The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-03-04
VIEWS OF LAYMEN
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The Sabbath DaN OuAsfinn

Mankato. Mimi, February 23.-To
The Free Press: In making reply to
Mr.. Anderson's article in the February
Is issue of The Free Press" want
to say first of all. / am glad to re-
clprocate the spirit Of friendly discus
sion and shall nope that my present
contribution shall neither weary you
nor your readers nor anger my
worthy opponent.
Mr.. Anderson refuses to hear the
word OF the early church leaders con-
corning the practice OF the Christians
OF meeting on Sunday. If we were
discussing the question as to whether
or not the Bible. either Old or New
redness, should honor his position,
but, since the proposition attempted
to prove by citation from Justin Mar
tyr, Ignatius, Barnabass VINO was an
associate of Paul, Eusebius eft. al,
was that Sunday is the day on which
we hold our common assembly" as
the first mentioned puts it, / hold
that my witnesses were bona f1de and
their testimony trustworthy. Get this
distinction. l am not arguing that
Sunday Sacredness." as our Saba
tartan friends state it, is a Bible
Command; in the very beginning OF
this discussion I pleaded for an
every day worship OF God" but what
] am trying to prove is that, with the
establishment of Christianity, which.
by the way, was not accomplished at
the cross, the empty tomb nor within
the first two decades of the Christian
ed away and the Christians had their
assembly on the first day of the
week; this I tried to show by intro
ducing evidence from trustworthy
men who lived during the exact per-
iod of the rise of Christianity and, so
long as their testimony does not con-
tradict the historical statements of
the New Testament, am willing TO
give them the credit of knowing at
least as much about when the early
church met together as some TWEEN
tieth Century exegete 1t makes a
vast difference what we are trying to
prove whether we can arbitrarily
throw out the testimony of reliable
witnesses or not and in this case l
object strenuously to such action and
appeal to the judgment of my read
Anderson signs his article pastor S.
D. A. church" Now if one should
attempt to prove that the Bible COM
mands us to organize Seventh Day
Adventist church. the testimony of all
extra Biblical writer's should be eX-
cluded, but if one should exempt to
prove that group of men and women
HAVE ORGANIZED such an organi-
cation, either with or without Biblical
Biblical witnesses would have to be
admitted. Am l right. reader?
Concerning those eight first day.
scriptures. | fully expected just the
dissertation upon these that we re-
ceived. / could have adduced it my
self from certain Sabbatical literature,
Of which l have a considerable in my
ence between us is that don't swal-
low the conclusions hook, bait, line
and sinker. / shall notice just one
example, the same one Mr.. Anderson
expounds, parroting the leaders of his
cult, namely the meeting upon the
first daq of the week recorded in Acts
j20:7. He uses Gen. lib; Lev. 1882;
Deut. 1876 and Mark 1882 to prove
"the night precedes the day, and the
hear just what these verses say?
"And God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And there
was evening and there was morning
one day" Gen. 1:5. Any hint there
that the day commenced at sunset?"
"It shall be unto you sabbath of
solemn rest and We shall afflict your
at even, from even to even, shall We
keep your sabbath" Lev. 1882. Does
is say here that the "day commenced
at sunset?" But at the place which
Jehovah thy God shall choose, to
cause his name to dwell in, there thou
shalt sacrifice the passover at
even. at the going down Of the SUM-"
Deut 1876. Which proves CD con-
clusively that "the day commenced at
sunset" "And even when the sun did
set they brought unto him all that
were sick" Mark 1882. The first Of the
proof texts 90 says plainly "And
God called the light Day and the
darkness he called Night" The re
ference from Acts says: Upon the
they had lights, for the meeting ran
over into the night, but If this was