 
Illustration. John's Vision On Patmos. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Rev. 1:10. 1. From what time was Christ, the Word, associated with God, the Father? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1, 2. 2. By whom were all things created? “Which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” Eph. 3:9. 3. By whom were the worlds made? “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, ... by whom also He made the worlds.” Heb. 1:1, 2. 4. How does Paul again express this same truth? “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, ... all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” Col. 1:16, 17. 5. Was there anything made without Christ? “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:3. [pg 452]6. Was the Sabbath “made”? “And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. 7. Then by whom was the Sabbath made? By Christ. Note.—This conclusion is inevitable. If all things were made by Christ, and without Him was not anything made that was made, and the Sabbath was one of the things that was made, then it follows that the Sabbath must have been made by Christ. This being so, the Sabbath must be the Lord's day. 8. What did God do in the beginning on the seventh day? “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.” Gen. 2:2. Note.—If all things were made by Jesus Christ, then He, with the Father, rested on the first seventh day from all His labor in the work of creation. 9. After resting on the seventh day, what did God do? “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” Verse 3. Note.—And inasmuch as this blessing and this sanctification of the day were a part of the making of the Sabbath, as well as the resting upon the day, these also must have been done by Christ; for the Sabbath was made by Him. 10. How much honor is due to Christ? “That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.” John 5:23. “I and My Father are one.” John 10:30. Note.—In keeping the Sabbath, then, we honor Christ equally with the Father. 11. Did Christ keep the Sabbath? “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16. “I have kept My Father's commandments.” John 15:10. 12. Did Christ's followers keep the Sabbath after His death? “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. [pg 453]13. Did they observe it after His resurrection? “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.” Acts 17:2. See also Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 16:13; 18:1-4, 11. 14. On what day does John say he was in the Spirit? “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.” Rev. 1:10. 15. What day does the commandment say is the Lord's? “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.” Ex. 20:10. 16. By whose Spirit did the prophets write? “The Spirit of Christ which was in them.” 1 Peter 1:11. 17. What does the prophet Isaiah, speaking for God through this Spirit of Christ, call the seventh-day Sabbath? “My holy day.” Isa. 58:13. 18. Does Christ anywhere in the Scriptures ever claim any other day of the week than the seventh as His? He does not. Note.—We do not need to speculate as to what day is the Lord's, if we will but take the Word of God for our guide, for loyalty to which John was banished to the isle of Patmos. See Rev. 1:9. 19. If John, therefore, referred to a day of the week, on what day must he have been in the Spirit? The seventh day. Note.—No other day of the week in all the Bible is claimed by God as His day. During the second, third, and fourth centuries of the Christian era, when apostasy came in like a flood, men, without any warrant or command of Scripture, thinking to do honor to Christ and despite to the Jews who crucified Christ, began to neglect the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and to honor the day of the week on which Christ rose from the dead, the first day, as “the Lord's day,” until finally the Sabbath was almost wholly lost sight of, and the Sunday quite generally took its place. But there was no more warrant for this change in the divine and unchangeable law of God than there was for other errors and changes which crept into the professed Christian church during this same time, such as abstaining from meat on Friday in honor of the crucifixion; Mariolatry, or the worship of the Virgin Mary; the mass; purgatory; indulgences; prayers for the dead; saint-worship; and the human vicarship of Christ. There was no more divine authority for one than for the others. All came in through apostasy. The Bible knows but one true and living God, one Lawgiver, one Mediator between God and man, one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, one body, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, and one Sabbath. See Jer. 10:10-12; Rev. 14:6, 7; 1 Tim. 2:5; Eph. 4:4-6; Ex. 20:8-11. |
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