"FOURTH REASON. The Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost, which was the first day of the week. Therefore, the first day of the week should be observed instead of the Sabbath of the Lord. Acts 2:1,2.
Admitting that the day of Pentecost occurred upon the first day of the week, it remains to be proved
1. While the day of Pentecost is distinctly named, the day of the week on which it occurred is passed in silence.
2. The disciples had been engaged in earnest prayer for the space of ten days; for the day of Pentecost was fifty days from the resurrection of Christ, and forty of those days he spent with his disciples. Acts 1. Forty days from his resurrection would expire on Thursday, the day of his ascension. A period of ten days after his ascension on Thursday would include two first-days, the last of which would
be the day of Pentecost. If the design of God had been to honor the first day of the week, why did not the Holy Ghost descend on the first of those first-days? Why must the day of Pentecost come before the Holy Ghost could descend? This answer is obvious: It was not the design of Heaven to honor the first day of the week, but to mark the antitype of the feast of Pentecost. Hence the first day of the week is passed in silence.
The slaying of the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month had met its antitype in the death of the Lamb of God on that day. Ex.12; John 19; 1Cor.5:7. The offering of the first-fruits on the sixteenth day of the first month had met its antitype in the resurrection of our Lord on that day, the first-fruits of them that slept. Lev.23; 1Cor.15:20-23. It remained that the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, should also meet its antitype. Lev.23:15-21. The fulfillment of that type is what the pen of inspiration has recorded in Acts 2:1,2. God has spoken nothing in this place respecting a change of his Sabbath. Yet grave men, calling themselves Doctors of Divinity, consider this text one of their strongest testimonies for their so-called Christian Sabbath. They might be profited by this advice of the wise man: "Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Prov.30:6."
J.N. Andrews
