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Is It God or Baal?

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 16.

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Is It God or Baal?

By Editor

A CORRESPONDENT of Messiah's Advocate propounds this conundrum: "Why is it that all heathen nations attach so much importance to the day we call Sabbath [Sunday], if it is not the original Sabbath?" It is no doubt expected that this question will end all controversy on the subject, but the answer is simply this: Because they don't. Although Sunday was by the ancient heathen dedicated to Apollo, not as a day of rest, but as a day of licentious hilarity, there is not a heathen nation on earth to-day that pays any attention to it. The Chinese, of whom there are about four hundred million, have no rest day, but work all the time excepting during their New Year festival. And so it is with other heathen nations.
But suppose it were a fact that all heathen nations attach importance to Sunday, what of it? Are we to get our religion from the heathen? If so, let us be consistent. It is a well-known fact that all heathen nations attach a great deal of importance to certain inanimate objects which they call gods. It is for this reason that these nations are called heathen. Now we ask: Why is it that all heathen nations attach so much importance to these inanimate objects, if they are not the original, true God? Will our friends accept such arguments (?) as evidence of the truth of paganism? To be sure the Bible says that there is but one God, just as it says that he has but one day,—"the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord,"—but if men are going to follow the customs of the heathen instead of the commandments of God, let them be consistent.
The fact that professed Christians are forced to put forth such absurd questions as evidence for Sunday observance is sufficient to show the flimsiness of the Sunday cause. Christians would not go to the heathen for authority for any practice, if a shadow of authority for it could be found in the Bible. Again we say, if men are going to follow the heathen in one part of religion, let them follow them in all. "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."