The Bible Claims of the First Day of the Week.
WHAT is the evidence from the Bible that the first day of the week, or Sunday, is the Sabbath? Nearly all the Christian world keeps Sunday, and can it be true that there is no divine command or authority for it? The word “Sunday” does not occur in the Bible at all. But the day we call Sunday is spoken of in the good Book a number of times as the first day of the week, but in no one of these instances is it called the Sabbath; nor is there any occasion for drawing even an inference that there is any sacredness attached to the day. It is merely spoken of as the first of the working-days of the week, and no more. In his article on “The Perpetuity of the Sabbath,” found in other columns of this issue, Pastor R. C. Porter gives all the texts in which the first day of the week is mentioned in the New Testament. No one claims that the Sabbath was changed during Old Testament times, and hence if there is to be found any authority for Sunday observance, it must be found in some one of the texts where the first day of the week is mentioned. Surely it could not be claimed that the Lord would establish Sunday as a day of rest and not say anything about it. Now, if the reader is candidly seeking for the truth on this Sabbath question, let him read carefully all the texts that speak of the first day of the week. He will find the list in the concluding portion of Pastor Porter’s article on the next page. Some of these texts will show that the first day of the week was the day on which Christ rose from the dead, but they will also show that the Sabbath according to the commandment was still kept by the disciples. Another one of the texts will show that Paul held a meeting on that day, and if you read the context, you will learn that while Paul was preaching, two of his disciples were hard at work sailing around a cape in the Mediterranean from Troas to meet him at Assos. And still another of the texts will show that the church at Corinth was exhorted to lay by for the collection, “according as the Lord had prospered him.” To be able to lay aside for the contribution as the Lord had prospered, would necessitate looking over the business in order to see how much had been made. Thus in all these scriptures do we see that only secular work is prescribed for Sunday, or the first day of the week. The original Sabbath commandment shows us plainly that the seventh day is, and ever has been, the Sabbath. In view of these plain facts, what will we do about it? Will we continue to keep Sunday when the Lord has plainly showed us that He requires the observance of another day? T.