Objection 38: The phrase, “the seventh day,” in the fourth commandment, means simply one day in seven. Therefore I am keeping the spirit of the Sabbath law so long as I keep one day in seven. And is not Sunday one day in seven?
There are some very real reasons why “the seventh day” means a specific day, not simply one day in seven:
1. The Sabbath is based upon the events of the creation week. (Gen. 1:1-2:3) All other time cycles are tied to the movements of celestial objects—the month is measured by the phases of the moon, the year is the time it takes the earth to orbit the sun—but the Sabbath exists only in reference to the creation week. Now, in reference to that first week we ask: Was the Sabbath simply one day among the seven days in that first week? No, it was the seventh and last day of that original week. Why would the Sabbath become less specific in succeeding weeks and years and centuries?
The Sabbath command refers back to the creation week, and it is in the historical setting of that week that the phrase “the seventh day” must be understood. God did not simply rest one day in seven in the creation week. He rested on the seventh day of that week.
2. The Sabbath memorializes a certain historical event, the completion of the creation of this world, and God taking a day to rest from His work of creation. Memorial days, if they are to have significance, must be anchored to definite points of time. They are intended to recall a particular day of past history.
For example, to Americans, “the Fourth” means the Fourth of July, not just any old fourth, or the fourth of any month. Why? Because on the fourth of July in 1776, our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, by which we formally severed our bonds from the mother country. What would we think of the man who reasoned that he can keep any “Fourth” and still be commemorating our national independence?
But there are Sunday advocates, devout and sincere men, no doubt, who contend that they are obedient to the Fourth Commandment, which calls for the keeping of the seventh day of the week in honor of God’s having rested from His work of creation, when they keep the first day of the week in honor of the resurrection!
3. No day was so solemnly set before Israel as the weekly Sabbath day. When certain Israelites went out to gather manna on “the seventh day” they were rebuked. (Ex. 16:22-30) When one of them gathered sticks on the Sabbath day he was stoned to death. (Num. 15:32-36) After the return from the Babylonian captivity, the city gates of Jerusalem were closed on Sabbath to prevent commerce, and anyone who tried to skirt this law against commerce on the Sabbath was denounced. (Neh. 13:15-22)
No one told these people, nor did they themselves plead in their defense: “hey, as long as you are keeping one day of the week as a day of rest, it is okay to gather firewood, or manna, or keep your shop open, or buy and sell, on the Seventh day Sabbath.” No, under the theocracy of ancient Israel the law was enforced to keep a specific one of the seven days holy—the seventh day. From that day to this, no one has ever been silly enough to dispute this.
4. Christendom in general believes that our Lord was crucified on Friday, lay in the tomb on Saturday, the 7th day of the week, and rose from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week. How does Luke describe the day on which Christ rested in the tomb? “The Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. That one inspired statement is sufficient to prove that the Jews were keeping the seventh day as their day of rest, and that this was done in accordance with the Fourth Commandment.
5. As noted above, no one doubts that those who lived before Christ kept the seventh day of the week. In other words, "the seventh day" in the command unquestionably meant the specific seventh day of the week. Then, what rational ground can be found for claiming that when Christ came, the plain and specific meaning of the commandment suddenly became vague and nonspecific, and now means merely one day in seven?
No one at the time of Christ or for almost sixteen hundred years afterward ever thought of making so astounding a claim. Until the year AD. 1595, Christians, as certainly as the Jews, understood "the seventh day" in the commandment to mean the seventh day of the week. Far from having any foundation in Scripture, this one-day-in-seven theory was not even heard of until fifteen hundred years after the last of the apostles had gone to his grave.
6. The very phrase "the seventh day" makes evident that a particular day, not merely one day in seven, is meant. If we told a friend that we lived in the seventh house on a certain street, what would we think of him if he went looking for us by knocking on the door of the first house on the block, or on the third, or on the fifth? What would our neighbors think of the sort of friends we had?
7. Over the centuries, Sunday advocates have succeeded in passing laws requiring observance of Sunday. Such Sunday laws have always been based upon the Fourth Commandment. Yet no one who violated such laws was ever given leniency on the basis that he need not rest on Sunday so long as he kept one day of the week as sacred and did no work on it. To the contrary, the makers of such laws have invariably shown themselves ready to imprison the man who should thus interpret the Sabbath as it was enforced by their Sunday laws!
Now a word regarding the matter of “keeping the spirit of the law.” The Bible has much to say about the letter and the spirit, and some have obtained the mistaken idea that the spirit of a law means less than the letter of it, at least as regards divine law, and particularly as regards God's Sabbath law. It is difficult to understand how such an idea has any credence. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the word “spirit” conveys something airy, elusive, or shadowy, and hence the “spirit of a law” means something something only vague and shadowy.
Nothing could be further from the truth. When we speak of keeping the “spirit of the law,” we meaning honoring the principle the law enforces, and honoring it even beyond the letter of the law. The keeping of the spirit of a law requires much more of a man than merely keeping the letter of it. Christ explains that the letter of the law forbids murder, but the spirit of the law forbids even anger and violent language:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother, ‘you fool’ . . . will be in danger of the fires of hell.” Mat. 5:20-25.
How evident that those who keep the spirit of a law go far beyond the letter of it, not by disregarding the letter, but by seeing a greater depth of meaning. Since keeping the spirit of the law might mean going far beyond the letter of the law, no one should be so foolish [pardon my language] as to think that being faithful to the spirit of the law releases him from obeying the letter of it.