Untitled article by w. c. g.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, September 24, 1867

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 15

“THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH—IS ITS OBSERVANCE BINDING?”

By w. c. g.

(Concluded.) *

In concluding our review of this tract, we find but one point worthy of especial notice which has not already been met and refuted, and that is his attempt to prove that Christ is the lawgiver of this dispensation. If he succeeds in establishing this position of course it will devolve upon him to show when our Saviour gave a distinct law for the government of the people of this dispensation. This he has not done.

It also becomes evident that if Christ is our lawgiver, we are under no obligation to observe anything which he has not directly commanded. To this Mr. B. gives a willing assent, for says he, “Does our lawgiver command us to observe the seventh-day under the gospel?” But let us try this reasoning on some of the other commandments. Does Christ command us to make no graven images? or to take not God’s name in vain? No. By what authority, then, are these binding? or are they binding at all in this dispensation? We leave Mr. B. to answer, and will give his argument on this point entire:

“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” (Deut xviii, 15, 18; Acts iii, 22.) Who is he that Moses and the prophets wrote about? “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” He then is that prophet: let us hear him. Why should we hear him? Because he shall teach us all that God commands him. We should hear him because he is our lawgiver: “Judah is my lawgiver.” (Ps. lxx, 7.) “For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will save us.” (Isa. xxxiii, 22.) The same one is king, judge, and lawgiver (margin, statutemaker). That one is Jesus Christ. Jesus says the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son*. He also is to be King. To that end he was born; and he is to be ‘King of kings.’ And the same is our lawgiver.

“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” Has Shiloh come? if so, then a lawgiver has departed from between his feet. At that time, also, the scepter departed from Judah. Much the same language the apostle used when he said, ‘It is evident our Lord sprang out of Judah.’ If then we have a lawgiver in this dispensation, let us hear and obey him—for we are commanded so to do—and in all things, not a part. Does our lawgiver command us to observe the seventh day under the gospel? If so, give us chapter and verse. No far-fetched inferences, or guess work; but a ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ If that prophet is to teach us all things, then we are not to go to any other teacher in regard to our duty, but to him for all things or be destroyed from among the people.

The prophet to be raised up for this dispensation is to be like unto Moses. Was Moses a lawgiver? No; only in the sense that he transmitted the laws of God to the people, for the Lord never committed to fallible man the framing of those laws which were to decide the eternal destiny of mankind. Moses was a teacher of the law, the sense in which the word prophet is here used. As Christ was to be like unto Moses, we shall find him also engaged in the laudable occupation of teaching the law. But this pre-supposes the existence of a law which he is to teach, and what can this be other than the great and perfect law which God spoke with his own voice and wrote with his own finger. Let us hear the prophet as he teaches the people of this dispensation concerning this great law:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall

be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. v, 17–19.

If Moses and Christ were both lawgivers, together with the Father, then we have three lawgivers, instead of one as declared by the apostle James: “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.” ch. iv, 12. Again, if Christ is our lawgiver, who is our mediator? The apostle John says: “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 Jno. ii, 1. What need have we of an advocate with the Father, if it is not his law that we are transgressing? Mr. B. places himself in a worse position than that of the Roman Catholic, who has an advocate with Christ, i. e. the Pope of Rome!

This idea cannot for a moment be entertained by one who clearly understands the gospel plan of salvation, which consists of “repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are to repent toward God, the Father, whose law we have transgressed, and have faith in Jesus Christ, the Son, who is our “advocate with the Father.”

To strengthen his position, Mr. B. quotes Isa. xxxiii, 22: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us,” and to prove that the word Lord here means Christ, he adds, “the same one is king, judge and lawgiver.” Now were all these offices ever combined in the person of Christ? Never. While on earth he was a prophet, in Heaven he now officiates as priest, and when he comes again he is to be king. Says our opponent, “He is to be king; to that end he was born. He is to be ‘King of kings.’” Very true, but Isaiah declares, “The Lord is our king.” If it should be argued that this is prophetic, and refers to a time when Christ will be king, we would say, the text also declares that “he will save us,” showing that it applies at a time when there is somebody to save, and hence when Christ is a priest and not a king.

Mr. B. closes his tract with an exhortation to his readers to “obey God and keep his commandments.” This we are trying to do; the commandments of the Father, for these are the ones alluded to in Rev. xx, 14. Even according to our opponents, we are doing this, for if their theory is correct, we are only keeping one which is not binding, while we are trying to keep all the rest. But if it should chance to prove that they are not correct, and thus it certainly appears to us, are we not far safer in our position than they in theirs?

We close our review of this tract with a consciousness of having tried, in a spirit of truthfulness and candor, to show the falsity of its teachings, and we hope the Lord will bless the effort to the good of the cause of truth. w. c. g.