And Still They Come by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 6, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 10.

And Still They Come.

By Editor

AS THE light of Sabbath truth shines out, and the attention of the people is called to the last warning message to be given in this dispensation, it is only to be expected that there will be still greater efforts made to uphold the tottering fabric of "the venerable day of the sun." Somebody has kindly forwarded to us a very small pamphlet, bearing on its title page the words: "The seventh-day Sabbath is not obligatory upon the Christian world. A Statement made by C. S. Gitchell, minister of the Gospel."

To what denomination the writer belongs, or whether he represents anybody beside himself, we do not learn from his work. We cannot say that he is more superficial and unreasonable than Mr. Woodward, for we think that few have the ingenuity to construct contradictions that Mr. Woodward has. But we must accord to Mr. Gitchell a very happy faculty of directly contradicting the explicit statements of the Scriptures. A few specimens will give the reader a sufficient idea of the work.

"The Bible tells us there was no law from Adam to Moses."

The Bible tells us that Abraham kept the commandments and the laws of God. Gen. 26:1-5. And the Bible tells us that the generation that lived at the time of the flood, the people of Sodom, etc., were sinners, and that sin is not imputed when there is no law; that by the law is the knowledge of sin; and where no law is there is no transgression. Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 5:13.

"God never blessed or sanctified the Sabbath he gave to Israel, but commanded them to sanctify it themselves."

It is not necessary to repeat the fourth commandment, of which the above is a direct contradiction.

"All the circumstances and facts upon which the Jewish Sabbath was founded have passed away, and so has their Sabbath."

If this referred to those sabbaths which were "Jewish," that is, typical, it would still be erroneous, for the passover was founded upon "circumstances and facts" which can no more pass away, as facts, than can the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. It is a fact to-day as much as it ever was that Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites, and that the Lord brought them out of Egypt in his power. So carelessly does he make his statements. But worse than this, he means the seventh-day Sabbath, which was not and is not Jewish. Why will men close their eyes and hearts to the words of Jehovah himself, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God?" How dare they despise and reproach it as they do? Upon what circumstances and facts was the seventh-day Sabbath founded? Upon these and no others: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore [for this reason] the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Have these "circumstances and facts" passed away? They surely have, if the Sabbath has passed away, for the Saviour said: "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17.

The circumstances and facts upon which the Lord's Sabbath is founded cannot pass away. It never can cease to be a fact that God made the world in six days, or that he rested the seventh day, or that he blessed and sanctified the seventh day. Heaven and earth might pass away; he who made them might destroy them; but that would not destroy the fact that they were made, and that they were made in six days, and that the Maker rested upon and sanctified the seventh day as his Sabbath. It would seem strange to us that men will so blindly overlook or recklessly deny the plainest statements of Scripture, were it not that the perverseness of human nature, and the enmity of the carnal mind to the law of God, are revealed by the Holy Spirit. Rom. 8:7. Mr. Gitchell says:—

"Now if it was instituted at the creation for man, why is the Scripture so silent?"

Deut. 5, on which he with other opposers rest so complacently, does not tell us when nor why the seventh day was made the Sabbath of the Lord God. But Ex. 20 tells us both. It is an accepted rule of criticism that indefinite passages must be explained by those which are definite. But it is a truth well known to those acquainted with this controversy, that opposers of the Sabbath of the Lord have no regard for rules nor for the most definite Scripture declarations. Ex. 20 is exactly parallel with Gen. 2 in the statement of "circumstances and facts." At the end of his work of creation, and nowhere else, God rested the seventh day and blessed and sanctified it. And these three points constitute the entire work of instituting the Sabbath. Nothing more was needed, nothing more was ever done, to make or to institute the holy Sabbath of the Lord. But the Saviour said: "The Sabbath was made for man." If Mr. G. is willing to read and to respect the divine word, he may learn that the Scripture is not silent in regard to the Sabbath being "made for man."

The same truth is included in the word "sanctified." Gen. 2:3. It means, "to set apart to a sacred use." The Saviour's word informs us that it was set apart to a sacred use for man. And no other construction can justly be put upon the language.

We are slow to believe that the general reader will be deceived for a moment by such reckless statements as are put forth on almost every page by Mr. Gitchell. It is too late in the day to successfully make a flourish, as he does, over the idea that we are not justified by the law. All who know our position, and most people do know it, well understand that we make no claim to being justified by the law. We understand the relation between transgression and justification by faith. But our opponents will meet the real issue between us if they will take Paul's statement as their text, "By the law is the knowledge of sin," and harmonize it with their idea that man can be justified in the transgression of the law. Here is a work to which we invite Mr. Gitchell. Until he does this, he has done nothing against our position.