Body: | Is Sunday the "Christian Sabbath"?
No! The Sabbath was Saturday and was nailed to the cross!
It was never the Divine plan that the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week,
should be kept as a holy day beyond the Jewish dispensation. Attesting to
this conclusion is Exodus 31: 16, "Wherefore the children of Israel shall
keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations".
Whenever the phrase "throughout their generation" is used in the Bible, it
always refers to the Jewish dispensation. That the ten commandments of
which the Sabbath is part belongs to the old covenant is plainly revealed
in Deut. 4:13, "And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded
you to perform, even ten commandments. And he wrote them on two tables of
stone." The express reference to the ten commandments in connection of
doing away with the old covenant is found in II Corinthians 3: 6-14. "Who
also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter,
but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But
if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones, was glorious,
how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the
ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no
glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that
which was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is
glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of
speech: And not Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of
Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which was abolished:
but their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil
untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away
in Christ."
Throughout this description, the Apostle Paul depicts a clear-cut contrast
between the old and new covenants, or testaments. He plainly tells us that
the old covenant, the ministration of death, was that which was written and
engraved in stones - the ten commandments. Then he declares that the old
covenant is done away, being done away in Christ. The doing away of the old
covenant, the ten commandments, annulled the Sabbath law, the fourth
commandment. The objection is raised, however, that if the Decalog, the Ten
Commandments, is no longer binding, then we have no standard of right to
guide us; that if the fourth commandment, the Sabbath law, is no longer in
force, then neither are the commands to refrain from stealing, murder,
idolatry, and so on. This objection is invalid in light of the fact that
all things revealed in the old covenant having to do with the eternal
divine principles of decency, right and justice are also given with even
greater emphasis in the perfect law, which is the law of liberty, which is
the law of Christ.
In reading the New Testament, we find that Jesus and his inspired apostles
taught all the commandments of the Decalog, with the exception of the
fourth commandment, the Sabbath law. There is no command in the covenant of
Christ for any man to keep the Sabbath. The only day given special
recognition in the new covenant is the first day of the week, commonly
called Sunday, referred to in the scriptures as the Lord's Day. This day is
not the Christians' Sabbath, as some assert. The Sabbath, whenever
mentioned in the scriptures, always without exception, designates the
seventh day of the week. Nowhere in the Bible is it affirmed that the first
day of the week is given in place of the Sabbath. It is part of the new
covenant and with a new significance, the day which our blessed Lord was
raised from death according to Mark 16: 9. It is the day according to the
examples the Lord's followers are to break bread, to Only a few years after
the death of the last "But Sunday is the day which we hold our set forth in
Acts 20: 7, that the Lord's followers are to break bread, partake of the
Lord's supper. Only a few years after the death of the Apostle, Justin
Martyr wrote, "But Sunday is the day which we hold our common assembly,
because it is the first day of the week, and Jesus our Saviour on the same
day rose from the dead".
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