"WHAT IS THE CHAFF TO THE WHEAT?"
By M. C. W.
How much less evidence satisfies people when it is in harmony with their desires. The little becomes in their eyes great; the far-fetched inference becomes positively and absolutely conclusive. In fact, they want it so, and are bound to have it so, whether it is truth or not. With no subject is this better illustrated than that of the Sabbath. We have been requested to answer a number of objections against the seventh-day Sabbath, some of which are as follows:— It is affirmed with great boldness (or bravado), that "the Sabbath was as exclusively for the Jews as circumcision was, and for the Jews alone;" that "the Sabbath was to Israel a memorial that they were once slaves in Egypt; that the first day assures us that the release has come; that the Sabbath looked back from an evil incident to the old creation; that the Lord's day [first day] looks forward with an eye beaming with hope; that the Sabbath was a shadow of good things to come." Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:15; Eze. 20:12; Ex. 31:16, 17; Col. 2:16, 17. Let us examine these positive statements:— 1. Not once in all the Bible is the Sabbath called Jewish; nor is it once said to belong to the Jews. It is, however, called "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," and this Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. Ex. 20:8-11. Circumcision was not exclusively for the Jews. Ishmael was circumcised as well as Isaac; and Esau, doubtless, as well as Jacob. Some Eastern nations still practice it. As a religious rite it was held by the Jews. But when Christ came, circumcision became nothing, as is expressed by Paul: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God" is something (1 Cor. 7:19), is the ellipsis necessary to supply the text. But where is it once said that the Sabbath of the Lord is nothing?—Not in the Bible. 2. The Sabbath is not a memorial of Israel's deliverance from Egypt. Deut. 5:15 presents an additional reason, an appeal to Israel's gratitude, as to why Israel ought to keep the Sabbath. They must remember that while slaves in Egypt they had not the privilege of keeping God's rest-day. Now the privilege was granted, they ought to be doubly grateful and careful to obey. The "therefore" used in Deut. 5:15 does not imply that the seventh day was given to commemorate deliverance from Egypt any more than the "therefore" of Deut. 24:19-22 means that the only obligation resting upon Israel to be kind to the stranger and widow was the fact that God delivered them from Egypt; or any more than the "therefore" of Lev. 19:35-37 means that the obligation to do justice was given to Israel alone, as a memorial of the release from Egypt. But it is the duty of everyone—Jew and Gentile—to be kind to the poor and stranger, and to "do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight, or in measure," whether delivered from Egypt or not. It is just as true as regards the Sabbath. Deut. 5:15 is an additional appeal on the basis of gratitude for Israel to always observe the Sabbath, even as Lev. 19:35-37 and Deut. 24:19-22 are appeals on the same basis for justice and mercy. If, for the reason set forth in Deut. 5:15, it is not the Gentiles' duty to keep the Lord's Sabbath, then, for the reasons set forth in these other texts, Gentiles ought never to pity the widow and stranger, or to do justice in weight and measure. The objection shows how little evidence will satisfy when men desire it so. But the evidence in this case is perverted truth, and perverted truth is error. "What is the chaff to the wheat?" The Sabbath is a memorial of creation. "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11. The Sabbath is that which points out the true God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. God has made his wonderful works to be remembered (Ps. 111:4), and the memorial of these works is his holy Sabbath, so plainly stated in the commandment above. This memorial was not temporary, but for all time. "Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations." Ps. 135:13. Again: The Sabbath is based on facts much broader than any temporal deliverance. It is a memorial of creation, that which concerns all men in all parts of the earth. Just so long as men will exist, just so long God's memorial will be obligatory upon them. And this extent of the obligation is shown in the words of our Saviour: "The Sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27), that is, for the race. 4. "The first day assures us that release has come." Release from what? It is just stated that the Sabbath is a release from bondage; what more is necessary? But the facts are that the Paschal feast was the great memorial of release from Egypt, and it was also typical of the greater deliverance from sin through the sacrifice of "Christ our Passover." 1 Cor. 5:7. The first day assures us of nothing any more than any other of the "six working days," only as it is read into it through a perverted theology and an uninstructed mind. How confidently men assume to teach what God has never revealed. All these beautiful things about the first day would be of such worth if they did not lack the one thing needful,—truth. They are wholly assumed. Men talk as though the all-wise God ought to have said certain things about that first day, and they will say it for him. God knew best what to say. Was the seventh day holy?—God has revealed it in a marked manner by a foundation and precept as broad as creation. Is the first day holy?—God could have revealed that, but he did not. Shall we, therefore, assume that he ought to have revealed what he has not? "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?" It is bad enough to corrupt the word of God, but it is worse to speak in his name, where he has not spoken, and to speak contrary to what he has spoken. 5. Eze. 20:12, 20, and Ex. 31:16, 17 declares that the Sabbath is a sign between God and the children of Israel forever, and that they should keep it throughout their generations. Upon this we remark: (1) Because God gave Israel the Sabbath, and commanded them to keep it, is no evidence that it is not obligatory upon others. God gave them (the Jews) the other nine commandments. Were and are these precepts less obligatory upon us who are Gentiles by birth? He gave them the knowledge of his will, his goodness, his mercy. Is not this knowledge for us? He calls himself the God of Israel. "Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also." Rom. 3:29. Of the Israelites, Paul says (Rom. 9:4, 5):— "To whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants [new as well as old], and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises: whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen." And, Amen, so let it be, say we; can our objectors say, Amen? The Sabbath was given to the Jews with the other nine moral precepts, in order that they might be indeed a "kingdom of priests," teachers of the world. See Isaiah 56, where such precious promises are given to Gentiles who will accept of these truths, which so many delight to tell us were exclusively Jewish. "The Sabbath was made for man," and "salvation is of the Jews," are the words of Christ. (2) The true Israel of God are those who lay hold upon God by prevailing faith. (See the true origin of the name in Gen. 32:24-30.) So the Sabbath will ever be a true sign between God and his people—the true children of Israel. Eze. 20:12, 20. 6. Col. 2:16, 17 refers to the annual ceremonial sabbaths peculiar to the Levitical dispensation, of which there were seven (some say ten), all being a part of the "shadow of things to come," of which Christ was the body. For instance, the Passover (Lev. 23:5) referred to the crucifixion of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7); the offering of the wave sheaf (Lev. 23:10) typified the resurrection of Christ (Matt. 28:1; 1 Cor. 15:20); and the offering of first-fruits, fifty days later (Lev. 23:17), typified the Pentecost, when the first-fruits of the new dispensation were gathered. Acts 2:1. And so with all of these annual sabbaths. They were all connected with the shadow. But not so with the seventh-day weekly Sabbath. In it was nothing typical. It was instituted before types were necessary, before man had sinned. It ever points backward to the creation. It is a memorial, not a type. Where the annual sabbaths are referred to in Leviticus 23, especial pains is taken to distinguish between these and the weekly Sabbath. "These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations; . . . besides the Sabbaths of the Lord." Verses 37, 38. So when these were abolished, Inspiration was careful to distinguish lest man should misunderstand. The sabbaths and feast days, concerning which no man is to judge us, "are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Nothing could make it clearer to a candid, honest, unprejudiced investigator after truth. The reception of truth depends on the condition of the heart. If men love God, they will love his truth. If they are of God, they will heed the words of God. John 8:47. If the heart loves sin and transgression, it will be satisfied with unlawful inference as evidence, in order that it may disregard a plain, "Thus saith the Lord." When God spoke his law with his own voice, wrote it with his own finger on tables of stone, "added no more," indicating its completeness, declared it "perfect;" when Jesus says that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one little even of the law to fail, we do not see how man's duty with reference to every precept could be made clearer. In a letter before us is stated: "No two days are more unlike than the Sabbath and first day. One is the end of the old creation, the other the beginning of the new." The latter sentence is pure assumption. God has revealed nothing concerning it. It is only a little human opinion arrogantly set up against the great, clear facts of Divine Revelation. The first sentence is literally true. Upon no day, upon no institution, has God placed such honor as on the seventh-day Sabbath. From the primal rest, blessing and setting apart of the day (Gen. 2:2, 3), from the threefold weekly miracle663for forty years (Exodus 16), from its proclamation from heaven by the voice of Deity (Ex. 20:8-11), from the many utterances of inspired writers concerning its holiness, from the claim of the Son of God that he was its Lord (Mark 2:28), from the death of the Prince of Life in honor of the law of God, to that prophetic age which knows no end, when and where the redeemed will worship God from week to week, upon his holy day (Isa. 66:22, 23), the voice of Inspiration is the same, that the seventh-day Sabbath is holy unto the Lord. But of the first day there is not a single utterance that it is exalted above its fellows of "the six working days." What are its claims compared with those of the Sabbath? "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." M. C. W.