The Sabbath Not Changed by Henry Balsbaugh

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 7, 1915

The Sabbath Not Changed

By Henry Balsbaugh

Its Identity Not Lost

HENRY BALSBAUGH

THE supposition of so many that the Sabbath has been changed, or that the identity of the day has been lost, is not according to the Scriptures.

The Sabbath is first mentioned at the time of creation as the seventh day and God's rest day. Gen. 2:2, 3. God blessed and sanctified it, which made it a holy day, and in this respect different from the other six days. Therefore we are commanded to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” When “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31), the work of the six previous days was included in what he saw as being “very good,” but he blessed and sanctified only the seventh day. The seventh day is first called the Sabbath in Ex. 16:26.

Self-Evident Truth

The word “remember” signifies something already known. Therefore, in this instance, it refers to the time when God made the seventh day a different day from the other days.

“The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. The purpose of the Sabbath also furnishes a strong proof that it was never changed nor lost. According to the Sabbath commandment (Ex. 20:8-11), God's manifest purpose of the Sabbath is to keep alive in man's mind a memorial of God's goodness and wisdom and power as first shown at the creation of the world. Christ's saying the Sabbath was made for man, is renewed assurance that it was made a means for man's constant good, and that this is a fixed purpose as long as there is a man. This being so, it is evident that Christ contemplated no change of the Sabbath day.

True Witnesses All the Way

About twenty-five hundred years after the Sabbath was made, Moses called attention to the exact day by the fact that on that day God withheld the fall of manna. Ex. 16:25, 26.

In the time of Christ there was no question about the identity of the day. “As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16. In this direct testimony of Christ's time there is a twofold witness for the true day, for, besides this being Christ's custom, it was also the Jews' custom to worship on the Sabbath day. As “the Sabbath was made for man,” this custom shows how God uses man's natural intelligence to help preserve a knowledge of the day he ordained for man.

Christ and the Jews knew the very day. The Jews, as a race, still live, scattered throughout the world. From generation to generation they have naturally and accurately retained a knowledge of the true Sabbath since Christ's time, as truly as from the time of Moses to Christ's time. The Jews, therefore, have been living witnesses in all these generations up to our time, that the seventh day, now called Saturday, is the original Sabbath day.

Many think that changes of calendars have disarranged the week, so making the very day uncertain. In October, 1582, such a change was made to correct ten days of inaccurate reckoning of time, sometimes called “lost time.” The correction was made by calling October 5 October 15. Oct. 5, 1582, was Tuesday, and that Tuesday was then called October 15. Nothing has ever occurred or can occur to change the order of the days of the week. Some months have more days than others, and leap year has a day more than the common year, yet the days of the week always remain the same.

Made for Time and Eternity

In all the prophecies as well as in all the history of the Bible there is not found the least uncertainty regarding the true Sabbath day. In Rev. 14:12 there is a prophecy that reaches to the end of probationary time. It reads, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God.” The commandments of God are the ten commandments. This scripture leaves no room to doubt that all the commandments are meant, the Sabbath commandment as truly as the others.

The fulfillment of this prophecy is just before the second coming of Christ. Read verses 14 and 15. Prophecy being as true as history, this prophecy is another plain proof that until the coming of Christ the Sabbath remains unchanged, and also the knowledge of the exact day.

Another prophecy, Isa. 66:22, 23, carries us into eternity. This scripture connects both time and the Sabbath with eternity. It is doubtless as clear and fitting a proof as can be found anywhere to persuade and convince us that when God made the seventh day his rest day and Sabbath (Gen. 2:2; Ex. 16:26), he made it to continue unchanged and unlost for time and eternity.

These witnesses and proofs, by the providence of God, are full assurance that it is impossible to lose the true Sabbath

day. Whosoever will sincerely and prayerfully heed them may know which day is the Sabbath, for the Bible teaches us to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thess. 5:21.

Because the Sabbath is an evident, great, everlasting truth, let us be persuaded that just as evidently God's watch care is ever upon it to preserve the selfsame day forever.

Jackson, Miss.