Heb. 9:9, 10. Christ fulfilled the ten commandments by keeping them perfectly, John 15:10, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps, that the law might be fulfilled in us. Rom. 8:4. But if the ten commandments are done away, what is the law now? Who gave it, and when? How many commandments are there in it? Is it right to steal, or lie, or worship idols now? We demand a copy of the new law in your next speech. The sinner is slain by the law, not the law by the sinner—“Being dead to that” margin. Rom. 7:6.

ARG. 6. No testament is of force till the testator is dead. It is by the death of Christ that the new covenant is brought in. Heb. 9:15. The new covenant is the last will of Christ. Matt. 26:28. Nothing is binding not found in that last will; Heb. 9:16, 17; and there is no Sabbath in that will.

ANS. 6. The Testator died on the sixth day, and the Sabbath was observed on the very next day, the seventh, according to the commandment. Luke 23:56. Upon the first day of the week the disciples were ready to work. Chap. 24:1. How could the first day become the day of special rest and worship three days after the death of the Testator? “Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.” Gal. 3:15.

ARG. 7. I propose to prove by apostolic example and precept, especially by apostolic example, that the first day of the week is the special day of rest and worship in the Christian dispensation. 1 Cor. 11:20-29; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2.

ANS. 7. “There is one lawgiver,” Jas. 4:12; there are not twelve. Paul and his company remained at Troas over the Sabbath, then Luke, Timothy and the others, started on their long journey with the ship, Paul remaining to preach that night. Acts 20:8. On first-day morning he went afoot across to Assos, according to previous arrangement, verse 13, and all continued their journey toward Jerusalem. 1 Cor. 16:2: “Let every one of you lay by him in store.” This is not a public collection, but a private laying aside at home, a business transaction.

ARG. 8. John 20:19: “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.” The disciples collected here for some purpose. It looks suspiciously as though they were holding a meeting. It was for rest, at least. They met again, for the same purpose, on the next first day. Verse 26.

ANS. 8. This was not a religious meeting. The disciples were at home at supper. Acts 1:12; Mark 16:14. The Lord upbraided them with their unbelief, because they did not believe in his resurrection. Thomas, being absent on the first occasion, did not believe the Lord had been raised; so not on the eighth day, but after eight days, Jesus came to convince him. Verses 24-27.

ARG. 9. The resurrection day is called Lord’s day. Rev. 1:10: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”

ANS. 9. Rev. 1:10 does not say that the resurrection day or the first day of the week is the Lord’s day; but the Lord does claim the Sabbath day. Mark 2:27; Ex. 20:10; Isa. 58:13.

ARG. 10. In no part of the New Testament do we read one line or word of any meeting for divine worship on the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day.

ANS. 10. Please read Acts 13:42-44; a meeting for both Jews and Gentiles; chap. 16:13; regular prayer-meetings were held on the Sabbath; chap. 18:4, 11; Sabbath meetings for a year and a half by the apostle Paul. More could be furnished, but where is the record of a meeting for divine worship on the first day of the week, in the day time?

ARG. 11. Matt. 5:17-21; “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven,” etc. This is the ten commandment law, and the Lord is explaining it to the Jews. All was fulfilled and passed away at the close of their dispensation. (On the second evening, Bro. C. concluded that Christ was not speaking of the ten commandments, and that this teaching was to the disciples.—REPORTER.)

ANS. 11. Are the prophecies all fulfilled? Dan. 12:2. Is the resurrection past? Have heaven and earth passed away? Then not one jot or tittle (letter or part of a letter) of the law has failed. Christ, in fulfillment of the prophecy, “He shall magnify the law and make it honorable,” Isa. 42:21, is showing that the law takes hold of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Matt. 5:21, 22, 27, 28, 33-37. The Mediator, with the law in his heart, Ps. 40:8, is writing it in the hearts of his disciples. The apostles, as able ministers of the new covenant, continued this work of writing the law on the tables of stone, in the hearts of the people.

ARG. 12. The law of God was not given for any people but the Jews. Gentiles had not the law, but obeyed the laws of nature, or were a law unto themselves; and this is a Gentile dispensation, so the law is not for us. Rom. 2:14.

ANS. 12. Rom. 2:15: “The Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts.” Lev. 20:22, 23, shows that the Gentile nations were driven out of Canaan for violating the same law to which the Israelites were under obligation. “God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10:34, 35. “All thy commandments are righteousness.” Ps. 119:172, 142.

Eld. C. did not appear on the third evening, but sent a letter to the moderators, abandoning his cause. He assigned as a reason that he had just learned our purpose to publish a report of the discussion in our papers. The audience, upon learning this, by a rising vote invited Bro. Lamont to proceed with his summary of arguments used, which he did as follows:—

The Sabbath was instituted at creation. Gen. 2:2, 3.
It was made for man. Mark 2:27.
Christ is its Lord. Mark 2:28.
It was known to the Israelites before the manna fell. Ex. 16:27, 28.
Christ observed it; Luke 4:16; and taught his followers to do so. Matt. 24:20.
It was the regular meeting day for both Jewish and Gentile Christians. Acts 16:13; 13:42-44; 18:4, 11.
The first day of the week is a working day. Gen. 1:1-5; Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2; Luke 23:56; 24:1; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2; Acts 20:7, 13.
The Lord’s day is the Sabbath (seventh day). Mark 2:27; Isa. 58:13.
After the dedication of the new covenant, the Sabbath was observed by the disciples; and the first day is shut out as a usurper and forger. Luke 23:56; 24:1.
Not a single text has been cited saying the first day is a sacred, or holy, or special rest-day. Neither God, nor Christ, nor the apostles, nor the prophets ever rested on it. But “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”

On seeing the terrible condition of the world without the law, (murder, blasphemy, adultery, bloodshed, and the like, and yet no sin, for where there is no law there is no transgression; John 3:4), Eld. C. felt constrained to admit that the substance of the ten commandments was of force in all dispensations, thus virtually surrendering the whole question. He appeared to be anxious not to put new wine into old bottles, or new cloth unto an old garment; yet after many times repeating that the ten commandments had become old, served their purpose, were ready to vanish away, and were utterly abolished, it seemed a little inconsistent to see him straighten them all out and patch his new Christianity on them.

A confession from a Sunday defender, that the testimony for the Lord’s day was rather scarce, may have sounded a little strange to a few in the congregation; but as Eld. C. never even referred to a text that mentions the first day after the first session, the people began to feel sure that it is a working day, as Bro. L. had shown them. The attendance was about the same after the debate as before.

G. H. Rogers.