# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1864_S335
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Doctrine of the Lutheran Church Concerning Sunday. 335

ing evidently to each individual seventh day of the week. In the end he
arrives at saying that it is moral and valid forever, that in counting the
days the seventh is to be reckoned, and that, from whatever day one may
begin to count, the day that is seventh in order and number must be
kept holy — because God created heaven and earth in six days. The
scholastics likewise dispute as though the Sabbath were not so much
abolished as transferred. For they say: as the Jews were bound to the
seventh day, so we are bound, by the same obligation of conscience under
the Third Commandment, to the first day, which is called the Lord's
Day. And hence it is expressly commanded that all the Lord's Days be
kept from evening to evening, as the Sabbath was among the Jews. And
indeed they dispute concerning barbers, who often, in the evening before
Sunday, drag out their work deep into the night, saying that they ought
to be induced to desist from this; yet they are not to be charged with
mortal sin if they afterward extend the feast longer, so that they observe
it for twenty-four hours — just as if it were a moral commandment to
observe it for twenty-four hours straight. But this plainly conflicts with
Paul, Gal. 4:10, Col. 2:16, who says that the Sabbath has been so
thoroughly abolished that we are not bound to any fixed day with regard
to the number seven. As also Isaiah has prophesied, chapter 60:23: There
shall be sabbath after sabbath. It is therefore not a legal necessity in the
New Testament to observe the number seven. . . . Nor does it follow: the
observance of the Sabbath was instituted before the Law of Moses,
therefore it is moral and valid forever. Otherwise the sacrifices and
circumcision would likewise bind us in the New Testament. Rather, that
whole period until the coming of the Messiah was the time of shadows,
of signs, of discipline, etc., even before the Law of Moses. That
circumstance of the seventh day is therefore now abolished, so that we
regard all days alike. Rom. 14:5. Not, however, as though the seventh
day, which was formerly hallowed, were now accursed, so that it would
not be permitted to rest on it and hold church assemblies; as indeed some
Summists foolishly claim, that one may not rest from work on the
Sabbath, lest one Judaize. For the apostles often came together on the
Sabbath, taught, and the like, and in Rom. 14:5 Paul clearly says that
the apostles at first were not opposed to retaining the legal distinction of
days, not out of legal necessity, but in free observance. And therefore
they at first held their assemblies on the Sabbath. Afterward, however,
when, following Gal. 2:4, people began to insist that it was necessary,
that the hallowing of the Third Commandment could and might occur on
no other day, and that those who did not keep the Sabbath day sinned
unto death — then the apostles and Christians, in order to show Christian
liberty not only in word but also by practice and deed, held their
gatherings not on the Sabbath day, so that