OBJECTIONS TO THE SABBATH ANSWERED.
AN EXAMINATION OF THOSE TEXTS USUALLY QUOTED TO PROVE THE ABOLITION OF THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH.
The principal passages of Scripture quoted to sustain the no-Sabbath system are from the epistles of the Apostle Paul. It is our object to show that these texts do not mean what they are said to mean, and also to show their true application. We fully believe that when their true application is seen, that they will not present the least objection to the perpetuity of the seventh-day Sabbath. Objection 1. "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things; another who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not, judge him that eateth; for God hath received him. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth; yea, he shall be holden up; for God is able to make him stand. "One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks." Rom. xiv, 1–6. If we would rightly understand the words of the Apostle we should first learn the subject of his discourse. And here we would say that he makes no reference to any of the commandments of God in Rom. xiv. His subject relates to eating, and those feast-days which some of the church then regarded, while others did not regard them. The word eateth is mentioned in this chapter eleven times, eat three, meat four, and drink twice; but the Sabbath, which many suppose is the subject of this chapter, is not once mentioned. That we may better understand the application of this, and similar portions of Scripture, let us take a brief view of some of the trials of the early church with whom the Apostle labored and suffered. A portion of the Christian church were converts from the circumcision or Jews, and a portion from the uncircumcision or Gentiles. The converts from the circumcision were inclined to still hold on to, and practice some of the customs and ceremonies of the Jewish religion, while the Gentile believers were free from those customs, having never been educated in them. Peter did not understand that the gospel was for the Gentiles also, until God gave him a vision upon the house-top, and sent him to preach to them at the house of Cornelius. He would not eat with the Gentiles or keep company with them until he was shown that God was "no respecter of persons." See Acts x, 1–45. Certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren that they must be circumcised in order to be saved. "Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them," and then went "up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question." There they were met by "certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses." After they had discussed this question, they came to the following conclusions, which they wrote and sent by chosen men "unto the brethren which were of the Gentiles in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia." "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." Acts xv, 28, 29. At Antioch, Paul withstood Peter to the face, and says that "he was to be blamed." His wrong consisted in eating with those who were converted from the Gentiles in the absence of those who were converted from the Jewish church, and then in presence of those from the circumcision refusing to eat with those from the uncircumcision. "But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" Gal. ii, 14. With these facts before us we may see that the subject of the fourteenth chapter of Romans applied directly to the trials of the church in the Apostle's day. We may also see that this subject does not directly apply to the church at this day; for divisions relative to feast-days and eating do not now exist, as they did in the apostolic church. The Apostle was giving the Romans a lesson of forbearance in relation to the Jewish views of eating and feast-days which some still retained. "Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not, judge him that eateth, for God hath received him." He did not take measures to rid the church at once of all those errors which the converts from the circumcision were inclined to cling to. The Apostle even had Timotheus, his fellow laborer, "whose father was a Greek," circumcised, that they might better find access to the Jews. He was "all things to all men," that by "all means" he might "save some." But, says Paul, "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is something." [Whiting's trans.] Cor. vii, 19. The keeping of the commandments of God is nowhere in the New Testament spoken of as a thing of little importance, as circumcision and feast-days are, but it is always made a test of christian fellowship, and eternal salvation. The uniform testimony of the New Testament writers relative to keeping the commandments is as follows. "If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments." Matt. xix, 17. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." 1 John v, 3. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a LIAR, and the truth is not in him." Chap. ii, 4. Those who read only the fifth and sixth verses of the fourteenth chapter of Romans, which speak of regarding and disregarding days, without an understanding of the Apostle's subject may suppose that the seventh-day Sabbath is referred to. But an understanding of his subject, his trials, and his labors with his brethren at Rome, destroys all reasonable grounds for even an inference that he refers to the Sabbath of the Lord. It is urged by some that Rom. xiv, 5, 6, "refers to every day," therefore includes the seventh-day Sabbath. So it may be urged with equal propriety that some of the early christians lived without eating, from the expression, "Let not him that eateth, despise him that EATETH NOT; and let not him which EATETH not, judge him that eateth." It is evident that the words "eateth not" was spoken in reference to those things forbidden by the Jews. It is also evident that the words, "every day alike" had reference only to disregarding feast-days. "Consistency is a jewel," and should ever be seen in those who teach the Holy Scriptures. Those who profess to believe that there is divine authority for observing the first day of the week as the Sabbath, should not refer us to Rom. xiv, 5, 6, for proof that the seventh-day Sabbath is abolished; for if they admit that St. Paul refers to a day of weekly rest, then their first-day Sabbath is at once overthrown. Therefore, those who observe the first-day are not wise in quoting this Scripture to prove us wrong in keeping the Sabbath. We are told by many of those who advocate the no-Sabbath doctrine that if we observe the Sabbath we shall fall from grace and certainly be lost; and Gal. v, 4, is quoted as proof.—"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." But this does not harmonize with their own view of what Paul has taught in Rom. xiv, 5, 6. They first tell us that we may esteem the seventh day above the other six, and keep the Sabbath; or we may esteem all alike and work on all seven days of the week. In either case we are safe, if the Sabbath is not made a test question. And then we are told that if we do esteem one day above another, that is, observe the Sabbath, we shall fall from grace, and call down on our own heads all the woes mentioned in the New Testament against those who rejected Christ, and went back to the observances of the Jewish law. Again, if the word