THE SABBATH OF THE LORD.
By M. C. Wilcox
It would be interesting indeed to trace the Sabbath of the Lord throughout the Christian dispensation, but to the true Protestant this is not necessary. The Bible and the Bible alone is the rule of faith. It has been shown that neither Christ nor his apostles changed the day or hinted at such a change. The law of God, of which the Sabbath law was a part, was confirmed by their teaching and example in every jot and tittle. The same seventh day, the creation Sabbath, was the Sabbath of Christ and his apostles. This is easily proved beyond a doubt; for— 1. Whether time was lost or not during the Patriarchal dispensation does not matter. By the weekly miracles of the manna for forty years, Divinity marks the Sabbath-day so that it cannot be mistaken. It is the rest-day of Jehovah still, the seventh day of the primeval week in its regular succession. Ex. 16:23, 26-30; 20:8-11. 2. Time may have been lost during the Levitical dispensation, but if it was, it is set right by the Lord of the Sabbath. Matt. 12:1-12. And the holy women who followed Christ "kept the Sabbath-day according to the commandment." Luke 23:56. The commandment points to the primitive seventh day. Therefore the only Sabbath recognized by Christ and his apostles was the original seventh day in direct succession. 3. But it is not possible that time was lost prior to the crucifixion, and it is not possible that it has been since. It is a very rare thing for one family to lose the correct reckoning of the days; a town or village was never known to; how much less not simply a whole nation, but many nations. But all the nations agree. Those who hold Sunday, pagan and Christian, hold it as the first day of the week. The Jews scattered all over the world, among all nations, are all agreed as to the day. Ptolemy's canon, based on eclipses dating as far back as 500 B. C., proves that no time has been lost. More than twenty eclipses occurring and recorded B. C. agree with modern calculation. The seventh day of our week was the seventh day of the creation week, of the Sinaitic week, of the crucifixion week, as proved by Inspiration and indubitable facts. But soon after the crucifixion, the purity of the Pentecostal church became sullied. Even in the days of the apostles the leaven of iniquity, which was to leaven the whole body, began to work. Says the apostle Paul in speaking of this apostasy:— "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." Acts 20:29, 30. "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth [hindereth] will let [hinder], until he be taken out of the way." 2 Thess. 2:7. "For the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Tim. 4:3, 4. Other texts might be quoted, but these are sufficient to show the departure from the faith. They should turn from the truth. But God's word is the truth; his law is the truth. John 17:17; Ps. 119:142. Then in turning from the truth, men would turn, through these false teachers, away from the184word of God, away from the law of God, to that which was opposite. The great antichristian power, Paul tells us, was to arise in the very church, or temple, of God itself. He was to oppose God, and exalt himself above God. He could do this only by opposing his laws to God's laws, and exalting his laws above God's laws. And this is just what Daniel said:— "And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time." Dan. 7:25, Revised Version. This is true of but one power, and that is the Papacy. This is what that power has done with reference to the fourth commandment of God's holy law, the only part of that law which refers to time. It has thought to change the sacred rest from the seventh to the first day, and, likewise, changed the beginning of the day from sunset—a most natural time—to midnight—a most unnatural beginning. Thus that power has changed the time of the Sabbath, and in so doing has changed the law of God. Sunday came in with prayers for the dead, sign of the cross, and other heathen superstitions. The first writer who mentions Sunday by the title of the Lord's day is Tertullian, who wrote about 200 A. D., and who classes it with these things. The first law for Sunday observance of which we have any record was given by the heathen emperor Constantine. To that law, bishops, popes, and councils added their decrees, pronouncing blessings and absolutions upon those who obeyed, and curses upon those who kept the Sabbath of the Lord. It was not until more than 1,000 years after Christ that Sunday was known by the title of the Sabbath, or Christian Sabbath. All the sacredness attaching to the day was born of the Dark Ages. On the other hand, the Sabbath was kept by the majority of professed Christians for from two to three hundred years after Christ. In 364, the Council of Laodicea pronounced a curse upon those who kept it. And so the corrupt church cursed and persecuted till nearly every Sabbath-keeper was extinct, all of which history proves. The Sunday was made a feast-day and Sabbath a fast-day, till it became wearisome to those whose "god was their belly," and its observance was left to those who perished in the mountains, or suffered cruel tortures and death at the hand of Rome. The Bible was taken from the people. Romish priests would not go into the kingdom themselves, and those who desired to enter by the way of truth, were hindered. The Reformers saw not all things clearly, but they opened the way of truth. They gave the Bible to the people. In fact, the sixteenth century was not God's time to restore his down-trodden Sabbath. The time of Papal supremacy foretold by Daniel and John ended at the close of the eighteenth century. At this time many were to run to and fro in the word of truth, and knowledge should be increased. Dan. 12:4. Messages of warning and reform were to be given to the world to prepare men for the coming of Christ the second time. Predictions of these messages, world-wide in their application, are found in Joel 2 and 3; Zeph. 1:14-18; 2:1-3; and Rev. 14:6-14, and many other passages. These scriptures point out the condition of the professed church; that because of the abounding iniquity, the love of the many has waxed cold (Matt. 24:12); that all the sins of the carnal heart exist among them, and though they have the form of godliness, they deny the power (2 Tim. 3:1-5). The church is termed Babylon (confusion), indicating the confusion existing among them. Rev. 14:8. And nowhere is the confusion more manifest than in the defense of the first-day Sabbath. Scarcely any two men can be found who will present arguments that are not mutually destructive each of the other's theory. And it is not uncommon to find men presenting in the same discourse arguments flatly contradictory. Of course the reason is that Sunday is not a Bible institution. It is tradition which has made void the word of God. It is directly opposed to the truth and law of God. All this is recognized by these reform messages. Rev. 14:6, 7 reads:— "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come; and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." But this article is already long enough. The further consideration of this message of God will be continued in the next issue. M. C. W.