SUNDAY A FESTIVAL

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 27, 1859

SUNDAY A FESTIVAL.

[Bro. SMITH: I herewith send you a letter that I received from Elder Shockey, of Ind., in answer to one that I wrote to a neighbor of his who is keeping the Sabbath, in which I sent him Bro. Andrews' reply to Litch's criticism on the Sabbath. Will you please answer his arguments through the Review. I. Sanborn.]

[In compliance with this request we give that portion of the letter which relates to the Sabbath question and our answer to the same.—Ed.]

As to the Sabbath question we are negative in reality. They ought to affirm in their own language, "The seventh day of the week, is, according to the New Testament, the Sabbath of the Lord Jesus Christ." We deny.

The New Testament teaches that on the first day of the week the disciples should meet together, to continue in the apostles' doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. We affirm. The Holy Scriptures teach that the law of Moses was abolished at the crucifixion of Christ. I affirm.

Either of these embraces the issue. If they are no more "doubtful" of this being the Sabbath of the Lord Jesus, than of their "existence," there will be no trouble about it. The first proposition is the proper one, as it will settle all controversy.

Your correspondent is wiser than what was written. Where is it recorded that "the keeping the first day of the week is the mark of the beast?" It does not follow because the Lord said, "pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day," that therefore it was the Sabbath of the Lord when they fled. It was such at the time he prophesied, and the disobedient Jews were great sticklers for it when he said this, and when the destruction came, although God had done the Sabbath away; and it would be more perplexing for them to flee before their enemies on that, than any other day. Their holding it as the Lord's Sabbath would no more prove it so, than their beholding the abomination standing in the holy place proved that the Jewish temple was the holy place in A. D. 70, which we all agree was abrogated at Christ's crucifixion. Now his reasoning would prove that the offering of the blood of bulls and goats in the holy place was in force by Christ's authority at the destruction, as that the Sabbath was, because the Jews held it so. This they do not believe any more than we.

Mr. Andrews has even failed to remove the difficulty of Mr. Litch. We are not bound to prove there is any Sabbath at all; much less the day that is the Sabbath. Note.—"In the end of the Sabbaths as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week." "End of the Sabbaths." What is it? If it were the close of that Sabbath in which Jesus lay in the grave, it was not plural. If it were the Sabbaths, all the Sabbaths that the Jews had kept as commanded for 1600 years, then they ended.

The antitype of the Sabbath is the future rest. Heb. iv, 4, 9. "And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.—For if Jesus (Joshua) had given them rest, he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest (sabbatismos) for the people of God." If this be the Sabbath for the people of God, then there is none in this earth for them. How true this, "Let us labor, (not rest,) therefore to enter into that rest lest any fall after the same example of unbelief."

The mian sabbaton is the first day of the week which is set apart by Jesus, not as a Sabbath or rest, but the Lord's day, on which day God made the light, gave the law of Moses, had the feast of pentecost, raised his Son from the grave, who appeared for six successive first days to his disciples, sent the Holy Spirit down on the apostles, giving to them the kingdom, ascended up on high, gave the last revelation to man, and no doubt will descend on it to give the kingdom to the saints to possess for ever.

Isa. lviii, 13, 14, is a statement to the people of God of that dispensation; if they kept the Sabbath as was ordained, they should be caused to ride on high places, &c. Just so now if the disciples meet, pray, read, exhort, teach, contribute for the poor, and break bread on the first day according to the present appointment of the Lord, they "shall feed with the heritage of Israel," just as Abraham was justified by works when he offered up Isaac, and we are justified by works, of faith, repentance, baptism, and adding virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity. He could not have been justified had he refused to offer his son; but we are not required to offer up our sons that we may justified; no more are we to look for justification by keeping the seventh day Sabbath, because the Lord's Israel of the old covenant had to.

I will not copy any of this but the propositions, and don't know whether it will be published in the Review and Herald or not. I believe they are mistaken about this matter, and some others; but I rejoice to know they are obeying the Lord in humility and benevolence, and piety. I do not see any immorality if they rest on the seventh day. The rest in the everlasting kingdom is the sabbath we all want.

Yours fraternally, WM. P. SHOCKEY.