FORTY ANSWERS TO FORTY SO-CALLED OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE LAW AND SABBATH.
By D. T. Bourdeau
TEXTS:—“And they send unto him certain Pharisees, and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.” Mark 12:13. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17. Objection 24. Paul made known nothing, save Christ and him crucified. 1 Cor. 2:2. Answer. Paul preached Christ as our sinless pattern, and taught that Christ was crucified for our sins, or transgressions of God’s law, and to bring us back in obedience to the law of God. Objection 25. The Spirit was to reprove the world of sin because they believe not on Christ. John 16:9. Hence, we read of “the law of faith” and “the law of Christ,” and Christ says, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.” Rom. 3:27; Gal. 6:2; John 13:34. Answer. 1. Not to believe on Christ as the remedy and preventive of sin, would make the transgression of God’s law doubly sinful, and would indeed be a great sin. 2. The expressions, “law of faith,” and “law of Christ,” do not refer to a new moral law, but to the gospel system, embracing the means of salvation from sin and its curse, and all the healing precepts, ordinances, and doctrines, in the New Testament, such as faith, repentance, baptism, the Lord’s supper, etc. The gospel system is the law of Christ, because it relates to Christ, who is its Alpha and Omega, as Moses was the great center of the typical system. In the last message of mercy, it is denominated the faith of Jesus, and is thus distinguished from the law of God: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. Those who do this, honor both the Father and the Son. 3. The commandment to love one another was not new in the sense of not having existed before, see Lev. 19:17, 18, etc.; but because it had been neglected and lost sight of, as the Sabbath is at the present time, a new luster was given to it by Christ’s teachings and example. Objection 26. Whatsoever the apostles were to bind on earth was to be bound in Heaven, Matt. 16:18, 19; 18:18, and on the day of Pentecost, a law went forth from Jerusalem according to Isa. 2:3: “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Answer. 1. The fact that whatsoever the apostles were to bind on earth was to be bound in Heaven, does not convey even a distant idea that the apostles were to act in the capacity of lawgivers. It simply shows that their work on earth would be ratified in Heaven. 2. 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, Rev. 17:9, 10, etc.). When the church is in this popular attitude, “many people” “shall flow unto it,” and say, “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. The people also say, “They [the nations] shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” But the Lord says exactly the opposite: “Prepare war,” and, “Beat your plowshares into swords,” etc. Joel 3:9, 10. And because smooth things are preached when war and trouble are coming, the Lord forsakes his people. Verse 6. Query: Would the Lord forsake his people for preaching the gospel on the day of Pentecost? Read verses 7–22. Those who urge this objection generally contend for the first day. Now, as we meet them on their own ground, we would ask them what law went forth on the day of Pentecost respecting the first day? That day was not even mentioned on that occasion. Our opponents will reject a Sabbath that God has instituted, and which is enforced by a law that Jehovah spoke in person, and will accept a man-made Sabbath without a divine law to enjoin its observance. Objection 27. We are required to keep the spirit of the law, and not the letter. Rom. 2:29; 7:6. Answer. If we are to understand that we are not obliged literally to do what the law requires, then may we literally kill, steal, commit adultery? etc. This cannot be the meaning of Paul’s frequent contrasts between the letter and the spirit. The form and spirit of the law uphold each other. You cannot break the law literally without breaking it spiritually. The religion of the Jews in the days of Christ and the apostles had become formal and selfish. They did their good works to be seen of men, and not because they loved God and their neighbor. They condemned the open violator of the law while they did worse than he. They strictly kept up certain forms of seeming obedience to the law, but, through the letter and circumcision, transgressed the law. Rom. 2:27. They were very strict through their traditions in making the Sabbath an animal rest, but in so doing they disregarded and violated the Sabbath as a merciful institution, as a day to be employed in the nobler work of our Creator. They said a man should not steal in the popular acceptation of that term, yet they stole in their sharp trades. And thus the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles. And it is our solemn conviction that this is the condition of many professors at the present time. They are very strict in keeping up certain popular forms of religion, and yet break God’s commandments. For instance: Many would not openly steal their neighbor’s property, because they would lose their reputation, and are very strict in enforcing the letter of the law on thieves; yet they will do much worse, in taking advantage of their neighbor in trade. They do not fulfill “the royal law” according to the scripture, “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” James 2:8–12; but in keeping certain portions of that law they are actuated by selfish motives. Now we claim that the keeping of the Sabbath is perfectly calculated to cure this selfish religion, and to help us in obeying the spirit of the law; for men will not be very likely to embrace the Sabbath because it is popular and for outward show and temporal advantage, but because of unselfish love for God and his cause. How unjust, then, it is to charge upon those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath the sin of neglecting the spirit of the law! Objection 28. To love God with all the heart and our neighbor as ourselves is the sum of all our moral duties, and is all that we are required to do. Answer. True; but how do we evince our love to God and to our neighbor? Says John, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.” 1 John 5:3, 2. If we profess love for God, while we refuse to obey him, we say not the truth. To illustrate: A just parent has two sons, from whom he requires obedience. One of these sons comes to his parent and says, Father, I love you, but cannot obey you. The other son answers, Father, I love you, and will try to obey you. Which of these children do you think really loves his father? All reasonable persons will answer, The one who said he loved his parent, and would try to obey him. In like manner do we show our love to God. The first four commandments forbid the separation of our supreme affections from our Creator; and by keeping the last six commandments we show that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Objection 29. Christ, in fulfilling the moral law, abolishes it. Matt. 5:17–19. Answer. This objection is simply a mere assertion; and it is five times squarely contradicted by the Saviour in Matt. 5:17–19. (1.) He says: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets.” And certainly he did not do the very thing that he came not to do. (2.) “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” According to Webster, fulfill, when applied to a law, means, “to answer its demands by obedience.” It here means exactly the opposite of destroying, as in the following scriptures: Rom. 2:27; Gal. 6:2; James 2:8–12. But the objector would make Christ teach that he came, not to destroy the law, but to destroy the law. (3.) “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law.” Heaven and earth still remain, and the law holds firm. (4.) “Till all be fulfilled.” The word “all,” in the original, is in the neuter plural, and cannot refer to the law, which is in the masculine singular. It can refer only to all things respecting heaven and earth that are spoken of in the prophets. The term fulfilled, in the original, is not the same that is rendered fulfill in the expression, “I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.” Its first definition, as given by Greenfield in his Greek Lexicon to the N. T., is, “to come into existence, be created, exist by creation.” It is rendered made, in John 1:3: “All things were made by him.” This brings us to the resuscitation of heaven and earth, etc., beyond the final conflagration. (5.) Now comes Christ’s own conclusion, which is a reproof to those who teach that he abolished the law: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least [or, as Geo. Campbell renders it, shall be of no esteem] in the kingdom of Heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.” This law could not cease when Christ came. Three interesting tills or untils in the New Testament prove this: 1. “The law and the prophets were until John,” Luke 16:16, when a change took place, not in the abolition of the law, but in adding to the law and the prophets the preaching of the kingdom of God. For Christ, in the next sentence, makes the law firmer than the pillars of heaven and earth: “And it is easier,” he says, “for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” 2. “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law.” 3. “Till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:18. Till all those things to be restored, are brought into existence by a new creation. This brings us to the new-earth state, in which righteousness shall dwell. 2 Pet. 3:13; Ps. 119:172; Isa. 51:6, 7, and the Sabbath shall continue while eternal ages roll. Isa. 66:22, 23. Thus the law survives three tills: one at the advent of John, and two in the future. Consequently, it survived the advent and death of Christ. The law was added till the seed should come, when faith comes in, not to set the moral law aside, but to establish it, and to do for us what that law could not do after we had transgressed it. By the law, we are convinced of sin, that we may come to Christ for pardon and justification; and then we are not under the law as a condemning rule, so long as we, by the grace of God, endeavor to live in obedience to it. Objection 30. Paul asserts “that the law is not made for a righteous man.” 1 Tim. 1:9. Answer. Paul immediately adds, “but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,” and, after specifying various lawless characters, he embraces every other evil work which the law condemns, in the expression, “and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” Therefore the law is still binding on sinners, and is in harmony with “sound doctrine.” But does Paul mean that the righteous are released from keeping the law, while the law retains its binding force on sinners? It would be the height of folly and inconsistency to thus claim. The righteous delight in the law of God as a rule of life, Rom. 7:22; Ps. 1:2, and it is because they are its strict observers that they are righteous. Deut. 6:25; Ps. 119:172. The simple import of Paul’s words is that the moral law, as a condemning rule, is not made for the righteous, but for the lawless and disobedient. Had the moral law always been kept, there would have been no necessity of God’s proclaiming it as he did on Mount Sinai, or writing it on tables of stone, or connecting with it, as a means of correction and reform in the past dispensation, the burdensome ordinances and strong penalties of the typical system. Objection 31. We are simply required to keep one-seventh part of time, or any one day after six days of labor. This will meet our physical wants. Answer. The fourth commandment (Ex. 20:8, 11) requires us to keep “the Sabbath of the Lord,” the day on which God rested, the day that God blessed and sanctified, because that in it he had rested. Sabbath signifies rest; and God never rested on more than one day; he never blessed more than one day; and never commanded the observance of any other day of the week than that on which he rested, and which he set apart to a holy use in the beginning. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” The Sabbath was not made simply to grant us physical rest. Its grand design as a memorial was to have our spiritual and moral wants met by commemorating God’s rest from his works; and reason as well as Scripture demands that there be a fitness between a memorial and the event it commemorates. Thus the Israelites ate the passover in haste, with unleavened bread, to represent the manner in which they left Egypt. And we Christians, in partaking of the Lord’s supper with the juice of the grape, properly bring to mind the broken body and spilt blood of our dear Saviour; and, in being “buried with him by baptism,” we show forth his burial and resurrection. So, in resting from our works on the seventh day, we memorialize God’s resting from his works on that day. We celebrate our birth on the day on which we were born; and the seventh day is the birth-day of our154 world, the day that saw the works of God complete. The doctrine of keeping any day in seven would give us as many Sabbaths as there are days in the week, and would justify farmers in selecting rainy days for their Sabbaths, and would not only bring confusion in the practices of men, but also in sacred history and in prophecy; for if an indefinite seventh-day is meant, how can we tell when those events transpired that are said to have happened on the Sabbath? To illustrate: The idea that the disciples “rested the Sabbath day” would mean that they rested any day in seven, and when we read that Christ rose the day after the Sabbath, it is as if we should read that he rose on any day in seven, and perhaps, as the infidel claims, did not rise at all! Also, when Christ told his disciples to pray that they should not flee from Judea on the Sabbath, he wanted them to pray that they should not flee at all! And this indefinite seventh-part-of-time theory leads to infidelity. It is a principle in God’s word, that those who put no difference between what God has sanctified and what he has not, will make it a light thing to disobey God, and will hide their eyes from his Sabbaths; while those who do make a difference between the holy and profane will obey God, and hallow his Sabbaths. Eze. 22:26; 44:23, 24. God punished Nadab and Abihu with death for this very sin. Lev. 10. They thought God would accept from their censers incense kindled with common fire, while he had said to offer unto him incense kindled with sacred fire. And God is as jealous of his word as he ever was. Acts 5:1–11. Can you say it makes no difference what day you offer to the Lord when God has, for a wise reason, sanctified and claimed the seventh day? Objection 32. The seventh day may have been lost, in the change from Old to New Style, or before that change was made. Answer. After Christ’s burial, his followers “rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment,” which enjoins the observance of the very day on which God rested at creation, and that he then blessed and sanctified. Since the time of Christ, the Jews and a goodly number of Christians have kept the seventh-day Sabbath; heathens, and, after them, Roman Catholics, and since the Reformation, the majority of Protestants, have kept the first day; and since the seventh century, the Mahometans have kept Friday; and there is no discrepancy in the reckoning of these great denominations, embracing more than one-third of the population of our globe. Now these great bodies could not have been prevailed upon to agree to change their reckoning backward or forward, when each one had so much at stake in keeping his Sabbath, without leaving the fact on record; and this fact is not to be found. The losing of the true seventh day could be accounted for only on the supposition that millions of our race all lost or gained a day at the same time by oversleeping, or otherwise, without knowing anything about it. The change from Old to New Style was on this wise: According to the Julian Calendar, established by Julius Caesar, about eleven minutes too much were reckoned in the year. This, in the sixteenth century, made the equinoxes, and, consequently, the seasons of the year, come ten days sooner than indicated by the day of the month. To remedy this difficulty, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII. took ten days out of the month of October, calling the fifth day of the month the fifteenth. In 1751, the Gregorian Calendar was adopted in Great Britain by act of Parliament; and the next year, eleven days were taken out of the month of September, by reckoning the third day of that month as the fourteenth. But this change did not affect the reckoning of the days of the week. Russia still reckons by the Old Style, yet her week corresponds with ours. About all claim to know when the first day comes, and it is very easy to step back one day and find the Sabbath. Objection 33. The earth is round, and we cannot keep the seventh day at the same time the world over. When it is noon here it is midnight on the opposite side of the earth. Answer. Is not the world as round on the first day as on the seventh? The fourth commandment enjoins the observance of “the seventh day,” and all the inhabitants of our round world have a seventh day to each of their weeks. We are required to keep the seventh day as it comes to us, and is marked off by God’s great time-keeper, the sun. When the sun sets Friday night, we know that the six laboring days are past, and that the Sabbath is commencing. Objection 34. How can the seventh day be kept near the poles where it is day for several months and then night for the same length of time? Answer. Just as easily as some observe Sunday in those regions. Perhaps Dr. Kane went as near the North Pole as any other navigator, and in the account that he gives of his famous expeditions, he mentions Saturday among other days of the week, and even gives the hour of the day. If Sabbath-keepers had been with him, they could have kept the seventh day. Those living in the polar regions can keep up the reckoning of days by the different positions of the sun when it is above the horizon, and in the absence of the sun, by the twilight at midday, by the different positions of certain constellations with reference to the polar star, etc., etc., as the Arab can tell when it is midnight by the turn of the Dipper. Objection 35. We are commanded to be subject to the powers that be, and to obey magistrates. Rom. 13:1; Titus 3:1. Answer. We would reverently bow to the law of God, whether we find it in the Bible, or in the statutes of our country. But when civil rulers and the “powers that be” enforce laws that conflict with the law of God, then we would say with apostles, prophets, and martyrs, that it is better to obey God rather than men. If this objection is valid, it overthrows Christianity and proves the pagan and papal religions genuine; for Christianity has been more than once opposed by civil governments, and paganism and Romanism have been often enforced by civil enactments. According to this objection, in times of heathen and papal persecutions, Christians would have been justified in avoiding persecution and martyrdom by turning pagans or papists. Objection 36. Why was not the Sabbath found out before? Answer. Large bodies of Christians in Europe, Asia, and Africa, have kept the Sabbath, and there are hundreds of Christian churches in Central Asia who have never come under papal influence, and who observe the Sabbath to this day. (Continental India, vol. 2, etc.) For centuries, Seventh-day Baptists have stood up nobly for this ancient institution; and for a quarter of a century, Seventh-day Adventists have seconded their efforts in response to the last message before the coming of the Son of man, which warns against the work of papacy and develops a people keeping all of God’s commandments. Rev. 14:9–12. God’s people were to emerge out of papal darkness gradually, and there was to be a burden of reform for every age. The light of truth was to shine more and more as the people could bear it. Prov. 4:18. In the last days, knowledge was to increase. Dan. 12:4. The attention of the people is being called to the Sabbath because a Sabbath reform is now due. It is pointed out in prophecy. Now is the time to “raise up the foundation of many generations,” to repair the breach that has been made in God’s law. Isa. 58:12, 13, etc. This reform is timely. We need it to meet the strong measures of civil governments in hoisting up and enforcing the rival institution of Sunday, and thereby binding the consciences of many who keep the seventh day. It is time for God and his people to work when men are making void the law of God. Ps. 119:126. The people must be instructed on this subject, that they may see where the truth lies, and have the privilege of preparing for the coming conflict. If the question, why the Sabbath was not found out before, amounts to a real objection against the Sabbath, then was it valid when raised by Roman Catholics against important truths in the time of the reformation? and it is raised by heathen idolaters against the religion of the Bible to this day. An objection that thus stands in the way of all progress and discovery, cannot be a valid one. Objection 37. Will all those faithful Christians in the past who have not kept the Sabbath be lost? Answer. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Acts 17:30. If God could be thus merciful unto those who had engaged in gross idolatry, will he not much more have mercy on faithful Christians who have not kept the Sabbath for want of knowledge? What God requires of us now is to be as faithful to the light that shines on our pathway as they were to the light that shone on theirs. Objection 38. Preaching the Sabbath will cause division. Answer. This objection has been urged against every true reform in the past. Even Christ, the Prince of Peace, said, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” Luke 12:51. Christ knew that his doctrine would not be received by all, and that division would be the result. God wants all to unite on his truth. But if some will not advance in the light, but fall back, and cry, Division, on whom will the blame of division rest? Says Paul, “Mark them which cause division and offences contrary to sound doctrine.” Rom. 16:17. It yet remains to be shown that the Sabbath is not a sound doctrine. Objection 39. How could God have blessed his people as he has in the past if they had broken one of his commandments every week? Answer. He could not have blessed them had they knowingly and presumptuously violated the Sabbath. It was for their good intentions and for the good that they performed that God blessed them, and not because of their sins of ignorance; and now that light is shining on our pathway, we should evince our gratitude for past blessings by walking in the light. Objection 40. It would be better to dwell more on such essential doctrines as repentance and faith. Answer. To convince men of sin is the first step in preaching repentance, and sin is the transgression of the law. Again, to show men the importance of faith in Christ for salvation from sin we must first convince them that they have sins to be saved from; and “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:20. Thus, as the apostle teaches, we establish the law through faith. Rom. 3:31. By faith in Christ we see that God’s law could not be changed or abrogated to save man who had broken it and thereby merited its just penalty; therefore Christ died for man, receiving the very blow that man deserved. And remember that the Sabbath was a part of that sacred instrument that slew the Son of God in our stead. Faith and repentance are essential by virtue of their connection with the law of God. “Where no law is there is no transgression,” Rom. 4:15, nothing to heal, and consequently no necessity for faith and repentance. If we taught that the law was abolished, then would there be propriety in charging us with not preaching faith and repentance. The more we convince men of sin by the law, the stronger would we preach repentance, and the more earnestly would we, through faith, point to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Dear reader: Every objection against the Sabbath that is based on want of information can be answered by prayerful study; but those objections that grow out of a lack of consecration can be removed only by yielding to God in taking up the cross. The cross will appear in the shape of inconvenience; in loss of friends, reputation, and worldly pleasure. But do not speak of inconvenience when Christ has suffered so much to save us; or of loss of friends, when you will lose no true friends, and when, in exchange for those you may lose, you will have God, Christ, and the Spirit of God, as your special friends. Do not mention loss of reputation; for that is a dear and shameful reputation that is retained at the sacrifice of truth, and at the loss of honor that comes from God. Oh! do not talk of worldly pleasure. The pleasures of sin are vain, deceitful, and fleeting, and end in sorrow and woe. No pleasures can compare with the pleasures of a life of holiness and obedience. You may be tempted to think that you cannot get along in your business, and may lose in point of means. But God, who numbers the hairs of your head, will not suffer you to come to want. If you obey him and trust in him, you are on the way to true prosperity. And should you even lose pecuniarily, your example in your loss would be a gain to the truth. Yield not to the temptation to wait for others to lead out in obeying. The truth has come to you, and God wants you to respond to it now, not because others do, but because it is right, and will glorify God. Lean on God and on the merits of truth, and you will stand. It is only in obeying that you can lead others to obey, and the heavier the cross, the greater the reward. When we see the binding force of the Sabbath, it is as sinful to break it as it is to violate any other precept of the law. How can you meet God over his broken law? Oh! take up the cross, and cheerfully engage in the closing work of reform. Receive the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Look to Christ for pardon and help. Obey and live.