The Change of the Sabbath

Chapter 7- Did Our Saviour Change The Sabbath?

THERE is a general agreement among leading commentators and ministers of nearly all denominations that the Sabbath was kept in the garden of Eden by Adam and Eve. That it came down through the patriarchal age as an institution of Jehovah, unimpaired in its obligation, and that the commandment given on Mount Sinai simply repeats the events which occurred at the close of the first week of time. All Christians believe that the Israelites were under obligation to keep the seventh day till the resurrection of Christ; but concerning its obligation since that time, opinions widely differ. Many Christians believe that the seventh day ceased to be the Sabbath, and that the first day of the week, upon which Christ rose from the dead, took its place as the Sabbath, by divine appointment, to be kept throughout the new dispensation. Others believe that the Sabbath law was abolished, and that we have no sacred day of rest now binding upon us. ChSa 39.1

Before examining the evidence usually adduced in support of Sunday keeping, it may be well to look briefly to the probabilities of the case. Could we reasonably expect that the Sabbath day, which had been kept for four thousand years, would be set aside, and another day, hitherto used for secular purposes, substituted? This would indeed be an act requiring great changes both in the lives and in the habits of the people,-one which would attract universal attention. No one claims that the first day of the week had ever been recognized as a sacred day in any sense whatever among the Jewish people before the crucifixion of Christ. The seventh day had always, from the Exodus up to that point, been recognized by them as a weekly Sabbath. All admit that there never was a period in their history when it was more universally and strictly regarded than during our Savior’s ministry. Indeed, they carried their strictness to a great extreme, till it had become a burdensome yoke. ChSa 39.2

This was the condition of things at the death of Christ, and the disciples and early believers, for several years after the crucifixion, were every one of Jewish birth, trained from their infancy to the strictest observance of the seventh day Sabbath. No Gentile was converted till Cornelius received a visit from St. Peter about three and a half years after the ascension. Acts 10. Now, are we to suppose that all these Jews who believed in Christ suddenly changed their Sabbath day from the one they had always observed, and yet no record whatever was made concerning it? No command whatever for them to do this is claimed by any one. We cannot conceive of anything more improbable. Within a short time after Christ’s ascension, many thousands of pious Jews accepted the gospel. These not only regarded the moral law as binding, but still continued zealous observers of the ceremonial law. Many of them went so far as to teach that Gentiles must be circumcised also, and thus caused the apostles Paul and Barnabas great trouble. They were great sticklers for the rites and services of the law of Moses. Acts 15:1, 5, 21:20, 21. This feeling affected some even of the apostles, so that they requested Paul himself to show his respect for these Jewish customs. They evidently considered every Jewish convert tinder obligation to treat the ceremonial law with deference. ChSa 40.1

Can we suppose, then, without evidence of the strongest kind, that all at once they would drop the observance of the day they had always regarded as the Sabbath, and commence to observe another which they had never kept? Consider what a great change this would imply. The Jewish people had complained bitterly of Jesus because he would not treat with respect their traditions concerning the Sabbath, and tried to make it appear that he was a Sabbath breaker. Because he healed several persons of disease on the Sabbath day, or permitted his disciples to rub out the wheat heads when they were hungry, they made a great outcry, and tried to effect his condemnation. What shall we think, then, of the position which supposes that thousands of his disciples openly broke the Sabbath they had always kept before, and began the observance of the first day of the week as another Sabbath, when no complaint on the part of the Jews can be cited? It is true that not a word of censure can be found in all the gospel history after Christ’s crucifixion because of the disciples’ breaking the Sabbath. When we consider that these very disciples were persecuted bitterly by the Jews, who were most glad to find any occasion against them, would not such an omission be indeed most marvelous if the apostles were not still keeping the seventh-day Sabbath? And is not this fact evidence most positive that they did continue to observe it as before? ChSa 40.2

A change in the observance of a weekly Sabbath from the one which is customary in any community, always marks as peculiar those who do so, If they rest while others are busy, it is quickly noticed; if they work while the great majority rest, they are still more conspicuous. Even in this age of lax Sunday observance, when so many pay but little regard to it, let a person begin to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath, and he will be marked for miles around. He will be watched, and his course commented upon. Ministers in their pulpits will warn their hearers against such an example. And in some instances he will be arrested, if the laws will permit of it, even while men fish and hunt openly and railway trains run regularly, and other business is transacted. ChSa 41.1

What, then, would have been the effect at such a time of Jewish strictness in observing the seventh day, had the disciples no longer kept it, but taken up another day, never before held sacred, as the Sabbath? Every one of them would have been arrested and brought before the magistrates, charged with Sabbath-breaking, and most likely would have been either imprisoned or stoned. The law existing and at that time universally acknowledged as in full authority, would have been on the side of the Jews. But not a single instance of the kind occurred, proving most emphatically that all these disciples continued to observe the seventh day Sabbath as they always had, and as the people around them did. Hence it is utterly improbable that any change in the practice of Sabbath-keeping on the part of the disciples occurred at the time of Christ’s resurrection. ChSa 42.1