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Traditions of Men

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 16, 1858

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 13, No. 4.

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Traditions of Men.

By Castle Churchill

BRO. SMITH: Permit me to submit to the Review and (thus) Herald abroad a few passages of Scripture and thoughts. See Matt. xv. 3. "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" Here Jesus showed the Scribes and Pharisees how they transgressed and made void the Law of God by their traditions; and then quotes the 5th commandment and says, "Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." Verse 6. Now all we that keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath, have done just the same by the 4th commandment, by our traditions, that the Jews did to the 5th commandment. Verse 9. "But in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
The commandment of God is, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; (not of the Jews.) Here God condescends to give his reason to man why it is a holy, Sabbath day. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." Ex. xx, 8-11.
The Commandments of Men.—Wm. Tyndale, a great English reformer of the 16th century says, "We be lords of the Sabbath, and may change it into Monday, or any other day, as we see need; or we may make every tenth day holy, only if we see cause why; we may make two every week if it were expedient, or one not enough to teach the people. Neither was there any cause to change it from Saturday, other than to put a difference between us and the Jews, and lest we should become servants to the day after their superstition."
Questions. 1. What authority has a subject to change the law of his sovereign?
2. Can mortal man by any act of his own, change or disannul the law of his God, and make it void?
3. If he can change one of God's laws, could he not on the same principle, change them all? and if he can change the commandment, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, then it will be right to keep the first day of the week instead of the seventh, for this is the tradition of men.
Jesus asked the Jews, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? Now if the fourth commandment has been changed, or abrogated, the record of it must be in the New Testament; and if so, it can be found. But in vain have we searched for it; it is only inferred; and who can draw an inference that will do away with an express command of God and make it of none effect? Some say the day was changed by Constantine; but read the following testimony from the Douay Catechism, p. 143:
Question. "What is Sunday, or the Lord's day in general?
Answer. "It is a day dedicated by the Apostles to the honor of the most holy Trinity, and in memory that Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, sent down the Holy Ghost on a Sunday, and therefore it is called the Lord's day. It is also called Sunday from the old Roman denomination of Dies Solis, the day of the sun, to which it was sacred.
Q. Why was the Jewish Sabbath changed into the Sunday?
A. Because Christ was born upon a Sunday, rose from the dead upon a Sunday, and sent down the Holy Ghost upon a Sunday, works not inferior to the creation of the world.
Q. By whom was it changed?
A. By the governors of the church, the Apostles, who also kept it; for St. John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, which was Sunday.
Q. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
A. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants admit of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church." P. 58, Tract, Law of God.
This reminds me of my dream last night. I thought that I with some others was following some footprints that were left in the soft snow, and we supposed that we were traveling on the right track; but on ascending a beautiful rise of ground we came suddenly on a pack of dogs, who were all dressed in men's boots, and had made the tracks that we were following. My astonishment and surprise at such a discovery awoke me from my slumbers, and when I read the above quotation from a Catholic Catechism, surely thought I, we have been following the footprints of the beast.
See Dan. vii. 25. "And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand 1200 years," i. e., to 1798. "But the judgment shall sit, [upon the beast] and they shall take away his dominion [the saints are then taken out of his hand] to consume and to destroy it unto the end." See Rev. xiii. 5-8, also Rev. xiv. 12. "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and [have] the faith of Jesus." The 6th verse of this chapter begins with the preaching of the Advent doctrine by Wm. Miller and his colleagues, then follows right on each succeeding event. The second angel proclaims the fall of Babylon, the third angel delivers his message with a loud voice, and under this message are seen those that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Here is our patience to abound, Here with thy saints let me be found, And sacred keep the seventh day, And all of God's commands obey. Thus God will send the latter rain, And miracles be wrought again By those who in their Lord abide, And in his promises confide.
The next event in order is the resurrection of the dead, when the blessing pronounced on them will be realized, as Paul says, "The dead in Christ shall rise first," and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. Then will be the gathering of his saints, and afterwards the gathering of the vine of the earth, (the wicked) to be cast into the wine-press of the wrath of God.
By the grace of God I am resolved to keep all the commandments, and to lay all upon God's altar. I have conversed with some of my brethren and sisters, and they say they see no command for keeping Sunday, nor any good reason why we should not keep the day God set apart at creation and sanctified as holy time. From henceforth let us keep it holy unto the Lord, that the promise may be ours, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. lviii. 13.
From your unworthy brother striving to keep all the commandments and waiting for the return of our Lord. CASTLE CHURCHILL. New Hartford, Butler Co., Iowa, Nov. 27th, 1858.