In Defense of the Faith

Jesus versus Human Authority

Mr. Canright quotes from statutes of the kings of England; from Danish and Saxon laws; from Catholic councils; from Emperor Constantine; and a score of so called Catholic Fathers, several of whom are proved impostors and tricksters, in a further effort to bolster up his Lord’s day theory. Now the thing that strikes one as more than passing strange is the fact that, in an effort to prove which day is the Lord’s day, the testimony of almost everyone else is sought except that of the Lord Himself. DOF 142.2

Why not inquire of the Lord as to which is His day? Perchance He would know more about it than the learned writers of dictionaries, the pagan emperor Constantine, or Henry IV of England. Why not at least hear what He has to say about the matter? What harm could it have done for Mr. Canright to tell us what is written in the Book of books about the Lord’s day? Just this: it would have completely upset his entire theory. For the Lord and Mr. Canright the Baptist are not in agreement on this matter. DOF 142.3

Let us first note a statement in the fourth commandment: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Whose Sabbath is it? The Sabbath of the Lord. It is His day. He claims it. As His voice rolled through the earth He declared this one day to be His. When, we inquire, has His voice been heard again, releasing this claim? When did the earth shake with the announcement from the throne that Sunday was now to be substituted for the Sabbath? When? Never! That change was made by man, not God. DOF 142.4

Again the Lord declares: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My “holy day.” Isaiah 58:13. Which day is the Lord’s day? He definitely claims the Sabbath, the seventh day, as His. He declares it to be holy, and calls upon His people not to trample it underfoot and disregard it, as Mr. Canright would so gladly have them do. DOF 143.1

But this is not all. When Jesus was here in the flesh, He made another pronouncement on this question which ‘leaves absolutely no room for doubt or quibbling. His words are recorded in Mark 2:27, 28: “He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of he Sabbath.” So the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. That day, then, must of necessity be the Lord’s day. It is the day which He made for man’s rest and benefit. DOF 143.2

No such claims were ever made by the Lord regarding Sunday. Jesus said nothing about a Sunday Lord’s day. That is found only in the dictionaries, and the musty volumes of history written after the papal apostasy set in. That idea is absolutely foreign to the Bible. Only one Lord’s day is recognized in the Scriptures, and that is the original Sabbath. It was, therefore, the seventh-day Sabbath of which John spoke when he said, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” Revelation 1:10. John was one of those Christians of the early church whom Mr. Canright admits kept the Sabbath during the first century, hence he speaks of that day just as Jesus had spoken of it. Jesus said He was Lord of the Sabbath day, and John records that he had a heavenly vision on that day. How anyone could possibly read Sunday into this text we cannot understand. DOF 143.3

On this point Dr. Summerbell, of the Christian Church, says: DOF 144.1

“Many suppose that they must denominate the first day of the week the ‘Lord’s day; but we have no certain scripture for this. The phrase ‘Lord’s day’ occurs but once in the Bible: ‘I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,’ and there probably refers to the day of which Christ said: ‘The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day,’ as the whole book of Revelation has a strong Jewish bearing.”—N. Summerbell, D.D. (professor of Moral Philosophy, and first president of Union Christian College: editor of the Christian Pulpit, Discussions, Church History), History of the Christian Church, p. 152. DOF 144.2