SUNDAY KEEPING AND SABBATH KEEPING.
By W. L. Winner
The Papacy asserts that the church has power to command sin; that she can absolve from sin, in principle taking from God the Father the prerogative of judging. Protestants, generally, condemn this principle in all excepting the supposed sin of Sunday-breaking. They declare with vehemence that Sunday-sabbath breaking is sinful and exceedingly displeasing to God; and yet there is absolutely no scripture that would indicate such a thing. It is true that God is exceedingly jealous of his holy day, and the reader can find an evidence of the importance he attaches to its observance by his people, by reading the seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah in connection with the twenty-fifth chapter. The Sunday in those days was the high day of Baal worship. Indeed, in the beginning of idolatry to hero worship, following the days of Nimrod, who founded the first earthly kingdom, the god was denominated the “child of the sun,” and the day set apart for his worship, Sun’s day. And whenever, in all the history of God’s people, as recorded in the Bible, and as attested to by profane history, they left the true worship of God and his Sabbath, they espoused the Sunday with the idolatrous worship which it always accompanied. Thus the Roman Church as a system, the modern Babylon, has a system of worship that Protestants truly denominate idolatry. Under it, duties not specified or hinted at in the Bible, are commanded under penalty of sin. Christ is robbed of his prerogative as priest, and as head of the church. There is the worship of images and relics; the interposition of the priest, the pope, and the Virgin Mary between the sinner and Christ; the abolition of the second commandment; the changing the fourth, and the dividing the tenth—all helping to make up a system of religious teaching and practice anti-Biblical, and hence antichristian. And by her own acts and words, like the false worship of old, she has a day that is distinctly her day, and the badge of her authority. Christ never condemned in the flesh, and consequently can not be a propitiation for violation of the multitude of things commanded by the Roman Catholic Church under pain of mortal sin; neither has he any righteousness to offer in lieu of Sunday-breaking. Pardon for a specific sin depends solely on the merits of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and is clothing the sinner with Christ’s righteousness in regard to the particular commandment transgressed. Everybody admits that that is what is understood by pardon from sin in its comprehensive meaning. What is true of sin as a whole is true of each specific sin. All sin has been provided for in Christ’s atonement, and EVERY sin has its propitiation. Putting the matter in its plainest and only practical terms, the repentant sinner prays: “My dear heavenly Father, I have done evil in thy sight. I have desecrated thy holy day. I repent, and am exceeding sorry. Pardon, I pray thee, for Jesus’ sake, who died that I might live.” Christ, who knows all hearts, says, “Forgive him, Father, for his repentance and sorrow are sincere; blot out his transgression; cover his sin with my righteousness.” Christ perfectly kept the Sabbath, the seventh day, the very day that commemorates the finished work of creation. His righteousness is inherent only in the fact that he rightly kept the right day according to the commandment. It is the only righteousness in respect to Sabbath observance that is provided, and the only pardon that can be granted must be for the desecration of the very day Christ observed, and no other. There is no pardon for Sunday desecration; there is no need for any. “Where there is no law there is no transgression.” “What saith the law?”—The tables of stone declare the “seventh day is the Sabbath.” Christ’s life says, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” The new covenant involved writing God’s law in the heart, and this covenant was sealed by Christ’s blood. Paul proved that after the death of the testator the testament is in force, and also that after a covenant be confirmed or sealed, no man disannulleth or added thereto. It is certain, therefore, that what is sinful now was sinful before and at Christ’s death. In reference to Sabbath desecration, God has not failed to reveal in the Scriptures his views regarding it. He will judge them of olden time for knowingly and wilfully breaking the fourth commandment. As true as God is true and changeth not, he will judge us for knowingly and wilfully doing the same; there is no escape from this logic; it is truth. God’s law is immutable; eternal. Christ’s life is the embodiment of righteousness. Examine it. What did he do? You are to be saved by it. It is to cover your nakedness. You must accept it by faith in order to be saved. Christ must live in you the same life. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” “Let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” The Roman Church has many days that they call holy. Is it true that they are holy? Almost the whole world believes Sunday to be a holy day. Is it true? God only can make a day holy. Which day is it? It is not Sunday, the first day of the week. It is the day that was instituted in Paradise, when all creation was beheld, and pronounced “very good;” when Adam himself was still sinless. It is the day that was revered by patriarch and prophet from Adam to John the Baptist, and received the sanction of Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son. It is the day upon the strict and true observance of which by our Saviour depended7the salvation of mankind. There is no choice of days in this matter. If we would be of that blessed throng who “do his commandments,” we can not omit one. James 2:10. Neither can we knowingly be of them that “loveth and maketh a lie.” Let us so live that we shall not be condemned in that thing which we do. Let us permit Christ to dwell within our hearts by faith, doing for us the will of God, as he has shown in his Word, and at last be clothed with that righteousness that he alone has, and only can bestow. W. L. WINNER.