The Apostles Turning to the Gentiles.—Acts 13:44 to 14:1-7

Notes

It is worthy of notice that the Sabbath is mentioned four times in this chapter. In verse 27 it is referred to as the time when the prophets are read in the synagogues. It is said that this is done every Sabbath day. This excludes any day from being called the Sabbath except those days on which the Jews assembled for worship. But the most important point to notice is the fact that the day on which the Jews worshiped is called the Sabbath. The only reason for this is that that is its name. The fourth commandment says that the seventh day is the Sabbath. Ex. 20:10. The seventh day of the week is the only day that the Lord named. All the other days are designated simply by numbers; the seventh has a name—the Sabbath. That should be sufficient to settle the matter, but there is an opinion among some that after Christ came things were entirely changed,—that he came to make a revolution, to overthrow the Father's work and substitute his own. On this see John 4:34; 5:19, 20, etc. But this chapter and other passages show that in the New Testament things have the same names that they do in the Old Testament. The only place where we can learn of Christianity and Christian institutions is in the Bible; therefore, since the Bible calls the seventh day the Sabbath, all Christians are bound to call it the same. Without any controversy over the Old Testament, all Christians must agree that the New Testament was written far into what is commonly known as the Christian era, by Christian men, for the guidance of Christians, and that it was inspired by the Holy Ghost. Therefore the writers of the New Testament did not refer to the seventh day as the Sabbath because they had in their early life been accustomed to so call it, but because that is the name the Holy Spirit gave it in the beginning, and in all time since. No other day than the seventh can be called the Sabbath as long as the Bible is taken as the only standard of Christian faith and practice.