AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION

When Christ institutes a new ordinance, as, for instance, the ordinance of baptism, or that of the Lord’s supper, he is careful to give instructions that are so clear that all can understand them, and to leave us his example to give force to his teachings. And the apostles, in teaching and practicing the ordinances of the Saviour, refer to what he did and said. Christ was baptized in Jordan, and taught his disciples to baptize, and at his ascension he commanded to baptize as well as to teach. After that, the apostles practiced baptism, and explained its nature and object, referring to the resurrection of Christ. The Lord’s supper was instituted the memorable night on which Christ was betrayed, and that same night Christ partook of this ordinance with his disciples. And when Paul writes to the church of Corinth on this subject, he thus refers back to Christ as authority: “I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.” And he continues, repeating the words which the Saviour used in instituting this ordinance. Read 1 Corinthians 11; Matthew 26:26-28; Romans 6.RFOS 71.1

Now where do we find so clear instructions from Christ concerning the first day? We do not find in the history of his life that he ever mentioned the first day. Where is the example of Christ in favor of the first day as a new Sabbath? And where is the passage in which the apostles refer to Christ as authority for the establishment of a new Sabbath, or for a change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day?RFOS 71.2