Bible Readings — Bible Questions Answered

John and the Lord’s Day

On what day was John in the Spirit? BR-ASI9 298.3

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” Revelation 1:10. BR-ASI9 298.4

Who is Lord of the Sabbath? BR-ASI9 298.5

“The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” Mark 2:28. BR-ASI9 298.6

What, through Isaiah, does the Lord call the Sabbath? BR-ASI9 298.7

“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day.” Isaiah 58:13. BR-ASI9 298.8

Why does the Lord call the Sabbath His day? BR-ASI9 298.9

“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:11. BR-ASI9 298.10

Through whom did God create the world? BR-ASI9 298.11

“God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, . . . by whom also He made the worlds.” Hebrews 1:1, 2. BR-ASI9 298.12

Note.—The Bible recognizes but one weekly Sabbath—the day upon which God rested in the beginning; which was made known to Israel at Sinai (Nehemiah 9:13, 14); was observed by Christ and His apostles; and is to be kept by the redeemed in the new earth. (Isaiah 66:22, 23.) BR-ASI9 298.13

“The sacred name of the seventh day is Sabbath. The truth is stated in concise terms: ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.’ This utterance is repeated in Exodus 16:26, 23:12, 31:15, 35:2, Leviticus 23:3, and Deuteronomy 5:14. On this point the plain teaching of the word has been admitted in all ages. Except to certain special sabbaths appointed in Levitical law, and these invariably governed by the month rather than the week, the Bible in all its utterances never, no, not once, applies the name Sabbath to any other day.”—J. J. Taylor, The Sabbatic Question (Revell), pp. 16, 17. BR-ASI9 298.14

The first day of the week is mentioned but eight times in the New Testament, six of which are found in the four Gospels, and refer to the day on which Christ arose from the dead. (See Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19.) The other two (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) refer to the only religious meeting held on the first day of the week recorded in the New Testament, and to a systematic accounting and laying by in store at home on that day for the poor saints in Judea and Jerusalem. BR-ASI9 299.1

It is evident, therefore, that the Sabbath of the New Testament is the same as the Sabbath of the Old Testament, and that there is nothing in the New Testament setting aside the seventh-day Sabbath, and putting the first day of the week in its place. BR-ASI9 299.2