The Sabbath

and the Lord's Day

Why Christians Keep The Lord's Day

  With the exception of a few small sects, Christians universally regard Sunday as a sacred day. This has been true down through the centuries from the days of the apostles. The greatest reformers, such as Luther, Melancthon, Zwingli, and Wesley, and great and good men like John Bunyan and John Milton, all wrote in favor of the observance of the Lord's Day. Surely there must be some good reasons for such a universal practice. Yes, we answer, and reasons which have been entirely satisfactory to the deepest and ablest Christians of the church down through the many centuries of the Christian era. A few of these reasons I shall now submit to the reader.

  First. Since the Jewish Sabbath was abolished at the death of Christ, and we are now under a new dispensation, the greatest of all institutions—the gospel—the Lord has not left us without a memorial day, a day to commemorate the greatest of all events—the resurrection of Christ.

  Let it be remembered that the observance of days as mere rest days does not belong to the gospel system. The Sabbath of the gospel is our spiritual rest in Christ. The idea of Sabbath as enjoined in the law is not connected with the Lord's Day. The Gentile Christians never so regard it. All the early church writers exclude this idea of the Lord's Day. They simply held it sacred as a memorial day to commemorate Christ's resurrection. The church Fathers plainly state that they enjoyed a sweet perpetual Sabbath—meaning rest in Christ. I quote from Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (Art. "Lord's Day"): "It was not an institution of severe sabbatical character, but a day of joy and cheerfulness.... Religiously regarded, it was a day of solemn meeting for the holy eucharist [communion], for united prayer, for instruction, for alms giving; and though being an institution under the law of liberty, work does not appear to have been formally interdicted, or rest formally enjoined." This expresses exactly the manner in which the early church regarded the resurrection day. It was regarded as a day of rejoicing, convocation, religious devotion, in honor of the resurrection. At the present time [138] most people through tradition regard the Lord's Day as a holy Sabbath Day. However, since the laws of our land enjoin abstinence in general from manual labor, we as a God fearing people and law abiding citizens observe the laws of our land in this respect. But religiously, we keep the Lord's Day only as the early church did—as a memorial day of rejoicing, and of religious assembly, in honor of the resurrection of Christ.

  Second. In the inspired history of the church, which covers a period of about sixty five years, not one exclusive meeting of the church of God on the seventh day is recorded. Every exclusive meeting held by the infant church in its virgin purity was upon the first day of the week, the Lord's day. "After the Lord Jesus had revealed himself to the two disciples with whom he had walked out to Emmaus the day of his resurrection, we are told, 'They rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered, and them that were with them' (Luke 24:33). Perhaps the entire hundred and twenty made up that assembly. Here, then, we have an example of the church assembled together in their own meeting. They may only have been drawn together by the Spirit of God. Nevertheless the fact is on record that the very day that Jesus rose from the dead they assembled together. And while the two disciples were rehearsing how the blessed Savior had made himself known to them, lo! 'Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, Peace be unto you' (vs. 36). So the Lord met with them and blessed this first meeting.

  "Should the Saturday keeper say that this first meeting was after night, and therefore not on the first day, but the second, we shall let the Word of God answer '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). It was the same day that Jesus rose, and how particular the Spirit of inspiration is to tell that it was on 'the first day of the week'! It must, therefore, be conceded that they convened before the close of the Jewish day, or else the text proves that right there in the change of dispensation [139] the Lord no longer reckoned the day to sunset, but included it in the first part of the night, as we do now. One thing is sure, this meeting of the infant church was on the resurrection day of our Lord.

  "Neither is there a word said about their assembling on the next Saturday. But we are told, 'And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you' (John 20:26). This evidently records a second meeting one week from the former. The Jews were familiar with the two great annual sabbaths connected with the feast of unleavened bread, called the 'first day' and 'the eighth day.' . . . What, therefore, would be more natural than the use of such language?

  " 'The same day, being the first day, the disciples were assembled.' 'And after eight days again.' These expressions agree so perfectly with the language of Lev. 23:35, 36 that it would seem that they were selected purposely to connect in our minds type and antitype. 'On the first day shall be an holy convocation,' and 'on the eighth clay shall be an holy convocation.' As certain as this eighth day was one week from the first day, so also the eighth day of John 20:26 was one week from the 'first day' of verse 19.... 'After eight days,' meaning after the arrival of the eighth day, very naturally fell into use to designate one week. The same expression is in common use to this day in the German language. Their regular way of saying in one week from today is 'Heute ueber acht Tage' —today over eight days. So the disciples assembled together upon the eve of the resurrection day and in one week from that time again. Here starts in the weekly worship of the Christians so freely spoken of in early history."—The Sabbath.

  "After eight days" compared with the expression "after three days" shows clearly that this meeting was held one week from the former. The number of days after Christ's death till the day on which he was to rise is expressed as follows: "in three days" (Matt. 26:61; 27:40); "the third day" (Matt. 16:21; 20:19); and "after three days" (Mark 8:31). Thus, in their mode of expression "three days," "the third day," "after three days," all meant the [140] same. In the same manner, "in eight days," "on the eighth day," and "after eight days" all refer to the same day, viz., the next Sunday. Almost all the early Christian writers term the resurrection day the "eighth day."

  Six weeks later, on the day after the Jewish Sabbath, the whole church was assembled in meeting. "The number of names together were about one hundred and twenty" (Acts 1:15). "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1). Pentecost fell on the "morrow after the Sabbath" (Lev. 23:15,16). This would be Sunday. All commentaries agree on this point. Even the Adventists admit that the Pentecost of Acts 2 fell on the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Christ (Sanctuary, by Smith, page 283). This would be the first day of the week.

  Here, then, we have three clear meetings of the Christian church upon the Lord's Day, the first day of the week.

  "We next come to a clear case of the church of God meeting on the first day of the week for worship, which Adventists themselves admit. 'And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight' (Acts 20:6, 7). This text is very valuable in arriving at a knowledge of the day observed by the apostolic church. It contains both a negative and a positive testimony. Paul, in company with seven other brethren, who were his companions in travel (see verse 4), abode seven days at Troas. Nothing unusual seems to have occurred on Saturday. If they had any meeting at all, it was only such as they had daily. Surely the mention of no meeting on that day is good evidence that the church attached no special sanctity to the day nor held any weekly services thereon.

  " 'And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.' Reader, does not this prove in inspired history just what we have seen in the writings that immediately followed? 'The seventh day is a common work day, but we [141]

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