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THE TWO INSTITUTIONS

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 24, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 8.

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THE TWO INSTITUTIONS.

By Eld. S. N. Haskell

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL. THE terms Sabbath and Sunday represent two distinct institutions. They originate in different sources. The meaning of the terms is entirely different, and the terms strictly belong to two different days. Sabbath is a Hebrew term, and signifies rest. “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. 2:3. This rest-day of God was the seventh day of time. God commenced the work of creation on the first day, and completed it on the sixth, and he rested on the seventh. This being God’s rest-day he blessed it, because in it he had rested from all his work which he had created and made. The closing act was his hallowing or sanctifying it. The object for which it was made is plainly stated by the Saviour: “The Sabbath was made for man.” Thus we have the origin of the Sabbath at the creation of this world, the manner of its being made, and for what purpose it was made, viz., for man—not for any one class of men, but for the human race, for Adam and his posterity.
The requirement for men to observe it, and the reason why it is enjoined, are distinctly stated in the moral law engraven on tables of stone by the finger of God. They are the only ten words he ever audibly spake to the fallen race. The seventh day (Saturday) has been observed by a portion of the human family ever since the creation. At that time, it was institutedand appointed by God for man, enjoined upon Mt. Sinai by Jehovah’s audible voice, observed by the Saviour while upon earth—“As his custom was, he went into the synagogue upon the Sabbath day”—; it was kept by the disciples at the crucifixion, and many Christians have observed it from that time till the present.
But not so with Sunday. Its origin cannot be traced back so far, neither can it be given as definitely. Says the North British Review, “THE WILD SOLAR HOLIDAY (i. e., festival in honor of the sun) OF ALL PAGAN TIMES.” The origin of Sunday is lost in remote antiquity. It did not originate from any divine command, nor from piety towards God. It was set apart as a sacred day by the heathen world in honor of their chief god—the sun. It is from this fact that the first day of the week obtained the name of Sunday, a name by which it is known in many languages. Webster defines the word thus: “Sunday—so called because this day was anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship.” Worcester uses similar words in defining the name: “Sunday—so named because anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship.”
Verstegan says: “The most ancient Germans being pagans, and having appropriated the first day of the week to the peculiar adoration of the sun, whereof that day doth yet in our English tongue retain the name of Sunday.” Again he speaks concerning the idols of our Saxon ancestors: “To the day dedicated unto the special adoration of the idol of the sun they gave the name of Sunday, as much as to say the sun’s day, or day of the sun. This idol was placed in a temple, and there adored and sacrificed unto, for that they believed that the sun in the firmament did with or in this idol correspond and co-operate.” Jennings makes this adoration of the sun more ancient than the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt; for in speaking of that deliverance, he represents the heathen as setting apart Sunday in honor of the sun. Upon this point the testimony of various first-day writers might be multiplied, but there can be no question in regard to it. Neither is the Bible entirely silent as to this heathen worship in the early history of the world.
As early as 624 B. C. we find Josiah putting “down the idolatrous priests,” and “them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.” 2 Kings 23:5. Jeremiah also connects the sun worship with the ancient Egyptians, and says: God “shall break also the images of the sun that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.” (Margin.) Jer. 43:13. Thus we can see the reason why God should give his law and Sabbath to the Israelites when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and why he should give them the warning found in Deut. 4:19: “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them,” etc.
Thus we trace Sunday back to the original heathen worship, and here is its birthplace. It has ever been prominently connected with idolatrous worship, but in these latter times has stolen the livery of Heaven—the position of a Christian institution.
Shall we now as Christians fold our hands and shut our eyes to these important facts? Is it not our duty as men who profess to take the Bible, and the Bible alone, as the rule of our faith and practice, to vindicate God’s law, and let this heathen tradition, christened by the Papacy, appear in its true deformity?