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They Say, and Do Not

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 2, 1873

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 42, No. 12.

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They Say, and Do Not.

By J. Lamont

These words of our Saviour were spoken of a numerous class of very influential religious teachers, who said that the law of God was (is) obligatory on all men; yet they continually violated it, and taught others to do so, in order to keep their own traditions. It seems that the present day has produced their exact counterpart. As proof of this, we will notice, 1. What some of our modern doctors of the law say. 2. What they do.
Buck’s Theological Dictionary says: “Sabbath, in the Hebrew language, signifies rest, and is the seventh day of the week; a day appointed for religious duties, and a total cessation from work, in commemoration of God’s resting on the seventh day. . . . Numerous have been the days appointed by men for religious services; but these are not binding because of human institution. Not so the Sabbath. Hence the fourth commandment is ushered in with peculiar emphasis. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. . . . It must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day.”
The American Tract Society’s Bible Dictionary says: “SABBATH, rest. God, having created the world in six days, rested on the seventh, Gen. 2:2, 3; and because he had rested on it he blessed or sanctified it, and appointed it in a peculiar manner for his worship. We here have an account of the original institution of the day of rest. Like the institution of marriage, it was given to man for the whole race. Those who worshiped God seem to have kept the Sabbath from the first, and there are tokens of this in the brief sketch the Bible contains of the ages before the giving of the law at Sinai. The re-enactment of the Sabbath, at Mount Sinai, among the commandments of the moral law, was also designed, not for the Jews alone, but for all who should receive the word of God, and ultimately for all mankind. Christ and his apostles never speak of the decalogue, but as of permanent and universal obligation. The Sabbath was made for man. The fourth commandment is as binding as the third, and the fifth.”
Covel’s Bible Dictionary says: “Sabbath, rest, a lying by from labor; the seventh day of the week. . . . The Sabbath was appointed at the creation of the world, and sanctified, or set apart for holy purposes, for man, for all men, and therefore for Christians; since there was never any repeal of the original institution. There is not on record any divine command issued to the apostles to change the Sabbath.” And again (Art. Baptism), he classes Sunday-keeping with infant baptism, and says, “neither is expressly commanded.”
John Wesley (Notes on Matt. 5,) says: “It was not the design of Christ to revoke any part of the law. It cannot be broken. Every part of it remains in force upon all men in all ages. Neither time, nor place, nor circumstances, make it liable to change.”
Mr. Spurgeon (Sermons, p. 280) says: “The law of God is a divine law, holy, heavenly, perfect. There is not a command too many; there is not one too few. No human law-giver could have given forth such a law as we find in the decalogue.”
Dr. Barnes (note on Matt. 5:19) says: “We learn hence, 1. That all the law of God is binding on Christians; 2. That all the commands of God should be preached in their proper places, by Christian ministers; 3. That they who pretend that there are any laws of God so small that they need not obey them, are unworthy of his kingdom. And, 4. That true piety has respect to all the commands of God and keeps them.”
Thomas Dick, on the fourth commandment (Philosophy of Religion, p. 95, Ed. 1849, Hartford) says: “This is a command that never was abrogated, and which never can be abrogated in relation to any intelligent beings, so long as the Creator exists, and so long as the universe remains as a memorial of his power and intelligence.”
The American Sunday-school Union Bible Dictionary, says: “The commandment which stands fourth in the decalogue is founded on the fact, that the seventh day was blessed and hallowed by God himself, and that he requires his creatures to keep it holy to him. The command is of universal and perpetual obligation.”
These are leading authorities with the Protestant world.
They say very true, But what do they do?
Transgress the law of God, every one of them, and teach others to do the same by not remembering “the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
They keep the first day of the week, after showing conclusively that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord,” and that whatever Sabbatic character Sunday has, is found outside of the law of God, and the entire Bible, and rests on the so-called Father’s (tradition of the elders). Will this stand against the commandment of God? Matt. 15:9. “But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” “Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect, by your tradition.” Matt. 15:6. “And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition.” Mark 7:9. “This people honoreth me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Reader, have you been ignorant in regard to this matter; supposing that the law of God had been changed, or there was a commandment for the observance of the first day, in the New Testament? If so, the statements and admissions from the above authorities must fully convince you that Sunday-keeping is “of human institution,” and not binding. “The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” If you still continue to follow these leaders because they are great men, read Matt. 15:14; Luke 10:21; and 1 Cor. 1:26.
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Col. 2:8.
“Do ye not after their works; for they say, and do not.” Matt. 23:3.
J. LAMONT.