PERTINENT QUESTIONS

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 29, 1881

PERTINENT QUESTIONS.

THE following letter, which we take from the Review and Herald, was first sent to the World's Crisis for publication, but was not noticed by that paper. Since the paper advocates both sides of nearly everything else, it would have been no more than fair for it to have published this. The questions are very plain, and we think that our readers will have no difficulty in solving them for themselves:—

DEAR BRO. COUCH: I have been an interested reader of the Crisis for years. Its pages, filled with the stirring truths for these times, have been a source of pleasure and profit to me. But of late I see some things in regard to the Sabbath which perplex me a good deal.

The positions taken by the different writers on this subject do not seem to be as harmonious as those taken on the nature of man, the coming of the Lord, etc. For instance, one writer will claim that the Sabbath was simply a Jewish institution, a part of old Hagar, and was done away at the cross; while another stoutly maintains that the Sabbath, as an institution, was made for man, and the only change was in the time of its observance, which was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week. Not only so, but the same writer in the same article will frequently make contradictory statements. For example, in Crisis of March 30, 1881, Bro. Preble says that the Saturday-Sabbath was confined to the Jews, and no person was required to keep it outside of Palestine; "but let no one think (he says in the same article) that we are without a Sabbath in this dispensation; for the Sabbath was made for man."

This perplexes me. The Sabbath was made for the Jews only. The Sabbath was made for man. It seems to me that Christ referred to the ancient Sabbath when he said, "The Sabbath was made for man," for the Sunday-Sabbath did not then exist. I am puzzled to understand why Bro. Preble, as well versed in the Scriptures as we know him to be, should say that the Scriptures never required any one outside of Palestine to observe the old Jewish Saturday-Sabbath. Is it possible he has forgotten that the Lord's chosen people were required to keep it in the wilderness for forty years before they reached Palestine? Has he forgotten the gentleman that went out to gather sticks on the Sabbath day? Perhaps he thought with Bro. Preble that he was in the wrong latitude to observe the Sabbath.

But why call it the old Saturday Jewish Sabbath? Why not call it the old Sunday Jewish Sabbath; for if, as Bro. Preble claims, in different years it fell on different days of the week, it would surely come as often on Sunday as Saturday. Again, I am puzzled to know why Bro. Preble does not use Scriptural terms in speaking of the Sabbath. The Scriptures never say, The old Saturday Jewish Sabbath; but "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Quite a difference! Why does Bro. Preble step aside from the Scriptures to find a term of reproach for the Lord's Sabbath?

In Isa. 58:13, we read: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him," etc. Here we find that, 1. God calls the Sabbath his holy day; 2. He tells us to call it a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and 3. If we do so, we shall honor him; and it is a mystery to me that Bro. Preble and other writers in the Crisis refuse to do so, but stigmatize it as the old Saturday Jewish Sabbath, etc. It seems to me there is a lack of harmony between them and the will of God on the Sabbath question.

Again, I am perplexed that the old Sabbath was made for the Jews only, and the new Sabbath was made for the world. The ancient Sabbath was made for man. (Mark 2:27.) It was made in the beginning. (See Gen. 2:1-3.) But I have never found the Scripture that tells me the new Sabbath was made at all, or that God ever rested on it or blessed it, or commanded that it should be kept holy, or that any prophet or apostle observed it as a Sabbath, or taught its observance in any way. Perhaps Bro. Preble can give us light on these points.

But what is most perplexing of all is, Bro. Preble claims the first day to be the seventh day. Of course he believes, with everybody else, that Saturday is the seventh day of the week; then he has two seventh days in a week of seven days. How can this be? Surely Bro. Preble has things sadly mixed on the Sabbath question.

In conclusion I will say, other readers of the Crisis in this vicinity are perplexed in regard to these things, and some have already begun the observance of the ancient Sabbath; and one reason why they do so is because of the lack of harmony and consistency in the articles on the Sabbath that appear from time to time in the Crisis. Why cannot the brethren who write for the Crisis be as harmonious, consistent, and logical on the Sabbath question as on other Bible subjects? Will you please explain through the Crisis? Yours in Christ, I. R.