The Constitutional Amendment: or, The Sunday, the Sabbath, the Change, and Restitution: A discussion between W. H. Littlejohn, Seventh-day Adventist, and the editor of the Christian StatesmanLittlejohn, Wolcott H.
Religion
The Constitutional Amendment: or, The Sunday, the Sabbath, the Change, and Restitution: A discussion between W. H. Littlejohn, Seventh-day Adventist, and the editor of the Christian Statesman
Littlejohn, Wolcott H.
Sabbath; Seventh-Day Adventists -- Doctrinal and controversial works; Sunday; Sunday legislation -- United States
But now, for the sake of the argument, let us leave all the testimony of
the inspired writers of the New Testament to the first-day Sabbath out
of view. Again we have the vague charge of unwarranted change. Perhaps
the most definite form of this charge is that which makes the change the
work of the little horn in Daniel’s prophecy, chapter seven. But will
the expounder of Daniel be a little more explicit, and tell us who the
historical personage is, and give us the dates and names of history?
Does the little horn represent Antiochus Epiphanes? if so, then, of
course, his change of the law of the Sabbath must have been before the
Christian era. Will our expositor give us some facts just here? If the
little horn means the papacy, then, according to the prophecy itself, it
did not arise until the Roman Empire, represented by the fourth beast,
was broken into ten fragments, represented by the ten horns. The little
horn sprang up after these, and its change of the law of the Sabbath
must date after the fall of the old empire of Rome. But for centuries
before this event, we have the testimony of numerous writers that the
Christian churches everywhere observed, not the seventh, but the first,
day of the week, the Lord’s day. Again we ask for facts, not mere
statements and theories.
Leaving this vague attempt to connect the assumed unwarranted change
with Daniel’s prophesy, we come to what is, if possible, still more
vague and indefinite. A change, it is asserted, was made by some
particular officer or council of the church, as it became corrupt and
began to depart from the practice of the original church of Christ. Who
was this officer? or where did this council meet? But we will not make
unreasonable demands for historical testimony. Let us grant that such an
officer or such a council there was at some time or other. The question
then arises, When did the change take place? In the days of Cyprian, A.
D. 250? The answer is clear. The change most have been made before his
day. Origen and Tertullian, fifty years earlier, knew only the first day
of the week, the Lord’s day, as the Christian Sabbath. Was the change
then made in their day? We might assume that it was, only for the clear
testimony of Irenæus and Justin Martyr, carrying us back another half
century, and the equally explicit testimony of still earlier writers,
carrying us back to the apostles themselves.
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