The Sabbath Day by G. B. T.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Feb 3, 1916

The Sabbath Day

By G. B. T.

UNDER the above caption the Michigan Christian Advocate in its issue of Dec. 11, 1915, takes Seventh-day Adventists to task for “trying to foist upon gullible people their peculiar interpretations of prophecy and their assumption as to the Saturday Sabbath.” With this introduction the writer proceeds to argue the Sabbath question, and show that Sunday is now the Christian sabbath. He cites extracts from some early historians such as Eusebius, Cyprian, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and others, but fails to give chapter or verse where a command can be found in the Bible authorizing any one to keep Sunday. The historians cited contain no proof on this point either.

Speaking concerning the seventh day, the editor says:—

God never made any particular day holy. He specified a holy rest, but did not specify on what day of the week that holy rest should be observed.

Then if God never made any particular day holy, why does the learned editor of the Advocate seek to keep the first day of the week holy? If God never made it holy, men cannot. But it is remarkable that any one who has ever read the Bible and makes any pretensions to stating correctly what it says, should make such a

statement as the foregoing. Here is what God's Word does say:—

“On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 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: 2, 3.

The editor of the Advocate says that “God never made any particular day holy.” God’s Word declares that Jehovah “blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” or, in other words, commanded its observance. Does the editor of the Advocate believe that the blessing of God is a real thing? And is not the seventh day a “particular day”? He believes that the first day of the week is a “particular day.” Then is not the seventh day a “particular day” also? If not, why not?

The editor further says, “Let any person open his Bible and find, if he can, a Sabbath command specifying ‘the seventh day of the week.’ It is not there. The phrase ‘seventh day’ is there, but not the seventh day of the week.”

If the phrase “seventh day” does not mean the seventh day of the week, we should be pleased to have the editor tell us of what it is the seventh day. Is it the seventh day of a century, of a year, or of a month? He says it is not the seventh day of the week. It must be the seventh day of some cycle of time. Of what cycle, pray tell us, if not of the week? It is a mere dodge, to contend that this is not the weekly cycle. The following from ‘Binney’s Theological Compend’ is of interest here. In speaking of the Sabbath, Dr. Binney says:—

The day appointed of God, at the close of creation, to be observed by man as a day of rest from all secular employment, because that in it God himself had rested from his work. Gen. 2: 1-3. Not that God’s rest was necessitated by fatigue (Isa. 40: 28); but he rested, that is, ceased to work, on the seventh day as an example to man; hence assigned it as a reason why men should rest on that day. Ex. 30: 11; 31: 17.

The reason here assigned, that we should keep the Sabbath to commemorate the work of creation, is quite correct. This reason the Lord incorporated in the fourth precept of the decalogue when he handed it down in written form from Sinai’s burning summit. It was instituted at creation and kept centuries before Israel left Egypt, and in no way commemorates their deliverance from their national bondage. The Passover was instituted for this purpose. See Deut. 16: 1-3.

‘The Passover commemorated the deliverance out of Egypt when Jehovah passed over Israel, protecting them from the destroying angel.’—Bible Cyclopedia, Fausset.

Yet the editor of the Advocate goes on to say that the Sabbath which was kept for more than two millenniums before the Jewish nation existed is the institution that commemorates the deliverance from bondage in Egypt instead of the Passover which the Word of God explicitly declares was instituted for this express purpose.

In speaking concerning the Sabbath example of the apostle Paul, the Advocate editor says:—

Paul said, “For we which have believed do enter into rest.” They kept the resurrection day, the first day of the week, as their Sabbath.

Paul gave this holy and memorable day his approval.

In Troas “upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.” Sunday had become a day of religious worship among Christians even then.

It is extremely sad for a religious guide to make such misleading statements as the above. They are utterly subversive of the truth. Where does the Scripture say that the apostles kept the first day of the week? Where is the text which affirms that Paul gave his sanction to keeping Sunday? We are told that he taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. See Acts 13: 42, 43; 17: 1, 2; 18: 1-11. Inspiration calls the day on which Paul taught in the synagogue the Sabbath. The meeting cited at Troas was an evening meeting, held on what we now call Saturday night, and Sunday morning Paul left on foot for Assos, about twenty miles away, where he met the other disciples and continued his journey. On this Conybeare and Howson say:—

Strength and peace were surely sought and obtained by the apostle from the Redeemer, as he pursued his lonely road that Sunday afternoon in spring, among the oak woods and the streams of Ida.

Candor compels the learned authors above quoted, although themselves observers of the first day of the week, to admit that Paul did not observe it on this occasion, but left Troas on the morning of the first day of the week in pursuance of his regular work. This is rather a slim foundation on which to construct an argument to blot out the Sabbath made and kept by the Son of God and all holy men of God through the ages.

Further on the editor of the Advocate in the article under review says:—

Resurrection Sunday was established as the Sabbath of Christianity two hundred and fifty years before Constantine issued his edict concerning the Sabbath, and five hundred and twenty-five years before the Bishop of Rome was designated as Pope. Constantine by his edict simply legalized the Christian Sabbath in the Roman Empire. The Romish popes had nothing to do with founding the Sunday Sabbath of Christianity. The founding was done by the apostles themselves.

Text, please. Where are we told in the Scriptures that Sunday was “established as the Sabbath of Christianity”? or that the “founding was done by the apostles themselves”? Why are we not cited to the place in the Bible where proof of this can be found? The reason is because there is no Scriptural proof to confirm this assertion. We ask the editor of the Advocate in all sincerity for,—

One text that says the first day of the week is the Sabbath.
One text that commands Christians to keep this day as a day of rest and worship.
One text that says it is a sin to labor on this day.
One text that says Jesus ever kept this day as the Sabbath, or enjoined any one else to do so.
One text that shows he ever mentioned the day when on earth.
One text that says any of his followers, while he was in the world, kept the first day as a day of rest.
One text that affirms that any of the apostles ever kept the day.
One text from any of their writings which authorizes its observance.
One text that gives any instruction as to how the first day of the week should be observed as a day of rest.
One text that applies to Sunday any sacred title whatever, or pronounces any penalty for its desecration.
One text that commands us to refrain from labor on Sunday, or promises any reward for its observance.
One text that says the seventh day is not now God’s holy rest day.
One text that states when, where, and by whom the seventh-day Sabbath was abolished.
One text that says the seventh day was the Sabbath for the Jews only.
One text that calls the seventh-day Sabbath the “Jewish Sabbath.”
One text that says the seventh day is not as holy and honorable today as when made at creation, or when the precept for its observance was written by the finger of God on stone at Sinai.
One text that tells us that the fourth commandment or any part of the moral law written by Jehovah on stone, has been abrogated, and hence is not binding.

Our contention is that the Bible is the sole authority on the Sabbath question. It must tell us which day is the Sabbath, for whom made, and how it should be observed. The editor of the Advocate must agree to this, or abandon the Protestant ground of the Bible and the Bible only as the Christian’s guide.

G. B. T.