THE SABBATH QUESTION AND THE "CHRISTIAN" POSITION.
By Editor
WE wish to notice some of the things said by Prof. S. M. Martin on the Sabbath question, as intimated last week, not because he said it, but because he said it as a representative man of the religious denomination known as "Christians," or "Disciples," or sometimes as "Campbellites," from Alexander Campbell, their founder. Mr. Martin is one of their best known and faithfully advertised evangelists, and is an entertaining and forcible speaker. His argument on the Sabbath question is one often put forth by that denomination, revamped to some extent by D. M. Canright. We will notice some of Mr. Martin's most forcible arguments. We quote from a stenographic report of his sermon:— 1. The Sabbath before the Exodus.
If anybody ever kept the Sabbath day as a day of rest before the time of Moses, it is not so mentioned in the Book of God. Now, our Sabbatarian friends affirm that this day in the beginning was given to man. . . . There is not one word in the Bible to affirm any such an assertion—not one, and if the patriarchs ever kept it, we are without any Biblical account of it. An argument which proves too much proves nothing. This is the misfortune with3the above. We might positively declare that nowhere before the time of Moses does it say that the patriarchs did not kill, or commit adultery, or take the name of the Lord in vain, and therefore these were not required of them. But the fact is that in the very nature of the case the transgression of the principles set forth in the Decalogue has always been sin and always will be. Genesis is not a book of law, but a history of God's providential dealings with the children of men. It does not give any law which makes a distinction between clean and unclean beasts, but, nevertheless, such distinction existed, was known to man, and regarded. See Gen. 7:2, 8, 9. There is no law which commands the observance of the seventh day as a holy day, but the record shows that the day was made holy in the beginning, and it also shows that a law must have been given to that effect. Gen. 2:2, 3 gives the history of the institution of the Sabbath, on the seventh day. It was made holy, and sanctified, or separated, or set apart for a sacred use. "The Sabbath," our Lord tells us, "was made for man." Mark 2:27. It was, therefore, to be kept by man, a holy, separated day, to the worship of God. There must, therefore, have been directions or a law for its keeping, the transgression of which was sin. This is so obvious that Alexander Campbell, in his "Christian System," says: "The moral and religious institutions of the patriarchal or family worship, which continued from the fall of Adam to the covenant of circumcision, were the Sabbath, the service of the altar, oral instruction," etc. "These were parts of that system which continued for two thousand five hundred years. The religious observance of weeks or Sabbaths in commemoration of creation . . . was religiously observed to the giving of the law. . . . Thus the law of the Sabbath commences with the words, 'Remember the Sabbath.'" ("The Christian System," p. 135.) Let Mr. Martin and his followers wrestle with this declaration of a greater man. The Bible shows that the Sabbath law as truly existed as did any other law found in the Decalogue. Ex. 16:23 shows that the Sabbath was known as an existing institution weeks before Israel came to Sinai. And Abraham kept it, for says the Lord, "Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Gen. 26:5. The Sabbath was therefore known and observed during the patriarchal age before Moses. The Sabbath is first mentioned in Ex. 16:23, over twenty-five hundred years after creation. It was then made known, and given to the Jews only, not given to any other people or nation under the sun. Now for the proof. "Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, . . . and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath." Neh. 9:13, 14. "I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them." (Eze. 20:12), between the Jews and God, not between you and him. It was a sign between God and Israel, and was never given to anybody else. "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out from thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." Deut. 5:15. Did he ever bring you out of Egypt? Are you the fellow that was brought out of Egypt? Was it your ancestors that were brought out of Egypt? Are you a Jew, anyway? It was never given to anybody but the Jews, and was never binding upon this earth upon anybody but a Jew; but it has been taken out of the way even for the Jew, and never was in the way for any Gentile since the world began. a. But we have just shown that the Sabbath was made at creation, and was "made for man," for ton anthrōpon, "the man," the whole race of mankind, all the posterity of Adam. It was made not for the Jew, who did not exist till twenty-five hundred years later, nor for the Assyrian, but for the race. b. The Sabbath law also shows this:— "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 manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." Note that the law is addressed to the individual, not to the Jewish nation. This is the Sabbath law. Note again that the law is based upon reasons which concern all men alike, the great facts of creation, as beneficent and important to the Gentile as to the Jew. c. The Sabbath was given to the Jews. To them pertained "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants [both old and new], 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." Rom. 9:4, 5. Every blessing which has come to Christians came to the Jews, and the Sabbath was included among them. While the Lord ever calls the Sabbath his holy day, while he never calls it the Jewish Sabbath or the Sabbath of the Jews, he often speaks of himself as "the Lord thy God," the God of Jacob. But is he not the God of the Gentiles?—"Yes, of the Gentiles also." Rom. 3:29. And his Sabbath, the memorial of his creative power, is given to the Gentiles also, even as God is God of the Gentiles. d. Mr. Martin has much to say of the new covenant under which we are. But the new covenant was made "with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." Heb. 8:8. In the new covenant come all the everlasting blessings of the people of God, but the new covenant is as much "Jewish" as the Sabbath. In fact, the Sabbath is a mark of loyalty demanded of the Gentiles who accept of the new covenant. See Isa. 56:1-7, where the Lord promises a name better than of sons and daughter to strangers (Gentiles), "who join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant." Here is a requirement that Gentiles, to reap the promises, must be found Sabbath keepers. e. Israel, the name of that nation to whom God intrusted all his blessings, was of spiritual origin. It was given to Jacob, the supplanter, because he had prevailing faith with God. Gen. 32:28. "And so [by faith] shall all Israel be saved," whether by birth they be Jew or Gentile. And the Sabbath is a sign between God and this true Israel forever. See also Ex. 31:17. Again, the term "Jew" came from the tribe of Judah. But it is in the tribe of Judah that all the spiritual hopes of God's people center. "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Christ] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." Gen. 49:10. Said Jesus: "And other sheep [Gentiles] I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold [Israel, Eph. 2:12, 19], and one shepherd [the Shiloh of the tribe of Judah, the one great Jew]." John 10:16. And therefore says an apostle: "He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; . . . but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; . . . whose praise is not of men, but of God." Rom. 2:28, 29. Then, in this sense, every Christian is an Israelite, is a Jew, and the Sabbath is the sign between him and God, his Creator and Redeemer through Christ Jesus. 3. Made Known the Sabbath.
As quoted by Mr. Martin, Nehemiah says that when God came down upon Mount Sinai he made known unto Israel his holy Sabbath. In what sense? and how? a. He did not make it known in the sense of revealing it to them for the first time, for they knew the Sabbath as an existing institution at least a month before they came to Sinai, and the Lord descended on the mount. In what sense, then, did God make known the Sabbath?—In the sense of revealing its true character. b. How did he do this? 1. God seemed to anticipate the arguments that men would afterward bring that the Sabbath was a ceremonial observance, temporary, and would pass away with that dispensation; and therefore he associated it with nine other moral precepts, concerning which there could be no question among his professed people, so that, to destroy the Sabbath and take it out of the way, other moral precepts would have to be set aside. Three mighty fortresses on the one side or six on the other must be carried before the citadel of the Sabbath can be reached. 2. It is given as a memorial of God the Creator. His creation concerns all men for all time, and, therefore, is binding upon all men in all times. 3. The Sabbath is to be remembered "to keep it holy." It is therefore to be kept spiritually, and is only truly kept by those who are indeed the children of the Lord. 4. God not only made the Sabbath known as a spiritual memorial of his power as Creator, but a sign between him and his people, that they might know that he was their Redeemer and Sanctifier. "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Ex. 31:17. "Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze. 20:12. Redeeming, sanctifying, or regenerating is re-creation. It takes the same power to regenerate man as to create him. Says an4apostle, in speaking of this very thing, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:10. The redemption of Israel from Egypt by God's outstretched arm and mighty hand was a manifestation of creative power, second to that of the creation itself. It is continually brought before us in the word of God as a sign of his power. Therefore, when Moses repeated the Decalogue at the end of forty years, he gave an additional reason why Israel should remember the Sabbath, and that reason was the redeeming power which had been exercised in their behalf in delivering them from Egypt. God thus made known the Sabbath to Israel both as a memorial of creation and a sign of redemption. God has redeemed all Christians from a worse than Egyptian bondage, even sin. Upon them devolves the obligation of the observance of the memorial of their great Creator,—the seventh-day Sabbath. Upon them devolves the additional obligation of the observance of that same day, the sign of God's power in redeeming them from sin. He who knows Christ Jesus, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, as his personal Re-creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, will not in the light of God's word confine His Sabbath to one age, people, or nation. He will observe it with all his heart. We will notice other points next week.