THE WORD OF GOD AND THE SABBATH.
"Seventh-day Adventism Refuted."
BEFORE us is a tract of four pages with the heading, "Seventh-day Adventism Refuted by Fifty-two Facts. By Revs. C. S. Gitchell, B. T. Roberts, D. M. Canright, J. S. T. Milligan, and Others," etc. It is one of a "Reform Series," and has received quite a large circulation. To the earnest Bible student who loves God's law it will pass as idle words. To those who take statements of men as "facts" a few words may be in place. In the first place it does not matter much as to whether any ism is refuted or not; for no true Christian among Seventh-day Adventists stands on any human ism, but on the Word of God. These alleged "facts" do not come against a people, but against that day of which Jehovah himself said, "But the seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." We give a few samples of these "facts," which we number as in the tract, and give answer following. But before noticing these in detail we wish to call attention to these facts: (1) A mere negative in the face of a positive law proves nothing. It might be stated with great positiveness that nowhere does the Bible tell us that Eve, or Cain, her son, died, and yet we know they did; for they followed the general law respecting the existence of sinful man. (2) The Bible does not give a record of men's doings only so far as to show God's dealings with the race. When men obeyed God through grace, examples are given to show the power of grace over sin. The Lord gives us examples also to show the fruit of disobedience and God's mercy. (3) The book of Genesis is not a book of law; it is the record of God's providential dealing with the race, showing the development of his plan of mercy. Here are the "facts" in smaller type, with the answers following:— 1. The Bible nowhere says that the Sabbath was a memorial of the creation. It does not use the noun "memorial," but it uses the equivalent verb "remember." "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; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore [for which reason] the Lord blessed the Sabbath day [the rest day], and hallowed it." See Ex. 20:8-11. Therefore the reason why we are to remember the Sabbath day is because of the manifestation of God's power in creation. "He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered." Ps. 111:4. How has he done this?—By the Sabbath that he ordained for that purpose. This is the record which the Bible gives of the origin and institution of the Sabbath:— "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had made. 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. 2:2, 3. "Sanctify" means to "set apart," to "appoint." See Joshua 20:7 and margin, where the word "appointed" comes from the same Hebrew word as "sanctified" in Gen. 2:3; also 2 Kings 10:20 and margin, where the same word is rendered "proclaim." The word "hallowed" in the fourth commandment comes from the same Hebrew word. God in the beginning appointed and proclaimed the seventh day to be the Sabbath. To whom did he appoint it and proclaim it? Our Lord answers, "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark 2:27. Not for the Jew man, for it was made 2,500 years before there was a Jew; but it was made for the man who was in the beginning, and through him to all his posterity. 5. Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Jared, Methuselah, and Noah each lived over nine hundred years, and neither one kept a Sabbath. It has been shown that God appointed and proclaimed his Sabbath day in the beginning. He therefore commanded it. It is said of Noah: "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." The Lord said unto Noah, "Thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." Gen. 6:9; 7:1. Noah therefore walked in God's way and kept the Sabbath day appointed of God. Because it does not expressly say that Noah kept the Sabbath is no evidence that he did not keep it. It does not say that Noah or Abraham or Enoch had no other gods before the Lord or that they honored their father or their mother. The Sabbath was made and appointed to man in the beginning; hence to all the race. It was therefore obligatory whether man kept it or not. But when the Lord says that these men were righteous, that means that they obeyed his commands. 7. The Bible tells us there was no law from Adam to Moses. According to the Bible there was no written law, but it proves in the same passage that a law existed, because recognized sin existed; "for until the law [was given in its written form] sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law." Rom. 5:13. "Where no law is, there is no transgression." Rom. 4:15. But the book of Genesis, and the first sixteen chapters of Exodus, show that every commandment of the Decalogue was transgressed, and men were accounted sinners on account of this transgression, before the Lord spoke the law from Sinai. For the record of a few of these transgressions see Gen. 35:2 (false gods); 9:22-25 (dishonor to parents); Ex. 16:4; 25-28 (breaking the Sabbath); Gen. 4:8 (murder), etc., etc. There was a law from Adam to Moses, and men were condemned when they transgressed it. 10. Moses makes no mention of any Sabbath being kept previous to this one. Moses makes no mention of the first commandment, the third, the fifth, or for the matter of that, any other as such, but that does not prove the obligation to keep them did not exist. He does tell us that Enoch and Noah "walked with God," and that Abraham "obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." Gen. 5:22; 6:9; 26:5. They therefore kept the Sabbath "appointed" of God. 13. If the Sabbath had been lost, Moses or some of the prophets, or Christ, would have given information of the fact. Exactly; but the Sabbath was not lost, and therefore such mention in the book of Genesis was not necessary 15. God never blessed or sanctified the Sabbath. He gave to Israel and commanded them to sanctify it themselves. But Gen. 2:2, 3, before quoted, proves that the Lord did sanctify that day of the seven on which he rested; and the fourth commandment expressly declares that the Lord "rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day [the day of the rest], and hallowed [Heb. kawdash, sanctified] it." Ex.420:11. He requires that man shall sanctify in his own heart the Sabbath God has sanctified for man. So much for this "fact." 16. Christ never sanctified it. But as God did all things through Christ (1 Cor. 8:6), as he was the one by whom the earth was created (Col. 1:16-19), he was also the one who made and gave the Sabbath (Mark 2:27, 28). The Sabbath, therefore, is the true and only Lord's day. Rev. 1:10. 17. It was never sanctified by divine authority, except the command for each one to sanctify it. This "fact" is answered above. 20. No nation had a sabbath except the Jews, until the Christian sabbath, which included all nations. The Sabbath was given to the father of all races and nations, and hence to them. The records of all eastern nations show that the Sabbath was once recognized among them. A "Chart of the Week," prepared by the late Rev. Wm. Jones, D.D., of London, England, shows that out of 160 ancient and modern languages and dialects, 108 know the seventh day by the name "Sabbath" or its equivalent. 22. Christ kept the Christian sabbath, or the first day of the week, after his resurrection, but did not once keep the old Jewish Sabbath. John 20:9-23, 26-29. If the reader will turn to the passage cited—John 20:9-23, 26-29—and the other records of the same meeting, he will there learn that the disciples did not know that first day that Jesus "must rise again from the dead;" that their meeting was on the evening following that first day; that when Jesus met with them they were frightened, supposing him to be a ghost (Luke 24:36, 37); that Jesus reproved them for unbelief (Mark 16:14); that the next meeting was not the next first day, but "after eight days" from the first meeting, carrying it over to the second or third day of the week (John 20:26). The facts are, then, that the Gospels record but one meeting of Jesus with his disciples on the first day of the week, and that not until the very close of that day; that the disciples were not met together expecting him or to honor the day, because they did not believe he was risen. 26. Christ set apart the first day of the week by his resurrection, and met his followers on that day and the week following, namely, the first day, and after his ascension he and the Father ratified it by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost,—the first day of the week. As before seen, Christ met on the evening following the first day, when the first day was merging into the second. He met the second time "after eight days" from that time, certainly not on the first day. He met the third time on a fishing occasion, and instructed his disciples how to obtain fish; this may have been on the first day; the record does not say. John 21:1-6. No other general meeting is recorded. There is absolutely no scriptural proof that Pentecost that year fell on Sunday. The day of the week is not named, and upon it scholars are divided. It was the antitype of Pentecost that was honored, not any particular day of the week. Acts 2:1. 42. The Christian Church was never known to meet for worship on the seventh day Sabbath during the lives of the apostles. Read Acts 13:42, 44, where a record is given of two Sabbath meetings,—one with the Jews, the second with the Gentiles at their own request. See also chapters 16:13; 17:2; and 18:1-11. Paul nor any of the apostles were ever accused of Sabbath-breaking, and he said, "I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers." Acts 28:17. The meeting of Acts 20:7 was simply the last of a series of meetings Paul held with the church at Troas, held on the evening after the Sabbath, the next day, Sunday, being spent in travel by the apostle. The meeting is mentioned chiefly because of the notable miracle of raising a man to life. 1 Cor. 16:1, 2, records no meeting at all, but directs that every one lay by himself in store. This is not putting into the contribution box of a church. 50. The Bible nowhere commanded men to keep as Sabbath the seventh day of the week. They add "of the week" to God's commands. Advocates of the Bible Sabbath never add to the commandment "of the week;" but "the Sabbath day according to the commandment" was the day just before "the first day of the week." See Luke 23:56; 24:1; Matt. 28:1. What day of the week, then, according to the Bible, is the Sabbath? What day of the week comes just before "the first day of the week"? We have space for no more of these "facts." Many of them are but repetitions in different words, of which 15, 16 and 17 are examples. The remaining "facts" are of the same order. Which will you take, reader, the statements of men, or the eternal verdict of the Word of God, which are yea and Amen in Christ Jesus. "Cursed be man that trusteth in man." "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." Jer. 17:5, 7.