TWO SABBATH QUESTIONS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 31, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 42.

TWO SABBATH QUESTIONS.

IN the Herald of Gospel Liberty, published at Dayton, Ohio, a correspondent makes request for some one to show him "if any man kept any day for about the first 2,700 years after the advent of man on the earth or till after the law was written by Moses on Mount Sinai."

This is a very easy thing to show to any one who will not close his eyes to the scriptural evidence and refuse to see. About a month before the Israelites came to Sinai, they observed the seventh-day Sabbath in their camp "between Elim and Sinai." From that time on it was specially marked by the withholding of the manna on the seventh day. This incident is fully detailed in Exodus 16.

But this was not the beginning of the Sabbath-day institution. The Sabbath day had been practically obliterated from the minds of the people by Egyptian bondage, and was vividly brought to their attention again. Christ, by whom all things were created (John 1:1-3, 10; Col. 1:16, 17), tells us that "the Sabbath was made for man," and that He (Christ) is "Lord of the Sabbath day." Mark 2:27, 28. In Gen. 2:2, 3 we learn just when and why the Sabbath was instituted. Now we have it plainly set before us that the Creator (who was Christ) made the Sabbath for man when there was but one man and woman, and to argue that no man observed it for 2,700 years is not at all reasonable. That the masses fell away from obedience to God's law, Sabbath and all, is very true; the Deluge is evidence of that. That "death reigned from Adam to Moses" (Rom. 5:14) is proof that sin existed; for death is the result of sin (Rom. 6:23). And "sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4), therefore the law must have been in operation; for "sin is not imputed when there is no law." Rom. 5:13.

All the commandments of God are righteousness (Ps. 119:172; also verses 137, 138, 144); therefore the Sabbath commandment in the beginning was righteousness. While the antediluvians eventually became so corrupt that God summarily destroyed them, yet there were all the time some righteous ones who obeyed God. Abel, Enoch, and Noah are especially noted; and after the Deluge God testifies that "Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Gen. 26:5. But even if the commandment of God were ignored by every man in the world, the validity of the statute would not be affected, nor would the obligation be cancelled. When Adam disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit, the commandment was not annulled. God's laws are not repealed in that way. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17.

No New Law Needed.

The same correspondent asks that some one will show him "any place in the New Testament where Christ or any of the apostles recommended the keeping of any day, except assembling themselves together on the first day."

There was no occasion for any special recommendation concerning the day of the Sabbath in those times. Christ told the people plainly that He had not come to destroy one jot or one tittle of the law, but to fulfil it. To fulfil the law means fully to obey it. There was no question among either Jews or Christians in those days about the day of the Sabbath. The law which Christ came to magnify and make honorable (Isa. 42:21) settled that point. The practise of the disciples of Christ is plainly indicated by the action of the women who followed Him to the cross on the day before the Sabbath. "They returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came unto the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared." Luke 23:56; 24:1, R. V.

Further along we have the practise of Paul recorded. While at Corinth for a year and a half he worked at his trade as a tent maker with Aquila and Priscilla during the week, and preached to the people in the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath day. When the Jews would no longer allow him that privilege, he preached to the Gentiles and others who would listen in a house near the synagogue. Here he did not change his custom, which would have been quite natural had he been disposed to set forth another day as the Sabbath. Acts 18:1-11. This action corresponds with his experience at Antioch in Pisidia. See chapter 13:42-44. The apostle John, when in exile on Patmos,

had a vision while "in the Spirit on the Lord's day," thus indicating that he was observing the Sabbath. But the only weekly Sabbath that the Lord ever has designated as His "holy day" is the seventh day of the week. Isa. 58:13. And this is the day He set apart and blessed in Eden, and commanded on Sinai, and observed in person while on earth; and which His apostles continued to observe after His departure. This is the day He made holy, and which He commands us to remember and keep holy. Man can not make any day holy, nor can he keep any day holy which competent authority has not made holy. G.