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WHY KEEP THE SABBATH?

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 6, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 1.

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WHY KEEP THE SABBATH?

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.
WHAT is the object of the Sabbath? Who made it? When was it made, and for whom? Which day is the true Sabbath? Many keep the first day of the week, or Sunday. What Bible authority have they for this? Some keep the seventh day, or Saturday. What Scripture have they for that? Here are the facts about both days, as plainly stated in the word of God:—
1. After working the first six days of the week in creating this earth, the great God rested on the seventh day. Gen. 2:1-3.
2. This stamped that day as God's rest-day, or Sabbath day, as Sabbath day means rest-day. To illustrate: When a person is born on a certain day, that day thus becomes his birthday. So when God rested upon the seventh day that day became his rest, or Sabbath, day.
3. Therefore the seventh day must always be God's Sabbath day. Can you change your birthday from the day on which you were born, to one on which you were not born? No. Neither can you change God's rest-day to a day on which he did not rest. Hence the seventh day is still God's Sabbath day.
4. The Creator blessed the seventh day. Gen. 2:3.
5. He sanctified the seventh day. Ex. 20:11.
6. He made it the Sabbath day in the garden of Eden. Gen. 2:1-3.
7. It was made before the fall; hence it is not a type; for types were not introduced till after the fall.
8. Jesus says it was made for man (Mark 2:27); that is, for the race, as the word man is here unlimited; hence, for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews.
9. It is a memorial of creation. Ex. 20:11; 31:17. Every time we rest upon the seventh day, as God did at creation, we commemorate that grand event.
10. It was given to Adam, the head of the human race. Mark 2:27; Gen. 2:1-3.
11. Hence through him, as our representative, to all nations. Acts 17:26.
12. It is not a Jewish institution; for it was made 2300 years before ever there was a Jew.
13. The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath; but always, "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Men should be cautious how they stigmatize God's holy rest-day.
14. Evident reference is made to the Sabbath, all through the patriarchal age. Gen. 2:1-3; 8:10, 12; 29:27, 28, etc.
15. It was a part of God's law before Sinai. Ex. 16:4, 27-29.
16. Then God placed it in the heart of his moral law. Ex. 20:1-17. Why did he place it there if it was not like the other nine precepts, which all admit to be immutable?
17. The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God speaking from Heaven. Deut. 4:12, 13.
18. Then he wrote the commandment with his own finger. Ex. 31:18.
19. He engraved it in the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature. Deut. 5:22.
20. It was sacredly preserved in the ark in the holy of holies. Deut. 10:1-5.
21. God forbade work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times. Ex. 34:21.
22. God destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness, because they profaned the Sabbath. Eze. 20:12, 13.
23. It is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know him from false gods. Eze. 20:20.
24. God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath. Jer. 17:24, 25.
25. He sent them into the Babylonish captivity for breaking it. Neh. 13:18.
26. He destroyed Jerusalem for its violation. Jer. 17:27.
27. God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep it. Isa. 56:6, 7.
28. This is in that prophecy which refers wholly to the Christian dispensation. See Isa. 56.
29. God has promised to bless any man who will keep the Sabbath. Isa. 56:2.
30. The Lord requires us to call it "honorable." Isa. 58:13. Beware, ye who take delight in calling it the "old Jewish Sabbath," "a yoke of bondage," etc.
31. After the holy Sabbath has been trodden down "many generations," it is to be restored in the last days. Isa. 58:12, 13.
32. All the holy prophets kept the seventh day.
33. When the Son of God came, he kept the seventh day all his life. Luke 4:16; John 15:10. Thus he followed his Father's example at creation. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son?
34. The seventh day is the Lord's day. See Rev. 1:10; Mark 2:28; Isa. 58:13; Ex. 20:10.
35. Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28); that is, to love and protect it, as the husband is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her. 1 Pet. 3:6.
36. He vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man's good. Mark 2:23-28.
37. Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, he carefully taught how it should be observed. Matt. 12:1-13.
38. He taught his disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was "lawful." Matt. 12:12.
39. He instructed his apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded forty years after his resurrection. Matt. 24:20.
40. The holy women who had been with Jesus all his life carefully kept the seventh day after his death. Luke 23:56.
41. Thirty years after Christ's resurrection, the Holy Spirit expressly calls it "the Sabbath day." Acts 13:14.
42. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it "the Sabbath day" in A. D. 45. Acts 13:27. Did not Paul know? or shall we believe modern teachers, who affirm that it ceased to be the Sabbath at the resurrection of Christ?
43. Luke, the inspired Christian historian, writing as late as A. D. 62, calls it "the Sabbath day." Acts 13:44.
44. The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath. Acts 13:42.
45. In the great Christian council, A. D. 52, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the "Sabbath day." Acts 15:21.
46. Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on that day. Acts 17:2, 3.
47. The book of Acts alone gives a record of his holding eighty-four meetings upon that day. See Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4, 11.
48. But Paul himself expressly declared that he had kept the law. "Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Cæsar, have I offended anything at all." Acts 25:8. How could this be true if he had not kept the Sabbath?
49. The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine times, and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament, "the Sabbath day."
50. Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath being abolished, done away, changed, or anything of the kind.
51. God has never given permission to any man to work upon it. Reader, by what authority do you use the seventh day for common labor?
52. As the Sabbath was kept in Eden before the fall, so it will be observed eternally in the new earth after the restitution. Isa. 66:22, 23.
53. The seventh-day Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from his own mouth, and was written by his own finger upon stone at Sinai. See Ex. 20. When Jesus began his work, he expressly declared that he had not come to destroy the law. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets." Matt. 5:17.
We have now presented fifty-three plain Bible facts concerning the seventh day. What will you do with them? Next week we will present the Bible facts concerning the first day of the week.