THE SABBATH AND THE CRUCIFIXION.
By B. L. Dieffenbacher
FEW other Bible subjects have ever been held more sacred in the Christian's mind than has the Sabbath. At the present time, the agitation of its observance is worldwide. It is one of vital importance to every believing child of God, because it involves one of God's plainest commandments; and the consequences of our obedience or disobedience of it reach into eternity. The fourth commandment says that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God" (Ex. 20:10), and commands us to "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (verse 8). But the great majority of professed Christians keep Sunday, the first day of the week. The question is often asked as to which of these two days God requires to be kept holy. Another question is common—Does it make any particular difference with the Lord, just so we recognize one day in every seven as holy time? That it does make a difference, and that God is particular, is revealed in His dealings with His people in past ages, the account of which is "written for our learning," that we may know Him with whom we have to do. Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11.10 Take the case of the sons of Aaron, who offered "strange fire" before God, which He had forbidden. They died before the Lord. Lev. 10:1-3. Uzzah disobeyed God's word that they should not touch any holy thing, lest they die. Num. 4:15. He only put his hand to the ark, but there he died before the Lord. 1 Chron. 13:9, 10. God commanded Lot and his family to flee from wicked Sodom. He said, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee." Gen. 19:17. Lot's wife thought God was not particular, and looking back, "she became a pillar of salt." Verse 26. "Remember Lot's wife." Luke 17:32. God sent Saul to destroy Amalek, to "utterly destroy all that they have." 1 Sam. 15:1-3. But he failed to do as God had commanded. Verses 7-9. And yet when God sent Samuel to him, twice, in the face of God's word through His prophet, Saul said, "I have performed the commandment of the Lord." Verses 13, 20. So with many who observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh day commanded by the Lord. Ex. 20:8-11. They say, "I have obeyed the voice of the Lord." It was not until Samuel said, "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee," that Saul realized that God was particular. He then confessed his sin, and said, "I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words; because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice." Verse 24; see also verses 22, 23. But his confession came too late. Many professed Christians to-day fear the people, and obey their voice, when, like Saul, they know they are transgressing the commandment of the Lord in keeping the first day of the week as the Lord's day, instead of the Sabbath. The time is coming also when they, like him, will confess that they have "transgressed the commandment of the Lord" in keeping the first day instead of the seventh. God grant that it may not be too late. Therefore I pray you in Christ's stead to obey God now, "before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you." Zeph. 2:2; Rev. 6:15-17. God's law is the truth (Ps. 119:142), and our eternal life depends upon our obedience of faith to the fourth commandment as much as upon obedience to the other nine. In the teachings of Christ, He deals with the Sabbath commandment more than He does with any of the other commandments. And His words are spirit and life; He only hath the words of eternal life. John 6:63, 68. "The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me." John 14:24. As Jesus received these words from His Father and gave them to His first disciples, they, too, received and kept them. John 17:6, 8. When Jesus said unto them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27), He received this commandment from His Father; for He says, "I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father which sent Me. He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment [whether spoken of the Sabbath or any other] is life everlasting; whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak." John 12:49, 50. God is just as particular about the Sabbath commandment of His Word as about any other. He who puts the Word of God from him, judges himself unworthy of everlasting life. Acts 13:46. The Sabbath at the Cross.
There are many Christian people who truly believe that Christ abolished the seventh-day Sabbath in His death, and that after His resurrection on that first day morning, He instituted the first day as His memorial of that event. But this is as impossible as it would be for the sinless One to become the sinful one. Christ was manifested in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8. Had He abolished the Sabbath in His death on the cross, He would have permitted to be done through Him what the devil had been trying to do for ages. The Sabbath has always been the sign by which "ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Eze. 20:20. It is the sign of God's creative power (Ex. 31:17), by which His people were to know Him from the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth; for "there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." 1 Cor. 8:5, 6. God created all things by Jesus Christ. Eph. 3:9; John 1:3; Col. 1:16, 17. Man was the crowning work of all that God created, and He purposed that man should ever remember Him in Jesus Christ as Creator. To this end "He hath made a memorial for His wonderful works." Ps. 111:4 (Rabbi Leeser's translation). This memorial was to endure throughout all generations. Ps. 135:13; 102:12. By remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy, all generations would remember that their Creator, the Lord, "is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King;" and that "the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens." Jer. 10:10, 11. Satan's Purpose—False Conception of God.
Satan was well aware that the eternal life of God's people depended on their knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. To know the only true God is to know the Creator of all things, which He wrought in six days. Therefore, before Satan could influence men to set up and worship idols and graven images, he must destroy their knowledge of the Creator. But how could he do this? how could he cause man to worship and serve the creature more than the Creator?—By destroying the Sabbath, the memorial of God, the Creator. Ex. 20:8-11. Then it was that the people "provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods," and "sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not [as Creator], to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not." Deut. 32:16, 17; Lev. 26:1, 2; Eze. 20:12, 13, 16. How well Satan has succeeded in causing man to change "the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things," needs no proof. I only need call attention to the idolatrous nations of to-day and past ages. That these nations at one time knew God, is evident, not only from the Scriptures, but from "A Chart of the Week," by Rev. Wm. Mead Jones, D.D., showing the unchanged order of the days and the true position of the Sabbath, as proved by the combined testimony of ancient and modern languages. Of one hundred and sixty different languages, one hundred and eight show in the unchanged form of the week, a knowledge of the Sabbath of the Lord, the memorial of the Creator. But when they knew God, as Creator, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Rom. 1:21. And as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge (verse 28) by remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy, they "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever." Rom. 1:25. A Safeguard against Idolatry.
In the Sabbath, from the creation of the world, the invisible things of God are clearly seen, "being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Rom. 1:20. Had His people not been unfaithful, and by polluting the Sabbath day (Eze. 20:16), forgotten God that formed them (Deut. 32:18), the devil never could have turned them unto idol-worship, nor influenced them to make unto themselves molten gods (Lev. 19:3, 4); and no Sunday Lord's day, or first-day sabbath, would ever have found a place in the minds of God's people, or in the Christian church. But the Sabbath, God's memorial, would have continued forever as the day of rest and worship, as revealed in Jer. 17:21-27. God sent His prophet to the kings of Judah, and all Judah and Jerusalem, with a most blessed message of deliverance for their city for all time to come, even forever. If they would but hallow the Sabbath day to do no work therein, then, said the Lord, "This city shall remain forever." The fact that the city could only remain forever on condition that they hallowed the Sabbath day as He had commanded their fathers, is divine proof that the Sabbath was to remain forever, just as God had commanded it to the fathers in Ex. 20:8-11. Jerusalem would remain forever only as they would hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein forever. God desired to instruct His ancient people in true Sabbath-keeping for their good for all time, but the same spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2) worked in them, and caused them to obey not, neither incline their ear, but made their necks stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction. Jer. 17:23. That spirit has not changed with the centuries that have come and gone since then. Satan is the same deceiver to-day that he was then and ever will be, even to the end of the world.