IS by J. H. Rogers

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 31.

IS

By J. H. Rogers

IS WHAT? Why, “the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,” not was or will be, but is, the ever present now. Again, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” not a great way off in the future, but is now, every day and all the time.

Every one who realizes that Christ is his personal Saviour, can not be persuaded that this little word “is” has no special meaning or force in its use in the scriptures referred to and many others of similar import.

I have been an observer of the Sabbath of the Lord for more than thirty years, but never saw the word is as I did in reading the article in the SIGNS of April 8 entitled “A Great Discovery.” The expression in the fourth commandment, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord,” seemed clearer to me than ever before. It doesn’t say was or will be the Sabbath of the Jews, but “is the Sabbath of the Lord” now—the ever present is.

A number of years since I was challenged to discuss the Sabbath question, and nothing else would do; so I wrote the proposition: “Resolved, That the seventh day is the Sabbath,” but did not see the verb “is,” emphasizing the time in the week rather than the ever-abiding fact “is the Sabbath.” God is speaking to us in his Word, still, just the same as when his voice spoke on Sinai’s summit; so where can be the question when we see the statement as the Lord gives it, saying, “The seventh day is the Sabbath”? That is sufficient.

The Lord wants to open our eyes that we “may behold wondrous things out of his law,” that, as we near the time of trouble, we may “go forth and proclaim the Sabbath more fully.” “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”

J. H. ROGERS.

Nebraska City, Neb.