Why Not? by C. P. Bollman

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 8, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 14.

Why Not?

By C. P. Bollman

The question is often asked those who observe the seventh day, "Why do you keep Saturday?" For answer the counter-question, "Why not keep it?" might appropriately be asked; or, "Why keep any other day?" Saturday is the seventh day, and the fourth commandment enjoins the observance of that day. It reads:—

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11.

Can the Sunday-keeper give so good a reason for his practice? Can any one cite a text that says, The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God? No, indeed, for there is no such text, nor does the Bible contain an intimation that the first day is in any wise a sacred day, nor that the sanctity has ever been removed from the seventh day.

But, again, Why not keep the seventh day? It is the memorial of creation, and the fact that God made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, is just as much a fact now as it was when the commandment was given amid the thunders of Sinai, or as it was when God first blessed and sanctified the seventh day (Gen. 2:3); indeed it can never cease to be a fact, and it can never cease to be a fact that God set apart the seventh day as the memorial of his rest after he had created all things. Then why not keep the Sabbath of the Lord?

But says one, "The Sabbath was made for the Jews." Not so; the Saviour says (Mark 2:27): "The Sabbath was made for man;" how then can we limit it to any one nation or people? The Bible nowhere says that it was only for the Jews. It nowhere intimates such a thing. The reason for giving the Sabbath ought to teach us that it is for the race, that all may honor God by recognizing the memorial of his creative work. To keep the Sabbath is to testify to one's faith in the divine declaration that "in six days God made heaven and earth;" it is to acknowledge God's sovereignty; it is to honor him by obeying his word. Then why not keep holy the seventh day, as God has commanded us?

C. P. BOLLMAN.