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IX.
Sabbath
Chapter 99
:
The Lord's Day
1. FROM what time was
Christ, the Word, associated with God, the
Father?
"In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. The same was in the beginning with
God." John 1:1,2.
2. By whom were all
things created?
"Which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God, who created all
things by Jesus Christ." Eph. 3:9.
3. By whom were the
worlds made?
"God, who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son, . . . by whom also
He made the worlds." Heb. 1:1,2.
4. How does Paul again
express this same truth?
"For by Him were all things
created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, . . . all
things were created by Him, and for Him: and
He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist." Col. 1:16,17.
5. Was there anything
made without Christ?
"All things were made by Him; and
without Him was not anything made that was
made." John 1:3.
6. Was the Sabbath
"made"?
"And He said unto them, The
Sabbath was MADE for man." Mark 2:27.
7. Then by whom was the
Sabbath made?
By Christ.
NOTE.-This conclusion is inevitable. If all
things were made by Christ, and without Him
was not anything made that was made, and the
Sabbath was one of the things that was made,
then it follows that the Sabbath must have
been made by Christ. This being so, the
Sabbath must be the Lord's day.
8. What did God do in
the beginning on the seventh day?
"And on the seventh day God ended His
work which He had made; and He rested on the
seventh day from all His work which He had
made." Gen. 2:2.
NOTE.-If all things were made by Jesus
Christ, then He, with the Father, rested on
the first seventh day from all His labor in
the work of creation.
9. After resting on the
seventh day, what did God do?
"And God blessed the seventh day,
and sanctified it: because that in it He had
rested from all His work which God created
and made." Verse 3.
NOTE.-And inasmuch as this blessing and this
sanctification of the day were a part of the
making of the Sabbath as well as the resting
upon the day, these also must have been done
by Christ; for the Sabbath was made by Him.
10. How much honor is
due to Christ?
"That all men should honor the Son,
even as they honor the Father." John
5:23. "I and My Father are one." John
10:30.
NOTE.-In keeping the Sabbath, then, we honor
Christ equally with the Father.
11. Did Christ keep the
Sabbath?
"And He came to Nazareth, where He
had been brought up: and, as His custom was,
He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day,
and stood up for to read." Luke 4:16. "I
have kept My Father's commandments." John
15:10.
12. Did Christ's
followers keep the Sabbath after His death?
"And they returned, and prepared
spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath
day according to the commandment." Luke
23:56.
13. Did they observe it
after His resurrection?
"And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them, and three Sabbath days
reasoned with them out of the Scriptures."
Acts 17:2. See also Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 16:13;
18:1-4, 11.
14. On what day does
John say he was in the Spirit?
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day." Rev. 1:10.
15. What day does the
commandment say is the Lord's?
"The seventh day is the
Sabbath of the Lord." Ex. 20:10.
16. By whose Spirit did
the prophets write?
"The Spirit of Christ which
was in them." I Peter 1:11.
17. What does the
prophet Isaiah, speaking for God through this
Spirit of Christ, call the seventh-day Sabbath?
"My holy day." Isa. 58:13.
18. Does Christ
anywhere in the Scriptures ever claim any other
day of the week than the seventh as His?
He does not.
NOTE.-We do not need to speculate as to what
day is the Lord's, if we will but take the
Word of God for our guide, for loyalty to
which John was banished to the isle of
Patmos. See Rev. 1:9.
19. If John, therefore,
referred to a day of the week, on what day must
he have been in the Spirit?
The seventh day.
NOTE.-No other day of the week in all the
Bible is claimed by God as His day. During
the second, third, and fourth centuries of
the Christian era, when apostasy came in
like a flood, men, without any warrant or
command of Scripture, thinking to do honor
to Christ and despite to the Jews who
crucified Christ, began to neglect the
Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and to
honor the day of the week on which Christ
rose from the dead, the first day, as "the
Lord's day" until finally the Sabbath was
almost wholly lost sight of, and the Sunday
quite generally took its place. But there
was no more warrant for this change in the
divine and unchangeable law of God than
there was for other errors and changes which
crept into the professed Christian church
during this same time, such as abstaining
from meat on Friday in honor of the
crucifixion; Mariolatry, or the worship of
the Virgin Mary; the mass; purgatory;
indulgences; prayers for the dead;
saint-worship; and the human vicarship of
Christ. There was no more divine authority
for one than for the others. All came in
through apostasy. The Bible knows but one
true and living God, one Lawgiver, one
Mediator between God and man, one Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, one body, one Spirit,
one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one
Sabbath. See Jer. 10:10-12; Rev. 14:6,
7; 1 Tim. 2:5; Eph. 4:4-6; Ex. 20:8-11.
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