Cause of Infidelity by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 15, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 15.

Cause of Infidelity.

By Editor

DR. NELSON wrote a good book entitled "Cause and Cure of Infidelity." We believe that Satan adapts his deceptions to the times, and that the obvious or direct cause of infidelity is different at different times. Recently we noticed the case of a young lady whose life was filled with doubts and darkness, by her pastor depreciating certain texts of Scripture. She thought that if one part could be explained away, or modified, or its inspiration made a matter of doubt, all the rest might be treated in a similar manner.

Ministers and religious writers who have a "theology" to maintain, will find in the Judgment, that a fearful responsibility rested upon them because they often maintained their theories by unlawful methods—by perverting the Scriptures, or handling the word of God deceitfully. 2 Cor. 4:1, 2. Instances come to our notice almost every day, of which we here present an example. Somebody sent us an article clipped from the Michigan Christian Advocate, entitled, "The Jewish Sabbath." It is the second of a series. It opens with the following paragraph:—

"It will now serve our purpose to note that as the Jews fixed upon the seventh day of the week for their Sabbath rest, so they settled upon certain peculiar methods of observing the day, which methods would not all admit of universal application."

If it was the purpose of the writer to pervert the Scriptures, to handle the word of God deceitfully, to mislead his readers, and bring contempt upon the express requirements of Jehovah, then his purpose was well served in that "note." We do not believe that it is our duty to give the writer sufficient credit for ignorance of the Scriptures to leave him innocent in such a perversion. This Sabbath question has come to the front too prominently to allow of ministers and editors being altogether ignorant of the truth of the Bible on the subject. The writer shows lamentable ignorance in his remarks about traveling round the globe; every navigator would correct his errors without a moment's hesitation. But that cannot excuse him for asserting that the seventh day was observed as the Sabbath because "the Jews fixed upon" it. Every reader of the Bible knows that the Creator of the heavens and the earth "fixed upon the seventh day of the week" for the day of Sabbath rest, when "the heavens and earth were finished, and all the host of them." Every reader of the Bible knows that, when God finished the work of creation, he rested the seventh day, and that "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." The weekly Sabbath, the sanctification of the seventh day, had no other origin than this.

If the Jewish people had not forgotten the Lord's holy Sabbath in their long and rigorous servitude in Egypt, they certainly had lost much of the regard for it to which its sacredness was entitled. Before they arrived at Sinai, the Lord announced his intention to feed them with "bread from Heaven," and that he intended to "prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no." Some of the people went out on the seventh day, the Sabbath, to gather manna, and they found none; the Lord withheld it on his holy day. And he rebuked them for their disobedience of his law, saying: "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath: therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day."

Does this have any appearance of the Jews fixing upon the seventh day as the Sabbath? No; it shows positively, and in a manner which no man of ordinary intelligence can mistake, that the Lord chose the seventh day as his rest day; that he sanctified it as such; and that he, so far from leaving it to the choice of the Jews, enforced it upon them in express terms, and evidently against the choice of some of them who were not inclined to regard God's law on the subject.

But this is not all. Jehovah appeared upon Mount Sinai, and declared his holy law in the hearing of the whole nation of his chosen. Then he said:—

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."

They had shown a disposition, in the wilderness, to forget it, or to disregard its sacredness.

"Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work."

The Lord was not unmindful of the wants of man; he gave him six of the seven days of the week in which to do his own work. And he required that that work should all be done within the six days.

"But the seventh day is the Sabbath [of the Jews? No.] of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work."

Why? because the Jews fixed upon the seventh day? No. God gave his own reason; it may suit the "purpose" of man to contradict it, and to mislead his fellow-men in regard to it, yet it is truth—it is founded upon eternal truth, which will remain though heaven and earth should pass away. These are the words of the Most High:—

"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."

The Lord never denies himself; his words are all truth; they are ever in harmony. His commandment in Ex. 20 exactly agrees with his historical record in Gen. 2. And now, reading these scriptures, we ask any one to answer these queries: Whose rest day is the seventh day? To what work does this rest stand related? Did the Jews create the heavens and earth in six days, and "fix upon" the seventh day as their own, "the Jewish Sabbath"? The Scriptures always speak of the Sabbath as "the holy of the Lord," "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Jehovah calls it "my holy day." Never in the Bible is it called the Jewish Sabbath, or the Sabbath of the Jews.

And as of the day, so of the law regulating its observance. The Jews never "settled upon certain peculiar methods of observing the day." Moses never presumed to legislate concerning its observance. In every instance the Lord himself laid down the rules, commanding Moses every word which he should make known to the people.

The writer of the article in question comes no nearer to the truth of the Bible in any of his pretended expositions than he does in this case. Starting off with such a bold misrepresentation of the Scriptures of truth, there is no need to follow him further. As to his "purpose," we cannot conceive that the purpose of any one is so faithfully served as that of the enemy of all righteousness, in thus separating the name and work of Jehovah from his own institutions and laws. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Ps. 11:3. By thus depreciating the truth of God's commandments, and contradicting the records of his word, professedly religious teachers are destroying the foundations, creating doubts of the truths of the Bible, and flooding the country with infidelity more dangerous than that of Ingersoll, because it has a pious garb, and passes as "Christian liberty" among the unstudied in the word.

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Eccl. 12:13, 14.