THE SABBATH | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 7, 1906

THE SABBATH.

The Institution; the Day.

THIS paper does not attempt to set forth an exhaustive study of the Sabbath question; it will simply aim to set forth in the briefest way the principal facts concerning this important subject, which has become of world-wide interest in both religious and political circles.

What day is the Sabbath of the Lord, or the Lord's day? It is the sacred duty of every Christian and every man to ask the question. It is not a settled question with the people. It has not been for centuries. A question is not settled until it is settled right. A question is never settled right with a Bible Christian, with the true Protestant, till it is settled according to, and upon, the rock of God's Word. Councils, creeds, "fathers," traditions, courts, or Legislatures can not determine the question; what says the Bible?

Its Origin.

The origin of the Sabbath as it pertains to this earth is recorded in Gen. 2:1-3, as follows:

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended [ceased from] 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."

Note the following facts in regard to the Sabbath, as expressed in the above text:

1. The Sabbath was instituted before sin entered the world, and therefore was not given as a type of better things to come. Like other moral requirements, it originated before sin. It, like the law of marriage, "was in the beginning." Man needed it even in his sinless condition.

2. It was not a Jewish institution, for it was made 2,500 years before a Jew existed. It was made and given to the father of the race and all his posterity. "The Sabbath was made for man." Mark 2:27.

3. Note the steps by which the Sabbath was made: (a) The Creator rested on the seventh day; that made the seventh day His rest day. (b) He blessed the seventh day; that made the seventh day God's blessed rest day. And what God blesses is blessed: (c) He sanctified the seventh day. "Sanctified" means to set apart, separate from, separate unto. So God separated the seventh day from the other "six working days" (Eze. 46:1), and set it apart, or sanctified it unto Himself. This made the seventh day God's blessed and sanctified rest day. He placed within it His own presence and made it holy.

4. He did not bless and sanctify the particular day on which He rested, but the seventh day of the weekly cycle for all time to come, "because that in it [the seventh day] He had rested."

5. As the Lord "made" the Sabbath "for man," and as the Lord then set apart that day, He must, in the very nature of the case, have given man a command to keep the day. There is no escaping this conclusion.

6. The Creator of the heaven and the earth was God, but He did it through our Lord Jesus Christ. See John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 8:6. It was therefore the Son of God who wrought, who rested, who set apart the day. The seventh-day Sabbath of creation is therefore the Lord's day. Compare with Rev. 1:10; Mark 2:27, 28; Isa. 58:13; Ex. 20:8-11. This is the only day which the Lord calls His own, but in this He is very specific.

The Divine Law.

The law of the Sabbath teaches the same great truth:

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11.

Principles of Interpretation.

The following are recognized principles in the interpretation of law, as all jurists will admit; let us apply them to God's law:

"In the case of all law, it is the INTENT OF THE LAWGIVER that is to be enforced."

"When words are plain in a written law, there is an end to all construction; they must be followed."

"When the intent is plain, nothing is left to construction."

Certainly the words of the fourth commandment of the Decalogue are plain. If language means anything, that law means that the intent of the Lawgiver was that the seventh day should be regarded by His subjects as the Sabbath. And this law God based upon reasons—His resting on that day, blessing the day, and the sanctification, or setting apart of the day—which can apply to no other day of the seven; for God rested on no other day, blessed no other day, set apart no other day.

But God did not leave His intent to be declared by words alone. He showed by the threefold weekly miracle of the manna for forty years that the seventh day was the Sabbath, thereby precluding any construction of the plain words of the law.

The Seventh Day of the Week.

More than this; this seventh-day Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, for it was the day which came just before the first day of the week. See Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2; Luke 23:56; 24:1. In short, the only weekly Sabbath, or holy day, known to the Word of God is the seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial of creation, and the sign of sanctification, redemption, or recreation in Christ. Eze. 20:12. It was the day hallowed by Christ, the Creator, in Eden, kept by patriarch and prophet, and magnified and made honorable by the holy obedience of Jesus Christ, our Example. We can "profane" only that day which God has hallowed. We can "desecrate" only that day which God has made sacred. We can remember to keep holy only that day which God has made holy. God has placed His honor upon one day only, namely, the seventh day of the week.

Christ and the Law.

Of the law of which the Sabbath was a part, our Lord utters the following emphatic words:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:17-20.

"And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17.

The apostle James bears like witness to the same law:

"If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well; but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." James 2:8-12.

Note that our Lord tells us that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for even a jot or tittle of the law to fail; and neither jot nor tittle will fail till all the prophecies are fulfilled; but this will not be until eternity is past, for of this the prophets foretell. It is the most emphatic way of saying that the law will never, can never, be abolished. Compare with Ps. 111:7, 8; Isa. 51:6, 7.

James declares, twenty-nine years this side of the Cross, that he who offends in one point of that "royal law according to the [Old Testament] Scripture," is guilty of all; for he thus shows his contempt for the Lawgiver.

The Man of Sin.

There is one power, however, which the Word of God declares would think to change the times and law of God. Dan. 7:25. He could not truly change them, and yet, in God's inscrutable wisdom, this power was permitted to seem to have accomplished this for more than twelve centuries. This power is a religious power; for he "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple [church] of God, showing himself that he is God." 2 Thess. 2:4. Because of this he is called "the man of sin," "the son of perdition," and the principle, the working power of his system, "the mystery of iniquity." Verses 3, 7.

All this has been fulfilled, and the very power which made the change answers to the description given by the prophets, and boasts of its work. (See "Who Changed the Sabbath?" or "The Lord's Day," advertised on page 2.)

The Word of God knows but one holy weekly day, the seventh-day Sabbath, even as it knows but one Saviour, the Lord of the Sabbath, Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier. Redemption and sanctification are re-creation (Eph. 2:10), of both of which the Sabbath is a sign. Eze. 20:12, 20.

It may be said that the first-day sabbath has been kept by good men for centuries, and these men have been blessed. True; so have good men held other errors and have been blessed. Abraham was a polygamist, but God blessed him, because Abraham had a heart to do what was right. Of the evils of polygamy, he was ignorant. God blesses men in error, not because of the error, but in spite of it; not to confirm them in sin, but to lead them to greater light. Good, honest men have ignorantly passed counterfeit bills, but this did not make the bills genuine, even tho they went through the hands of a thousand honest men. Nor is the genuine less genuine tho men recognize it not. It has God's image and superscription.

Lastly, we have for the seventh-day Sabbath the example of all the prophets and apostles, and of our Lord Himself, who kept His Father's commandments. John 15:10. It will not do to say to this that Christ was a Jew, and therefore kept the Sabbath. He came to do God's will for all. He finished the work God gave Him to do. And we are expressly told that He left us an example, that we should follow His steps (1 Peter 2:21), that we should "walk even as He walked." 1 John 2:6.

Reader, is it not safe to follow God's Word? Is it not safe to follow the example of Jesus Christ? What more can you ask? May you at His coming be found among those who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12.