THE SABBATH by L. A. Phippeny

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 15, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 11.

THE SABBATH

By L. A. Phippeny

BY L. A. PHIPPENY

APOSTASY AND SABBATH REFORM. NO. I.

What We Have Learned.

A REFLECTION on the studies thus far brings to mind the following, among other essential facts, regarding the seventh-day Sabbath.

The Sabbath is the memorial or sign of Creation.
The Sabbath is the sign of sanctification,—the sign of redemption.

From the foregoing fundamental facts note the following:

The Sabbath is an essential part of the everlasting covenant, which, in all its details, was forever established by the death of Jesus the Testator.
It is the only part of the everlasting covenant, or law of God, which definitely tells who the true God is,—the Maker of heaven and earth, and sea, and all that in them is.
It is a knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ who, representing the Godhead, came to save sinners, that constitutes life eternal for the believer.
The blessings of life eternal through the Gospel were prepared from the foundation of the world—for this world—and from eternity for all worlds. The possession of life eternal means everlasting rest—the keeping of a continual Sabbath in Christ. Hence, the Sabbath is the sign of redemption.
The Gospel of Christ is the Gospel of supreme love. Hence, the Sabbath as a sign of redemption through the Gospel is the sign of the reception by faith of the love of God in Christ. God is love. The Sabbath therefore signifies love and joy and delight in the Lord, as opposed to ceremonialism and restricted freedom. It signifies the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Result of Losing Sight of Truth.

Just to the extent that these positive truths have been lost sight of in any age of the world has darkness and error found a foothold. This was primarily true in the beginnings of sin, whether in Lucifer in heaven or in Adam in this earth. Sin was a departure from right and life, and God in Jesus Christ was and is the origin and the sum and substance of right and life. To depart from life means death. Jesus Christ is the only way of life. There is another way, but it is the way of death. Then when another way was chosen by Lucifer or by Adam, it was not God's way. It was the way of another, and it was the way that led to ruin and death. In Lucifer's case it was his own way; in Adam's case it was Lucifer's way in him. In either case it was the choosing of another god than the God who created heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is; and the other god could neither give nor sustain life.

Then whenever another god, or a multitude of gods or idols are chosen instead of the true God, what can result but a departure from right precepts and principles, and the introduction of false doctrines and the worship of some strange god? How essential, then, that the facts respecting the true God, the great Creator of all things, should be kept always in mind. This the Sabbath was and is designed to do. Especially is there necessity of this in a world in which sin has found a foothold.

And so the Lord said to Israel: "I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments and do them; and hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." And again: "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. 20:19, 20, 12. Just so long as the people would see God through the Sabbath and would rely upon His power to enable them to keep His statutes and judgments, so long would they be kept from sin and from departing from Him. Then they would be His people, and He would be their God, and do through them all that He wished to do.

But they did not remain faithful. "They despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols." Eze. 20:16. Four times in this chapter is this reason given for their departure from God, and the statement made that in backsliding they polluted the Lord's Sabbaths. This would necessarily be so if they forsook Him to go after other gods, for they would either wholly disregard the Sabbath or make a pretense of honoring it while their hearts were going after other gods. Either would be pollution of the Sabbath, for its true signification would be perverted. Over and again Israel was led into the idolatry of the nations around them. In speaking of their departures from Him the Lord has recorded such expressions as the following, in harmony with the foregoing: "They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law; and forgat His works, and His wonders that He had showed them;" "They believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation;" "Their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant." Ps. 78:10, 11, 22, 37.

Of Universal Application.

These truths respecting apostasy are applicable in every age. For if the knowledge of God is dimmed through sin, His laws are disregarded. And it is fundamentally true that the sign of the true God, the Sabbath, which tells who He is, also passes from men's minds, is disregarded as to its intrinsic importance, and hence, in the definition indicated by the Lord Himself, is polluted. Between the foregoing facts and principles and Sunday observance there is a very close relation. It is not asserted at all in these studies advocating the seventh-day Sabbath that every observer of Sunday is an apostate from God. Attention is merely called to the principles involved, with an earnest hope that the truth may appear so clear and desirable that error shall be gladly abandoned when it is pointed out and shown to be error.