History of the Sabbath

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 18, 1862

History of the Sabbath.

THE SABBATH DURING THE LAST OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS.

(Continued.)

A few days after this discourse, the Lord of the Sabbath was nailed to the cross as the great sacrifice for the sins of men. Matt. xxvii; Isa. liii. The Messiah was thus cut off in the midst of the seventieth week: and by his death he caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease. Dan. ix, 24-27.

Paul thus describes the abrogation of the typical system at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus:

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. . . . . Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Col. ii, 14-17.

The object of this action is declared to be the handwriting of ordinances. The manner of its abrogation is thus stated: 1. Blotted out; 2. Nailed to the cross; 3. Taken out of the way. Its nature is shown in these words: "against us" and "contrary to us." The things contained in it were meats, drinks, holy days [Gr. ἑορτῆς, a feast day], new moons and sabbaths. The whole is declared a shadow of good things to come; and the body which casts this shadow is of Christ. That law which was proclaimed by the voice of God and written by his own finger upon the tables of stone, and deposited beneath the mercy-seat, was altogether unlike that system of carnal ordinances that was written by Moses in a book, and placed in the side of the ark. It would be absurd to speak of the tables of STONE as NAILED to the cross; or to speak of BLOTTING out what was ENGRAVED in STONE. It would be blasphemous to represent the Son of God as pouring out his blood to blot out what the finger of his Father had written. It would be to confound all the immutable principles of morality, to represent the ten commandments as "contrary" to man's moral nature. It would be to make Christ the minister of sin to represent him as dying to utterly destroy the moral law. Nor does that man keep truth on his side who represents the ten commandments as among the things contained in Paul's enumeration of what was abolished. Nor is there any excuse for those who would destroy the ten commandments with this statement of Paul; for he shows last of all that what was thus abrogated was a shadow of good things to come—an absurdity if applied to the moral law. The feasts, new moons and sabbaths of the ceremonial law, which Paul declared to be abolished in consequence of the abrogation of that code, have been particularly noticed already. That the Sabbath of the Lord is not included in their number the following facts evince:

1. The Sabbath of the Lord was made before sin entered our world. It is not therefore one of those things that shadow redemption from sin.

2. Being made FOR man before the fall it is not one of these things that are AGAINST him and CONTRARY to him. Mark ii, 27.

3. When the ceremonial sabbaths were ordained they were carefully distinguished from the Sabbath of the Lord. Lev. xxiii, 37, 38.

4. The Sabbath of the Lord does not owe its existence to the handwriting of ordinances, but is found in the very bosom of that law which Jesus came not to destroy. The abrogation of the ceremonial law could not therefore abolish the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Gen. ii, 1–3; Ex. xx; Matt. v, 17, 19.

5. The effort of our Lord through his whole ministry to redeem the Sabbath from the thraldom of the Jewish doctors, and to vindicate it as a merciful institution, is utterly inconsistent with the idea that he nailed it to his cross, as one of those things against man and contrary to him.

6. Our Lord's petition respecting the flight of the disciples from Judea, recognizes the sacredness of the Sabbath many years after the crucifixion of the Saviour.

7. The perpetuity of the Sabbath in the new earth is not easily reconciled with the idea that it was blotted out and nailed to our Lord's cross as one of those things that were contrary to man. Isa. lxvi, 22, 23.

8. Because the authority of the fourth commandment is expressly recognized after the Saviour's crucifixion. Luke xxiii, 54–56.

9. And finally, because the royal law which is unabolished embodies the ten commandments, and consequently embraces and enforces the Sabbath of the Lord. James ii, 8–12; Matt. v, 17–19; Rom. iii, 19, 31.

When the Saviour died upon the cross the whole typical system which had pointed forward to that event as the commencement of its antitype, expired with him. The Saviour being dead, Joseph of Arimathea went in unto Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, and with the assistance of Nicodemus, buried it in his own new tomb. Heb. ix, x; Luke xxiii, 46–53; John xix, 38–42.

"And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them." Luke xxiii, 54–56.

This text is worthy of special attention. 1. Because it is an express recognition of the fourth commandment after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. 2. Because it is the most remarkable case of Sabbatic observance in the whole Bible. The Lord of the Sabbath was dead; preparation being made for his embalming, when the Sabbath drew on it was suspended, and they rested, says the sacred historian, according to the commandment. 3. Because it shows that the Sabbath day according to the commandment is the day before the first day of the week; thus identifying the seventh day in the commandment with the seventh day of the New Testament week. 4. Because it is a direct testimony that the knowledge of the true seventh day was preserved as late as the crucifixion; for they observed the day enjoined in the commandment; and that was the day on which the Most High had rested from the work of creation.

In the course of the day following this Sabbath, that is, upon the first day of the week, it was ascertained that Jesus was risen from the dead. It appears that this event must have taken place upon that day, though it is not thus stated in express terms. At this point of time it is supposed by

many that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week; and that the sacredness of the seventh day was then transferred to the first day of the week, which thenceforth was the Christian Sabbath, enforced by all the authority of the fourth commandment. To judge of the truthfulness of these positions, let us read with care each mention of the first day found in the four evangelists. Thus writes Matthew:

"In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre."

Thus also Mark writes: "And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. . . . . Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene."

Luke uses the following language: "And they returned and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath-day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared."

John bears the following testimony: "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. . . . Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in their midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." Matt. xxviii, 1; Mark xvi, 1, 2, 9; Luke xxiii, 56; xxiv, 1; John xx, 1, 19.

In these texts the foundation of the "Christian Sabbath" must be sought—if indeed such an institution actually exists—for there are no other records of the first day which relate to the time when it is supposed to have become sacred. These texts are supposed to prove that at the resurrection of the Saviour, the first day absorbed the sacredness of the seventh, elevating itself from the rank of a secular to that of a sacred day, and abasing the Sabbath of the Lord to the rank of "the six working days." Eze. xlvi, 1. Yet the following facts must be regarded as very extraordinary indeed if this supposed change of the Sabbath here took place:

1. That these texts should contain no mention of this change of the Sabbath. 2. That they should carefully discriminate between the Sabbath of the fourth commandment and the first day of the week. 3. That they should apply no sacred title to that day; particularly that they should omit the title of Christian Sabbath. 4. That they should not mention the fact that Christ rested upon that day; an act essential to its becoming his Sabbath. See the origin of the ancient Sabbath in Gen. ii, 1–3. 5. That they do not relate the act of taking the blessing of God from the seventh day, and placing it upon the first; and indeed that they do not mention any act whatever of blessing and hallowing the day. 6. That they omit to mention any thing that Christ did to the first day; and they even neglect to inform us that Christ so much as took up the first day of the week into his lips! 7. That they give no precept in support of first day observance, nor do they contain a hint of the manner in which the first day of the week can be enforced by the authority of the fourth commandment.

Should it be asserted however from the words of John that the disciples were on this occasion convened for the purpose of honoring the day of the resurrection, and that Jesus sanctioned this act by meeting with them, thus accomplishing the change of the Sabbath, it is sufficient to cite in reply the words of Mark in which the same interview is narrated:

"Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen." Mark xvi, 14. That this interview was certainly the same with that in John xx, 19, will be seen from a careful examination of Luke xxiv.

This testimony of Mark shows that the inference so often drawn from the words of John is utterly unfounded. 1. The disciples were assembled for the purpose of eating supper. 2. Jesus came into their midst and upbraided them for their unbelief respecting his resurrection.

(To be Continued.)