3103.—Who Changed the Sabbath?
By M. L. B.
Can we really say that any one ever changed the Sabbath? From the view-point of literal fact, it never can be said that the Sabbath is changed. Our correspondent truly suggests that God only could change the Sabbath. What made it a Sabbath, was the Lord's resting upon it. What sanctified it, was His setting it apart to be kept to His glory. What makes it a blessed day, was the fact that He placed His blessing within it. Inasmuch as Infinite Wisdom felt that it took three acts to make that a Sabbath,—resting, blessing, and sanctification,—and as all those acts were wrought by the Creator, and inasmuch as He has not told us anywhere in His Word from Genesis to Revelation that any change has ever taken place, we must conclude that the day remains the same. Really it could not be said that the fact of God's resting could be changed. He rested upon one day; namely, the seventh day of the septenary cycle. He rested upon no other; so just as long as eternity exists, that will remain a fact, the blessing of that day will remain a fact, the sanctification of that day will remain a fact. And justice to those who are commanded to obey, would demand that any repeal or setting aside of those acts should be just as public as the record of the acts; but God has not given us any such record. The command remains in force. When the change of the Sabbath is spoken of, reference is made to the practise of the Christian church. In the early days of the Christian dispensation a change did take place, beginning even in the apostle's day. That change was not in God's law or God's requirements, but in the church itself, which rapidly went into apostasy. Down as late as the fifth century, men were keeping two days, the traditional Sunday and the commanded Sabbath. It was not until a thousand years after Christ, that the first day was called the Sabbath. These are facts which can be abundantly attested in history. See "The Lord's Day the Test of the Ages," Bible Students' Library, No. 134. Price 10 cents.