The Lord’s Day by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 44.

The Lord’s Day.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

"I WAS in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet." Rev. 1:10. Strange as the statement may appear, an examination of this text involves an answer to the question, "Who is the Lord?" Indeed, it may be said that this question covers a large portion of the ground at issue. This fact is not owing to any difficulty in the text itself, but solely to the position taken by those who have appropriated the term "Lord's day" to the first day of the week. They have made the settlement of the question as to what day is meant by the expression "Lord's day" depend on something which is not, or ought not to be in dispute at all. This fact will be more clearly seen by the following, from an article entitled "The Lord's Day," which was sent to us some time ago for review:—

"To learn what day is the Lord's day, it is necessary to know who is the Lord. Adventists deny that Jesus is Lord, therefore they are prepared to deny that that day which gives Jesus most honor is the Lord's day."

If the writer of the above knew anything at all about Seventh-day Adventists (for of course they are the Adventists to whom he refers), he well knew that he was penning a falsehood when he wrote it. It is a good sample, however, of the method of argument(?) by which Sunday has been exalted to, and maintained in, its present position in the professed Christian world. Instead of going directly to the point, and bringing proof—Bible proof—that Sunday is the Lord's day, its adherents attempt to turn the mind away from a consideration of the real question at issue. They erroneously assume that if Christ is Lord, then Sunday must be the Lord's day; then they assert that Adventists deny the divinity of Christ. The result is that, in the minds of those whom they can induce to believe their statements, a very natural prejudice is aroused against the Adventists; and in proportion as they become prejudiced against Seventh-day Adventists, they increase in devotion to any institution or practice to which Seventh-day Adventists are opposed. But there is no more reason in the assumption that, because Christ is Lord, therefore Sunday is the Lord's day, than there would be in the assumption that, because Noah built the ark, therefore he must have been the discoverer of America. And the statement that Seventh-day Adventists deny that Christ is Lord, is nothing less than willful falsehood. Such methods are adopted only by men who are conscious that they have no proof for their theory, yet are determined to sustain it at all hazards. Macaulay says that whenever people have made up their minds without knowing why, "discussion ends in scurrility, the last resource of the disputant who cannot answer, and who will not submit." The inspired prophet exclaims: "O Israel, thy prophets [teachers] are like the foxes in the deserts." Eze. 13:4. The marked characteristic of the fox is craftiness. He will cover up his trail,

and resort to various devices to throw the hunters off his track. His characteristic cunning is manifested in deceiving his pursuers as to his real location, causing them to think that he is in a certain hole when he is far distant. That the prophet, by this figure, aptly describes the supporters of the Sunday-sabbath, is evident to one who has studied their tactics. Take the case before us, for instance. They accuse us of denying the divinity of Christ in order to divert attention from the real question at issue, and also to conceal the fact that they themselves in reality deny his divinity. For proof of this last statement we offer the following:—

It is readily conceded that the seventh-day Sabbath was appointed by God himself at Sinai; this is not denied even by those who will not allow that it was given at creation. Further, they do not claim that God ever appointed any other day. But they do claim that Sunday should be observed in honor of Christ, and that he sanctioned, if he did not institute, such observance. Thus they make the Father and the Son antagonistic to each other, or, to say the least, they have each one working on a plan of his own, and for his own pleasure. But this is utterly at variance with the truth uttered by Christ, "I and my Father are one." John 10:30. Unity with the Father is an essential part of the divinity of Christ; and therefore to claim that Christ engaged in anything that the Father did not, or that he has any interest separate from the Father, is to deny that perfect unity, and, consequently, to deny the divinity of Christ. Since the question of the divinity of Christ is made a prime factor in determining this matter of the Lord's day, the remainder of this article will be devoted to that point.

Christ says, "I and my Father are one." This we must accept as an absolute fact in the sense in which he designed it. He prayed to the Father for his disciples, "that they may be one, even as we are one." John 17:22. The union between the Father and the Son is the same as should exist between brethren in the faith. It is a union of thought and purpose. See 1 Cor. 1:10. The will of one is the will of the other. The language of Christ was, "I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart." Ps. 40:8. Again, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." John 14:10. A closer union than this cannot be imagined. So close is the union that Christ is called God, as in Isa. 9:6, and Titus 2:13. In talking with the young man (Matt. 19:16, 17) he himself plainly showed his right to be called God. The apostle Paul, speaking of Christ, says that "in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Col. 2:9.

This fact of the unity of the Father and the Son, must of necessity be true at all times, and under all circumstances. Let us see. Jesus is known as the Saviour, the Redeemer of the world. It is through his blood that we have redemption (Col. 1:14), and besides his name there is no salvation in any other. Acts 4:12. But if he and the Father are one, the Father must have had an equal share in the work of redemption. And so it is. The plan of salvation was not devised and executed by Christ apart from the Father. It is God's love, that is commended to us in the death of Christ. Rom. 5:8. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. When Christ was on earth he was doing the Father's work, for he said, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." John 4:34. And in harmony with this idea were his words to Mary, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Luke 2:49. The message that he bore was from the Father. He himself said, "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me" (John 7:16); "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." John 12:49. And so Paul says that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." 2 Cor. 5:19. Therefore whatever memorials of redemption are observed, must be in honor of God as well as of Christ.

Again, God is best known as the Creator of the world. This, indeed, is that for which he would be remembered, for his creative power is that which distinguishes him from false gods. See Jer. 10:10-12; Ps. 96:5; 2 Cor. 8:5, 6; Acts 14:15. But if Christ and the Father are one, then Christ must have shared equally with the Father in his work of creation. And so he did. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." John 1:1-3. Of the One through whose blood we have redemption, Paul says that "by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Col. 1:16, 17. And finally, Paul exhibits the unity of Father and Son in both creation and redemption, in these words: "God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." Heb. 1:1, 2. Thus we learn that it was through Christ that God made the worlds, and through Christ that God conveyed to lost man his message of mercy. In Christ God's will is made known and executed, and thus it is that he is called "the Word of God."

When we say that all Seventh-day Adventists hold to the truths taught by these scriptures as cardinal points of faith, it will be readily perceived that a denial of the divinity of Christ is not one of their peculiarities. With Peter they believe that God hath made this same Jesus who was crucified "both Lord and Christ;" and they also gladly acknowledge the fact "that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." John 5:23. In what way they should honor him, will be shown next week. E. J. W.