It was never the Divine plan that the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, should be kept as a holy day beyond the Jewish dispensation. Attesting to this conclusion is Exodus 31: 16, "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations". Whenever the phrase "throughout their generation" is used in the Bible, it always refers to the Jewish dispensation. That the ten commandments of which the Sabbath is part belongs to the old covenant is plainly revealed in Deut. 4:13, "And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments. And he wrote them on two tables of stone." The express reference to the ten commandments in connection of doing away with the old covenant is found in II Corinthians 3: 6-14. "Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death written and engraven in stones, was glorious, how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which was abolished: but their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ."
Throughout this description, the Apostle Paul depicts a clear-cut contrast between the old and new covenants, or testaments. He plainly tells us that the old covenant, the ministration of death, was that which was written and engraved in stones - the ten commandments. Then he declares that the old covenant is done away, being done away in Christ. The doing away of the old covenant, the ten commandments, annulled the Sabbath law, the fourth commandment. The objection is raised, however, that if the Decalog, the Ten Commandments, is no longer binding, then we have no standard of right to guide us; that if the fourth commandment, the Sabbath law, is no longer in force, then neither are the commands to refrain from stealing, murder, idolatry, and so on. This objection is invalid in light of the fact that all things revealed in the old covenant having to do with the eternal divine principles of decency, right and justice are also given with even greater emphasis in the perfect law, which is the law of liberty, which is the law of Christ.
In reading the New Testament, we find that Jesus and his inspired apostles taught all the commandments of the Decalog, with the exception of the fourth commandment, the Sabbath law. There is no command in the covenant of Christ for any man to keep the Sabbath. The only day given special recognition in the new covenant is the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, referred to in the scriptures as the Lord's Day. This day is not the Christians' Sabbath, as some assert. The Sabbath, whenever mentioned in the scriptures, always without exception, designates the seventh day of the week. Nowhere in the Bible is it affirmed that the first day of the week is given in place of the Sabbath. It is part of the new covenant and with a new significance, the day which our blessed Lord was raised from death according to Mark 16: 9. It is the day according to the examples the Lord's followers are to break bread, to Only a few years after the death of the last "But Sunday is the day which we hold our set forth in Acts 20: 7, that the Lord's followers are to break bread, partake of the Lord's supper. Only a few years after the death of the Apostle, Justin Martyr wrote, "But Sunday is the day which we hold our common assembly, because it is the first day of the week, and Jesus our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead".
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