Is Sunday the Original Seventh Day?
By B. F. Snook
THE assumption that Sunday is the original seventh day, is becoming quite popular in the West. It is now by many regarded as the strongest grounds to urge against us. Peter Acre has made himself conspicuous in the Methodist church as the advocate of this view. In his work on Sacred Chronology he has labored very extensively to prove that the Sabbath which was instituted on the first seventh day of time was observed till the exodus of Israel from Egypt. But that at that time God gave the Jews a Sabbath, not to be observed on the original seventh day, but a day back of that, which would be on the original sixth day; and that at the death of Christ this sixth-day Jewish Sabbath was abolished, and from that time on, the original seventh-day Sabbath was kept, which is called the first day of the week according to our reckoning. We will now present some reasons against this view, which show that it cannot possibly be sustained by the Bible, history, nor anything but false reasoning. We will hear the testimony of Moses in reference to this supposed change of the Sabbath from the seventh back to the sixth day. “And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest-day of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.” Ex. xvi, 23. This shows that the Sabbath was at that time not a new thing; for Moses speaks of it as an existing institution. That it was not instituted in the wilderness, for he says of it, “This is that which the Lord HATH said (not says, in the present; but hath, in the past). That it was not the Jews' Sabbath, as Dr. Acre contends; for he says it “is the rest-day of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord,” not unto the Jew. The next point to settle is, On what day did Moses make the above statement? If it were on the fifth day it would suit the above very well; but it was on the sixth day. See verse 22. Again he said of the day of which he was speaking, “It is the rest-day of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.” It therefore was the day on which the Lord rested, and must have been the original seventh day. But on this we have something better than inference. “So the people rested on the (sixth day, Acre) seventh day (Moses).” Verse 30. This settles the question, and shows that Mr. Acre is against the plainest declarations of the word of the Lord. This day he called the rest-day of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord—the seventh day is the very day commanded to be kept for the Sabbath in the fourth commandment, and is there called the seventh day, the day on which God rested, and the day which he blessed and made holy. All the foregoing of the Dr.'s Chronology never can weigh anything against these plain words of inspired scripture. These testimonies identify the day which the Jews observed for the Sabbath, with the day on which God rested, which the Dr. admits is the only true and lawful Sabbath. We will now admit his petition for argument's sake, and see what follows. As the day given the Jews is the only day commanded to be kept for the Sabbath, and as it is the sixth day according to his hypothesis, it follows that there is no divine command for the observance of the seventh day. As the day observed by the Jews is the only Sabbath for the observance of which there is a blessing promised, or for the profaning of which there is a curse pronounced, it follows that for the Dr.'s only true Sabbath there is neither a blessing nor curse; so that a man is neither better nor worse for keeping or not keeping it. As the Scriptures call the day commanded to the Jews the seventh day, they are wrong, and should be corrected by Acre's Chronology. But we are not prepared to receive such absurdities yet. We will examine the New Testament record on the subject. Matthew says, “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” Chap. xxviii, 1. Mark says, “And when the Sabbath was past. . . . and very early in the morning, the first day of the week.” Chap. xvi, 1. This testimony clearly shows that the Sabbath is one day, and that the first day is another. The Sabbath is not the first day, and the first-day is not the Sabbath. The seventh is the day of rest—the first day, the day on which Christ arose from the dead. And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also which came with him from Galilee followed after, beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid, and they returned and prepared spices and ointments; and they rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment. Luke xxiii, 56. Now upon the first day of the week very early in the morning they came unto the sepulchre, xxiv, 1. This testimony speaks of three days. First, the preparation day, which was the sixth, and was spent in preparing for the Sabbath. Second, the Sabbath, which was the seventh day, and was kept according to the commandment, because it enjoins the observance of the seventh day for the Sabbath, but no other. Third, the first day of the week; the day on which Christ arose from the dead. These three are separate and distinct days, and must not be confounded. Eusebius, who wrote a history of the church from the days of the apostles to Constantine, speaks of these days in the same order. Speaking of an event, he says that it occurred on the day before the Sabbath, Friday, p. 858. Speaking of another event, he says that it happened on the very day of our Lord's resurrection, p. 859. Hence we see that as far down as Eusebius extends his history, the same Bible record of these days was recognized. We will now bring forward the testimony of a great fact which co-incides with all that is said above. We have shown that the day which the Jews observed is the original seventh-day Sabbath. It is a historical fact that the Jews as a people yet adhere to their ancient custom of observing the same day. Therefore the conclusion is irresistible that the day now observed by them is the original seventh-day Sabbath. We in conclusion would say that we prefer to regulate chronology by the Bible and by facts, instead of regulating the Bible by chronology. This is a new argument gotten up to save an entire defeat. All others are so weak and flimsy that those in the habit of using them are doubtful of them, and as the people are generally uninformed on the subject of chronology, the enemy has led out with the great and astounding chronological argument that the first day is the seventh! But why not say that the seventh day is the first day? Oh that would not reach to Sunday, and hence would not suit; for nothing will do but that which will save Sunday, and whatever will do that is just the thing to be popular.