Three questions have been received since writing this pamphlet, which we propose to answer in a short appendix.
(1.) Is "The Lord's day" spoken of in Rev. 1:1010I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, (Revelation 1:10) a future day into which the Apostle John in vision was projected by the Holy Spirit, or does it refer to the first day of the week, the day that is commonly called Sunday?
We consider there is no question but that it refers to the first day of the week for the following reasons.
First of all, in every case where the phrase, "The Day of the Lord," occurs, it is always with the Greek word, Kurios, which, when applied to a person, means Lord, Master, Owner, Possessor. With the definite article it is equivalent to the Hebrew Jehovah.
If "The Lord's Day" in Rev. 1:1010I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, (Revelation 1:10) were "The Day of the Lord," as setting forth the coming Day of Judgment when man's day has come to a close, it would surely have followed the invariable custom we have pointed out. But in Rev. 1:1010I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, (Revelation 1:10) a different, though cognate, word is used, kuriakos, meaning belonging to a lord or master. It is only twice used in the Scriptures, the case we are considering, and in 1 Cor. 11:2020When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. (1 Corinthians 11:20), "This is not to eat the Lord's Supper."
The Lord's day is sometimes styled the Dominical Day (Dies Dominica). The fact that a different word is used is sufficient to show there is a difference between "The Day of the Lord" and "The Lord's Day."
A further reason is cogent. The Apostle John tells us he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. The Day of the Lord had not come. How could John be in the Spirit on a day that had not arrived? Moreover, John goes on to say that his instructions were to write (1) "The things which thou hast seen," (2) "THE THINGS THAT ARE," (3) and "The things that shall be hereafter." Now "The things that are," are certainly antecedent to the things that shall be hereafter. These things are distinct from each other, and separated as to time. The one is present; the other is future. If John were projected into "The Day of the Lord," how could he write of "The things that are?" Every detail falls into place naturally when "The Lord's Day" is taken as referring to the first day of the week, but when it is taken as meaning "The Day of the Lord," you are forced to accommodate and twist Scripture to make it appear to fit.
AFTER writing of "The things that are" (chapters 2 and 3), we read that John was invited "to come up hither, and I will show thee things that must be hereafter." In vision he would then be in the time that is set forth as "The Day of the Lord." Considering these points of distinction they point very unmistakably to "The Lord's Day" being undoubtedly the first day of the week.
(2.) Are Baptism and the Lord's Supper Jewish ordinances, which cease to be observed when the offer of the Kingdom to Israel is withdrawn?
Baptism-that is, baptism of men and women-as an ordinance was never Jewish at all. From the time of Sinai, the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and the Temple in the land, there was no such baptism as John's, the Forerunner of the Lord. That baptism had to do with his ministry of forerunning, and ended with him. Then we find the Lord baptizing through His disciples on the same lines of John, all preparatory to the Kingdom. But that also passed away in His lifetime on earth.
We come now to one of the prison epistles of the Apostle Paul, the Epistle to the Ephesians, where it says, "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, ONE BAPTISM, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" ( Chapter 4:4-6). Surely the setting of these verses settles once and for all that Christian baptism is for the whole period of the Church's sojourn here on earth. It is put in connection with the one Body and one Spirit. There is not a trace of what is Jewish in Eph. 4:4-64There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:4‑6). If one begins to deny that Baptism is a Christian rite, and relegate it to Judaism, one can only say the door is opened to any kind of wild theory, and to the deadly methods of the Modernists. "There is one Baptism" simply emphasizes that John's Baptism was first, and only Christian Baptism obtains.
As to the Lord's Supper. We remember talking to an aged schoolmaster among the Friends. The Friends neither observe the rites of Baptism nor the Lord's Supper, so greatly do they exaggerate the truth of the Holy Spirit. This Christian Friend made the statement that Baptism was instituted in our Lord's time, and therefore was a Jewish institution, and had no binding force upon Christians.
We replied, "If that be the case, how can you explain why it was the Apostle Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, whose writings bring out the truth of the Christian assembly, had a communication from the Lord Jesus in glory as to the Lord's Supper? (1 Cor. 11:23-3423For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. 27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 33Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. 34And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come. (1 Corinthians 11:23‑34)). Further," we said, "this communication came after the Church was set up on the Day of Pentecost, after the Body of Christ was formed upon earth." The old gentleman had no more to say. He was silenced. The Lord was not authorizing a Jewish ordinance when He made this touching communication from the glory to the Apostle of the Gentiles, who was converted in the Church period. The Lord's Supper is a precious link with the Lord, and woe betide anyone seeking to refuse to it the place of an ordinance in Christianity.
(3.) Are the later epistles of the Apostle Paul to take precedence over his former epistles? The earlier epistles were written during the time the offer of the Kingdom was being made to Israel. Paul's prison epistles were writer after the truth of the Mystery was made known to Paul by special revelation, and contain the special truth of the Church today.
We are sure Paul would not say so. You would need to have Dr. Bullinger's spectacles to see what he saw. The sentence in your question-"the earlier epistles were written during the time the offer of the Kingdom was being made to Israel"—has no foundation in the Scriptures. Certainly the Kingdom could not be offered to the Jews apart from the reception of the King, the Lord Jesus. When the Jews rejected' the King, they rejected the Kingdom. Not till Zechariah is fulfilled will Israel accept their King.
"I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as a man mourneth for his only son" (Chapter 12:10).
You need more than a microscope to see what Dr. Bullinger saw.
Take the prison epistles, and the revelation of the truth of Christ and the Church, the Head of the Body and the members on the earth, does it follow that the Church which was Christ's Body was not in existence then? If so, you must invent a superior Church, or a different body of believers to what was seen on the day of Pentecost. As we have seen, it can only bring in confusion and the discovering of what does not exist, except by the process of twisting and mangling Scripture.
As well might you say that because the account of the Creation was revealed to Moses somewhere about B. C. 1,500, that the creation occurred then, instead of 2,500 years before, if we refer to the reconstruction of the earth "without form and void," or the dateless day when it emerged in all its beauty at the hands of a God who "saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:3131And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31)).
There is one thing certain, if there were some plain statements in Scripture on the line that Dr. Bullinger has put forth, other gifted servants of the Lord would have certainly seen the same. But when hundreds of years go by, and thousands of scholarly, spiritual students of the Word have not seen this truth, or rather this theory, we may be sure it is one of the many wild theories that Dr. Bullinger's fertile but irrational brain discovered, but which has not an atom of foundation in Scripture. The Church was formed by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. There is ONE BODY, and only one; one Body of Christ, one Church of God on earth. To teach other is to mangle and distort the Word of God.
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