Christ Was the Lord or Creator of the Sabbath and the Week.
By C. A. Wyman
"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." John 1:10. "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth." Col. 1:16. "And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." Eph. 3:9. The one who created was the one who "rested." The Lord who made was the Lord who "blessed." The Christ which "sanctified" is the same Jesus which sanctifies to-day, of which sanctification the Sabbath is the sign. Eze. 20:12. Therefore, the seventh-day Sabbath is the oldest Christian institution next to marriage that has survived Eden. More than this: As the Son of man was the Maker of the Sabbath, and, in consequence, is Lord (Mark 2:28), so also he was the Maker of the week, or period of seven days to which the Sabbath belongs; and hence the week must be of divine origin. This will appear conclusively by the following: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. 2:3. "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. 20:11. "All things were made by him [Christ]; and without him was not anything made that was made." John 1:3. Since the period of days is of his own make and appointment, whether we call it "week," or "seven days," the fact remains that, so long as the ORDER of the days can be identified, so long can man, if he will, follow the example and precept of Jehovah. To teach otherwise is to make void the special act of God, and render meaningless his command. In successive ages, as recorded in his Word, the Lord has identified the seventh day of a constantly recurring cycle, as the Sabbath, and the day so identified is the seventh in direct order from creation. For the first seventh day was ordained for man, by the Creator's example of rest and sanctification before Adam, the representative of the heavenly family. Before the giving of the law at Sinai the falling or absence of the manna marked the first, sixth, and seventh of a cycle of seven days. As holiness never was imputed to the first six days of creation, they could not be profaned, and as nothing can be profaned that is not already holy, it follows that the first profanation of the seventh day shows it to be the identical day of the Sabbath in order from the beginning, and thus we read:— "And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" Ex. 16:27, 28. Here was divine condemnation because of long refusal to keep the day already incorpo7rated into law. This same day the Lord there recognized as the seventh day from the creation, for the commandment so placed it. To the one who believes "the record that God has given of his Son," the foregoing evidence is sufficient that the order of days from the beginning was preserved to Sinai. For forty years thereafter the same period of days was meted out by miracles of divine power. Over two thousand cycles were measured off by Deity in which upon the sixth day twice as much manna fell as on other days, upon the seventh none fell; and again the falling of the manna marked the first day of the succeeding period. The people had no choice in the matter whatever, nor could they possibly lose or mistake the day of the Sabbath or the week which it terminated. Not the wildest advocate of the "lost time" or "any-day-in-seven" theory would have dared to vindicate it then. It is left for later times, when, "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Eccl. 8:11. For centuries afterward, while that people existed as a nation, the most pronounced judgments of God fell upon stiff-necked Israel for forgetting their Saviour and profaning the day of his sacred rest. Eze. 20:12-16, 24-26. Jerusalem itself, the city of the Great King, but for Sabbath-breaking would yet be standing. Jer. 17:21-25. But the unquenchable fire of God's wrath was kindled in its gates, and its desolations are forever a witness of that rebellion that put under their feet the Lord's day. Jer. 17:27. As none can keep holy that which is holy without first being holy, that people, nor any other with unconverted hearts, could discern the sacredness of God's ways. So the final judgments, though now delayed, will fall upon the inhabitants of the earth, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant. Isa. 24:5. For the priests (ministers) "have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." Eze. 22:26. Pursuing the investigation of this subject, we find the same cycle of days brought to view in the New Testament. "And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:54-56. The day following was the first day of the week. Therefore the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, and as that day was according to the commandment, then the week, and the Sabbath so specified, are identical in order from Sinai, which was the preserved order from the creation. For the same period and purpose of days is affirmed, and the same Lord speaks that instituted all things. Added to this the excavated remains of the records of antiquity testify to the most remote observance of this order of days, and the leading languages of the world, whether ancient or modern, whether connected with Bible influence or separated from it by sea or tribal wars, all witness to the same unchanged period and purpose of days to our own time. And the men with whole pages of titles of D.D.'s, or LL.D.'s, shall declare against the seventh-day Sabbath, and call it "Jewish," the good Word of God still says it is "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20:10. We here rest the argument for the proposition that the week and the Sabbath are of divine decree from the beginning, and have been preserved in direct succession to our own time. The links that bind this promise are irrevocable: - God made the order and purpose of days in the beginning.
- He blessed the seventh day alone for man to keep as the memorial of his rest.
- The only law that he has given for septenary rest recognizes the same order and sanctified day.
- Christ as Creator made both the week and the Sabbath to which it belongs, and ever recognized them.
- Faithful children of his in every age have remembered the same holy day and preserved it unchanged through the wreck of empires and the scoffs and persecutions of the world.
Kind reader, "what think you of Christ?" Is the Son of man the Lord of the Sabbath, or is every man a lord himself? Shall we be among those conspirators who "hide their eyes from his Sabbaths" (Eze. 22:26)? or shall we be found in Christ, with our feet turned away from the Sabbath, from doing our pleasure upon his holy day? and shall we call it a delight, the holy of the Lord (not "old Jewish"), honorable, and honor him, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words. May God grant for Christ's sake that not our will but his will be done.
C. A. WYMAN.
St. Johns, Or.