Harold S. Paisley
Question: Did God create man with the ability to sin?
Answer: We believe from the Scriptures that while man was made in the image of God in respect to personality and spiritual capacity, he was and remains a creature. The Creator Himself is intrinsically holy and cannot ever be otherwise. He cannot sin! This however, does not include angel or man who by divine purpose have been created with a will to make a choice. Among angelic beings, Satan sinned followed by a multitude of other angels of whom we read "They kept not their first estate" (Jude 6).
As to sin it did not originate with man, but entered the human family by the recommendation of Satan and was adopted by the first man in Eden's Garden (Gen. 3:4-7).
The sad fall of man from innocency reveals the moral nature of man as a created being. His mind and will is manifested in his choice of action. The Edenic fall is the evidence of sin's entrance into the human family. On hearing the voice of the Lord God, Adam's conscience caused him to hide from the holy presence of his divine Creator. The faculties seen in the first man, are the same in all men to this day.
Question: Could it be established in simple language that Christians should observe the first day of the week as a special day above the others?
Answer: There is no simpler method of showing the reasons of the special character of the first day of the week than by tracing various events which transpired on that day, recorded in the New Testament. These are found in the four gospels, the Acts, 1 Corinthians and the book of Revelation. All of the mentions and their associations are of great value to the Lord's people in an age when the Lord's Day is disowned by the world and often desecrated by professing Christians.
The special greetings of the risen Lord on the morning of resurrection was "all hail" which means "O joy" (Matt. 28:9). It is rightfully termed "The Lord's Day" being the day which the Lord has chosen and made in resurrection (Psa. 118:22-24).
In the afternoon of that day, He brought joy as He walked with two downcast believers (Luke 24:13-43). In the evening, He was in the midst of His disciples when gathered together. That evening was the first occasion when He showed the company His wounded hands, feet and side. He also breathed upon them, a special token of the coming of the Holy Spirit Who came on a Lord's Day fifty days hence. Again, it was a day of joy, for they were glad when they saw the Lord (Luke 24:41; John 20:20).
Later in the Acts, on that same day, the first day of the week, a company of believers gathered together to break bread at Troas (Acts 20:7). Paul ministered and they were filled with joy when a dead child was raised to life in the assembly (Acts 20:7-12).
Saints on that day also found joy in giving to the Lord as God had prospered them (1 Cor. 16:2). The last mention of the day reveals a lonely disciple on the isle of Patmos, who although aged and suffering, was so endued by the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Lord Himself that he wrote the book of the Revelation on that Lord's Day. May we value the special day and be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day for worship and witness (Rev. 1:9-11; 19).