Saturday Is the Seventh Day.
By John Matteson
That the Lord commanded us to keep holy the seventh day, is most clearly brought to view in the fourth commandment. There is no record in the Bible that any other day but the seventh has been sanctified, or set apart, as a divinely-appointed rest-day for man to keep holy. But the question so frequently arises, How can you prove that Saturday is the real seventh day? We think the following considerations will prove this beyond all doubt: 1. Weeks are counted by numbering seven days independent of months and years. This question is not affected at all by the number of years that have passed by, but may be stated thus: Have the people in the world since creation made a mistake in counting the seven days of each week? If so, where? when? 2. During the first 2500 years of the existence of the world, this account was kept without a mistake; for the Lord called the very same day the Sabbath or seventh day which the people called the seventh day. This is shown by the following language of Moses: “This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.” Ex. 16: 23. Some of the people on the seventh day went out to gather manna, but found none. Verse 27. By the falling of the manna on six days only, and none on the Sabbath, the Lord would prove the people whether they would obey his law or no. Verse 4. They were evidently proved on the fourth commandment. But the individuals mentioned refused to observe the seventh day as the Sabbath. Wherefore the Lord reproved them: “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws.” Verse 28. Consequently the people knew which day the true seventh day was; and the account had been kept correctly from generation to generation so far. And during the forty years in the wilderness, as the real seventh day was pointed out by a constant miracle, the manna falling on the six days while on the seventh day there was none, this knowledge of the true seventh day was certainly established to that generation beyond all controversy. 3. During the 1500 years, from the giving of the law till the ministry of Christ, the people made no mistake in counting the days of the week; for when Christ came, all must acknowledge that he knew which day the real seventh day, or Sabbath, was; and he would call no other day the Sabbath but the day which his Father recognized as the Sabbath; for Christ and the Father are one. John 10: 30. But Christ called the very same day the Sabbath which the Jews called the Sabbath. “The Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they [the disciples] on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? Mark 2: 24. “And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Verse 27. When was the Sabbath made for man? At creation. “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: 3. Thus we have traced the counting of the days of the week 4000 years, from creation till Christ, and found it to be all correct. 4. Does any one claim that a mistake has been made in the numbering of the days of the week since Christ? We ask you to prove it. The burden of proof rests with you. Yet we will introduce four witnesses who all agree that the day now commonly called Saturday is the true seventh day. a. The Jews have been scattered throughout the earth. Many of them still observe the seventh day. But wherever you find the Jews observing the seventh day, whether in Asia, Africa, Europe, or America, they do observe that day on Saturday. b. The Mahometans have kept their account independently of Jews and Christians. They are instructed to observe as a Sabbath the sixth day of the week. But wherever you find a Mussulman observing his Sabbath, he observes it on Friday, consequently counts Saturday as the seventh day. c. Many Christians have, for a number of years, observed the first day as a Sabbath in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ. And they unanimously observe this day on Sunday. Therefore they also prove that Saturday is the seventh day. d. There are found Christians in Africa, Europe, and America, who still observe the seventh day as the Sabbath, and all such observe the Sabbath on Saturday. “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” A recent traveler in the holy land, Mr. Fairfield, of Michigan, stated that the population of Jerusalem was about one-third Mahometans, one-third Jews, and one-third Catholic Christians. Every Friday the Mussulmen would all rest, every Saturday the Jews, and every Sunday the Christians; observing respectively the sixth, seventh, and first, days of the week. 5. If any one should still feel disposed to doubt on this question, we will put the proposition in the following171form: It is an impossibility that the whole world could make a mistake in counting seven. Sometimes a single individual or a family has been mistaken in numbering the days of the week; but they have always been corrected by their neighbors. There is no record that a whole town ever made such a mistake. Yet if a town, or county, or even a whole State, should miscount seven, there are other towns, counties, and States, who could correct it. Dear reader, the Lord has made this matter exceedingly simple, so that none ever need mistake which day he has sanctified and blest as long as the world can count seven. Is it not plain that Saturday is the seventh day, and that the seventh day is the rest-day of Jehovah, which he has commanded you and me to keep holy?