Why Will They Do It? by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 11, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 43.

Why Will They Do It?

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

LAST week we made the inquiry that if the first day be the Sabbath why then is not the commandment printed so? We believe that every one will agree with us in the answer which we gave, that to print the fourth commandment so that it would read first day instead of seventh day as God wrote it would be wrong. Now we ask in all seriousness, for it is a serious thing. If it would be wrong to print the commandment so as to read first day instead of "seventh day," then how can it be right to teach the commandment as though it read, first day?

With but two exceptions, all professed Christian churches throughout the world teach that the first day of the week is the Sabbath according to the fourth commandment. This too in the very face of the commandment as God wrote it, and as it stands printed in the Bible. In the Sunday-schools, everywhere, and in the Bands of Hope, the fourth commandment is given to the children as a task to be learned. The children are told that that is the word of God; that God wrote it himself, and that it is sin to do contrary to it. The children learn the commandment as God wrote it, and as they find it printed, and that is, "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God;" they recite it so in their classes, very often in concert; and then when any of them innocently ask, as they often do, "Why do we not keep the seventh day," immediately they are told by their teacher that the seventh day is not the Sabbath. We personally know of a Sunday-school concert wherein a part of the exercise was, that the whole school should in concert repeat the fourth commandment. They did it, and did it correctly. Then the minister, a presiding elder he was too, by the way, asked some questions on the commandment, one of which was this: "Which day is the Sabbath?" And in the very words of the Lord and of the commandment, the young voices in concert rang out loud and clear the answer, "The seventh day is the Sabbath." Then the minister said to them, "O no! the first day is the Sabbath." Now we say that such is not fair dealing with the children nor with the word of God. First the children are required to learn that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and then they are required immediately to unlearn it. First they are required to learn that the words of the commandment are the words of God, and then they are required immediately to put away the words of the Lord and accept the words of man instead.

If the seventh day is not the Sabbath of the Lord, then why are the children required both to learn and to unlearn that it is? If the first day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord, then, to learn it, why are the children sent to the commandment that says the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord? Why not teach them at once and directly, that the first day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord? Why not at once point them to the scripture that says, "The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work," and have them learn that? Oh, every one will say, There is no such scripture. True enough. Then why are the poor innocent children taught it, as though it were scripture? It is true that there is no such scripture. It is true that such is not the word of God. It is equally true that such is the word of man; then why not have the children learn it as such? "Oh," it is said, "it would never do to teach the children to accept the word of men instead of the word of God." But that is precisely what is done now. To require them to learn the word of God in the fourth commandment, "The seventh day is the Sabbath," and then require them immediately to put that away and accept the word of man that the first day is the Sabbath, is nothing else than to teach them to accept the word of man instead of the word of God. It is nothing else than to teach them to disobey the commandment of God as he spoke it with his own voice and wrote it with his own hand, and to follow the word of man. And by the inculcation of the idea that the Lord says one thing and means another, the way is opened wide for the introduction of any scheme that the mind of man can invent, and the effect is to destroy the word of God as of authority. To those who are sure that the first day of the week is the Sabbath of the Lord—the rest day of God—again we say, Why do you not print the fourth commandment so that it shall read so? But they and everybody else will say that they dare not do it. Then how dare they teach what they dare not print? J.