Review of Elds. Law and Delap.
By ISAAC SANBORN
"Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. * But they shall proceed no further; for their folly shall be manifest to all men, as theirs also was." 2 Tim. iii, 8, 9. In the sermons preached recently in Tafton, Wis., one by Eld. Law, Baptist, the other by Eld. Delap, Methodist, we have the following curious contradictory assertions against the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. 1. Elder Law takes the fourth commandment for his text, then very truthfully affirms that the New Testament has nothing to show that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. He then asserts that there is apostolic example for keeping it, but does not tell where this example is to be found. Again he says the fourth commandment does not enjoin the seventh day as the Sabbath, and yet admits that those who keep the seventh day and those who keep the first, both keep the commandment. O consistency! 2. He says very truly that when God says, Remember the Sabbath day, there stands a command of the highest authority. Truth and that command say, that the seventh day is the Sabbath; remember it and keep it holy; and notwithstanding the Elder admits that there is nothing in the New Testament to show that the first day is the Sabbath, yet he refuses to keep the fourth-commandment Sabbath. Eld. Delap says that the Jewish Sabbath, that is the fourth-commandment Sabbath, was instituted at the giving of the manna in the wilderness, and quotes Ex. xvi, 25 to prove it. Because Moses said, Eat that to-day, for to-day is a Sabbath, and therefore it is not THE Sabbath, yet Moses calls it THE Sabbath and THE seventh day, six times in the same connection. It is often said that drowning men will catch at straws. The Elder then admits that the Sabbath of Ex. xvi is the one which God commands in the fourth commandment in Ex. xx, 8, then asserts that it does not correspond with the creation Sabbath. How readest thou? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor 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, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, 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." This is God's reason, which shows conclusively the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was instituted at creation, and not in the wilderness, as Elder D. asserts. How applicable the language of the prophet, "They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Eze. xxii, 26. Elder D. says, Some men say that Constantine changed it, and some say the Pope did it; but he would challenge any man to prove that any of these potentates ever said one word about changing it. Let us see. In Dan. vii, 25, God tells us that the Papal power would think to change it. We will examine the testimony of the Roman Catholic church on this point, and if we find it in harmony with the prophecy which Protestants are agreed applies to that church, we shall receive it as truth. The Catholic Catechism of the Christian Religion, has the following questions and answers on the Sabbath commandment: "QUESTION. What does God ordain by this commandment? ANSWER. He ordains that we sanctify in a special manner, this day on which he rested from the labor of creation. QUES. What is this day of rest? ANS. The seventh day of the week or Saturday; for he employed six days in creation and rested on the seventh. Gen. ii, 2; Heb. iv, 1. QUES. Is it then Saturday that we should sanctify in order to obey the ordinance of God? ANS. During the old Law, Saturday was the day; but the church, instructed by Jesus Christ and directed by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday. So we now sanctify the first and not the seventh day. QUES. Had the church power to make such change? ANS. Certainly, since the Spirit of God is her guide, the change is inspired by the Holy Spirit." Milner's End of Controversy, a Catholic work, has the following: "The first precept in the Bible is that of sanctifying the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Gen. ii, 3. This precept was confirmed by God in the ten commandments: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Ex. xx. On the other hand, Christ declares that he has not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. Matt. v, 17. He himself observed the Sabbath, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day. Luke iv, 16. His disciples likewise observed it. They rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Luke xxiii, 56. Yet with all this weight of scripture authority for keeping the Sabbath, or seventh day holy, Protestants of all denominations, make this a profane day and transfer the obligation of it to the first day of the week or the Sunday. Now what authority have they for this? None whatever, except the unwritten word or tradition of the Catholic Church, which declares that the apostles made the change in honor of Christ's resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon that day of the week." The following is from the Catholic Christian, instructed by Dr. Challoner. "QUES. What are the days which the church commands to be kept holy? ANS. First, the Sundays or Lord's days, which we observe by apostolic tradition instead of the Sabbath, which was Saturday. QUES. What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday preferable to the ancient Sabbath which was the Saturday? ANS. We have for it the authority of the Catholic Church and apostolic tradition." Read carefully the following from the Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, a Catholic Catechism of the first authority, from which I have already quoted. "QUES. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days? ANS. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of, and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church. QUES. How prove you that? ANS. Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church's power to ordain feasts and to command them under sin, and by not keeping the rest by her commanded, they again deny in fact the same power." The following is from the doctrinal Catechism, another Catholic work. "QUES. Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept? ANS. Had she not had such power she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her; she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority." Now will Elder D. still continue to assert that those potentates have never said one word about changing the Sabbath? If he does, who will believe him after reading the testimony here given. The Elder made another curious assertion which we wish to notice; that is, that after the resurrection the people of God never met on the Jewish Sabbath or seventh day for worship. Here we find him contradicting the plain word of God in Acts xiii, 42: "And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." Verse 44. "And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither." Acts xvi, 13. "And Paul as his manner was, went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out58of the Scriptures." Acts xvii, 2. "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Acts xviii, 4. "But they shall proceed no further; for their folly shall be made manifest." How we see this scripture fulfilled almost daily by those who are fighting against God's holy Sabbath. May the Lord have mercy upon them and help them to cease hiding their eyes from the Sabbath, that when the seven last plagues are poured out upon those who worship the beast and his image, they may escape. Rev. xvi, 1-3.