The Sabbath of the Lord by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1914

The Sabbath of the Lord

By F. M. W.

A General Survey of the Sabbath Institution

At the present time a great controversy is engaging the attention of the Christian world regarding the Sabbath institution. Earnest efforts are being put forth to secure on the part of Christian peoples a more careful regard for Sunday observance. There exists, however, a wide divergence of opinion as to which day of the week is the Sabbath. Thousands of earnest Christians recognize the seventh in place of the first day of the week as holy time. Upon which side of the question does the burden of proof rest? Our stand on this question cannot be based upon the opinions of men. These, as has been stated, are widely at variance. What say the Scriptures of Truth? The Word of God is the standard by which every religious doctrine must be tested. Isa. 8: 20.

Christ the Author of the Sabbath

In the Scriptures of Truth Jesus Christ is set forth as the creator of the world, as the author of eternal salvation. See Col. 1: 15-18; Heb. 12: 2. He was in the beginning with God, the Father, and shared with him in the great creative act. John 1: 1-3. As a fitting complement to the creation of this earth, with its myriad forms of life, and of man in his image, Christ made the Sabbath institution, that through its weekly observance the attention of man might continually be called to the Creator, giving to him the honor which is his due.

By three distinct acts the Sabbath was made: 1. Out of the weekly cycle God chose the seventh day as his Sabbath of rest. It thus became the Lord’s rest day. 2. He honored this day above all its fellows, by placing upon it his divine blessing because he had rested upon it. This made the seventh day holy time. 3. After having thus honored the day himself in resting upon it and blessing it, he sanctified it, or set it apart for the use of the human family. Gen. 2: 1-3. Therefore the Sabbath, created by Christ Jesus, was distinctly and emphatically a Christian institution, and as heaven’s blessed heritage to man was dedicated to the use of the whole human family. Mark 2: 27.

Early History of the Sabbath

There is evidence to show that the seventh-day Sabbath, as a part of the divine law, was observed by Adam and his posterity throughout the patriarchal dispensation (Gen. 4: 3, 7); that Abraham, the father of the faithful, with Isaac and Jacob, observed the holy rest day (Gen. 26: 5); that through Joseph and his father and brethren a knowledge of it was carried to the Egyptians, and that when, in after years through hard bondage, the Israelites became lax in Sabbath observance, the preparation for deliverance from Egyptian bondage was a signal for them to return to the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord. Ex. 5: 1-12.

That the Israelites were fully conversant with the nature of the Sabbath institution is made evident by the record of the miracle of the manna. For six days the bread from heaven fell in the fields, a fresh supply to be gathered every morning for each day’s needs. On the sixth day a double portion fell, to provide for the needs of the seventh day, when the regular order was suspended and manna could not be obtained. When some of the Israelites went out on the seventh day to gather it, the Lord charged them with having long refused to obey his laws. Read Ex. 16: 14-30.

The Character of the Sabbath

The character of the Sabbath institution was clearly indicated when the law was given from Mount Sinai, where, amid thunders and lightnings, with his own voice, God spoke the law of ten commandments. In the very bosom of this moral law, buttressed before and behind as if to shield it from the assaults of error, the Sabbath commandment was placed, showing unmistakably that it partakes of the same moral character as the other nine. Ex. 20: 8-11. The commandment states emphatically that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.”

The moral character of the Sabbath institution is shown further in the fact that God has made it the sign of sanctification. Ex. 31: 12-17. It stands as a memorial of the creative power of God in calling the material world into existence, and as a sign of the work wrought through the Holy Spirit by the same creative power in the sanctification of the believer.

Throughout the Levitical priestly dispensation, during the forty years’ wandering in the wilderness, in the reign of the judges and the kings, the seventh-day Sabbath was observed by the chosen people of God.

Repeatedly, when there developed a tendency to depart from its holy requirements, the people were called back to its observance. God promised Israel of old that if they would observe his Sabbath and refrain from carrying burdens in and out of Jerusalem on that day, he would exalt the city and cause it to stand forever. Jer. 17: 21-27. He also threatened that in the event of their failure to do this, he would bring about the destruction of their chosen city. This threatened judgment was literally fulfilled in the destruction visited upon Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. 2 Chron. 36: 14-21.

Christ and the Sabbath

The Jewish people learned some severe lessons in their captivity, one of which was to pay scrupulous regard to the letter of Sabbath observance; but while doing this, they failed to appreciate and observe the spirit of the divine institution; they made Sabbath observance burdensome through their many traditions. When Christ came to earth, he sought to restore the Sabbath to its rightful place in the regard and observance of his chosen people. He taught that the institution is designed as a joy rather than a burden; that while the commandment requires men to cease from their own works, the day should be used in the ministry of love and good will to men; that on that day relief should be carried to the sick, and even suffering animals should receive necessary attention. In other words, that it is lawful, or in harmony with the divine law, to do good on the Sabbath day. Matt. 12: 1-12.

It was customary for Christ himself to take part in religious services on that day. Luke 4: 16. He employed the day in ministry to those who came to him. Those disciples most intimately connected with the blessed Master continued to observe the seventh-day Sabbath after his decease. On that eventful crucifixion day, preceding the Sabbath of the Lord, after they had laid the body of the Master in the tomb, they returned to their homes to prepare spices and ointment for his anointing. Unable to complete these preparations before the beginning of the Sabbath, they rested from their labors until the Sabbath was past. Luke 23: 56. Early on the morning of the first day of the week they went to the tomb to perform for the Lord the service which they would not do on the holy day. Luke 24: 1.

Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, some years after the passion of our Saviour, observed the seventh-day Sabbath in a manner similar to that followed by the Lord. At Thessalonica he entered

the synagogue, as his manner was on this day, and for three Sabbaths preached to the assembled people the gospel message. Acts 17: 1-3. Later at Corinth, where he spent a year and six months, “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and Greeks.” Acts 18: 4, 11. And it was his custom to meet not only with the Jewish congregations on this day, but with the Gentiles as well. See Acts 13: 42-44.

In contrast with this special regard for the seventh day, we have the striking fact that not a single intimation is given in the New Testament scriptures that the first day should be observed as a sabbath. The first day is never called a holy day, or Sabbath day, nor is any sacredness whatever attached to it by any of the Bible writers.

The Double Witness

That Christ and his disciples should thus regard the Sabbath of the Lord was made a subject of prophecy years before the first advent. The Spirit of God, speaking through the psalmist, declares of Christ’s attitude toward the law: “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Ps. 40: 8. The prophet Isaiah bears this witness of the relationship which Christ would sustain to the law of the ten commandments: “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Isa. 42: 21. That Christ regarded the law in his heart and expressed it in his life, the Gospels abundantly testify. He himself declares:—

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5: 17-19.

The apostle Paul bears similar testimony as to the relationship faith sustains to the law of God: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3: 31. Surely in this agreement of witnesses we have positive evidence that Christ wrought no change in the law of God with reference to the Sabbath commandment.

Who Changed the Sabbath?

But as neither Christ nor his apostles changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, who has wrought this change? This likewise has been made a subject of prophecy. Two witnesses definitely state that there would arise a power that would seek to bring about a change in the Sabbath institution; that would presume to do what Christ, the author of the law, never attempted.

In Dan. 7: 25 there is brought to view a power which is clearly Rome in its papal form. This power Daniel declared should “think to change the times and the law.” Dan. 7: 25, A. R. V. It would not be thought strange, nor considered a matter for remark, for a power to change the law of a conquered enemy. Without question reference is here made to the law of God. The apostle Paul referred to the work of this same system. He declared that there would come in the church a falling away; that there would develop a power that would oppose and exalt “himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped: so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

Admitting the Charge

Has there arisen in the world a power which meets these specifications of the prophecy? What authority has presumed to stretch forth its hand and effect a change in the law of God, and to exalt itself above God in setting aside his precepts? We have not far to search to find a fulfillment of the prophecy, nor are we left in doubt as to the credibility of the proofs in the matter. Papal Rome answers to the fulfillment of the prophetic delineation, and this power, far from denying that she is responsible for it, candidly and plainly admits that she has done the very thing which the prophecy said she would do. In other words, this power is responsible for the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week.

In the “Abridgment of Christian Doctrine,” by Rev. Henry Tuberville, D. D., of Douay College, France (1649), page 58, occurs the following question and answer:—

Question.—How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holydays?

Answer.—By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feast days commanded by the same church.

The Catholic Mirror, official organ of Cardinal Gibbons, in its issue of Sept. 23, 1893, declares:—

The Catholic Church . . . by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.

“The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine,” by Rev. Peter Geiermann, C. SS. R., page 50, third edition, 1913, a work which received the “apostolic blessing” of Pope Pius X, Jan. 25, 1910, contains the following statements:—

Question.—Which is the Sabbath day?

Answer.—Saturday is the Sabbath day.

Ques.—Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?

Ans.—We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A. D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.

Did space permit, many similar testimonies might be quoted from other standard Catholic works.

Steps in the Transition

We cannot take space to trace in detail the steps by which the change from the observance of the seventh day to that of the first day came about. It was the fruit of the workings of the mystery of iniquity, which the apostle Paul said had begun to manifest itself even in his day, and which afterward developed into the man of sin. The passing away of the early disciples of the church was the signal for subtle error to begin its deadly workings.

Says Robinson, a Baptist historian:—

Toward the latter end of the second century, most of the churches assumed a new form, the first simplicity disappeared, and insensibly as the old disciples retired to their graves, their children, along with new converts, both Jews and Gentiles, came forward and new-modeled the cause.

“Opposition to Judaism,” a desire to gain influence with the heathen world, together with motives of “patriotism and expediency,” combined to place at a discount the Sabbath of the Lord and to exalt in its place the heathen festival of Sunday.

Says Morer, a clergyman of the English Church, in his “Dialogues on the Lord’s Day,” pages 22, 23:—

It is not to be denied but we borrow the name of this day from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and we allow that the old Egyptians worshiped the sun, and as a standing memorial of their veneration, dedicated this day to him. And we find by the influence of their examples, other nations, and among them the Jews themselves, doing him homage; yet these abuses did not hinder the Fathers of the Christian church simply to repeal, or altogether lay by, the day or its name, but only to sanctify and improve both, as they did also the pagan temples polluted before with idolatrous services, and other instances wherein those good men were always tender to work any other change than what was evidently necessary, and in such things as were plainly inconsistent with the Christian religion; so that Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly adored that planet, and called it Sunday, partly from its influence on that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body (as they conceived it), the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear causelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice than might be otherwise taken against the gospel.

These changes were wrought slowly. For several centuries both days were observed in the Christian church. During this early period the title of Sabbath was not applied to the first day. It was regarded like other church festivals, the

same as Good Friday, Christmas, etc., resting wholly on ecclesiastical authority. Nor was its observance based upon the instructions of the fourth commandment. The decree of Constantine, in A. D. 321, requiring its observance on the part of “judges and townspeople, and the occupation of all trades,” and the decree of the Council of Laodicea, in 364, ordering that “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s Day they shall especially honor,” gave increased impetus to first-day observance.

Says Lyman Coleman, in chapter 26 of his “Ancient Christianity Exemplified:”—

Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued.

To this testimony we add that of Prynne in his “Dissertation on the Lord’s Day Sabbath,” page 163:—

The seventh-day Sabbath was . . . solemnized by Christ, the apostles, and primitive Christians, till the Laodicean Council did, in a manner, quite abolish the observation of it. . . . The Council of Laodicea [A. D. 364] . . . first settled the observation of the Lord’s Day.

Many similar testimonies might be quoted showing the steps by which the first-day Sabbath supplanted the Sabbath of the Lord. As the controlling force in all these changes, we find the workings of the man of sin, the papal principle, which in thus seeking to tear down the Sabbath of the Lord exalted itself in an apostate, fallen church.

The Final Issue

When we come down to the closing days of earth’s history, where fulfilling signs in the political, social, religious, and industrial worlds clearly indicate that we are now living, the Scriptures of Truth indicate that there would go to the world a great reform message regarding the law of God, and particularly that part of the law relating to the Sabbath commandment. That message is now going by voice and pen to earth’s remotest bounds. The attention of the world is being called to the downtrodden Sabbath of the Lord. Rev. 7: 1-7; Isa. 56: 1-8.

At the same time the Scriptures of Truth clearly show that in the last days of earth’s history an earnest effort will be made through legal enactment to force Sunday observance upon the nations of men. Rev. 13: 11-18. We see a literal fulfillment of that prophecy in the efforts which are now being made to secure the enactment of a Sunday law throughout the United States and in other parts of the world. But the Word of God gives positive warning that those who turn their back upon the Sabbath of the Lord, disregarding its holy requirements, and thus giving their allegiance to the counterfeit Sabbath, shall receive God’s everlasting displeasure. Rev. 14: 6-14.

This controversy over the Sabbath of the Lord is one of the great controversies of the ages. It will prove a test of character to every believer. Dear reader, on which side of this controversy will you stand? Will you obey the law of the Lord Jesus Christ by following his example in keeping holy the day which he has ordained, or will you give your allegiance to the counterfeit sabbath which has been set up in the place of the Sabbath of the Lord? It is not a mere question of theological difference and discussion. It is a question of obedience to our Lord and Master. He says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14: 15.

“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2: 6. Let us show our love for the Lord Christ, who died that we might live, by walking in his footsteps and doing as he did when he lived among men. To us as to his disciples of old he says, “Follow me.”

F. M. W.