fathers that the first day of the week is
the Lord’s day.” Why go to “the early
fathers”? Why not go to the Bible itself?
The Lord’s day is the day of which Christ
is Lord. He said: “The Son of man is
Lord also of the Sabbathday.” Mark 2: 28.
Thus He plainly tells us that the Sabbath
day is the Lord’s day. (See also Luke
6: 5; Matthew 12:8.) Jesus said that,
and the Christian ought to accept His
word in preference to that of the so-
called early fathers. “We ought to obey
God rather than men.” Acts 5: 29. The
apostasy that brought about the at-
tempted change of the Lord’s day from
the Sabbath, the seventh day, to the first
day of the week was already working in
Paul’s day. (2 Thessalonians 2: 1-8.)
It is supposed by some that by the
words “all things whatsoever I have com-
manded you” (Matthew 28:19, 20)
Jesus meant that only the things which
He spoke while personally with the dis-
ciples, were to be regarded as binding
on Christians. Christ was the one who
spoke through the Spirit that inspired the
prophets from earliest times. (1 Peter
1: 10, 11; 2 Peter 1: 19-21.) Christ was
not only one of the Creators of this world
(John 1: 1-4, 10, 14; 17: 5, 24; Colossians
1: 13-17; Hebrews 1: 1, 2; Genesis 1: 26),
who also instituted the Sabbath (Genesis
2: 2, 3; Mark 2: 27, 28), but He was also
with the children of Israel in their wilder-
ness wandering (1 Corinthians 10: 4). He
was in existence before Abraham was.
(John 8: 56, 58.) His life and teachings
are the same as those of His Father.
(John 15:10; Matthew 7: 21-23.) He
not only kept the Sabbath (Luke 4: 16,
31), but He kept it with His disciples
(Mark 1: 21) and told them to continue
to make His holy day a matter of prayer-
ful concern (Matthew 24: 20). During
's ministry He said nothing whatever
. His disciples about keeping the first
day of the week. Consequently Sunday
observance cannot be included in “all
things whatsoever” He commanded His
apostles before His death.
In their arguments, the opponents of
God’s holy day say: “The Sabbath was
given the Jews after they left Egypt.”
NOVEMBER — 1944
Shall We Sin, because We Are Not under
the Law, but under Grace?---1/
HIS LAW?
came to Sinai, the place
“It is easier for heaven and
earth to pass, than one
tittle of the law to fail.”
Luke 16:17.
The fact is that the Israelites
were keeping the Sabbath at
least one month before they
where the Decalogue was
given. (Exodus 16:1, 4,
22-26; 19:1.) The Lord
withheld the manna. God
who had made the Sabbath
(Hebrews 1: 2; Colossians 1:
13-17) in the week of crea-
tion (Genesis 2: 2, 3; Exodus
20: 11), again counted, and
knew which was the Sab-
bath day that He had made
in the beginning. Christ
made the Sabbath. “All
things were made by Him;
and without Him was not
anything made that was
made.” John 1:3. “The
world was made by Him.”
Verse 10. The Sabbath was
made by Him “for man, and
not man for the Sabbath.”
(Mark 2:27.) Man was
made on the sixth day (Genesis 1: 26,
27, 31), and the Sabbath was made on
the seventh. Therefore the Sabbath was
made for man by Christ in the beginning.
It is the Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s
day. (Mark 2:27, 28.) The Sabbath
was sanctified, set apart by God as a holy
day, in the beginning and was un-
doubtedly kept by man for 2,500 years
before Moses’ time. (Genesis 26: 5.) It
was kept in Egypt. The Israelites were
told by Pharaoh to work and not be idle,
not to sabbatize, or rest. (Exodus 5: 4, 5,
AEYSTONE
8, 14, 17.) The phrase, “ye make them
rest” (in verse 5) reads in the Hebrew
text, ‘ye cause them to Sabbatize.”
The ruler demanded work every day of
the week. | )
Moses and Aaron had taught the people
to keep the Sabbath, to rest on God’s
holy day. The Egyptian king and his
associates called it idleness. The conten-
tion between truth and error often has
centered around the Sabbath. Pharaoh
said: “Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore
(Continued on page 15)
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