p. 10 | The Sabbath a Sign and Seal by Charles Pelmulder

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 30, 1907

The Sabbath a Sign and Seal

By Charles Pelmulder

CHARLES PELMULDER

Of Sanctification

“Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Eze. 20:12. “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” It is not the work of man to make sabbaths. The Sabbath is a divine institution. The great I AM made it, and he blessed it and sanctified it, and appointed it a sign, and has commanded man to hallow (to keep sacred, to reverence) it, that it might be a sign between himself and him, the man, that he, God, is the Lord that sanctifies (makes holy or whole) the man. Both the Sabbath and the man are sanctified through the same source, and, as we shall see, in the same manner, and for the same purpose. The Sabbath is one of those good and perfect gifts from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. This is true of the Sabbath, both as to quality and durability.

In the law the Author is declared to be the creator of the heaven, the earth, and of all things in them. Then God made the Sabbath as the sequel of his works, blessed it and set it apart because that in it he had rested from all his works. God’s works are creative works. “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. . . . He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered.” Ps. 111:2, 4. Every work of God is a good and perfect work, and at the same time a gift to his creatures that they may have pleasure therein. God makes nothing in vain, and nothing imperfect. God in the beginning made man perfect, but man has sought out many inventions whereby he has made himself imperfect, and whereby he has marred the work of God. Nevertheless God has a desire to the work of his hands, and, at infinite cost, he seeks to restore man to his primitive condition; thus forever to efface the awful blot of imperfection from his glorious works.

Of God’s Perfect Creation

“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Gen. 1:31. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made.” Now how did God “end” his work on the seventh day? Had he not made everything “very good” on the previous six days? Had he not completed his work so that nothing could be added or undone without making the whole imperfect?—Yes, but on this day God sets his “seal” of approval to the whole; he binds the bond of perfection about it, that it may be preserved intact. “And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. 2:1-3.

How long this blessed condition continued we do not know, but since the Sabbath—the bond of perfection—has been broken and the glory and harmony of creation interrupted, God and Christ have worked continuously to restore the breech. When called to account, by the Pharisees, for going about to do good on the Sabbath day, the Lord said to them, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work;” “wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days”—to give life, to heal, to restore. This teaches us how we, as workers together with him, should keep the Sabbath during this dispensation. We are not to sit with folded hands, wasting its holy hours in idleness; but cease from our own works, and with the ministering spirits sent from above, engage heartily in the Lord’s work of restoration, both mental, physical, and spiritual.

The gospel record shows that the Sabbath was a very busy day with the Saviour, and we as his followers should zealously stand forth as “restorers of the breech,” and as ambassadors for Christ, especially on the Sabbath day, striving to reconcile man to God.

The True Sabbath and the True God

Again the Lord says, “Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20:20. Then if some other being or power should command us to observe another sabbath than the Lord’s, God’s council to us is, “Hallow my Sabbaths,” and he assures us that it shall then be a sign between him and us that he is the Lord our God. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” He is the only true God, whom to know is life

eternal. “All the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens.” Ps. 96: 5.

The difference between the Sabbath of the Lord and any other sabbath must be in the matter of time (as well as in the manner of observance), and that time indicated in the law. For it is written of a certain power which should arise in the world that it should “think to change the times and the law [of the Most High].” Dan. 7: 25, R. V. The law specifies the Sabbath day: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Therefore any rival sabbath must be another day than the seventh. So, then, the seventh-day Sabbath is the true Sabbath,—the seal of God, the bond of perfection, the sign of God’s approval. All God’s works are creative, although since the close of the first week of creation, re-creative, sanctificative, or restorative. Therefore the complete work of restoration of the individual is “entire sanctification.” “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [“creation,” margin]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

When at the consummation of this great work, the one hundred and forty-four thousand, redeemed from among men, shall stand on Mt. Zion with the Lamb, as a “sign” of God’s power to sanctify, to save from sin and death, “being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb,” having his Father’s name (the seal of God, the sign of sanctification) written in their foreheads, God will rest from his work in them. For it is written of them, “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.”

Original Sabbath-keeping Restored

When he whose hands spread forth the heavens, and in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth (which have waxed old like a garment), shall fold them up as a vesture, cleanse them, and change them to their pristine glory, and thus deliver this whole groaning creation from the bondage of corruption; when through this great work of re-creation and sanctification all things shall be subdued to God the Father, and when every creature in heaven and earth shall ascribe praise unto him that sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb,—then will the Father and the Son themselves again rest from their work of re-creation, as in the beginning from the work of creation, and the Sabbath shall stand as the sign of God’s eternal power and faithfulness. “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.” “And they shall come, and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them.” Isa. 66: 22, 23, 18, 19.

Grant City, Iowa.