IS SATURDAY THE ORIGINAL SEVENTH DAY?
By L. A. R.
IF God has instituted a day to be kept holy, surely He must preserve the identity of that day, else no one would know what day to observe. Genesis is a record of events, not of laws; and that argument is an absurd one which maintains that because the record of creation does not declare that the fourth commandment of the Decalogue was promulgated in Eden as it was from Sinai, therefore we are at liberty to reject the Sabbath. On the same basis, we would be justified in refusal to honor our parents; for where is there any statement to the effect that in Eden children were commanded to honor their father and mother? We might reason likewise in reference to other of the commandments. As to the records of time, there is no question but that Adam knew the definite day, for God started the weekly cycle with him. Twenty-five hundred years later, the world were disregarding the Sabbath. The Israelites had been in slavery in Egypt, and had not been permitted to observe the Sabbath. When God led them out of Egypt toward the promised land, He rained manna from heaven for them six days in the week, but on the Sabbath none fell. They were commanded to gather twice as much the day before, hence they knew when the Sabbath was coming. And when the Sabbath did come, they could not fail to see it, in the fact that there was no manna that day. So long as the Jews were a nation, they did not lose the record of the Sabbath. Coming to the time of Christ, we find, in Luke 23: 54, that Christ was laid in the tomb on the preparation day, "and the Sabbath drew on." In the fifty-sixth verse, we read that on the Sabbath the women rested "according to the commandment"; and Matt. 28: 1 tells us that the next day was the first day of the week. Here is a definite statement that the Sabbath according to the commandment lies between the preparation day and the first day of the week. There is no other Sabbath according to the commandment given in the Bible. This is a matter in which there is no occasion for any controversy. The Jews in all parts of the world have exactly the same records; and there is no nation of modern times, whether it keeps Old Style or New Style, that has had any confusion with any other nation over this question of the weekly cycle. To-day the great mass of Christians call the day that corresponds to Christ's crucifixion day "Good Friday," and they call the Sunday that corresponds to His resurrection "Easter"; and the Sabbath lies between these two days just exactly the same now as it did in the days when Christ lay in the tomb. The conclusion is irresistible that if we want to rest on the Sabbath according to the commandment, we will have to do it on the same day that those devout women did who were personally associated with Christ when He was upon earth.