Back on March 28, 2023, the Elizabethton Star, a secular newspaper in Tennessee, published an article titled “The Lord’s Day,” in which the author thanked God for Sunday and referred to it as the Lord’s Day. [1] Aubrey Duncan, pastor of the Forsyth New Life Seventh-day Adventist Church in Georgia, took the time to contact the newspaper and submitted an op-ed giving the other side of the Sabbath question. Amazingly, the Elizabethton Star published Pastor Duncan’s reply, in which he defended the true seventh-day Sabbath. [2] Pastor Duncan’s letter to the newspaper is published below:
Seventh-day Adventist Lay Pastor Says Sunday is Not the Lord’s Day
To the Editor:
While most Christians believe that Sunday is the Lord’s Day, the Bible does not support them in any regard. Jesus, who is our Perfect Example, teaches, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore, the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). In His declaration, Jesus was not referring to Sunday, the first day of the week; but rather to His Seventh-day Sabbath given at creation. Indeed, it was on the Seventh-day Sabbath that He uttered these words in opposition to the church leaders who accused Him of violating the Sabbath by allowing His disciples to pluck and eat corn on The Sabbath.
As Christians, we are required to follow Jesus’ example in all areas of our lives. The apostle Peter instructs us, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:21-22). Jesus is our Divine Pattern. It was on the Sabbath day that He announced to the world who He was and the purpose of His mission to planet earth. The Gospel writer Luke reports, “And He [Jesus] 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” (Luke 4:16). The narrative continues with Him reading from the writings of the prophet Isaiah, confirming that He is the Messiah, the Savior of the world.
That same prophet would also write, “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words” (Isaiah 58:13). The Lord of the Sabbath is careful to remind us of which is His day, the Lord’s Day, by encoding it in His Moral Constitution, His Ten Commandments. He writes, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six 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, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). Here, God not only reminds us to honor Him by keeping His holy day; He seals His Constitutional Law by inscribing His name, declaring His title, and identifying the territory over which He rules.
Elizabethton’s article begins with the words: “Sunday is traditionally called “The Lord’s Day.” And indeed, that is correct. Sunday sacredness is a tradition of man and not the word of God. The Bible teaches, from Genesis to Revelation, that the Sabbath-day, the Lord’s Day, is the seventh day, not the first. The sacred word also predicts that as we approach the closing scenes of earth’s history, the Sabbath vs. Sunday issue will become more prominent. The Sabbath/Sunday controversy is beyond which day one chooses to worship; but rather, who has control and authority over your life. Each one will have to make a choice. What will yours be?
No condemnation is intended for the author of the Lord’s Day article nor anyone who embraces Sunday as sacred. Obviously, the author recognizes the need for a special day of worship and praise. That special day, according to God’s word, is the Seventh-day Sabbath and not Sunday.
I invite you to learn more about this issue and get the information you need to make the right decision on this issue of eternal consequences. Visit our website www.sabbathconversations.org
Aubrey Duncan Lay Pastor Seventh-day Adventist Church (This article is in response to the article “The Lord’s Day” published in the STAR Tuesday, March 29, which featured photos and articles by Minister Michael Klaus of a fundraising concert at First Christian Church March 26.) [2]
We praise the Lord for the faithful ministers that God still has who are fulfilling His commission to get this message of truth out through the secular media:
“Men will misrepresent the doctrines we believe and teach as Bible truth, and it is necessary that wise plans should be laid to secure the privilege of inserting articles into the secular papers; for this will be a means of awakening souls to see the truth. God will raise up men who will be qualified to sow beside all waters. God has given great light upon important truths, and it must come to the world” (Evangelism, p. 129).
In a time when His seventh-day Sabbath is being declared null and void, may God continue supplying faithful men and women with the courage to stand and defend the faith in this critical hour of earth’s history.
Sources
[1] https://www.elizabethton.com/2023/03/28/the-lords-day/
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Praise God.
Amen! Thank you Pastor Duncan for taking the time to formulate this reply.
The creator also had his own calendar for creation to go by. Genesis 1:14 he made them the first day and give light to them on the 4th day. Also the creator says we will keep his Sabbath’s with the same method given in Genesis as will be done in the beginning of the new Heaven and new earth. Isaiah 66:22-23. From one new moon to the other and from one Sabbath to the other.
God bless Pastor Aubrey Duncan, his remarks were right on, and explained in a very simple and biblical manner why we, SDA, keep the 7th day, Saturday as our Sabbath. I love the sentence “Sunday sacredness is a tradition of man and not the word of God”
I have many dear friends that are very good Christians and attend Sunday-Keeping churches, I will surely have them read this article.
My Sabbaths are very special and sacred to me, and I thank God every day that I know and keep the true Sabbath. I am also so very grateful that I am aware of the plan of salvation so generously given to all of us by Jesus being crucified on the cross and His resurrection.
I am a happy and joyful Seventh Day Adventist, looking forward to the glorious second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!!
The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. – Ed 57.3
But such a character is not the result of accident; it is not due to special favors or endowments of Providence. A noble character is the result of self-discipline, of the subjection of the lower to the higher nature—the surrender of self for the service of love to God and man. – Ed 57.4
I share truth-filled literature with every new patient that comes to my clinic for services. Even the mailman, the UPS driver, the FedEx driver, and even the dear homeless straggler that wanders into the patient lobby gets the message of the Sabbath in printed form. The late Dr. X, a kind Catholic priest, was given the book, The National Sunday Law as well.🙏🏽
In the words of the hymn writer embedded in the classic, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,”
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming [Advent] of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where His grapes of wrath are stored
He he hath loosed the faithful lightning of His terrible swift sword
His truth [Bible truth] is marching on
The lovely Jesus [EW 77; SR 42] has, is, and will bring to a sleeping church [Matt. 25] and a lost world [John 3:16] the everlasting gospel of Scripture. In just a little while we will be in Heaven [Heb. 10:37]. “For he will FINISH THE WORK, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth [Rom. 9:28].🙏🏽🙏🏽
Praise God for His Watcmen On the Wall’s. Pastor Duncan, you are a special worker for for our Dear Saviour, Jesus Christ. May God continue to bless you as you work for Him and His people. Praise You Lord Jesus for all Ten of Your commandments. My friends, we must Keep the Faith and Focus On Jesus. Happy Sabbath. ☝️🙏💒❤️
As Moses arms were lifted up with the help of the people, so we too must support our godly pastors who are doing the work.
This is what our leaders should be occupied with. Leave all the other foolish worldly distractions alone.
Praise the Lord for Pastor Duncan.
Praise the Lord pastor Duncan for standing tall, let’s sigh against any wrong principle being cherished
Amen!!! We thank God for such encouraging experiences…
Perhaps the strongest New Testament evidence for the binding claims of the seventh-day Sabbath is not only Jesus’ statement that “the Sabbath was made for man” (Mark. 2:27)—thus hearkening back to the Sabbath’s roots in the original creation (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:11)—but also the words of the apostle James: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). In context, the law being described clearly refers to the Ten Commandments (verses 11-12). No evidence can be found that any of the commandments has been abrogated.
Jesus declared of the religious leaders of His day, “In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9). Human commandments represent the sole origin of Sunday observance; not a single Bible verse has ever been produced indicating the change of the original Sabbath to the first day of the week. Thus we are constrained to declare with the apostle Peter: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).