Resting “According to the Commandment”

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 26, 1907

Resting “According to the Commandment”

THAT the seventh day of the week, now commonly called Saturday, is the only Sabbath which rests upon Scriptural authority is perfectly plain to those who are willing to accept the Bible as it reads. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and this is the only definition of the Sabbath which has been made known to us. In the absence of any “Thus saith the Lord” for the observance of any other day, those whose practise is out of harmony with the Scriptures, which they profess to follow, often find themselves driven to the extremity of bringing forward objections which they claim make it impossible to obey the plain teaching of the commandment. One of these objections, often made, is to the effect that we are not certain that the day which we now call the seventh day of the week is the original seventh day, and that there is no way by which this question can be decisively settled. It seems to us, however, that there is a very simple and satisfactory solution of this alleged difficulty in the Bible itself, without the necessity of appealing to calendars or calculations.

In the inspired account of the burial of Jesus we find the following: “And the women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and beheld the tomb, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came unto the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.” Let us note the conclusions which may properly be drawn from this record: 1. A distinction is clearly drawn between days. 2. They rested on the Sabbath from work which they felt at liberty to perform on the first day of the week. 3. The day on which they thus rested was the one just preceding the first day of the week. 4. In resting on this day they met all the requirements of the commandment, for “they rested according to the commandment.”

It is generally conceded that the present first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, has come down to us in unbroken succession from the time of the resurrection of Christ, and the reason now given for the observance of Sunday is that it is kept in honor of the resurrection. All that is required, then, in order to keep the original Sabbath, “according to the commandment,” is to rest on the day just preceding the day on which Christ rose from the dead, that is, on the present seventh day of the week, commonly called Saturday. This is what the women did at the time of the crucifixion of Christ, and in doing this, we are authoritatively told, they “rested according to the commandment.” In following their example we shall also rest “according to the commandment,” and may therefore feel assured that we are meeting to divine

satisfaction the requirements of the law concerning the day of the Sabbath.

If the objection here considered has really troubled the minds of any of our readers, or has been urged by others when the Sabbath was presented to them, we hope the suggestions here made may be helpful in removing any supposed difficulty. The more the subject is examined, the plainer it will appear that the seventh day is the Sabbath enjoined in the Scriptures, and that in observing the present seventh day of the week we are resting “according to the commandment.”