THE WORLD'S BIRTHDAY by Le Roy E. Froom

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 7, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 13.

THE WORLD'S BIRTHDAY

By Le Roy E. Froom

The Birthdays of Children Are Observed—We Memorialize Great Events in a Nation—Why Not Memorialize the Birth of a World?—Can the Dates of Such Events Be Shifted?

By LE ROY E. FROOM

WITH what joyful anticipation the child looks forward to his birthday—on the first of December, let us say. How many questions are asked about that birthday cake, with its candles! How slowly the days seem to drag—for a birthday can not be hurried up or changed, you know. It stands for a historic fact that no power can change, for it must forever remain that on the first day of December that baby boy was born. And each succeeding birthday, falling ever on the same day, with no possibility of a change, bears witness to this fact.

THE BIRTH OF THE WORLD

When the world came forth from the Creator's hand, it was the perfection of beauty. Step by step it was formed into a veritable Paradise, carpeted with foliage of softest velvet, and teeming with happy life. Creation week was the most wonderful week the world has ever known. From a dark, chaotic mass in the beginning, there came forth, in succeeding days, light, firmament, dry land and vegetation, sun, moon, and stars, fish and fowl, man and beast. By the word of the living God this marvelous transformation was wrought.

THE WORLD'S MEMORIAL DAY

A world had been born. Should not such a great event have a memorial—a birthday? Almost all notable events are memorialized. Each nation memorializes some notable event in her history, setting apart a day for that purpose, that her citizens may ever remember the event it commemorates. The signing of the Declaration of Independence is memorialized by the observance of the fourth of July.

Yes, the world has a birthday—a memorial. The crowning act of the Creator in the completion of this world was the setting apart of the Sabbath as creation's memorial. Thus reads the record: "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." Gen. 2:2, 3.

Again: "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 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.

CAN WE CHANGE INDEPENDENCE DAY?

The American Independence Day can never be changed from July 4 to any other day. It must forever remain a fact that on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by the representatives of the American colonies. Neither Congress nor any other power can change the day, for the event memorialized is one hundred and thirty-eight years in the past.

UNCHANGEABLE AS A BIRTHDAY

So with the Sabbath-birthday of the world; it is as unchangeable as the birthday of the child or of the independence of the nation. The fact must forever remain that the living God rested on the seventh day of the first week of this earth's history. God Himself can not change this fact, for He can not lie, and the event is nearly six thousand years in the past.

A MEMORIAL OF CONVERTING POWER

But that is not all. "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. Not only should the Sabbath bring to our minds the birthday of the world, but it should also remind us that the same creative power which brought the world into being can transform the heart and life.

With what holy joy, then, should every child of God look forward to the Sabbath as it comes to close the week of toil—the memorial of creation, and the sign of personal re-creation! How we should plan for it, prepare for it, and when it comes with the precision of eternity, observe it! Wonderful twofold birthday!