The Perpetuity of the Sabbath
By R. C. Armstrong
EVIDENTLY God instituted the Sabbath for man for every period of the world's history. It is claimed by some that it is a Jewish institution; and that the restrictions thrown around it were confined to the Mosaic dispensation; and that the law guarding its sanctity passed with the ceremonial régime. If this contention be true, then the Sabbath is no more to us than any other day. Strip this day of its sanctity, and you at once destroy it. If it is not in a peculiar sense the Lord's day, a holy day, then it necessarily follows that it stands in precisely the same relation to us as any other day of the week. That God instituted the Sabbath in the morning of time, there can not be the least doubt. The question is, Did he institute the Sabbath for a limited period of time, and for a specific race of people? If this be true, there is nothing in the Word of God to indicate it. On the contrary, there is conclusive proof that the Sabbath is a divine institution, and is the inheritance of all men, in all ages of the world's duration. Immutability is one of the attributes of Deity. For God to have installed the Sabbath, and made it a holy period of time, set apart from all secular purposes, and then to have abrogated this institution, would have destroyed his immutability. If the Sabbath had been limited in duration, and restricted to the Jews or any other people for a specific purpose, then, when that purpose was accomplished, of course the Sabbath would have ceased by reason of fulfilment. But this is not true; therefore we conclude that the Sabbath is the same to all men, in all periods of the world's history. The mistake consists in supposing the Sabbath to be ceremonial. It is an ethical institution, and not ceremonial. I dare assert that God never nullified an ethical principle—not one. This he could not do without compromising his immutability. In fact, God has never abrogated anything. The ceremonial law was not annulled. The former dispensation was instituted to answer a specific purpose. The ceremonial rites of this dispensation were typical. They all looked to the one common end, the atonement of Jesus Christ. They were correlated to the one6central design, the redemption of the world. When Christ came as the completion of this divine purpose, these adumbrations which concentred in him ceased, because they had fulfilled the design for which they were instituted. The positive proof of this contention is found in the words of Christ: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” This is conclusive evidence that nothing was destroyed by the coming of Christ whether ceremonial or ethical. But the ceremonial and the prophetic were fulfilled, that every ethical principle might be confirmed, and the divine purpose to redeem the world be accomplished. This being granted, the conclusion is irresistible that the decalogue remains intact, with its binding authority and majesty not impaired but strengthened by the teaching of the Messiah. To remove every vestige of doubt, the Saviour, continuing his discourse, said: “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.” These words of our Lord settle this question beyond all doubt. At the time this discourse was delivered, there did not exist any other law except the law found in the Old Testament, and the commandments referred to were evidently the ten commandments. Therefore the law requiring us to keep the Sabbath holy has not been abolished, nor will it ever be. Moreover, whosoever “shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew Henry understands this to include not only the ten commandments, but all the commandments of an ethical nature found in the law of Moses. I submit a general legislative principle pertaining to all governments, civil and ecclesiastical, that when a law has been enacted, and a record made of its enactment, it remains in force until it is repealed, and a record is made of the repeal. We have seen that God instituted the Sabbath. His commandment guarding its sanctity is on record, and must be binding unless a record of its repeal can be found.—R. C. Armstrong, in Baptist Standard.