The Sabbath Not a Feast Day.
By M. E. Kellogg
It is claimed by some that the weekly Sabbath is classed with the feast days of the Jews in Lev. 23, and that as all feast days were abolished at the cross (Col. 2:16), the weekly Sabbath was abolished with the rest. Those who hold this view must read Lev. 23 with very little thought, or else they are so wedded to a theory that they can only see one thing at a time. As God has given man but one weekly Sabbath, it follows that if that Sabbath were done away at the cross there has been no Sabbath since; yet the disciples of Jesus kept the Sabbath after the crucifixion, according to the commandment (Luke 23:56), which plainly implies a Sabbath to keep, and a commandment to enforce it; and again in the book of Acts, Luke refers often and familiarly to the Sabbath as an existing institution, and speaks of Jews and Gentiles alike, worshiping on that day. Acts 13:42-44. The revelator, writing about the year A. D. 96, says that he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” Rev. 1:10. Then there was a day as late as A. D. 96 that the Lord claimed as his. From this point, Sunday advocates are always very anxious to make a great spring forward, landing somewhere in the third century, and in that country where the mystery of iniquity was specially working for the establishment of the Romish Church. Here they claim to find evidence that the Lord’s day of Rev. 1:10, and the first day of the week are the same. But it is as difficult to find any connection between the Lord’s day of Rev. 1:10 and the “venerable day of the sun,” of the heathen Emperor Constantine, as it is to find the missing link between the human form divine and the monkey of the African table-lands! But we would suggest that it is because they are looking in the wrong direction. If a link is wanted for the Lord’s day of which John speaks, should it not be sought for in the word of God, rather than in the dark and misty ages of early apostasy? God himself declared from Sinai, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” While within sixty-five years of the time when the Revelation was written, Christ, speaking of the seventh day of the commandment, said, “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” The Saviour also gave (Mark 2:28; Matt. 24:26) directions for the observance of the Sabbath at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, only twenty-six years before John had his vision upon the “Lord’s day.” These facts show that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment and the Lord’s day of Rev. 1:10 are the same; and that the Sabbath of the Lord and the Sabbath of Christ and his apostles has not been abolished, but is still binding upon all mankind. The Sabbath then must be distinct from the feast days which were abolished at the cross, and instead of being classed with those days in Lev. 23, it is plainly separated from them, as we shall readily see upon a careful examination of that chapter. Some try to make much of the opening verses of this chapter: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.” Lev. 23:2, 3. Here, say they, the weekly Sabbath stands at the head of the list of the Jewish feast days. Now if, in speaking of the weekly Sabbath, the Lord had not used different terms from those he used in reference to the feast days, and were it not for verses 4, 38, and 44, there might be some reason for their claim; but allowing these texts to have their proper bearing, that claim is entirely inadmissible. The great theme of the chapter is the “feasts of the Lord,” and it seems very proper that the weekly Sabbath should be mentioned first and pointed out as a day distinct and separate from the feast days. Mark, the Lord does not say of the weekly Sabbath, it is a feast of the Lord, as he does of the others, but, “it is the Sabbath of the Lord.” Having now introduced the Sabbath and given it its proper place as the “Sabbath of the Lord,” he now takes up his main subject again. “These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations.” Verse 4. Here, then, in verse 4, we have the real beginning of the “feasts of the Lord,” and the weekly Sabbath expressly excluded. If the weekly Sabbath is included in the “feasts of the Lord,” why was verse 4 of Lev. 23 ever written? What can be plainer than that that verse was written to distinguish between the “Sabbath of the Lord” and the “feasts of the Lord”? Following verse 4, we have a description of these feasts, the passover, the pentecost, the day of atonement, and the feast of the ingathering. But the Lord again makes a distinction between the “feasts of the Lord” and the successive weekly rest days. “These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, everything upon his day, beside the Sabbaths of the Lord.” Lev. 23:37, 38. It is very plain that these excepted “Sabbaths of the Lord,” of verse 38, are the same as the “Sabbath of the Lord,” of verse 3. Now I will notice verse 44. “And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.” It is a fact that cannot be disputed that God spoke the ten commandments with his own voice from the burning mount. “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.” Deut. 5:22. Occupying a prominent place in this God-given law, is the weekly Sabbath of rest, pointing back to the creation of the heavens and the earth. God proclaimed this law through no medium, but directly to the people. His voice was heard saying, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” But how about the “feasts of the Lord,” were they thus honored? “And Moses,” not God, “declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.” These feasts were typical, all pointing to some event in the future, the passover, to “Christ our passover,” the day of atonement, to the final Judgment; the feast of tabernacles, to the gathering of God’s children into the new earth. These days are called sabbaths as well as feast days (Lev. 23:39), and so the apostle speaks of them as “the sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come.” Col. 2:16, 17. But the “Sabbath of the Lord” points the other way, back to the time when God “laid the foundations of the earth,” and, as we have already shown, was recognized and honored by the disciples of the Lord, years after the “feasts of the Lord” were numbered among the things of the past.