A Day or an Institution—Which?
By Carlyle B. Haynes
Could Congress Change the Sabbath? It is important at this point in our discussion of the Sabbath question to discover, if possible, of what material the Sabbath is composed. What is the Sabbath made of? And this question, too, is answered by the Bible. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” Gen. 2: 2, 3. Notice what it was God took to make the Sabbath of. He ended His work on “the seventh day.” He rested on “the seventh day.” He blessed “the seventh day.” He sanctified “the seventh day.” God took a day and made a Sabbath out of it, and the day he used was the seventh day. The Sabbath is made of the seventh day. Let the passage above be read again, and notice where God puts the emphasis: “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it [the seventh day]; because that in it [the seventh day] He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” It is the day that is emphasized. The seventh day is the Sabbath. A Day, Not an Institution
ATTENTION is directed to the fact that nothing is said in the Bible of a Sabbath institution. Some would have the commandment read: “Remember the Sabbath institution, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but one day in seven shalt thou rest, for one seventh part of time is the Sabbath institution; in it thou shalt not do any work.” They would have the blessing and the sanctification placed upon the institution. But God plainly placed His blessing and sanctification upon the day. God did not say, “Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy”; but He did say, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it [the day] holy.” It is the day that is to be kept holy, because it was the day that was blessed; it was the day upon which God rested; it was the day that He appointed to be kept. The Sabbath is not a movable institution, that was placed upon one day, but which can be changed and transferred to some other day, as many seem to think. The day itself is the Sabbath. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it [the day] thou shalt not do any work.” The day itself is the important thing. Emphasis Placed on the Day
LET the reader turn to Ex. 20: 8-11, and read there the Sabbath commandment, and notice where God again places the emphasis: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it [the day] holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it [the seventh day] thou shalt not do any work.
. . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it [the seventh day].” God blessed a day because He had rested on that day. And He made that day holy. The seventh day was the recipient of all the things God conferred. The rest, the blessing, the sanctification, and the holiness pertain alone to the seventh day. When, therefore, some other day is used as a Sabbath, every element that constitutes the Sabbath is left out and lost. When another day is taken in the place of that day upon which God rested, then we have a day upon which God did not rest, a day which He did not bless, and a day which is not holy. Hence, whatever else we do have, we do not have the Sabbath, for the Sabbath is the seventh day and that alone. On the seventh day God rested. That fact can never be changed. We cannot place that rest on any other day, and therefore the blessing and the sanctification cannot be transferred to any other day, for they were bestowed on the seventh day because of the fact that God rested on that day. To illustrate: The writer was born on May 24. That is his birthday. Nothing that he can do, and nothing that all the nations of the earth can do, can ever change the fact that May 24 is his birthday. He might decide to celebrate June 24 as his birthday, or he might even claim that June 24 was his birthday; but celebrating June 24, or claiming June 24 as his birthday, would not make it so. May 24 would still remain his birthday, simply because of a fact that could not be changed—the fact that he was born on May 24. So with the Sabbath. On the seventh day God rested. That is a truth, a fact. It cannot be changed. I cannot change it. Congress cannot change it. The pope cannot change it. And the fact must ever remain, that the seventh day, and the seventh day alone, is the Sabbath, the rest day, of the Lord. And it is not the Old Testament alone that places this emphasis on the seventh day as the Sabbath. The New Testament also teaches clearly the same truth. The following passage makes this plain: “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher.” Luke 23: 52-56; 24: 1. In this passage, three days are mentioned, “the preparation” day, “the Sabbath day according to the commandment,” and “the first day of the week.” And it is plain to all, that “the Sabbath day” is the day immediately before “the first day of the week.” Thus the Old and the New Testament are in entire agreement regarding the fact that the seventh day is the Christian Sabbath.