The Rival Sabbaths

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 30, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 29.

The Rival Sabbaths

THE Bible plainly enjoins a weekly rest day. Every one who knows anything at all about the Bible is aware of this fact. This weekly rest day is called the Sabbath; and the Bible which enjoins it, plainly states that it occurs on the seventh day, which is the day of the week that the world commonly calls Saturday.

The record in the second chapter of Genesis shows that the Sabbath was instituted at the creation of this world. The seventh day of the first week in this earth's history was made the Sabbath of Jehovah, and every succeeding seventh day of each and every week since that time has been the Sabbath of the Infinite One.

During the wanderings of the children of Israel from Egypt to the promised land, miracles of God made it strikingly plain which day of the week was the Sabbath. For the Israelites in that time to try to keep any other than the seventh day, brought them into sore trouble. Then when God gave them His law while in these wanderings, He placed in that law a commandment concerning the Sabbath, that is so explicit as to leave no room for mistake or quibble.

We may diligently search God's Word from beginning to end, and we will find absolutely no mention of any other day as the weekly rest day of Jehovah. The seventh-day Sabbath has His authority in strong, clear language, but no other day has even the shadow of such authority.

The first day of the week is mentioned but once in all the Old Testament Scriptures, and that mention is in the first chapter of Genesis, where it is recorded that God did His first day's work of creation on that particular portion of time. Then God's example in the only recorded mention of the first day of the week in the Old Testament is that of work and not of rest. His example favors Sunday as a secular working-day, and not as a Sabbath.

If we closely and without bias will examine the eight times that the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, is mentioned in the New Testament, we will find that it is a day of work there also, and not a day of rest. This may be surprising news to some, but it is the truth nevertheless.

When Christ was here upon earth as a teacher, He kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and frequently mentioned it. But there is absolutely no evidence that Christ ever so much as mentioned the first day of the week when He was here. Some people claim that Christ changed the Sabbath. How could He have changed it without even mentioning it?

The record shows that God and Christ observed and enjoined the seventh-day Sabbath, and all the Bible characters followed Them in this. Nowhere is it even intimated that a single one of them observed any other day. And on the other hand, all the mention that is made of their connection with the first day of the week is that they worked on that day the same as on any other secular day. With all the Bible examples for working on Sunday, and with all the Bible precept and example for keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, why should there be any question on the subject of the Sabbath?

The seventh-day Sabbath and the Sunday sabbath are the two great rivals before the world. One is of manifest divine origin; but where is the authority for the other? Since God did not institute the observance of Sunday, it must of necessity be of human origin. And being of human origin, it is not very surprising that we should find so many human beings that are so insistent to have human laws to bolster it up.

But the practical question for each to decide is, Which is the more reasonable,—to take that which is so plainly supported by divine authority, or to take that which has only the human ordinance back of it? This issue is now before the world in a very definite way, and soon every person will be called upon to decide it one way or the other.