Strange Spiritual Blindness
By L. A. S.
THERE is a strange blindness which is cast over minds into which has been infused the spiritual poison of the doctrines of Rome. They seem unable to see the plainest distinctions between darkness and light, truth and error. Here is an example taken from some notes in the Sunday School Times, designed to help the primary teacher in instructing the little ones about the Sabbath. Speaking of the plucking of the corn by Jesus’ disciples on the Sabbath day, this writer says:— Some Pharisees saw them and found fault, saying to Jesus: “Your disciples do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath.” They taught that it was work to rub the wheat from the chaff. So Jesus told them a story about David. (Read and explain it.) Jesus taught that necessary things must be done on Sundays. Now this writer knew perfectly well that Jesus had no reference whatever to Sunday when he spoke to the Pharisees on that occasion about the Sabbath. Every one knows that it was not Sunday, but the seventh day, on which David went into the tabernacle and ate the showbread. And it is equally plain that it was on the seventh day, not Sunday, that the Pharisees charged the disciples with breaking the Sabbath. The Sabbath in question on both occasions was the seventh day, and there is not the slightest evidence that Jesus then, or at any other time, gave instructions regarding the observance of any other day. Yet, knowing all this, this would-be instructor of the youth calmly substitutes the first day of the week for the seventh in the instructions of Jesus, and states that Jesus was teaching about what it was proper to do “on Sundays.” Yet, doubtless, this writer does not mean to be untruthful. Doubtless there is no disposition on this writer’s part to be untruthful or to misrepresent in other matters. And yet a worse case of misrepresentation could hardly be found than this effort to mislead the children by a deliberate misstatement of facts relating to a most essential part of the worship of God. The end is to establish Sunday as the Sabbath, and it seems to be considered that in such a case “the end justifies the means,” without regard to veracity. Another example which we note in the same paper appears in the following statement from some notes on the Sabbath for the “Young Folks’ Class,” by one who has acquired the title “D. D.”:— The Sabbath, or seventh day, was for some time observed by some Gentile Christians, apparently in deference to their Jewish brethren; but this was strongly opposed by Paul, who commanded that each one should be free to act according to his own judgment. Rom. 14: 5. He warned the Christians of Colosse not to allow any one to pass judgment on them for non-observance of the Sabbath, or seventh day (Col. 2: 16), and wrote to the Galatians that their observance of days and seasons appointed by the Jewish law made him feel that his teaching to them had been wasted effort. The instruction of Paul to the Romans that each person should “be fully persuaded in his own mind,” and to the Colossians that they should let no man judge them “in respect . . . of the Sabbath,” is all calmly applied by this writer to the seventh day, or “Jewish Sabbath,” and not at all to Sunday, although there is nothing whatever in the apostle’s language which would limit its application in this way. Taking the language as having reference to the observance of a weekly Sabbath, it would be as fatal to Sunday observance as to the keeping of any other day. The writer does not seem to see that his argument demolishes the very thing he is trying to establish. It is like the argument based on the calendar and the round world, that the seventh day can not be kept on a round world, but Sunday can be observed on the same world without any trouble. How careful ought those to be who are entrusted with the solemn task of guiding youthful minds into the way of life. “Take heed that ye offend not one of these little ones.” Fitly does the Scripture say, that the doctrines of the “mystery of iniquity” have made earth’s peoples drunken as with wine,—“the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Rev. 14: 8. The Word of God and the convicting influence of the Holy Spirit have the power, and these alone, to overcome the hypnotic influence of Rome’s doctrines and reveal light from the throne of God to the multitudes in the darkness of error. L. A. S.