DID CHRIST CHANGE THE SABBATH?
By H. C. Giles
[This is the twelfth article in the series.] BUT the question will be asked, Did not Christ change the Sabbath? Let another question be raised, Why should He change it? We have seen that He instituted it, making it for man, declaring that He, man's Lord, is Lord also of the day which was made for man. Mark 2:27, 28. We have seen also that it was the sign of His sanctifying power, which is His power to create. But the sign of His power to create must remain the seventh-day Sabbath; for the reason of its institution is that "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." Hence the Saviour said: "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Matt. 5:18; 24:35; Luke 16:17. It is not within the scope of this writing to note extensively the attitude which Christ and the apostles maintained toward the Sabbath, but the following points, with Scripture citations, are given for the reader's consideration:— 2. After His crucifixion, and the ratification of the new covenant, the disciples still kept the "Sabbath day according to the commandment," which is the seventh day. Luke 23:56. 3. Looking forward to the destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, the Saviour recognized the seventh-day Sabbath as an existing institution. Matt. 24:20. 4. Near the close of the first century of the Christian era (A.D. 97) John wrote his Gospel, and the Spirit of inspiration recognized then the existence of the seventh-day Sabbath. John 9:14, 16. 5. The "beloved disciple," a Christian, writing, in the Christian dispensation, to Christians, the Christian faith of the new covenant, identifies the "Christian" Sabbath with that instituted at creation on the seventh day. John 9:14, 16; 5:9, 10. 6. The same writer, under the same circumstances, speaks of the first day of the week in precisely the same manner as did the Creator in the beginning, when, having performed labor thereon, He constituted it one of "the six working days." John 20:1, 19; Gen. 1:5; Eze. 46:1. 7. On the evening of the "first day," on which occurred the resurrection of our Lord, the disciples were not assembled in honor of the event, as the following considerations will show: (a) The disciples "sat at meat." Mark 16:14; Luke 24:41, 42. (b) They were at home; for they had a common dwelling. Acts 1:13. (c) They did not believe that the resurrection had really taken place. Luke 24:37-41; Mark 16:11-14. 8. The apostle Paul expressly states that he believed in the seventh-day Sabbath, that being a part of the law. Rom. 2:17-20. 10. The only day which the Bible anywhere recognizes as the "Lord's day" (Rev. 1:10), or in any sense as sacred, is "the Sabbath of the Lord," the Lord's (rest) day, the Lord's (holy) day (Ex. 20:8-11; Isa. 58:13). Of this day, which was "made for man," Christ (man's Lord) is Lord. Mark 2:27, 28. 11. Redemption needs no celebration as yet; for it is still incomplete. Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14. 12. Redemption is a work of creation (Eph. 2:10); hence its sign will ever be that of creation, the Sabbath of the Lord (Ex. 31:13). The seventh-day Sabbath, therefore, will be observed by the redeemed. Isa. 66:23. 13. Christian baptism is a symbol of Christ's burial and resurrection; hence, these, commemorated thus by baptism, need no other memorial. Rom. 6:3-5. The Change Made Later Than Apostolic Times.
Having briefly noted the Scripture evidence, the reader will now be interested to observe the testimony of uninspired writers respecting the origin of the observance of the first day of the week:— SABBATH.—These arguments [for the change of the Sabbath], it is true, are not satisfactory to some, and it must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day.—Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia. When, why, and by whom was the day of rest changed from the seventh to the first day? Answer.—The Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, not by any positive authority, but by a gradual process.—Christian Union, Question Corner, June 11, 1879. SABBATH.—No formal decree changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day.—Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Encyclopedia. SABBATH.—At what date the Sunday, or first day of the week, began to be generally used by the Christians as a stated time for religious meetings, we have no definite information either in the New Testament or in the writings of the fathers of the church. By none of the fathers, before the fourth century, is it identified with the Sabbath, nor is the duty of observing it grounded by them either on the fourth commandment, or on the precept or example of Jesus or His apostles, or on any ante-Mosaic law, promulgated at creation, and continuing in force after the coming of Christ. Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the sabbatical observance of the day (Sunday) is known to have been ordained, is the edict of Constantine, 321 A.D.—International Cyclopedia. Note the above carefully. "No definite information" is had concerning the origin of the Sunday sabbath "either in the New Testament or in the writings of the fathers of the church." Why the "fourth century" marked an epoch in the development of Sunday sacredness, will appear later. The first "law" in favor of Sunday was Constantine's edict of 321 A.D. SABBATH.—There is no indication that He [Christ] engaged in any secular toil on that day [the seventh] or encouraged His disciples to do so. . . . On the contrary, Christ habitually attended the synagogue with His disciples, and thus bore His testimony to the value of the day as one both of religious observance and of rest. . . . The whole tenor of the teaching of the apostle Paul, whatever opinion may be entertained respecting the interpretation of particular passages, looks in the same general direction. At first the Christians observed the Jewish Sabbath, tho with increasing irregularity, as the Gentile element more and more predominated. But they also observed the first day of the week as a commemoration of the resurrection of our Lord. This they therefore called the Lord's day, and, later, Sunday, borrowing this name from the heathen, by whom the first day of the week was dedicated to the sun. At length the change from the seventh to the first day of the week was officially recognized and embodied in an edict of Constantine, 321 A.D. Custom, however, added to this law, and the church soon embodied these customs in more stringent provisions.—Abbott & Conant Dictionary of Religious Knowledge. Observe in the foregoing that Christ "habitually" kept the seventh day, and likewise also the disciples. "The whole tenor of the teaching of the apostle Paul" is to the same effect: The name of the first-day sabbath is borrowed "from the heathen," which name, after "law" had recognized it, and "custom" adopted it, was taken up by a popular and world-loving church. SABBATH.—Even after the death of Christ there is no formal abrogation of the Sabbath. The apostles seem still themselves to have kept it in the Jewish manner. . . . And the Ebionites insisted on the keeping of the Sabbath. Nor is there anywhere in the New Testament any express statement that the first day of the week was to be kept in place of the seventh, or that the Lord's day represented, or was in any way, the Sabbath. . . . A large body of Christians maintain that with the death of Christ the seventh-day Sabbath ceased for Christians, and that the first day, or Christian sabbath, naturally and inevitably took its place. Without citing any explicit authority for the substitution, they insist that the fourth commandment was a perpetual obligation as regards keeping holy one day in seven. . . . It must certainly be admitted that the earliest Christian writers do not identify the Sabbath and Lord's day; none of the fathers before the fourth century ground the duty of observing Sunday upon the fourth commandment, or on the precepts or example of Jesus or the apostles.—Chambers' Encyclopedia. Thus do we see that no less an authority than "Chambers' Encyclopedia" is unable to find any "formal abrogation of the Sabbath," even the apostles keeping it "in the Jewish manner." Not "anywhere in the New Testament" is there a warrant for the Sunday sabbath. Those who accept the change do so "without citing any explicit authority for the substitution." Not until the "fourth century" was any effort made to "ground the duty of observing Sunday" on any Bible foundation. We shall in due time see what occurred in the "fourth century," to give prestige to the observance of Sunday. "The Ebionites insisted on the keeping of the Sabbath." Who were they? EBIONITES.—A term applied, probably, at the beginning of the Christian church to all Christians; afterwards the general name by which all Jewish Christians who remained outside the Catholic Church were designated, after the apostolic age, down to the time of Jerome.—Chambers' Encyclopedia. In this connection note two points: (1) The Ebionites were Christians who kept the Sabbath. (2) They remained outside the Catholic Church. The full significance of this will appear later. H. C. GILES.