“In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,” etc., Matthew 28:1. Here we have New Testament testimony upon the subject of what day should be called the Sabbath. It is the day that immediately precedes the first day of the week, therefore the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. This is just what the commandment says: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” And Luke, in speaking of the Sabbath day which immediately preceded that first day of the week in which Christ arose from the tomb, says that the women “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. This item alone should be sufficient to firmly establish anyone who may be wavering concerning the Sabbath in the New Testament.PTUK March 12, 1891, page 89.1

But some may say that this Sabbath was past before the resurrection, and that the change in the day could not take place until Christ had risen and appeared to his disciples. We reply that the resurrection of Christ has nothing to do with the matter. The gospels were all written years after the occurrence of the events which they record, and the names which they give to things must be the names by which the Holy Spirit wishes those things to be known throughout the entire Christian age. With one accord they speak of the seventh day of the week-the day immediately preceding the first day of the week-as “the Sabbath.” The first day of the week they call simply “the first day of the week,” and nowhere in the Bible is it given any other title. Now when the Bible says that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and throughout both the Old and the New Testament it is called the Sabbath, by what authority do men give that title to the first day? How dare men take such liberties with the word of God? The Lord looks with favour only on those who tremble at his word. See Isaiah 66:1, 2.PTUK March 12, 1891, page 89.2

Facts must outweigh conjectures; yet even in the face of the uniform testimony of Scripture, some will argue that “redemption is greater than creation.” Well, suppose for a moment that it is; what has that to do with the Sabbath? How is it possible to find any connection between the alleged fact that redemption is greater than creation, and the Sabbath day. The seventh-day Sabbath rests upon the great fact that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh, and that he afterwards blessed and sanctified that day. Now to make the redemption argument apply to the alleged change of the Sabbath, people must argue like this: “Redemption is greater than creation, therefore the Lord did not bless and sanctify the seventh day.” But says one, “That is nonsense.” Of course it is, and so it is nonsense to argue that anything in God’s plan of redemption can possibly affect the day which He Himself has made holy, and commanded all men to observe.PTUK March 12, 1891, page 90.1

But who knows that redemption is greater than creation? Has it been revealed in the Bible? No. Then what man has known the mind of the Lord so well that he could declare it? Who can fathom infinity, so as to compare two infinite works? No power less than that of an infinite God could create a world, and it requires power to redeem it. And no mind but the mind of God can ever comprehend either work. Then it well becomes poor, ignorant mortals to accept the judgments of God, as “righteous altogether,” and not try to do for Him that which he has not done.PTUK March 12, 1891, page 90.2

The idea that men can commemorate finished redemption by resting on Sunday is a wild one. In the first place it has never been commanded, and that alone is sufficient to condemn it. If it had been commanded, then we should have to observe two days, for no power can ever annul the fact that the seventh day is the sacred rest-day of the Lord. But God has not required another day of rest. The resurrection of Christ is a pledge of the final redemption of all who believe in Him; but it did not mark the close of redemption. Paul says that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:22, 23. And he also says that the possession of the Spirit is simply the pledge of our inheritance, until the purchased possession is redeemed and given to us. See Ephesians 1:13, 14. Only when the saints shall stand around the throne of God, in the kingdom of glory, can they celebrate redemption completed; and those who share that triumph will have lived not according to their own views or preferences, but “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” E. J. W.PTUK March 12, 1891, page 90.3

February 12, 1891

March 26, 1891