The Change of the Sabbath

Luke’s Testimony

Luke speaks of these days as follows: “That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women, also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.” Luke 23:54-56; 24:1. ChSa 45.2

More than twenty years after the supposed change of the Sabbath, this historian, perfectly conversant with the facts of gospel history (Luke 1:3), makes these statements: (1) The day previous to the first day of the week was the Sabbath. (2) It was the “Sabbath day according to the commandment”. (3) The holy women, the affectionate companions of Christ, still kept it as such. (4) They did things on the first day of the week they would not do on the Sabbath, i.e., came to do the laborious work of embalming a dead body, thus showing conclusively that they had not yet learned that any sacredness was attached to Sunday. ChSa 45.3

From these plain facts we must conclude, first, that Luke had not been keeping Sunday as the Sabbath during the twenty-eight years since Christ’s crucifixion, or he would have given it that title, and not called the day before it such. ChSa 46.1

Secondly, if the day before the first day of the week was the “Sabbath day according to the commandment,” as Inspiration says, then most certainly the commandment does not at the same time require or authorize us to keep Sunday. The same command does not require us to keep two different days. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” consequently Sunday is not the Sabbath according to the commandment. ChSa 46.2

Thirdly, this commandment does have an authoritative existence this side of the cross of Christ; for it still required these women to rest on the seventh day. It had not expired when Christ was crucified, nor had it been “nailed to the cross”; for an abolished commandment can require nothing. If it existed one day this side of the cross, it still exists; and no one claims it was abolished unless done at the cross. Therefore, the law requiring the observance of the seventh day Sabbath still exists. Nothing whatever in this connection indicates any change of the Sabbath. ChSa 46.3