An Honest Investigation

Let me tell you about a consecrated young man whose experience is being repeated today in the lives of many young people. Like his classmates, this youth memorized the Ten Commandments in Sunday school. Then one day he looked at the calendar and happened to notice that the seventh day of the week is Saturday, and that the first day is Sunday! He recalled that the fourth commandment says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord Thy God” (Exodus 20:10). So, since Saturday is the seventh day, Saturday must be the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, he reasoned.

He asked his mother about it. She could not explain it. She just had never thought about it.

Next he inquired of his Sunday school teacher, who said, “Oh, the Sabbath has been changed to the first day of the week.” It seemed strange that the teacher had had his pupils memorize the seventh-day commandment if that was the case. So the young wanted to know where to find the first-day commandment. The teacher was positive it was in the Bible, but said he would have to look it up.

Some weeks passed and his teacher had not yet been able to find the text he was looking for, so the young man visited the deacon. The deacon said, “Oh! The calendar has been changed. Time was lost way back there, and so we can’t tell which is the seventh day. The seventh day is the Sabbath, all right, but we don’t really know which is the seventh day.” This was very confusing.

In desperation the young man went to see his pastor. Here he would surely get it straight, he thought. The kindly pastor said, “Don’t let it worry you, son because one day is just as good as another. All days are holy.”

“Has the Sabbath been changed on the calendar?” queried the boy further.

“Oh, no,” replied the pastor. “Calendar adjustments have nothing to do with the weekly cycle. Only uniformed people ever say that. Saturday is the seventh day and Sunday the first day of the week. No question about that.”

[H:Heading 2] The Missing Verse