THE JEWISH SABBATH by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 4, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 18.

"THE JEWISH SABBATH."

By Editor

Numbers versus Truth.

THE term, reader, is not ours, neither is it new. It has been used for centuries as a term of reproach to designate the Sabbath of Jehovah our God. It is a bid for all the unreasoning prejudice against the Jews that it may be turned upon an institution of divine origin designed to be a blessing for the race.

One of the last instances of its use we find in an article in the Christian Standard, entitled, "Numerous Attempts to Revive the Jewish Sabbath—All Fail." And then the editor proceeds to say that these attempts began in the days of the apostles, and have continued to the present time; but in each and all cases except the last among Seventh-day Adventists, all have been failures, and that Seventh-day Adventists "are now beginning to break up into factions, and otherwise to show signs of their best days."

Now it is not our purpose to answer the mixture of fact and falsehood, of conception and misconception, in this article. But we do wish to point out the fallacy on which the whole article is based; namely, that by numbers—success from a human view-point—the merits of the Sabbath cause is to be judged. We grant, for the sake of the argument, that since the apostolic days the adherents of the seventh-day Sabbath have been few; but whenever the Gospel of God's grace was effectual in the days of the first century it produced Christian commandment-keeping followers of Jesus Christ, those willingly obedient to all of God's commandments.

But from the days of the apostasy to the present, as indicated by the "more sure word of prophecy," commandment-keepers have been few, always persecuted during the Dark Ages, and always maligned and misrepresented by the nominal church. But do these facts—that they were few; that many yielded their faith under persecution, many more under the blandishments and temptations of the world; that there are few at the present time—make the truth of God of none effect? Let God be true, tho every man be false. Rom. 3:2, 3.

Let us review briefly the history of God's cause and people. It started well, in fair Eden, with a pure, strong man and woman, in the image of their Creator. An enemy entered, and in a little while all of earth's children stood on the side of the enemy. Was God's cause a failure?

Centuries roll by. One the wise men of the world must have called a fanatic had been preaching and prophesying for three hundred years. He was a commandment keeper, a Sabbath keeper, for he "walked with God;" and "how can two walk together, except they be agreed?" A little way from this the wicked worldlings perish in a great convulsion, and the "fanatic" who preached its coming, with seven others of his household, was saved in an ark which he built upon dry ground. How pitifully

weak must Noah's cause have seemed to the great men, the men of renown—such a paltry few, while the popular church numbered thousands? Yet, reader, the unbelief of the great multitude did not make the truth of God of none effect. God was with the few.

When the crisis of Egypt came, few comparatively of earth's millions were saved; while the multitudes of proud Pharaoh were humbled in the dust, and the flower of his army sank to destruction. And of the 600,000 of God's people who started for the promised land, only two, just two, crossed the Jordan, and entered its borders as inheritors. Did the unbelief of the many make the truth of God of none effect? God stood with the two; they "wholly followed the Lord."

A few centuries later a great Sabbath-keeping prophet stands alone before a great assembly of Israel. Arrayed against him were 450 prophets of the sun-god Baal, and 400 of the prophets of Baal's counterpart, the Asherah, together with the royal house—the government. Where stood Jehovah then?

True, out of that conflict God's prophet came triumphant, gloriously vindicated by Jehovah, yet in a few hours he was fleeing for his life, alone, and felt that no other soul was loyal. Yet God assures him that among the multitudes of Israel there are still 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal. They were scattered here and there in the mountains and wilderness, and even God's prophet did not know them. Doubtless the popular church in Israel, who had only made a few concessions to the world, who were only worshiping Jehovah under another term, Baal (Lord), and through one of Jehovah's creatures, the sun, would have given the scattered 7,000 a pretty poor name. Yet God was with the few.

We may pass over the repetition of the same thing in the Babylonian captivity and the restoration therefrom. There were the many and the few, but God was still with the few.

A few centuries later we behold the perfect Man. His very forerunner had been killed by a royal member of the popular church. The Man came, taught as man had never taught before, wrought mightier miracles than men had seen before. Great multitudes hung on His words. Thousands wished to make the Man a king.

Three years pass by. Two of His chief disciples begin to seek for high position, and sow the seeds of envy and strife among all. Another very prominent man among them, the business man of the company, secretly, as he supposed, joined with the popular church for the suppression of the Master. The traditionists, the higher critics, the popular sects everywhere, seemed to triumph against this commandment-keeping, Sabbath-keeping Man. He is brought to trial, to shameless mocking, to cruel scourging, to the pitiless cross. Only one or two and a few women have even the courage to confess Him or stay by His side in the suffering. He died, while the very heavens grew black, with the awful cry still lingering in the air, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

But He was not forsaken. Tho all the powers of earth and hell were against Him, tho death upon the cross were His portion, tho all His own forsook Him and fled, still God was with Him, with the Lone One, who died to magnify the law of which the Sabbath of the Lord—which men call Jewish—was a part. Did the unbelief of the multitude make the truth of God of none effect?

There was a time when a few Protestants stood alone in Europe. Men call them Reformers now, and write it with a capital R; but when they were doing their work they were reproached with every name the ingenuity of wicked men in the popular church could invent.

It might be well to remind our contemporary, which takes pains to tell us that it is "devoted to the restoration of primitive Christianity; its doctrine, its ordinances, and its fruits," while it equally declares that its founder is a man, Isaac Erret,—it might be well, we say, to remind it that its cause is in a hopeless minority; that the Roman Catholics, the Mohammedans, the pagans, the ritualistic churches, and the increase of ritualists and traditionists among the "evangelical" bodies, make our Disciple friends look ridiculous from a human view-point. But in this case, the Standard does not judge by numbers.

Now as to the last phase of Sabbath reform, as carried forward by Seventh-day Adventists. It bears the imperfections of humanity as has every reform.

Fanatics have thrust themselves in among them. Satan ever is active. It is the word of the Master and His apostles that false prophets and teachers should arise among the people. Matt. 24:24; 2 Peter 2:1. This people will have to meet the tests over which other bodies have fallen, and fall as have others or prove true to the Word of God and Christ Jesus their Lord. But if the majority should prove false, which God forbid, their unbelief will not make the truth of God, the Gospel, the law, the Sabbath of the Lord, of none effect.

One more reference to the Standard's article. The editor thus closes:—

It is a fact worthy of remark that in all the ages, the ranks of the Sabbatarians have never produced one single person of note in the world in any line of usefulness—not one great poet, or writer, or reformer, or evangelist, or philanthropist, or teacher, or statesman, or soldier, or patriot, or scientist, or "captain of industry," or anything else except zealous partisans who devote all their energies to their great hobby, "the Sabbath and the law."

Now the Sabbatarians may rejoice that, measured by this worldly Standard, they have not produced a "scientist" or "captain of industry," but if the long roll of the ages were called, and the loyal of God summoned, a few names of Sabbatarians might be found, such as Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Samuel and David and Solomon and Elijah and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and John the Baptist, and John and James and Peter and Paul and Jesus of Nazareth, who is the fulness of perfection, all of whom were observers of the Sabbath of the Lord our God, called by our contemporary "the Jewish Sabbath." Here are poets, reformers, and all other classes good and noble, every one of whom was some time counted as fanatic, dreamer, babbler, insane. In God’s estimate knowing Him is more than greatness. Jer. 9:23, 24.

Of the present Sabbatarians, we could not expect that their work should be judged otherwise than as their Master’s has been. Let them be content with the fact that their names and records are written in heaven, that they are loyal to God, that they must decrease that the glory of their Master may increase. Let them be content to be among "the foolish things of the world" and "the weak things of the world" and "the base things of the world, and the things that God has despised" if by so being God may be glorified in Christ Jesus. Let them be content to be a voice crying in the world’s wilderness of sin and babel of creeds, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight;" Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand: "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come, and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."