Christ and the Sabbath

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 24, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 37.

Christ and the Sabbath

1. What important statement did Christ make concerning the Sabbath?

“And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: so that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2: 27, 28.

2. What was the custom of Christ concerning the Sabbath?

“And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and He entered, as His custom was, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.” Luke 4:16.

3. In foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, which was not to occur until nearly forty years after His death, how does Christ show His regard for the Sabbath in the Christian dispensation?

“When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place [“when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies,” Luke 21: 20, in describing the same thing] (let him that readeth understand), then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains: let him that is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house: and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak. . . . And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath.” Matt. 24: 15-20.

4. Does Christ in any instance give a single hint that He or His Father would change the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week?

Answer: He nowhere even hints at such a thing. But in the foregoing text from Matthew He plainly shows that He had a solicitous regard for the seventh-day Sabbath in the New Testament dispensation, by asking His disciples from that day and forward to continue to pray that when Jerusalem should be destroyed their flight from the besieged city would not be on the Sabbath day. If Christ had changed the Sabbath, as so many insist that He did, one would naturally expect Him to mention such a change in a connection of this kind.

5. Does Christ lay claim anywhere to being Lord of any particular day?

“The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2: 28. “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.” Isa. 58: 13, 14.

NOTE.—It should be clear that the day should be called “the Lord’s day,” of which Christ Himself says He is Lord, and which Jehovah distinctly says is “My holy day.”