FACTS OF FAITH By Christian Edwardson
Chapter 8
The New Testament Rest Day
(80) CHRIST is
"the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6. He has gone all the
way before us, "leaving us an example, that ye should follow His
steps" (1 Pet. 2:21), and "he that saith he abideth in Him ought
himself also so to walk, even as He walked" (1 John 2:6), and all will
admit that the footsteps of Jesus cannot lead any one astray. Let us therefore
agree to follow His steps in regard to Sabbath observance. He worked as a
"carpenter" at Nazareth during "the six working days," but
rested on the seventh-day Sabbath. (Mark 6:2, 3; Eze. 46:1; Luke 4:16.) And
after He began His ministry, He faithfully continued His Sabbath-keeping. (V.
31.)
While He taught His disciples that such necessary work as
eating, healing the sick, or lifting a sheep out of a pit, was lawful to do on the Sabbath days (Matt.
12:1-12), He thereby acknowledged the claims of the Sabbath law, which makes ordinary work not lawful on that day. It was "the Spirit of
Christ" in the prophets (1 Pet. 10, 11) who instructed His people to
"bear no burden on the Sabbath day" through the gates of Jerusalem
(Jer. 17:21, 22, 27). And when foretelling the destruction of that city (which
took place A.D. 70) Jesus warned His disciples saying: "But pray ye that
your flight be not...on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24:20. This warning was
not, as some would have us believe, on account of the gates being closed on
that day, for in the same connection Jesus says: "Let him which is on the
housetop not come down." V. 17. But how could he flee without coming down
from the housetop? There can be only one answer. There was an elevated road
from one flat roof to another on which they could flee till they reached the
wall, where they could be let down. (See Acts 9:25; Joshua 2:15; 1 Sam. 19:12.)
In such a case closed gates could hardly come into consideration. This
instruction shows Christ's sacred regard for the Sabbath, and His anxiety that
His church should keep it properly. A Lutheran minister says:
(81) "When God
gave the third [fourth] commandment,...He designated definitely the seventh
day, which already had been sanctified by Him at creation, as this rest day.
And as Christ says that He had not come to destroy the law )Matt. 5:17), so He
has also in the words of His last prophetic speech (Matt. 24:20), which has
reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the flight of the Christian
church from the doomed city, expressly emphasized the Sabbath, or Saturday, as
the still valid rest day, by saying: 'Pray, that your flight be not on the
Sabbath' (on which day ye according to the third [fourth] commandment should
rest, and not undertake any long journey). For this reason many godly
Christians have solemnly upbraided the Christian church for keeping Sunday
instead of Saturday: it [the church] can have no right to change God's
commandment, and, if in the catechism the whole commandment had been embodied
verbatim in its entire wording from Exodus 20:8-11, as has been done in the
Heidelberg Catechism, then we should still keep the Saturday holy, and not the
Sunday." - "Opbyggelig Katekismus
undervisning," ("Edifying Instruction in the Catechism,")
K. A. Dachsel, pp. 23, 24. Bergen: 1887.
"'Neither on the Sabbath day.' The Jewish Christians
might entertain scruples against traveling on the Sabbath beyond the legal
distance, which was about five furlongs." - "A
Commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark," John J. Owen, D.
D., LL. D., p. 314. New York: Scribner and Co., 1868.
Christ had so carefully instructed His followers about proper
Sabbath-keeping, that they would not even anoint His sacred body on the
Sabbath. They "prepared spices and ointments" on Friday, "and
rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment," but early the next morning,
"the first day of the week," they came to the grave to anoint Him.
(Luke 23:52-56; 24:1.) They left their work unfinished from Friday evening
until Sunday morning, because they "rested the Sabbath day according to
the commandment." Luke wrote this thirty-five years after the
resurrection. Some claim that the Sabbath commandment is not mentioned in the
New Testament. But here we find that it enjoins the keeping of the
"Sabbath" which comes between Friday and the "first day of the
week" and that Christ's followers were keeping it.
(82) The apostles are
entirely silent in regard to any change of the day of rest from the seventh to
the first day of the week. Paul, while working among the Gentiles, knew of no
change. At Antioch he preached on the Sabbath, and when asked by the Gentiles to
preach the same sermon again, he did not suggest a meeting on Sunday, but
waited till "the next Sabbath day." (Acts 13:14, 42, 44.) He knew of
no other weekly rest day than the Sabbath, for he worked at his trade as tent
maker during the "six working days" (Eze. 46:1), but "he
reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the
Greeks" (Acts 18:1-4). And this was his custom. (Acts 17:2.) When he came
where there were no Jewish synagogues, he did not stay in the hustling,
bustling, heathen city on God's holy day, but the record says: "And on the
Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be
made." Acts 16:12, 13. This shows it was a matter of conscience with him
to keep the Sabbath. He says: "Do we then make void the law through faith?
God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31.
If Christ or the apostles had changed the Sabbath from the
seventh to the first day of the week, does it not seem strange that they never
informed us about it in the New Testament, which is the only record they left
us? Could they have neglected to inform us regarding so important a matter?
Paul declares emphatically: "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto
you." Acts 20:20. History reveals that the whole Christian church kept the
seventh-day Sabbath till the seventh century.
No comments:
Post a Comment