3198.—The Sabbath and the Jews
By Editor
A preacher declares that the seventh-day Sabbath can not be binding on any one now except the Jews in their own land, as the sun does not set at the same time in all places. Are we dependent on the sun for the days, or is the light independent of that? M. L. B. The day is ruled by the sun. This is emphatically stated in Gen. 1:16, the greater light, the sun, to rule the day. This is also indicated in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where it is clearly shown that the Sabbath closed with the setting of the sun. See Matt. 8:16; Mark 1:32; Luke 4:40. Evening came with the setting of the sun, and the day begins at evening. The Sabbath therefore begins at any place when the sun sets in that place; not when it sets in some other place. During the time when the Bible was written, when no one denies that it was the duty of the Jews to observe the Sabbath, the Jews were scattered all the way from Babylon on the east to Rome, Italy, or Spain on the west, a difference of more than forty-five degrees longitude, or three hours of time. Daniel could keep the Sabbath in Babylon just as well as Paul could keep it in Rome. No one questions this. If they could keep it with one hour's difference of time, they could keep it with three hours' difference of time, or twenty-four hours' difference of time, if duty called them so to do. The whole trouble will resolve before the simple fact that God does not ask any one to keep the Sabbath in two different places at one time. We are all so constituted that we can occupy only one place at one time. If we are here we are not in Palestine; if we are in Palestine we are not here. We are not to keep the Sabbath as it comes to Palestine while here, nor are we to keep the Sabbath as it comes here while we are in Palestine. Wherever the Jews were scattered, they kept the Sabbath if they were loyal to God. They do the same thing still,—keep that day, scattered as they are all over the face of the earth. Surely Christians can do the same thing. The Sabbath was not made for the Jews alone. It is nowhere called in the Bible the Jewish Sabbath. It is said to be the Lord's holy day, "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." It is given as a memorial of creation. As creation pertains to every soul which lives upon the earth, every soul is under obligation to keep God's memorial of creation. More than this. The only promises there are of salvation are to the Jews, to Israel through Christ. Christ the Jew declares that salvation is of the Jews. Paul tells us that the true Jew is not the Jew outwardly, but one who is circumcised in heart. Consequently the Sabbath is for all the Israel of God; and only the Israel of God, the truly converted in Christ Jesus, can keep it, for the Sabbath is a holy day, and only a holy man can keep a holy day. No Gentile, unless converted, could keep God's holy Sabbath; and just as soon as a Gentile is truly converted he is by that very fact one of the Israel of God. See Eph. 2:11-20. To the Gentiles as such there is not a promise in God's Word. The promises come only as they take hold of the Lord's covenant.