3701 — A Perversion of His Word
I send you a little question and answer appearing in the "Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness" of February 3, 1910. You may not have seen this explanation before. R. R. T. For the interest of our readers we give the little clipping: "Why do we not keep Saturday for the Sabbath instead of the first day of the week? "Ans.—Christ endeavored in vain to correct the burdensome observance of the Sabbath, thinking it a sin to heal the sick or to turn them in bed. He saw the only relief possible would be the change of the day, making the Sabbath the memorial of the resurrection instead of the creation. "Why did He not make the change Himself? "Ans.—Because it was one of the things that His own disciples could not bear, and so it was left for the Holy Spirit to do this in a gradual way. Hence the disciples met for worship on the first day, and John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, meaning the first day." We may remark this, that the answer is an utter perversion of God's Word. Think of it — that the only way the Lord can correct a transgression of one of His laws is to change the law. What would men think of the dignity of an earthly power that would stoop to such an act? Here is England, for instance, or the United States, that has a good law for its people, one founded in the very nature of things itself, one which would be of benefit to all; but there are those who have broken that law, and the government should say, "Well, the only possible way that I can get out of this trouble is to change the law." And then think of what this would involve regarding the Sabbath. Now Sunday is, as one writer has expressed it, "the wild solar holiday of all pagan times," a day that has been especially set apart for the worshiping of the heathen god the sun, and many times with the worst sort of licentious nature-worship. But the Lord is so hard-pressed because the Jews have perverted the Sabbath law, that He must perforce change from this day to a day that has been perverted a thousand times worse by the heathen! We do not know how inconsistency could go much farther. Then, too, if that be true, why not treat His other commandments in that way? The Jews had perverted every commandment of God's law. Our Lord especially mentions the fifth commandment. They had said that all their property was placed upon the altar—"corban;" it could not be used for their parents' support, and so they got rid of supporting their aged parents. If our Lord had been moved by such motives as are here presented, He would have said, "Well, now, that law has been perverted, and the best thing I can do is to change the law, and so I will give a different law regarding 'Honor thy father and thy mother.'" He did not so make a change; He has not so stated it in His Word. He has told us that that law can not be changed in one jot or tittle. Of course He did not make the change Himself, nor did His disciples make the change, nor did the Holy Spirit in any gradual way. All the change that came about in the observance of the holy day came about through apostasy. We do not mean by this that good men have not kept the first day of the week, believing that they were doing God's will. Good men have passed counterfeit bills, and did not know it. God judges man from motive, not always from knowledge. These good men who passed the counterfeit money would not have passed it had they known it; they would have chosen the genuine. And the good men who have observed the first day of the week would not have observed it had they known God's law and its meaning. They would have preferred the seventh day. John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day; but the Lord's Book tells us, in the Lord's own words, what day is the Lord's day. See Mark 2:27, 28; Isa. 58:13; Ex. 20:10.