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Sixty Facts for the
Sabbath and Forty Against Sunday
Sixty Bible Facts Concerning the Seventh Day
1. After working
the first six days of the week in creating this earth, the great God
rested on the
seventh day.
(Genesis 2:1-3)
2. This stamped
that day as God's rest day, or Sabbath day, as Sabbath day means rest
day. To illustrate: When a person is born on a certain day, that day
thus becomes his birthday. So when God rested upon the seventh day, that
day became His rest, or Sabbath, day.
3. Therefore the
seventh day must always be God's Sabbath day. Can you change your
birthday from the day on which you were born to one on which you were
not born? No. Neither can you change God's rest day to a day on which He
did not rest. Hence the seventh day is still God's Sabbath day.
4. The Creator
blessed the seventh day. (Genesis 2:3)
5. He sanctified
the seventh day. (Exodus 20:11)
6. He made it the
Sabbath day in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:1-3)
7. It was made
before the fall; hence it is not a type, for types were not introduced
till after the fall.
8. Jesus says it
was made for man (Mark 2:27), that is, for the race, as the word man is
here unlimited; hence, for the Gentile as well as the Jew.
9. It is a memorial
of creation. (Exodus 20:11; 31:17) Every time we rest upon the seventh
day, as God did at creation, we commemorate that grand event.
10. It was given to
Adam, the head of the human race. (Mark 2:27; Genesis 2:1-3)
11. Hence through
him, as our representative, to all nations. (Acts 17:26)
12. It is not a
Jewish institution, for it was made 2,300 years before ever there was a
Jew.
13. The Bible never
calls it the Jewish Sabbath, but always "the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God." Men should be cautious how they stigmatize God's holy rest day.
14.Evident
reference is made to the Sabbath and the seven-day week all through the
patriarchal age. (Genesis 2:1-3; 8:10, 12; 29:27, 28, etc.)
15. It was a part
of God's law before Sinai. (Exodus 16:4, 27-29)
16. Then God placed
it in the heart of His moral law. (Exodus 20:1-17) Why did He place it
there if it was not like the other nine precepts, which all admit to be
immutable?
17. The seventh-day
Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God. (Deuteronomy 4:12,
13)
18. Then He wrote
the commandment with His own finger. (Exodus 31:18)
19. He engraved it
in the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature. (Deuteronomy
5:22)
20. It was sacredly
preserved in the ark in the holy of holies. (Deuteronomy 10:1-5)
21. God forbade
work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times. (Exodus 34:21)
22. God destroyed
the Israelites in the wilderness because they profaned the Sabbath.
(Ezekiel 20:12, 13)
23. It is the sign
of the true God, by which we are to know Him from false gods. (Ezekiel
20:20)
24. God promised
that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath.
(Jeremiah 17:24,25)
25. He sent them
into the Babylonish captivity for breaking it. (Nehemiah 13:18)
26. He destroyed
Jerusalem for its violation. (Jeremiah 17:27)
27. God has
pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep it.
(Isaiah 56:6, 7)
28. This is in the
prophecy which refers wholly to the Christian dispensation. (See Isaiah
56)
29. God has
promised to bless all who keep the Sabbath. (Isaiah 56:2)
30. The Lord
requires us to call it "honourable." (Isaiah 58:13) Beware ye who take
delight in calling it the "Jewish Sabbath," "a yoke of bondage," etc.
31. After the holy
Sabbath has been trodden down "many generations," it is to be restored
in the last days. (Isaiah 58:12, 13)
32. All the holy
prophets kept the seventh day.
33. When the Son of
God came, He kept the seventh day all His life. (Luke 4:16; John
15:10). Thus He followed His Father's example at creation. Shall we not
be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son?
34. The seventh day
is the Lord's day. (See Revelation 1:10; Mark 2:28; Isaiah 58:13;
Exodus 20:10)
35. Jesus was Lord
of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), that is, to love and protect it, as the
husband is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her (1 Peter 3:6).
36. He vindicated
the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man's good. (Mark
2:23-28)
37. Instead of
abolishing the Sabbath, He carefully taught how it should be observed.
(Matthew 12:1-13)
38. He taught His
disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was
"lawful." (Matthew 12:12)
39. He instructed
His apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded forty years
after His resurrection. (Matthew 24:20)
40. The pious women
who had been with Jesus carefully kept the seventh day after His death.
(Luke 23:56)
41. Thirty years
after Christ's resurrection, the Holy Spirit expressly calls it "the
sabbath day." (Acts 13:14)
42. Paul, the
apostle to the Gentiles, called it the "sabbath day" in A.D. 45. (Acts
13:27) Did not Paul know? Or shall we believe modern teachers, who
affirm that it ceased to be the Sabbath at the resurrection of Christ?
43. Luke, the
inspired Christian historian, writing as late as A.D. 62, calls it the
"sabbath day." (Acts 13:44)
44. The Gentile
converts called it the Sabbath. (Acts 13:42)
45. In the great
Christian council, A.D. 49, in the presence of the apostles and
thousands of disciples, James calls it the "sabbath day." (Acts 15:21)
46. It was
customary to hold prayer meetings upon that day. (Acts 16:13)
47. Paul read the
Scriptures in public meetings on that day. (Acts 17:2, 3)
48. It was his
custom to preach upon that day. (Acts 17:2, 3)
49. The Book of
Acts alone gives a records of his holding eighty-four meetings upon that
day. (See Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4, 11)>
50. There was never
any dispute between the Christians and the Jews about the Sabbath day.
This is proof that the Christians still observed the same day that the
Jews did.
51. In all their
accusations against Paul, they never charged him with disregarding the
Sabbath day. Why did they not, if he did not keep it?
52. But Paul
himself expressly declared that he had kept the law. "Neither against
the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar,
have I offended any thing at all." Acts 25:8. How could this be true if
he had not kept the Sabbath?
53. The Sabbath is
mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine times, and always with
respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament, "the
sabbath day."
54. Not a word is
said anywhere in the new Testament about the Sabbath's being abolished,
done away, changed, or anything of the kind.
55. God has never
given persmission to any man to work upon it. Reader, by what authority
do you use the seventh day for common labor?
56. No Christian of
the New Testament, either before or after the resurrection, ever did
ordinary work upon the seventh day. Find one case of that kind, and we
will yield the question. Why should modern Christians do differently
from Bible Christians?
57. There is no
record that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the
seventh day.
58. As the Sabbath
was kept in Eden before the fall, so it will be observed eternally in
the new earth after the restitution. (Isaiah 66:22, 23)
59. The seventh-day
Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from His own
mouth, and was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai. (See
Exodus 20.) When Jesus began His work, He expressly declared that He had
not come to destroy the law. "Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets." Matthew 5:17.
60. Jesus severely
condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God, while
at the same time they made void one of the Ten Commandments by their
tradition. The keeping of Sunday is only a tradition of man.
Forty Bible
Facts Concerning the First Day of the Week
1.
The very first thing recorded in the Bible is work done on
Sunday, the first day of the week. (Genesis 1:
1-5) This was done
by the Creator Himself. If God made the earth on Sunday, can it be
wicked for us to work on Sunday?
2. God commands men
to work upon the first day of the week. (Exodus 20:8-11) Is it wrong to
obey God?
3. None of the
patriarchs ever kept it.
4. None of the holy
prophets ever kept it.
5. By the express
command of God, His holy people used the first day of the week as a
common working day for 4,000 years, at least.
6. God Himself
calls it a "working" day. (Ezekiel 46:1)
7. God did not rest
upon it.
8. He never blessed
it.
9. Christ did not
rest upon it.
10. Jesus was a
carpenter (Mark 6:3), and worked at His trade until He was thirty years
old. He kept the Sabbath and worked six days in the week, as all admit.
Hence He did many a hard day's work on Sunday.
11. The apostles
worked upon it during the same time.
12. The apostles
never rested upon it.
13. Christ never
blessed it.
14. It has never
been blessed by any divine authority.
15. It has never
been sanctified.
16. No law was ever
given to enforce the keeping of it, hence it is no transgression to work
upon it. "Where no law is, there is no transgression." Romans 4:15. (See
also 1 John 3:4.)
17. The New
Testament nowhere forbids work to be done on it.
18. No penalty is
provided for its violation.
19. No blessing is
promised for its observance.
20. No regulation
is given as to how it ought to be observed. Would this be so if the Lord
wished us to keep it?
21. It is never
called the Christian Sabbath
22. It is never
called the Sabbath day at all.
23. It is never
called the Lord's day.
24. It is never
called even a rest day.
25. No sacred title
whatever is applied to it. Then why should we call it holy?
26. It is simply
called "the first day of the week."
27. Jesus never
mentioned it in any way, never took its name upon His lips, so far as
the record shows.
28. The word Sunday
never occurs in the Bible at all.
29. Neither God,
Christ, nor inspired men ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy
day.
30. The first day
of the week is mentioned only eight times in all the New Testament.
(Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1
Corinthians 16:2)
31. Six of these
texts refer to the same first day of the week.
32. Paul directed
the saints to look over their secular affairs on that day. (1
Corinthians 16:2)
33. In all the New
testament we have a record of only one religious meeting held upon that
day, and even this was a night meeting. (Acts 20:5-12)
34. There is not an
intimation that they ever held a meeting upon it before or after that.
35. It was not
their custom to meet on that day.
36. There was no
requirement to break bread on that day.
37. We have an
account of only one instance in which it was done. (Acts 20:7)
38. That was done
in the night-after midnight. (Verses 7-11) Jesus celebrated it on
Thursday evening (Luke 22), and the disciples sometimes did it every day
(Acts 2:42-46).
39. The Bible
nowhere says that the first day of the week commemorates the
resurrection of Christ. This is a tradition of men, which contradicts
the law of God. (Matthew 15:1-9) Baptism commemorates the burial and
resurrection of Jesus. (Romans 6:3-5)
40. Finally, the
New Testament is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath
day or any sacredness for the first day.
Here, then, are
one hundred plain Bible facts upon this question, showing conclusively
that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord in both the Old and New
Testament.
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