SUNDAY SPORT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 84, 9 May 1949, Page 4

SUNDAY SPORT

Sir, —The question raised by the Whakatane Presbytery regarding Sunday sport not only affects those engaged in such sport, but also those who, like myself, are searchers for truth. Reference is made to the “unjust conflict of loyalties in the lives of young players who wish to be loyal to their church institutions and to God in honouring His day.” All serious people will commend this fundamental principle, but may I ask, which is His day? When God commanded: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy,” He added: “the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God.” (Exodus 20.8-11). Later, Jesus claimed the same Sabbath as His day, saying: ‘The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:28).

By practice and precept He upheld the same Sabath and admonished His followers to keep it after His resurrection. The sacred record shows they did so. Therefore, “loyalty to God in honouring His day” still demands the keeping of His holy Sabbath, the seventh day, as part of His divine law, the ten commandments. Then why Sunday? I have searched without success for Bible authority for Sunday-keeping, for Sunday-sacredness, and for His blessing upon Sunday, but as far as I can discover it is without any divine authority, and as' the Presbytery itself puts it, simply a “church institution” or a “cusaom of worship.” If I should be mistaken, would those concerned kindly enlighten me with the necessary Scripture references showing that Sunday and not the seventh-day Sabbath is now God’s sacred day of rest? Yours etc., CHRISTIAN.