A Mistaken Statement

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Dec 16, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 20.

A Mistaken Statement.

THE sermon reported in the Sunnyvale (Cal.) Standard of November 12 says:

"The old Jewish Sabbath was established to meet the conditions of a peculiar climate and stage of civilization, but even this day was changed to meet a special condition. When the Israelites compelled Aaron to make the golden calf, it was apparent to Moses that they were still imbued with the idolatrous belief in the sun-worship of the Egyptians. In order to stamp out this heresy, Moses was inspired or directed by the Lord to change the Sabbath from the Sunday of the Egyptians to Saturday, and the latter became the sacred day of the week until the time of Christ; and the idolatry inherited from the Egyptians was thereby stamped out."

Surely this is a paragraph of errors, and yet it is like many others in defense of the Sunday. In the very first place, the Sabbath which the Lord gave the Jews was the identical Sabbath of the creation. That will be seen by any one who wishes to compare Gen. 2:2, 3 with Ex. 20:8-11. It is the same day given for the same reasons.

The Egyptians did worship the sun, and when they reverted to the sun-worship of the calf Apis, they doubtless went back to the keeping of the Sunday, but that in no wise affected the Sabbath of the Lord. There is absolutely no record whatever that Moses ever even sought to change the Sabbath from the Sunday of the Egyptians to Saturday; neither is it true that idolatry inherited from the Egyptians was stamped out by the time of Christ. The old sun-worship continues clear down to the present time, and Sunday is one of its relics brought over into the Christian church by half-converted pagans, and by many honest Christians supposed to be the Sabbath of the Lord.

The best way in all such cases is to accept not of what some man says, but what the word of God says.