THAT "PERPETUAL COVENANT."
By Editor
IT is next to impossible for a man who ignores the law of God to criticize either fairly or logically. He is not to blame for prejudicial criticism from a wrong view-point, for that is simply a natural result. Where he is to blame is in not accepting the plain commandment of God, which would enable him to apply the Word of truth correctly. In a recent criticism we are censured for quoting a part of Ex. 31:16, and not the whole. The quotation was for the purpose of showing that the Sabbath is a "perpetual covenant" between God and His people. The words "throughout their generations" were omitted, and our critic assumes that these words limit the Sabbath to the Jewish dispensation. Any one who was not trying to make void the law of God would see that the words "throughout their generations" is a decided emphasis of the expression "a perpetual covenant," and of itself carries the covenant as far as the existence of Israel—which includes all the redeemed, and therefore eternity. Ex. 31:16 refers to the seventh-day Sabbath, as the context shows, which was made in the beginning (Gen. 2:2, 3) and was made for man, the whole human race. Mark 2:27. Throughout the generations of Israel is simply an expression meaning throughout the generations of the saved. Abraham is the father of all them that believe (Rom. 4:11), and all that was done for the fleshly, typical Israel was in furtherance of God's promise to Abraham. Deut. 29:10-15; Ps. 105:42, 43. And the same consideration was continued to believers in Christ. Acts 2:38, 39. The promise to Abraham was that he should be "heir of the world" (Rom. 4:13), and believers in Christ are heirs with him. Gal. 3:29. If our critic had only studied the Word enough to know what constitutes an Israelite standing in covenant relation with God, he might have saved the labor of a long, inconsistent article, and the onus of an illogical criticism. The name Israel belongs to all God's covenant-keeping people; for Christ promised His apostles very explicitly that in His kingdom they shall "sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matt. 19:28. The natural, outward Jew, as such, has no part nor lot in the kingdom of God. Rom. 2:28, 29; see also Phil. 3:3. The new Jerusalem, the seat of government of the new earth, will have the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on its twelve gates, and the names of the twelve apostles on its twelve foundations. Rev. 21:10-14. The duration of the generations of Israel, with whom is the "perpetual" Sabbath covenant, is plainly indicated in Isa. 66:22, 23: "As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." G.