Is the Sabbath Essential?
By L. D. Santee
Will the Teaching of It Handicap Our Work?
Can We Afford to Teach It?
IN our personal work for others, they often tell us, "If it were not for the Sabbath, we would unite with your church." This expression, so frequently heard, has set us to thinking seriously. God forbid that we should present any obstacle, any unnecessary requirement, any needless sacrifice. If we can leave the Sabbath out, and still preach a gospel that will save man, we ought to do it. I am willing to leave it out, if God authorizes such an omission. I must find that out, by going to His word. First I will notice the character of Him whose word I am to study. In James 1:17 we read, "With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Of His Son we read, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Heb. 13:8. Then, as the characters of God and Christ are unchangeable, Their teaching would be of the same nature. Another thought: Anything made before the fall, could not be a type, as no gospel was necessary, and there was nothing to prefigure. With these thoughts before us, we begin the study of our subject. Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark 2:27. This refers us back to its "making." "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. 2:1-3. Everything was just as God purposed it should be, for He Himself had fashioned it. There were no types, for sin had not yet made necessary the application of a remedial scheme. Again, man was not yet divided into nationalities, and so the principles enjoined were for the entire race. Here, then, at the close of the creation week, God expressed His wish, by both precept and example, that man should rest on the seventh day. I find this wish repeated in Ex. 16:26: "Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." This refers to the manna. Here again God was working, and His work gave them no warrant to labor on the seventh day. Those who presumed to do so, were met with stern rebuke. A month later, from the flaming summit of trembling Sinai was spoken and written the law for the race, and the voice of the Almighty said to them in plain and positive language, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work." Ex. 20:10. From that time, every inspired writer taught the law of God; and whatever they said of the law, was true of the Sabbath as well, as it was a part of the law. The women who were instructed by the Saviour, did not think it right even to embalm the dead on the Sabbath. Luke 23:56. Jesus said not only that He was "Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28), but that it was more durable than "heaven and earth." Luke 16:17. Paul affirmed that the Sabbath-breaker dishonored God. Rom. 2:23. Notice Heb. 4:9, first as to its chronology, —A. D. 64, within six years of the destruction of Jerusalem, and but thirty years after the crucifixion. Many churches had been established, the gospel was preached, and its principles were understood. Before God closed the inspired record, He put in one more "Remember" to His wish that they should observe the day on which He rested and which He sanctified. "There remaineth therefore a rest [margin, "keeping of a Sabbath"] to the people of God." So there is a Sabbath to be kept by the people of God. Which day is it? "For he that is entered into his rest [keeps the Sabbath], he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His." Verse 10. Now if I can find out on which day God ceased from His work, then I will know which day remains for me to keep, for God is the Example. I read in verse 4 of Hebrews 4, "God did rest the seventh day from all His works." That settles it for me. I am to rest as God rested, on the seventh day. DECLARED ALL THE COUNSEL OF GOD
Paul said to the elders of Ephesus, "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Acts 20:27. Shall I do differently? When a soul under conviction asks me, "What must I do to be saved?" and I know that "sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4), shall I tell him about the Sabbath? WHEN GOD CONTROLS, THE SEVENTH DAY IS OBSERVED
Inspiration, speaking of the world to come, where God reigns supreme, says: "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." Isa. 66:22, 23. Here is a fact that I desire every reader to remember, even if he should forget all the rest of this article: When God controls the world, the seventh-day Sabbath is observed. Please do not lose sight of this important truth. It was so in the first Eden. It will be so in Eden restored. As in the new earth, which God will control, the seventh day of the week will be kept by the redeemed, how can we leave out the Sabbath, and still preach a gospel that would save you, and give you a place in the earth made new? "All flesh" will worship God on the Sabbath. Will that include you? We would rather teach you what the word of God says. "Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments." Ps. 119:6.