p. 7 | A BIBLE FACT by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 3, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 27.

A BIBLE FACT.

By T.

In a recent editorial on the Sabbath question we stated that—

“Any candid mind that will take the Bible, the Word of the living God, as a guide, can arrive at no other conclusion than that the seventh day, commonly called Saturday, is the Sabbath. It is simply a matter of fact that no other weekly Sabbath is anywhere presented in the Word of the Lord.”

One who has been reading the SIGNS for a short time dissents from the foregoing utterance. He says, “Our seven-day week was devised by the Egyptian astronomers ages before the birth of Abraham. They named the days of the week after the seven then known planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon.”

To this statement from one of our readers we reply that we said the Bible, the Word of God, must be taken as our guide in studying this Sabbath question. We are perfectly well aware that there are numerous things connected with the Sabbath, and the weekly cycle, of which the Sabbath is the crowning part. Our friend presents one of these theories; but his theory is wholly overthrown by the Bible. It is true that the heathen worshipers of the planets named the days of the week after the heavenly bodies which they particularly adored; but in giving these names to the days of the week, they did not originate the week. The week was already an established measure of time, and all that these heathen did with it was to give to its days the names that corresponded with their worship of the stars.

While these facts are true in regard to naming the days of the week, it is also true that the Lord had nothing to do with it. And it is furthermore true that the Father in heaven instituted the week in the very beginning. For we read in the story of creation, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, what the Lord did on the first day, and what He did on the second day, and what He did on the third day, and so on up to His resting on and blessing the seventh day, and so completing the weekly period. Thus does the Bible make it perfectly plain that the week began with the very first seven days of time, and therefore the week originated with God, and not with the Egyptians. This is the plain Bible history of the origin of the week, and Bible history is absolute truth.

If men desire to delve into theories, they may find many notions that different ones have advanced, and some of these theories may seem plausible. But the question with us is, Do these theories harmonize with the Bible? It is by the Word of God that we are to be judged in that great day, and mere human notions of things will not stand in that time. The Bible makes truth very plain, and if we stick to the Word of God, we shall have no trouble in finding it. T.