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
It will now be in place to consider how apostolic precept corresponds
with apostolic example, and that of the churches, in regard to the
seventh day. Colossians 2:16, a most important passage, making
particular mention of the seventh-day Sabbath, yet singularly overlooked
by seventh-day Sabbatarians, now claims our attention for a moment.
Judaizing teachers, so busy everywhere throughout the early church, had
been at work among the Christian disciples at Colosse. They had been
insisting upon the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath of the
Lord. One would think that some of these men had come down to our time
and learned to use very good English. We refer these representatives of
an ancient, but not honorably mentioned, class for instruction to the
apostle’s words to the Colossians: “Let no man judge you in meat or in
drink, or in respect of a holy day [literally, _of a feast_], or of the
new moon, or of the Sabbath days;” _i. e._, of yearly, monthly, or
weekly Jewish celebrations. We do not wait to examine the parallel
passages in Gal. 4:10, and Rom. 14:5, where the obligation of Jewish
observances, including the seventh-day Sabbath, is denied, and where, in
the latter case, to make the argument even stronger, the toleration of
these observances as a weakness is considerately advised. Surely, it is
no wonder that seventh-day Sabbatarians seem not to be aware of the
existence of these portions of the divine word! It cannot be pleasant to
be made to feel that, like the Judaizers of old, they bring themselves
under the sharp rebuke of the inspired apostle by judging Christians in
respect of the seventh-day Sabbath.
We will now sum up this part of the discussion: Admitting that the
Sabbath was instituted in Eden for mankind; that it is of perpetual
obligation; that it was observed by Christ himself before his death, and
by his disciples until his resurrection, as by the Jews of old, on the
seventh day of the week; we have gone on to see that the apostles and
the early church, still having one stated day each week as a holy day,
did _not_ continue the observance of the seventh day. We have seen that
the seventh day, after the resurrection, is mentioned only in connection
with assemblies, in Jewish places of worship, of Jews, Jewish
proselytes, and, in some instances, a larger or smaller addition of
Gentiles, among all of whom the apostle labored as a missionary for the
conversion of souls, and the formation of Christian congregations, or
churches. We have found that no instance can be adduced of the apostles
in their relations to Christian churches, nor of assemblies of Christian
disciples, meeting to observe the seventh day as the Sabbath of the
Lord. On the other hand, we have found them ignoring the seventh day and
honoring another, in perfect harmony with the apostle Paul’s rebuke of
Judaizing teachers who insisted on having Christian disciples observe
the seventh day, and his condescending toleration of their weakness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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