WHY IS IT? by O. A. Washburn

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 20, 1879

WHY IS IT?

By O. A. Washburn

When I was in Garden Grove, Iowa, recently, I reviewed two discourses that had been preached against our views on the Sabbath question. One of the ministers took the position that “Sunday, or the first day of the week, is the Christian Sabbath, the change having been made by the apostles, and authorized by Christ.” And yet in the same discourse he stated that “God only requires us to keep holy a seventh part of time.” Again he said, “You tear down the Christian Sabbath, and you tear down the Christian church.” Yet “it is utterly impossible to keep the exact time”! the world is round, etc.

The commandment for Sunday observance is found at last. He stated that, “if Christ did not forbid the assembling together on the first day, it was equivalent to a command, and to authorizing the same.” And yet such texts as Luke 23:56, where it is said that the holy women “rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment,” and Matt. 12:12, where the Sabbath law is distinctly recognized, seemed to have been conveniently forgotten by him. Why is this? No answer can be given only that these, and a thousand like them, would be utterly fatal to his theory. O. A. WASHBURN.