SUNDAY THE TRUE SEVENTH DAY.
By Editor
NECESSITY, according to the well known adage, is the mother of invention. Whether this cause has operated in relation to the Sabbath question or not, it is true that something has given a wonderful impetus to the inventive faculties of the defenders of the first day of the week. The theory which seems at the present time to be gaining most rapidly in public favor is that the first day of the week, is the true seventh day from creation. On this account perhaps it needs occasional notice. The accompanying letter in which this theory is endorsed with more boldness we think than its reasonableness will warrant, was called forth by the following circumstances: a sister in New York sent to a friend of hers the book Sabbath Tracts one to four: that friend put it into the hands of a person she considered competent to answer it. He penned the following, which has been sent for our consideration: "Those who hold to the seventh day as being the true Sabbath are mistaken. They think that the day we call the seventh day of the week is the seventh day according (or reckoning) from the creation of the world; but in this they are mistaken. The first day of the week is the seventh according to the history that the Bible gives us of time from the creation. To make this evident and plain to every inquiring mind, they must read Mr. Kennady's Scripture Astronomy, in which he has calculated the changes of the moon from the time he wrote, back to the fourth day of creation; on which day the sun, moon and stars were made, and he found that it was full moon precisely at 6 o'clock P. M., on the fourth day of creation. Now the seventh from the creation was the Sabbath. 'And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested (or ceased) from all his work which God created and made.' And every seventh day from that time to this was the proper day to be observed as a Sabbath, unless it should please God to alter it; and this, it appears, he did when he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. "To demonstrate this we must read and understand the 12th and 16th chapters of Exodus. In the 12th chapter it is written, 'And the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.' Now this is a new era of time. Before this the children of Israel calculated time by the sun's equinox in September, once a year, and half yearly, as the sun crossed the line in March. But now the year is divided into months to be governed by the moon, which would make twelve months and a half for a year. The twelfth month was called Adar, and ve-Adar, as once in two years there were thirteen months, and the thirteenth they called ve-Adar. We are to suppose that the children of Israel were to calculate the seventh day of this first month, the day to be observed as a Sabbath unto the Lord, and the moon to contain twenty-eight days, and as the moon changed every twenty-eight days, and a few hours; in the 16th chapter we are informed that on the second month the Lord gave the children of Israel manna, when they were in the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Sinai. We have good reason to believe that the first Sabbath after the manna was given, was the sixth day of the week, reckoning from the first day of creation; and the seventh day of the week, reckoning from the first day of the first month mentioned in the twelfth chapter. But it seems some did not believe in the change of the day. But I say we have good reason to believe that the day was then changed by the command of the Lord, for Israel to reckon time from the first day of the first month. Mr. Kennady, in calculating the changes of the moon, demonstrates the truth of the Scripture account of time, from the creation down to the closing of the history by the apostles. But in his calculations he had to allow the ten hours that the sun went back in the days of Hezekiah, and twelve hours that it stood still in the days of Joshua, in order to have a full moon on the fourteenth day of the first month. By this he proves those two cases to be miracles; and thus calculating the changes of the moon from the first day of the first month to the fourth day of creation, he proves it to be a full moon on the fourth day of creation precisely at 6 o'clock, and he thereby obtains also the exact number of days from creation to the first day of the first month, and by dividing by seven he thereby proves that the Sabbath after this new era of time was on the sixth day, reckoning from the commencement of time; therefore there was a change of the day for Israel to observe as their Sabbath unto the Lord. "It seems also that the Jews were required to observe the Sabbath in remembrance of their deliverance from bondage. This Moses intimates in his commenting on the commandments in Deut. v, 15. By this it appears plain that the sixth day (Sabbath) was designed to remind the Israelites of their deliverance from bondage. Such is the reason Moses assigns by saying, 'Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.' But if a man will not believe that the day was changed from the seventh to the sixth day of the week, let him obtain the exact number of days from the creation to the present time, and divide by seven, and then he will know as I know, that the day that our Lord arose from the dead was the seventh day, reckoning from creation, but it was the first day of the week, reckoning from the first day of the first month. But it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of days, unless you calculate the changes of the moon, and allow the sun to rise ten or eleven hours earlier in Egypt than it does here. If a man will not believe what he has mathematical demonstration for, he must be a volunteer in unbelief, or like Thomas. It is true, men believe just what they choose to believe, though some have said that they could not believe what they would. But this is altogether a mistake. Men believe just what they choose to believe. And to believe a lie has just the same effect in producing joy or grief, as believing the truth does. When Jacob's sons came to him and said that they had not seen their brother Joseph, they lied; and when they produced his coat, torn and bloody, they said that they found it in the wilderness, but they lied again. Yet Jacob believed it, and his faith was the cause of all his grief and mourning for the loss of his son Joseph. "I am as ever your brother in Christ, "P. S. The light was made four days before the sun crossed the line in September. The sun was made on the line, and the moon was a full moon precisely at 6 o'clock P. M., the fourth day. But the change of time in Exodus twelve begins with the new moon in March, and on the fourteenth day, which was a full moon they killed the passover, and the changes of the moon governed their feast days. But we are not required to observe those feast days as the Jews were. B. H." We had supposed before receiving the above document that the question of the chronology of this world was still involved in some doubt and uncertainty; but Mr. Kennady has settled the whole matter, and tells us to a day how old the world is! In what enlightened age of the world this gentleman flourished we are not informed: it is to be supposed however that no period less brilliant than the present would be likely to be honored with such a personage. What a pity that he had not lived before to save the controversies that have attended this perplexing question; and render unnecessary the long labors of such eminent men as Hayes, Jackson, Mede, Hales &c., who have endeavored to throw light on this subject. How much would have been saved! But perhaps we ought, instead of looking with vain regret at the past, to congratulate ourselves that we, more fortunate than our predecessors, can at last know to a day just how old the world is, dating from six o'clock P. M. precisely! But a difficulty still meets us; for we fear that although the light has come, there are many who have not seen or heard of it, and who, despite the light which God has seen fit to vouchsafe in the gifts of reason and revelation, will live and die ignorant of the true seventh day, because they have never been fortunate enough to meet with Kennedy's Scripture Astronomy! But, seriously, we discover what seems to us like something of a discrepancy in the first part of our friend's remarks. He says, "The first day of the week is the seventh according to the history that the Bible gives us of time from the creation." If then this is so evident from the history the Bible furnishes, where is the pressing need of Mr. Kennady's Astronomy in order to an understanding of this question, as is asserted in the very next sentence? Again he says, speaking of the time when Israel came out of Egypt, "Before this the children of Israel calculated time by the sun's equinox in September, once a year, and half yearly as the sun crossed the line in March; but now the year is divided into months," &c. It will do for a person to make such an assertion as this, who has never read the vii and viii chapters of Genesis; and it will do for him to suppose everybody simple enough to take it on his authority, provided he is the victim of an intolerable conceit. We are further told that in reckoning back to creation, allowance must be made for the 12 hours that the sun stood still in the days of Joshua. The record of that event reads that the sun "hasted not to go down about a whole day;" and if we mistake not, the Bible means by the expression "a whole day," a period of 24 hours instead of 12. It is, however, fortunate for Bible believers that all great Bible questions can be settled by the Bible alone. This is especially true of the Sabbath question; and not only so, but no other testimony is admissible on the subject. It is in vain that men appeal to the popular sciences to figure out our duty to God. "It appears," says the writer, that the Sabbath was changed when the children of Israel came out of Egypt. We should like to know where this appears. It certainly does appear from his article; it does not appear from the Bible; and we shall be excused from believing in any such appearance until we see it. The record of all the change that was made at the exode, is found in Ex. xii, 2, and reads as follows: "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you." Here, it is claimed, is recorded a change of the Sabbath; but is there anything said about the Sabbath? Not one word. Is there anything said about a change in numbering the days of the week? Not a word. Would the changing of the number of the months, and calling a certain month the first month of the year, affect the week? Not a particle. Yet, says the writer, "we have good reason" to believe that the day was then changed by the command of the Lord. If there are any reasons for this belief, we should be happy to see them. They are not presented. And again the reader will excuse us for not acknowledging any such reasons till they are brought forward. The theory under consideration labors under a double absurdity. That theory is inconsistent enough which claims a change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week at the resurrection of Christ; but this is doubly so which argues a change of the Sabbath one day back from the seventh to the sixth day of the week, at the exode, and a day forward again at the resurrection of Christ. And to harmonize this theory with existing facts, it has to be assumed that the Jewish and patriarchal or creation weeks were out of joint with each other by one day, so that the seventh day of the Jewish week, was the sixth day of creation week; and hence we, although we have succeeded in emancipating ourselves from the "old Jewish Sabbath," and getting back upon the original creation Sabbath, are still taking along with us the old Jewish week, since our first day corresponds with the original seventh. Thus this theory is out of joint at every step, and crooked through every barley-corn of its length and breadth. To further show the absurdity of the idea of a change of the Sabbath to the sixth day of the week at the exode, we wish to ask the reader one question: namely, Were not the Jews required to keep the very day of the week on which God rested? Read the fourth commandment, and return an answer as in the presence of Him101who can read the hearts and consciences of all men. Unless you are under the unfortunate pressure of maintaining a wrong theory, you will reply that they were. The fourth commandment, so far as its authority can be appealed to in favor of a sabbatism of any kind, fixes the day of observance to the very day of the week on which God rested. A change of time in any respect, or in any age, is, from the very nature of the case, an impossibility—an absurdity, which we would fain see intelligent men free themselves from the folly of endeavoring to propagate.