Could Any Time Have Been Lost?—The Memorial of the Rest That Remains—No Revision or Change of the Law
This week, Elder Porter reaches the conclusion of the Bible evidence on the Sabbath question. The history of the Sabbath institution has been traced from the Garden of Eden to the close of the first century of the Christian era, and the day that Christians should observe is made clear.
The article this week is quite independent in itself, and will be readily understood and appreciated, even if you have not read what has gone before. Next week, Elder Porter will tell a very interesting story of the experiences of a preacher and a judge in discussing the law of the Sabbath. Editor.
CHRIST instructed His disciples to pray that their flight from Jerusalem be not on the Sabbath day. Matt. 24: 20. The destruction of Jerusalem occurred in A. D. 70. This instruction of Christ to His disciples therefore fixes the seventh-day Sabbath in the Christian dispensation as late as A. D. 70. There is no subterfuge by which one can escape this plain instruction.
Was the Sabbath ever made holy time?—Yes, at creation. “The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” The Sabbath then had been made holy time. It would be holy time still at the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70—the very kind of time it had been made. Christ has thus fixed immovably the creation Sabbath as the Sabbath of the present dispensation.
ABSURDITY OF A LOST DAY
The following testimony from Rabbi Isaac M. Wise is conclusive on the point of the perpetuity of the Sabbath as commanded in Eden:
“There is no century in history not covered by Jewish tradition. Hence one might as well argue that Sunday is not the first day of the week, or the third day after the crucifixion, or any other fact or facts, as to argue or maintain that the Jews forgot the order of the days, when the Sabbath was so holy to them. Any one claiming the loss of a day, must prove when and where the Jews forgot the order of the days or computation of time.”
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.
“The Jews have no name of days, calling them first, second, third, etc., to the Sabbath. If they had forgotten to count in any one locality where they were dispersed since 800 years B. C., some would have done it in another locality, and a dispute among themselves about the right day must have occurred. But history chronicles no such discussion.
“The Sanhedrim at Jerusalem announced in regular succession the calendar to the Jews in all the world. When could they have forgotten the Sabbath? Those persons maintain an absurdity who claim that a day has been lost.”
THE TESTIMONY OF THE SKIES
Professor Zotten reaches the following truthful conclusion as the result of his ardent study and careful mathematical computation:
“It is patent that the human race never lost the septenary sequence of week days, and that the Sabbath of these latter times comes down to us from Adam, through the Flood, past Joshua’s long day, by the dial of Ahaz, and out of the sepulcher of the Saviour, without a single lapse. No day is missing; no cycle calls for less; all call for the same, and all unite in a concert of testimony not to be shaken by any ingenuity of man or devil.”—“Our Race,” by Professor Zotten, quoted in “The Scripture of Truth,” page 287.
A REST TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD
Paul bears positive testimony upon the same point in Heb. 4: 9, 10: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” The margin reads, “keeping of a Sabbath.”
That is precisely what the Sabbath is. It is rest. That is the definition of the word according to the best lexicons. What Sabbath rest is here meant?—That rest or Sabbath when God rested. When was that?—It was at the close of creation, when He instituted the seventh-day Sabbath. Of what was that Sabbath a sign after the fall?—“Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Eze. 20: 12. What did the Sabbath therefore signify to the sanctified man?—It signified that he could ‘rest peacefully’ in the hands of Christ, who was able to keep him from falling, and enable him to live the life of righteousness.
What says this scripture of its meaning in Paul’s day?—“For he that is entered into His [Christ’s] rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” Heb. 4: 10. The original creation Sabbath testifies of the rest that comes to the soul through sanctification. To create a new heart requires the same creative power that was necessary to create the world in the beginning. Ps. 51: 10. Hence the significance of the Sabbath as a sign of sanctification. That is what Paul has been discoursing upon in the first part of the chapter, verse 4: “For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works.” Now hear Paul’s conclusion: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” Verse 9. Paul says unqualifiedly that a rest remains to the people of God. As long as that rest which comes from believing remains, the Sabbath remains as a sign of sanctification. Eze. 20: 12.
INVULNERABLE LOGIC
There is no sophistry that can meet the logic of Paul’s argument to the Hebrews, by which he seeks to get them to accept the experience in sanctification through Christ, of which the seventh-day Sabbath, which they claimed to observe, was a sign.
ON THE LORD’S DAY
In addition to this testimony, John declares that while he was under banishment for the word of God, on the Isle of Patmos, he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. Rev. 1: 9, 10. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” What day was that? Since he was under banishment on account of his adherence to the word of God, it is evident that if he here refers to the Sabbath, he refers to the only day that Word ever calls the Lord’s day. That day is the seventh-day Sabbath.
In the Sabbath command (Ex. 20: 8-11), it is said, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” In Isaiah God speaks of it in these words: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day.” Isa. 58: 13. Christ speaks definitely upon the question thus: “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2: 28.
These scriptures leave no room for question as to which day of the week is the Lord’s day. John’s testimony is therefore definite and incontrovertible, that the Lord’s day, the weekly Sabbath from creation, was still the Lord’s day in the year of our Lord 96.
Some hold that this reference is to “the great and terrible day of the Lord,” that John was transported in vision to the day of trouble and the coming of the Lord. If that view is correct, the text has no reference to the Sabbath, and certainly could not be made to apply to Sunday either.
NO REVISION OR CHANGE OF THE LAW
From the first book of the Bible to the last one, we have traced the Sabbath instituted by Christ at creation, and we have found no revision of the statute, no transference of the day or introduction of a new Lord’s day, and no repeal of the Sabbath statute. The original law therefore still stands. This is confirmed by Luke in his Gospel, where he calls it, long after the resurrection, “the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23: 56.
