Breakdown of “American Sabbath”
By J. H. Parsons
No Divine Law for Sunday—The Church Failed to “Remember”—The Apostasy Attempted the Change of the Sabbath It is not an uncommon though a remarkable fact, that men, even of high literary attainments besides being specialists in the Scriptures, may with apparent honesty of purpose be quite blind to inconsistencies that are transparent to “the wayfaring men, though fools.” The Literary Digest quotes the New York Christian Advocate as saying that— “If the partial breakdown of the American Sabbath is to be repaired, if the American people are to come to a realization of the theft they are practising on themselves, to say nothing of their iniquity toward God in the reckless abuse of Sunday which dissipates their energies and lowers the tone of their lives, the first move must come from the church.”
The Herald and Presbyter agrees that the church is largely responsible for the fact that this is a Sabbath-breaking generation, and among other things says: “We did not expect to say so much on the subject just at this time, but Sabbath desecration is a sin that in God’s sight is as deadly and as hateful as murder or theft. It is one of the peculiarly aggravated sins of our own times. Christian people should stand up and protest against it. They should advocate and defend the cause of the Sabbath. If they do not do so more vigorously by life and word, the Sabbath will increasingly become to the world merely Sunday, a day with a heathen name, and then . . . simply Sunday, to be trampled underfoot and desecrated with impunity.”
To the simple-minded people such as Jesus loved to teach, and for whom He thanked the Father (Matt. 11:25), there must be a foundation for all things spiritual as well as material. Such people argue logically and truly that a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. The Christian faith and doctrine, however, are founded on the word of God, which in its very nature must be an expression of God’s character, a character “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17. The Ten Commandments are the plummet-line by which we can measure and square our own characters to that of our heavenly Father. In the very center of those commandments is the one bearing on Sabbath observance, enjoining us to “remember” to keep holy the Sabbath day, and carefully designating which day is the Sabbath, namely, the “seventh day.” “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. To the plain man in the street, the seventh day precedes the first day of the week, which is commonly called Sunday. The churches that keep Sunday for the Sabbath have no reasonable explanation to offer for so doing; in fact, it is conceded by an overwhelming preponderance of historical evidence that the seventh day was conscientiously kept for the Sabbath until the fourth century, when a schism arose and a compromise was made with paganism, and “the day with a heathen name” was chosen in place of God’s holy day. That was when the church forgot to “remember.” Confusion ensued and has been maintained ever since, as there are sects, as the Herald and Presbyter remarks, “which refuse to recognize” the first day of the week as the Sabbath, though they quite endorse the editor’s view that this is a Sabbath-breaking generation; that such desecration is a sin in God’s sight; and that Christian people should advocate and defend the cause of the Sabbath. But it is impossible for them to agree that Sunday is the Sabbath, because there is no evidence, nor has any evidence (clear proof, plain or manifest to the mind or senses) been offered, that Christ or His apostles ever suggested or authorized any such change. On the contrary, the oldest and most prominent Christian denomination boasts that their church changed the day from the seventh to the first day of the week. THE CHANGE OF DAY FORETOLD
God’s word has foretold this change of the Sabbath, and also that the professed church of God will try to enforce the observance of another day by man-made laws, which will cause persecution by imposing penalties for its non-observance. The Jewish nation, well versed in the prophecies, were looking for a Saviour at the appointed time; and because the Saviour failed to endorse but rather rebuked their traditions, among which was a false spirit of Sabbath observance, they crucified Him. Since “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,” it might be well for the editors of the above papers and all who take the same stand, to reconsider the propriety of bolstering up a day called the American Sabbath, when the “Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” the Sabbath that Jesus and the apostles and their successors kept holy, has been ruthlessly thrust on one side and desecrated. It will be well for these editors and all who take the same stand if, when the day of probation has ended and the dead both small and great stand before God, they be not found on the side of that great persecuting power which is responsible for all the false dogmas that have tried to usurp the place of God’s written word; the power that insidiously perverted God’s law in the Garden of Eden; that has left a trail of blood from the time of righteous Abel on down to our time; the same power that prophecy warns us will practise the same deception on the professed people of God at a time when the church should be looking for the second coming of our Saviour. Prophecy warns also that this same spiritual blindness will lead many to crucify their Lord and Master again by using their God-given talents to frame laws that will conflict with those of the Most High. “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.” Prov. 1:17.