REVIEW OF STORR by A. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 27, 1876

REVIEW OF STORR.

By A. Smith

The Sabbath Changed by the Papacy.

Eld. Storr: “The claim that the pope of Rome changed the Sabbath has no force; for there was no pope for more than three hundred years after Christ.”

Ans. The first day of the week was not kept as the Sabbath for more than three hundred years after Christ.

In Paul’s time, the corruption that finally culminated in the papacy had begun to work. 2 Thess. 2:7. It was natural enough for those who were converted from paganism to a profession of the Christian faith, but who were not soundly converted to God, to bring with them a love for the cherished institutions of their heathen worship; hence, in time, the exaltation of the heathen Sunday, the invocation of saints, purgatory, and the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, followed.

The angel of God told Daniel that the fourth beast was the fourth kingdom which should exist upon the earth, and that he should think to change times and laws; and, behold, when the man of sin arose he claimed power to do that very thing. If we are not right in our application of the prophecy, will Eld. S. be so kind as to elucidate the point?

Pope Innocent III., in A. D. 1202, professed to have received a letter from Heaven commanding the observance of Sunday under awful penalties. What need was there, we ask, for such a miraculous interposition in its favor if the Sunday had been generally kept as the Sabbath from apostolic times?

Mr. S. mentioned Justin Martyr, Barnabas, Irenius, Polycarp, Origen, and others, as bearing testimony to a change of the Sabbath; but he read not a word of their testimony, except a part of the epistle of Barnabas. If the reader would like to know what these fathers did write about the Sabbath, let him send to the REVIEW Office for a pamphlet entitled, “The Complete Testimony of the Fathers.”

The following opinions of Martin Luther and Adam Clarke concerning the writings of the “fathers,” will be of interest to the reader:—

“When God’s word is by the fathers expounded, construed, and glossed, then, in my judgment, it is even like unto one that straineth milk through a coal-sack, which must needs spoil the milk, and make it black: even so, likewise, God’s word of itself is sufficiently pure, clean, bright, and clear; but through the doctrines, books, and writings of the fathers, it is very surely darkened, falsified, and spoiled.”—Martin Luther.

“We should be cautious how we appeal to heathens, however eminent, in behalf of morality; because much may be collected from them on the other side. In like manner, we should take heed how we quote the fathers in proof of the doctrines of the gospel; because he who knows them best, knows that on many of those subjects they blow hot and cold.”—Autobiography of Adam Clarke, p. 134, book iii.

Eld. S.: “Those who preach the law detract from the glory of Christ. The burden of the third chapter of Galatians is against this very thing.”

Ans. If Eld. S. refers to the ceremonial law his statement has no force; for neither Seventh-day Adventists, nor any other denomination of Christians that we know of, are preaching that law; but if he refers to the binding force of the moral law of ten commandments, we are glad to be honored as the target of his invectives. We deny, however, preaching justification or salvation by the law. Christ alone can free us from the condemnation of the law; but, when set free, we believe that the law is a rule of life to us, and that if we again transgress, we become sinners as before.

Mr. S. further claimed that Christ, by fulfilling the law, abolished it; that Paul wrote against the law in Galatians; and that if we attempt to keep it by observing days we may boast, &c.

Ans. If Christ abolished the law by fulfilling it, he also, in like manner, abolished righteousness, and there is no use, therefore, in preaching repentance; for there can be no sinners in the world. See Matt. 3:15; 1 John 3:4; Rom. 7:7; 4:15. If, as Eld. S. says, referring to the Sabbath, “by keeping days we may boast,” how shall we avoid it if we keep Sunday?

Mr. S. spoke of the importance of faith without the deeds of the law, and referred to the faith exercised by Abraham; Gal. 3:9; but if he had placed beside this testimony of Paul’s the fact that Abraham kept the law and also the testimony, as an honest expositor should, all would have been plain. See also James 2:8–26. Of faith and the law, Paul thus reasons: “Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:30, 31. In the 29th verse of this chapter and Eph. 2:11, he tells us who are included in these two classes. It is evident, therefore, that the same moral law of the same God is equally binding upon both the Jews and the Gentiles.

A. Smith.