A Puzzle by C. P. BOLLMAN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 20, 1916

“A Puzzle”

By C. P. BOLLMAN

C. P. BOLLMAN

UNDER this heading the Baltimore Catholic Review of Oct. 16, 1915, has the following paragraphs:—

“Some Seventh-day Adventists are busying themselves in a wonderful degree in finding out solid ground for the contention that the seventh day of the week must be kept as the Lord’s Day. A pamphlet has fallen into our hands, in which answers are seriously asked to the following questions: On which half of the earth did the sun first shine? On what part of the earth did the first second of the first day of this world’s history begin? Do we know positively which is the first day of the week of creation in North and South America? It is taken to be extremely important to know if the seventh day began in the Americas or in Palestine, on the Atlantic coast or the Pacific coast of America. The Adventist who writes the queries seems to be anxious to establish the ‘date line’ at the one hundred and eightieth meridian, in order to prove that God started the days at the one hundred and eightieth meridian.

“We confess ourselves stumped, and we refer these questions to some more erudite contemporary for solution. The men who proposed them must have very few serious concerns in life to speculate on those lines. We ourselves have too much to do to waste precious moments on them. Neither can we see what connection they can have with the question as to whether the seventh or the first day of the week should be kept as the Lord’s Day. Verily, how appropriate are the words of the apostle, ‘Be not wise in your own conceits.’ Be not more wise than it behooveth to be wise; but be wise unto sobriety.”

We are quite familiar with Seventh-day Adventist literature, but have no knowledge of any such pamphlet as the one referred to by the Catholic Review. It may be, however, that something of the kind has been put out by some Seventh-day Adventist, or by some one claiming to be an Adventist; but even if so, it speaks only for its author.

Of course no one knows just when the first moment of the first day began; nor is it at all essential that we should know. The knowledge of the true Sabbath is not dependent upon any such impossible information. The fact is that God made the seventh day of the weekly cycle the Sabbath, the memorial of the finished creation. That day was pointed out to the children of Israel by the weekly miracle of the falling of the manna for a period of forty years. A double portion fell upon the sixth day, and none fell upon the Sabbath.

That the weekly cycle marked by the Sabbath of the fourth commandment has come down to us, only a tyro in history would deny. Another admitted fact is that there is not and never has been any difficulty in identifying either the Bible week or the several days of the week in any part of the world. All the difficulty arising upon this score is purely imaginary, and is conjured up by somebody who wants an excuse for setting aside the day the Lord enjoins in the fourth commandment, and substituting therefor a day enjoined by the papal church.

The real question is not as to the identity of the seventh day of the week. That is no more difficult than is the identification of the first day. The only question is the authority by which the day is set apart as a day of rest and worship. The Lord says, Remember the seventh day to keep it holy. The papal church says, and following the lead of that church, many Protestants say, Remember the first day (of the same weekly cycle) to keep it holy. Now the question is, Whose word shall we obey—the word of the Creator, or that of an apostate church? The issue is not an obscure one, nor is it dependent upon any knowledge for whose acquisition we need go outside the Sacred Scriptures.