The Seventh Day Is the Christian Sabbath
By Allen Moon
Christ by His Father's Power Created the World and Men — It Was He Who Rested in Creation and Made the Sabbath — He Gave It to His Followers to Commemorate His Mighty Work, Reaffirmed by Him and the Early Apostles “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1. The name “God” belongs equally to the Father and the Son. In the above text, evidently one person of the Godhead is termed the “Word”; for the Word was with God, and was God. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Verse 14. This identifies the Word with the Son of God, who came to earth and wrought out man's redemption. But why is the name “Word” given? Can we ascertain the meaning as applied to the Son? John says again, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Verse 3. The Word was with God, and was God; and this same Word made all things that were made. God's method of making things has been unmistakably set forth in the following words: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Heb. 11:3. That is, “He spake, and it was done” (Ps. 33:9); which is saying that the worlds were framed by the Son of God, who is the Word, “the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” Col. 1:15-17. This establishes, beyond all cavil, the fact that the Son of God, who is the word or expression of the Godhead, is the Creator of all things, being that member of the Godhead through whom expression is given. Crowning Purpose in Creation
The crowning purpose of God in the creation of the earth was that it might be inhabited by a race of beings capable of appreciating the Creator. The progenitors of this race were among the “things” created during the six days, and, like all the rest of the work of His hands, were pronounced very good. In addition to the home He had created for man, the dear Son of God would leave with man also a memorial of Himself and His work. So when He had finished His work, He said, I will now rest on the seventh day; and when He had rested, He blessed the day on which He had rested; and then He sanctified the day also, and made it a holy institution. He made this blessed, holy rest day for man in his purity. In setting apart the rest day, the Creator must have made known to man the purpose of the Sabbath—to remind him periodically that his Creator had in six days spoken into existence man as well as that which was designed for his eternal home. Man forfeited eternal life by transgression, but God did not leave him without a promise on which to base hope. It Was Christ Who Spoke to Moses
God's remnant in the earth, after sin came, passed through many vicissitudes; but finally the Lord chose the family of a faithful man, and permitted them to suffer great tribulations for four hundred years. He delivered them from the bondage of the world, and placed them in a position to serve Him. Then the Son of God, the Word, appears again identified personally with His people. It was He who spoke to Moses; and was with him as the commander of Israel. Acts 7:38. Early after their deliverance, God the Son said to Moses, “See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” Ex. 16:29. This Sabbath which was given was “the rest of the holy Sabbath.” The Son of God had not lost the day on which He rested, even though the people in their bondage had. He had caused the holiness of the day to remain. It was the successor of His rest day, and not another day. Hear the inspired Word when it says, “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and madest known unto them Thy holy Sabbath.” Neh. 9:13, 14. Then It Was the Christian Sabbath
Then the Sabbath of the Jew was the Christian Sabbath, for it was Christ's holy rest day. Although the Sabbath, like the Son Himself, was holy and sanctified, thus revealing a great contrast with sinful man, yet the Lord, for reasons stated, gave to man in his sinful state this holy, sanctified memorial. He says, “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. The redemption of sinful man means his cleansing, his purification, his transformation and sanctification. The Lord gave to His redeemed people the Sabbath on which He, Jehovah, had rested, and which He had blessed and sanctified for unfallen man, that they might know when God's blessing and sanctification rested upon them. When God's people are in complete accord with the Author, there will be sweet accord with His divine institutions. The Spirit of Christ in the prophet caused to be written: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth. . . . for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa. 58:13, 14. Here again the Spirit of Christ calls the Sabbath “My holy day,” and promises blessings upon all who honor it, and, by so doing, honor the Author. How cheering to the child of God to have the rubbish which has so long obscured the word of God, cleared away by the divine Spirit, so that the Word of truth may stand forth in all its clearness and power!8 If a doubt remains in the mind of any one as to Christ's being the author of the seventh-day Sabbath, let him contemplate for a moment the language of Christ when He was on earth. When the Jews found fault with His disciples concerning their manner of keeping the Sabbath, “He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Who could know better than He the purpose for which the Sabbath was made? He made it. “Therefore,” said He, “the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27, 28. The Saviour continued to instill into the minds of His disciples and followers the sacred and divine character of the Sabbath in contrast with the traditions and laws with which the Jewish leaders had surrounded it. Near the close of His life, as He sat conversing with His disciples, He predicted the destruction of the temple, and the overthrow of the Jewish nation, and the flight of Christians from the country. He also admonished them to pray that their flight be not on the Sabbath day. Matt. 24:20. The Day of the Early Church
These sayings were treasured by His followers, insomuch that when the Jews had accomplished His crucifixion and death, the devout women who had companied with Him, who had prepared spices and ointments for His burial, would not anoint Him on the Sabbath day. Instead, they “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. After the events connected with the death of the Saviour, we have an account of the conversion of Paul, a noted Pharisee. The Lord sent him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. The record shows that Paul was an observer of the Lord's rest day; for it is written of him in Acts 17:2, that “Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them [the Jews of Thessalonica], and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures”—a work which was in complete accord with the sacredness of the Sabbath. On another occasion, when Paul was at Corinth, it is said that “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. . . . And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” Acts 18:4, 11. Paul's visit to Corinth was in A.D. 54 and 55, more than twenty years after the death of the Saviour; yet the apostle is still found honoring the holy day of God as a day of rest from secular labor. While he was at Corinth, he engaged in tent making to pay expenses, that he might teach the word to the people on the Sabbath day. How very conclusive the facts here stated! The Jews as a nation had failed to recognize the true purpose of the Sabbath, and went about to establish their human conception of the holy thing God had given them. They did not recognize the Author of the Sabbath, for the same reason that they did not see in the Sabbath its divine origin. May it not be true that thousands to-day are deceived by human reasoning regarding the sacredness, the purpose, and the glory of the Sabbath? By establishing and observing a man-made institution as a Christian sabbath, they are turning away from the only true Christian Sabbath, the day of Christ's rest. For without controversy, the seventh day is the Christian Sabbath.