02.04. The Sabbath: Was the Law of the Sabbath Perpetuated in Christ?

CHAPTER IV
WAS THE LAW OF THE SABBATH PERPETUATED IN CHRIST? No one doubts that the Jews were commanded to keep the seventh day of the week. But we have not found that anyone else was required to observe that day. But God has designed His people to serve him. Has he directed them to continue to keep this law? If so, the whole question is at an end. No matter when that law was given, if its Giver intended it to be a continuous institution, then, beyond all controversy, it remains an eternal fixture. Those who demand that we should keep the Sabbath present several arguments on this point, and it is our linty to hear them. It will do no one any good to be mistaken in any matter like this. And it is certain if they who keep the Sabbath are right, most other persons are wrong.

1. It is claimed that the Ten Commandments are the moral code. And as the Sabbath is a part of the Decalogue, it was therefore a moral commandment, or a part of the moral law.

It should be noticed here that our friends have to employ dis­tinctions which are never found in the Bible. No inspired man ever galled the Ten Commandments a moral law. The reason that men now so denominate it is that their theory cannot be sustained by simply using Scriptural terms. It is not clear to me that they have any definite idea of the meaning of the word moral. They seem to mean by the use of that term, anything which is right and pure. But in that sense, every feature of the law given by Moses was moral. Neither impurity nor injustice attaches to anything which God ever commanded men to do. And if such were the meaning of the word, there could be no reason for applying the term to one portion of the law, more than another. Webster’s definition of the word is:

“Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those inten­tions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or con­duct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects right and wrong, so far as they are properly subject to rules." This shows that the word moral refers to man’s duty toward his fellow; that all its demands spring out of the relation which men sustain toward each other. Hence moral, is that which is right in the nature of things, in this respect, for justice between man and man can never change. But the Sabbath has no feature of the moral thought in it. It is not right in the nature of things to keep the seventh day any more than to observe the first, second, third, or any other day of the week. Nor does it regulate any duty of man toward his fellow, more than any feature of judicial or ritual procedure. It was right only because God required it. It was right just to the extent that he commanded it, and beyond that limit, there is no more authority for it, than for any of the mummeries and rites of the apostasy. It was given to Israel as a test by which God should prove them, whether they would keep his commandments or not. There are six moral enactments in the Decalogue, but the Sabbath is not one of them.

2. It is claimed that we have the example of Christ and the apostles for keeping the Sabbath.

Very certainly Christ and the disciples kept the Sabbath during the time that it was binding upon the people of Israel. Christ did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. This, however, was not truer of the Sabbath or the Ten Commandments than of any other portion of the law. Every "jot and tittle" of it was regarded as sacred by him. If this proves that the Sab­bath is now binding, it proves that all of the law is binding, for he treated it all alike. Hence we know that the argument proves nothing. What was sacred during the life of Christ was done away in his death.

We find the apostles meeting in the synagogues on the Sabbath day. But that they observed it as a sacred day is nowhere stated. Adventists now meet on the first day of the week, not because they regard the day as a sacred day, but because they can have an audience to hear them on that day. For the same reason the apostles met in the synagogues on the Sabbath. Paul went a thousand miles to attend a Pentecost. But that does not bind that feast upon Christians. James reveals the fact that many believers were yet zealous in keeping the Law of Moses. Does that fact make those services binding upon us, when we are told by inspiration that we are freed from the law by the body of Christ? Suppose that we shall find Christians who had been Jews were slow to learn that they were not under law, but under grace, will that bind the law upon us? Paul took and circumcised Timothy, because of the Jews which were in those quarters; will that make it necessary for us to be circumcised? It took a number of years before even the apostles knew that the Gentiles were to have the gospel preached to them. Will that in any way interfere with our authority to carry to them the word of life? The Holy Spirit was given to those men to guide them into all truth. But all needed knowledge did not mine in a day. It was years in being given and in being established with signs following. And yet, even though the minds of disciples had to open gradually to the whole truth, there is no recorded instance of their meeting on the Sabbath after the day of Pentecost. There were Judaizers who taught that they must keep the law, but they never had any consider­able following. And when we come to a completed revelation we learn that we are not under the law in any respect what­ever. That while the law had served a valuable purpose as a school-master to bring us to Christ that we might be jus­t i fled by faith, yet, faith having come, we are no longer under the school-master.

3. But it is claimed that Jesus bound upon the disciples this institution.

If this is true, then there is an end of all controversy respect­ing the matter. Where and when did he do this? Show this, and we will keep the seventh day, not because it is of the Decalogue, but because it is of Christ. We must have the state­ment of Christ however. Where is it? They say that it is to be found in Mat 24:20. They were to pray that their flight should not be in the winter, nor on the Sabbath day; and as this referred to the destruction of Jerusalem, it would be about forty years after the death of Christ; hence he makes keeping the Sabbath a matter of prayer, forty years after the inauguration of his church. As much reliance is placed upon this passage, I will quote it in full. Mat 24:17-21 :

"Let him which is on the house-top not come down to take anything out of his house; neither let him that is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."

Why this is ever quoted by Adventists to show that the Sab­bath would be sacred in the year seventy is not easily seen. As they argue that all penalties are removed in case of absolute necessity, there would be nothing wrong in their fleeing on that day. And as for any tradition concerning a Sabbath day’s journey, they do not suppose that Christ ever attached any importance to it. Since, then, there would be no wrong in fleeing on the Sabbath day, if necessity should require it, there would be nothing in it that would, in any way, interfere with their flight out of Jerusalem. Hence they have already destroyed their argument on this Scripture.

There were a number of things which they were to avoid.

Would it be religiously or morally wrong to do anyone of these things? The Adventist finds no sin in anything but fleeing on the Sabbath. He accounts for all the other inhibitions on the ground of inconvenience, or necessity. It is only the Sabbath that was surrounded by religious author ity. There was just as much prohibition on fleeing in the winter as on the Sabbath day. But while, to them, it proves that the Sabbath would be regarded as sacred, it does not have that meaning concerning the winter. This shows that they can find in the passage just what they wish to find. It means in­convenience in five cases out of the six, but in the sixth it must mean the sacredness of the day. Certainly Jesus knew it would be difficult for them to flee on the Sabbath day. The customs and rules of the people, whatever might be in the minds of the disciples respecting it, would make it almost impossible for them so escape from the doomed city on that day. Their fellow Jews would suspect them and apprehend them as traitors.

Renee, while this command of the Savior cannot be accounted for upon the hypothesis of the sacredness of the day, it is easily understood in the light of the others, convenience: and neces­sity.

4. Paul is said to bind upon them this law in his letter to the saints in Rome.

See Rom 3:31 : “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."

There are two questions to be settled in determining the meaning of this^-passage.

Of course Adventists understand the term law here to refer to the Ten Commandments, to the exclusion of all the rest. For, with them, it will not do to have the rest of the law bound upon Christians. Though nothing has been said about the Decalogue in the connection, yet it must have that meaning, forsooth, it must.

Those who will be at the pains of reading this letter from the beginning up to this text will dud that Paul was trying to con­vince them that the gospel was the only power by which men could be saved. To do this he had shown (1) that all men were lost, and therefore were in need of salvation. (2) That they could not be saved by the law. (3) But that they could be saved through the gospel without the deeds of the law. Now what law is established in this way? Let me read the 28th, 29th and 30th verses: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith."

Now it will be seen by every reader that the same law that was established by the gospel, was that law by which they could not be saved; without the deeds of which they might be saved. But now the question recurs: In what sense was that law established? Does Paul mean to say that a law by which no man could be saved, and that without performing its deeds they might be saved, had been bound upon them as a rule of life? Such a thought is perfectly unreasonable. You know that Paul never said anything of the kind. Hence, in estab­lishing this law he has not the remotest idea of binding it upon them as a rule of life. But what does he mean by the remark? In proving that men were in need of salvation, Paul had to show the Jew, especially that he was a sinner in the second place he had to make him see that he could not be saved by the law. These he did by appealing to their records, declaring that they related to those who were under the law in particular; hence, that the Jew as well as the Gentile was lost and in need of salvation. Therefore it was as a witness to the condition of the people that the law was established. But I am told that very respectable commentators regard the law here referred to as the moral law, taught in the Old Testa­ment. This, however, does not make it true. And if it did, it would not furnish any aid or comfort to Adventism, since we have seen that the Sabbath would not belong to the last; being a positive and not a moral commandment. But it is not possible to accept the common version and regard the law here mentioned as simply those eternal principles which a man must do or not be just before God, for we are to be justi^­fied without the deeds of this law. No, it is as a witness that the law is confirmed by the establishment of this Remedial system, by which alone it was possible for men to be saved. The law was given as a whole, and for a definite purpose, of teaching and governing that people till the Christ should come. To have caused it to fail of that purpose would have been to destroy the law, but to cause it to answer that purpose, by bringing in that salvation for which it prepared the people, was to fulfill it. Hence, to fulfill, to establish, or confirm, the law was the work of Christ in giving the gospel to the world, by which the world could be saved. The law and instruction of the pedagogue is established by the higher teacher, when his lessons and rules are declared to have been right. But no one thinks that this leaves the student under the old school­master. If you yet have any doubt of the subject, return and read the third chapter of the Roman letter, beginning at the ninth verse. Then, after quoting freely from some of the prophets and the Psalms, he says, Rom 3:19 :

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."

There is nothing unusual in this use of the word law. Many times different parts of the Old Testament are called law. Both prophecy and history are so denominated.

5. It is said that Paul has plainly declared to the Hebrews that a Sabbath remains to the people of God; and that as there never was but one Sabbath given to men, to be kept by them, it fol­lows that he intended them to understand that they were yet to observe the seventh day of the week as it was given at Sinai.

According to the new Revision, in Heb 4:9, we should read:

"There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God."

Let us read the whole passage from the first verse:

“Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into Ills rest, anyone of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even also as they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because they were not united by faith with them that heard. For we which have believed do enter into that rest; even as he hath said, As I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise, And God rested on the seventh day from all his works; and in this place again, They shall not enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto, arid they to whom the good tidings were before preached failed o enter in because of disobedience, he again defineth a certain lay, saying in David, after so long a time, To-day, as it hath been before said, Today if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. IA us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no roan fall after the same example of disobedience."—Heb 4:1-11. That this language can have no reference to the weekly Sab­bath is evident from the following reasons:

6. In the new earth state, they tell us, there will be the Sabbath To prove this they quote Isa 66:23.

Let us turn and read the connection that we may understand the subject before the mind of the prophet. See Isa 66:20-23 :

"And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to an­other, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord."

It is assumed that this new earth state has reference to the Christian dispensation, and hence that in it the Sabbath shall be as prominent an institution as it was under the Law of Moses.

It will be noticed, however, by everyone who reads to under­stand the meaning of the Scripture, that if this text gives any assurance of the continuance of the Sabbath, it as certainly per­petuates the "new moons." The new moon is used in the sense that it is in the Law of Moses. Upon the use of this phraseology, let the reader turn and read Num 10:10; Num 28:2; 1Ch 23:31; 2Ch 2:4; Isa 1:13; Eze 45:17; Hos 2:11. As we know that the "new moons" are not to be observed in the kingdom of Christ, we know that these Sabbaths here spoken of do not refer to that period, or the expression is only a figure to indicate that the habit of worship will be general.

7. A seventh argument in favor of the Sabbath is made by repeating the word commandment, and always referring it to the Decalogue. The average Advent lecturer hangs his chart on the wall, and every time he can find the word command or com­mandment, he points to the chart, as if to impress it upon the minds of the hearers that they are being spoken of. With them, for a man to sin he must absolutely violate law, and that he cannot do where there is no law. Hence, because Adam sinned, he must have violated the Ten Commandments. They can think of no law but that of the Decalogue. So I suppose as the angels sinned and kept not their first estate, they must have had the Ten Commandments up in heaven, Sabbath and all, a long time before the world was created, or anything done that was to be memorialized by that institution. This is the extreme of folly to which such a theory will drive even good men.

Turn to Mat 5:27; Mat 7:26, and get a fair view of the manner in which such terms are employed in the New Testament. Christ first says that “you have heard that it hath been said of old time," "But I say unto you." And after repeating this a good many times, he pronounces a blessing upon those who “hear these sayings of mine and do them." This is the meaning in Rev 22:14 :

“Blessed are they that do his commandments."

They were recognized as being under the authority of Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. So in Rev 2:26, "And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations." The same thought is found in the third chapter of this book (Rev 3:7-11), in keeping my word, “the word of my patience." In Mat 10:40, Jesus says:

“He that receiveth you receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me."

If we would receive the Father, we must receive the Son, and if we would receive the Son we must receive those whom the Son has sent into the world. This shows plainly, that the only authority in religion recognized on the earth, is that of the Christ.

Mat 28:18-20 :

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." The only things which the apostles had any commission to teach the disciples to keep, were the things he had commanded them to teach. They were not the commandments of Moses nor of the Decalogue, but the things which Christ had com­manded.

John 14:21-23 :

“He that hath my commandments, and keep­eth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and will make our abode with him."

John 14:15-16 has the same thought:

“If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever."

Read also John 15:10-14; Acts 17:30-31; 1Jn 3:22-24; 1Co 2:1-2; Rev 6:9; Rev 12:17; Rev 14:12.

These are a fair sample of the New Testament use of the word commandment. They show that the salvation of the world depends not on keeping the commands of the law, but by hear­ing what Jesus says and doing what he has commanded.

True the Master has required us to observe many of the things that may be found in the Law of Moses; even the golden rule, he says, was taken from the Law and the Prophets. But they are before us as matters of authority not because they were in the Law of Moses or in the Decalogue, but because they were commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ. If he had commanded us to keep the Sabbath, then we should have done so, but since he did not, we are perfectly free from any obligation to that institution.