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Amazing Facts

The Missing Text

Joe Crews

01 The Missing Text

Millions of people have been searching desperately for a missing quotation.

No 1 living today has actually seen the original version, but it's referred to frequently.

Some deny that the lines were ever written.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about the mysterious missing text.

Hello this is Joe Cruz in the Amazing Facts broadcast, Facts Which Affect You.

How strange it is, friends, that tradition often displaces authoritative truth in the minds of multitudes of sincere people.

Statements have been repeated for years, finally are approved simply because the repetition has given a stamp of authority.

Now this is especially true in the field of religion.

The average Christian, unfortunately, does very little study of the Bible for himself.

His convictions have been formed by listening to his pastor or maybe some other Bible teacher explaining religion.

Now there is nothing wrong in giving attention to the preacher, but, friends, we should put his preaching to the acid test of the Bible.

This matter of eternal life is too important to trust to the interpretations of any other person.

We are admonished to search the scriptures and try the spirits.

Notice this text in 1 Peter 3, 15, Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." Now you put without another text in Isaiah 8, 20, to the law and to the testimony.

If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Now listen, a truly spiritual pastor will urge his flock to study the Bible to test his message.

No man's opinion is worth very much, not even the very best preachers.

The fact is that leading theologians are drifting farther and farther away from that anchor of Bible truth.

Thousands of men who occupy leading pulpits today have lost their faith in the historic scriptures.

For this reason, if for no other, the individual Christian should seek to know the Bible truth for himself, letting the Bible explain and interpret itself.

He must always be able to give an answer for his beliefs and practices.

The average Church member can only defend his faith by saying, Well, my preacher said it, or my church teaches that way.

It is amazing how much religion is taken for granted.

We should never explain our positions by simply saying the church says that this is the way it ought to be.

Repeated practice through generations of time has ingrained some traditions, making them seem almost like inviolate truth.

Some very common religious practices are not even found in the Bible at all.

They have heard misquoted text and vague references, but the Bible statement itself is missing.

And 1 of the strangest cases of this is in the observance of Sunday by millions of people.

The missing text for observing the first day of the week has been the object of long search and long study.

It is now acknowledged by leading Church people and Church men that no biblical authority exists for the practice at all.

The familiar 10 Commandments do indeed set aside a day for worship and rest, But that day is Saturday, the seventh day of the week, not Sunday the first day.

Listen to the words of this law, friends, in Exodus 20, verses 8-11, Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.

6 days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work." Notice, friends, it says plainly the seventh day is the Sabbath.

I am sure that every listener today agrees that Saturday is indeed the day specified here.

The calendar on your wall right now will confirm that fact.

How strange, then, that so many are keeping a different day than the 1 God specified.

They are keeping the first day of the week, not the seventh day of the week.

Friends, here is a perfect example of Church members taking tradition without searching the Bible for themselves.

Now we're certainly interested in knowing for sure which day Jesus observed as the Sabbath.

We won't consider our own convenience in this question at all either.

If Jesus kept Wednesday holy, then you and I ought to be keeping that very same day, friends.

If He commanded the observance of Tuesday, then we should be willing to make that our Sabbath.

Personally, I am not particular which day it is, so long as I know that it is the 1 that He blessed and the 1 that He kept.

Now our purpose today is to approach the Word of God with just 1 unbiased, sincere desire, and that is to find the truth on this question and to know for sure which day is holy.

In other words, what day did Jesus observe?

It says He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.

Now because most of the Christian world keeps Sunday the first day of the week as a day of rest, we are going to investigate the Bible authority for this practice.

If the Scripture indeed teaches Sunday keeping, then certainly we ought to be in the forefront to stand right with it.

It is only fair and honest that we give careful study to every mention of the first day of the week in the New Testament before making any decision.

Now there are only 8 references to Sunday in the whole Bible, and we'll consider them separately.

And if there is any authority, it is bound to appear in 1 of these scriptures.

All right, let's begin reading first from Mark 16, verse 9.

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast 7 devils.

Now friends, here we have the simple historical account of the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week.

The crucifixion, as we know, took place on Friday afternoon, and then Jesus rested in the tomb over the Sabbath.

And early on the first day of the week, Sunday, He rose from the grave.

This forms the basis for the observance of Easter Sunday.

Mary was 1 of the first to discover that He was risen when she came there looking for Him early on that day.

Look at verses 1 and 2 of that same chapter.

16 And when the sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

And very early in the morning the first day of the week they came unto the supplicant at the rising of the sun." Now there is an interesting thing about this text, friends, and that is it contains no intimation that Sunday was to be a special day of rest.

The Sabbath was passed when the first day of the week came, making it very plain to see that Sabbath and Sunday are 2 different days altogether.

But now let's turn to Luke 23, 54-56, and that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.

And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid.

And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the sabbath day according to the commandments.

Now upon the first day of the week very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

Now here again we simply have a reference to the events of that resurrection day.

The women came to see the body of Jesus on Friday afternoon and then they came back, they went home back to their homes to prepare these spices for the actual burial and then notice what they did the next day, Saturday.

It says they rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.

And of course, according to the commandment, the seventh day is the Sabbath, so these women knew nothing about any change of the Sabbath.

They saved their work until the Sabbath was passed, and then they came early the first day of the week to prepare his body for burial.

Now, please remember that this account was written about thirty-five years afterward, giving plenty of time for any change of the Sabbath to be known by everybody.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel writers would have made very clear any new institution in the matter of Sabbath observance.

And since all the Gospels contain the same consistent record of faithful seventh-day Sabbath-keeping, there is absolutely no intimation of any first-day observance.

Now let's turn to the fourth mention of the first day of the week in the New Testament, and we find that in Matthew 28, verse 1.

In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.

Now we should never forget that when the resurrection day came, the Sabbath was already ended.

Still, there is no evidence that Sunday is to be kept holy.

In fact, here we have just a simple historical statement about it and nothing more.

So we move on to our next text in John 20, verse 1.

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher." Now here we have another narrative record of the coming of Mary to that tomb early on Sunday morning, very similar to the other texts we have already considered.

Still no evidence here for Sunday keeping.

Now let's continue our honest search for Bible evidence.

So we go on to the next text, and we find that in John 20, verse 19.

John 20, verse 19, Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." Now I know that this verse has often been misinterpreted to mean that the disciples were meeting to honor the resurrection of Jesus, But the truth of the matter is, friends, that those disciples didn't even believe that Jesus had been raised when they were meeting in the afternoon of that resurrection day.

It was Sunday afternoon just after the resurrection and the early morning of that day, and they were assembled, it says here, in great fear behind locked doors for fear of the Jews.

You see, the rumor had been circulated that the disciples had stolen away the body of the Lord.

No wonder they were terrified in meeting up there to draw comfort and strength from each other.

But now let's read the text to show that they really did not believe that the Master had been raised at all.

This is found in Mark 16, 11, 13, and 14, And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.

And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them.

Afterward he appeared unto the 11, as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

Now, friends, you can see here how utterly mistaken we would be to say the disciples were celebrating some joyful memorial of the resurrection.

They would not even believe until Jesus Himself came in there and appeared personally and invited them to feel the scars in His side.

02 The Missing Text

Full of buster speeches in the United States Senate have sometimes taken on ridiculous proportions.

Talk-a-thon contests have also reported new records of empty, incessant hours of chatter.

But 1 of the longest intellectual discourses on record was delivered by a Roman citizen over 1900 years ago.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about this midnight marathon.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, Facts Which Affect You.

Now today we continue the fascinating search for a missing text of the Bible.

Countless millions have taken it for granted that their religious customs were in perfect harmony with the teachings of historic Christianity.

But, friends, they have assumed that on the basis of tradition rather than on personal Bible study.

History reveals that the majority have generally been wrong in this matter of religious practice.

There's really only 1 sure criteria of truth, and that's the revealed Word of God, the Bible.

No Christian should be without personal conviction based on personal study of that great textbook of truth, the Bible.

Now in our last broadcast, we suggested that few people really understand why they observe Sunday as a religious or holy day.

The average Christian has accepted the authority of Sunday purely on the basis of majority practice.

Yet the Bible commands that we search the scriptures and be able to give a reason for the hope within us.

Every person should know why he is what he is, religiously speaking.

This idea of blind adherence or unthinking submission is a creed which affects our entire life, it is not reasonable, friends, and neither is it biblical.

We want to be sure that our doctrine is based on absolute truth.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And again in John 17, 17 we read, Thy word is truth.

Now here the example of Jesus is set forth as a perfect pattern for us to follow.

The Word of God is also presented as an infallible standard of truth.

So the great question is raised, what day did Jesus keep as a holy day?

And then again, what day is upheld consistently throughout the Bible as the day for Christians to observe?

If we can find the answers to these questions, friends, we'll know what we ought to be doing about the Sabbath today.

First of all, let's read about Jesus' custom in weekly worship, and we read about it in Luke 4, 16, And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.

And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read." Now there it is, plain and clear.

That's the way of the truth and the life on the subject, friends, because Jesus, as a regular practice, observed the Sabbath day.

Without exception, the Sabbath day of the scriptures is the seventh day of the week, or Saturday, as we understand it and know it today.

That is the way it is on our modern calendars as well.

But somebody says, well, maybe that custom was changed after Jesus died.

In order to settle this question, we started an investigation in our last broadcast of every single text in the New Testament which mentions the first day of the week.

Actually of course there are only 8 of those texts, and we completed 7 of them in our previous study.

Not 1 single example was found of Sunday observance in the Bible.

In fact, these first 7 instances actually confirm that Sunday was the day of the resurrection of Jesus and was used just like any of the other ordinary days of the week as far as being kept holy.

It was a work day instead of some holy day.

Now today we will examine that final text, the eighth 1, in the New Testament which mentions the first day of the week.

It is the only text which records a religious meeting on Sunday.

Now, friends, if there is any authority at all for observing this day, we will certainly find it as we look at this final reference.

So let's turn now in our Bibles to Acts 20, verses 7 and 8, and read these words.

And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight.

And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together.

All right, now let's pause here for just a moment.

Here as I mentioned a moment ago, we have the only record of a religious meeting being held on the first day of the week.

If there is any authority for Sunday keeping, we are going to find it right here in this text.

So let's look carefully and honestly at these verses.

First of all, it says that they broke bread on that day.

Now does the breaking of bread mean that the day was holy and that they were observing it as some Sabbath or some sacred occasion?

In fact, we read in Acts 2, verse 46 that those early disciples broke bread daily.

And that fact doesn't imply that it was some holy day at all.

If it was, then every day was holy, because they surely broke bread daily in that early church.

Now, in this instance under consideration, Paul was having a special farewell meeting before going on up to Jerusalem.

The people realized that they had never seen Paul alive again.

In verse 25 he told them in that same chapter that he had the witness of the Spirit, that he would never see their faces again.

So this was a very, very special occasion for him to be with those people, the people that he had really brought to Christ, and he would be with them now for the last time.

And this explains why Paul preached to them all night long.

Certainly that is not a procedure to mark the regular worship services of that day.

But anyway, he preached right on up to midnight, and then the young man was killed, you remember falling out of the window, and he continued preaching afterward until the very break of day.

Now let's ask this question at this point.

When did this meeting take place according to our method of reckoning time?

Now as most of you realize, the Bible method of measuring a day is from sunset to sunset and not midnight to midnight.

Our way is a pagan way which really came in after the days of Jesus, during the Roman pagan period.

The evening and the morning were the original elements of a day, as you will find in Genesis chapter 1.

Now you refer to Leviticus 23, 32, and you will read there that the Sabbath is to be observed from evening unto evening.

So the big question then boils down to this.

If we can find that we will know exactly when we should begin keeping the Sabbath.

It says, And it even when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were sick.

Now there it is, friends, the evening is at sundown.

And if you would like to have further evidence on this point, just read Nehemiah 13, 19, Joshua 10, 26, and 2 Chronicles 18, 34.

In other words, that day, the Sabbath, began at sunset and ended at sunset.

And the first day of the week began at sunset and ended at sunset.

The first day begins at the time we call Saturday evening, at the going down of the sun on Saturday evening, and it continues until the going down of the sun on Sunday evening, and that constitutes the first day of the week.

Now notice that the text says, "...there were many lights in that meeting place where Paul was preaching to them.

This means, of course, that the service was held in the dark portion of that first day, which is what we would call Saturday night.

Paul kept right on preaching until midnight, and at that time, you remember, the young fellow fell down from the loft, he was sitting in the window, apparently listening to Paul preach, and he was killed by falling down.

And after Paul went down and brought the boy back to life, it says that he kept on talking for a long while, even till break of day.

Early Sunday morning, after that all-night meeting with that Church, verse 13 makes it clear that Paul walked about twenty-five miles across the peninsula there to meet the ship at Issos, for there he was to be taken in and go on with them up to Jerusalem.

So here we have clear evidence then that Paul was not holding a regular service at all, and neither did he keep that day holy.

It was a special service in which Paul was preaching to them.

He had the witness of the Spirit that he was to be put to death up there as he made the trip to Jerusalem, so he simply stayed with them as long as he could, and that took him right on through the night even until the breaking of day.

And I suppose 1 of the main reasons we have this story in the Bible is because of the mighty miracle when Paul raised that young fellow from the dead and brought him up alive again at midnight.

We have read and considered every single text which even mentions the first day of the week in the New Testament.

Nowhere have we found any evidence, either in command or example, that we should sanctify Sunday as a day of rest or worship.

On the other hand, teachings and example of Christ and His disciples present irrefutable proof that the Sabbath was to be kept then and it is also to be kept now.

Now you will not find any text in all the Bible that says there was any change made in the day that was appointed by God for men to use for worship.

Now what about Paul, that great apostle of the Gentiles?

He came after Jesus died and after he was resurrected and ascended back to heaven.

Did he observe the same Sabbath as Jesus did and that all the other disciples did before him?

Let him bear witness to that now in Acts 17, 2.

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and 3 Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.

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