In Defense of the Faith

Chapter 8 — The Sabbath of the New Testament

Mr. Canright the Baptist makes a strong effort to prove that the seventh-day Sabbath was not carried over into New Testament times. We wish to call attention here to some of the very extravagant statements made by him on this point. Let the reader note carefully the following quotations from his book. DOF 122.1

“Strange to say, the duty to keep the seventh day is not once mentioned in the whole New Testament.’—Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, p. 267. DOF 122.2

“On all other points the New Testament is clear and full. In it we have chapter after chapter, epistle after epistle, and book after book packed full of instruction on every Christian duty in every possible phase of it. The duty or the sin covered by each of the other nine commandments is directly named many times over in the New Testament. But the duty to keep the seventh day is not once mentioned.... ‘Another remarkable fact is that the fourth commandment is not repeated in the New Testament, that no Christian was ever commanded to observe it.’”—Ibid., pp. 265, 266. DOF 122.3

This looks pretty bad for the Sabbath, doesnt it? With all these references to the other nine commandments of the moral law, and not even one mention of the Sabbath, or the fourth, commandment. Not even one reference to it “in the whole New Testament”! DOF 122.4

The strange thing is that after making this very positive statement that there is no mention made in the New Testament of our duty to keep the Sabbath, he devotes an entire chapter of his Seventh-day Adventism Renounced (chapter l2) to an effort to refute the New Testament scriptures in which the seventh-day Sabbath is mentioned, and finally admits, on page 273, that it is mentioned fifty nine times by New Testament writers! On page 267 he asserts with great emphasis that there is not one such mention of it; on page 273 he finds that there are fifty-nine such references. Here is a discrepancy that is certainly difficult to understand. DOF 122.5

But let us permit Mr. Canright as a Seventh-day Adventist to reply to Canright as a Baptist on this point also. Before he renounced the moral law and became a no-law advocate, he wrote: DOF 123.1

“It is claimed that nine are referred to while the fourth is, not; but this is false. The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament oftener than any other of the Ten Commandments, being not less than fifty-nine times in all. It is worthy of notice that in all these numerous references not one word is spoken derogatory to the honor and sacredness which it had always possessed.”—The Two Laws, p. 120. DOF 123.2

“The New Testament was written by Christians, in the Christian dispensation, for Christians. It was written by Inspiration; hence it uses Christian language, and tells us what Christians did. Every word of it was written years after the resurrection of Christ. Now let us see what these Christian Scriptures say upon the Sabbath question. [Let the reader keep in mind his later statement that it is not once mentioned.] DOF 123.3

“The Son of God Himself lived upon our earth over thirty years. He worked with His father as a carpenter. He labored six days in a week, and rested upon 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. Returning to the place of His nativity, it is particularly mentioned that He still observed the Sabbath according to His former custom. We have, then, the example of God’s own Son for keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. DOF 123.4

“When questioned on this subject of the Sabbath, He said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man.’ Mark 2:27. And the book of Genesis tells us just when and how God made the Sabbath for man. If it was made for man, it is because man needed it. Next, Christ says of Himself, ‘Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.’ Verse 28. Which day is this?—The seventh, as all know. This, then, is the Lord’s day-the day of which He is Lord. DOF 124.1

“In Matthew 12:1-12, the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath because He disregarded their silly regulations concerning it. He simply taught His disciples to eat upon the Sabbath when they were hungry. Jesus defended what He had done by referring to the example of David and the priests as recorded in the Old Testament, and concluded by saying, ‘Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.’ Verse 12. Thus He recognizes not only the Sabbath, but the law of the Sabbath, in the New Testament. DOF 124.2

“When predicting the overthrow of Jerusalem, which occurred thirty-nine years after His resurrection, He said to His disciples, ‘But pray you that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.’ Matthew 24:20. Here He points them forward thirty-nine years into the gospel age. He, tells them that they will have to flee for their lives, but commands them to pray the Lord that they may not be compelled to flee either in the winter or on the Sabbath day. If they should go in winter, they might perish. But why not flee upon the Sabbath day? If it was not a sacred day, they could flee on ‘that day as well as on any other. This text, then, plainly shows that not only was the Sabbath to exist so many years after the resurrection of Christ, but that it was still to be regarded as a holy day. If not, there would be no’ reason in this command. Here, then, we find a New Testament command from the lips of Jesus Himself for the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. DOF 124.3