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“UNDER THE LAW” AND THE SABBATH

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 30, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 26.

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“UNDER THE LAW” AND THE SABBATH.

WHAT A “STANDARD” SAYS.

Two copies of the Gospel Standard, of Weatherford, Texas, bearing date of February 7 and 14 respectively, have been sent us, asking us to notice two articles on the Sabbath question, by the editor, H. A. Thompson. There is little worthy of notice. We say it in all kindness; but we do not remember of having seen for years as much poor spelling, poor grammar, poor proof reading, poor argument, combined with so much ignorance, as is manifest in the article of February 7. We are sorry our Baptist brethren have not a better representative. Yet, on reflection, his argument is worthy of the Sunday cause. He quotes and misquotes. His references are so often wrong that we do not know to what he refers. We will notice a few points, however, not particularly because the Standard uses them, but because they are stock “arguments” against the Sabbath of the Lord everywhere. This sermon (for he preaches it) was published, he says—
most especially for those who have heard the advents in the promulgation of the Old Jewish sabath.
Our quotations in every instance are just as we find them verbatim et literatem. Now this editor ought to have known that there are no people by the name “advents,” with either a little or big initial. “Advent” means coming. There are Adventists, but we know of none, Seventh-day or otherwise, who promulgate the “Old Jewish sabath.” It is not a term known to Scripture. The editor lays down what he calls “premises,” as follows:—
  1. If the law has not been abolished, then christians are under the law.
  2. If the law is still in force, then Christians are bound to keep the whole law.
  3. If christians are under the law, they must be justified or condemned by the lay [law?].
  4. If christians are under the law then the promise [which was to be by faith] is become of none effect.
We have given the above to show the difficulties into which advents with all others who flee to the law for justification and reject salvation by grace.
Would that our opponents could realize that the difficulties in the law of God are those created by the carnal heart; for “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. This was written about thirty years after the crucifixion. But we reply briefly, for the benefit of those desiring the truth.
  1. God’s moral law of ten commandments is not abolished, nor can it be, any more than the righteousness or character of God can be, for that law is the expression of his character. See Ps. 119:172; Isa. 51:6, 7; Matt. 5:17–20; Rom. 3:31; James 2:8–12; Rom. 7:7.
  2. Christ kept the law. John 15:10; Luke 4:16; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:4. Sin is the transgression of that law, and Christ did no sin.
  3. Christ is our example. See 1 John 2:6; 1 Peter 2:21, 22; John 14:15; 1 John 5:3.
  4. The law has not been abolished, and only those who are transgressing the law are under the law, or under its condemnation; for that is what the expression means in Gal. 3:22 and Rom. 6:14.
  5. But those whom grace has made free from sin (Eph. 2:8) are by that righteousness which grace bestows through faith (Rom. 3:22; 5:1) made free from the condemnation of the law, and the living present law witnesses to their righteousness and freedom (Rom. 3:20, 21).
  6. The same grace which gives the sinner freedom from sin, which justifies him from condemnation, or, in other words, which takes him out from under the law so that he is no longer a bond servant of sin (Rom. 6:17, 18) but a servant of righteousness,—that same grace will enable him to stand fast in that liberty (Gal. 5:1) by obedience to the law of God (Rom. 8:4). If grace does not save man from sinning, Christ died in vain, for man is the servant of him whom he obeys. If he is at liberty to transgress the law, while claiming justification through Christ, he makes Christ “the minister of sin.”
  7. By the law man cannot be justified; man cannot, on account of his sinfulness, obtain righteousness in the law; but he obtains it by faith in the gospel (Rom. 1:16, 17); and the power of the gospel, which is the power of God, then works in the man to do God’s will (Phil. 2:13); and God’s will is his holy law, which Christ kept (Ps. 40:7, 8). But the justifying grace, the obedient grace, is all of God. Man obeys, not to become righteous, but because God through faith has made him righteous, and “he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.” 1 John 3:7.
  8. But the promise is of effect to everyone under the law who will believe the promise. What the scripture says is that “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” The man who turns from the faith and power of the gospel to his own works, either for justification of past sins or for present obedience, makes of no effect Christ’s work. But that is not the man who truly honors the law and its Giver, Christ, but he who honors self, and self-works. No Christian flies to the law for justification. No Christian who is justified hates it. See Ps. 119:97; 1 John 5:5.
The editor of the Gospel Standard says again:—
In the first place we will consider the Jewish sabaths. We put it in the plural number because we are prepared to show that there is more than one sabath.
  1. The seventh day sabath.—Ex. 12:1.
  2. The seventh year sabath. Ex. 23:10.
  3. The fiftieth year sabath. Lev. 25:8.
These all sprang from the seventh day sabath, and they were enjoined upon the Jews, and they suffered the consequences if they violated the sabath law, in any of it branches.
We give references as found. There were more sabbaths than this; there were several yearly sabbaths. See Leviticus 23, where these sabbaths and days, coming only once a year, were enumerated, “besides the sabbaths of the Lord” (verse 38), the seventh day of each week. All these yearly sabbaths were typical and shadowy, pointing forward to Christ and his ministry, and when he died they ceased. See Col. 2:14-17. But the seventh-day Sabbath antedated sin, is not typical, but, like the rest of the moral law, eternal in its nature. See Ps. 111:7, 8; Isa. 66:22, 23.
The Standard, like many others, seems to have a special antipathy against the Sabbath, because it was kept by the Jews. After misquoting Ex. 20:8-11 and Deut. 5:15, it says:
From the conclusion that this sabath was strictly for the Jews there is no escape. When a man places himself under this sabath law, if he is not a Jew, and his ancestors, delivered from Egyptian bondage, he is practicing an imposition upon the people, and according to Gods word he is a liar, and not only so but he lies on God, for he testifies by keeping this sabath that he is an Israelite and that God delivered his people from a bondage which a gentile has never endured, do advents keep the Jewish sabath as a sign between God and them that he brought them up out of Egypt? The penalty of the law. See Ex. 31:12-15 and 35:1-3. Numbers 15:32-36. You will find that the penalty was death, if that death was the penalty then, it is the penalty law [now? S. or T.]. For when the penalty is detached from a law, it ceases to be a law.
Then if we keep this law we must put to death every one who violates it, this is a logical conclusion and Advents cannot evade its force.
God told the Israelites to be honest, just, and generous, because he brought them out of Egypt. See Lev. 19:35-37; Deut. 24:19-22. Does that mean that we cannot now be just, generous, honest, without being considered a liar or a Jew? Must we not conclude that if the Standard is consistent it is neither honest nor just? And, again, other commands of the Decalogue, like the second, third, and seventh, were punished with death, in the Jewish government; but they are not now. Does Mr. Thompson mean to say that he believes in executing the death penalty for idolatry, blasphemy, and adultery? Or does he absolutely reject them and refuse to obey them? The wages of all sin is death; the execution of punishment belongs to God.
The only hope of salvation is to become an Israelite by faith. See Rom. 2:28, 29; 9:1-8; Eph. 2:11-13, 19, 20; Isa. 56:1-8. If we reject the Sabbath because it came to us from the Jews, we will reject every word of the Bible. The prophets were Jews, Jesus was a Jew, the apostles and New Testament writers were all Jews, and Jesus says, “Salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22. The Decalogue came to us through them, and He who releases us from its condemnation and enables us to love and obey it, came also through the same channel. He who rejects one rejects both. He who accepts of Christ will honor the law which Christ honored.