Tke Da$ of A Risen Ckrist Whj) We Worship O n the Lord’s Day Instead of On the Day When Christ Lay! Dead In the Tomb
By K. L. B.
Israelitish law (something our Adven tist friends, strange to say, do not do). No one denies that Christ who was born under the law and who came to fulfill the law, kept the Jewish Sab bath, even though He shocked His own people by not keeping it according to their ideas. He went into the syna gogues and taught on the Jewish Sab bath, and how better could He reach those He came to reach as the Messen ger of Jehovah? But is it not rather peculiar, in view of the Adventist argu ment, that' there is nowhere found among His commandments any word as to the observance of the seventh day Sabbath nor anything that implies the wish that the church should observe the Jewish Sabbath? Nor did any of the apostles command or teach his people to observe it. We may safely conclude that if the keeping of the Sabbath, or any other part of the Jewish system, was among the “ necessary things” (Acts 15:28, 29) for Gentile believers, it would surely have been emphasized in Christ’s messages to the churches. (See Col. 2:12-16.) Jesus hallowed the new day by meeting with the saints in His resurrection body and never did He hint that they were out of order in ob serving that day instead of the Jewish Sabbath. On the contrary, there is in the New Testament the most positive teaching as to the relation of the body of Christ to the whole law given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. As to this teaching our Adventist friends plunge us into the strangest confusion, for they attempt to bind the church with
OME kind friend has been regularly furnishing us with Seventh Day Adventist liter ature devoted to discussion of the question, “Was the Sabbath ever changed from Saturday to Sunday?” At
great length the writers relate the acts of Christ on the Jewish Sabbath and His approval of that day of worship. They point out that Jesus never gave instructions for the change and that not until the day of Constantine was the Lord’s Day kept as the worship day of the Christian Church. But why all these words? No intel ligent Bible student contends that the Sabbath was ever changed to Sunday or that Christ did not approve of the Jew ish day of. worship. There is not the slightest warrant for changing the Sabbath from one day to another. Such a thing was never done. From that glorious first day of the week when Christ came forth victor over the grave, Hades and Satan, two days were observed side by side— one by those who stood for a dead Christ,--j-j one by those who gloried in a risen and exalted Christ. While Jews continued to observe the day of a dead Christ (a day appointed to commemorate a fin ished creation), the Christians began to observe' the day of a risen Christ (com memorating a finished redemption). The Jews continued to worship begin ning at sundown of Friday and finish ing at sundown Saturday, and they kept the day in every particular in strict ac cordance with the commands of the
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker