Objection 31: Many who were converted to Christianity in apostolic times came out of heathenism and lived in countries where Sabbath keeping was unknown. Hence, it would have been necessary to tell them to keep the Sabbath day, but the New Testament is silent on the point. If the Sabbath is still in force, why was it not mentioned in Christ's reply to the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:17-19), or in the gospel commission (Matt. 28:16-20), or on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), or in the decision of the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15)?
This is simply a variant of a claim made in connection with a number of objections. The churchman who zealously opposes the Sabbath also ardently believes that the first day of the week has been sanctified. Ironically, he attaches tremendous significance to the fact that the New Testament writers nowhere re-issue or reiterate the Fourth Commandment, but he attaches no significance to the fact that Scripture never sanctifies the first day of the week.
The complete silence of all the Scriptures concerning transferring the solemnity of the Sabbath to Sunday sounds more impressive to him on behalf of Sunday than the awesome thunder and lightning of Sinai sounds on behalf of the Sabbath.
One is almost tempted to believe that the objector's repeated statement that the New Testament issues no new command for the Sabbath is intended to draw attention away from the fact that the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is completely silent about a command for Sunday.
But what about those converts from heathenism who needed instruction as to a weekly holy day?
Undoubtedly they did need instruction. So if Sunday were the day to keep holy, where is the record of apostolic instruction saying that? Except for 1 Corinthians 16:1-3, which instructs the Corinthians to lay by some funds on the first day of the week for a future offering for the poor at Jerusalem, there is no suggestion as to anything of any kind, secular or religious, that the apostles ever asked any Christians to do or not to do on the first day of the week. (See Objection 42 for a discussion of 1 Corinthians 16:1-3)
This is strange indeed. One searches the New Testament in vain, not simply for a Sunday command, but for any formula of service, any suggestion of holiness to the day, any counsel on the proper way of living for that day. The point bears repeating: The churches raised up among the gentiles would never have stumbled onto the idea of Sunday sacredness from reading what the apostles wrote.
But what of the seventh day Sabbath? The gentiles, in reading the gospels and other New Testament writings, would have read fifty-nine references to Sabbath, and in those references it is uniformly shown as the weekly day of worship, when Paul and others might most often have preached. They would have read Luke's description of it as “the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. Most of these fifty-nine references are almost casual; that is, they take for granted that their hearers are conversant with the Sabbath.
The other Scriptures available to the early Christians were the Hebrew Scriptures that we call the Old Testament; these had been translated into Greek (the Septuagint) and were simply “the Scriptures” to Jesus and his disciples. (Jesus used solely these Old Testament Scriptures to make the case that He was the Messiah. Luke 24:27) Obviously, there was only one Sabbath in all of these Scriptures, and it was not Sunday.
In view of the fact that the converts from among the gentiles would naturally, based upon all the Scriptures available to them, conclude that the Sabbath should be kept holy, how strange is the silence of the apostles about abolishing the Sabbath—if, as some contend, they actually did preach its abolition.
In the light of these facts it is hardly necessary to examine in any detail the specific texts cited in the objection.
We are supposed to conclude that because the Sabbath command is not mentioned in these texts, therefore it is not in force in the Christian Era. By the same logic we should therefore conclude that if any other of the Ten Commandments are not mentioned in these texts, they likewise are not in force. In Matthew 19, the commandment against idolatry, for example, is not mentioned. Shall we conclude that idols are acceptable? In the gospel commission (Mat. 28) none of the commandments are mentioned. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached a great sermon, but he mentions none of the commandments. Not many of the commandments were mentioned at the Jerusalem council, either.
Now the typical Sabbath objector agrees that nine of the Ten Commandments are binding in the Christian Era, even though he cannot find those nine all listed in these texts. Why may not we be permitted to believe that the fourth is also binding, even though it is not mentioned in these texts?