SABBATHS AND NEW MOONS IN THE NEW EARTH.
The prophet Isaiah thus plainly speaks: For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. Isa. lxvi, 22, 23. A zealous no-Sabbath writer has undertaken to show that the Sabbath cannot be in force now, by an attempt to prove that it is not adapted to the future eternal state. With such men God's words are of no account. The most positive statement of Scripture, directly contradicting their position, does not stagger them in the least. They will set themselves to the work of explaining it away, as deliberately as the Devil undertook to make Eve believe that God meant just the opposite of what he said, when he affirmed that she should not surely die, in the day she partook of the forbidden fruit. The text above quoted from Isaiah is as direct and positive an affirmation, as need be made, that from one Sabbath to another, in the new earth, all flesh shall come up to worship the Lord of hosts. But Mr. W. Sheldon, the great light of the Voice of the West, has a puerile theory to maintain, directly in the way of which stands this declaration of the prophet. So he attempts to parry its force in the following manner: “If this text carries the observance of Sabbaths into the new earth, it also carries the observance of new moons there; and this is certainly carrying the shadow into the sunshine. But I am told this clause simply means from month to month. Then the other merely signifies from week to week. So this dodge is fatal to the seventh-day theory. They do not wish the text to teach the observance of new moons in the future world, and in attempting to escape this, they destroy their own theory. From month to month, and from week to week, instead of new moon observance and Sabbath-keeping is the evident meaning of the text.” Although Mr. S. does not deny that the expression “from one new moon to another,” means from month to month, we will offer a word or two in support of this fact. The Hebrew word here translated new moon, is ghodesh, and occurs in the O. T. two hundred and sixty-five times. Two hundred and forty-six times it is rendered month, and only nineteen times, new moon. The second definition of that word by Gesenius is, “a lunar month.” Hence the Septuagint translate it into Greek by the word μὴν, the leading and primary signification of which, according to all lexicographers, is month. Dr. Akers, commenting upon this verse says: “The word rendered ‘new moon’ in this passage, both in the Hebrew and the Greek of the Seventy, signifies month only, without respect to any particular day. By rendering it new moon, our translators have assumed, without authority, that it means the first day of the month.” This is not, therefore, a “dodge” devised by Seventh-day Adventists to get along with this passage. It is the truth, sustained by competent critical authority, and with it, as with all other Bible truth, their theory is perfectly in harmony. But, says Mr. S., if this means month, then Sabbath means week. How does he know? Has he given any authority? Not a particle. It is a groundless assumption, characteristic of the man; not only without foundation, but contrary to the express meaning of the word. But does the word, Sabbath, never mean week? Yes, under certain well-defined circumstances. And what are they? Ans.: When it is preceded by a numeral adjective denoting the day of the week. Of this construction we have a few examples in the New Testament, where we read of the first day of the week; but the word Sabbath never means week in any other construction. And this is not the construction in Isa. lxvi, 22. There is no numeral adjective there, and the word Sabbath in that place, means Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, the day which God commands us to devote to rest and religious worship. Thus his effort to shield himself and his pitiable theory behind a false criticism, ends in utter failure. Yet he exclaims, “Just think of carrying the fourth commandment into the world to come. ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work [in the new earth], thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy MAN-SERVANT [in the new earth], nor thy MAID-SERVANT [in the new earth], nor thy CATTLE [in the new earth], nor the STRANGER that is within thy gates.’ Will the saints have man-servants and maid-servants in the world to come, either hired servants, or bond servants? Will one class be poorer than the other class, and have to hire out in the kingdom? And will God need to keep a standing prohibition against working them on the Sabbath day? And will the poor ‘cattle’ have to ‘work,’ too, in the new earth? And are there to be ‘strangers’ there?” This childlike sophistry, if we may dignify it with the name, we emphasize just as its author has given it to the world in print. Perhaps he thinks it forcible. If so, he is entitled to pity rather than censure. As to laboring in the new earth, we sincerely trust that we are not, in that eternal world, to slump down like a mass of jelly into a state of helpless and hopeless inactivity. The prophet informs us that we shall build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. Then there will be something to do, and some labor to cease from. So this point is decided; for from the words of inspiration there is, with us, no appeal. And as to the man-servant, could we not possibly keep the Sabbath without one? or a maid-servant? or cattle? or a stranger? We have never known before that these appendages were essential to an observance of that institution. We have no man-servant, either hired or bond; and yet we are trying to keep the Sabbath for all that. We have no cattle, nor beasts of burden, neither cow, sheep, horse, nor oxen; yet we never supposed we must procure these animals before we could keep the Sabbath. It is rarely that we have upon the Sabbath, a stranger within our gates; yet we never think of saying, We cannot keep the Sabbath today; for we have no stranger with us. And suppose there should be none of these things in the new earth, we imagine it would be just possible to keep it there without them! We have shown that the expression from one Sabbath to another refers to the weekly day of rest. And we have a “thus saith the Lord,” that upon this weekly rest-day all flesh [the nations of the saved] shall come up in the glorious new earth to worship before God. And we may add in the language of the angel to John, “These words are true and faithful;” and neither Mr. S., nor any other man, need for a moment think he can overthrow them, any more than he can pluck down the pillars of Heaven.