The Constitutional Amendment: or, The Sunday, the Sabbath, the Change, and Restitution / A discussion between W. H. Littlejohn, Seventh-day Adventist, and the editor of the Christian Statesman

by Wolcott H. Littlejohn

Finally—as we have the concession of the writer, that the mention of the term, “first day of the week,” in the texts under consideration, accorded with the use of language as employed twenty years after the crucifixion—let us glance at his proof-texts for ourselves. In doing so, the reader will bear in mind that these texts furnish all the gospel testimony in reference to the supposed repudiation of God’s ancient Sabbath and the substitution of a new one in its place, and also that the terms employed, as stated above, were used with reference to their meaning at the time they were penned.

The first is found in Matt. 28:1-6. In Matt. 28:1, the apostle says: “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.” Now which day, in the parlance of the disciples of our Lord, twenty years after his death, was styled the Sabbath? Which was mentioned by the use of a secular title, whereas, custom, reason, and religion, all warranted and would have seemed to demand the application to it of a religious title, such as Sabbath, or Lord’s day? We leave the reader to answer.

The next scripture is found in Mark 16:1, 2. Here, again, the same distinction is preserved between the holy and the profane. “When the Sabbath was past,” the women who had bought sweet spices came to the sepulcher very early in the morning, the first day of the week. The next passage is in verse 9 of the same chapter, where it is barely stated that Jesus, having risen on the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Did the historian, Mark, ruthlessly wound the feelings of his Christian brethren, by neglecting two splendid opportunities for settling the matter of a change of days for all future generations, or did he not believe in such a change? Which view is the more consistent, under the circumstances, with the manner in which he speaks?

The next test in order, with the context, will be found in Luke 23:54-56, and 24:1. Let the reader turn to these passages in his Bible and examine them carefully. In Luke 23:56, it is stated that the women “rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment;” and in the first verse of the following chapter, it is said that “upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher.” Here, again, Luke—than whom there is no sacred writer who uses terms more frequently with reference to their technical meaning—furnishes us a comment in perfect harmony with that of the others. Mark him; he is very specific. He says the women “rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.” Observe, it is not the “old commandment,” but “the commandment.” But again, What day was it upon which they rested? It was the Sabbath day. How did it stand related in the order of the week to the first day? It was the day before it. Did the women, according to his statement, observe the first day? No; for they came to do that upon it which they would not do on the Sabbath, i. e., to embalm the body of Christ. But were they deceived, and was the day on which they came to the tomb, after all, sacred to the Lord, because of the resurrection of Christ, which had occurred early in the morning? Was this indeed the Lord’s day, the Christian Sabbath? And had the old Sabbath expired at the cross (Col. 2:16) before the deluded women rested upon it? Then we inquire again, Why should an inspired apostle pass by unimproved this magnificent opportunity for recognizing the new order of things by dropping that plain, unpretending “first day of the week,” and stating for the benefit of posterity that the day on which they repaired to the sepulcher was the Sabbath of the commandment, as changed by the authority of Christ?

The remaining passages are those of John 20:1, 19. Here, once more, it is stated that “the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early to the sepulcher,” and also in the 19th verse, that Jesus met with his disciples in the evening of the first day of the week. In these words, John, the beloved disciple, like all before him, alludes to the day as though it were a common one.

Thus we have seen that the four gospel historians all unite in ignoring the sacred title of Sunday, if it had any, and merely designate it by its proper numeral; while three of them call the seventh day the Sabbath, and locate it in the week as the day which precedes the first.

Now we appeal to the candid reader in view of these facts, and ask him to decide which day of the week was looked upon as peculiarly sacred at the time the gospels were written, provided the gentleman is right in supposing that the historians used language with reference to its acceptance when they wrote, instead of what it meant when the events, which they record, transpired. We believe the verdict will not be long delayed. They call the seventh day “the Sabbath of the commandment.” That commandment, it is conceded, is still binding. If it reads the same now that it did then, the day which was the Sabbath at that time, according to that commandment, is still the Sabbath according to the same commandment. But if that commandment has been changed, we once more challenge the religious world to furnish us a copy of it as it now reads. Until they do so, we shall continue to observe the Sabbath upon which the devout women rested; on which our Lord himself rested in the tomb from his labors; and which four inspired men, twenty years later, more or less, still persisted in calling “the Sabbath.”

STATESMAN’S REPLY.
ARTICLE FOUR.
ARGUMENT FOR THE FIRST-DAY SABBATH FROM THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST.

The testimony brought forward in our last number from the Gospels for the first-day Sabbath finds abundant confirmation in other portions of the New-Testament Scriptures. We shall confine ourselves in this article to the argument drawn from the beginning of the second chapter of the Acts: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” There has been so much discussion of this passage that a somewhat careful consideration of it may be of interest in itself, as well as from its important connection with the subject now specially in hand. In regard to it, we note:

1. The day of the outpouring of the Spirit was the day of Pentecost—not some day preceding or following. The correct rendering of the original words is not, as Lightfoot gives it, “when the day of Pentecost had passed,” nor as Hitzig would have it, “as the day of Pentecost was approaching its fulfillment;” but, “while the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled;” that is, during the progress of that particular day, or, as our authorized English version has it, “when the day of Pentecost was fully come.”