EIGHT REASONS WHY I OBSERVE THE SEVENTH DAY AS THE SABBATH.
By Francis M. Wilcox
CHRIST is the Author of the Sabbath. He made all things. Says the apostle, "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, or that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him." Col. 1:15-19. Read also John 1:1-3. In the work of the Creation doubtless the Father and the Son were associated together. In Gen. 1:26 we find God saying, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." Evidently He must have been speaking to another Person of the Godhead. The plural form of the pronoun indicates this. Hence as Jesus Christ is the Author of all things, as He was associated with the Father in the work of Creation, He is the Author of the great memorial of Creation, the Sabbath of the Lord. The question naturally arises, How did Christ create the Sabbath? The record of Gen. 2:1-3 clearly outlines this. The weekly cycle of seven days was before Him. He chose the seventh. Upon this He was pleased to rest, constituting it His own rest day. After resting upon it Himself, He was pleased to pronounce His blessing upon this seventh day, making it a holy day. Placing upon it His benediction, He sanctified it, or set it apart for the use of the human family. This brings me to my second reason. 2. The Sabbath was given to Adam, the father of the race, and through him to the human family in all ages. The words of our Saviour in Mark 2:27 bear out this: "The Sabbath was made for man,"—for the man Adam, the representative and father of all men. Note in this connection: (a) The Sabbath was given to man in his innocency. It was thus designed for the use of a holy race. (b) It was re-affirmed to man after sin entered, thus showing that God designed it for man in every condition. (c) It was the birthday of the world, the great memorial of God's creative power, and8as such is as enduring as the Creation of God. (d) In being given to the human family before sin entered, it therefore had no necessary connection with the types and ceremonies and offerings which came in in consequence of sin; hence it did not, like the ceremonial law, expire by limitation. (e) It was given to the human family before the existence of a Jewish nation; therefore was not in any sense Jewish in its origin or purpose. 3. The Sabbath was made an integral part of the great moral law of Ten Commandments. It was placed in the very bosom of that law, bulwarked before and behind, as tho God would preserve it from every assault, thus showing that it partook of the same moral character as do the other nine commandments. Ex. 20:8-11. Moral principles are eternal and perpetual. The law was not written upon parchment, but was engraved upon enduring stone. 4. The particular day of the Sabbath was signalized by a special miracle for forty years. In this way God pointed out the definite day of the week which He designed should be observed. Ex. 16:12-36. 5. The Sabbath was not only instituted by Jesus Christ as Creator, but was also kept by Him during His earthly life. Luke 4:16. And Christ not only observed it in His regular practise, but by His teaching and miracles He sought to remove from it the traditions by which the Jews had made it a burden, restoring it to its original design and purpose in the order of God. He thus recognized the existence of the law, and the Sabbath as a part of that law. Read Matt. 5:17-19; Matt. 12:1-12. 6. The Sabbath was observed by the most intimate disciples and associates of our Lord after His crucifixion and burial. Luke 23:54-56; 24:1. This scripture declares that they rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment, which could have been none other than the day enjoined by the commandment, namely, the seventh day of the week. It also proves that they considered the Sabbath day too sacred on which even to anoint the body of the blessed Lord, but they went on the first day of the week to do the work which they would not do on the seventh day. And the Lord Himself closed up His work on the sixth working day of the week, rested quietly in the tomb from His labor on the Sabbath day, and the first day of the week resumed once more the busy activities of His earthly life. 7. The Sabbath was not only kept by the intimate associates of the Lord after His death, but was likewise regularly observed and became a stated day of public worship by the great apostle to the Gentiles. Acts 17:1-3; 18:4-11. Please note that in these scriptures it was the stated custom of the apostle Paul to use the Sabbath as a day of worship, the same as in the case of our Lord; and Paul not only used the seventh day Sabbath as a day of regular worship in meeting with the Jews and Jewish converts, but he likewise used the same day in his labor for the Gentiles. Acts 13:42-44. 8. The Sabbath of the Lord will be observed in the future state when sin has been forever banished from the universe of God. Isa. 66:22, 23. The Sabbath, like a great arch, spans this world of sin, reaching from Eden to Eden. It was given to man in his innocency, and when Eden is restored, it will be observed by the whole family of the redeemed in harmony with the original purpose of God. Like a golden thread it has run through the warp and woof of this earth's history. Often it has been obscured by darkness and ignorance and superstition. Error has sought to break the strand, but the power of God has preserved it against every assault. And in that blessed day when truth is triumphant, when victory turns on the side of righteousness, and evil is forever vanquished, the Sabbath of God stands forth in its full resplendent glory, the great sign of God's power, the symbol, and likewise the earnest, of the blessed rest of all eternity.