p. 744 | The Lord's Day by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 11, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 47.

The Lord's Day.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

(Continued.)

AT the close of our article last week, we were considering the charge made against Christ, that he violated the Sabbath. Those who make this charge are doubtless not aware of its real import, and we will therefore show them. The Sabbath commandment is one of the ten precepts of the law of God. It enjoins the observance of the seventh day of the week. Whoever breaks that commandment is guilty of sin, "for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. To say, therefore, that Jesus broke the fourth, or any other of the ten commandments, is equivalent to saying that he was a sinner. It is hardly necessary to quote Peter's assertion that he "did no sin," for we do not know of any one that would claim in a direct manner that he did; but it is no worse to say openly that Jesus was a sinner, than it is to charge him with the violation of one of the commandments.

Read once more Christ's words in John 15:10: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." From this we understand that those who do not keep his commandments cannot abide in his love; and the idea which he conveys is that his abiding in his Father's love was due to the observance of his commandments. It will be said that it is impossible to conceive of such a thing as that Christ should not abide in the Father's love; this is true, and the reason is that it is impossible to conceive that Christ should in any degree deviate from the will of the Father. See John 6:38.

The words of Christ, in Matt. 5:17, 18, while they vindicate him from the charge of commandment-breaking, establish most firmly our conclusion that the seventh day—Saturday—is still the Lord's day. Remembering that the fourth commandment of the law enjoins the observance of the seventh day, declaring that it is the Lord's holy day, we read: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill [ratify, establish, or teach]. 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." As Christ said on another occasion, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17. There is no possibility of mistaking these words. While heaven and earth endure, the law of God cannot be changed to the extent of the mutilation of a single letter. Then the seventh day must be the Lord's day as long as heaven and earth remain.

Lest some one should cavil at John 15:10, and say that we are now to keep the commandments of Christ, and not those of the Father, we repeat that since Christ and the Father are one, their commandments must be the same. Jesus himself answered this objection in advance, not only in Matt. 5:17-19, but in John 6:38: "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me;" and also in John 7:16: "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me." Thus we have again proved that the seventh day is now the Lord's day, and must remain so until the end of time.

We now turn once more to trace its course through the New Testament. In the 24th of Matthew we have an instance of Christ's tender regard for his own sacred day. In telling his disciples of the future destruction of Jerusalem, he warned them that when they should see Jerusalem compassed with armies they should flee from the city, and from all Judea. "But pray ye," said he, "that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Verse 20. On this verse Olshausen says: "In interpreting this it must be observed that Jesus regards the law of the Sabbath as divine, and part of the moral law, yet without sanctioning the

rigid notions which prevailed among the Jews concerning the Sabbatic law as correct." Here, again, there can be no doubt that the day to which Christ referred was the seventh day of the week—the day which the Jews kept as the Sabbath. So, then, he recognized the fact that the seventh day would be the Sabbath forty years after his ascension.

After the ascension of Christ, when the disciples went about their work of preaching the gospel, we find frequent mention of the Sabbath. Thus Paul and his companions went out of Philippi on the Sabbath to a place of prayer by the river-side, and spoke to those who assembled there. Acts 16:13. At Antioch, in Pisidia, they "went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down." Acts 13:14. After Paul had concluded his discourse, and the Jews had gone out of the synagogue, the Gentile "besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." "And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." Acts 13:42, 44. Again, at Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews, "Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Acts 17:2. When Paul arrived in Corinth, he made his home with a Jewish family, "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Acts 18:4. This practice was kept up as long as he remained there, a year and six months, at least. Verse 11.

These texts show the custom of Paul and his companions, but it is not for that purpose that we quote them. We do not plead "apostolic example" in behalf of Sabbath observance or any other good act. That is to say, we do not keep the Sabbath because the apostles did. We know that they did keep the Sabbath, for the same reason that they refrained from worshiping idols, and from theft, because they had regard to the law of God, which enjoins the first act, and prohibits the others, and we do the same for the same reason. Our object in quoting these references to "the Sabbath day," is to call attention to the use of that term in the New Testament. There can be no question but that in every one of these instances the seventh day is referred to. Now the New Testament, as well as the old, was written by inspiration of God. That is, the Holy Ghost was really the author of the instruction there given. We find, then, that the Holy Ghost calls the seventh day of the week "the Sabbath day," just the same as when the Old Testament was written. The New Testament was written by Christians and for Christians; and whatever name it uses to designate anything, must be the proper term for Christians to use, and the only proper term. Therefore the proper appellation for the seventh day of the week is "Sabbath," or "Lord's day," for both refer to the same thing.

One point more. The New Testament does not recognize any day as the Sabbath, except the seventh day. This may easily be shown. James, in addressing the council at Jerusalem, said: "For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogue every Sabbath day." Acts 15:21. And Paul, in his discourse at Antioch, said: "For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read in the synagogues every Sabbath day." Acts 13:27. Paul and James are both speaking of Jewish worship. No one questions the fact that it was conducted on the seventh day of the week, and no one would make the claim that it was ever conducted, excepting occasionally an annual festival, on the first day of the week. Therefore when those inspired apostles said that Moses and the prophets were read in the Jewish synagogues "every Sabbath day," they most effectually restricted the use of the term "Sabbath" to the seventh day of the week. If something that is read on every successive seventh day, is read on "every Sabbath," there is certainly no possibility that any other day of the week can be the Sabbath. But the Lord says that the Sabbath is his holy day; therefore every seventh day of the week,—every Saturday, if you please,—is a "Lord's day." This statement is made without the slightest fear of successful contradiction.

E. J. W.