The Sabbath and the Creator
By Cyrus Simmons
The word “Shabath,” or “Sabbath,” signifies rest. It is the name given by God to the seventh day of the week. “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. “The seventh day” and “the Sabbath” are interchangeable expressions used by God to mean the same day. “And rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:11. Therefore the word “Sabbath,” according to divine authority, can not be properly applied to any other but the seventh day of the week, because that is the only day that has been hallowed by the rest and the presence of God. The Sabbath means more than the rest obtained by cessation from physical and mental labor. It means God’s rest, the rest that only God can give. Hence in a special and sacred way this day belongs to him. He calls it “my holy day.” Isa. 58:13. Since only from him we can obtain that saving rest signified by the Sabbath, Jesus invites us, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt. 11:28. “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Heb. 4:1. “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works.” “And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.” Heb. 4:4, 5. “There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest” (R. V.), or, margin, “a keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God.” “For he that is entered into his rest [that is, God’s rest], he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Heb. 4:9, 10. It is evident that the rest which God wishes us to see in, and to get out of, the Sabbath is not our own rest, but his rest which pertains to salvation. The commemoration of the Sabbath is enjoined as a memorial of God’s creation of the world. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,” etc. Ex. 20:8, 11. It is a sign of his re-creation or redemption of man. “Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Ex. 31:13. Thus “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity” (Isa. 57:15) has made the Sabbath to mark the weekly cycles of time, and to proclaim not only the almightiness of God in the creation of the worlds, but his wonderful love in the re-creation, or redemption, of man. Remember, “The Sabbath day was made” (Mark 2:27), not simply appointed or set apart, or designated. It was made by Christ; “therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28. It was made by the God who lived before the first day was spoken into existence: “Before the day was I am he.” Isa. 43:13. The conclusion is inevitable that it takes the God who can create, who can make his covenant with day and night, who can appoint “the ordinances of heaven and earth” (Jer. 33:25), to be able to make the Sabbath day. The Lord speaks in prophecy of a power that would arise that would think to change his law. Dan. 7:25. The papacy admits that it has changed the law of God by instituting Sunday, the first day of the week, for the Sabbath, instead of the seventh day. Many of the Christian world accept this change by keeping Sunday. When we consider the Godlike, omnipotent, and creative power associated with, and necessary for, the creation of the Sabbath, how is it possible for us to place any sanctity or sacredness in, or find any divine authority for, the observance of a weekly rest day appointed by man? Instead of worshiping God by keeping Sunday are we not meeting the disapprobation of Heaven by trampling under foot the Sabbath, the very day that God has made to commemorate the creative power of its Author? Can we enter into God’s rest if we do not keep his rest day, or the Sabbath? Do we really believe that he is the Creator and Redeemer of the world, if we do not “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”? Ex. 20:8.