Your ShelfYour Projects

The Bible Text Book

1%

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 16, 1876

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 2, No. 46.

Read the full edition

The Bible Text Book.

By B. A. Stephens

This is the name of an excellent little work of 208 pages, published and extensively circulated by the American Tract Society, of 150 Nassau street, New York. In presenting in tabular form the most important passages in the Bible bearing on the Sabbath question, it has shown in the clearest light that God's holy Sabbath is still the seventh day, binding upon all mankind in all ages and countries. In reading it we are constrained to say, “Their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges,” Deut. 32:31. Truly to them can we say, “Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; yea, thine own lips testify against thee.” Job. 15:6. “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Matt. 12:37.
Some references are omitted, to be examined hereafter, one of which is a contradiction, point blank, to the following:—

SABBATH:

instituted by God. Gen. 2:3.
why instituted. Gen. 2:2, 3; Ex. 20:11.
the seventh day observed as. Ex. 20:9, 10.
made for man. Mark 2:27.

GOD

blessed. Gen. 2:3; Ex. 20:11.
sanctified. Gen. 2:3; Ex. 31:15.
hallowed. Ex. 20:11.
commanded to be kept. Lev. 19:3, 30.
commanded to be sanctified. Ex. 20:8.
will have his goodness commemorated in the observance of. Deut. 5:15.
shows favor in appointing. Neh. 9:14.
shows considerate kindness in appointing. Ex. 23:12.

CHRIST

is Lord of. Mark 2:28.
was accustomed to observe. Luke 4:16.
taught on. Luke 4:31; 6:6.
servants and cattle should be allowed to rest upon. Ex. 20:10; Deut. 5:14.
no manner of work to be done on. Ex. 20:10; Lev. 23:3.
no purchases to be made on. Neh. 10:31; 13:15–17.
no burdens to be carried on. Neh. 13:19; Jer. 17:21.
divine worship to be celebrated on. Ezek. 46:3; Acts 16:13.
the Scriptures to be read on. Acts 13:27; 15:21.
the word of God to be preached on. Acts 13:14, 15, 44; 17:2; 18:4.
works connected with religious service lawful on. Num. 28:9; Matt. 12:5; John 7:23.
works of mercy lawful on. Matt. 12:12; Luke 13:16; John 9:14.
necessary wants may be supplied on. Matt. 12:1; Luke 13:15; 14:1.

CALLED

the Sabbath of the Lord. Ex. 20:10; Lev. 23:3; Deut. 5:14.
the Sabbath of rest. Ex. 31:15.
the rest of the holy Sabbath. Ex. 16:23.
God's holy day. Isa. 58:13.
the Lord's day. Rev. 1:10.

SAINTS

observe. Neh. 13:22.
honor of God in observing. Isa. 58:13.
rejoice in. Isa. 58:13.
testify against those who desecrate. Neh. 13:15, 20, 21.
observance of, to be perpetual. Ex. 31:16, 17, with Matt. 5:17, 18.
blessedness of honoring. Isa. 58:13, 14.
blessedness of keeping. Isa. 56:2, 6.
denunciations against those who profane. Neh. 13:18; Jer. 17:27.

THE WICKED

mock at. Lam. 1:7.
wearied by. Amos 8:5.
hide their eyes from. Ezek. 22:26.
do their own pleasure on. Isa. 58:13.
bear burdens on. Neh. 13:15.
work on. Neh. 13:15.
sometimes pretend to be zealous for. Luke 13:14; John 9:16.

HONORING

of, exemplified. Moses, etc.; Num. 15:32–34. Nehemiah; Neh. 13:15, 21. The women; Luke 23:56. Paul; Acts 13:14. Disciples; Acts 16:13. John; Rev. 1:10.

DISHONORING

of, exemplified. Gatherers of manna; Ex. 16:27. Gatherers of sticks; Num. 15:32. Men of Tyre; Neh. 13:16. Inhabitants of Jerusalem; Jer. 17:21–23.
One of the references omitted from the above, calls it “a sign of the covenant. Ex. 31:13–17.” We know not what the “covenant” can here be unless it is the “covenant,” commanded, even the ten commandments.” Deut. 4:13. And Ex. 31:17 calls the Sabbath a sign (or seal. Rom. 4:11), “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested.” And truly the Sabbath is the seal of God's law, because it is the only point thereof which shows the law-giver's name, office, and authority.
Another reference says it is “a type of heavenly rest. Heb. 4:4, 9.” Verse 9, margin, says, “keeping of a Sabbath;” but Webster, under Sabbatismos, says, “keeping of the Sabbath.” We think this refers to the Sabbath when it will be kept in the new earth. Isa. 66:22, 23. Heb. 4:4 shows that the Sabbath was made in Eden, that was before man had sinned, and hence there were then no types.
Reference third says, “first day of the week kept as, by primitive church. John 20:26; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2.” But here is a contradiction to the verses in the above table referred to, in the books of the New Testament concerning the Sabbath. None of these verses in this reference call the “first day of the week” the Sabbath, but state what was also done on every other day of the week as well as the first, while other passages declare the primitive church kept the Sabbath as was their custom. Acts 13:14; 16:13. Indeed, we are told that Paul preached a year and six months in Corinth, “and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” Acts 18.
Reference fourth says, “saints rejoice in. Ps. 118:4.” That this refers to the Sabbath of the Lord (or the Sunday festival of the Pope as some claim) is extremely doubtful. At least the passage itself leads our minds on an entirely different subject, viz.: the day of grace or probation.
Reference fifth says, “punishment of those who profane. Ex. 31:14, 15; Num. 15:32–36.” And refers to the ministering of death to those who broke the Sabbath, or any other commandment of the decalogue. But this ministration of death was done away, 2 Cor. 3, being part of that hand-writing of ordinances that was nailed to the cross. Col. 2:14. Yet “the wages of sin is death,” Rom. 6:23, and “sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. That is, the law of ten commandments. James 2:9–11. So if we profane the Sabbath now our punishment will still be death, only with this difference, that now God will do the work himself instead of intrusting it to those who have sinned. For he that is without sin must be the one to first cast the stone. John 8:7.
Reference six says, “The wicked may be judicially deprived of. Lam. 2:6; Hosea 2:11.” But these passages refer solely to the sabbaths of the ceremonial law, besides the Sabbaths of the Lord,” as are recorded in Lev. 23. Truly “the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.” The wicked could be judicially deprived of these ceremonial sabbaths then, the same as one might be excluded from the Lord's supper now.
The good of past ages have universally agreed that the ten commandments are the moral law, although all did not have the light upon the fourth that we now have, yet, like the book which has just been quoted, they have unconsciously testified to the great truths whereon it is based. And now while our opponents have so unwittingly testified to the truthfulness of our positions in regard to the holy Sabbath of the Lord, and honorable, let us all thank God and take courage, and go up into the gap and make “up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.”
B. A. Stephens.
La Fayette, Cal., Oct. 25, 1876.