THREE SABBATHS by H. A. St. John

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 19.

THREE SABBATHS.

By H. A. St. John

Which One Do You Observe?

BY ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.

1. THE LORD'S SABBATH.—This is the seventh day of the week, made and enjoined by the Creator in the beginning of our world. It is set forth in the Holy Scriptures as the seal, mark, token, or sign of the living God, who created all things in six days, rested on the seventh day, and then blessed and hallowed the day of his rest, and commanded that it ever after be religiously observed "holy unto the Lord." The moral principle involved in the proper observance of the Sabbath had to be violated by our first parents in order to the moral fall from the favor of God. Listening to the voice of the serpent, and then obeying that voice, in presumptuous disobedience to God, was certainly doing violence to the moral principle in the great Sabbath law, which requires supreme and unswerving reverence and obedience to God.

All atheism, infidelity, disloyalty, rebellion, or sin has its root here, and is, consequently, a violation of God's great Sabbath law. Hence it is that the Sabbath is never truly obeyed in its purity until all unbelief and sin are rooted out of the heart.

The Sabbath is also called the "Lord's day" (Rev. 1:10), for the obvious reason that the Lord Jesus, our Redeemer, is also the Creator. "All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." Hence it was Christ that made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all things therein, in six days; it was Christ that rested upon the seventh day; it was Christ that blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it; and it was Christ who commanded that we "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." When we recognize this great truth, we are not surprised to hear Jesus put forth the claim that he was "Lord of the Sabbath day." Mark 2:27, 28. As Christ made all things, and as the Sabbath was among the all things made for man, it follows incontrovertibly that Christ made the Sabbath, and hence he uttered but a grand and simple truth when he claimed to be its Lord. As God made all things by or through his Son, it follows that the seventh-day Sabbath is conjointly the Sabbath of the Father and the Son. There is no chance for evading this clearly revealed truth.

Then the Sabbath day is Christ's Sabbath; he was its Lord, and perfectly understood its intention and obligation. While here in the flesh he lived our example, and hence his manner of observing the Sabbath was in the most exact accord with its literal and spiritual intent. It was his custom to attend divine worship in the house of God on the Sabbath day. Luke 4:16. He was accustomed also to do good to the bodies and souls of men on the Sabbath day, as witness his miracles of healing on the Sabbath.

According to the notion of the Jews, Jesus did not keep the Sabbath at all. They accused him of being a Sabbath breaker, said he was not of God because he did not keep the Sabbath, and for this reason they hated him and went about to kill him, and never rested until they did kill him, and that, too, as they said, for the salvation of their place and nation.

But Christ's idea of Sabbath keeping was the true idea, the divine idea. All he did, as he himself declared, was in the most perfect accord with the divine law; it was "lawful." Hence it follows that the Jewish idea of Sabbath keeping was contrary to the divine law. Indeed, so far as their leaders were concerned, in the days of Christ their ideas of the Sabbath and its proper observance were Satanic, as they were thereby led to the rejection, persecution, and crucifixion of the Son of God, the Lord of the Sabbath. And instead of being to the salvation of their place and nation, as they said, it resulted in the utter and everlasting destruction of their place and nation.

2. THE JEWISH SABBATH.—It is true that the Holy Scriptures do not recognize such an institution as a Jewish Sabbath by name, nevertheless they do recognize the existence of such an institution in the days of Christ. It is apparent from the New Testament that the time or day of Sabbath observance by the Jews was identical with that of the divine law. It was the seventh day of the week, and in this particular the Jewish Sabbath and the Lord's Sabbath were identical, but when this is said, about all is said that can be said as to their identity. Jesus was the heaven ordained and divinely authorized exponent, both in precept and example, of the Lord's Sabbath, and so contrary were his teaching and practice on the Sabbath question to those of the Jews upon the same subject that they were directly antagonistic. Jewish Sabbath observance forbade the walking upon green grass, separating the chaff from even a single kernel of barley or other grain, even to satisfy hunger, carrying a pail of water to a thirsty animal, healing the sick, and numerous other rigorous, burdensome, and superstitious prohibitions and requisitions, all of which were in the fullest harmony with the Lord's Sabbath, as exemplified by the Lord Jesus Christ, its author.

The Sabbath of the Jews, as exacted by the ancient Pharisees, was a Satan-inspired, man-made institution; and its most ardent and zealous observers and defenders were the bitter persecutors of the Son of God, who was the most ardent and zealous observer and defender of the true Sabbath of the Lord our God. Ever since the days of wicked Cain and righteous Abel, as revealed in history, both sacred and profane, the abettors of fraudulent, man-made religious institutions are persecutors. True religion never persecutes; false religions, as if conscious of a lack of divine origin and support, always seek the support of civil governments or human power, and then persecute true religion.

Once we denied the existence of a Jewish Sabbath, but upon a reconsideration of the subject we have come to believe that there existed such an institution, and perhaps still exists, in part at least. In the four Gospels it is easily discovered, and, indeed, was so prominent that our Saviour came in contact with it at almost every turn. The Jews took counsel of the Herodians, a religio-political sect who had influence in the Roman Government, to decide how they might put Jesus to death, and their hatred was caused mainly by the teachings and practice of Jesus in antagonizing their man-made, straight-laced, and oppressive Sabbath-keeping ideas. That persecution culminated in the crucifixion of Christ and the final downfall of the Jewish nation.

3. THE PAPAL SABBATH.—This institution differs from the Bible Sabbath, the Lord's Sabbath, in every particular. It is another day, observed in a different manner, and for different reasons. It is called by the papists and many others the "Christian sabbath." This title only needs the small prefix of anti to make it exactly correct. It is the antichristian Sabbath.

It is the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday. Its name, Sunday, is derived from the pagans, as it is the day anciently dedicated by the heathen to the worship of the sun. Hence its name, Sunday, or sun's day. The papists, according to their own confession, set aside the true Sabbath of the Bible, the Lord's Sabbath, and substituted this man-made sabbath in its stead. It has no higher authority than the Catholic Church, it is a tradition which makes void the commandment of God. It is set forth by the Papacy as the sign or mark of their power. And, strange to say, many Protestants allow this by keeping Sunday strictly. And, what is more, and worse still, they are becoming incensed against the Lord's Sabbath and its faithful observers. The apostate church once endeavored to compel all to keep Sunday, and at the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 364, they anathematized those who kept the true Bible Sabbath. Apostate Protestantism now becomes the strongest abettor of this papal idea of the Sabbath. Like the ancient Jews who sought the counsel of the religio-political Herodians, these professed Protestants will seek the counsel and support of the religio-political Church of Rome in their efforts at Sunday exaltation. And the Catholic Church has already expressed a willingness to coöperate with them in the promotion of Sunday observance. And why not, since it is their own institution and the mark of their power? History is repeating itself. It is the old story of a fraudulent and counterfeit sabbath making war upon the true. Already true Sabbath reformers, observers of the Lord's Sabbath according to the Bible idea, are being denominated the "greatest debauchers of the public conscience on the Sabbath question;" they are called rebellious and traitors, and all this, too, by professed religionists in high places.

The last conflict between truth and error is on,—the true Bible Sabbath, the sign or mark of the power of God, and a "little flock" on the one side, and the papal sabbath, the sign or mark of the power of the Papacy, and a popular host on the other side. The weapons of warfare by this host of false reformers

will be carnal. They will appeal to civil governments, and clamor for civil laws with severe penalties, and when they get them, it will be fines, confiscation of property, imprisonment, chain gang, banishment, and death to the transgressors,—and all in the name of religion, all the while claiming that it is necessary for the salvation of their place and nation. It will be the final rejection of Christ and the divine law of the Sabbath, and just the very thing that will result in the everlasting downfall of every nation under heaven.

The other side, the last remnant of true reformers, will use only spiritual weapons of warfare. Only such can a true Christian use. They will present the claims of the plain law of God and gospel of Jesus Christ in demonstration of the Spirit, and with power. They will teach, exhort, entreat, beseech, persuade, and there stop, leaving to every individual the most perfect liberty to choose whom he will serve. The weapons of their warfare are mighty through God, and in the name of the Captain of their salvation they will ultimately triumph, and, with psalms of victory and harps of gold, they will sing the everlasting song of triumph on the sea of glass in the presence of Jesus, their Almighty Deliverer and Redeemer. Ever may we share the trials, conflicts, persecutions, and labors of the remnant, that with them we may share the glory which is only a little farther on.