Earlier text: A Definite Sign and the ClimaxThe Prophet and the Catholic on the Sabbath Question
By R. C. P.
What the Prophet Foresaw — What the Catholic Admits and Affirms This is the last of three articles by Elder Porter on the subject of the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. In the preceding articles, he has shown Christ’s attitude to His Father’s law, and that no change in the Sabbath was made by either the Master or His apostles; he has presented the prophecy which foretells that an apostate power would attempt to change the law of God; he has shown, from Protestant scholars, that they find no authority in the Bible for any change in the weekly Sabbath law; he has presented some of the history which shows that the change in the observance of a rest day was brought about by church councils, apart from God; and this week the climax is reached by introducing testimony from the Catholics themselves, in which they boastfully claim the sole responsibility in this change in the day of rest and worship. Editor. In view of the statements of historians presented last week, read again Dan. 7:25: “And he [the papacy] shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” History says that upwards of fifty million martyrs were slain during the supremacy of the papacy. The papacy has therefore fulfilled the prediction, “He . . . shall wear out the saints of the Most High.” But, says the prophet, while he is speaking great words against the Most High, assuming to be “Lord God the pope,” and “vicar of Christ upon earth,” and wearing out the saints, and exalting himself above God, he shall think to change God’s law. Has the papacy thought to do this? God, through His prophet, says he shall think to do it. The most reliable historians testify that the papacy has done it. What does the papacy answer to this charge? Does he plead guilty, or not guilty? Let the papacy answer. In their “Doctrinal Catechism,” page 352, they reply as follows: “Q. When Protestants do profane work upon Saturday, or the seventh day of the week, do they follow the Scripture as their only rule of faith,—do they find this permission clearly laid down in the sacred Volume?” “A. On the contrary, they have only the authority of tradition for this practice. In profaning Saturday they violate one of God’s commandments, which He has never clearly abrogated,—‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.’” “Q. Is the observance of Sunday, as the day of rest, a matter clearly laid down in Scripture?” “A. It certainly is not; and yet all Protestants consider the observance of this particular day as essentially necessary to salvation. To say we observe the Sunday because Christ rose from the dead on that day is to say we act without warrant of Scripture.” This testimony tells us plainly that there is no provision made in the Scriptures for a change of the Sabbath, and that the observance of Sunday is in violation of God’s plain command. The following is from “The Catholic Christian Instructed,” pages 202, 203: “Q. What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday, preferably to the ancient Sabbath, which was the Saturday?” “A. We have for it the authority of the Catholic Church, and apostolic tradition.” “Q. Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?”298 “A. The Scripture commands us to hear the church.” After referring to some Bible citations on that point, it continues: “But neither the one nor the other tell us that this first day of the week was to be henceforward the day of worship and the Christian Sabbath; so that truly the best authority we have for this is the testimony of the church. [What church?—The Catholic Church.] And therefore those who pretend to be so religious of the Sunday, whilst they take no notice of other festivals ordained by the same church authority, show that they act by humor, and not by reason and religion, since Sundays and holy days all stand upon the same foundation, viz., the ordinance of the church.” The “Douay Catechism,” page 58, says: “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 allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.” Plain Talk About Protestants
Another Catholic book, “Plain Talk About the Protestantism of To-Day,” page 213, says: “It is worth while to remember that this observance of the Sabbath—in which, after all, the only Protestant worship consists—not only has no foundation in the Bible, but it is in flagrant contradiction with its letter, which commands rest on the Sabbath, which is Saturday. It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. [Who changed the Sabbath?] Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the church.” The prophet Daniel said that the papacy would think to change times and the law. It would at the same time both wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change the law of God. It does not say he will change it, but he shall think to change it. God never recognized the change. The Catholic power that did the work confesses itself guilty, and we find that its testimony agrees precisely with both prophecy and history. Cardinal Gibbons Says It Is Saturday
The Catholic Mirror, edited by Cardinal Gibbons, in its issue of September, 1893, says: “God’s written word enjoins His worship to be observed on Saturday, absolutely, repeatedly, and most emphatically, with a most positive threat of death to him who disobeys. All the Biblical sects occupy the same self-stultifying position which no explanation can modify, much less justify.” The same is found in “The Christian Sabbath,” published by the Catholic Mirror Publishing Company, pages 28–32. From the same work, page 30, the following statement is taken: “But the Protestant says, How can I receive the teachings of an apostate church? How, we ask, have you managed to receive her teachings all your life, in direct opposition to your recognized teacher, the Bible, on the Sabbath question? ‘Out of your own mouth I judge you,’ says Jesus Christ.” They charge it back to Protestants that Sunday is not the Bible Sabbath; and what can Protestants answer? Catholics Say It Is Not in the Bible
The same Catholic writer concludes with these words: “Let us now, however, take a glance at our second proposition, with the Bible alone as the teacher and guide in faith and morals. This teacher most emphatically forbids any change in the day for paramount reasons. The command calls for a ‘perpetual covenant.’ The day commanded to be kept by the teacher has never once been kept, thereby developing an apostasy from an assumedly fixed principle as self-contradictory, self-stultifying, and consequently as suicidal as it is within the power of language to express. Nor are the limits of demoralization yet reached. Far from it. Their pretense for leaving the bosom of the Catholic Church was for apostasy from the truth as taught in the written Word. They adopted the written Word as their sole teacher, which they had no sooner done than they abandoned it promptly, as these articles have abundantly proved, and by a perversity as willful as erroneous, they accept the teaching of the Catholic Church in direct opposition to the plain, unvaried, and constant teaching of their sole teacher in the most essential doctrine of their religion, thereby emphasizing the situation in what may be aptly designated ‘a mockery, a delusion, and a snare.’” Offers a Thousand Dollars Reward
Father Enright, in speaking on this question before large audiences, has repeatedly made this challenge, which is here taken from a lecture reported in the Hartford Weekly Call, Kansas, February 22, 1864: “Sunday is not the Sabbath day; no man dare assert that it is. . . . I will give one thousand dollars to any man who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep. . . . The observance of Sunday is solely a law of the Catholic Church. . . . The church changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and all the world bows down and worships on that day in silent obedience to the mandates of the Catholic Church.” Protestants have never accepted this challenge. On the change of the Sabbath, the Catholic Mirror adds: Catholic Church Changed the Day
“The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday. . . . The Christian Sabbath is therefore to this day the acknowledged offspring of the Catholic Church as spouse of the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant world.”—Issue of September 23, 1893. “Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.”—Ibid., December 23, 1894. The charge of an attempt to change the law of God without divine authority is thus expressly admitted and boasted of by the papacy. We have presented the facts from the word of God and the best historians with reference to the attempt of the papacy to revise the Sabbath statute. The papacy, not incidentally, but openly and generally, adds its testimony in corroboration of the statements of prophecy and history. Christ magnified the law, and observed and taught the sacredness of the Sabbath as instituted at creation. Antichrist, the “man of sin,” who has worn out the saints, and spoken great words against the Most High, has undertaken to revise the Sabbath statute. The foregoing facts are a sufficient answer as to when, how, and by whom the Sabbath command has been changed. God does not accept the change. He says the papacy shall think to change His law. The papacy has thought it, and has worked its plan to do so to its full limit by persecution, by flattery, and by every means at its command. But the end is not yet. That law will confront this power in the day of Judgment, when it shall answer before the divine Lawgiver299for its deeds. Christ came not to destroy the law, but to magnify and make it honorable. It is left with each of us to decide whom we will follow. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Rom. 6:16. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17. The Christian and Persecution
By J. O. C.
Every person living the life of Christ among men, will measurably bring to himself the treatment received by the divine Master. Such must be the inevitable consequence, because “the servant is not above his master.” He said, “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” John 15: 20. The reason is plain. A Christian must be different from people of the world, hence the antagonism. J. O. C. The Deadly Wound Is Healing
By E. E. A.
All the World Going to the Vatican — Turkey and Jerusalem Conspicuous in Prophecy This awful European war has made 2,500,000 widows in the first eight months of its continuance, besides making more than 7,000,000 children fatherless. To-day the allied powers are pressing on toward Constantinople. The Turk is about to be driven out of Europe. His entrance into Jerusalem will be the signal for the beginning of the reign of Christ, who thereafter will not long delay His appearance in the clouds of heaven, with all the holy angels, “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel,” as the scripture says in 2 Thess. 1: 8. The great religious power, the papacy, which ruled all nations of the world during the Dark Ages, but which in 1798 received a “deadly wound” by having its ruler made a prisoner of the French, is fast being restored to its former prestige. The “deadly wound” is being healed, as was foretold in Revelation 13. Eventually no man will be able to buy or sell except those who pay homage to this power. This prophecy concerning the use of the boycott by a great religious despotism is found in Rev. 13: 16, 17. All Are Going to the Vatican
To-day all the nations of Europe are represented at the Vatican save France. Great Britain recently sent her plenipotentiary. Even Russia, with the Greek Catholic religion prevailing, has her representative in the court of the Roman see, and Turkey and Germany likewise are represented. Representatives of the papacy believe the present terrible war will place the Roman pontiff again in supreme power over the kings and rulers of earth. Only this week the newspapers brought the information that “President Wilson and the pope are likely to work actively for peace in Europe within a short time.” The very next event after the restoration of this great religious system to power, as recorded in Rev. 14: 1, is the appearing of Jesus Christ. All things are now ready for His appearing. All upon this earth are invited to the wedding supper, when the church, the bride of Christ, shall sit down with Him at the sumptuous repast. He who does the will of the Father, says Jesus, “shall inherit all things.” Preparation for the great event so near at hand is imperative. Without a higher power, you cannot reach your own ideals. The flesh is weak, though the spirit may be willing. You must have a power outside yourself to enter your life, to cleanse the mind, to enable you to live the perfect life. No other power in the universe can accomplish this work, but the Holy Spirit. We must become thoroughly acquainted with the Bible, knowing it for ourselves, and being able “to give an answer to every man that asketh” a reason of the hope that is in us. The end is right upon us. Get ready! Watch, lest He may find you unfaithful to your trust. But be assured that to all who receive His word, and do His precepts, He will give the priceless boon of eternal life, a life of joy immeasurable. E. E. A. PRESENT TRUTH OF THE LIVING AGE
By J. O. C.
Historic Truth of Past Ages—A Living Truth for To-Day WHAT is present truth? The proper answer to this peculiar question requires that another query should precede it. To say nothing at first of whether a matter may be past or present truth, it is well at the outset to consider the question of truth in general. As used in the Old Testament, the word comes from a root which means steadfastness, or stability. For example, Jehovah, who declares that He does not change (Mal. 3: 6), is called “a God of truth” (Deut. 32: 4), and so uttered an oath of fidelity to David in His truth. Ps. 89: 49. The New Testament gives the same weight to the word, as shown in this statement from Christ, who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever” (Heb. 13: 8): “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14: 6. TRUTH A FOUNTAIN OF LIGHT
So it may be safely declared that truth is light, both in and of itself. It therefore needs no artificial diffusion of luminous rays to increase its radiance. Indeed, truth being the “fountain of light,” any substituted illumination can at best be only a reflection. One may present Bible truth in words of imagery, by way of illustration, to draw thoughtful attention to it; but after all, the Word itself must be the lamp of fire to lighten the path of the searcher for truth. Its entrance to the mind is the only true source of light. Ps. 119: 105, 130. Furthermore, truth does not require to be proved, but simply to be placed on exhibition, in a form to be seen, without any attempt at proof. Thus presented, its own native, inherent light will penetrate convincingly to the senses in a most satisfying way. But in the presentation of truth to a densely benighted intellect, it must be by a soul that sees and feels for himself its living power, or it falls inert, as a mere lifeless dogma. Unless one has enough spirituality to catch fire from the great themes of the truth, and vivacity enough to overflow with fervor in discoursing upon it, he has no mission in such work. The preacher should be the truth in radiation, shining out through language, voice, gesture, facial expression, and spiritual fervor. The great apostle declared that he had been called as a preacher to make all men see the fellowship of a great mystery. Eph. 3: 9. Not all men reason, but all men can see. Imagination is strong, even in the untutored savage. The same may be said of the little child. For this very reason, Christ’s appeals were directed to simple minds. Matt. 18: 3-6. As the Son of man, He spoke to men in their own simple words of truth. His mission was to engage men to see, and therefore to know God. For this reason the Word was made flesh, that through that flesh humanity might be touched by the Eternal. Facts and information may be conveyed in bare words, but the truth of God cannot be thus fully made known; it must appear in His own image. Heb. 1: 3. So because God’s truth could not be entirely expressed in mere words, He made His word flesh, to mingle with fleshly men, and so uncover to them the true nature of Divinity. The incarnation alone could supply this need, since the image of God in the first man had been lost through sin. Christ was therefore not to be a mere simile to the world; He was the real image, in character, of what man had been, and that God wants him to be. Through sin, man had lost his life sustenance, the one essential of God’s image. When Christ appeared, He said, “I am the bread of life.” He did not say, “I am like that bread,” but, I am that very bread. Thus an image rises out of the word “bread,” which sinks into the soul of man, giving him an understanding of the mission of God to humanity through His only-begotten Son. In this way, all the teaching of Christ wrought upon the imagination. Bushnell has well said that the gospel is pictorial. He further said, in substance, that all the truths of religion are rendered through imagery to the imagination, as was intended by the rites and ceremonies of the sacrificial age, which failed to impress the intellect properly, because of sin darkness in the mind. It was therefore necessary for a more striking metaphor to be used, which came forward in the person of Christ, who is the express image of God’s person; and so the knowledge of God’s glory was shown in the face of Jesus Christ, for the enlightenment of fallen humanity. 2 Cor. 4: 6. JESUS EXHIBITED THE FATHER
In olden times, men were taught that the heavens declared the glory of God. They did, and do now, reveal His infinite power to guide the stars in their courses; but as with a beautiful and accurate timekeeper carried in one’s pocket, the mind may concede the constructor’s scientific ability, yet not know him personally. So nature provides similitudes of both time and eternity. Seasons reveal change, and the mountains mirror thoughts of stability. But man needs more to round out his knowledge of Jehovah, and beget appreciation of His attributes. None but Jesus, the Son of the Most High, could possibly supply this need. This He did by exhibiting the Father in His own personal life among men. Those to whom and for whom the Saviour came, had believed in God as the Almighty. They believed the history of all His dealings with the children of men. The creation, the Flood, the leadership of Moses, the giving of the law from Sinai, and the Babylonian captivity, were all received as historical truth. But these incidents were all past events of truth, which could not avail to reveal God’s truth for their present emergencies. Those truths were once present necessities in the accomplishment of God’s purpose; but truth is ever progressive, in that various phases of it appear in succeeding generations, to meet the exigencies of the times. These distinctive aspects coming forward at such times are present truth in the broadest sense, and like the Noachic message, must be recognized as such, and obeyed as the voice of God proclaiming His will for that specific time. Nothing is more certain than that the arrival of prophetic periods for which have been predicted the advent of positive crises, must be accepted as present truth, if one would learn the will of God for that particular time. It matters not what grand truths he has before held, though the last one does not supersede the first, it will add to and enhance its already lustrous beauty. The twentieth century, like the preceding ages, must have a present truth to meet the needs of its setting in the prophetic foresight. What that truth is, can only be fully known by the study of the prophetic Word, and its application to the decisive present. Come Unto Me for Rest
By J. O. C.
The invitation of the Saviour is: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt. 11:28. Did you ever notice that in this call no office hours are specified? Then you may come to Him on His busiest day, at any hour, in light or darkness, and receive rest from the burden of sin, also from the clog of hindrances in your Christian life. Rest is peace. It matters not what circumstances attend your course, He can and will speak peace to your soul. When Peter denied Him before His face, no frenzied words were returned, not even a single mild word of reproof — only a sorrowing look. Those who haunted Him to death had no excited threat bestowed on them. His last legacy to all was, “My peace.” Come then at once and receive it in fulness. J. O. C. GOD accepts faith at the cross so that we may have a character imparted to us, by divine power, that will stand in the Judgment. “His love runneth faster than our feet to meet us on our way returning, and kisseth dumb our shame.” Question Corner
By Milton C. Wilcox
Conducted by MILTON C. WILCOX Mountain View, California NOTE.—This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import can not be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone. Does the Bible recognize any degree of sin? For example, is the man who wantonly takes human life considered any greater sinner than the one who takes advantage of another in a business transaction, or takes what does not belong to him in any way? Also will he receive any greater punishment? M. E. D. Surely there are degrees in sin. These things are expressed over and over and over in the Scripture. Take the first psalm for instance, which is so often quoted: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” We have three different classes of sinners named there. The “ungodly” may be those who simply do not know God; the “sinners” are those who are knowingly transgressing His law; but the “scornful” are those who really set themselves against God and scorn His service. Take for instance the thirty-sixth chapter of 2 Chronicles, where the Lord points out the wickedness of Israel. He had forgiven them again and again; but they had gone on to greater and still greater wickedness, until there was no remedy for their sin. The heart becomes hardened by continual sinning; and the soul that merely dislikes a fellow being at first, may soon hate him; and after hatred, comes murder. A man might steal—his bodily necessities might require it, in his mind. The next time, it would be easier for him to take something, even if it were not required. So he would go on, and add sin to sin; and by and by, in order that he might get what he desired, it might be necessary to take life. This is the way some of the criminals develop. And every man shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Of course the ultimate of all is death, for death is the wages of sin. See Luke 12:47: “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” 121—THE SINNER A HUNDRED YEARS OLD
Will you please explain, in the Question Corner, Isa. 65:20? Does not this passage refer to the New Jerusalem? If so, what is meant by “the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed”? Will there be any death in the new earth? If not, what is meant by the child dying a hundred years old? J. A. S. First of all, this is one of the difficult passages that we find in double and treble prophecies of the Old Testament—prophecies that seem to us, when we look at them as a whole, badly mixed; but when we come to their fulfillment, they are very clear indeed. Take, for instance, some of the prophecies in Isaiah concerning our Lord. They are so mingled with prophecies pertaining to local events, that they seem anything but clear; yet in the light of the fulfillment at the first advent, how clear, and strong they shine out! Isa. 65:17-25 is a prophecy of what God would do for His people if they were only faithful to Him. It includes some of the promises to Jerusalem at that time, and the more glorious promises of what will be given in the new heaven and in the new earth. But His people had to pass through the preparatory stage before they could inherit the holy city. The judgment would have to be decided upon the wicked, and the righteous gathered out from among them. The seventeenth verse is the promise of the new heavens and the new earth; and those who inhabit that will not remember nor will they lay upon their heart the former things. When they are thus gathered home, God will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in His people; and the voice of weeping shall be heard no more, nor the voice of crying. And this is in perfect harmony with the last two chapters of the Revelation. Consequently there can be no death there, because there is no mourning nor crying. Therefore, in that renewed promised land, “there shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days.” All the things mentioned in verse 20 shall precede the new heavens and the new earth. “The child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” This is thought by many to have reference to that “little season” which will occur after the wicked are raised from the dead and are deceived by Satan. See Rev. 20:7-10. During that time, the devil will gather from the immense number of the wicked a great army, and seek to possess the city of God. There will be raised from the dead at that time those who had died in childhood, who had just passed the age of accountability, who had not given themselves to God. The Lord suffers them to live in the very presence of His own glory, to show that His judgment upon them has been just, that they merit the punishment of death which will be visited upon all those who are identified with sin. Consequently the child shall live during this period, and then die; and the sinner also, of whatever age he may be, who shall live during this period, shall die accursed. All this will occur before the saints of God enter upon the new heavens and the new earth. When they do that, at the end of the thousand years, after the purification of this earth by fire, and its renewing by the creative fiat of God, then shall they build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not do as they formerly have done—build and another inhabit, plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree—the tree of life—are the days of God’s people. This, it seems to us, is the teaching of the passage; and the rest of the chapter states, in language just as strong as could be used to them who lived in those days, that there should be nothing in that new earth such as they knew in this earth in the way of dangers, trial, sorrow, misery, and hatred. 122—NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE
Were all the dwellers on the earth once in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, or only those who are overcomers? If not, what is the cause of the blotting out? H. L. N. The names in the book of life from the beginning are the names of characters. The only worth there is about any person is character. Beauty and stature and accomplishments are all worthless in God’s sight without character. When Samuel the prophet looked upon the oldest son of Jesse, he said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him”; but the Lord said to the prophet, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature.” Then He declared a truth which we ought always to remember, that “man looketh on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh on the heart.” Consequently, those names written in the book of life from before the foundation of the world were the names of those characters which shall be in God’s kingdom to all eternity. When men are born into this world, they are called to one of those characters. If they accept that call, their own names are written in the book of life; that is, on their conversion. So Jesus says to His disciples, in Luke 10:20, “Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” The apostle Paul writes to the Philippians, “I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life.” Phil. 4:3. The conclusion is, then, that when people are converted, their names are written in the book of life, and they are written there as candidates for that character which is expressed in the name that will never be blotted out of God’s book. Now if the individual is faithful to God, God will lead that individual in just that experience which will spell out, so to speak, during that individual’s probation, that name which has been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life; but if that person proves faithless, his own name will be blotted out of the book of life, and some one else will be called to that same character, and the same crown, for with each name there goes a crown. And therefore we read in Rev. 3:11: “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” The crown, of course, belongs to the overcomer. And the name written in the Lamb’s book of life belongs to the overcomer. That will be the overcomer’s new name, “which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” Rev. 2:17. No man will know it, because no man has ever had the experience that the name means. It will be the secret between the individual soul and his Lord throughout eternity. There are other passages that confirm the same thing. This is the work which God has been doing from the beginning, and will carry on until the last soul is gathered in. The last name in the book of life will be given to some human character. There will not be one wanting in that glorious kingdom of God. Fuller development of this thought can be found in Bible Students’ Library, No. 67, entitled “Bible Election.” 123—THE SABBATH BEFORE MOSES
Please give proof that the Sabbath was given before the law of Moses. L. K. First of all, we have the record in Genesis, the record of the making of this earth in six days; and immediately after that, without any break whatever in the connection, is the making of the Sabbath by God’s rest, God’s blessing, God’s sanctification. Gen. 2:2, 3. We have no more right to say that that pertains to a later date than to say that the creation of man pertains to a later date. One of the greatest of commentaries, Lang’s, declares that language itself is utterly unmeaning if it is not understood that God at that time gave a command concerning the Sabbath. The very words imply it. There could be no sanctification without that. See the use of the same expression in the setting apart of Mount Sinai, in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus. See the same thing in Joel 2:16, “Gather the people, sanctify the assembly.” In other words, “Proclaim it.” So the word is used in various places in the Old Testament. “Sanctify” means to set apart, separate. Our Lord tells us the Sabbath was made for man. Mark 2:27. Not the Jew man, nor the man of any one particular tribe. The term is generic—the man, the race. The Sabbath is therefore coeval with the race. God appointed the very day around which cluster the great facts of creation, in order that man might remember his Creator. Secondly, before Israel came to Sinai at all, or before any laws were given through Moses, we have the record of the fall of the manna, in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, and in that chapter there is no mention of a new institution, but of the Sabbath of the Lord. In fact, we have a reference to it in Ex. 5:5, where Pharaoh charged Moses that he made the people rest from their burdens—sabbatize from their burdens. But as Pharaoh would not permit the Israelites to keep the Sabbath in Egypt, the Lord led them out of Egypt with mighty power; and one of the first tests which He imposed upon them was the Sabbath, to see whether they would keep His law or not. Ex. 16:4. And when some of them went out to gather manna on the Sabbath, the Lord reproves them by saying: “Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.” Ex. 16:26-30. This is certainly conclusive evidence that the Sabbath was a known institution before Israel came to Sinai or any Mosaic laws were given. In fact, archeology clearly shows that it was known among other nations than Israel.