No Precept for Sunday by M. C. Israel

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 21, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 28.

No Precept for Sunday

By M. C. Israel

The Judge Asks, What Is Written in the Law?—What Answer Can Sunday Keepers Give?

By M. C. ISRAEL

MOST people, both ministers and others, do not attempt to give any Bible reasons for Sunday keeping, but assume that the church changed the Sabbath to that day, and that it had a right to do so. They do not accept the teaching of the prophecy,—that a blasphemous power has brought about that change, and that they are rendering obedience to that power, and not to God, in keeping Sunday.

DENY AUTHORITY FOR CHANGE

The fourth commandment tells us which day is the Sabbath, and of the facts that make it the Sabbath; and the Creator Himself can not change these facts. And He Himself, through His prophets and apostles, denies the authority of any power to make such a change.

There are devout men who deplore the condition of the popular churches; but they shun prophecy, and say, “We can understand it better after it is fulfilled.” It is not to them what God intended it should be, “a light that shineth in a dark place,” a part of that Book of which God says that man is to live “by every word” of it. They, like the Jews, “know not the voices of the prophets,” nor what Christ and the prophets taught in regard to the perpetuity of every precept of God’s law.

This law was spoken by God’s own voice, and written with His own finger, on tables of stone. An inspired writer says, “Thy law is the truth.” But if the first day of the week, as many claim to believe, is the Sabbath, then the fourth commandment tells a falsehood; for it says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath.”

Christ is very explicit and emphatic in His statement regarding the perpetuity of every precept of the law just as it was spoken, and written on stone, and in our Bibles. “Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle [the smallest letter, or the point of a letter] shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things [predicted] be accomplished.” Matt. 5: 18, A. R. V. See also Luke 16: 17. What is written in the law will stand as written till all things are accomplished.

The apostle Paul emphasizes this same fact in Rom. 3: 19, 20, 31: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith,” stop every mouth, and all the world becomes guilty before God. “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” It is just what the law says, just what is written in the law, that condemns all the world. The law condemns all who do not obey what it says.

The apostle James is more emphatic, if possible, in showing that every precept of the law is in full force till the Judgment. Chapter 2: 10-12: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. . . . So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” When the Judge shall ask, “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” what answer can Sunday keepers give?

Christ, through His prophets, has warned the church of a blasphemous power that would arise before His second coming, which would attempt to change the law of the Most High, and wear out the saints. Dan. 7: 25; Rev. 13: 1-10; 2 Thess. 2: 1-5. And He has sent a message, with warning of a terrible penalty, not to obey this power, but to keep God’s commandments, and the faith of Jesus. Rev. 14: 6-14; 1: 1-3; 22: 12-16. “I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.”

The churches of to-day, like the Jewish church, are making a sad failure in not carefully studying the word of God, including the prophecies. “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.” 2 Chron. 20: 20.