SCRIPTURES
The name “The Lord’s Day” occurs but
once in the New Testament, being found in Rev. 1:10, wherein John recites that
he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” when he heard a great voice commanding
him to write the revelation in a book.
There is a record of a meeting of the
apostles on the “eighth” day found in John 20:26, which day was the Sunday
following the resurrection, at which time Jesus suddenly stood in the midst of
the apostles. This scripture possibly forms the basis for the “eighth” day
ideas of subsequent writers above noted.
In the account of the death of
Eutychus and his restoration to life (Acts 20:7) there is an inference of
established custom in the worlds
“And upon the first day of the week, when
the disciples came together to break bread, Pual preached unto them, ready
to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.”
Paul touches upon the first day of the
week in his first Corinthian letter (I Cor. 16:2) as follows:
“Upon the first day of the week, let
every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be
no gatherings when I come. And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your
letters, them will I send to bring your gift unto Jerusalem.”
The inference seems clear that such
gatherings of freewill offerings as are referred to in the First Apology
[ch. 67] of Justin, above are meant, and that Paul, wishing to save
time, or for some similar reason, desired the gifts for the church at Jerusalem
to be gathered on the usual day of assembly.
In the Epistles to the Galatians, Paul
severely reprimanded the church, charging a reversion to the observance of the
law of Moses. Commencing with the exclamation “O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you?” Paul explained the supplanting of the Mosaic law by the law of
the gospel, and concluded his initial reprimand with the accusation that “Ye
observe days and months and time and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labor in vain.” It is clear reference to the observance of
the Jewish Sabbath (Gal. 4:10) improperly.
There is sound scriptural authority
for the position that the law of Moses was so constructed as prophetically to
prefigure the things of Christ (Heb. 9:9-23; Col. 2:16-17). In the latter
citation the “sabbath days” are said to be a shadow of things to come. With
this thought in mind an exceptionally fine analogy may be drawn upon the
language of Lev. 23:15. At that place the law of Moses ordains:
“And ye shall count unto you from
the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the
wave offerings, seven sabbaths shall be complete; even unto the morrow after
the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new
meat offering unto the Lord.”
The day so calculated was the feast of
Pentecost; and by remarkable coincidence or deliberate prophetic design, it was
on the Sunday which was Pentecost under the law that the Holy Ghost was first
poured out (Acts 2:1-17) when the apostles were “all with one accord in one
place.” It is fully permissible to deduce that the feast of Pentecost was
established under the law of Moses to prefigure a change from Sabbath observe
to observe of the Lord’s Day at the time of the Messiah. If, as the scripture
clearly shows, the paschal lamb prefigured Christ (Ex. 12:3; John 1:29), the
manna from heaven prefigured the Bread of Life (Ex. 16;15; John 6:31-32) and
Adam prefigured Christ (Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:22) it is certainly no less
precise a parallel to see in fifty days, ending on Sunday, the prefigurement of
the new Sabbath after the days of visitation. (Ariel L. Crowley, Statement
of Beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake
City: Deseret News Press, 1961], 116-18, comment in square brackets added for
clarification)
