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Studies on the Sabbath

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 28, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 9.

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Studies on the Sabbath

By R. A. Underwood

VIII. Restoration of the Sabbath

But He answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Matt. 15: 13.
As we have already seen in the study of the Sabbath question, there are what may be called the Sabbath and the Sunday plants.
The first was planted by Christ at creation, and rests upon a divine law. Gen. 2: 1-3; Ex. 20: 8-11; Mark 2: 27, 28; John 1: 1-10. The second was planted by an apostate church, and rests wholly upon tradition and man-made laws, which are designed to root up the Sabbath of God's own planting, and to substitute the Sunday plant of pagan origin in the place of a divine institution. The Sunday plant has the backing of the decrees of a fallen church's councils and State legislations. However, if this Sunday plant is not of God's planting, it must ultimately be rooted up, while the Sabbath plant will abide forever.
Through centuries of darkness and apostasy the Sabbath was nearly lost to sight by the innovations of its rival. This was predicted in prophecy, and the restoration of the Sabbath has also been as clearly foretold.
In history we see from time to time man lapsing into moral degeneracy and forsaking the ways of wisdom. This leads to a crisis. At such epochs men are called to sound the bugle note of reform, and to lead in what is usually an unpopular reform movement, which, in the nature of things, proves a test of character to the generation, who are called to make decisions for the right against the wrong. As examples of this statement, such a crisis came in Noah's time, in Moses' day, at the first advent of Christ, in Luther's day, and not least but last of all reforms, there is to be a "restoration" of the Sabbath of Jehovah in the last days. This last reformation includes all the reforms of the past, and culminates in the rooting up of every plant and seed of error at the second coming of Christ.
To this last reform I call attention by citing a few scriptures which show the work of the hour.
And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. Acts 3: 20, 21.
This text shows that Christ's return to this world is to be the climax in the work of restoration that the prophets have foretold. A clear reference to this reform is made by the prophet, and also to the attitude of some in rejecting the counsel of God concerning the claims of the law, in these words:
Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Harken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not harken. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not harkened unto My words, NOR TO MY LAW, but rejected it. Jer. 6: 16-19.
The prophet Ezekiel refers to this Sabbath reform, and the opposition it will meet by some of the priests and people, as follows:
O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. Eze. 13: 4, 5.
Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and HAVE HID THEIR EYES FROM MY SABBATHS, and I am profaned among them. . . . And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, SAYING, THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD, WHEN THE LORD HATH NOT SPOKEN. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Eze. 22: 26, 28-30.
When the claims of the Lord's Sabbath are brought to our attention it is an easy matter to permit our eyes to be blinded to the truth by our business interests, our social standing in the community, in the church, or in the State. According to this prophecy men will divine excuses for not obeying God, and even declare that there is a "Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken." The Lord has foretold of men's efforts to evade the truth, in these words:
My people hath forgotten Me, . . . and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up. Jer. 18: 15.
The Lord has spoken of another class, and the response they will make to the call of God to restore the Sabbath and to turn their feet away from trampling upon the holy rest day, which has been lightly esteemed and trodden down for many generations:
Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. BLESSED IS THE MAN THAT DOETH THIS, and THE SON OF MAN THAT LAYETH HOLD ON IT; THAT KEEPETH THE SABBATH FROM POLLUTING IT, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Isa. 56: 1, 2.
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: THOU SHALT RAISE UP THE FOUNDATIONS OF MANY GENERATIONS; and THOU SHALT BE CALLED, THE REPAIRER OF THE BREACH, THE RESTORER OF PATHS TO DWELL IN. IF THOU TURN AWAY THY FOOT FROM THE SABBATH, FROM DOING THY PLEASURE ON MY HOLY DAY; and CALL THE SABBATH A DELIGHT, THE HOLY OF THE LORD, HONORABLE; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isa. 58: 12-14.
The Sabbath is to be restored to its honored position in the Decalogue and in the minds and hearts of God's servants. It is to be regarded as the sign of God's creative, sanctifying power.
Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, THAT THEY MIGHT KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD THAT SANCTIFY THEM. Eze. 20: 12.
When the Sabbath is received as a sign, or seal, of God's authority between Himself and His people, showing that we should "worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters," and that our supreme worship and obedience are to be given to God, then we may expect that Satan will be wroth with the remnant church on earth who receive the law and the Gospel, unchanged, as given in the Bible, regardless of the claims of the man of sin.
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Rev. 12: 17.
This reformation develops a people of whom it is said, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14: 12. This work must precede the coming of the King of Righteousness; for John beholds this faith-believing, commandment-keeping people just before he sees Christ coming. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle." Rev. 14: 14.
Christ's coming in all His glory insures the establishment of the kingdom of righteousness, where every error is rooted up. The Sabbath and the law of righteousness will be kept in the love of right-doing forever.
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified. Isa. 60: 18-21.
For 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.
"Thy people also shall be all righteous." This promise was made by God to man more than three thousand years ago. "As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled withthe glory of the Lord." Num. 14: 21. Coincident with the fulfilment of this long-looked-for promise and hope, "all flesh" assemble from one Sabbath to another to worship God so long as the name of God and the seed of Christ remain, even throughout eternity.
This is the time when God has put all of Christ's enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15: 24-28) by the destruction of all who refuse to obey Him. The Sabbath given to man in Eden to be a weekly sign and memorial of the power of God in blessing man, is now universally recognized and kept by all.
Reader, will you be among that happy company? Remember the Lord Jesus Christ has done all that can be done to save you. There is one thing Heaven can not do; namely, it can not force any one to yield obedience. This must come by your choice and complete surrender of all you are and have to Jesus Christ. Make the wise decision for eternity, and make it now.