There are those who exultingly demand of the Sabbatarian proof from the New Testament that the Sabbath is of divine obligation. “Show us” say they, “from the records of the new covenant that the Sabbath is a gospel institution, and we will keep it.” We think there is a way, a short, a plain, a clear-cut and a well-defined way to do this very thing, and these very men themselves help us do it.
They tell us that Rev. 1:10 recognizes a day of sacred relationship; one demanding of us Christian regard and respect; a day of holy character, of religious convocation, of worship and of rest; in other words, the New Testament recognizes the existence of a sacred day in the gospel dispensation.
To this we all agree; indeed, we insist upon it that this is the truth. We are thus on common ground. Now if the Lord’s day is the seventh day Sabbath, our opponents admit what we have long contended for, and thereby answer what they suppose will puzzle us to do. That it is the Sabbath, is clearly a fact. Ex. 20:10; Isa. 58:13; Mark 2:28.
Therefore we have furnished the testimony, our enemies being judges, and therefore the Sabbath is binding on them, and they have furnished at least half the proof. If the first day of the week is the Lord’s day of Rev. 1:10, the passage proves it an institution binding on Christians; but if it is not, and the seventh day of the week is, then it is an institution binding on Christians. This conclusion cannot be avoided. It is easy to prove that Sunday is not the day of the passage, and that the Seventh Day Sabbath is.