Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume IMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume I
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Bible. Deuteronomy -- Commentaries
We are persuaded that the enemy of God and of His Christ has had a
great deal more to do with the conventionalisms of christendom than
many of us are aware; and this it is which makes the matter so very
serious. The reader may perhaps feel disposed to pronounce it mere
hair-splitting to find any fault with the term "Christian Sabbath;"
but he may rest assured it is nothing of the sort: on the contrary, if
he will only calmly examine the matter in the light of the New
Testament, he will find that it involves questions not only
interesting, but also weighty and important. It is a common saying,
"There is nothing in a name;" but in the matter now before us, there
is much in a name.
We have already remarked that our Lord spent the Sabbath in the grave.
Is not this a telling and deeply significant fact? We cannot doubt it.
We read in it, at least, the setting aside of the old condition of
things, and the utter impossibility of keeping a Sabbath in a world of
sin and death. Love could not rest in a world like this; it could only
labor and die. This is the inscription which we read on the tomb where
the Lord of the Sabbath lay buried.
But what of the first day of the week? Is not it the Sabbath on a new
footing--the Christian Sabbath? It is never so called in the New
Testament. There is not so much as a hint of any thing of the kind. If
we look through the Acts of the Apostles, we shall find the two days
spoken of in the most distinct way. On the Sabbath, we find the Jews
assembled in their synagogues for the reading of the law and the
prophets: on the first day of the week, we find the Christians
assembled to break bread. The two days were as distinct as Judaism and
Christianity; nor is there so much as a shadow of Scripture foundation
for the idea that the Sabbath was merged in the first day of the week.
Where is the slightest authority for the assertion that the Sabbath is
changed from the seventh day to the eighth, or first, day of the week?
Surely, if there be any, nothing is easier than to produce it; but
there is absolutely none.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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