p. 11 | The God of the Bible and the God of the Sabbath

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 6, 1911

The God of the Bible and the God of the Sabbath

By William Warren Prescott

In these days when there are gods newly come up whom our fathers feared not, it is worth while to consider anew the test which will distinguish the one true and living God from the product of men's imaginations.

The first statement made in the revelation concerning the God of the Bible is expressed in these words: “In the beginning God created.” From this first sentence in the first book of the Holy Scripture to the last book of this sacred volume, the difference between the God of the Bible and the gods of the heathen is continually defined to be this,—that the God of the Bible is the Creator of all things, and therefore the rightful Owner and Lord of all things, while the gods of the heathen are utterly devoid of this creative power. This contrast between the true God and the false gods is clearly delineated in the following scripture:—

“Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion. When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The Lord of hosts is his name.” Jer. 10: 11-16.

This is but one of many instances where the same truths are emphasized, and the vital difference between the true God and the false gods plainly declared. And we might properly inquire, How is it possible for gods who can not save themselves to save others? How can those who “shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens” prevent mortal man from perishing?

Furthermore, the appeal to worship the true God is based wholly upon the fact that he is the Creator. Thus we read:—

“O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Ps. 95: 1-7.

The God who creates is infinite in power (Ps. 62: 11), infinite in wisdom (Rom. 11: 33), infinite in mercy (Psalm 136, all), righteous and holy (Ps. 145: 17). The worship of such a God changes the character of the worshiper, and conforms him to the image of his Maker. He has the exclusive right to the allegiance of the beings whom he has made, and accordingly we find our Lord saying, when urged to acknowledge the kingship of Satan:—

“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Matt. 4: 10.

The philosophy of all heathenism is revealed in the few words upon this subject by a master philosopher:—

“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Rom. 1: 25.

To put a created thing in place of the Creator; to substitute the product of the human mind for the revelation of the divine mind; to put confidence in the material instead of the spiritual; to trust in the image of God formed by the human mind (a mere image-ination) instead of in the God revealed in the Bible,—all these are merely varieties of that heathenism which worships the creature rather than the Creator. It can not be emphasized too strongly that all such worship degrades the worshiper, and brings no deliverance from sin, and no assurance of eternal life.

We may now properly consider the relation which the Sabbath of the Bible sustains to the God of the Bible. The nature of this inquiry should be distinctly noted. As we are concerned with only one God, the God of the Bible, so are we concerned with only one Sabbath, the Sabbath of the Bible; and those who accept the Scriptures as the divine revelation are not at liberty to read into them any other god than the personal God,

the Creator, nor to introduce any other sabbath than the one Sabbath instituted by this same Creator.

The Sabbath of the Bible is closely related to the work of the Creator, and was instituted at the close of the creative week as a memorial of that created work. The record runs thus:—

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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.”

By this act the seventh day, a particular portion of time, was distinguished from all other days, and made to stand out in the divine calendar as the day of days. Inasmuch as it was through his Son as agent that God created all things (John 1: 1-3), so it was in his Son that God rested upon the seventh day and blessed it. It is thus manifest that the Sabbath appointed at the close of the creative work was the Sabbath of Christ, the Christian Sabbath.

During the bondage in Egypt the children of Israel were in the midst of idolatry, and the knowledge of the one true God, the Creator, was largely blotted out by polytheistic heathenism. The God of their fathers made, therefore, a new revelation of himself, and expressed in a formal code the law of his kingdom. In this law the original Sabbath was revived, and the basis upon which it rests was authoritatively declared:—

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it 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 thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 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.” Ex. 20: 8-11.

There is an evident connection between these statements and the record of the institution of the Sabbath. So long, therefore, as it remains true that the God of the Bible created all things in six days, and rested on the seventh day, so long will it be true “that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” In the popular discussion of this question we often hear of the American sabbath, the Jewish sabbath, the Continental sabbath, etc.; but as the God of the Bible is one God, so the Sabbath of the Bible is one Sabbath, “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” This Sabbath of the Bible has been made to be a sign between the God of the Bible and the believers in the Bible. Thus it is said:—

“It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” Ex. 31: 17.

This sign is not a mere empty thing, and there has never been a time when its significance was more clear, and its benefit more needed, than in this last generation. To appreciate these facts we should read another scripture:—

“And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20: 20.

The Sabbath of the Bible is the established sign by which the believers in the Bible may know the God of the Bible as distinct from all other gods. Observers of the holy Sabbath have a divinely appointed protection against the substitution of false gods for the one true and living God. If the Sabbath of the Bible had always been observed in the spirit of it, the knowledge of the God of the Bible would have been preserved among the people of the earth, and the effort to introduce false gods would have been fruitless. And even now, the restoration of the true Sabbath will bring with it the restoration of the knowledge of the true God as against all polytheistic, pantheistic, atheistic, or humanistic gods, who live only in the perverted imaginations of those who have turned away from the truth.

These considerations will emphasize the meaning of the threefold message in which the original Sabbath of the Bible is given its place as the sign of the God of the Bible, the personal God who created the heavens and the earth.

W. W. P.