Seven Bible Reasons for Observing the Seventh-Day Sabbath
By M. C. Guild
As there is an ever increasing number of people both in our own country and foreign lands who have begun the observance of the original Bible Sabbath, commonly known as Saturday, it may be of interest to note some of the prominent reasons for their belief and practise. 1. The Making of the Sabbath
Of this we read in Gen. 2: 1-3: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." When at the close of the sixth day the earth came forth complete from the hand of the Creator, and "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good," the Sabbath was then ushered in, thus making it the birthday of the world. It is therefore the memorial of creation. As long as the works of creation endure, so long will the Sabbath stand as a memorial of that great event; and we are told that the earth is established forever. Ps. 78: 69. Our Saviour says that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2: 27, 28. The statement that the Sabbath was made for man is unlimited, hence it was designed for all mankind in all ages. It is not Jewish, for it was made two thousand years before there was ever a Jew in the world. It was made in Eden before sin entered, hence it is not shadowy or typical in its nature. It could not therefore be affected by the passing away of the ceremonial law which came in later as a result of sin, consisted of types and shadows, and which was abolished at the cross. It is not a new doctrine, but is one of the "old paths" laid down for man to walk in from the beginning. If man needed it in sinless Eden, surely we need it now. 2. The Sabbath and the Law
The Sabbath was placed, at Sinai, in the center of God’s eternal and unchangeable law. In that law we read: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor they stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20: 8-11. Moses informs us in Deut. 5: 22 that God spoke these commandments with His own voice in the hearing of all the assembly. And the Lord positively asserts, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips." Ps. 89: 34. It must therefore be plain to all that since these commandments came from the lips of God, they can never be altered or changed in the smallest detail, much less in so important a matter as the change of the Creator’s sanctified day of rest. The psalmist says: "All His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Ps. 111: 7, 8. "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. 22: 14. 3. The Sabbath Is a Sign Between God and His People
"Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Eze. 20: 12. The company who are "redeemed from among men" at the second coming of Christ will be especially distinguished by having this sign, or seal, placed upon them. Rev. 14: 1-5; 7: 1-4. We wish, dear friends, to be among those who shall greet Him with joy and be found of Him in peace when He comes, keeping all of His commandments. 4. The Sabbath Kept by Christ and His Apostles
"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagog on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4: 16. From the time our Saviour was a little child, it was His custom to keep the Sabbath. And nowhere in the Word of God do we ever read of His keeping any other day. In this as in other things He was "leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps." 1 Peter 2: 21. Over twenty years this side of the crucifixion the record states that Paul observed the same day. "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Acts 17: 2. At a later period the Jews, Gentiles, and the apostle Paul attended divine worship for a year and a half at the same time and place and observed the Sabbath together. Acts 18: 1-11. Paul worked at tent making during the week, but he laid aside his work and attended divine worship on the Sabbath day. Thus it is plain that Paul was a Sabbath-keeper. All the early Christians kept the Sabbath, for we read in Heb. 4: 3, "For we which have believed do enter into rest." The "rest" into which they entered was the sweet rest that comes alone through Christ in Sabbath-keeping; for we read further of this same rest: "As He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest: altho the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works." Verses 3, 4.9 5. Christ’s Presence and Rest
The special presence of Christ is in the Sabbath as in no other day. Since He existed before the world was made (John 17: 5), and "all things were made by Him" (John 1: 3), it follows that He was the one who rested upon, blessed, and sanctified the Sabbath, after He had finished the great work of creation. It appears very appropriate that He should call Himself its Lord. It is His presence in the Sabbath that imparts to it a divine rest which can be found nowhere else. In ancient times the showbread, or bread of the presence, was prepared fresh every Sabbath. 1 Chron. 9: 32. This bread represented Christ, the living bread that was sent down from heaven to give life to the world. In like manner the believer who keeps the Sabbath as it should be observed, will find that the presence of Christ, the living bread, and His blessing, are renewed to him in a very special manner on the Sabbath. He can thus on that day especially— "Draw from Christ that sweet repose
Which none but he who feels it knows." This part of our subject, to be fully understood, must be experienced. Prophecy predicts a Sabbath reform in the last days, and clearly states that God’s remnant people will be a commandment-keeping and Sabbath-keeping people. "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. IF THOU TURN AWAY THY FOOT FROM THE SABBATH, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." A breach, or gap, has been made in God’s law by taking out the Sabbath commandment, and putting the first day of the week in its place. For centuries men have trampled the Sabbath underfoot. Now a people are being raised up all over the earth who are building up the old waste places by restoring the Sabbath to its rightful place in God’s law and by teaching it to others. They call it honorable, and cease to trample it underfoot. This same people are brought to view in Isa. 56: 1, 2. Please read the text. This scripture can apply to none other than the last days, for it is when "salvation is near to come." Peter says that this salvation is "ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1: 5. It will be noted that those who keep their hands from doing any evil lay hold of the Sabbath and keep it, no longer polluting that holy day. In Rev. 12: 17 and 14: 12, also in many other texts, the remnant people of God are described as commandment-keepers. This they can not be if they are found breaking the fourth commandment. 7. The Sabbath of the Eternal Future
The Sabbath will be kept by all the redeemed in the earth made new. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isa. 66: 22, 23. Thus the Sabbath is like a golden chain binding Eden lost to Eden restored. When rightly observed, it still brings to us something of the sweetness and fragrance of that Eden which man has lost, and gives a foretaste of what it will be in Eden above. Reader, these are a few of the reasons why there is a people being raised up throughout the length and breadth of the land who are turning away from the precepts and traditions of men to keep all of God’s commandments, including the ancient Sabbath of Jehovah. Would you not like to be numbered among them and share in their final reward?