Presbyterian Doctrine and the Sabbath
In a statement by the United Presbyterian, of “what our denomination stands for,” we note the following:— 6. We believe that God's law is supreme, that we are to obey God rather than men; and consequently, when the law of the church, or the law of the state conflicts with the law of God, as we believe and understand it, we are to stand by our convictions. 10. We believe in a Christian Sabbath, a God-appointed day of rest for man and beast, one devoid of secularities and given to the worship of God and the cultivation of our immortal natures. According to this statement of Presbyterian doctrine, it is proper and right for a Presbyterian, in case of a conflict between the law of the state and the law of God, to stand by his convictions and refuse obedience to the law of the state. Is it also proper and right for a seventh-day observer to do the same? and would the Presbyterian justify him in so doing? If not, why not? The Presbyterian believes also in “a Christian Sabbath, a God-appointed day of rest for man and beast.” There is a Sabbath day, and only one, which is plainly a God-appointed day of rest. It is the seventh day, specified in the fourth precept of the decalogue. The Sunday sabbath, on the other hand, judged by all the testimony of Scripture, is not God-appointed, but church-appointed. The Presbyterian would do well to conform in practise to what it holds in theory. A large part of the difference between Seventh-day Adventists on the one hand and Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and others, is the difference between holding the truth in theory only, and having it in practise. Seventh-day Adventists are not abandoning the ground of Protestantism.