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In the Question Chair

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 2, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 27.

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In the Question Chair.

(Designed for the consideration of such questions as will be of interest and profit to the general reader.) All correspondents should give their names and present post-office address, that queries not replied to here may be answered by mail.

813.—CHANGE OF THE SABBATH.

WILL you please explain Eze. 13:5-14? Does this portion of Scripture have reference to the attempt that is made to change the Sabbath; that is, does one denomination build up the wall of the change of the Sabbath? and do those who try to support it, daub it with untempered mortar? Do these verses apply to this work?
M. L., Battle Creek, Mich.:
ANSWER.—We suppose the question really is: Did Inspiration intend, by the prophet, to predict the work of the change of the Sabbath referred to in the query, inasmuch as it might fitly describe it, and apply to it, as it is now attempted in the religious world, and yet not be specifically intended to predict such a work? The general application of this scripture by our people is such as is indicated above. In fact, the application is so natural and fitting that it automatically applies itself. Thus the wall for the change of the Sabbath is a weak and tottering wall; and the efforts made to strengthen it—that is, all the arguments used to bolster up the idea of a change of the Sabbath—are like untempered mortar,—mortar that has no coherence nor strength, and hence will not make firm and steady the wall or whatever else it may be to which it is applied. Of course the reasoning often resorted to on this scripture is denounced as fanciful by the Sunday advocates, but this does not destroy the aptness of the illustration, which can be truthfully said to apply well to this subject. But whether the prophecy was intended to be so used, and was given for this purpose, is another question, and should be well considered before such a use is made of it. Many prophetic illustrations were doubtless used by the New Testament writers with simply the words, “And to this agree the words of the prophet,” or an equivalent expression, when originally the prophecy was not designed for that purpose. So long as no better application can be found for this scripture than the one referred to, it will doubtless continue to be so used.