Our Bible Reading

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 6, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 35.

Our Bible Reading

Jesus and the First Day of the Week

1. What testimony did the Father bear concerning His Son? "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am WELL PLEASED; HEAR YE HIM." Matt. 17: 5.

2. What testimony did that Son bear concerning His Father's law? "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I AM NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, ONE JOT OR ONE TITTLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS FROM THE LAW, till all be fulfilled." Matt. 5: 17, 18.

3. What counsel did He give to the young man who came seeking the way of eternal life? "If thou wilt enter into life, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS." Matt. 19: 17.

4. In His commission to His disciples what did He tell them to proclaim? "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; TEACHING them to OBSERVE ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28: 19, 20.

NOTE.—All these texts are very clear. They teach forcibly the Father's endorsement of the Son, and the Son's absolute unity with the Father's law and its unchangeable perpetuity. They also show what He regarded to be the rule of life, the observance of the commandments; and when He gave His commission to the twelve apostles for all time, they were to teach all things, whatsoever He had commanded. Surely if the first day of the week is the Lord's day, as we are sometimes told, and it is our duty to observe that day; Jesus should have taught us something concerning it; but the simple fact is He was utterly silent regarding that day.

5. What and how many times is the first day mentioned in the Gospels?

(a) "So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch in the end of the Sabbath. As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher." Matt. 27: 66; 28: 1, Greenfield's suggestion.

(b) "And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun." Mark 16: 1, 2.

(c) "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils." Mark 16: 9.

(d) "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them." Luke 24: 1.

(e) "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher." John 20: 1.

(f) "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." John 20: 19.

NOTE.—Here are six different times in which the first day of the week is mentioned in the Gospels. All but one of these have reference to the one day, the day on which Jesus arose from the dead as declared by Mark. None of these speak of it as a sacred day. No Scripture writer refers to it as a holy day, as a day in any wise sacred. This particular first day was spent by the disciples in trepidation, fear, and doubt. We read in the context of these scriptures which we have quoted that they did not believe that Jesus had arisen from the dead, consequently they were not met together to celebrate that resurrection; that when Jesus met with them He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, and they when they saw Him were affrighted, supposing that they had seen a spirit. All of which very clearly shows that the disciples had no idea whatever that the first day had been set apart as a Sabbath. We have two other mentions of the first day in the New Testament: Acts 20: 7, which merely records an evening meeting on that day, the rest of the day being spent in labor and travel; and 1 Cor. 16: 1, 2, where the Corinthian brethren were told to reckon up their expenses and lay by money for religious purposes, a purely secular task. The Scriptures are entirely silent as to the claim that the Sunday was to take the place of the seventh day; that the Sunday was considered in any wise sacred; that it was in any wise to be regarded as a Sabbath or a rest-day.

6. What may we conclude regarding the death and teachings of Christ?

First, that in all Christ's teaching He honored the law; taught its absolute integrity, immutability, and perpetuity; secondly, that He came not to teach His own will, but the will of the Father; thirdly, that in this time, after confirming the new covenant in the hearts of His own, He died upon the cross, sealing that covenant with His own blood. The apostle Paul declares that tho it be but a man's covenant, if it be confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Previous to the sealing of that covenant there is no mention of the first day in our Lord's teachings, and no intimation of a change of the Sabbath; consequently, any Sabbath brought in after Christ sealed with His own blood the covenant, is brought in too late. It is no part of the will. Even tho it should come in in the teachings of the apostles twenty-four hours or one hour after the death of Christ, it has no place in the Christian covenant. Christ sealed for all time His teachings regarding the law, and commanded His disciples, in their commission, to teach all things whatsoever He had commanded. The teachings of the apostles themselves will be noted in our next.