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 — John Shaqi
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
Here is something which certainly has a bearing upon the subject. The
language employed is of thrilling interest. Says the apostle, “I was in
the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” This being uttered about A. D. 95,
determines the point that God has a day in this dispensation, and also
proves that he has but one; since the language would be very indefinite
were there two or more days of such a nature. But by what system of
reasoning is the conclusion reached that this must of necessity be the
first day of the week? Assuredly, it can only be by inference. If it can
first be proved that the day of the resurrection has, by divine
authority, been anywhere styled the “Lord’s day,” then the point is
unquestionably gained. When those words were penned, more than sixty
years had passed since it is claimed that Sunday had been clothed with
divine honor. The whole canon of the New Testament, save the gospel of
John, had been written within that time. Ample opportunity had been
afforded for the work of placing upon record the sacred appellation
which was to be given to that period of time, which, having been
separated from everything of a secular nature, had been elevated to the
dignity of a holy rest. But had this ever occurred? The facts are
briefly these: The first day of the week, as we have seen, being
mentioned eight times in the New Testament, is always spoken of as plain
first day of the week; John himself, writing his gospel after the
appearance of the Apocalypse, everywhere applies to it this unpretending
title. Whenever the term Sabbath is used, on the other hand—as we have
seen that it is fifty-six times in the New Testament—it is applied, with
one exception, to the Sabbath of the commandment, or the seventh day of
the week.
In view of these facts, take a common man, without bias or predilection,
one, if you please, who has never heard of the controversy in question,
place in his hands the Bible without note or comment, let him read the
following texts which confessedly refer to the seventh day of the week,
and we think the verdict which he would render would be decidedly in
favor of the venerable Sabbath of the Lord; of which it is true, as it
is of no other day, that he has again and again claimed it as his own.
The italics are our own. “If thou turn away thy foot from the _Sabbath_,
from doing thy pleasure on _my holy day_; and call the Sabbath a
delight, the _holy of the Lord_, honorable; and shalt honor him, not
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine
own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” Isa. 58:13, 14.
“But the seventh day is the _Sabbath of the Lord thy God_: in it thou
shalt not do any work:” “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore
the Lord _blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it_.” Ex. 20:10, 11.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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