THE TRUE SEVENTH DAY

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Jul 21, 1853

THE TRUE SEVENTH DAY.

Has the correct numbering of the days of the week been preserved so that the real seventh day may now be known? We will show that it has, and that there need be no doubt on this point.

We would first remark that it is frequently the case that when we urge the claims of the fourth commandment upon individuals, those, too, who profess to observe the first day of the week in honor of Christ's resurrection, they object on the ground that we cannot tell which the true seventh day is. They, however, have no difficulty in ascertaining when the first day of the week comes. Such are not a little inconsistent. For if they know when to observe the first day of the week, as a sabbath in honor of the resurrection of Christ, they also know when the seventh day should be observed, to commemorate God's Rest on the seventh day of the first week of time. Certainly, the Sabbath [Rest] of the Lord, comes the day before their sabbath.

But God has pointed out the true seventh day, at certain periods of time, in a manner sufficiently plain to satisfy the most sceptical mind that has any faith in divine revelation.

On the seventh day God rested, after his work of creation in six days. After he had rested on the seventh day, he then and there—and at no other time and place—"blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested." Gen. ii, 2, 3.

Now, pass down from creation to the giving of the manna, [Ex. xvi,] a period of about 2500 years, and it will be seen that there the God of heaven pointed out the true seventh day, which is called, "the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." Speaking of the manna, it is said: "Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none."

"And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none." Verses 26, 27.

There God pointed out to Israel the true seventh day by withholding the manna on that day. He who rested on the seventh day, and then sanctified the day of his rest, in pointing out the day to Israel, knew when to withhold the manna. Thus the seventh day, which God made holy at creation, was pointed out.

Now, pass down over a period of about 1600 years, to the First Advent. There the Son of God claims to be Lord of the Sabbath. "Therefore, the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark ii, 28. It will be admitted by all, that the Lord of the Sabbath knew when the day of the Sabbath came. So the knowledge of the true seventh day is preserved to the church of Christ. The most intimate followers of the Lord of the Sabbath, beheld how the body of their Master was laid in the sepulchre, then "returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke xxiii, 55, 56. To do this, they must have had knowledge of the true seventh day; for the commandment says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord."

If the real number of the days of the week had been lost at some time from the creation to the First Advent, it would not at all affect the question. For the Eternal God, in giving the manna, pointed out the true seventh day, the day on which he rested, about 2500 years after creation. And then his Son, who came into the world about 1600 years after the giving of the manna, claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath.—If the true seventh day had been lost during that 1600 years, he would most certainly have corrected the error. As he corrected no such error, but kept the day then observed as the Sabbath, it is certain that the true numbering of the days of the week had been preserved during that 1600 years.

We would say to those who hold that the Sabbath is merely Jewish, that to admit that the true numbering of the days of the week was lost during that 1600 years, would reflect greatly upon the character of their Jewish Law-giver. It would charge him with giving the Jews the law of the seventh-day Sabbath, with the penalty of death for its violation, then leaving them without sufficient means to retain the knowledge of the day he commanded them to observe!

A small portion of the professed church, however, hold that the Sabbath is Jewish. The body believe that it was made for man at creation, and was to be perpetuated through all time. The fact that another day is now generally observed for another reason, (though wholly unscriptural,) does not affect this point. For those who hold that the Sabbath was made for man, to doubt whether the true number of the days of the week has been preserved from creation, equally reflects on the character of God.

But as strange as it may appear, there are those at the present time who profess to believe that the first day of the week is the true seventh day. The absurdity of this view is fully and fairly shown in an article headed, "Is Sunday the True Seventh Day?" by "J. N. A.," published in the REVIEW, Vol. III, No. 7. From that article we quote the following:—

In what year of the Christian Era did all Christendom change the reckoning of the week, and thenceforward call the seventh day of the week the first day? What historian records this extraordinary event? If there is such a writer, how does he explain that all the jarring sects and contending factions of the professed church, scattered over the face of the wide earth, and fiercely warring with each other, should by a simultaneous mistake, without a dissenting voice, adopt the idea that the seventh day was in reality the first day of the week? As there is no such writer, who knows that such an event ever did happen?

But how did it happen that the Jews who had the knowledge of the true Sabbath as late as Jerusalem's destruction, [Matt. xxiv, 20,] and who were then dispersed into all nations under heaven, [Luke xxi, 24,] made a corresponding mistake? Does not the fact that they have ever hated those who have even nominally borne the name of Christ, forbid the idea that they would ever agree to such a change in the reckoning of the week? If such an agreement was ever made between the parties, was it not on this wise: the Christians were to call the seventh day from thenceforth the first day of the week, and the Jews out of respect to this new method of reckoning the week, were to take up the sixth day in the place of the seventh, which they then and there relinquished, and, thenceforward call the sixth day the seventh; and observe it religiously as such. But as such an agreement never could take place, and certainly never did, will you say that both parties might make a mistake in the case? Do you think it possible that every individual in every sect and order in the Christian world, could, at the same moment, make precisely the same mistake? And as they had previously, according to this theory, kept Sunday because it was the seventh day of the week, how could they, after making the supposed mistake in the reckoning, go forward and keep it because it was the first day, and no one dissent or notice that any change had happened.

But is it not a still more extraordinary thing, that not only every Christian made a mistake in the reckoning of the week at the same moment of time, but every Jew, also, in every land under heaven, made at the same moment, precisely the same mistake?—Should you not think that if the idea of keeping Sunday as the first day of the week, did not bring even a single Christian to his senses, when before the time of this mistake all of them had kept it as the seventh day, I say, should you not think that when they saw the Jews keeping one day, and themselves observing another, (when before this mutual mistake, Jews and Christians, according to this theory, both kept Sunday as the seventh day,) that this would have led some of them to see that something was wrong?

Let me state this doctrine: Jews and Christians throughout the world, were once united in keeping Sunday as the seventh day. At a certain point of time, every professor of Christianity throughout the world mistook the reckoning of the days of the week, and, calling Sunday the first day of the week, thenceforward kept it because it was such! While every Jew throughout the world, at the same time, by mistake, called Sunday (the day which he had always observed) the first day of the week, and selecting the sixth day or Saturday, he thenceforward religiously observed it as the true seventh day!!!

But as there is still another witness, who has kept the reckoning of the days of the week, we inquire again. Perhaps, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, the point may be established. The Mahometans kept a different day of the week from either Jews or Christians. Do they reckon the days of the week in the same manner that Jews and Christians do? Mahomet selected the sixth day of the week as a Sabbath for his followers. Is it not a remarkable fact, that the sixth day of the Mahometan week corresponds exactly to the sixth day of the week as reckoned by Jews and Christians?

If it can be supposed that all who bear the name of Christian, of every sect, and in every land, could all make the same mistake at the same moment, and no one of them perceive or rectify it; if, in addition to this, we can go another step and conclude that the Jews, who are dispersed in every corner of the habitable earth, could all, without dissent, at the same time, make a mistake that should exactly correspond to that of their hated and hating Christian brethren, have we not gone as far in believing absurdities as you can ask us to go?

But when we have agreed to all this, you require us to take another step in absurdity. The Christians, to a man, made this mistake in the reckoning of the week; at the same time, and to a man, the Jews made a mistake that precisely corresponded; and to crown the whole, the Mahometans made a mistake in the reckoning of the week that precisely corresponded to that of the Jews and Christians! "Believest thou all this?!" If a mistake had been made, is it not absolutely certain that there would be a discrepancy somewhere? As there is no such discrepancy, is it not absolutely certain that no such mistake exists? We can hardly find it in our power to believe that the inhabitants of a single school-district could, at the same point of time, make a mistake in the days of the week, and to heighten the wonder every one make precisely the same mistake! But when we extend this simultaneous act to all the districts in a town, thence to all the towns in a county, thence to all the counties in a state, and thence to all the states in the Union, we have carried the matter almost an infinite distance beyond reason or credibility.

But as there are three vast bodies who have kept the reckoning of the week, we will introduce two other nations, that each witness may be represented.—We will begin with England. At the same time when every individual in this nation (in the case supposed) made a mistake in the reckoning of the week, every individual in England made a mistake on the same point, so as to correspond exactly to the mistake made here. (Else a discrepancy in the reckoning would show an error at once.) And at the same moment, every individual in France made a mistake corresponding exactly to the mistake made by every individual in England and the United States. And so perfectly deceived was every one of these persons, that they continued their dates, records, &c., and never mistrusted that a mistake had been made!

But all this is not so remarkable as the supposed mistake of Jews, Christians, Mahometans, and all nations! That these classes, each composed of many millions, not confined to any country, but scattered in every land under heaven, should all make a mistake—should all make the same mistake, and should all make the same mistake at the same time, and no individual of the number ever discover, or ever suspect that such a mistake had taken place, is a theory not only absolutely unreasonable and in the highest degree absurd, but it is positively beyond the power of those who would, to credit it!!