p. 2 | HOW WE KNOW

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 25, 1897

HOW WE KNOW.

A FRIEND hands us one of Lieut. C. A. L. Totten’s “News Leaflets,” “Saturday versus Sunday,” by title. Mr. Totten believes that the American people are the “lost tribes” of Israel, or, to be more precise, Manasseh. And as the Lord declares that the Sabbath is a sign between himself and Israel (Eze. 20:12, 20), therefore as Americans keep Sunday, that day must be the true Sabbath after all, that is, the creation Sabbath. Of course this is assumption on assumption. Mr. Totten does not seem to be quite sure; he feels, however, that Sunday must be right, as Americans—Israel—can not be wrong. A very small base indeed on which to build.

But in order to make Sunday people feel a little more secure, Mr. T. endeavors to make it appear that Sabbatarians, Seventh-day observers, are not sure of their position. He does this by asking nineteen different questions as to how Seventh-day observers know they have the right day. He wishes to know if they can tell how the week came through the Deluge, if the day can be shown to be correct by chronology and astronomy; and what about “Joshua’s long day,” etc., etc. The devout, intelligent Bible student will not be misled by such questions. But for the sake of those of our readers who may be made to doubt by a multitude of words hiding knowledge instead of eliciting truth, we will state briefly how we know that the day commonly called Saturday is the seventh day. But first let us say that it matters not about the Deluge, the count of weeks from creation to that event, or from that event to the Exodus, or Joshua’s “long day,” or anything of that kind. Let those who wish puzzle themselves over impossible solutions of chronology and astronomy and ignore the simple facts of God’s Word, and history; but let him who believes God trust his Word. Here are our reasons:—

1. God through Christ instituted the Sabbath at Creation. He knew the day, rested upon it, made it into a Sabbath for man, and set it apart for his memorial. God’s work formed the week. The Sabbath or week may have been lost to man between Creation and the Exodus, tho not at all probable; this we do not know; but,—

2. We do know that God knew, and that he marked by a threefold weekly miracle for forty years the day of the Sabbath, and commanded it from heaven on the very grounds upon which he originally gave it. There is therefore no mistake here.

3. Fifteen centuries (or more) pass away. During this time God again and again brought before his people through his prophets his regard and their duty respecting the Sabbath. It was known among them all the way through, notwithstanding Joshua’s “long day,” which by the way was one day. But at the end of this period came the Great Teacher, the Infallible Man. He knew the Sabbath of which he was Creator and Lord. Mark 2:27, 28. He kept it according to law, doing lawful deeds upon that day. Matt. 12:12. Inspiration tells us that while he slept in the grave his disciples kept it according to the commandment. Luke 23:56. The next day was “the first day of the week.” Now we know that he knew, and the Holy Spirit that inspired the Word knew. The day was not lost at the close of the volume of Inspiration.

4. (a) Since that time there has been no disagreement among the Jews or Gentile nations respecting the order of the days of the week. The Sabbath kept by Jesus, by the early Christians, by the Jews, coincided with the Roman Saturday from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, and the first day of the week in the same way to the Roman Sunday. (b) Before us as we write is a “Chart of Days” prepared at great labor and expense by the late Rev. Wm. Jones, D.D., of London, England, assisted by Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte and other noted linguists. It gives the week and its days in 160 of the languages and dialects of earth, and 108 of the 160 name the seventh day of the week “the Sabbath,” or by an equivalent name, while all give the order of the days of the week the same. These nations are scattered from China on the east to Britain on the west, Semitic, Japhetic, Hamitic, separated oftentimes by impassable barriers of mountains, seas, national prejudices, race hatred, and discordant tongues, yet in all the order of the day of the week is the same. It is a noted fact, worthy of mention here, that our old English Bibles, faithful to truth, gave in the table of days of the week, the Bible names, and the seventh day is the Sabbath. (c) Added to this is the testimony of the Jewish race and their contemporary enemies all through the Christian era. The testimony is uniform and overwhelming that the seventh day of the week now was the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath “according to the commandment,” that was observed by Christ and his apostles.

It matters not, therefore, what changes may have taken place in the cataclysms of history, God has given us irrefragable proofs of the identity of the week. And the question of the days or order of the days of the week was never raised until it was used to blind men’s minds with reference to God’s Sabbath truth, revived in these last days according to his prophets. And even now when the observance of Sunday alone is argued, either from a religious or political standpoint, there is no question raised as to a possibility of its being the wrong day, or as to a possibility of its being observed or enforced the world over.

But, reader, God’s law stands forever. His Sabbath is enjoined in that law. Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son, through whom the Sabbath and the world were made, our Example

and Saviour, observed the Sabbath. God commanded it; our Master lived it; and he says, “Follow me.” Can the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, as a Gospel teacher, say less?