NO TWO OF THEM AGREE by George B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 22, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 33.

NO TWO OF THEM AGREE

By George B. Thompson

Shall We Stand on the Shifting Sands of Tradition, or on the Eternal Rock of God’s Word?

MANY and varied reasons have been assigned by those who keep Sunday, as to the exact ground for observing the day. The task would be very easy if there were any Scriptural evidence for keeping the day. All that would be necessary would be to cite the text where God commanded man to keep the day, and that would settle the question. But as there is no such text to cite, and not a scrap of Scriptural evidence anywhere available, neither any example of the Saviour nor of His disciples, the case is more difficult. Men are left to guess, and conjure up some reason of their own devising; and like the witnesses who condemned Jesus, no two of them agree.

In a commentary on the book of Acts, I recently ran across the following from a learned expositor of Holy Writ. Commenting on Acts 1: 3, he says:

“‘The things pertaining to the kingdom of God.’ If the things which He spake were things pertaining to a kingdom, they must have been things pertaining to rule, to offices, to organization, to means of transmission, as well as to matters pertaining to internal or spiritual religion. Take, for instance, such a thing as the laying on of hands in confirmation. Such a rite, the inward grace of which is the gift of the Spirit, could not have been ordained by the apostles without some express direction from the Lord. It is first mentioned very early in the narrative (8: 17) in a way which implies that it was a stated rite of the church from the beginning. So with the laying on of hands in ordination (Acts 6: 6). It seems to have been practiced from the first, and so was doubtless one of the ‘things pertaining to the kingdom of God,’ of which the Lord spake before He was taken up. To these we may add the change of the day of weekly religious observance from the Saturday to the Sunday.”—“Acts of the Apostles,” by Sadler, page 4.

DISREGARDING AN EXPLICIT COMMAND

No text cited, no command mentioned, no rock of Scripture upon which to plant our faith! Just a mere guess, a human say-so! This is in line with the statement of another expositor, who gave a similar reason for keeping holy a day for which there is no command of God. Speaking of baptism, Mr. Binney says:

“It is true there is no positive command for infant baptism, nor is there any against it, as there should have been if Christ intended to abridge the rights of Jewish parents under the Abrahamic covenant. Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week, or for family devotion, or for women to receive the Lord’s Supper.”—“Binney’s Theological Compend,” pages 180, 181.

Here is a theological expositor, who, we are told in the preface of the book, spent fifteen years in the sole employment of preparing a popular commentary on the New Testament, forced to admit that there is no command in the Bible for keeping Sunday. Then why keep a day the Lord never commanded, and disregard a day He did command? One can scarce restrain astonishment at the reason assigned by this learned author for keeping the first day of the week as the Sabbath. Here it is:

“Jesus, after His resurrection, changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, thus showing His authority as Lord even of the Sabbath (Matt. 12: 8), not to abrogate or break it, but to preside over and modify, or give new form to it, so as to have it commemorate His resurrection, when He ceased from His redeeming work as God did from His creation work. Heb. 4: 10. “When Jesus gave instructions for this change we are not told, but very likely during the time when He spake to His apostles of the things pertaining to His kingdom. Acts 1: 3. This is probably one of the many unrecorded things which Jesus did. John 20: 30; 21: 25.”—Id., page 171.

CHOOSING THE SANDS OF TRADITION

THE best he can find is a “perhaps.” This is “very likely” thus and so. It is “probably” one of the “unrecorded things Jesus did.” There is no record of any one’s being commanded to keep the day, he says; to which we quite agree. Compare this flimsy pretext for the observance of an unscriptural institution with the command of the almighty God, which He handed down amid the grandeur of Sinai, and wrote with His own finger upon the unperishable stone:

“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 manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy 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.

Upon which will we take our stand? Will we, because of convenience, and to follow the easy, popular course, decide to stand on the sand of man’s tradition, or will we stand on the eternal rock of God’s word? There is a day coming when the lives of men will be tried as by fire. Then, if not sooner, we will wish to have our feet on a strong foundation, and the law of God written by the Spirit in the heart. G. B. T.