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NO; IT IS NOT

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 25.

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NO; IT IS NOT.

A PAPER is sent us containing an article entitled, “Is the Jewish Sabbath Binding on Us?” We answer most emphatically, No; it is not binding on us, nor on any one else by divine authority. God never commanded man to remember the Jewish Sabbath to keep it holy. He said: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . . The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” See Ex. 20:8–11. The only weekly day enjoined of the Lord is His own holy Sabbath.
But this writer says, “The Sabbath was given to the Jews and to no other nation.” Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man,” that is, for the race. Mark 2:27. See also Isa. 56:1–7, where the Lord makes rich promises to the eunuchs and strangers (Gentiles) who keep His Sabbath. But was it not given to the Jews?—Yes, and so was everything else. Listen: “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.” And the apostle adds, “Amen.” Can not you join with him, reader? Jesus was a Jew. His twelve apostles were Jews. He says, “Salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22. On the other hand, those who are Gentiles are “strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Eph. 2:12.
The “Jewish” Sabbath, if there be any, is the Sabbath as perverted by the unbelieving Jews, and loaded by their traditions. The Sabbath of the Lord, which He commanded the Jews to keep, is His holy day, which only aholy man can keep, a man who is a Jew, an Israelite indeed. “Blessed is the man that doeth this.”