The Sabbath Question

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 21, 1858

The Sabbath Question.

[The Israelite, at whose office we procured the translation and stereotyping of our German Sabbath Tract, speaks as follows concerning the Sabbath Institution and its supporters:]

It is a stubborn fact, that ever since the reformation, the Church is more or less powerfully but constantly active, to purify herself from the Heathen elements and embellishments, which amalgamated with her original spirit in the days of her worldly dominion. Also this is a fact, that the United States of America is the land emphatically, where this great work must be accomplished; for here for the first time since Christianity has existed, liberty of conscience has become a practical truth. Every man has the privilege to think for himself in matters of religion, or even to establish a sect of his own. We just begin, as it were, to think for ourselves, and we have gone pretty far already. This is especially the land for the development of the religious ideas and sentiments, because in Europe the oppression to which the Church lends an aiding hand, and the hypocrisy of the priests have rendered religion odious, while here a due deference toward it is maintained. It cannot be denied, that many blunders are made in this process of develop-

ment, a great many ridiculous theories and doctrines come to light, extravagant and futile creeds are set into the world; still, on the whole, this struggle of theories, ideas, creeds and sects, as it goes on in this country, leads to truth.

When the Church purifies herself of her Heathen elements, she must come back to her origin—Judaism. This will be done perfectly. The constitution of the U. States has already embraced the leading principles of the political laws of the Mosaic dispensation, even to such an extent that it excluded the Church from any and every participation in the popular government. Previous to this event even in the very infancy of this country the Puritans, adopted the Mosaic law as their sole guide in political government.

As regards the sects of the Church, the Unitarians, many Universalists and New Presbyterians deny the doctrine of the Trinity, and adopt the Mosaic dogma of the Unity. The Universalists like the Hebrews, believe the final salvation of all men without distinction of creed. Many eminent divines and sects deny the resurrection of the body and the last judgment day, and maintain the resurrection consists of the immortality of the soul, and the judgment day is perpetual. The original sin and hence also the redemption by the death of Jesus is boldly denied by all the reform organs. The Seventh day Baptists and a large and respectable sect, whose organs are the The Review and Herald, at Battle Creek, Michigan, and other papers, keep the Mosaic Sabbath.

The friends of this latter sect have issued a tract in English and German in favor of the Mosaic Sabbath, and against Sunday keeping. We believe we render a welcome service to our readers, in reviewing the principles arguments of the tract.

This tract sets out with the religious axiom (if we are allowed this term,) that the divine Law must be the sole guide of man in all his actions, and this will be the standard of judgment at the judgment day. It quotes the words of the Apostle, "by the law is the knowledge of sin." The next premise is, that the ten commandments are God's law, the law of the Covenant. From these two premises it follows, that every man believing in the revealed religion must observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath of the Lord.

The Sabbath, as commanded in the Decalogue, is not a national institution of the Israelites, because it was instituted prior to the existence of that nation, viz., after the creation of the world was finished, when God rested, blessed and sanctified this day as a day of rest for all men. In the fourth commandment reference is made to this very fact, "For in six days God made heaven and earth, and rested the seventh day." Here the author of the tract forgot to notice the passage of the Decalogue, [Deut. v, 15,] "And thou shalt remember, that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and God thy Lord brought thee out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, therefore God thy Lord commands thee to make the Sabbath-day." From this it would appear that the Sabbath was intended to be exclusively a national institute of the Israelites. But this passage gives not the cause for observing the Sabbath, this has been done before, it only intends to give a cause to the command of "That thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest like thee," with which the previous verse concludes.

The tract then sets forth, that the Sabbath is not a type of redemption, which as some Christian divines suppose, was superseded by the work of Jesus. For the Sabbath points not to a future but to a past event, to the finishing of the creation and God's rest. This event and the day instituted to commemorate it, would have remained the same, if Jesus had never come. The day itself remains the one blessed and sanctified by the Lord, even if none should observe it. For the same reason the Sabbath-day can never be changed; for the fact that God rested the seventh day and sanctified it as a day of rest, to man can never be undone, and the divine law itself contains no provision, which entitles to a change of day. Here the author of the tract should have referred to the words of the fourth commandment — where the accusative and the definite — point to a certain well known day, which is applied in verse 10, to the seventh day again with the definite — so that the day is evidently fixed. Hence among Israelites the Sabbath-day could only then be changed, if the Old Testament contains a provision to this effect, which is not the case. Among Christians this change could only be made by the authors of the New Testament, who, as the tract before us proves, have not done so.

Jesus has not changed the Sabbath; for no mention is made of such a change in the New Testament, and he is reported to have said that he kept the Father's commandments. John xv, 10. "Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John iii, 4. He maintained to have come not to abolish, but fulfill the Law. The author of the tract could have proved with certainty, that Jesus observed the Sabbath. For he not only had several controversies with the Pharisees whether this or that is lawful to be done on the Sabbath-day, but even taught his disciples a germ in regard to the Sabbath, "Man is not here for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is for man." He justified himself when plucking ears of grain on the Sabbath. What better justification could he have than the change of the day which he made, if he had changed it? Finally when he was placed before the high priest, the gospel tells, that witnesses, even false witnesses, were sought, in order to condemn him to die. If he had changed the Sabbath-day, they would certainly have brought evidence to establish this fact, which would have been sufficient to condemn him to death, as the Bible ordains, "Whoever defiles it (the Sabbath) shall surely be put to death."

The tract then examines the several objections of Christian divines to the Sabbath among which the chief point is that the alleged resurrection of Jesus took place the first day of the week. But the New Testament nowhere ordains that the day of resurrection should be kept holy, or that this day should supersede the day of the Lord.

If, indeed, the Sabbath day had been changed by the new dispensation, the Apostles and the early church should have kept the Sunday which is by no means the case. As regards the Apostles, it is evident from Luke xxiii, 56; Acts xiii, 14, 27, 42, 45; xvi, 13; xvii, 2; xviii, 1-4; that the Apostles always observed the Sabbath, nor had they a right to do otherwise, as their master kept the Sabbath holy. As regards the early church, there is plenty of historical evidence to substantiate the statement of the learned Wm. Tyndale, who writing in the sixteenth century said, the Sabbath was changed by men. Dr. Henry acknowledges that the first day of the week is not called the Sabbath in the Bible. Bishop Cranmer (born 1489) said, they observed the Sunday according to the judgment or will of the magistrates. Melanchthon, the friend of Martin Luther, confessed, that the Sunday keeping was not founded on any apostolic law, but rested solely on tradition. Neander says, "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance; and it was far from the intention of the Apostles to establish a divine command in this respect; far from them and the early apostolic church to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps at the end of the second century, a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin."

It was not kept in England and Scotland till the thirteenth century, although Christianity was introduced and societies formed in Scotland as early as the fifth century, and in England, it is probable, in the first century. Parliament was held in England on Sunday until the time of Richard II, when at the instigation of the Roman church it was adjourned till the following day, and Sunday-keeping was established by law; and since that time many Sabbath-keepers have suffered severe persecutions because of their adherence to the Sabbath of the Bible. Laws for the observance of Sunday were, through the influence of the Pope of Rome, passed in England before that time, but on account of an aversion to the change on the part of the people, they were not effectual.

The American Presbyterian Board of Publication in Tract 118, states that the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath did not cease till it was abolished, after the empire became christian, i. e., till the Bishop of Rome became omnipotent. Therefore, the Waldenses who never submitted to the authority of the Pope, according to the testimony of Mosheim, (Vol. I, p. 332,) of Robinson in the history of Baptism, and Jones in his Church History, they observed the Hebrew Sabbath as late even as Charles XII of France, and long afterwards.

It is evident that the Sunday is a Popish institution, and that there is no cause in either the Bible or the early history of the Church for the violation of the Hebrew Sabbath as we observe it. The whole Christian community with the exception of a few are Sabbath-breakers. "Remember the laws of Moses my servant," &c., is the last word of the last prophet, which none should forget.