The Day of the Sabbath

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 4, 1883

The Day of the Sabbath.

THE seventh day of the week is the only weekly Sabbath of God's appointment.

My first reason for believing this proposition is, That the original Sabbath law referred to in Gen. 2: 2, 3, and embodied in Ex. 20: 8-11, requires the sanctification of no other day.

Gen. 2: 2, 3: "And on the seventh day [on day the seventh] God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day [on day the seventh] from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day [the day the seventh], and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."

Ex. 20: 8-11: "Remember the Sabbath day [the day of the rest, or Sabbath] to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day [day the seventh] is the Sabbath [rest] of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day [on day the seventh]; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day [the day of rest, or Sabbath], and hallowed it."

The only object, direct or indirect, of this commandment, is "the day." What are we commanded to remember? "The day." What are we required to keep holy? "The day." What did the Lord bless and hallow? "The day." In what are we forbidden to work? In "the day." Now let us inquire:—

1. What day? Not the day of Adam's fall; nor the day Noah went into the ark; nor the day of the overthrow of Sodom; nor the day of the exodus; nor the day of the provocation; nor the day of the removal of the ark; nor the day of Christ's birth; nor the day of his crucifixion; nor the day of his resurrection; nor the day of his ascension; nor the day of Judgment. It may be, and certainly is, proper that we should remember all these; but we are not told to do so in this commandment. Neither is it some one day of the week, but no day in particular; for how could we remember "the day," that is no day in particular? how could we keep holy "the day" that has not been specified? and how could we say that God had blessed and hallowed "the day" that was no one day more than another? What day, then? God says, Remember the Sabbath day, or the day of the Sabbath; Keep holy the day of the Sabbath; The Lord blessed and hallowed the day of the Sabbath. He also says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." This day, therefore, is "the seventh day," or "the day of the Sabbath."

2. What Sabbath? Not "a Sabbath," or "any Sabbath that man can invent, or that God may hereafter keep; for that would be "some Sabbath," but no one in particular. Not some institution yet undetermined that God may require man to observe weekly; for the command is not, Remember the Sabbath institution, but, "Remember the day of the Sabbath;" not, Keep holy the Sabbath institution, but, "Keep holy the day of the Sabbath." The Lord did not bless and hallow the Sabbath institution, but, "the day of the Sabbath." We are not forbidden to do work in the Sabbath institution, but in "the seventh day." In fact, the phrase, "the Sabbath," in this commandment, means neither more nor less than "the rest." It is not here the name of any institution at all, though it is often thus used in other parts of the Bible. Hence this Sabbath is "the Sabbath [or rest] of the Lord thy God."

3. Which day of the week is "the day of the Sabbath?" No other than that day on which the Lord rested; for the command refers to God's Sabbath. On which day of the week did he rest? "And he rested on the seventh day?" Gen. 2: 2. Therefore the day of "the Sabbath" is the same day of the week on which God rested from the work of creation; and as he rested on the seventh day of the first week, and on no other, the seventh and no other day of every other week must be the only "day of the Sabbath."

Let it be particularly observed that God does not say, Remember the Sabbath, or, Remember the Sabbatic institution, though this is necessarily implied in the command; but, Remember "the day of the Sabbath"—the day on which I have ordained that the Sabbatic institution be observed. As if he had said, There is little danger, comparatively that you will forget the fact of my having kept Sabbath; nor is it likely that you will altogether neglect to observe some day of rest from your arduous toils; for you will be driven to this by the ever-returning demands of your exhausted bodies; but you are, and always will be, in especial danger of forgetting the proper day of the week for honoring me in my own institution. Satan, who takes infinite delight in all kinds of "will-worship," while he hates with a perfect hatred every act of strict obedience to my law, will do all he can to persuade you that some other day will do just as well or even better. Remember, therefore, the day of my Sabbath, and keep the same day holy in every week; for—mark the reason—I have my self rested on the seventh day, and on that account I have blessed and sanctified that, and no other, day of the week, that you may observe it, and keep it holy, not because it is in itself better than any other day, but because I have blessed and sanctified it.

But you say the phrase, "the Sabbath day," or, "the day of the Sabbath," does not mean any particular day, but "one day in seven," or some one of the days of the week. You allege that "the day of the Sabbath," like "the pope of Rome," "the Emperor of Russia," or "the King of Denmark," is a generic term, alike applicable to all the members of the same class. The phrase, "the Emperor of Russia," you say refers alike to Peter, to Alexander, and to Nicholas, though only one of them could be emperor at any given time; so "the day of the Sabbath" refers alike to the seventh and to the first day of the week, though there never was but one Sabbath at any one time. This is a very ingenious and plausible method of evading the force of the divine testimony; but, as the reasoning by which it is sustained appears to be entirely sophistical, I cannot but look upon the whole thing as a fabrication. I believe that any man, possessing the requisite qualifications, may become "Emperor of Russia," but deny that any day but one can be the day of God's Sabbath, inasmuch as God had never kept, at that time, but one Sabbath, and that occupied only one day. There is only one day of American Independence; only one day of the resurrection of Christ; only one day of the birth of any one man; and only one day of judgment. And why? Because the American Independence was declared on but one day; Christ arose on but one day; the same man cannot be born on two different days; and God hath appointed only one day in which he will judge the world. Now, on the same principle, there can be but one "day of the Sabbath" of the Lord our God. If I should say that the day of Christ's resurrection is not on any particular day of the week, but only "one day in seven," you would not hesitate to call me a fool, while my ignorance would excite your deepest sympathy; but when you say that "the day of the Sabbath" does not mean that particular day on which the Lord's Sabbath occurred, but only "one day in seven," you expect me to receive your assertion as the infallible teaching of superior wisdom. I cannot, however, so receive it for the following reasons:—

1. If God had meant "one day in seven," he would have said so. His first and great design in writing his law on tables of stone was to be understood by his creatures; but, for more than two thousand years after he gave the law, no human being ever suspected that "the day of the Sabbath" meant anything else than the seventh day of the week, because it was commonly known that that day alone was in reality "the day of the Sabbath." Indeed, this "one-day-in-seven" doctrine is known to have been invented within a few hundred years, with the pious design of accounting for a change of Sabbath, without the necessity of repealing a portion of the moral law. It is matter of great surprise that those pious theologians, who first substituted "one day in seven" for "the day of the Sabbath," did not shudder at the thought of presuming to amend the language of the Holy Ghost. "The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." Ps. 12: 6. Brethren, are you prepared to enter into judgment, and answer for the liberties you have taken with God's word? In substituting the vague and indefinite expression, "one day in seven," for the definite and unequivocal terms, "the Sabbath day," and the "seventh day," you have as truly taken "away from the words of the prophecy of this book", as if you had blotted the fourth commandment from the decalogue; while your leading object has been to make way for the introduction of a new command that, for aught the Scriptures teach, it never entered into the heart of the Almighty to put into his law. "A faithful witness will not lie,"

and when the world asks, Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath? God expects that you, as faithful witnesses, will not only "not lie," but that you will not equivocate, or give with the gospel trumpet an "uncertain sound." He does not expect that you will quote a text from the Acts of the apostles, that says not one word about Sabbath-keeping, to prove that the fourth commandment enjoins the keeping holy of "one day in seven," but of "no day in particular."

2. God never blessed "one day in seven," without blessing a particular day. He either blessed some definite object or nothing. You may say, indeed, without falsehood, that God blessed "one day in seven;" but if you mean that this act of blessing did not terminate on any particular day, you ought to know that you are asserting what is naturally impossible. As well might you say of a band of robbers, that they had killed "one man in seven," while in reality they had killed no man in particular. No, brethren, yourselves know very well that God had not blessed and sanctified any day but the seventh of the seven, prior to the giving of the written law. You know that if God blessed any day of the week at all, it was a definite day, distinct from all the other days of the week. But this commandment says that "the Lord blessed the Sabbath day." Therefore the Sabbath day must be a particular day of the week. Therefore the "Sabbath day" is "not one day in seven," or an indefinite seventh part of time. Therefore it is not "one day in seven" that we are required to remember, and keep holy, and in which we are forbidden to do any work, but "the seventh day of the week," which was then, is now, and will be till the end of time, "the day of the Sabbath of the Lord" our God.

3. No day of the week but the seventh was ever called the "day of the Sabbath," either by God or man, till long since the death of the last inspired writer. Search both Testaments through and through, and you will find no other day called "the Sabbath," or even "a Sabbath," except the ceremonial sabbaths, with which, of course, we have nothing to do in this controversy. And long after the close of the canon of inspiration, the seventh day, and no other, was still called "the Sabbath." If you can prove that any one man, among the millions of Adam's children, from the beginning of the world to the rise of Antichrist, ever called the first day of the week "the Sabbath," you will shed a light upon this controversy, for which a host of able writers have searched in vain.

But further, the first day of the week was not observed by any of the children of men, as a Sabbath, for three hundred years after the birth of Christ. Do you ask proof? I refer you to Theodore de Beza, who plainly says so. If you are not satisfied with the witness, will you have the goodness to prove the affirmative of the proposition?

I infer, therefore, that "the day of the Sabbath," or "the Sabbath day," is the proper name of the seventh day of the week, as much so as "the day of Saturn;" and that to attach this proper name now to some other day of the week, and to affirm that God meant that other day, as much as he did the seventh, when he wrote the law on tables of stone, is as unreasonable as it is impious. If you say that when God speaks of the Sabbath day, he means "one day in seven, but no day in particular," you are as far from the truth as if you had said that when he speaks of Moses he does not mean any particular man, but some one of the Israelites. Moses was one of the Israelites, just as the Sabbath day is one day in seven. But when God says Moses, he means Moses, the son of Amram; and when he says "the Sabbath day," he means the seventh day of the week. You may give different names to the same object, without interfering with its identity; but to apply the same name to two different objects, and then to affirm that these two objects are identically the same, so that what is predicted of the one must be true of the other, is as though a navigator should discover an island in the Southern Ocean, and call it "England," and then affirm that the late work of Mr. Macaulay, entitled "The History of England," is a veritable and authentic history of this newly-discovered empire. Which would you wonder at the most, the stupidity or the effrontery of that navigator?

I cannot close this chapter without reminding you that, in attempting to refute the above reasoning, the main thing you will have to show is that "the Sabbath day," or "the day of the Sabbath," is an indefinite expression, applicable alike to at least two different days of the week, and that it is used indefinitely in this commandment. If it has been proved that "the day of the Sabbath" refers, and can refer, only to the seventh day of the week, then it is true, and will remain forever true, that the original Sabbath law requires the sanctification of no other day. This is the truth which I undertook to exhibit in this chapter, and is my first reason for believing the proposition under consideration.—J. W. Morton, in Vindication of the True Sabbath.