A Collision on the Sabbath at Locust Grove, Ky.
By D. T. Bourdeau
Wednesday night, the 13th inst., an unusually large concourse of people assembled at Locust Grove, Ky., expecting to hear Eld. Daugherty and myself speak on the Sabbath question, he, against the seventh-day Sabbath, and I, in favor of that ancient institution. The school-house was filled to overflowing, and several had to remain out of doors. Eld. Daugherty arose and said he had simply announced to speak on a doctrinal subject, and would not speak on the Sabbath, but on the commencement of the reign of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. Yet as far as we had been able to learn, the people had understood him to mean the Sabbath, as that was the main point of difference between us, and especially as I had announced it to be the Sabbath, stating that if we were wrong on the Sabbath, the sooner the people knew it the better—when he gave out the appointment, and he did not correct me, but responded, by saying that if he was wrong he wanted to know it. We were to speak twice each, and to lead out with thirty minutes each. The Elder first spoke thirty-five minutes, and I replied in the same length of time, enjoying more than usual freedom. The Elder claimed and tried to prove that the Lord commenced to reign as King of kings on the day of Pentecost; that then a law went forth from Jerusalem agreeable to a prediction of the prophet, Isa. 2:3; that it was under the old covenant that Christ kept the Sabbath, and taught the young man to keep the commandments; that the old covenant with the Sabbath was abolished at the cross; Col. 2:14–17; Eph. 2:14; etc.; and that as it was not commanded over by Christ and the apostles, was not now binding. In my reply, I made the following points:— 1. The commencement of the literal reign or kingdom of Christ is at or about the time of his coming. 1 Tim. 4:7; see also Luke 19:11–15; Dan. 7:9–14, 25–27; Matt. 6:10; James 2:5. It is when Christ comes to destroy his enemies that he has “on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” Rev. 19. Isa. 2:3, has no allusion to the day of Pentecost, but to the state of the church in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord’s house, the church, shall be established on the top of the mountains, governments. Dan. 2:35; Rev. 17:9, etc. In this popular attitude the church says, “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Here, Zion and Jerusalem are put for the church, who is not satisfied to rule herself, but speaks of giving the law to the world. She also says, “They [the nations] shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more;” while the Lord says the opposite: to “prepare war,” and “beat your plow-shares into swords,” etc. Joel 3:9, 10. For this reason, because they preach smooth things, the Lord forsakes his people. Verse 6. (Query. Would the Lord forsake his people for preaching the gospel on the day of Pentecost? Read the rest of the chapter.) 2. Christ, in teaching and keeping the commandments, took a leading step in the establishment of the new covenant, which he was to confirm, Dan. 9:27, and one of the “better promises” of which was, to write the law of God in the heart. Jer. 31:33. The remaining acts of Christ in the establishment of the new covenant were: 1. To teach the means of pardon Matt. 20:28; 2. To institute the ordinances to keep them in remembrance; Matt. 26:26–29, etc.; and, 3. To die to provide the means of pardon and seal the covenant. 3. Though the old covenant was abolished at the cross, yet the law of which the Sabbath was a part, Christ says positively he came not to destroy, and that till heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle shall pass from that law. Matt. 5:17, 18. But of another law, called the middle wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles, Paul as plainly affirms that Christ did abolish it in his flesh. Eph. 2:14, 15. Col. 2:14–17, and Eph. 2:14, 15, which Bro. Daugherty quotes to prove that the Sabbath was abolished, are the very scriptures which show us that the Sabbath was not abolished, and which constitute the grand rule with which we go, in the Old and New Testaments, to determine what was done away and what was not. Thank God for the rule! Let us apply it. We need not lay aside Christ’s teachings or the Old Testament scriptures, “which are able to make us wise unto salvation,” provided that we add to them faith in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. 3:15, etc. This rule tells us that these commandments and ordinances which were done away were “the middle wall of partition,” were “against us,” and “contrary to” us, and “a shadow of things to come.” Can this be said of the ten commandments? God is the subject of the first four. Is God a shadow? Can you produce a better God than the God who made the heavens and the earth? The last six commandments teach us to honor parents, and pay a strict regard to the life, chastity, reputation, property, and all the interests of our fellow creatures. Are these shadows? The grand design of the ten commandments is to inculcate the precepts of supreme love to God and equal love to our fellow creatures. Can there be better precepts than these? The Sabbath was made at creation, and before the fall. Was it a middle wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles, a shadow, and against us? Would God punish our first parents by giving them an institution that was against them and contrary to them before they did that which was against him? Christ says “The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. But to be circumcised, to go to Jerusalem three times a year with sacrifices, to keep three yearly feasts of the Jews, and, in connection with these feasts, seven annual Sabbaths, falling on certain days of certain months like Christmas and New Years, see Lev. 23, would indeed be a tremendous wall against us and contrary to us—would consume all our time, and would be a yoke that we Gentiles could not bear. The annual sabbaths of the Jews and the sabbaths of the land could typify the seventh millennium in which the earth shall rest from the curse; but will the Elder show us how the seventh-day Sabbath could be a shadow or type? 4. Christ and the apostles did not command over or re-enact any of the ten commandments as a new law. The ten commandments were not repealed; hence no necessity of re-enacting any of them. But 1st. Christ and the apostles quoted from, and enforced, the law of ten commandments on the same authority that gave it on Sinai. Proof. Of the fifth commandment Christ said: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God.” “For laying aside the commandment of God.” Mark 7:8, 9. And James says, “He that said (margin, the law that said), Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill,” etc., etc. James 2:11. 2d. All those scriptures which prove that the law of ten commandments is binding as a whole prove the Sabbath to be in force. When Christ says he came not to destroy the law, we say he did not come to destroy the Sabbath which is a part of that law. When he says every jot and tittle of the law shall hold good till heaven and earth pass, he makes the Sabbath binding at least throughout this dispensation. When he says unqualifiedly, “If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments,” he makes the keeping of the Sabbath a part of the condition of eternal life. Matt. 19:17. When Paul says, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law,” Rom. 3:31, we affirm that the Sabbath is not made void, but established through faith. When Paul concludes that “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just and good,” Rom. 7:12, we conclude the same of the fourth commandment. When he says, “I delight in the law of God,” verse 22, we infer that he delighted to keep the Sabbath. When the beloved apostle defines sin as “the transgression of the law,” John 3:4, we scripturally and logically assert that it is sin to transgress the fourth commandment. Again, when he says, “This is the love of God that we keep his commandments,” John 5:3, we believe that we show our love to God by keeping the Sabbath. When of the law that says, “Do not commit adultery” and “Do not kill,” James says, “So speak, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty,” James 2:11, 12, we infer that we shall meet the Sabbath in the Judgment. 3d. Christ said, “The Sabbath was made for man,” i. e., for Adam and all his posterity. 4th. Christ took especial pains to show what was lawful on the Sabbath, thereby acknowledging the Sabbath law. Matt. 12:12. 5th. Christ, as our example, kept the Sabbath. Luke 4:16. 6th. Christ commanded the disciples to pray that their flight from Judea, should not be on the Sabbath day. Matt. 24:20. This flight took place A. D. 70, about forty years after the crucifixion. And Christ did not enjoin this duty upon them because the gates of Jerusalem would be shut on the Sabbath so that they could not flee; for, 1. Josephus (Jewish Wars, B. ii, chap. xix) informs us that a few days before the flight, the Jews actually went out in battle against the Romans on the Sabbath; and,1352. The command to flee is to those that would be in Judea. It was therefore because the Saviour regarded the Sabbath and wished to have Christians keep it that he enjoined this duty on his followers; and history informs us that they did observe it. Surely, Christ has a good deal to say about the Sabbath. Shall we hear him? 7th. The disciples kept the fourth commandment this side of the cross. Luke 23:56. And this is recorded by Luke, without comment, twenty-eight years after the crucifixion, as though the disciples had done right. 8th. The apostles made it their preaching day. Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 17:1–3; 18:4–11. This was not merely to accommodate the Jews. Those who say that it was, beg the very point to be proved. They should first prove that the Sabbath was abolished. With the fourth commandment in force, we claim that they preached and worshiped on the Sabbath because they delighted to keep it holy. 9th. Paul preached to the Gentiles, at their request, on the Sabbath. Acts 13:42, 44. 10th. The reasons why the Sabbath should be kept are as applicable to us as to the Jews. God is the Creator of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews. It is as interesting and profitable for us to commemorate his works and rest as it is to the Jews. God’s example is as sacred to us as to the Jews. 11th. We read of the Lord’s day as existing in A. D. 96. Rev. 1:10. And which day is the Lord’s day? Is it the first day? That day is never claimed by the Lord as his day. But the Bible is a sufficient rule of faith. And “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:10. God calls it his holy day. Isa. 58:13; and it is the day of which Christ styles himself the Lord. Mark 2:28. The position of Bro. Daugherty sets aside a Sabbath that Jehovah has instituted for one that he has never established; it sets aside one that has the example of the Almighty for one that has no such example; it rejects one that God has blessed and sanctified, and accepts in its stead one that he has never blessed and sanctified; it disregards a Sabbath that is enforced by the fourth commandment, and accepts a man-made Sabbath without a commandment to enjoin its observance; it neglects a day which Christ and the apostles observed, and regards one that they never kept holy. How can we halt between two opinions on so plain a subject? Here the Elder arose and said he had spoken on one subject, and I on another, and that I had not answered his arguments. Doubtless some would have been delighted to see the Sabbath put in the shade under pretense of speaking on another subject. Elder Daugherty said he could say many things. I replied, Speak on. He said he did not propose to discuss, but that they had plenty of men who would be glad of the job. Our reply was, We do not go about challenging, but if we are challenged we do not back out; for we have seen the matter tested too often. The Elder would not speak a second time, and here the disappointed congregation were dismissed. D. T. BOURDEAU.