3268.—Identity of the Sabbath
By Editor
A correspondent asks the question as to whether we really do know which is the seventh day. The letter states: "So long as we keep one day in seven apart for God's service, we are undoubtedly fulfilling God's decrees. We know that ages long ago our day was only about four hours long, but the days are gradually and imperceptibly lengthening. The time will come when our day will equal fifty-five of our present days. . . . We educated Christians keep Sunday as the sabbath day, because it is the day most sacred and important to all Christianity, being the one upon which our Saviour rose from the dead. 'H. H. D.'" First it is utterly unreasonable to suppose that the Lord set apart a day for man holy unto Himself, that He commanded man to observe that day, and yet that He has so overruled matters that man is all at sea as to the particular day to be observed. We do not attribute such folly to any earthly government. Shall we charge it to the Most High? But He Himself has spoken very clearly as to which day is the seventh day. Certainly it was known at creation. Twenty-five hundred years this side of the creation of man, God made it known for forty years by the threefold weekly miracle of the manna, so that men could have no excuse regarding the day. He enshrined that day and its observance in the very heart of the moral law, the Ten Commandments. Fifteen hundred years later the Gospels themselves revealed the same day, "the Sabbath according to the commandment;" and that day comes just before the first day, and therefore must be the seventh. Ex. 20:8-11; Luke 23:56; Mark 16:1, 2. Therefore the world at the time of Christ knew which day was the Sabbath of the Lord according to the commandment, and the commandment was based on the original day and the Sabbath acts of God. Before us is a chart prepared by a noted antiquarian, the late Rev. William Jones of London, England. It presents the week in 160 different languages and dialects, giving the name of the week and the name of the days of the week. Of the 107 Oriental languages and dialects, 71 know the seventh day by the term "Sabbath" or its equivalent. Of the 53 European languages, 37 know the seventh day by the term "Sabbath." Of the 160 different languages and dialects, 108 call the seventh day by no other term than "Sabbath" or an equivalent to that. Many of the nations represented by these languages were widely separated from each other, having no commercial or national intercourse. It is one of the strongest proofs that all the nations received and acknowledged from that same common source, the original Sabbath, the sacred character of the seventh day. The history of the experience of the Jews proves the same thing, as do also astronomical calculations. Therefore we may know which is the seventh day, and keep it according to the commandment, as did our Lord and the early disciples. Secondly, the statement regarding the length of the day is pure speculation, one of which men know nothing, and it does not take into account at all God's overruling providence regarding His universe. But if the day were four hours long or four of our weeks long, it would not affect the Sabbath law, which does not command so many hours, but a certain day of the cycle, whatever the length of the day. Remembering this, the length of the day can have no bearing whatever upon the question. Thirdly, if Sunday is the most sacred and important day to all Christianity, of what worth is the statement, "So long as we keep one day in seven we fulfil God's decree"? The two statements are certainly not consistent; and if the writer believes that we do meet the commandment by keeping any day of the week, what objection has he to the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, which he discountenances later on by saying, "Surely we are not going to admit the Jewish law should dominate Christianity"? It is well to remember that all the written revelation we have from God comes to us through the Jews. God made them the depositaries of His truth, not to hold to themselves, but to give to the world. To them "pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God-blessed forever." Rom. 9:4, 5. And it is our Lord Himself that declares, "Salvation is of the Jews." John 4:22. The only hope which God gives the Gentiles at all is to abjure the world and sin and self, accept Christ, the hope of Israel, and receive adoption into the family of God. Thus they are no longer aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. See Rom. 2:28, 29; 9:6-8; 11:17-22; Eph. 2:11-20. And the true Sabbath of the Israel of God is ever and always the seventh day. Ex. 31:17. To set apart an institution to commemorate a work of God when God has said nothing whatever concerning it, is purely will-worship. The words of Jesus are, "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"