p. 713 | The Lord’s Day by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 27, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 45.

“The Lord’s Day.”

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

(Continued.)

IN our further investigation of this subject, we shall understand that the word “Lord” is applied both to the Father and the Son, and that even though we find it in various places applied specifically to one of them, the act predicated of that one is the act of the other also. We have seen that there is no working at cross purposes between the two, but that they are “one” in every thought and act. It is sometimes claimed, in connection with Rev. 1:10, that in the New Testament Jesus only is called “Lord,” some other title being invariably applied to the Father. One text (Rev. 11:15) is sufficient to disprove that claim: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.” Here there can be no question but that “Lord” refers to the Father especially. In one verse in the Old Testament (Ps. 110:1), the word is applied to both Father and Son: “The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” In this case, the Hebrew has a different word for each; but in Rev. 11:15 the word for Lord is Kurios, the same that is used throughout the New Testament.

From John 5:23 we learned “that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.” Wherever, then, we find an act enjoined by the Father, we know that the performance of that act honors the Son also, and that the neglecting of it is as much an insult to the Son as to the Father. Disobedience to the Father dishonors Christ. Now turn to Isa. 58:13, 14 and we shall find one way in which we are to honor God: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

In this text the Lord, through his prophet, speaks of “my holy day.” So it is the “Lord’s day” that is under consideration. The text shows that the Lord claims but one day as his own, because it does not say “my holy days,” nor “one of my holy days,” but “my holy day.” From this we also learn that the “Lord’s day” is holy. And still further, we learn that this holy, Lord’s day is the Sabbath: “If

thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable,” etc. Now turn to Ex. 20:8-11, and you will find all these things combined, and in addition will be told exactly what day of the week this holy Sabbath—the Lord’s day—is:—

“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

Right here we stop to notice an objection. A Presbyterian Catechism, which is before us, claims that the Sabbath is not the seventh day in order from the creation, but may be “any other seventh part of our weekly time.” The reason it gives for this claim is this: “In the beginning of the commandment it is not said, ‘Remember the seventh day,’ but, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ Just so in the end of this command, the words are not, ‘The Lord blessed the seventh day,’ but, ‘The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.’” The fallacy of this reasoning is very evident, when we remember that “the seventh day is the Sabbath.” Since the seventh day is the Sabbath, that is, the seventh day and the Sabbath exactly coincide, and are one and the same thing, a blessing pronounced on the Sabbath day was, of necessity, a blessing on the seventh day. But that there may be no chance for any to imagine that our reasoning is not sound, we quote the direct statement of the sacred record: “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified [hallowed, see Webster] it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. 2:3. In the face of this scripture, men may speculate as much as they please, but it will be in vain. It will still remain a fact that “the seventh day is the Sabbath.”

“But,” it is still objected, “the commandment does not say that the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath, and therefore we are left to decide for ourselves which seventh day we shall keep.” The inspired record decides this point, too. But first we would ask, If the commandment does not enjoin the observance of the seventh day of the week, what seventh day does it enjoin? It must be the seventh or last day of a period which consists of just seven days, the first six of which are devoted to labor. But the only period of that kind known is the week. Now turn to an incident recorded in the New Testament.

Immediately after the death of Jesus on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea, begged his body, and took it down and laid it in a sepulcher. The inspired historian tells us that “that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.” Luke 23:54. He says further that “the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day.” Verses 55, 56. Here we have the record of two successive days,—the preparation day, and the Sabbath of rest, which immediately followed. What next? “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher.” Luke 24:1. This was “when the Sabbath was past.” Mark 16:1. Now if the first day of the week immediately follows the Sabbath day, on what day of the week does the Sabbath come? The seventh, of course, for there are only seven days in a week. The disciples, then, rested on the seventh day of the week. But what does that signify? If you read the fifty-sixth verse entire, you will see. “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” We have already seen that they rested on the seventh day of the week; now if this was “according to the commandment,” what is plainer than that the fourth commandment enjoins the observance of the seventh day of the week?

We have learned, then, that the seventh day of the week was the Lord’s day from the beginning, that the Lord sanctified it, or made it holy, and that the followers of the Lord,—those who loved to honor him,—observed it as such even after the crucifixion. And here we will leave the subject for this week. E. J. W.