p. 16 | Nothing To Do with It

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 3, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 23.

Nothing To Do with It.

THE Word and Works, a religio-astronomical journal of St. Louis, is publishing a series of articles by Mr. C. T. Kenney, entitled, "Astronomy You Can Understand." Referring to them, the editor, Mr. Irl R. Hicks, says:

"A critical reading of these chapters will indicate what a Herculean task is assumed by those who attempt to give us the exact original Sabbath day. We know how easy it is to raise an issue on this subject, as well how hard it is to prove any one day, 'the certain day from Creation.'"

Mr. Kenney's article in the May issue is on the calendars, and Mr. Hicks ought to know, as every unprejudiced scholar does know, that the calendars have nothing to do with the days of the week. It matters not whether we reckon time by the Julian calendar or the Gregorian calendar, the days of the week are identical, for the simple reason that the calendars do not give the day of the week, but the day of the month and the day of the year.

All changes in calendars were not made to adjust the weekly cycle, but the yearly cycle. This ought to be plain to every one. The weekly cycle goes as far back as history gives us written record of man. The Bible places it at Creation; ordained by Jehovah Himself, and given to man to keep. To say that we know nothing about that is to impugn God's wisdom, not alone in the record of Creation, but in the fourth commandment of the Decalogue. Neither does he who believes in the inspiration of the Bible need to go back to Creation and reckon from there as to whether the days of the week then coincide with the days of the week now. God has mightily helped in this respect. However the world may have gone astray in the early ages regarding the identical Creation week, the forty-year tri-weekly miracle of the manna set man right at the time of the Exodus. See Exodus 16.

The record of the four evangelists at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ again informs us that the Sabbath "according to the commandment" was the day just before the first day of the week; and no one acquainted with history will contend that the account of the days of the week has been lost since that time.

It is hard indeed to understand how one who professedly makes the teaching of the truth so very important as does Mr. Hicks, should endeavor to cloud wisdom by such a reference as this to the calendar and week. "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure."