p. 79 | QUESTIONS by Benjamin Clark

Publishing Committee · Saratoga Springs, N. Y. · Jan 13, 1852

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 2, No. 10.

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QUESTIONS

By Benjamin Clark

From the "Sabbath Recorder."

QUESTIONS.

[Prepared for the Buffalo Christian Advocate, but refused a place in that paper.]

1st. Which day of the week did our Creator designate, bless and sanctify, and make the Sabbath or rest-day?

2d. Which day of the week does the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, expressly say "is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God"?

3d. When the disciples of Christ "rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment," (Luke 23: 56,) on which day of the week did they rest?

4th. Which day of the week does our blessed Saviour mean, when he says, "the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath-day"—"The Sabbath was made for man"—"It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath-day?"

5th. Which day of the week does the New Testament call the "Sabbath" some fifty-five times?

6th. Which day of the week did the Gentiles mean, when they wanted Paul to preach to them "the next Sabbath?" Acts 13: 42. The seventh day.

7th. Which day of the week would the people of Buffalo mean now, if they should ask a man to preach for them the next Sabbath? The first day.

8th. Does not this show that Papal Rome (or some other power) has "changed times and laws." (Dan. 7: 25,) so that the word Sabbath now means something entirely different from what the same word meant when the Acts of the Apostles were written?

9th. To which day of the week does the Apostle Paul refer when he speaks of "every Sabbath day," some twelve years after the resurrection of Christ? Acts 13: 27.

10th. To which day of the week did Luke refer by the expression "every Sabbath," some twenty-one years after the resurrection of Christ? Acts 18: 4.

11th. Is there any place in the New Testament where the term Sabbath or rest is applied to the first day of the week?

12th. Which day of the week do the Scriptures call "The Lord's day"—"My holy day"—"My Sabbath"—"The Sabbath of the Lord thy God"—the same which the Son of Man is now Lord of?

DARIEN. July, 1851.

Inasmuch as the above fair, simple, and candid questions could not find a place in the Buffalo Christian Advocate, I will here add a few quotations of Scripture which, in my humble opinion, are applicable to the case.

David says, "Thy law is the truth; all thy commandments are truth." Paul says, "They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." They have turned away their ears from this truth which says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath," and are turned unto one of the greatest fables that ever was taught in the name of the Christian religion, viz., that the first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath. Well hath Ezekiel prophesied, saying, "Her priests have violated my law, and profaned my holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them." They have violated the law in saying, "One day in seven" is the Sabbath, instead of "The seventh day." They have put no difference between the holy and profane—between what the Lord calls "my holy day," and a profane Sabbath, made by man. They have hid their eyes from the Lord's Sabbath—are not willing to examine the subject—no, not willing even to read a Sabbath Tract. Well hath Isaiah prophesied of these saying, "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant; therefore hath the curse devoured the earth." (Isa. 24: 5.) The words of our Lord Jesus Christ would seem to apply here, when he says, "Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For, laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the traditions of men."