A DIVIDED HOUSE by J. O. Corliss

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 26, 1877

A DIVIDED HOUSE.

By J. O. Corliss

Said the Saviour, “If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Neither can a church holding conflicting opinions,—at least on a Bible foundation. It is, however, surpassingly strange that such wide differences occur in the instructions of religious teachers, members of the same church, and pretending to teach the same truth. Especially is it the case when the Sabbath question comes up for discussion. This was well expressed by Clark Braden in the Christian Standard (Disciple), of Sept. 26, 1874:—

“Our preachers are by no means agreed in their teaching. They have no well-defined views on the subject, and are defeated when they attempt a defense of our practice of observing the first day, or a review of the arguments of the advocates of the seventh day. Nor are we alone in this. There is no clear, tenable teaching on this subject in our theological works and commentaries, or by our religious press. Advocates of the observance of the first day who stultify themselves by taking contradictory and inconsistent positions.”

This is certainly a frank confession, and might be considered with profit by those of other denominations.

Our Church Paper (Lutheran), published at New Market, Va., in an article on the Sabbath, took the position that it was not ordained in Eden, but at Mt. Sinai, and was abolished at the cross. No distinction was made between the law of God, the ten commandments, and the Mosaic code of ceremonies; but they were classed together and all abolished at the death of Christ, etc.

In short, it was but a rehearsal of the common antinomian arguments.

Nearly simultaneously with the above-mentioned article, one appeared in the Lutheran Visitor, of Charleston, S. C., on the perpetuity of the fourth commandment, in which the writer condemned all no-Sabbath advocates by an able argument on the establishment of the Sabbath in Eden, and then by a careful survey of its history, proved it obligatory upon the entire human family. We give a lengthy extract from it, which will be found interesting. The italics are ours.

“The first law ever given to man was the command to refrain from work on the seventh day. This seventh day was not only a day on which God commanded man to refrain from work, but a day of honor and worship of God—to keep man mindful of his Creator. This whole duty is based upon the authority of God. The Sabbath was instituted by God himself at the creation of the world. ‘And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.’

“All the days of creation were good,—none were unholy; for it is said, ‘And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good.’ It is plainly inferred that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day for man, not on account of its possessing any pre-eminence over the the other days. The first day that our first parents ever spent on earth was the Sabbath day in the Garden of Eden. If God regarded it necessary that the primogenitor of our race should observe the seventh day when he was holy and without sin, he most assuredly requires the same thing of his posterity.

“We leave revelation for a moment and turn toward the works of nature. It has been found out that the lives of both man and beast are prolonged by the observance of the Sabbath. I apprehend that no one will deny this fact in the face of all reason. Now, if we gradually kill ourselves by the non-observance of the Sabbath, are we not then violating the sixth commandment? Seeing the blessings accruing to man for observing the seventh day, and the evil results that follow its violation, it appears almost absolutely necessary. It is founded upon the goodness and mercy of God. The seventh day is the day of rest to fatigued nature, when man and beast, in accordance with the law of God, rest from all daily employment.

“Since the curse, ‘In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread,’ has been pronounced upon man for his disobedience, the Sabbath has an additional blessing to the one first enjoined (that of paying due reverence to God); it now affords man a day of rest, a cessation from labor.

“It has been considered by a worthy statesman as being productive of social blessings in advancing civilization. When God gave the commandment to our first parents, he gave them his own example in refraining from work. He certainly intended this commandment should be handed down from one generation to another as obligatory. No inference can be justly drawn to show that this was either a local or a temporary command.

“We have an account of time being reckoned by sevens at the time of the deluge, when Noah sent out the dove; and after seven other days, he sent it out the second time. And when Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and received Leah instead, Laban said, ‘Fulfill her week.’

“There was also another clear manifestation of the will of God concerning the observance of the Sabbath during the forty years that the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and were fed by manna rained down from heaven. A double portion fell on the sixth day, and they were commanded by God, through his servant Moses, to gather twice as much on the sixth day; for to-morrow is the Sabbath of the Lord, and it was miraculously preserved. On other days it would not keep; but now it remained good until after the Sabbath. ‘Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no.’ Here is a clear intimation that the law referred to was the fourth commandment; and not only so, but the very fact of their not asking any questions concerning the reason why they should not gather manna on the seventh day proves that it was an institution with which they were acquainted. God himself provided the bread and commanded them to gather it on the sixth day.

“And Moses said, ‘Eat that to-day; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord; to-day ye shall not find it in the field.’ This clearly shows that God required them to devote one-seventh of their time to his service. The Lord showed by his power that he intended to preserve the Sabbath from desecration—first, by giving a double quantity of manna on the sixth day; secondly, by giving none on the Sabbath; and thirdly, by its preservation.

“The decalogue was promulgated by the voice of God in the most manifest tokens of his majesty. These laws were written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, while the Mosaic ritual, or the ceremonial law, was written by Moses in a book, and had no existence after the desired end was accomplished. The former were written on two tables of stone to show their perpetuity.

“While those men would gladly make us believe that they are ministering a soothing balm to our already awakened convictions, and would thereby cast a shadow of doubt over our benighted minds, why will they not on the same ground, and by the same authority, to be consistent, abrogate any one of the others, and reduce the decalogue to nine? Will those men who insist on the abrogation of the fourth commandment insist on the abrogation of the sixth or any one of the others? Now, if they annul the fourth commandment as teaching a Jewish Sabbath, they will have to invalidate the whole decalogue; for there is not a single word in this commandment that is peculiar to the Jews.

“This commandment is introduced with the word ‘remember,’ to show that it was something of which they had some previous knowledge. It may also be used to show its superiority over the others, or may have been used to enforce the obligation of this commandment, which doubtless had been partially disregarded by the children of Israel during their captivity on account of their taskmasters. ‘Ye shall make you no idols nor graven images, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it; for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary.’ ‘Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols; I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them, and hallow my Sabbath.’

“We see in both these quotations the reason assigned why they should obey these injunctions—‘for I am the Lord your God.’ Is the eternal and all-wise God the God of Israel alone? If our opponents take this position, we will not enter into a controversy with them. If he is our God, as he was the God of Israel, we will have to acknowledge the force of this commandment. Instead of this being a Jewish institution, we find that it is the oldest of God’s commandments given to our representatives.

“We find that our Saviour honored the Sabbath by attending the public institutions of worship, and when he was charged with violating the Sabbath day he did not justify his conduct by saying the Sabbath was a temporary observance, or that it would either be abolished or modified. Henry says in his comments on the passage in Matt. 24:20, ‘We never read of Christ expressing any care about any of the ordinances of the Jewish Church, which were purely ceremonial; but how often did he show a concern for the Sabbath.

“Jesus elsewhere says, ‘Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.’ Christ shows by his deference to the law, that it will ever be the same. Could the law of Him ‘with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,’ be otherwise? Our opponents would make us believe that the passage in Matt. 5:27, ‘Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time,’ referred to Moses. This phrase, ‘of old time,’ has reference to days not so ancient as the time of Moses. It was said by their Jewish ancestors and also by their contemporary elders.

“Our Lord said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man.’ Was it for Jewish men only that the Sabbath was made? If the Sabbath was made for man, it must be admitted that the Lord of the Sabbath had some object in view.”

One would suppose, from such reasoning as the above, that the writer must certainly be an observer of the seventh-day Sabbath. But without giving Scripture evidence he goes on to say that the Saviour changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, notwithstanding he has asserted so strongly that the commandment cannot be changed. He knows, too, that the commandment enjoins the seventh day just as strongly as it affirms the existence of the institution. He also knows that according to the New Testament writers, the Sabbath comes each week the day before the first day, commonly called Sunday. See Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1–3; Luke 23:56; 24:1.

Here are two writers of the same denomination, differing widely in their views of fundamental truth, yet arriving at the same conclusion, namely, that the first day of the week is the proper day to be observed for religious rest and worship. One claims that the Sabbath was appointed in Eden; the other affirms that it originated at Sinai. One denies that the day has ever been changed; the other affirms the change. One declares that the Sabbath command has been abolished; the other contends for its perpetuity. We would suggest that these domestic differences be settled by the respective parties in some satisfactory manner, by debate or otherwise; and when a Bible foundation is secured, let each plant his feet firmly upon it, and fearlessly defend the right. J. O. CORLISS.