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 such was not his language. On the contrary, his statement is, “When
the day of Pentecost was fully come.” Hence, it was the day of
Pentecost, or the great Jewish feast, which is here made to stand out
conspicuously upon the sacred page. If, therefore, we are to decide that
the transaction in question was intended to hallow any particular
twenty-four hours, undeniably they were those within which the Pentecost
fell. But those did not occur regularly upon the first day of the week,
nor was the institution one of weekly recurrence. It was annual in its
return, transpiring one year upon the first, and perhaps the next year
upon the second, and so on, through every day of the week. To reason,
consequently, that, because it happened to take place at this time upon
Sunday, the fact is necessarily significant of a change in the character
of the day, is altogether inconclusive.
That were a cheap logic indeed, which would argue that the Pentecost,
which was mentioned expressly, and the return of which was waited for
with patience, was in no-wise affected, illustrated, or perpetuated, by
the outpouring of the Spirit upon it, whereas, a septenary division of
time—not thought worthy of mention by its peculiar title—was thenceforth
rendered glorious. Stand together, however, they cannot; for, if it were
the Pentecost which was to be handed down in this way to those who
should come after, then it would, of necessity, be celebrated annually,
and not each week; but, if it were the first day of the week which alone
was made the object of divine favor, then why wait until the arrival of
the great annual Sabbath at the end of the fifty days? Why was not some
other first day taken—say one of the six which had already occurred
between the resurrection and that time—in this manner avoiding the
possibility of confusion as to which event was thus honored?
Should it be replied that the Spirit could not be poured out until the
great antitype of the fifty-day feast had been met in Heaven, we answer:
Then it was _this_ event, and not the resurrection, which furnishes the
occasion for the remarkable demonstrations which were manifested before
the people. We repeat again, therefore, that from whatever stand-point
we look at the text, it is the _Pentecost_, and not the first day of the
week, to which, if to anything, it attaches special importance. This is
further demonstrated by the fact that it is to this hour a matter of
grave discussion between theologians whether the day of Pentecost, at
the time under consideration, did really fall upon the first day of the
week or upon some other. Leaving to them, therefore, the delicate and
arduous task of adjusting questions of this nature—which are neither
important in themselves, nor easy of decision—we hasten to glance at
Rev. 1:10. It reads as follows: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,
and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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