Our Position on the Sabbath Question
By Editor
INASMUCH as the Sunday law agitation has brought into decided prominence, in California especially, the Signs of the Times and the Seventh-day Adventists, who are opposed to Sunday laws, we take this occasion to set before our readers in briefest possible form just what our position is regarding the Sabbath and the Sunday. This journal holds regarding the Sabbath: 1. That it was instituted, made, and given to man by three distinct acts on the part of the Creator at the very birth of humanity. Gen. 2:2, 3; Mark 2:27. 2. That during the patriarchal ages, archeology and the hints that are given in its very brief history in Genesis show that it was observed by patriarchs and holy men. 3. That it was known at the Exodus, and was among the first things over which Moses appealed to the children of Israel. Ex. 5:5. 4. That the very definite, identical day of God’s institution was pointed out by a threefold weekly miracle, in the fall of the manna, for the period of forty years, so that Israel and future generations could make no mistake as regards the divinely appointed day. 5. That when God gave His moral code from Mount Sinai, the Sabbath was placed in the very heart of the Decalogue, so that it would be impossible to reach it from either before or behind without tearing down the impregnable walls of other great moral commandments; and that placed in the very heart of that law, it reveals as the Giver of the law the Maker of the heavens and the earth, and therefore becomes a seal of the law itself in the revelation that it makes of the Giver. 6. That it was committed to the Israel of God for the nations, and through the true Israel in Jesus Christ to all the generations of the world. See Rom. 9:4, 5. 7. That it was designed ever to keep before the children of men the great Creator of heaven and earth, and therefore was an impregnable wall against idolatry. See Eze. 20:20; Ex. 20:8-11. 8. That it is not only a memorial of God’s creative power (Ps. 111:4), but is also a sign of His power to redeem and sanctify. Ex. 31:13; Eze. 20:12. 9. That the new covenant in Christ Jesus is designed to write that holy law upon the hearts of God’s children, the Sabbath as a constituent part of that law with the rest. Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-10. 10. That that covenant was confirmed by the teaching of Christ, showing the integrity and immutability of the law in both teaching and example. Ps. 111:7, 8; Matt. 5:17; Luke 16:17. 11. That that covenant was sealed at His death with the law unchanged in jot or tittle, and therefore made permanent for all time. Heb. 9:16, 17; Gal. 3:15. 12. That that law, confirmed by the teaching, life, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which the Jews themselves had the form, is established in the heart of the Christian by faith. Rom. 2:17-20; 3:31; 8:4. 13. That Jesus our Lord observed the commandments of God in His own life, and lifted the Sabbath from the traditions under which it was buried, and restored it to its primeval simplicity, teaching His disciples to observe it also, according to the commandment of God. Matt. 12:1-12; Luke 4:16; John 15:10; Luke 23:56. 14. That the teaching of His beloved apostle is that those who profess Christ’s name ought to walk also as He walked. 1 John 2:6. 16. That the Scriptures foretold a power to arise which would think to change God’s law. Dan. 7:25. 17. That it would be given into the hand of that power for a certain time, when the veil would be lifted. Dan. 7:25. 18. That in harmony with this prophecy a reform will take place when that period of time is past, in the last days. Isaiah 56 and 58. 19. That God’s remnant people shall be found, in consequence of that reform, keeping all the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Rev. 14:12. 20. That that great threefold message developing such a people shall be heralded to all the world. Rev. 14:6-14. And beyond all the efforts of the people who are especially giving that message to the world there are found individual souls in all parts of the earth who have been called to the same great truth through the study of the Word alone. They hold regarding Sunday: 1. That its origin as a worship day is purely pagan, the day being dedicated to the sun. 2. That as a pagan day dedicated to the sun, its adoption has been almost universal in the great pagan nations. 3. That it came into the Christian church as a part of the early foretold apostasy, through half-converted heathen. 4. That there is an absence of all Scripture testimony regarding its sacredness or observance as a sacred day. 5. That it was centuries before it was regarded in the church as a Sabbath. 6. That it was never denominated the Lord’s day until 200 A.D., and then by a writer who taught prayers for the dead, birthday honors, etc., for which he declares he had no Scripture authority. 7. That the first law for its observance, human or divine, was by a pagan emperor. 8. That it has been sustained by superstition, by a false application of Scripture, and by civil enactment, ever since, always with damage to the church and a reflection on Protestantism. 9. That Protestants received it from Roman Catholics as a well-worn counterfeit is received, without careful examination. 10. That it has many times been perpetuated in hearts because of the good who have held it aforetime, and because of God’s blessing on faithful hearts and churches in spite of it. 11. That many, in God’s providence, are learning this, and as it does not therefore appeal to men’s consciences, hence the demand for Sunday laws. 12. That to us it would be disloyalty to God to accept an institution, however hoary with age, or hallowed in the church, or enshrined with sacred memories, when it makes void a solemn and constituent part of the law of God written by His own finger, spoken by His own voice, and observed by our blessed Lord. 13. That the Sunday, with all its concatenated interests, is a mark of the power of the Roman Church, and is so held by her, and in that very thing it becomes a mark of apostasy. 14. That the beast power of prophecy throughout the ages is a union of church and state against God and His truth. 15. That Sunday enforced by law, however honest and mistaken its promoters, becomes a mark of that beast power, which that power seeks to enforce upon all within its jurisdiction, and which according to the prophecy must become world-wide. 16. That God gives solemn warning to all the people of the earth against this power, and the reception of its mark of apostasy, that mark set over against the seal of His law, the memorial of His creative power, the sign of His redeeming power, the Sabbath of the Lord. 17. That as to who possesses this mark of the beast, or who will possess it in fullest accord with the beast power and spirit, is not for us to say. That rests wholly with God. It is for us, in loyalty to Him, to preach His Word, to proclaim His message; and therefore, recognizing our own unworth, but trusting wholly in Jesus Christ, “with malice toward none and charity to all,” we give the light as God has given us to see the light, we bear the message as He has given to us to grasp the message, without compromise or parley. Believing that in the Sabbath question is involved the veracity, not to say infallibility, of Holy Writ, the authority of that Word as against tradition and apostasy, the very existence of Protestantism itself, and the5future of all civil government; believing that we are fortified with an abundance of concurring Scripture testimony, with confirmatory utterances of great theologians, by history ecclesiastical and secular, Catholic and Protestant, and by the mighty, world-stirring events of to-day in the fulfilment of the prophetic Word, we appeal to our brethren, friends, and fellow men in and out of the church to study with us these great questions before they decide. Not for ourselves are we working, but for God. Not for ourselves are we protesting against Sunday laws, but for the greater sake of those mistaken souls who would fasten them upon the nations. The everlasting good tidings of Jesus Christ give greater power and satisfaction and joy than all the world can give. We are anxious that our readers shall share the same joy and blessedness which we have found in Him and in His blessed truth.