Crucified Afresh by Le Roy E. Froom

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 21, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 15.

Crucified Afresh

By Le Roy E. Froom

NINETEEN hundred years ago, on Golgotha's cross, the Prince of Life was crucified by the Jews and Romanists. He was the Creator and Maker of the world, and the "Lord of the Sabbath," yet He was permitted thus to die. And, as if to heap ignominy upon Him, He was crucified between two thieves.

Later, in that midnight of the world called the Dark Ages, may be seen an astonishing likeness, another crucifixion—not now the "Lord of the Sabbath" between two thieves, but the "Sabbath of the Lord" between two thieves.

Strange it would seem to find our familiar Bible chained to the pulpits of our churches, written, perhaps, only in a foreign tongue; stranger still should we be forbidden to read or possess the Sacred Volume. Unbelievable would be the sight of bonfires fed by copies of God's great letter of love. Yet the day when the Bible was a forbidden book, and when it was burned by ecclesiastical order, was not so very long ago.

It was during these centuries that the two rival sabbaths came to the front—the Roman Sunday and the Mohammedan Friday. The seventh-day Sabbath, creation's memorial, was placed under the ban of papal anathema, and the first day of the week was exalted in its place. And in the seventh century, the followers of Mohammed, to distinguish their day of worship alike from the first and from the seventh day, chose Friday, the sixth day of the week, for their religious festival.

Even thus was the "Sabbath of the Lord," the seventh day of the week, or Saturday, crucified between the Mohammedan Friday and the Roman Sunday.

Let us beware lest we crucify our Lord afresh by crucifying and heaping contempt upon the Sabbath of which He is Lord.

LE ROY E. FROOM.