The Sabbath Message by J. D. Pegg

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Oct 18, 1883

The Sabbath Message.

By J. D. Pegg

BY J. D. PEGG.

"AND worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. 14:7.

Thus ends a solemn message which was to go to "every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." In this message it is stated that the "hour of the judgment of this God is come. The thought is suggested that a false god—a rival of the true God—existed, and that it required a proclamation from the true God to warn his subjects of the danger of unintentionally rendering homage to the false one. The proclamation goes as far as the danger exists. The jurisdiction of the true God is pointed out, and the basis of his authority made known, by the statement that he "made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters;" hence his right to rule and judge. To worship anything upon which the eye can rest is to "worship the creature rather than the creator," for the true God made everything, "visible and invisible." The Sabbath was given to keep this fact prominently in the minds of all, and as long as this sacred day was kept as commanded, rival gods found no worshipers. "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you [Ex. 31:13-17; also, Eze. 20:20], that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Thus God would erect a barrier between his people and false gods.

Moses understood the many temptations that would come to his people, and, just before his death, he places them on their guard against idolatry, telling them that when God gave them the ten commandments he did not appear visibly before them, that they saw no form, and that to render worship to any visible object would be to "corrupt" themselves; and especially does he warn them against lifting up their eyes to the sun, moon, and stars in homage and worship. Deut. 4:14-19. Sun worship was practiced even before the time of Moses by the heathen. Job knew of the sun worship, which, if indulged in, would be a denial of the "God that is above." Job 31:26-29. Jeremiah promised Israel a permanent continuation of their nation if they kept the Sabbath (Jer. 17:22-27); but warned them that if they kept it not, the city should be devoured. But the people refused to heed his warning, and said: "As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven" [the sun]. And, in reply, Jeremiah tells them that for this their land is a desolation. Jer. 44:15-23. So that through forgetting God by disregarding his Sabbath, and by going into a form of sun worship, Jerusalem was once destroyed.

Manasseh once introduced the same form of idolatry into the temple—"And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord"—for which a curse rested upon them. See 2 Kings 21:1-9. This form of idolatry was very prevalent at the time of Christ among the heathen, as it had been during all the centuries from before Moses' time, as shown by the scriptures referred to.

That many forms now so common in the Romish church can be traced back through Pagan Rome, Grecia, Medo-Persia, and Babylon, is not questioned; and, indeed, it is a matter of note that the Revelator, in describing the papal beast, gives him the characteristics of all the above nations, by saying he had the mouth of a lion (Babylon, see Dan. 7), the feet of a bear (Medo-Persia, Dan. 7), and the body of the leopard (Grecia, ibid.). That the papacy is now, or was during the Dark Ages, only baptized paganism, is admitted as a fact. See "Wharey's Church History," page 24.

The dragon of Rev. 12, it is admitted, represents pagan Rome; the mongrel beast of Rev. 13, papal Rome. In Rev. 13:4 it is stated that full-fledged Romanism "worshiped the dragon," or drew forms of her worship from the heathen, which, as we have said, came through many heathen nations whose lives were prolonged but their dominion taken away. One form of heathen origin was sun worship, or perhaps the observance of the day dedicated to the sun. This form early crept into the church, but, as of old, the Sabbath was first forgotten. And it is a sad fact that among the first departures of the church from the purity of its worship was the neglect of the Sabbath. The earliest writers we have after the days of the apostles fully declare as much. This opened the way for the introduction of the old rival of the Sabbath-day Sunday.

The first edict in favor of Sunday observance was passed by one who was, at the time of its passage, very strongly tinctured with the heathen custom, if not an open devotee to sun worship. "But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology, and he was pleased to be represented by the symbols of the god of light and poetry. . . . The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine." See "Gibbon's Rome," vol. 2, page 251. This law, says Mosheim, made the Christian people more careful to regard it. By edicts and anathemas, the Sunday soon crowded the Sabbath into obscurity, where it has remained until to-day.

Daniel saw in vision that this power should "think to change times and laws," and they should be given into his hands for 1260 years. See Dan. 7:25. After the expiration of the time in which they were to remain in his hands, a proclamation was due to the world, which would bring the danger of worshiping a rival god to the minds of the loyal servants of the true God. And this proclamation is given in the words of our text and onward. It points out the true God by giving, as the basis of his authority, his creative power, which the Sabbath commemorates, and pronouncing a curse upon those who worship the "beast."

To worship the beast would be to acknowledge his authority as being superior to that of the true God. The true God says "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work," &c. The papal beast says: "How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days? Ans. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of," &c. See "Abridgement of Christian Doctrine," page 53. "The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay in spite of themselves to the authority of the church." See "Plain Talk," page 213. In Rev. 13:12 we read that the two-horned beast "causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast." And (verse 16) that he causeth all to receive a mark in the right hand or forehead, that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark of the beast.

Now is it not a fact that, when the true Sabbath comes, God is not honored by a cessation from labor on his holy day; but when the day comes which has so long been a rival of the Sabbath, even the earth is made to do homage by resting from the hand of the laborer. And the right hand, which on the seventh day disregards the true God and his Sabbath, and toils on, stops to do homage on the day of the rival god, thus receiving a mark of a false god. The message goes to the earth; the truly loyal heed it and obey, keeping the true God in mind and honoring him by observing his holy day; and it is said, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.

The matter of the observance of one day in preference to another may seem to the reader to be a small matter; yet if in this small matter you are found to reject the true God and to do homage to a false one, it then becomes important. Have you heard the message? then look well to your ways, for a bitter curse rests upon the disobedient.