p. 42 | Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · February 8, 1894

Christ and the Sabbath.

(Concluded.)

WHOSE POWER SHALL WE ACKNOWLEDGE?

In the observance of the true Sabbath, we acknowledge the divinity, the authority, the power of God manifested in Jesus Christ,—that is to say, we acknowledge the divinity, the power, the authority of Christ. In the observance of the false Sabbath we acknowledge the pretended claim of the Catholic Church which is but the agency of Satan in this matter; we acknowledge the pretended claim and authority of the Catholic Church to the same thing. In the observance of the true Sabbath we acknowledge that our confidence for salvation is in the living God and his power manifested through Christ. In observing the false Sabbath we acknowledge that our trust and confidence for salvation are in that rival power, that rival authority. And any rival to God in Jesus Christ is simply a manifestation of the working of this spirit of Satan. It is Satan who instigates all opposition to God; it is Satan who urges every individual to reject Jesus Christ. And, in this matter of the false Sabbath, the sign of the pretended power, we see this working of Satan, who would steal away from the true God, and from Jesus Christ, in whom he is represented to the world, the homage, the worship belonging to him.

No one who observes the true Sabbath in the true meaning of it, can ever turn away from Jesus Christ. It is the constant acknowledgment of his belief in the divinity, the authority, the saving power, and saving grace of Jesus Christ. But any one who turns away from the true Sabbath, the sign of the true God in Jesus Christ, and turns to the false Sabbath, a sign of the rival power, has turned his back upon the law of God, and upon the temple of God, and worships with his face toward the east.

THE SABBATH A QUESTION OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE TRUE GOD.

It is not simply an observance of days as such, whether we shall stop work upon Saturday, or stop work upon Sunday, but the question is, What God are we to serve? In what power are we to trust? In whom are we depending for deliverance?

It is a question of allegiance to the true God, or allegiance to some rival or pretended power. That is the thing that is in Sabbath-keeping now; and all the people, everywhere, ought to know it. And they will know it; for we read: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and

earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14: 6, 7.

The highest form of worship is in obedience. To worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters, is to yield our obedience to him. And this message, given everywhere, calls attention to the worship of the true God, the Creator, and really contains in it the essence of Sabbath reform, in that it calls upon us to worship the true God, the Creator, by obedience to him, and that we observe the day which is a sign, or a mark, of his creative power. So when this scripture began to be proclaimed in a special manner about half a century ago, out of that grew the Sabbath reform, because the message of the Sabbath was in it. That is the sign, or the mark, of the true God, as opposed to any rival of any kind. The observance of the true Sabbath is the sign, or mark, of allegiance to the true God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth.

WHO ARE CHRISTIANS?

Those who knowingly choose the sign of the other power, and who by their lives testify that they accept the mark of the rival power, thereby show that Christ is not dwelling in them, with his sanctifying power, but that they are depending upon some other power for their salvation. It is therefore necessary that the truth in regard to the Sabbath should be proclaimed to all men, that everywhere there might be an understanding choice in this matter; that everywhere men might know what is the sign of the power of God in Christ to save, and might hasten to yield themselves and to put their trust and their confidence in him for salvation, that everywhere it might be proclaimed that a rival power has sought to turn men away from the true God, that a rival power has come in, with the effort to steal away the confidence of men in Jesus Christ as the only Saviour; that they might be shown who the true God is, and what his service really includes.

But the question is asked at once, Are there no Christians except those who keep the seventh day? Have there not been Christians in all ages who never kept the seventh day? Are there not Christians now of every name and denomination who do not keep the seventh day?—Most certainly. Well, then, what difference does it make? and why call attention to this matter now? Notice this; it is the root of the whole matter. He is a true Christian who yields himself to God; he is a true Christian who follows all the light that God causes to shine upon his pathway. We are responsible for the use we make of the light given to us of God. Now when one is a true Christian, he has the desire, he has the disposition, to be conformed to the life of Jesus Christ, and every truth revealed to him concerning the life, the power, the work of Jesus Christ, is what he wants to know. But just as soon as the true Christian receives light which he has not known before, and refuses to obey it, that instant he ceases to be a true Christian. Just as soon as one who is a true Christian, a child of God, receives light, he welcomes that light. The disposition of heart is that he may be perfectly conformed, to the image of God in Christ. But when light comes, and he refuses the light, he turns against God, and is no longer a true Christian; and although up to that moment he may have stood a justified child of God, yet when God reveals to him more light, and says to him, “This is the way, walk ye in it,” and he says, “No,” just then he loses his standing as a justified child of God; just then his Christian experience stops, and it does not make any difference whether the invitation of God to him is to observe the true Sabbath in the true meaning, or whether it is some other duty presented.

Furthermore, the people who are to be prepared for the coming of Christ, who are to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, who are to be translated without seeing death, are to have the character of Christ perfectly wrought in them, so that it shall be said of them, “And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault before the throne of God.” Rev. 14: 5. What did Pilate say of Christ?—“I find no fault in him.” What is said of the people who are ready and are translated at the second coming of Christ?—“They are without fault.” That is to say, they are just like Christ; the character of Christ is wrought completely in them. But in order that this should be so, their lives must be in perfect harmony with the character of God, because Christ was a representation to the world of the character of God. He interpreted God to the world. But the law of God is a transcript of the character of God. It is a statement of what God is, and when the life of man is made in harmony with the law of God, it is then that he is without fault; it is then that he is like Christ. It is therefore necessary that the attention of the people who are to be translated should be called to the fact that in disregarding the Sabbath of the Lord they are, in that point, out of harmony with the life of Christ, and so out of harmony with the character of God; and if they are to be translated without seeing death, and if it is to be said of them that they are without fault before the throne of God, that defect in character must be remedied.

THE SABBATH CONTROVERSY.

And so just before the second coming of Christ the Sabbath truth must be preached; just before the second coming of Christ the people must be told what the meaning of Sabbath-keeping really is, and what day is the Lord’s day, and that, in choosing that day, they thereby take upon themselves the mark indicating that they belong to God; that they are trusting in the power of God in Christ for salvation, as against any rival power. So arises the Sabbath controversy, the calling the attention of the nations to the fact that the seventh day is the Lord’s day, the seventh day is Christ’s day, the seventh day is the day that God in Christ blessed and sanctified, that it has been given as a sign of the power of God in Christ.

TO COMPEL IS SATANIC.

It is a characteristic of Satan to compel, and every effort to compel in any way the consciences of men is Satanic. Every effort to compel the consciences of men in any way, whether it be the Sabbath or any other matter at issue, is Satanic. God wins by the power of love; God leaves every one free to choose; Satan tries to compel. And every law of any kind or nature tending to control, to bind men’s consciences in their relation to God, is purely Satanic. And every effort to put laws upon the statute books of this country, compelling any religious observance whatsoever, is an effort gotten up by, controlled by, and in the interest of, Satan. Every one who by vote or by voice helps on this work of compelling the consciences of men by law, is being used as an agent of Satan. It is purely Satanic from first to last, and the results will be Satanic. That is, these efforts will end in utter ruin and destruction; they will end in the utter ruin of any church that takes hold of them; they will end in the utter ruin of any State that is controlled by them; they will end in the utter ruin of every individual who yields obedience to them.

In every country Sunday laws are coming to the front. At the present time the agitation is world-wide. Everywhere the enforcement of Sunday-keeping by law is being agitated. It is the manifestation of a rival power against Jesus Christ, and the question is for every one, To whom shall I yield my allegiance? and the mark of whose power shall I receive?

The conception of a “civil Sabbath,” or the “civil side of the Sabbath,” is a recent invention, adopted under the stress of the situation, in order to open the door for Sunday laws.

Every effort to compel the conscience is Satanic, and the results will be Satanic. But while there is this power now being manifested in the earth, attempting to control the consciences of men in this very matter of the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath, there is an increasing power in the love of Jesus Christ, and it is drawing souls to him. It is drawing true Christians of every name and denomination to rally around the standard of Prince Immanuel. It is drawing everywhere those who hear the truth; they gladly turn to Jesus Christ and his power in salvation. “There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Our hope can be well founded only when it is founded in Jesus Christ. And the Sabbath of the Lord, the day instituted by Jesus Christ himself, blessed by him, sanctified by him, and hallowed by him, is the sign to every Christian of his power to save. It is the measure of his Christian experience, his growth in grace, and his knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Receive Jesus Christ, the only Saviour, and receive his Sabbath, the sign of what he is to every one who believes in him.