A Wrong Conception

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 10, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 45.

A Wrong Conception

A Wrong Conception.—One of the ablest articles against the Sabbath from an argumentative and sophistical point of view which we have seen of late is that of Mr. B. F. Bonnell, in the Pacific Christian; but its utter weakness will be apparent to the Bible student who loves the way of God. (1) A part of what he says rests upon mere statement without proof, even against evidence, as when he says that “the Sabbath was a day of rest,” and “that it was not a day of worship.” The commandment (Ex. 20:8-11), and Numbers 28:9, 10; Isa. 58:13, and such songs as Psalms 92 and 96, prove the contrary. (2) It is based on a wrong conception of the law of God, thinking that temporal penalties and special legislation are necessary or the law is of no force; and the special case of the man who defied God by breaking a special prohibition for the wilderness wandering, recorded in Numbers 15, is cited to prove it. The record shows that the Sabbath law did not cover the case. It was a sin of open defiance of God. Verse 30. God’s law is living, and perverted or transgressed, will itself bring death. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” But “the strength of sin is the law.” Absolutely obeyed, the law would be life. Rom. 7:10. But transgressed, it is death, whether any penalty is stated or not. (3) Again, one of the writer’s chief arguments is an attempt to prove, from Ex. 34:27, 28, that Moses wrote the Ten Commandments. But if the reader will turn to Deut. 10:1-4, a parallel scripture, he will learn that the Lord wrote the Decalogue, not Moses. The last pronoun “He” in Ex. 34:28 refers not to Moses but God. (4) The fulfilment (Matt. 5:17-20) of moral requirements, righteousness, we only need to remark, does not abolish them. To fulfil a duty is to do it. And to fulfil a perpetual duty is to do it perpetually. So Christ did; so He demands of His followers. Not until Jesus, the promised Seed, the Heir of the inheritance comes to take His kingdom, need men talk of the law having done its work. Then it will have finished its work for sinners; but it will be written in the heart of all God’s people forever, even as it was in the heart of Christ. Ps. 40:7, 8.