The Sabbath in the New Testament.
The history of the Sabbath in the New Testament is as much at variance with popular notions as is the history of Sunday. The statement sometimes made that “The Sabbath was never observed after the resurrection of Christ,” contains as much error as can be put into that number of words. Since the facts are in the hands of every reader of the New Testament, only a general summary of them is given here.
Collating the facts, and summing up the case as regards the example of Christ and His Apostles, it stands as follows:
1. During the life of Christ the Sabbath was always observed by Him and by His followers. He corrected the errors and false notions which were held concerning it, but gave no hint that it was to be abrogated.
2. The book of Acts gives a connected history of the recognition and observance of the Sabbath by the Apostles while they were organizing many of the churches spoken of in the New Testament. These references extend over a period of eight or nine years, the last of them being at least twenty years after the resurrection.
3. In all the history of the doings and teachings of the Apostles, there is not the remotest reference to the abrogation of the Sabbath.
Had there been any change made or beginning to be made, or any authority for the abrogation of the Sabbath law, the Apostles must have known it. To claim that there was is therefore to charge them with studiously concealing the truth. And also, with recognizing and calling a day the Sabbath which was not the Sabbath.
Add to these considerations the following facts:
(a) The latest books of the New Testament, including the Gospel of John, were written about the year ninety-five or later. In none of these is there any trace of the change of the Sabbath, nor is the abrogation of the Sabbath law taught in them.
(b) The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament sixty times, and always in its appropriate character.