Facts Not Theories

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 5, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 52.

Facts Not Theories.

The word of God deals with facts. Its names mean something. God does not call a man a name because such a name is desired by man, but because the name expresses what he is. In the order of divine providence, the second son of Rebekah was called Jacob, and that indicated his character—close, grasping, supplanting; but the man yielded himself to God, and by faith won the victory. His character was changed, and God gave him a new name,—Israel, warrior of God, a conqueror, a prevailer. Men might have called him Israel before that, but it would not have made him such; it would not have changed his character. The name would have been a lie. In the same way God called his Son, Jesus, Saviour. But the unbelieving Jews called him Beelzebub. God's name was truth. But the name given by unbelief could never be truth. God calls the seventh day of the weekly cycle the Sabbath. That is truth. Sabbath is rest, and God rested the seventh day, and no other. Men may call the first day of the week the Sabbath of the Lord, or the Christian Sabbath, but the name expresses a falsehood, and a falsehood it will ever be. Webster may call Sunday the Sabbath, churches may so call it, godly ministers may so call it, but the name is a lie still. Why not adopt God's nomenclature? Why not call the seventh day the Sabbath? He did, and so have all his servants who have spoken by his inbreathing.