The Day of the Sabbath

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 3, 1884

The Day of the Sabbath.

IT has been the current theory of the Protestant churches of this century, that "The first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath." To this idea have the ministers clung with great pertinacity, and they have taught it with much assurance. And they have claimed that the bare mention of "the first day of the week" in the New Testament, was with the evident design of bestowing special honor upon that day, and of giving to it the place and title of the ancient Sabbath—the seventh day.

Of course they were always hedged about with certain difficulties from which it was impossible for them to escape. These were, the entire absence of evidence that the Sabbath was ever changed; the absence of evidence that the first day of the week was, by divine authority, a sanctified day, or that it was ever set apart in any manner for observance; and the fatal absence of any requirement to observe it, and also the absence of evidence in the Scriptures that anybody ever observed or regarded it as a sacred day. These difficulties were of such a damaging nature that they could not have maintained their ground for a single week had it not been that popular feeling was on their side. True, it was sensibly felt by all who candidly considered the matter, that popular opinion is a poor substitute for divine warrant or Scripture proof in a case of religious doctrine or a Christian ordinance. But as "convenience" and "popularity," or what "everybody does," are strong arguments with the majority, they clung to their practice, paying little heed to the facts which were occasionally pressed upon them, that the blessed, sanctified, commanded Sabbath day—the only weekly Sabbath day of the Bible—is the seventh day.

This "Sabbath of Jehovah," as the seventh-day Sabbath is always called in the Scriptures, has never been without witnesses to present its claims to the public. But the Seventh-day Baptists were a small denomination, and the great majority, in the spirit which too often characterizes great majorities, looked upon them with disdain, and generally refused to listen to the evidence which was offered to them. Grave Doctors of Divinity would so far unbend in their dignity as to smile derisively if any of their members expressed doubts as to the change of the Sabbath. And few were so brave as to meet that scornful smile a second time. In this manner, and by confident appeals to "Church History," the question was held in abeyance.

But in the providence of God, as we believe, some of the "Second Adventists" had their attention called to a message in Rev. 14, to be given to the world immediately before the appearing of the Son of man to reap the harvest of the earth, which contains "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Believing that the coming of the Lord was drawing near, some of them studied with earnest and prayerful interest the terms of this message. By comparing it with chapter 13, they saw that the reception of this message would be attended with persecution. But this did not deter them in their investigation. In the fear of God they pursued their researches, and came to the conclusion that none of "the commandments of God" would be likely to bring reproach and persecution upon those who believed and obeyed them, except the fourth, which commands the observance of the seventh day.

They could readily see that the keeping of this would be unpopular. But they saw also that the evidence in its favor was clear and conclusive, with nothing but the merest inferences in favor of any other day. Fully believing that "the end of all things is at hand," they followed their convictions, and began to do and teach all the commandments of God in the law. See Matt. 5:17-19.

Their faith in the near coming of the Lord, and in the soon ending of human probation, necessarily made them an earnest and aggressive people. Few in number, without denominational influence or means, they went far and near to sound the cry of warning. In private houses, in school-houses, and in groves they pressed the message upon the attention of the people. Having no meeting houses, they used tents, which had the double advantage of attracting all classes, and of being portable; they could be moved from place to place, and thus be the means of securing the hearing of a great many people.

They saw that, according to Rev. 13, the persecution would be by the action of the Government, and they declared their firm belief that, in a very few years, the Sunday would be thrown into politics, and become the leading political question in the United States. It is not our purpose to examine this branch of the subject; but, only, to notice the conclusion at which they arrived as early as in 1845-6. For more than a score of years opposers ridiculed the idea that such would ever be the case. But we have already had the surest evidence that our study of the prophecy was not in vain. In this State, California, it has been made the question in one State election, and the most strenuous efforts are being made, by a large, influential, and growing party, to throw it into our national politics, that the Sunday may be enforced on all classes by the authority of the Constitution of the United States. For this we looked; this we expected; and for the expression of this expectation we were laughed to scorn by almost all classes, for almost all looked upon it as a fanatical delusion. What do they think now?

But their efforts to enforce the Sunday, and to throw it into the politics of the nation, is producing an effect in one direction with which they are not well pleased. It is causing the people to inquire for the reasons of our faith, and to examine with interest the evidences which we have been and are presenting to the world, that the seventh day is the only Sabbath day of the Bible. And the truth is so well understood by the people at large that their inquiries can no more be turned away with a sneer; the inquirers can no more be silenced with a smile of derision. And the difficulties attending the question of the Sunday-sabbath, of which we have spoken, not only remain, but they are becoming more than ever troublesome to its advocates. They feel as they never felt before, the lameness of their cause, without any evidence in favor of the first day of the week being the Sabbath.

In this emergency they are resorting to new methods of evading the claims of the true Sabbath. Sometime since a certain author invented the theory of two changes of the Sabbath; one at the time when the Israelites left Egypt, the other sometime during the ministry of Christ and his apostles. This idea, however, did not take deep root, or spread to any extent, the popular theory being still that expressed in the Westminster Confession, that the seventh day was the Sabbath from creation to Christ, and that the first day of the week was thenceforth appointed to be the Sabbath to the end of the world. But of late the two-change theory is coming to the front, its advocates seeming to hope that this may, in some measure, afford them relief from the difficulties of their case. Several Methodist writers have taken this position of late, and a Baptist D. D. in California has expressed himself favorable to it, with the promise to speak in its favor sometime.

There are several features in this movement toward the double change of the Sabbath which must prove anything but satisfactory to its converts. 1. It is a virtual confession on their part that all their past teachings on the day of the Sabbath were wrong. They have strenuously insisted that the first day of the week was the Christian Sabbath, in distinction from the seventh-day Sabbath, the Sabbath of creation, which was appropriated to the dispensation of the law, and set aside when that dispensation closed. Now they assume that the Sabbath of the Jews was not the seventh day, but the sixth day; and that the "Christian Sabbath" is not the first day at all, but the original seventh day.

2. They will find that, in changing their position, they have only changed the nature of their difficulties; they have not at all relieved themselves.

3. That whereas, their former proposition was a theory destitute of Scripture proof, which contradicted the truth of the commandment or ignored the facts upon which it is based; their new position is a most direct and positive contradiction of plain statements of both the Old and New Testaments.

We think these propositions may be easily shown to be true. In our next paper we shall compare their theory with the words of the Scriptures; and we think that when the comparison is made, the reader will be satisfied that they have no reason to boast themselves of the change. In all the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, but one day of the week is denominated the Sabbath or Lord's day; and that is the seventh day. It was sanctified to Adam; it was given to Israel; when the middle wall of partition was broken down it was renewed to all the world; it "was made for man."