Question Answered by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 14, 1879

Question Answered.

By Editor

Does Rom. 14 : 5, 6, “He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord,” justify any one in observing Sunday as the Sabbath? INQUIRER.

We cannot imagine how this can be so construed as to justify the observance of Sunday, or the neglect of the seventh day. If it refers to the weekly Sabbath at all, it cannot then be referred to a day not mentioned in the Scriptures as the Sabbath. We should be pleased to know on what principle it can be made to justify Sunday keeping; we have never yet known such a claim to be made on this text.

It is sometimes claimed that the text proves that the keeping of the Sabbath is a matter of indifference. But we think this is by a misapprehension. There is certainly some limitation in the case of “all things” which a man may eat. It cannot go beyond the things which are eatable. Evidently this refers to observances which had been considered binding, but were so no longer. So there is a limitation to the term “every day.” By referring to Ex. 16:4 we learn that “every day,” when applied to secular purposes does not include the Sabbath of the Lord. It must be proved that the Lord’s holy day, enjoined in the moral law, was ever included in secular things, or things indifferent, before anything can be inferred against it from Rom. 14.