Part 23 (1/2)
”Strength and peace were surely sought and obtained by the apostle from the Redeemer as he pursued his lonely road that Sunday afternoon in spring among the oak woods and the streams of Ida.”--_Id., p. 522._
Once again the ”first day of the week” is mentioned, in 1 Cor. 16:2. But that scripture says no word of any sacredness of the day or of any religious observance of it. The apostle was gathering a fund for the poor at Jerusalem, and asked every believer to ”lay by” something every first day of the week, so that the money would be ready when he came. As Dean Stanley (Church of England) comments:
”There is nothing to prove public a.s.semblies, inasmuch as the phrase [Greek: par heauto] ('by himself, at his own house') implies that the collection was to be made individually and in private.”
And Neander's Church History says:
”All mentioned here is easily explained, if one simply thinks of the ordinary beginning of the week in secular life.”--_Vol.
I, p. 339 (German ed.)._
To meet the emergency of need in Judea, these believers were asked to look over their business affairs at the beginning of each week, until Paul should come, laying aside a gift as G.o.d had prospered them.
No Sunday Sacredness in the New Testament
This is the record--not one suggestion in all the New Testament of Sunday sacredness, to say nothing of precept or commandment of the Lord.
The late R.W. Dale, D.D., a leading Congregationalist of England, wrote:
”It is quite clear that, however rigidly or devotedly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath.... The Sabbath was founded on a specific, divine command. We can plead no such command for the observance of Sunday.... There is not a single line in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanct.i.ty of Sunday.”--_”The Ten Commandments,” pp. 106, 107._
That religious cla.s.sic, Smith and Cheetham's ”Dictionary of Christian Antiquities,” says that the ”notion of a formal subst.i.tution” of the first day for the seventh,
”and the transference to it, perhaps in a spiritualized form, of the Sabbatical obligation established by the promulgation of the fourth commandment, has no basis whatever, either in Holy Scripture or in Christian antiquity.”--_Article ”Sabbath.”_
Dr. E.F. Hisc.o.x, author of ”The Baptist Manual,” says:
”There was and is a commandment to 'keep holy the Sabbath day,'
but that Sabbath was not Sunday. It will, however, be readily said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week....
Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament--absolutely not.”--_The New York Examiner, Nov.
16, 1893._
Such declarations by well-known scholars might be multiplied, but it is not necessary. The record is open--any one may see it. There is not a word in the Holy Scripture of any first-day sacredness. The Sunday inst.i.tution is not a plant of our heavenly Father's planting.
How the Change Came About
There has been no change of the Sabbath by divine authority. Men may choose to rest on any other day, but that cannot make such a day G.o.d's rest day, His holy Sabbath. One cannot change one's birthday by celebrating another day as such. It is a fact of history that on a certain day of the month one was born. That fact cannot be changed by choosing to celebrate another day as the birthday. Just so it is a fact of divine history that G.o.d rested on a given day of the week, and on no other. That made the seventh day His rest day.
It is different from other days in character also, for He blessed it and made it holy. To deny the difference between common days and the holy day is to say that when the great Creator blesses and makes holy, it is a vain performance. That cannot be. It would take away all hope of holiness or salvation for men. The blessing is upon the day, as every soul finds who keeps it by faith.
When men choose to set apart another day than that blessed and sanctified of G.o.d, it is plainly a setting up of the humanly appointed time against the divinely appointed time. It is exalting man's sabbath against G.o.d's Sabbath. It is man exalting himself ”above all that is called G.o.d.” 2 Thess. 2:4.
This was what made the Roman Papacy. The apostle Paul wrote that in his day the spirit of lawlessness was already working. He said it would lead to a ”falling away” from the truth of G.o.d, and the full exaltation of the man of sin. 2 Thessalonians 2. The falling away came. As Dr. Killen (Presbyterian), of Ireland, says in the preface to his ”Ancient Church:”
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SABBATH FROM EDEN TO EDEN
Blessed and sanctified in Eden. Gen. 2:3. Christ the Lord of the Sabbath. Mark 2:28.
Written by G.o.d in His law. Ex. 20:8-11. To be observed in the new earth.