Opponent’s Arguments Self-contradictory.
By E. B. Lane
A FEW days since, a Baptist minister came to the tent to make inquiries about our faith. I had given a discourse the night before on repentance and conversion to which he listened, and with all of which he seemed much pleased, except the full claims of the law of God, i. e., he did not think the fourth commandment obligatory in this dispensation. He freely admitted that there were no requirements in the New Testament for the observance of the first day of the week, and said he believed there was no sacred time in this dispensation. He manifested candor, seemed to have quite a thorough knowledge of the Bible, and to be a man of age and intelligence, and I requested him to give his reasons for his views. He stated that the Sabbath was the beginning and type of the rest God entered into after creation was completed—a type in God’s great eternal purpose planned before the foundation of the world; and in the same sense that Adam was himself a type of Christ, Rom. 5:14, the Sabbath was a type of Adam and his posterity’s rest through Christ. He admitted that the type must last till it reaches the antitype. I saw where such arguments would unavoidably lead him, and handed him the Bible for his proof. He turned to Hebrews 3, reading carefully and commenting on each of the following points: priesthood of Christ, the relation Moses sustained to the children of Israel, the to-day of verse 7, the day of temptation or provocation in the wilderness. He admitted Canaan to be only typical of the promised rest, and that this rest is still future (chap. 4), and that we in this dispensation should fear lest we come short of entering into this promised rest. He began to see where this reasoning would lead him if continued. I asked him what relation we sustain to this eternal rest, and if we have yet received it. To which he replied, “No, only by faith, and not in reality.” Since he had admitted the type (Sabbath) must continue or remain binding till it met its antitype (the future eternal rest), therefore the Sabbath (type) must be obligatory till the rest (antitype) should be received. Truly arguments against truth are self-contradictory. E. B. LANE.