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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · September 3, 1867

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 12

“A CHANGE OF THE SABBATH

From the Seventh to the First Day of the Week, Directly Predicted in the Old Testament.”

The following article, with this heading, is sent us by a brother in behalf of opposers of the Sabbath, in his neighborhood. He wishes it noticed in the Review, as they consider it a strong argument in favor of the first day of the week:—

“Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it, and they shall consecrate themselves. And when these days are expired, it shall be that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you saith the Lord your God.” Ezek. xliii, 26, 27.

The following paragraph, from Sawyer’s Moral Philosophy, pertaining to the passage above cited, deserves special attention. The prophet, under the figure of a mystical temple is shadowing forth the glories of the new dispensation. The offering of sacrifices constituted one of the main features of the worship under the old dispensation. When, therefore, the prophet affirms, that from the time of the purification of the altar, and so forward, sacrifices should be offered on the eighth instead of the seventh-day of the week, he designates the former instead of the latter, as the day for public worship under the present dispensation. We can conceive of no other meaning which can legitimately be attached to the prophecy under consideration. In confirmation of these remarks, let the reader now attentively peruse the following paragraphs, containing Mr. Sawyer’s remarks upon the passage above cited.

“This passage relates to the service of the mystical temple seen by Ezekiel. The purging of the altar denotes the expiation made for the sins of men by the death of Christ. Christian worship is described by imagery taken from the worship of the former dispensation. Its description as consisting in the offering of sacrifices and peace offerings is figurative, and these terms are applied to denote Christian worship, because the services to which they refer were the principal parts of Divine worship in the times when the prophecy was written. The performance of Christian worship on the eighth day, and so on, clearly implies that a change was to take place in respect to the Sabbath, by which it would be transferred to the next day, and so on; and that under the Christian dispensation the Sabbath would be observed on the first-day of the week, the first Christian Sabbath being considered as the eighth day of the week, to which it was subjoined.

“This prediction of the change of the Sabbath to the first-day of the week is expressed in figurative terms, but is in the highest degree explicit. It admits clearly of the interpretation which has now been given it, and does not admit of any other.”

With some difficulty we repress our astonishment at such an exposition of scripture as the foregoing, sufficiently to say,

1. That the language of Eze. xliii, 26, 27, has no reference whatever—to the Christian worship of the gospel dispensation. That portion of the book of Ezekiel included between the 40th chapter and the close of his prophecy is simply a conditional promise to Israel which was to be fulfilled to them literally in their own land, previous to the close of that dispensation, provided they should humble themselves before the Lord, repent of their sins, and become ashamed of their past misdoings. But they failed to comply with the conditions upon which this promise of the restoration of their sanctuary and worship was based; for as the prophet says, they were not ashamed; and hence the promise was never fulfilled.

2. But even if it had reference to this dispensation; it could not be made to mean what is here claimed for it. It is directed that the altar should be purged and purified seven days, and then, when it was ready for offerings to be presented upon it, upon the eighth day, and so forward, offerings should be made upon it. So forward, how? Upon every eighth day? No, but upon every day; for the offering of burnt offerings was a daily, not a weekly, service.

3. But allowing it to mean a regularly-recurring period, and not every day, what evidence is there that this period occurs every seventh day? None whatever. For “the eighth day and so forward,” if it means a regularly-recurring period, would mean every eighth day, and not every seventh. It is a complete begging of the question to say it means every seventh-day. And this eighth day would come, one week upon Sunday, the next week upon Monday, the next, upon Tuesday, and so on; hence it would be impossible to confine it to the first-day of the week, coming once in every seven days, or after every interval of six days of labor.

4. Again, how does it happen that Mr. Sawyer while making all the rest of the language so figurative, meaning the Christian worship of the gospel dispensation, takes the “days” to be literal? There is no reason for this except a law of convenience. Here again his theory is out of joint.

5. But if the language is mystical, referring to the worship of this dispensation, what will the objector do with the frequent recurrence of the word Sabbath therein, (see chap. xlvi), by which we know, and all will agree, that Ezekiel, and other Old-Testament writers meant the seventh-day of the week, and no other?

On what ground, then, can the language be claimed to be a prophecy of the change of the Sabbath? On none at all. We have looked at it from every point of view, and so far from its being a fact that the interpretation given it by Mr. Sawyer is the only one it will bear, we find that that interpretation is the sheerest assumption.