Time of the Sabbath by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 21, 1884

Time of the Sabbath.

By Editor

MIDNIGHT OR EVENING.

A REQUEST comes to us to give a reason for our practice of beginning the Sabbath in the evening, at the setting of the sun. This we can easily do, and we have a good reason to give, because it is in the words of the Bible itself. And the request is accompanied with the question, why we differ with other people in the commencement of the day.

It is a very small matter with us with whom we differ, as long as we are in harmony with the truth of God. But the query is suggestive. It is a very commonly received idea that it is useless, absurd, even wrong to "differ with other people." The question of the right and the wrong seems to have little to do with the case. If the multitude go in a certain direction, it is at once taken for granted that that is the right way. Matt. 7:13, 14 is ignored as much as if such a scripture had never been given.

Before entering upon the line of proof, we will notice the fact that nobody ever pretends to find any evidence in the Bible for keeping a day from midnight to midnight. Dr. Smith says: "The commencement of the civil day varies in different nations: the Babylonians reckoned it from sunrise to sunrise; the Umbrians from noon to noon; the Romans from midnight to midnight; the Athenians and others from sunset to sunset. The Hebrews naturally adopted the latter reckoning from Gen. 1:5, "the evening and the morning were the first day."

Which is to say that the Hebrews adopted the evening or sunset time because they followed the word of God. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, he numbered the days of the week, and marked their beginning and their ending. Each consisted of an evening, or a dark part, and a morning, or a light part. This order is natural; it was unavoidable, because "darkness was upon the face of the deep" before light was created. And in the Bible no other order was ever recognized; the days had no names, but were counted in their order, and they commenced with the evening. Only the seventh day was named "the Sabbath;" the day of the Lord's rest.

This would be sufficient to indicate the proper course of action in regard to the beginning of Sabbath observance, if we had no other reason to offer. But the Lord has spoken directly on the point. In Lev. 23:32, he said: "From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath." This will apply to all days of observance, as all days commence at the same point of time—at even.

The only possible question that can be raised is this: Does the evening or "at even" mean at the setting of the sun? And to this we have a direct answer in the word of God. We have noticed that "the evening" covers the dark part of the whole day which is marked by a complete revolution of the earth. As the sun gives light, the setting of the sun brings darkness, or evening. And on this we have direct proof. "And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide [Heb., until the evening]; and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree." Josh. 8:29. "And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees; and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening. And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees." Josh. 10:26, 27.

The same fact is stated in the New Testament. It was the Sabbath, after Jesus had taught and healed one in the synagogue in Capernaum, when he entered into the house of Simon, and healed his wife's mother. The healing of the man in the synagogue was noised abroad, and it is written: "And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils." Mark 1:32. They waited until the close of the Sabbath, until the evening, and then brought their sick to be healed. Thus it is fully proved by the Bible, by both the Old and New Testaments, that the Sabbath begins and ends at the setting of the sun.

But some insist that it is not a matter of much importance whether we commence the day at sunset or at midnight. To this we reply: It is not a matter of small importance whether or not we keep the commandment of God; whether we obey him or disobey him. We hold that it is essential to keep the day which God blessed and sanctified, and commands us to keep; and that it is an act of open rebellion to knowingly substitute another in its place. And if so it is also important to keep that entire day; not part of that day and part of another day. God set apart the day from sunset to sunset, and requires us to keep it in that order. To depart from that order, and to introduce an order of our own, is to depart from God's commandment and to follow our own spirit (Ezek. 13:2, 3); it is will-worship.

This is our answer; who will say it is not sufficient? And who will undertake to gainsay it, and to prove by the Bible that another order is equally acceptable? We invite the objector and the inquirer to study carefully Deut. 6:25. "And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." There is a great deal of professed obedience to God in these days; obedience modified by men's surroundings, their convenience, or their feelings. But to keep God's commandments as he has commanded us is the only obedience which he accepts. See also Ex. 23:13.