THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL AND THE UNCHANGEABLE SABBATH by William Warren Prescott

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 28.

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL AND THE UNCHANGEABLE SABBATH.

By William Warren Prescott

The Sabbath and Holiness.

It is the good-pleasure of God that his own character should be revealed in his children. “Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is being brought unto you at [in] the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance; but like the Holy One which called you, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-17, R. V., margin. The assurance that we may be holy is found in the fact that he is holy. This experience of holiness is necessary to our salvation, for we are instructed to “follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Heb. 12:14. But we have no holiness of our own, and can not make ourselves holy, neither are we required to do this, since God has made provision that we “might be partakers of his holiness.” It is then of the utmost importance that we should understand how this holiness is brought within our reach.

Revelations of God’s Holiness.

Language, time, and flesh have been used as the channels through which God has made a threefold revelation of his holiness to man. Because God has put forth a revelation of himself as the Holy One in human speech, the sacred writings expressing this speech are called “the Holy Scriptures.” Because he has by the blessing of his presence made a similar revelation of himself in time, the seventh day is called “My Holy Day” and “Thy Holy Sabbath.” And so when God was revealed in the flesh in the person of his Son, he was designated as “Thy Holy Child Jesus.” Neither of these three channels of holiness to man have been shown to be such by any particular outward marks of distinction which compelled an acknowledgment from men. The language of the Bible is the ordinary language, of men; there is nothing in the seventh day to distinguish it outwardly from the other days of the week; and the flesh which Jesus bore was the same flesh which we have, yet God was revealing his own presence through each one of these channels of blessing and holiness to men.

How to Be Blessed by Them.

Now the measure of benefit which we receive through these channels of holiness is determined by the way in which we treat them. If we receive them for what they really are, we may obtain through them the blessing which God designed to convey through them. This will be plainly seen by reading the Scriptures. First,

as to “the Holy Scriptures:” “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” 1 Thess. 2:13. Whether the Word of God is to us the blessing which God intends that it shall be, depends upon whether we receive it as the Word of God or as the word of man. It remains the Word of God just the same if we do not regard it as such, but it works effectually in those only who believe.

Secondly, as to the “holy Sabbath:” “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” Isa. 58:13, 14. The Lord speaks of the Sabbath as his “holy day,” and through the holiness of his own presence which he has put in the day, it may be a channel of holiness to us; but the blessing is for those only who regard the day as the Lord Jehovah’s Sabbath, and “every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant: even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.” Isa. 56:6, 7.

Thirdly, as to the “Holy Child Jesus:” “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1:11, 12. In speaking of the mission of Jesus to this world, Peter said, “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” Acts 3:26. But only those shared in this blessing who received him as “the Holy One of God.” Some said: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. . . . And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.” Mark 6:3-5. They did not receive the blessing which was for them, because they treated the Son of God as a man altogether like themselves.

The Sabbath a Blessing.

In the beginning “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” and thus made it a blessing and a channel of sanctification or holiness to man. He then taught man to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” or to sanctify it. God made the day holy, and he instructed man to treat it as holy, that he might thus receive the blessing of holiness through it; but when man treats the day as common time, he fails to receive the Sabbath blessing through God’s appointed channel. It is not in the power of man to make a day holy, neither can we receive the blessing of holiness through a day which the Lord has not made holy, even tho we should outwardly treat it as tho it were holy. So when we turn away from the day which the Lord has made holy, and accept any other day in its stead, we are thus turning away from the Lord’s own channel of holiness for us. This is the great loss with which we meet in following the traditions of men, instead of obeying the Word of God.

So intimately related is the “Holy Sabbath” to the “Holy Scriptures,” and to the “Holy Child Jesus,” that it can not be consistently disregarded by those who profess to receive the other two for what they really are, and it is worth noting that the power which professes to have changed the Sabbath has practically put itself above the Bible and Christ. So long as the Bible is received as the Word of God, and the example and instruction of Jesus are followed, so long the seventh-day Sabbath will be observed; and when the seventh-day Sabbath is knowingly disregarded, the logic of this act really demands that the Bible and the example of Jesus should be set aside. The Roman Catholic Church in its teaching openly states that the Bible commands the observance of the seventh day and no other, and that there is not a word in the Bible authorizing a change of the day; and it just as openly teaches that the church changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, and that there is no other authority for the change. It is only consistent, therefore, for it to treat the Bible as of secondary importance as compared with its own traditions, and to make the intercession of the Virgin Mary of more value than the intercession of Christ. In all this the Roman Catholic Church puts itself above God, but it is consistent in the way in which it does it. So long as one receives the Bible as the Word of God, and acknowledges its authority as supreme, so long will he see that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and that the intercession of Jesus is all that is needed for man, or that can avail anything for man; and when one rejects the Lord’s Sabbath, the logical result will be to reject the authority of the Word of God, and to receive the word of man in its place, and to accept a supposed human helper as of more value than is the help of Him who alone is able to save. But this is not a question simply of cold logic. In thus turning from God’s appointed blessings and channels of blessing, man meets with an irreparable loss. If we receive the salvation of God at all, we must receive it through the channels which he himself has established; and the blessing of holiness should be so highly prized that we should be glad to receive it in any way which the Lord may appoint.

The original Sabbath still remains as a sign and a pledge of God’s power to make holy, and the true keeping of the Sabbath, the entering into his rest, is the experience of His presence who only can make and keep us holy. God’s purpose in the Gospel has always been the same, that we should be “created in righteousness and holiness of truth,” and his means of accomplishing this result have always been the same in making us “partakers of the divine nature,” and so the Sabbath remains unchanged and unchangeable, a channel for this blessing of holiness to man. W. W. P.