p. 38 | SUNDAY THE FIRST DAY by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 20, 1887

SUNDAY THE FIRST DAY.

By Editor

A NEW subscriber asks how we know that Sunday is the first day of the week. We would reply that we know it in just the same way that we know that the day called Saturday is the seventh day of the week. It should be remembered that the names of the days of the week are of comparatively modern origin. Anciently the days were known only by their numbers, First, Second, etc., and this numbering is still adhered to and is universally understood, although it is more common now to speak of the days by the names that have been given to them, instead of by the numbers. The Sabbath is that which marks the week. God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh, and he commanded man to rest on every succeeding seventh day, giving him permission to work the six intervening days. Those periods of seven days are called weeks.

Ever since the creation, there have been some who have kept the Sabbath according to the commandment, but for our purpose it is not necessary to go back further than the time of Christ. Christ and those who followed him kept the Sabbath according to the commandment. See Luke 4:16; 23:56. This was of course the seventh day. It was the same day which the Jews kept. The Jews have kept the same day from that time to this. We find them in all parts of the world, yet they are all agreed as to the observance of the Sabbath. This shows that the day which is now called Saturday is the true seventh day, the day which was observed by Christ and which is enjoined in the fourth commandment. The day which follows the seventh day is now called Sunday. Now if we turn to Matt. 28:1, we shall find that the day which immediately follows the seventh day Sabbath, is the first day of the week.

As further proof that there has been no change in the reckoning of the days of the week, we have the fact that Jesus rose on the first day of the week, and that, from within two or three centuries after his resurrection up to the present time, the day of Christ's resurrection has been quite generally observed in the Christian church. If you ask people why they keep Sunday, they will always tell you it is in honor of Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week. And thus the keeping of Sunday is in itself evidence that those who observe Saturday are observing the true seventh day, and are therefore obeying the commandment of the Lord.