WHO IS THE CREATOR? by Iva F. Cady

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 20, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 28.

WHO IS THE CREATOR?

By Iva F. Cady

Did He Who Made the World, Make the Sabbath?—His Right to Be Its Lord—Which Is the Lord’s Day?

By MRS. IVA F. CADY

THE fourth commandment of the Decalogue says: “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 manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” Ex. 20: 8-10.

Why are we to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, not doing our own work on that day, but using the six working-days for common labor?—“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.” Verse 11.

We are to keep the Sabbath because the Lord rested upon that day after creating the world, and then after resting, He blessed and sanctified it as a day of holy rest for man. We look back to the first and second chapters of Genesis, and find the record of the institution of the Sabbath in the beginning. Gen. 2: 1-3.

THE AGENT IN CREATION

Jesus Christ was the agent by whom all things were created. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” John 1: 1-3, 10.

Verse 14 shows plainly that the Word here spoken of is Christ, who was made flesh, and dwelt among men. And they “beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Again in Heb. 1: 1, 2, we read, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” See also Eph. 3: 9 and Col. 1: 13-19.

CHRIST CREATED THE HOLY DAY

We know, then, that Christ instituted the seventh-day Sabbath in the beginning; for the One who created the earth in six days, was also the One who rested upon the seventh, and then after resting, blessed and set it apart for a holy use. Upon that day, man was to lay aside his earthly cares, and spend the time in sacred worship, in prayer and meditation, considering the creative works of God, His promises and blessings, and seeking Him with all the heart.

And since Christ made the Sabbath, He very consistently calls Himself the Lord of the Sabbath. Mark 2: 27, 28. And since He is Lord of the Sabbath, then the Lord’s day mentioned in Rev. 1: 10 must be the seventh-day Sabbath, for that is the only Sabbath of the Bible, and the Lord calls it His day.

Some have substituted the first day of the week for the Sabbath, and say they keep it in honor of Christ; but are we honoring Him if we set aside the day He appointed for us to observe in commemoration of His creative work, and also as a sign of His power and willingness to create us new creatures, and regard a man-made institution instead, which He has never asked us to keep?

ONLY THOSE WHO DO

Can we hope for eternal salvation, if we willfully disregard the will of the Lord as expressed in His word, while we profess to be His followers? Christ Himself has answered this question, if we will but believe that He means what He says. The answer is: “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 7: 21. This says plainly that a profession of faith will save no one, but only those who do the will of the Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of God.

In order to be sure, then, that we are entering the strait gate that leads to life, we must look into the word of God, and there learn what is His will concerning us; for He certainly will not require us to do contrary to what He has commanded in His word.

And though the majority may now go the broad way that leads to death, can we not deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow our Saviour’s example? We can safely trust in the word of God, for every promise given will surely be fulfilled. Those who are faithful and true, may be sure of a glorious reward that will eclipse all the sorrows and trials of this life, when Christ comes again to receive His people to Himself.