These are only a few of the many “reasons” given for keeping Sunday rather than the seventh day. As will be readily surmised, they were not developed in council, but were “sought out” by different individuals as occasion required. We but state the simple truth, however, when we say we have heard every one of the above “reasons” given in a single discourse, and that by a minister who was held in high repute as a man of learning. Whenever the above-mentioned “reasons” seemed unsatisfactory, others were given that were equally unsatisfactory!
In spite of all this, people would wonder why the Bible contains no command for Sunday observance. They think this “new” Sunday-keeping is right, but feel hurt that the Lord had not vouchsafed them one word of encouragement. If only one text could be found, what a relief it would be. Such ones may set their minds at rest. The Rev. J. M. Bailey, D. D., has found out just the reason why the Bible is silent on the subject of first-day observance; and he has given his discovery to the world through the columns of the Morning Star, a Free-Will Baptist journal published in Dover, N. H. He says: —
“It appears that the convocation was changed from the seventh to the first on the very day of the resurrection of Christ. What he said to the disciples about it to convince them, we have no means of knowing. [Italics ours.] He met some of them several times that day, and then appeared in their assembly where they met with closed doors for fear of the Jews, and sanctioned their meeting by breathing on them the Holy Spirit, and sending them forth as the Father had sent him. Probably for fear of the Jews, what he said against Judaism, or in favor of the Christian Sabbath, was not published.”
Do not smile dear reader. This was written in sober earnest, by a learned Doctor of Divinity, for the express purpose of combating the errors of seventh-day keepers. We do not know how he regards his work, but it is our opinion that he leaves nothing more to be said. Before closing we wish to ask, “Who was it that was so fearful?” Was it Christ, who denounced the Jews to their face, calling them hypocrites? Of course he did not fear personal violence to himself. “Was it Peter who feared to tell what Christ did say against the Sabbath and in favor of Sunday?”-he who faced the Jewish Sanhedrin, and, charging that body with the murder of Jesus, only declared that “we ought to obey God rather than man.” Paul was not present on that night, but he was “not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:5), being taught by the Lord Jesus himself. Galatians 1:11, 12. No one can accuse him of fearing to preach the word, and he himself declared that he had not avoided declaring “the whole counsel of God.” Acts 20:27; but he has left nothing on record concerning Sunday-keeping.
We need not pursue the subject further. We will simply say that we too believe that fear operated to a certain extent to prevent the disciples from preaching that the Sabbath was changed. Not the fear of the Jews, but fear of disobeying Christ’s instruction in Matthew 28:19, 20; fear of being found false witnesses of God, and bringing upon themselves the curse recorded in Galatians 1:8, 9
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