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An Appeal to Clergy

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 12, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 2.

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An Appeal to Clergy

By A. G. Daniells; W. A. Spicer; J. S. Washburn; K. C. Russell; W. A. Colcord; B. G. Wilkinson; V. H. Lucas; W. W. Prescott

Open Letter From Seventh-day Adventist Ministers

Sunday Observance Crusade

They ask Protestant ministers whether such a movement as was recently proposed is really Christian—What the Bible says on the subject of the Lord’s day—Breach in God’s Law
The following open letter has been addressed to the Protestant clergy by the Seventh-day Adventist ministers of Washington:—
Esteemed Brethren: Having noticed the report of your meeting held in this city on Dec. 12, 1904, and the plan to open the new year with a campaign for the better observance of Sunday in the city of Washington, we wish, in the spirit of Christian kindness, and as brethren with you in the ministry, to present from a Bible standpoint what to us appears to be the truth respecting the Sabbath question, and why both Sunday keeping and Sunday legislation are wrong.
We, with you, love the Lord Jesus, and desire greatly to honor him. We stand firmly with you, we hope, on the solid rock of Protestant faith—“the Bible, and the Bible only,” as the rule of belief and action. We, with you, believe thoroughly in the pressing need of a world-wide campaign in favor of better Sabbath observance. But let us be sure that all that we do is Christian, and done in a Christian way.
As ministers of God, our commission is to “preach the gospel.” We are also commanded to “preach the word.” What does our guide, the Bible, say on the Sabbath question?

As Found in Exodus

In Rev. 1:10 John says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” As this was written in the Christian dispensation, sixty years this side of the resurrection, it was given for Christians today.
This verse does not tell us which day is the Lord’s; so we must go to other parts of the Lord’s word to find out what day he claims.
In Ex. 20:8-11 we find the only command for a weekly Sabbath in the whole Bible. In this we read, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.”
In Matt. 12:8 Jesus claims to be “Lord even of the Sabbath day.” In Isa. 58:13 he calls this same day “My holy day,” and entreats his people not to trample upon it.
All through the Bible the seventh day of the week is called by God “My holy day,” “My Sabbaths,” “The Lord’s day,” “The Sabbath of the Lord,” etc. And God has never claimed any other day as his own.
In the second chapter of Genesis we are told how the seventh day became God’s holy day. First, God rested on it; that made it God’s rest day. Second, he blessed it; then it was God’s blessed rest day. Third, he sanctified it. To sanctify anything is to set it apart for a sacred, holy, religious use.
So God set the seventh day “apart,” from the “six working days,” for sacred, holy, religious use. For whose use?—“The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27.
God blessed and sanctified the seventh day after he had rested upon it, and because he had rested; so it was the seventh day of all future time that God set apart for a sacred, holy, religious use.
As the Sabbath was made for man, the rest, blessing, and sanctification are for man.
The Sabbath is a part of the spiritual law (Rom. 7:14); the rest, therefore, is a spiritual rest, the blessing a spiritual blessing, and the sanctification is also spiritual.
So in giving to man his Sabbath, Jesus gave him his own character—his rest, blessing, and sanctification.

Christ Made the Sabbath

Jesus was the active agent in creation. John 1:1-3; Col. 1:12-17; Heb. 1:1, 2. He was the One who did the work and the resting; therefore Jesus made the Sabbath. He is the One who gave to men in the seventh-day Sabbath his own rest, blessing, and holiness; and in Eze. 20:12 we are told that if we hallow the Sabbath, it is a sign that the Lord is sanctifying us. As Christ is our sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30), the Sabbath is, therefore, a sign of what Christ is to the believer.
Notice, too, that in the making of the Sabbath, it is the day, and not the institution only, that was honored. God blessed the seventh day. Gen. 2:3. He sanctified the day, and he commands us to remember the day. Ex. 20:8.
All this was done in Eden before the fall, before there was any sin, before there was any need of a Saviour from sin, before there were any types or shadows. Hence, the Sabbath is in no sense typical or shadowy; it is wholly commemorative—a memorial of creation. Ex. 20:8-11.
It was made twenty-five hundred years before there was a Jew, so it is not the Jewish sabbath.
When nearly the whole world was in idolatry, God called Abraham, and made him many promises, because Abraham kept his laws. Gen. 26:5.
After the children of Abraham were brought out of Egypt, God gave them manna in the “six working days,” but none on the Sabbath, to see if they would keep his law. Ex. 16:4. When they went to seek it on the Sabbath, God asked, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” Ex. 16:27-30. This was a month before the law was given from Sinai.

Ceremonies and Moral Precepts

Later, God gave them many ceremonies as well as moral precepts, and among them were shadowy sabbaths, pointing to the work of Christ. Col. 2:16, 17. But he carefully distinguished between the two kinds of laws, and the two kinds of sabbaths. The ten commands he spoke with his own voice to the people. Deut. 4:12, 13. He wrote them with his own finger on tables of stone, and commanded them to be kept inside the sacred ark. Ex. 24:12; 31:18; 32:15, 16; Deut. 10:4, 5. All the other ceremonies, etc., were given through Moses to the people, were written by Moses in a book, which was kept in the side of the ark. Deut. 1:1-18; 33:4; 31:24-26. Thus God made a plain difference between the ten commandment law and all the other laws.
In the very center of the honored ten commands, God placed the seventh-day Sabbath, thus clearly showing the difference between it and the shadowy, ceremonial sabbaths given through Moses. God intends that everybody shall see this difference.
When his ministers put no difference between the holy and the common, and hide their eyes from his Sabbaths, he complains of it, and says he is profaned. Eze. 22:26.
God’s ten commandment law is perfect, right, pure, clean, and true. By it the soul is converted, or restored. Ps. 19:7-11.
God will not alter, or change, the thing that is gone out of his lips. Ps. 89:34. All his commandments are sure, and stand fast forever and ever. Ps. 111:7, 8.
Paul writes of this same law in the Christian dispensation that it is still holy, just, and good. Rom. 7:12. What is true of the law as a whole must be true of all its parts; so the seventh-day Sabbath is perfect, holy, just, and good; it also stands fast forever and ever.
It was foretold of the Lord Jesus that when he came, he would magnify this law, and make it honorable. The law would be written in his heart. Isa. 42:21; Ps. 40:7, 8. When he did come, he kept his Father’s commandments, the seventh-day Sabbath with all the rest. John 15:10. He bids us to follow him, and walk as he walked. Matt. 16:24; 1 John 2:6.

He Worked on Sunday

Till Jesus was thirty years old, he was a carpenter; so we know that, according to the command, he worked at his carpenter’s bench six days (Sundays included), and rested the seventh-day Sabbath. To follow Jesus we must do as he did.
Jesus magnified the law; that is, he revealed things in it that had not been seen. He taught that hatred is murder, an evil thought adultery, etc. He also magnified the Sabbath, and made it honorable, by tearing away the burdens placed upon it by the Jews, and revealing in it, by his acts, the rest and blessing originally placed there. When accused of breaking the Sabbath, he responded, “It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath;” that is, it is according to the law. Matt. 12:12.
Jesus taught the people that not the smallest letter or part of a letter would pass from the law, though heaven and earth should fail. Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 16:17. See also Isa. 51:4-8; Ps. 119:89, 142, 172.
Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. To fulfil a law is to keep it, to do it. (See Webster.) Jesus did keep it. John 15:10; Matt. 5:17.
Jesus also magnified the law and made it honorable when he died on the cross because we had broken that law. If God could have changed his law in the slightest particular, then Jesus need not have died.
Throughout the eternal ages the cross of Christ stands as positive evidence that God can not change his law in the slightest particular, even to save his best Beloved from a shameful death.
Jesus came to save his people from their sins. Matt. 1:21. The only Bible definition of sin is that found in 1 John 3:4: “Sin is the transgression of the law.” So Jesus came to save his people from transgressing God’s law. But, as the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, and can not be, Jesus gives us the new birth and the new heart. Rom. 8:2; John 3:3-5; 1 Peter 1:23.
In Christ we are new creatures. 2 Cor. 5:17. In him there is no sin. Whoever stays in him will not knowingly or willingly break God’s law. 1 John 3:4-9. If we claim to know him, while failing to obey his commands, he says we are liars. 1 John 2:4. Even if we should keep the whole law, and offend in only one point, we are guilty of all. James 2:8-12.

Written in Hearts of Christians

Under the new covenant God’s law is written in the hearts of all Christians. Heb. 8:10; Eze. 36:26, 27. We then delight to obey God’s commands. 1 John 5:2, 3; Ps. 40:7, 8; 1:1-3; 119:97; Isa. 58:13.
God’s law is a mirror, into which we look and see our need of a Saviour. James 1:23-25; Rom. 3:19, 20. So the law is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. Gal. 3:24, 25. The mirror can not wash us. So the law can not make us pure. But when we are clean, the mirror witnesses to the purity; and when we receive the righteousness of God as a free gift, by faith in Jesus, the law witnesses to that righteousness. Rom. 3:21. Then we are no longer under the law; that is, under its condemnation (Gal. 3:21-29), because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Gal. 3:13; Rom. 6:23. Then we are under God’s grace, or favor. But are we then free to break the law?—God forbid. Rom. 6:12; 2:14, 15. Faith in Christ establishes the law instead of making it void. Rom. 3:31.
If a man, under condemnation because he had broken the law of the land, should be pardoned by the president, he would then be under grace, or favor. But under this grace he would not be free to break the law again; if he did, then surely he would soon be under the law again.
As the Sabbath is a part of the law, faith in Christ writes the Sabbath in our hearts, and establishes it there.
The four gospel writers speak of the Sabbath with the same respect as the prophets of the Old Testament. The New Testament keeps up the difference that God placed between the days. The Spirit of God all through the Bible calls the Sabbath by its sacred title, and Sunday always by its secular number only.
In Matt. 28:1 we are told that the New Testament Sabbath is the day just before the first day of the week. Luke tells us that it is the Sabbath according to the commandment (Luke 23:56), thus identifying it with the Sabbath of creation.
Every Bible Christian, from Adam to John the Beloved, honored God’s holy day; and no professed Christian ever thought of keeping any other day for the Sabbath for many, many years after Jesus went back to heaven.

Whence Came the Change?

In the face of all this evidence from the Christian’s standard, the Bible, how is it that for so many years Christians have been resting upon another day, and treading under foot God’s holy day?
The Bible gives a clear answer to this question. In the seventh chapter of Daniel is revealed a power that should fight against God, his people, and his law. In Dan. 7:25 we are told that this power would “wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws.” The people and law of the Most High were to be in the hands of this power for twelve hundred and sixty years. See Rev. 12:6; Eze. 4:6, and Protestant commentaries.
Paul speaks of this same power, and tells us that it would exalt itself above God. 2 Thess. 2:1-7. The only way that a power could exalt itself above God would be to change the law of God, and command all to keep the law as changed.
Paul said an apostasy was coming, a falling away. It was already working in his day. Satan is at the bottom of all rebellion against God. All who commit sin are his children. 1 John 3:7, 8; John 8:44. He worked little by little to lead the people away from God’s law. The history of this apostasy can be read in such standard works as Neander, Mosheim, Gibbon, etc. These bear witness to the truth of the Bible prophecy concerning the apostasy. Heathen rites, forms, and ceremonies were early introduced into the Christian church.
Sunday was “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times.” Little by little, as the bars were let down to accommodate the practises of the heathen, the people, though still all keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, were led to attach a certain amount of sanctity to the first day of the week, because Christ rose from the dead upon that day. Satan was thus paving the way for his contemplated change in the law of God.
In A. D. 321, Constantine, a pagan emperor, made a Sunday law. Constantine was a sun-worshiper, and in his law he calls Sunday the “venerable day of the sun.”
Worldly bishops united with the pagan emperor to lead the people to honor the heathen Sunday, and trample under foot the Lord’s day.
In A. D. 364, at the council of Laodicea, the fallen church anathematized all who should keep the Sabbath, and commanded every one to honor the Sunday. The Dark Ages followed, during which Sabbath-keepers were killed and banished. The true church was in the wilderness. Rev. 12:6-14.
God reproves the fallen priests who did violence to his law. See Eze. 22:26, margin. They tore out the Sabbath of the fourth command. This made—

A Breach in God’s Law

Now God appeals to his true children, both Catholic and Protestant, to take their feet off from his holy day, and call it honorable, the holy of the Lord, and by thus honoring the true God, help to build up again the breach that was made in God’s law. Isa. 58:1, 2, 12-14.
Any law to be of force must be signed and sealed. The seal must show who gave the law, his right to give it, and the extent of his authority. The Sabbath command is the only one of the ten that does this. Take that away, and the law is of no force. This command reveals the Lawgiver as the Creator of all things, with a right to issue commands. God calls the Sabbath his sign. Eze. 20:12, 20.
Before pouring out his anger upon a rebellious world, he sends a messenger to his people with the seal of God. Rev. 7:1-4; Eze. 9:1-6; Isa. 8:16, 17.
In Revelation, chapters thirteen andfourteen, a power is brought to view that would force all to worship the papacy under penalty of death. This we understand applies particularly to our own country. This power also enforces the mark of apostasy. The papacy claims the change of the Sabbath as the mark of its power. In the “Douay Catechism,” page 58, will be found the following question and answer: Question—“How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?” Answer—“By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday.” The papacy boasts of having done what God foretold it would do, and challenges Protestants to find any “Thus saith the Lord” for Sunday-keeping in their guide, the Bible.
In Rev. 14:9-12 God warns all against receiving the mark of apostasy either in hand or forehead.
To-day nearly all the States of our Union contain laws honoring the Sunday, while the Lord’s day is constantly trampled under foot, and made the busiest day of all the week. At the present moment two Sunday bills are pending before the lawmakers here at the seat of government. There is also a widespread movement among nearly all religious bodies in favor of a universal Sunday law.
Dear brethren, may God help us to listen to his appeal, turn away from man-made institutions, and honor the Creator and Redeemer. To our mind we have reached the time foretold by the apostle Paul, when many are turned away from the truth and are turned unto fables. 2 Tim. 4:1-4. Let us be careful that we do nothing to encourage this condition.
If any position here set forth is not in harmony with the truth, we shall be glad to have it pointed out from the Scriptures. We desire only the truth.
Trusting you will not be offended by these plain words, we are, with love and respect,
Your brethren in the Lord, A. G. DANIELLS, W. A. SPICER, J. S. WASHBURN, K. C. RUSSELL, W. A. COLCORD, B. G. WILKINSON, V. H. LUCAS, W. W. PRESCOTT, I. H. EVANS, LUTHER WARREN, G. B. THOMPSON, LEWIS C. SHEAFE, O. O. FARNSWORTH, F. W. MACE, *Resident Seventh-day Adventist Ministers of Washington, D. C.