"Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an
old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is
the WORD which ye have heard from the beginning John 2:7.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth." Gen.1:1 "And God blessed the seventh day, and rested from all his
work." 2:3
"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they
may have right to the tree of life and enter in," &c. Rev.22:14
A PERPETUAL SIGN,
NEW-BEDFORD PRESS OF BENJAMIN LINDSEY
1847
PREFACE
TO THE LITTLE FLOCK.
"REMEMBER the Sabbath day to keep it holy." "Six days
work may be done, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in
it thou shalt not do any work." This commandment I conceive to be as
binding now as it ever was, and will be to the entering into the "gates of
the city." Rev.22:14
I understand that the SEVENTH day Sabbath is not the
LEAST one, among the ALL things that are to be restored before the second
advent of Jesus Christ, seeing that the Imperial and Papal power of Rome,
since the days of the Apostles, have changed the seventh day Sabbath to
the first day of the week!
Twenty days before God re-enacted and wrote the
commandments with his finger on tables of stone, he required his people to
keep the Sabbath. Exo.6:27,30 Here he calls the Sabbath "MY COMMANDMENTS
AND MY LAWS." NOW the SAVIOR has given his comments on the commandments.
See Matt.22:35,40 "On these two (precepts) hang ALL the law and the
prophets." Then it would be impossible for the Sabbath to be left out. A
question was asked, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Says Jesus,
"If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments" -Matt.19:17 Here he
quotes five from the tables of stone. It is still clearer in Luke 10.25,28
"What is written in the law? how readest thou?" Here he gives the
Saviour's exposition in 22 Matt. as above. Jesus says, "Thou hast answered
right, this do and live." See also Matt.5:17,19,21,27,33 PAUL comments
thus. "The law is holy, and the commandments holy, just and good."
"Circumcision and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping the
commandments of God." "All the law is fulfilled in one word: thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself." JOHN says, "the old commandment is the WORD
from the beginning." - 2,7 - Gen.2:3 "He carries us from thence into the
gates of the city." Rev.22:14 Here he has particular reference to the
Sabbath. JAMES calls it the PERFECT, royal law of liberty, which we are to
be doers of, and be judged by. Take out the fourth commandment and the law
is imperfect, and we shall fail in one point.
The uncompromising advocate for present truth, which
feeds and nourishes the little flock in whatever country or place, is the
restorer of all things; one man like John the Baptist, cannot discharge
this duty to every kindred, nation, tongue and people, and still remain in
one place. The truth is what we want.
Joseph Bates
FAIRHAVEN, AUGUST.1846
PREFACE
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
TO THE LITTLE FLOCK.
My reasons for issuing a second edition of this book
are, First, the increasing demand for them, from different quarters.
Second, it affords me an opportunity of spreading additional light from
the Word on this important subject of present truth. Much more is said
about it than any doctrine in the Bible, beginning in Genesis, and
continuing down to the closing up of the last message which God ever gave
to man, proving clearly that the doing of these commandments saves the
soul; showing it more clearly than a strict adherence to the Constitution
of these United States proves the man a sound patriot. Therefore in this
sense United States proves the man a sound patriot. Therefore in this
sense they are strictly the constitution of the Bible, the everlasting
covenant between God and man, and can never be changed or altered while
man is stamped with the image of God. Why then has the church lost sight
of them? or rather the Covenant in them of the 7th day Sabbath? See
history 43d page, and Dan.7.25 Well then how does it come to be understood
at this point of time? Answer. - The angel Gabriel told Daniel that
knowledge should increase in the time of the end. This of course included
the scriptures, particularly since the proclamation of the everlasting
Gospel of Rev.14:6,13. It is well known how this knowledge has increased
since 1840. These ten Commandments being the foundation of the scriptures.
(See Matt.22.) God, in a peculiar manner, to instruct his honest,
confiding children, shows them spiritually under the sounding of the
seventh Angel, the ark of his testament after the temple of God was opened
in heaven. Rev.11:10 These are the ten commandments. Here then I
understand is where the spirit made an indelible impression to search the
scriptures for the TESTIMONY of God. It was done, and published to the
world by many, that the professed church had been walking in open
violation of the fourth commandment since the days of the Apostles. -
Every one that has read the history of this TESTIMONY of God in the Ark,
must see the mighty power that accompanied it through Israel and
Philistine, one of the greatest wonders that ever existed in this world, a
pattern only of what was seen in the opening of the Temple in heaven. In
Rev.14:12, John sees them obeying its dictates. In the xv ch. he describes
the division as in the 14th ch. they were rejoicing over the victory of
the beast, (got out of the churches,) standing on or by the sure word of
prophecy, (some say immortality.) The 4th v. says, "for all nations SHALL
come (in the future) and worship before thee." After that I looked and
behold the Temple of the Tabernacle of the TESTIMONY in heaven was open,"
5th v. (that is after their songs of rejoicing.) The Temple which
contained the Tabernacle, the ark of the testimony, or ten commandments
was open. Now this Temple without doubt is the new Jerusalem. Who cannot
see that this Temple has been opened for some purpose, but not to be
entered by man until the seven last plagues are fulfilled. Here is a space
of time in which the commandments will be fully kept. I do not say that
this view of the Ark in Rev. is positive, but I think the inference is
strong. I cannot see what else it refers to.
On pages 15,16, I have added about 24 lines in further
explanation of Col.2:14,17 On 16th page, I have also added about as much
more to illustrate and distinguish the Sabbath feasts of the Jewish
nation. On the nineteenth page I have given about forty lines on the 2d
Cor.3, which I think must settle these points fully.
The last fourteen pages are principally devoted to the
covenants and what they are intended for. The two covenants made with man
in this state of mortality, is first by God delivered to Moses. The second
or new, by Jesus Christ and his disciples. Paul in speaking of them to the
Gal.4:24, says these are THE TWO COVENANTS. All the others belong to the
Saints after the second advent.
If any of the brethren feel it a duty to help pay for
the paper and printing of this edition the way is open, otherwise it will
be done by a few individuals here, as was the first edition. This work is
sent forth gratuitously, with a fervent prayer that these present precious
truths may be set home on the soul preparatory to the coming judgement.
Since issuing the first edition in August last, we have
publicly called on all the advent lecturers and believers to show us if we
were wrong on the Lord's Sabbath. Once more we now challenge the Christian
world to show us if they can from the Bible, where we have taken a wrong
view of the seventh day Sabbath.
Fairhaven, Jan. 1847.
J.B.
THE SABBATH
FIRST QUESTION IS, WHEN WAS THE SABBATH INSTITUTED?
THOSE who are in the habit of reading the Scriptures
just as they find them, and of understanding them according to the
established rules of interpretation, will never be at a loss to understand
so plain a passage as the following: "And God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which
God created and made." Gen.2:3 Moses, when referring to it, says to the
children of Israel, "This is that which the Lord hath said, to-morrow is
the REST of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." Exod.16:23
Then we understand that God established the seventh day
Sabbath in Paradise, on the very day when he rested from all his work, and
not one week, nor one year, not two thousand five hundred and fourteen
years afterwards, as some would have it. Is it not plain that the Sabbath
was instituted to commemorate the stupendous work of creation, and
designed by God to be celebrated by his worshipers as a weekly Sabbath, in
the same manner as the Israelites were commanded to celebrate the
Passover, from the very night of their deliverance till the resurrection
of Jesus from the dead; or as we, as a nation, annually celebrate our
national independence; or as type answers to antitype, so we believe this
must run down, to the "keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God" in the
immortal state.
It is argued by some, that because no mention is made
of the Sabbath from its institution in Paradise till the falling of the
manna in the wilderness, mentioned in Exo.16:15, that it was therefore
here instituted for the Jews, but we think there is Bible argument
sufficient to sustain the reply of Jesus to the Pharisees, "that the
Sabbath was made for MAN and not man for the Sabbath." If it was made for
any one exclusively it must have been for Adam, the father of us all, two
thousand years before Abraham (who is claimed as the father of the Jews)
was born. John says, the old commandment was from the beginning -1John2:7
There is pretty strong inference that the antediluvians
measured time by weeks from the account given by Noah, when the waters of
the deluge began to subside. He "sent out a dove which soon returned." At
the end of seven days he sent her out again; and at the end of seven days
more, he sent her out a third time. Now why this preference for the number
seven? why not five or ten days, or any other number? Can it be supposed
that his fixing on upon seven was accidental? How much more natural to
conclude that it was in obedience to the authority of God, as expressed in
the 2d chap. of Gen. A similar division of time is incidentally mentioned
in Gen.29: fulfill her week and we will give thee this also; and Jacob did
so and fulfilled her week." Now the word week is every where used in
Scriptures as we use it; it never means more nor less than seven days
(except as symbols of years) and one of them was in all other cases the
Sabbath. But now suppose there had been an entire silence on the subject
of the Sabbath for this twenty-five hundred years, would that be
sufficient evidence that there was none. If so, we have the same evidence
that there was no Sabbath from the reign of Joshua till the reign of
David, four hundred and six years, as no mention is made of it in the
history of that period. But who can be persuaded that Samuel and the pious
Judges of Israel did not regard the Sabbath. What does God say of Abraham?
that he "obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes
and my laws. (See what he calls them in Exo.16:27,30) This, of course,
includes the whole. Then Abraham reverenced God's Sabbath. Once more,
there is no mention of the circumcision from the days of Joshua till the
days of Jeremiah, a period of more than eight hundred years. Will it be
believed that Samuel and David, and all those pious worthies with the
whole Jewish nation, neglected that essential seal of the covenant for
eight hundred years? It cannot be admitted for a moment. How then can any
one suppose from the alleged silence of the sacred history that Adam,
Enoch, Noah and Abraham, kept no Sabbath, because the fact was not stated?
If we turn to Jer.9:25,26, we find that they had not neglected this rite
of circumcision, only they had not circumcised their hearts; so that the
proof is clear, that silence respecting the keeping any positive command
of God, is no evidence that it is not in full force.
Again, if the Sabbath was not instituted in Paradise,
why did Moses mention it in connection with the creation of the world? Why
not reserve this fact for two or three thousand years in his history,
until the manna fell in the wilderness, (see Exo.16:23) and then state
that the seventh day Sabbath commenced, as some will have it? I answer,
for the very best of reasons, that it did not commence there. Let us
examine the text. "And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they
gathered twice as much bread as on any preceding day, and all the rulers
of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them this is
that which the Lord hath said, to-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath.
bake that which ye will bake, &c.&c." If this had been the establishing of
the holy Sabbath and Moses had said to-morrow shall be the Sabbath, then
would it have been clear; but no, he speaks as familiarly about it as we
do when we say that to-morrow is the Sabbath, showing conclusively that it
was known before, or how could the people have known that they must gather
two day's manna on Friday the sixth day, unless they had had some previous
knowledge of the Sabbath? for Moses had already taught them not to "leave
any of it until the morning" -v.19 The 20th verse shows that the Sabbath
had not yet come since their receiving the manna, because it spoiled and
"bred worms by the next morning;" whereas, on the Sabbath morning it was
found sweet and eatable -24th v. This was the thirtieth day after leaving
Egypt (1st v.) and twenty days before it was given on Sinai. The weekly
Sabbath then was appointed before this or before the days of Moses. Where
was it then? Answer, in the second chapter of Genesis and no where else;
and the same week on which the manna fell, the weekly Sabbath was revived
among or with God's chosen people. Grotius tells us "that the memory of
the creation's being performed in seven days, was preserved not only among
the Greeks and Italians, but among the Celts and Indians." Other writers
say Assyrians, Egyptians, Arabians, Britons and Germans, all of whom
divide their time into weeks. Philo says "the Sabbath is not peculiar to
any one people or country, but is common to all the world." Josephus
states "that there is no city either of Greeks or barbarians or any other
nation, where the religion of the Sabbath is not known." But as they, like
the great mass of God's professed people in Christendom, paid little or no
heed to what God had said about the particular day, (except the Jews, and
a few others) they (as we are informed in history) adopted peculiar days
to suit themselves, viz: the Christian nations chose to obey the Pope of
Rome, who changed the seventh day Sabbath to the first day, and call it
the holy Sabbath; the Persians selected Monday; the Grecians Tuesday; the
Assyrians Wednesday; the Egyptians Thursday; the Turks Friday, and the
Jews the seventh day, Saturday, as God had commanded. Three standing
miracles a week, for about forty years annually, ought to perpetuate the
Sabbath. 1st, double the quantity of manna on the sixth day; 2d, none on
the seventh; 3d, did not spoil on the seventh day. If it does not matter
which day you keep holy to the Lord, then all these nations are right. Now
reflect one moment on this, and then open your Bible and read the
commandment of the God of all these nations! "REMEMBER! (what you have
been taught before) the Sabbath day to keep it holy;" (which day is it
Lord?) "The SEVENTH is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt
not do any work, thou not thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant nor
thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger, that is within thy
gates." Who is the stranger? (Gentiles.) Now the reason for it will carry
us back again to Paradise. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the SEVENTH;
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." "Wherefore
the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath
throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant; it is a SIGN
between me and the children of Israel forever. (Why is it Lord?) "For in
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the SEVENTH day he rested
and was refreshed." Exo.20 and 21 Which day now will you choose? O, says
the reader, the seventh if I knew which of the days it was. If you don't
know, why are you so sure that the first day is right? O, because the
history of the world has settled that, and this is the most we can know.
Very well then, does not the seventh come the day before the eighth? If we
have not got the days of the week right now, it is not likely that we ever
shall. God does not require of us any more than what we know; by that we
shall be judged. Luke 23:55,56
Once more: think you that the spirit of God ever
directed Moses when he was giving the history of the creation of the
world, to write that he (God) "blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
because that in it he had rested from all his work," unless he meant it to
be dated from that very day? Why, this is as clear to the unbiassed mind
as it is that God created man the sixth day. Would it not be the height of
absurdity to attempt to prove that God only intended Adam should be
created at some future period, or that the creation of the heavens and
earth was not in the beginning, but some twenty-five hundred years
afterward? All this would be as cogent reasoning as it would be to argue
that God did not intend this day of rest should commence until about
twenty-five hundred years afterwards. (The word Sabbath signifies rest.)
It follows then irresistibly, that the weekly Sabbath
was not made for the Jews only, (but as Jesus says, for `man') for the
Jews had no existence until more than two thousand years after it was
established. President Humphrey in his essays on the Sabbath says, "That
he (God) instituted it when he rested from all his work, on the seventh
day of the first week, and gave it primarily to our first parents, and
through them to all their posterity; that the observance of it was
enjoined upon the children of Israel soon after they left Egypt, not in
the form of a new enactment, but as an ancient institution which was far
from being forgotten, though it had doubtless been greatly neglected under
the cruel domination of their heathen masters; that it was re-enacted with
great pomp and solemnity, and written in stone by the finger of God at
Sinai; that the sacred institution then took the form of a statute, with
explicit prohibitions and requirements, and has never been repealed or
altered since; that it can never expire of itself, because it has no
limitation."
In Deut.7:6-8, God gives his reasons for selecting the
Jews to keep his covenant in preference to any other nation; only seventy
at first -10:22 God calls it his "Sabbath," and refers us right back to
the creation for proof. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth
and sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh," &c. Here
then we stand fixed by the immutable law of God, and the word of Jesus,
that "the Sabbath was made for man!" Paul says, "there is no respect of
persons with God." Rom.2:11 Isaiah shows us plainly that the Jew is not
the only one to be blessed for keeping the Sabbath. He says "Blessed is
the man (are not the Gentiles men) that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting
it." "Also the sons of the stranger, (who are these if they are not
Gentiles?) every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, (does he
mean me? yes, every Gentile in the universe, or else he respects persons)
even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my
house of prayer; for my house shall be called an house of prayer for all
people." Isa.56:2,6,7 If this promise is not to the Gentile as well as the
Jew, then "the house of prayer for all people." is no promise to the
Gentile.
Now we ask, if God has ever abrogated the law of the
Sabbath? If he has it can easily be found. We undertake to say without
fear of contradiction, he has not made any such record in the Bible; but
to the contrary, he calls it a perpetual covenant, a "sign between me and
the children of Israel forever," for the reason that he rested on the
seventh day. Exo.31:16,17 Says one, has not the ceremonial law been
annulled and nailed to the cross? Yes, but what of that? Why then the
Sabbath must be abolished, for Paul to say that the seventh day Sabbath
was made void or nailed to the cross at the crucifixion, when he never
intended any such change; if he did, he certainly would have deceived the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, in the promise which he made them about two
thousand four hundred and forty-six years ago! Turn now to Jer.27:25, and
tell me if he did not promise the inhabitants of Jerusalem that their city
should remain forever if they would hallow the Sabbath day. Now suppose
the inhabitants of Jerusalem had entered into this agreement, and entailed
it upon their posterity (because you see it could not have been fulfilled
unless it had continued from generation to generation,) to keep the
Sabbath holy, would not God have been bound to let Jerusalem remain
forever? You say yes. Well, then, I ask you to show how he could have kept
that promise inviolate if he intended in less than six hundred and fifty
years to change this seventh day Sabbath, and call the first day of the
week the Sabbath, or abolish it altogether? I say, therefore, if there has
been any change one way or the other in the Sabbath, since that promise,
it would be impossible to understand any other promise in the Bible; how
much more reasonable to believe God than man. If men will allow themselves
to believe the monstrous absurdity that FOREVER, as in this promise, ended
at the resurrection, then they can easily believe that the Sabbath was
changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. Or if they choose
the other extreme, abolished until the people of God should awake to be
clothed on with immortality. Heb.4:9
JB JBSC THE SABBATH page 0063 paragraph 1 Now does it
not appear plain that the Sabbath is from God, and that it is coeval and
co-extensive (as is the institution of marriage) with the world. That it
is without limitation; that there is not one thus saith the Lord that it
ever was or ever will be abolished, in time or eternity. See
Exod.31:16,17; and Isa.66:22,24; Heb.4:4,9 But let us return and look at
the subject as we have commenced in the light of Paul's argument to the
Romans and Colossians, for here is where all writers on this subject, for
the change or the overthrow of the seventh day Sabbath attempt to draw
their strong arguments. The second question then, is this:
HAS THE SABBATH BEEN ABOLISHED SINCE THE SEVENTH DAY OF
CREATION? IF SO, WHEN, AND WHERE IS THE PROOF?
The text already referred to, is in Rom.14:5,6 "One man
esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let
every man be persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day,
regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord,
he doth not regard it." Does the apostle here mean to say, that under the
new or Christian dispensation it is a matter of indifference which day of
the week is kept as a Sabbath, or whether any Sabbath at all is kept? Was
that institution which the people of God had been commanded to call a
delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, now to be esteemed of so carnal
a nature as to be ranked among the things which Jesus "took out of the
way, nailing it to His cross." If this be true, then has Jesus, in the
same manner, abolished the eight last verses in the fifty-eighth of
Isaiah, and the 2d, 6th and 7th verses of the 56th chapter have no
reference to the Gentile since the crucifixion. O Lord help us rightly to
understand and divide thy word. But is it not evident from the four first
verses in the same chapter of Romans, that Paul is speaking of feast days;
Hear him explain. "Destroy not him with thy meal for whom Christ died. For
the kingdom of God is not meat and drink." 15,17v, also 20,23 Giving them
again in substance the decrees which had been given by the Apostles in
their first conference, in A.D. 51, held at Jerusalem. See Acts 15:19
James proposes their letter to the Gentiles should be "that they abstain
from pollution of Idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled,
and from blood;" to which the conference all agreed. Now please read their
unanimous decrees (16:4,) from twenty-three to thirty verses. For it
seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden
than these necessary things." "That ye abstain from meats offered to
Idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication,
from which if ye keep yourselves ye shall do well." Reading along to the
13th of the next chapter, we find Paul establishing the Churches with
these decrees; (see 4,5,) and at Philippi he holds his meeting, (not in
the Jews Synagogue) but at the river's side, on the Sabbath day. A little
from this it is said that Paul is in Thessalonica preaching on the Sabbath
days. Luke says this was his manner! What was it? Why, to preach on the
Sabbath days, (not 1st days.) Observe here was three Sabbaths in
succession. 17:2 A little while from this Paul locates himself in Corinth,
and there preaches to the Jews and Greeks (or Gentiles) a year and six
months every Sabbath. Now this must have been seventy-eight in succession.
18:4,11 Does this look like abolishing the Sabbath day? Has anything been
said about the 1st day yet? No, we shall speak of that by and by.
Before this he was in Antioch. "And when the Jews were
gone out of the synagogue the GENTILES besought that these words might be
preached to them the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath day came almost
the whole city together to hear the word of God." 13:42,44 Here is proof
that the Gentiles kept the Sabbath. Now I wish to place the other strong
text which is so strangely adhered to for abolishing or changing this
Sabbath along side of this, that we may understand his meaning. "Blotting
out the hand-writing 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 a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days."
Col.2:14,16 Now here is one of the strong arguments adhered to by all
those who say the seventh day Sabbath was abolished at the crucifixion of
our Lord; while on the other hand by the great mass of the Christian
world, (so called,) the seventh day Sabbath ceased here, and in less than
forty-eight hours the change was made to the first day of the week. Now
remember Paul's manner, (before stated) itinerating from city to city and
nation to nation, always preaching to Jews and Gentiles on the seventh day
Sabbath, (for there is no other day called the Lord's Sabbath in the
Bible.) Now if the Apostle did mean to include the Sabbath of the Lord God
with the Jewish feasts and Sabbaths in the text, then the course he took
to do so, was the strangest imaginable. His manner always was, as
recorded, with the exception of one night, to preach on the very day that
he was laboring to abolish. If you will look at the date in your Bibles,
you will learn this same apostle had been laboring in this way as a
special messenger to the Gentiles, between twenty and thirty years since
(as you say) the Sabbath was changed or abolished, and yet never uttered
one word with respect to any other day in the week to be set apart as a
holy day or Sabbath. I understand all the arguments about his laboring in
the Jewish Synagogue on their Sabbath, because they were open for worship
on that day, &c., but he did not always preach in their Synagogues. He
says that he preached the Kingdom of God, and labored in his own hired
house for two years. He also established a daily meeting for disputation
in the school of Tyranus." Acts 19:9 Again he says, I have "kept back
NOTHING that was PROFITABLE unto you. (Now if the Sabbath had been changed
or abolished, would it not have been profitable to have told them so?) and
have taught you publicly, and from house to house." "For I have not
shunned to declare unto you ALL the council of God." - Acts 20:20,27 Then
it is clear that he taught them by example that the Sabbath of the Lord
God was not abolished. Luke says it was the custom (or manner) of Christ
to teach in the synagogues on the Sabbath day. 4:16,31 Mark says, "And
when the Sabbath day was come he began to teach in their synagogue." Mark
6:2 Now if Jesus was about to abolish or change this Sabbath, (which
belonged to the first code, the moral law, and not the ceremonial, the
second code, which was to be nailed to his cross, or rather, as said the
angel Gabriel to Daniel, 9:27, "he (Christ) in the midst of the week shall
cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease," meaning that the Jewish
sacrifices and offerings would cease at his death.) Jesus did not attend
to any of the ceremonies of the Jews except the passover and the feasts of
tabernacles. Why did he say, "Think not I am come to destroy the law or
the prophets? I am not come to destroy but fulfill. One jot or one title
shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled." "Whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments" &c. Did he mean the
ten commandments? Yes; for he immediately points out the third, not to
take God's name in vain; sixth and seventh, not to kill nor to commit
adultery, and styles them the least. Then the others, which include the
fourth, of course were greater than these. Matt.5:17-19,21,27,33, and were
not to be broken nor pass away. Then the Sabbath stands unchanged.
Almost every writer which I have read on the subject of
abolishing or changing the seventh day Sabbath, call it the Jewish
Sabbath, hence their difficulty. How can it be the Jewish Sabbath when it
was established two thousand years before there was a Jew on the face of
the earth, and certainly twenty-five hundred before it was embodied in the
decalogue, or re-enacted and written in stone by the finger of God at
Sinai. God called this HIS Sabbath, and Jesus says it was made for man,
(not particularly for the Jews.)
"Well," says one, "what is the meaning of the texts
which you have quoted, where it speaks of Sabbaths?" - Answer: These are
the Jewish Sabbaths! which belong to them as a nation and are connected
with their feasts. God by Hosea makes this distinction, and says, "I will
also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons and her
Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." These then belong to the text
quoted, and not God's Sabbath. Do you ask for the proof? See 23 Levit.4
"These are the FEASTS of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim in their
seasons, EVERY THING UPON HIS DAY" -37th v. (May we not deviate a little?
If you do it will be at your peril.) Fifteenth and sixteenth verses gives
them a fifty day's Sabbath; twenty-fourth verse says: "Speak unto the
children of Israel, saying in the seventh month in the first day of the
month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy
convocation."
"Also on the tenth day of the seventh month there shall
be a day of atonement. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest." 27,32
"Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when ye
shall have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto
the Lord seven days. On the first shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth
day shall be a Sabbath. 39v. And Moses declared unto the children of
Israel the FEASTS of the Lord." 44v. Now here we have FOUR kinds of Jewish
Sabbaths, also called "FEASTS of the Lord," to be kept annually. The first
fifty days or seven weeks Sabbath ends the third month, seventh. In three
months and twenty-four days more commences the second Sabbath, seventh
month, first; the next, the tenth; the last the fifteenth of the month.
Between the first two Sabbaths there is an interval of one hundred and
twelve days; the next two, ten days, and the next, five days. Now it can
be seen at a glance, that neither of these Sabbaths could be on the
seventh day any oftener than other annual feast could come on that day.
These then are what Hosea calls HER Sabbaths. Paul calls them HOLY DAYS,
new moons, and Sabbaths; and this is what they are stated to be. The first
day of the seventh month is a new moon SABBATH, the tenth is a Sabbath of
rest and Holy convocation, a day of atonement, and the fifteenth a feast
of Sabbaths. Do you ask for any more evidence that these are the Jewish
Sabbaths, and that God's Sabbath is separate from them? Read then what God
directed Moses to write in the third verse: "Six days shall work be done,
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation, ye shall
do no work therein, it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings."
Now Moses has here declared from the mouth of the Lord, that these are ALL
the feast of the Lord, (there is no more nor less) and every thing is to
be upon his day, and he has clearly and definitely separated his Sabbath
from the other four. But let us look at the text again. Col.2:14 - 16 See
17 (?) "which are a shadow of things to come." What did the apostle say
were shadows? Why, meat, drink, holy day, new moon, sabbath days. 16th v.
Heb.9:10 What does he mean by shadow? See Heb.10:1,2 Just what I have
stated on page 14. Now here we have one clear, positive point. If the
seventh day Sabbath is included in the 17th verse, then it must be a
shadow; if it is not a shadow, then Paul has no reference to it, and it
stands forever! Moses says the ten commandments were written by the finger
of God on tables of stone; whatever God has done with his own hand is
stamped with immortality, and is as enduring as the sun, moon and stars.
Ps.8:3 But if the 4th commandment, the Sabbath of the Lord is a shadow
then all the other nine commandments must be. Let us look at what are
called by our Lord the least commandments, the 6th and 7th "Thou shalt not
kill." - "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Math.5:19,21,27 Are these
shadows? Is there an individual with common sense in the world that dare
risk his reputation in such kind of logic? Then it is as clear as a sun
beam that all the others are tangible substances, and will continue in
full force while immortality endures; especially the 4th commandment, the
Sabbath. See Isa.66:23, Heb.4:9 Rev.22:14 And in the 28th and 29th
chapters of Numbers the sacrifices and offerings for each of these days
are made so plain, beginning with the Sabbath, 9v, that we have only to
read the following to understand. 26.29:1 First day, seventh month, (new
moon;) 7v, 10th day Sabbath; 12th v., 15th day Sabbath, and 35th v., 23d
Sabbath. I will endeavor to present it in a clearer point of view:
Feast by fire connected with the Lord's and the Jewish
Sabbaths. The Daily or continual [always] 2 lambs morning and evenings, 3
quarts of flour for a meat offering, 2 1-2 pints of oil, 5 pints of wine -
28:3 - 7
THE SABBATH DAY. 2 lambs, and six quarts of flour with
oil.
Here follow the Jewish feasts with their Sabbaths:
1st - 7th week Sabbath, 2 bullocks, 1 ram, 7 lambs, 1
goat, 24 quarts of flour - 28:16,17
- 7th month Sabbath, 1 bullock, 1 ram, 7 lambs, 1 kid,
36 quarts of flour - 29:1 - 5
3d - 10th of 7th month Sabbath, 1 bullock, 1 ram, 7
lambs, 2 kids, 86 quarts of flour - 7 - 11
4th - 13 of 7th month Sabbath, 13 bullocks, 2 rams, 14
lambs, 2 kids, 4 1-2 bushels of flour - 12 - 16
8th day Sabbath, 1 bullock, 1 ram, 7 lambs, 1 goat, 36
quarts of flour - 35 - 39
"And Moses told the children of Israel according to all
that the Lord commanded Moses." Here is the 8th day Sabbath, which makes 5
Jewish Sabbaths, every one of them differing from the other and the Lord's
Sabbath, no more connected with them than in the xxiii of Levit. just
named. Here then is an unanswerable argument for a separation of the
Jewish from the Lord's Sabbath, and shows conclusively what Paul calls
"shadows" in Col:17, and Hosea "her Sabbaths." And in the days of Nehemiah
when Ezra had read the law to the people, 8 (more than one thousand years
after they were promulgated,) they bound themselves under an oath "to walk
in God's law which was given by the hand of Moses, the servant of God."
"And to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord." 10:29
And that there might be no misunderstanding about the kind of Sabbaths,
they say, "If the people bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to
sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath or on the holy day,"
(31v.) but they would "charge themselves yearly with a third part of a
shekel (to pay for) "the burnt offerings of the Sabbaths, of the new
moons, for the set feasts," &c. (33v.) for the house of God, including
what has already been set forth in Leviticus and Numbers. Now as their
feast days commenced and ended with a Sabbath, so when their feasts ceased
to be binding on them these Sabbaths must also, and all were "nailed to
the cross." Now I ask, if there is one particle of proof that the Sabbath
of the Lord is included in these Sabbaths and feast days? Who then dare
join them together or contradict the Most High God, and call HIS the
Jewish Sabbath. Theirs was nailed to the cross when Jesus died, while the
Lord's is an everlasting sign a perpetual covenant. The Jews, as a nation,
broke their covenant. Jesus and his disciples were one week (the last of
the seventy) that is seven years, confirming the new covenant for another
people, the Gentiles. Now I ask if this changing the subjects from Jew to
Gentile made void the commandments and law of God, or in other words,
abolished the fourth commandment; if so, the other nine are not binding.
It cannot be that God ever intended to mislead his subjects. Let us
illustrate this. Suppose that the Congress of these United States in their
present emergency, should promulgate two separate codes of laws, one to be
perpetual, the other temporary, to be abolished when peace was proclaimed
between this country and Mexico. The time comes, the temporary laws are
abolished; but strange to hear, a large portion of the people are now
insisting upon it that because peace is proclaimed that both these codes
of laws are forever abolished; while another class are strenuously
insisting that it is only the fourth law in the perpetual code that's now
abolished, with the temporary and all the rest is still binding. Opposed
to all these is a third class, headed by the ministers and scribes of the
nation, who are writing and preaching from Maine to Florida, insisting
upon it without fear of contradiction, that when peace was proclaimed this
fourth law in the perpetual code was to gradually change its date to
another day, (while some of them say immediately) and thenceforward become
perpetual, and the other code abolished; and yet not one of these are able
to show from the proceedings of Congress that the least alteration had
ever been made in the perpetual code. Thus, to me, the case stands clear
that neither of the laws or ten commandments in the first code, ever has
or ever can be annulled or changed while mortality is stamped on man, for
the very reason that God's moral law has no limitation. Jesus then brought
in a new covenant, which continued the Sabbath by writing his law upon
their hearts. Paul says "written not with ink, but with the spirit of the
living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."
2Cor.3:3 And when writing to the Romans he shows how the Gentiles are a
law unto themselves. He says, they "shew the work of the law written in
their hearts, their consciences always bearing them witness, and their
thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another," (when will
this be Paul) "in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus
Christ according to my gospel." 2:15,16 How plain that this is all the
change. The Jews by nature had the law given them on tables of stone,
while the Gentiles had the law of commandments written on their hearts.
Paul tells the Ephesians that it was "the law of commandments contained in
ordinances," (2:15) not on tables that were nailed to the cross. If the
ten commandments, first written by the finger of God on stone, and then at
the second covenant on fleshy tables of the heart, are shadows, can any
one tell where we shall find the substance? We are answered, in Christ.
Well, hear Isaiah. He says, "that he (Christ) will magnify the law and
make it honorable." 42:21 Again, I ask, where was the necessity and of
what use were the ten commandments written on our hearts, if it was not to
render perfect obedience to them. If we do not keep the day God has
sanctified, then we break not the least, but one of the greatest of his
commandments. Before we leave this part of our subject let us examine
2Cor.3:7,9,13,15 I have been told that these verses clearly prove the
abolition of the 10 commandments. It is admitted by all our opponents,
that the change which they so much insist upon, respecting the
commandments, took place at the crucifixion of our Lord. It is clear from
2Col:14 that the hand-writing of ordinances (the law of Moses) was then
taken our of our way, and all that was contrary to us, but the 10
commandments were never contrary to us, especially the 4th, the Sabbath,
for "it was made for man." The 2d or Gospel Covenant Paul tells the Hebs.
is written upon our hearts. 8:10 This is the same ten commandments; then
instead of being taken away or abolished they are still nearer to us. See
also 3dv of 2d Cor:3 If Paul was laboring here to show the abolition of
the ten commandments in A.D. 60, (look at the top of your Bible for the
date) pray tell me if you can what he meant by writing to the Romans the
very same year and telling them that "the law was holy, and the
commandments holy, just and good."
That he meant no other than the Law and Commandments in
the decalogue, see 13:8,9 About four years after this he is exhorting the
Ephesians to the keeping the 5th commandment. He says it is the "first
commandment with promise." 6:2 The same year that he writes the Romans he
dates his 1st Epistle to the Cor. in ch. 7:19, and says circumcision is
nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, (what is, Paul?) but the keeping
the commandments of God. Now all this was certainly more than twenty-five
years after the crucifixion. Is not the proof then positive and forever
established that Paul's preaching is right to the point in establishing
the commandments of God instead of abolishing them? If I have not made it
plain here, I would just say once more, that the Apostle's argument where
he refers to the abolition of the law in Rom., Cor., Gal., see 5:14, Eph.
and Heb. he always means the carnal commandments of God, as he has shown.
See Acts 21:20,21 Here is circumcision, and the customs, the law of Moses,
and not one breath about the Sabbath. But if you will trace back to the
17:4,11, you will see that instead of abolishing THE sabbath, Paul had
just come from Corinth, where he had been preaching for 78 Sabbaths in
succession.
O Lord help thy people to see THESE truths and keep thy
law! Still, there are many other texts relating to the law, presented by
the opposite view, to show that the law respecting the Sabbath is
abolished. Let us look at some of them. But it will be necessary in the
first place, to make a clear distinction between what is commonly called
the
MORAL AND CEREMONIAL LAW.
Bro. S.S. Snow, in writing on this subject about one
year ago, in the Jubilee Standard, asks "by what authority this
distinction is made." He says "neither our Lord or his apostles made any
such distinction. When speaking of the law they never used the terms moral
or ceremonial, but always spake of it as a whole, calling it the law," and
further says, "we must have a thus saith the Lord to satisfy us." So I
say! I have no doubt but thousands have stopped here; indeed, it has been
to me the most difficult point to settle in this whole question. Now let
us come to it fairly, and we shall see that the old and new testament
writers have ever kept up the distinction, although it may in some parts
seem to be one code of laws.
From the twentieth chapter of Exodus, where the law of
the Sabbath was re-enacted, and onward, we find two distinct codes of
laws. The first was written on two tables of stone with the finger of God;
the second was taken down from his mouth and recorded by the hand of Moses
in a book. Paul calls the latter carnal commandments and ordinances,
(rites or ceremonies) which come under two heads, religious and political,
and are Moses's. The first code is God's. For proof see Exo.16:28,30 "How
long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws: see for that the Lord
hath given you the Sabbath; and so the people rested on the Sabbath day."
Also in the book of Leviticus, where the law of ceremonies is given to the
levites or priests, Moses closes with these words: "These are the
commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in
Mount Sinai; in Heb.7:16,18, called carnal commandments.
Again, "the Lord said unto Moses, come up to me into
the Mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law,
and commandments which I have written." Exo.34:12 Further he calls them
the ten commandments-34:28 And Moses puts them "into the ark" - 40:20 Now
for the second code of laws. See Deut.31:9,10; and 24:26 "And when Moses
had finished writing the law, he commanded them to put this book of the
LAW (of ceremonies) in the side of the ark of the covenant, to be read at
the end of every seven years." This is not the song of deliverance by
Moses in the forty-fourth verse of the thirty-second chapter. For, eight
hundred and sixty-seven years after this, in the reign of Josiah, king of
Israel, the high priest found this book in "the Temple," (2Chron.34:14,15)
which moved all Israel. One hundred and seventy-nine years further onward,
Ezra was from morning till noon reading out of this book. Neh.8:3;
Heb.9:19 Paul's comments.
Bro. Snow says in regard to the commandments, "The
principles of moral conduct embraced in the law, were binding before the
law was given, (meaning that one of course at Mount Sinai) and are binding
now; it is immutable and eternal! They are comprehended in one word,
LOVE." If he meant, as we believe he did, to comprehend what Jesus did in
the 19 and 22 chap. Matt.37-40, and Paul, and James, and John after him,
then we ask how it is possible for him to reject from that code of laws,
the only one, the seventh day rest, that was promulgated at the beginning,
while at the same time the other nine, that were not written until about
three thousand years afterwards, were eternally binding; without doubt,
the whole ten commandments are coeval and coextensive with sin. Again, he
says, "We readily admit, that if what is called the decalogue or ten
commandments be binding on us, we ought to observe the seventh day, for
that was appointed by the Lord as the Sabbath day." Let us see if Jesus
and his apostles do not make it binding. First then, the distinction of
the two codes by Jesus.
The Pharisees ask the Saviour why his disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders? His answer is, "Why do ye
transgress the commandment of God?" and he immediately cites them to the
fifth commandment, Matt.15:4 Again, "The law and the prophets were until
John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached," &c. - Luke 16:16
Jesus was three years after this introducing the gospel of the kingdom,
unwaveringly holding his meetings on the Sabbath days, (which our
opponents say were now about to be abolished; others say changed,) and
never uttering a syllable to show to the contrary, but this was and always
would be the holy day for worship. Mark says when the Sabbath (the Seventh
day, for there was no other,) was come, he began to teach in the
Synagogue, 6:2
Luke says, "as his custom was, he went into the
Synagogue and taught on the Sabbath day." 4:16,31 Will it be said of him
as it is of Paul on like occasions, some thirty years afterwards, that he
uniformly held his meetings on the Sabbath, because he had no where else
to preach, or that this day was the only one in the week in which the
people would come out to hear him? Every Bible reader knows better;
witness the five thousand and the seven thousand, and the multitudes that
thronged him in the streets, in the cities and towns where they listened
to him; besides, he was now establishing a new dispensation, while theirs
was passing away. Then he did not follow any of their customs or rites or
ceremonies which he had come to abolish.
I have already quoted Matt.5:17,18, where Jesus said he
had come to fulfill the law, and immediately begins by showing them that
they are not to violate one of the least of the commandments, and cites
them to some - see 6:19,21,27,33 Again, he is tauntingly asked "which is
the great commandment in the law: Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the
Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets." 22:36,40 Here Jesus has divided the
ten commandments into two parts, or as it is written on two tables of
stone. The first four on the first table treat of those duties which we
owe to God - the other six refers to those which we owe to man, requiring
perfect obedience.
Once more, "One came and said unto him, good master
what good thing shalt I do that I may have eternal life? He said, I thou
wilt enter into life keep the commandments. Then he asked him which? He
cited him to the last part of what he called the second, loving his
neighbor as himself." If he had cited him to the first table, as in the
22, quoted above, he could not have replied "all these have I kept from my
youth up." Why? Because he would have already been perfect, for Jesus in
reply to his question, what he should do to inherit eternal life, said he
must "keep the commandments." Matt.19:16-20 Is not the Sabbath included in
these commandments? Surely it is! Then how absurd to believe that Jesus,
just at the close of his ministry, should teach that the way; the only
way, to enter into life, was to keep the commandments, one of which was to
be abolished in a few months from that time, without the least intimation
from him or his Father that it was to take place. I say again, if the
Sabbath is abolished, we ask those who teach it to cite us to the chapter
and verse, not to the law of rites and ceremonies which are abolished, for
we have already shown that the Sabbath was instituted more than
twenty-five hundred years before Moses wrote the carnal ordinances or
ceremonies.
God said, "Abraham kept my charge, my commandments, my
statutes, and my laws." Gen.26:5 This must include the Sabbath, for the
Sabbath was the first law given, therefore if Abraham did not keep the
Sabbath, I cannot understand what commandments, statutes and laws mean in
this chapter. Jesus says, "As I have kept my Father's commandments," John
15:10 Did he keep the commandments? Yes. Mark and Luke, before quoted -
(but more of this in another place.)
In John 7:19, Jesus speaks of "Moses law," "your law."
10:34 Again, "their law." 15:25 Here then we show that Jesus kept up a
clear distinction between what God calls my law and commandments and Moses
law, "their law," "your law." Let us now look at the argument of the
Apostles. Paul preaching at Antioch taught the Brethren that by Jesus
Christ all who believed in him "are justified from all things, from which
ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses." Acts 13:39
The Pharisees said "that it was needful to circumcise
them and commend them to keep the Law of Moses." 15:5
Again, when Paul had come to Jerusalem the second time,
(fourteen years from the time he met the Apostles in conference where they
established the decrees for the churches. See Acts 20:19; Gal.2:1,) the
Apostles shewed him how many thousands of Jews there were which believed
and were zealous of the law: "And they are informed of thee, that thou
teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses and
the customs." 21:20,21 Any person who will carefully read the eight
chapters here included, must be thoroughly convinced that the Apostle's
troubles were about the law of ceremonies written and given by Moses, and
nothing to do with the ten commandments. For you see a little before he
comes to Jerusalem, he had been preaching at Corinth every Sabbath for
eighteen months. 18:4,11 And this, be it remembered, was more than twenty
years after the Jewish Sabbaths and ceremonies were nailed to the cross. -
And you see that Paul was the man above all the Apostles to be persecuted
on account of the abolition of the Jews' law of ceremonies, for he was the
"great Apostle to the Gentiles: and if the "Sabbath of the Lord our God"
was to have been abolished when the Saviour died, Paul was the very man
selected for that purpose. It is clear, therefore, that he did not abolish
the seventh day Sabbath among the Gentiles. This same Apostle tells the
Romans "that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one
that believeth." 10:4 Again, that "sin shall not have dominion over you,
for ye are not under the law but under grace" 6:14 Once more: He says the
Gentiles having not the law, are a law unto themselves. Why? Because, he
says in the next verse, it shows the law written on their hearts. The law
of ceremonies? No; that which was on tables of stone. 2:14-16 We might
quote much more which looks like embracing the whole law. Let us now look
at a few texts in the same letter, which will draw a distinguishing line
between the two codes of laws. Paul, in the 7 ch.9-13v, brings to view the
carnal commandment, and the one unto life, and sums up his argument in
these words: "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just
and good." In the 7v he quotes from the decalogue. Again, he that loveth
another hath fulfilled the law. How? Why thou shalt not steal, nor commit
adultery, nor bear false witness, nor covet, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Rom.13:8,10 -
This then is what the Saviour taught the young man to do to secure
"eternal life." Matt. Once more, in concluding a long argument on the law
in Rom.3:31, he closes with this language: "Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid ye, we establish the law." - What law is here
established? not the law of rites and ceremonies. What then, for Paul
means some law. It can be no other than what he calls the law of "life,"
of "love," the ten commandments. How could even that be established
twenty-nine years after the crucifixion, if one of the greatest
commandments had been abolished out of the code, that is the Sabbath.
Paul's letter to the Corinthians teaches that
"circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of
the commandments of God." 7:19 Again, in his epistle to the Galatians, his
phraseology is somewhat changed, but the argument is to the same point,
although some passages read as though every vestige of law was swept by
the board when Jesus hung upon the cross. For instance, such as the
following: "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it
is evident, for the just shall live by faith, and the LAW is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live by them." "Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." "But before faith
came we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed." "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring
us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith, but after that faith
has come we are no longer under a schoolmaster." Gal.3:11-13,23-25 Again:
"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." 10v. Now
are we to understand from these texts that whosoever continueth in the law
is cursed, and that the law, the whole law, was abolished when Christ came
as our schoolmaster, he being the "end of the law?" Rom.10:4 If so, how is
it possible for any man, even Paul himself, to be saved. But we do not
believe that Paul taught these brethren any different doctrine than what
has already been shown in the Acts, Romans, and Corinthians, and also the
Eph., Phil., Col., and Heb. If he did not mean the law written by the hand
of Moses, distinguishing it from the law of the ten commandments, written
by the finger of God on tables of stone, then pray tell me if you can,
what he means (in the closing of this argument,) by saying, "For all the
LAW is FULFILLED in one word, even this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself." 5:14 Surely he is quoting the Saviour's words in Matt.22:39,
relative to the commandment of the Lord our God. To his son Timothy he
says: "Now the end of the commandment is charity, (love) meaning of course
the last part of the ten commandments. In 6:2, he says: "Bear ye one
anothers burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ." Does this differ from
the law of God? Yes, a little, for it is the new commandment, (some say
the eleventh.) See John 13:34 "A new commandment I give unto you, (what is
it, Lord?) that ye love one another." And also 20:12 The other is to love
our neighbor as ourself. John says: "And this commandment have we from him
(Christ) that he who loveth God loveth his brother also." John 4:21, and
2:8-11 In this letter to the Ephesians he says: "Having abolished in his
flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances."
2:15
See the reverse 6:2. To the Colossians he asks, "Why as
though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances where all are to
perish with their using?" And says: "Touch not, taste not, handle not,"
(Does Paul here teach us to forsake the ordinances of God, instituted by
the Saviour - Baptism and the Lord's Supper? Yes, just as clearly as he
does to forsake the whole law.)
When writing to the Hebrews more than thirty years
after the crucifixion, he calls these ordinances carnal, imposed on them
(the Jews) until Christ our High Priest should come. 9:10,11 He also calls
the law of commandments carnal, too, and says: "For there is verily a
disannulling of the commandments going before, for the law made nothing
perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did." 7:16,18-19 "For when
Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law he
took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and
hyssop, and sprinkled both the BOOK and all the people." 9:19 Now we see
clearly that the book of the law of Moses from which Paul has been quoting
through the whole before mentioned epistles, is as distinctly separate
from the tables of stone (or fleshly table of the heart,) as they were
when deposited in the Ark thirty three hundred years ago. Therefore we
think that here is clear proof that he has kept up the distinction between
the "handwriting of ordinances" (meaning Moses' own handwriting in his
book,) and the "ten commandments written by the finger of God."
Let us now turn to the Epistle of James, said to be
written more than twenty-five years after the law of ceremonies were
nailed to the cross, and see if he does not teach us distinctly, that we
are bound to keep the commandments given on tables of stone. He says, "the
man that shall be a DOER of the perfect law of liberty shall be blessed in
his deed." 1:25 "If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well." Why? Because the
Saviour in quoting from the commandments, in answer to the Ruler, what he
should do to inherit eternal life, taught the same doctrine. Matt.19:19
Further: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one
point, shall be guilty of all." In the next verse he quotes from the ten
commandments again, namely, Adultery and Murder (what the Saviour in the
fifth chapter of Matt. calls the least, that is the smallest commandment,)
and says if we commit them we become transgressors of the law. Of what
law? Next verse says the law of liberty by which we are to be "judged."
2:8,11
Now will it not be admitted by every reasonable person
that James has included the whole of the ten commandments, by calling them
the perfect law of liberty. 2d, "The royal law according to the
scripture," and 3d, "the law of liberty by which we are to be judged."
(Royal relates to imperial and kingly.) Perfect means COMPLETE, entire,
the WHOLE. Then I understand James thus: This law emanated from the king,
the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and to be perfect must be just what it
was when it came from his hand, and that no change had, or could take
place, (and remember now, this is more than twenty-five years since the
ceremonies with the Jewish Sabbaths were nailed to the cross,) for the
very best of reasons, until the judgment, because he shows that we are to
be judged by that law. Then I ask by what parity of reasoning any one can
make the law of the ten commandments perfect, while they at the same time
assert that the fourth one is abolished? and that on no better evidence
than calling it the JEWISH Sabbath. Now let us look at the Apostle John's
testimony.
"And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his
commandments. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is
a LIAR, and the truth is not in him." Now no man, more especially one who
professes to abide by the whole truth, feels entirely easy if he is called
a liar. Now John please explain yourself. Hear him: "Brethren, I write no
new commandment unto you but an old commandment which ye had from the
beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the
BEGINNING." What do you mean by beginning? Turn to my Gospel, 1st ch. "In
the beginning was the word," - "the same same was in the beginning with
God." 1,2 See Gen.1 ch.: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." Then you are pointing us to the seventh day Sabbath of rest, for
the old commandment in the beginning. 2:3 Certainly there is no other
place to point to. Does not Jesus point us to the same place for the
beginning when marriage was first instituted. Matt.xix:4 In my second
letter to the church, I have taught the same doctrine: viz. "This is the
commandment that as ye have heard from the beginning ye should walk in
it." (practice it.) 2:5,6 "A new commandment I write unto you." 7th v.
This is the one that Jesus gave us on that memorable night in which he was
betrayed, after he had instituted the sacrament and washed our feet. He
said "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love
one to another." 13:34,35 The first then teaches us, Love to God, 2d, to
Love our neighbor as ourself; "on these two commandments (says Jesus) hang
all the law and the prophets." Then we understand this is the essence of
the ten commandments, and if we do not keep the Sabbath we do not love
God. Jesus says, "If ye love me ye will keep my commandments." We are
repeatedly told that the Sabbath was changed or forever abolished, at the
crucifixion of our Lord, and it is stated by the most competent
authorities that John wrote this epistle about sixty years afterwards, and
that about six years after this our blessed Lord revealed to him the state
of the Church down to the judgment of the great day. In the 14 ch.
Rev.6-11, he saw three angels following each other in succession: first
one preaching the everlasting gospel (second advent doctrine); 2d,
announcing the fall of Babylon; 3d, calling God's people out of her by
showing the awful destruction that awaited all such as did not obey. He
sees the separation and cries out, "Here is the patience of the Saints,
here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."
And this picture was so deeply impressed on his mind, that when the
Saviour said to him "Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me," he
seemed to understand this, saying - "Blessed are they that do his
commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter
in through the gates into the city." 22:14 Now it seems to me that the
seventh day Sabbath is more clearly included in these commandments, than
thou shalt not steal, nor kill, nor commit adultery, for it is the only
one that was written at the creation or in the beginning. He allows no
stopping place this side of the gates of the city. Then, if we do not keep
that day, John has made out his case, that we are all liars. We say in
every other case the type must be continued until it is superseded by the
antitype, as in the case of the passover, until our Lord was crucified. So
then, as Paul tells us, "there remaineth a keeping of the Sabbath to the
people of God," and that we believe will be in the Millennium, the seven
thousandth year, so that the seventh day Sabbath and no other will answer
for the type, and those who keep the first or the eighth day Sabbath
cannot consistently look for the antitype of rest or the great Sabbath,
short of one thousand years in the future.
Again: Isaiah says: "To the law and to the testimony if
they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them." 8:20 Now if the Gentiles are under no law, as is asserted, pray
tell me what right, as Gentiles, have we to appeal to the law and
testimony, or to this text.
In the 24 of Matt. our Saviour says to his disciples,
in answer to their questions, When shall these things be? and what shall
be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world? "When ye therefore
shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place," &c. 15v. "Pray ye that your flight be not in the
winter, neither on the Sabbath day." 20v. The first question is, at what
age of the world is this, where our Lord recognizes the Sabbath? 1st. It
is agreed on all hands that this time to which he here refers, never
transpired until the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, about forty
years after his crucifixion. 2d. Some others say, down to the second
Advent! The first mentioned is safe ground and sufficient for our purpose;
nor need we stop to inquire why our Lord gave these directions, it is
forever settled that he directed the minds of his followers to THE, not a
Sabbath. Keep it in remembrance, that he told the Pharisees that he was
Lord, not of a, but of THE Sabbath, meaning that one which of course had
already been established. The 2d question is, did our Lord ever trifle
with, or mislead his disciples? The response is No! Then it is clear that
if he taught them to pray at all, it must be in faith, and he of course
would hear them and mediate with the Father to change the day of their
flight. I ask what kind of a prayer and with what kind of faith would his
disciples have asked to have this day changed, if as we are told, it was
abolished some forty years before, and they had, contrary to the will of
God, persisted in keeping up this seventh day Sabbath. Any one who has
confidence in God's word, knows that such a prayer never would be
answered. What if you do say the Jews always kept that Sabbath and it was
the same seventh day Sabbath which they kept when he was teaching them in
their synagogues? I, say so too! and that fact will be presented by and
by, in its place. This does not touch the point. Jesus was here giving
instructions to his followers, both Jew and Gentile, respecting the
Sabbath which they would have to do with. It is immaterial what kind of
sophistry is presented to overthrow the point, nothing can touch it short
of proving it a mistranslation. Jesus did here recognize the perpetuity of
the seventh day Sabbath. And John will continue to make all men liars that
say they know him and refuse the light presented and disregard this
commandment. If God instituted the Sabbath in Paradise and has not
abolished it here, then must it be perpetual? If Paul's argument in iii.
Rom. that the law is established through faith, is correct then is it
perpetual. If James' royal perfect law of liberty, which we are to be
doers of, and judged by, means the commandments, then is the Sabbath
perpetual. If the Apostle John has made out a clear case, by citing us
back to the beginning of creation, and by walking in and doing these
commandments, we shall have right to the tree of life and enter in by the
gates into the city; then it must be perpetual. If the earthly Sabbath is
typical of the heavenly, then must it be perpetual. If not one jot or one
tittle can ever pass from the law, then must it be perpetual. If the
Saviour, in answer to the young man who asked him what he should do to
inherit eternal life, gave a safe direction for Gentiles to follow, viz:
"If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments (and these included
those commandments which his Father had given), then, without
contradiction the Sabbath is perpetual, and all the arguments which ever
can be presented against the fourth commandment being observed before God
wrote it on tables of stone to prove that it is not binding on Gentiles,
falls powerless before this one sentence: If thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. I say the proof is positive that the Sabbath was a
constituent part of the commandments, and Jesus says the Sabbath `was made
for man.' The Jews were only a fragment of creation.
"The principle is settled in all governments that there
are but two ways in which any law can cease to be binding upon the people.
It may expire by its own limitations, or it may be repealed by the same
authority which enacted it; and in the latter case the repealing act must
be as explicit as that by which the obligation was originally imposed."
Now we have it in proof that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise, the
first of all laws without any limitation, and no enactment by God to
abolish it, unless what we have already referred to can be considered
proof. One more passage which I have not alluded to will show that it was
not abolished at the crucifixion for his disciples kept the Sabbath while
he was resting in his tomb. See Luke 23:55,56 Let us now pass to another
part of the subject. The third question:
WAS THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH EVER CHANGED? IF SO, WHEN,
AND FOR WHAT REASON?
Here we come to a question which has more or less
engaged the attention of the whole Christian world, and the greater
portion of those who believe in a crucified Saviour say that this change
took place, and is dated from his resurrection. Some say subsequently,
while a minority insist upon it that there is no proof for the change. Now
to obtain the truth and nothing but the truth on this important subject, I
propose to present, or quote from standard authors on both sides of the
question, and try the whole by the standard of divine truth. 1st. Buck's
Theological Dictionary, to which no doubt thousands of ministers and
laymen appeal to sustain their argument for the change, says: "Under the
Christian dispensation the Sabbath is altered from the seventh to the
first day of the week." The arguments for the change, are these: 1st. "The
seventh day was observed by the Jewish church in memory of the rest of
God; so the first day of the week has always been observed by the
Christian Church in memory of Christ's resurrection. 2d. Christ made
repeated visits to his disciples on that day. 3d. It is called the Lord's
day. Rev.1:10 - 4th. On this day the Apostles were assembled, when the
Holy Ghost came down so visibly upon them to qualify them for the
conversion of the world. 5th. On this day we find Paul at Troas when the
disciples came together to break bread. 6th. The directions the Apostles
gave to Christians plainly alludes to their assembling on that day. 7th.
Pliny bears witness of the first day of the week being kept as a festival
in honor of the resurrection of Christ."
"Numerous have been the days appointed by man for
religious services, but these are not binding because of human
institution. Not so the Sabbath. It is of divine institution, so it is to
be kept holy unto the Lord."
Doct. Dodridge, whose ability and piety has seldom or
rarely been disputed, comments on some of the above articles thus:
(Commentary p.606.) "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you
lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no
gatherings when I come." 1Cor.16:2 "Show that it was to be put into a
common stock. The argument drawn from hence for the religious observance
of the first day of the week in these primitive churches of Corinth and
Galacia is too obvious to need any further illustration, and yet too
important to be passed by in entire silence." Again, p.904, "I was in the
spirit on the Lord's day," &c. Rev.1:10 "It is so very unnatural and
contrary to the use of the word in all other authors to interpret this of
the Jewish Sabbath, as Mr. Baxter justly argues at large, that I cannot
but conclude with him and the generality of Christian writers on this
subject, that this text strongly infers the extraordinary regard paid to
the first day of the week in the Apostle's time as a day solemnly
consecrated to Christ in memory of his resurrection from the dead." There
is much more, but these are his strong arguments. I shall quote some more
from the Commentaries by and by. I wish to place by the side of these
arguments one from the British Quarterly Theological Review and
Ecclesiastical Recorder, of Jan.1830, which I extract from `the
Institution of the Sabbath day,' by Wm. Logan Fisher, of Philadelphia, a
book in which there is much valuable information on this subject, though I
disagree with the writer, because his whole labor is to abolish the
Sabbath; yet he gives much light on this subject, from which I take the
liberty to make some quotations. But to the Quarterly Review of 1830:
"It is said that the observance of the seventh day
Sabbath is transferred in the Christian Church to the first day of the
week. We ask by what authority, and are very much mistaken if an
examination of all the texts of the New Testament, in which the first day
of the week or Lord's day is mentioned, does not prove that there is no
divine or Apostolic precept enjoining its observance, nor any certain
evidence from Scripture that it was, in fact, so observed in the times of
the Apostles. Accordingly we search the Scriptures in vain, either for an
Apostolic precept, appointing the first day of the week to be observed in
the place of the Jewish Sabbath, or for any unequivocal proof that the
first Christians so observed it - there are only three or, at most four
places of Scripture, in which the first day of the week is mentioned. The
next passage is in Acts 20:7 `Upon the first day of the week when the
disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.' All that
St. Luke here tells us plainly is, that on a particular occasion the
Christians of Troas met together on the first day of the week to celebrate
the Eucharist and to hear Paul preach. This is the only place in Scripture
in which the first day of the week is in any way connected with any acts
of public worship, and he who would certainly infer from this SOLITARY
INSTANCE that the first day of every week was consecrated by the Apostles
to religious purposes, must be far gone in the art of drawing universal
conclusion from particular premises."
On page 178, Mr. Fisher says:
"I have examined several different translations of the
Scriptures, both from the Hebrew and the Septuagint, with notes and
annotations more extensive than the texts; have traced as far as my
leisure would permit, various ecclesiastical histories, some of them
voluminous and of ancient date; have paid considerable attention to the
writings of the earliest authors in the Christian era, and to rare works,
old and of difficult access, which treat upon this subject; I have read
with care many of the publications of sectarians to sustain the
institution; I have omitted nothing within my reach, and I have found not
one shred of argument, or authority of any kind, that may not be deemed of
partial and sectarian character, to support the institution of the fist
day of the week as a day of peculiar holiness. But, in the place of
argument, I have found opinions without number - volumes filled with idle
words that have no truth in them. In the want of texts of Scripture, I
have found perversions; in the want of truth, false statements. I have
seen it stated that Justin Martyr in his apology, speaks of Sunday as a
holy day; that Eusebius, bishop of Cesarea, who lived in the fourth
century, establishes the fact of the transfer of the SEVENTH to the first
day, by Christ himself. These things are NOT TRUE. These authors say no
such thing. I have seen other early authors referred to as establishing
the same point, but they are equally false."
Here then is the testimony of four authors, two for the
change and two against it, from the old and new world. No truth seeking,
unbiased mind can hesitate for a moment on which side to decide, after
comparing them with the inspired word.
Doctor JENKS of Boston, author of the Comprehensive
Commentary, (purporting to comprehend all other commentators on the
bible,) after quoting author after author, on this subject, ventures forth
with his unsupported opinion in these words: "Here is a Christian Sabbath
observed by the disciples and owned by our Lord. The visit Christ made to
his disciples was on the first day of the week, and the fist day of the
week is the only day of the week or month or year ever mentioned by
numbers in all the New Testament, and that is several times spoken of as a
day religiously observed." Where? Echo answers, where!
HEMAN HUMPHREY, President of Amherst College, from
whose book I have already made some quotations, after devoting some
thirty-four pages to the establishment and perpetuation of the seventh day
Sabbath, comes to his fourth question, viz. `Has the day been changed?'
Singular as this question may appear by the side of what he had already
written to establish and perpetuate the seventh day Sabbath from the
seventh day of creation down to the resurrection of the just, but as every
man feels that it his privilege to justify and explain, when precept and
practice does not agree - so is it with President Humphrey, he can now
shape the Scriptures to suit every one that has followed in the wake of
Pope Gregory for 1225 years. He says, "The fourth commandment is so
expressed as to admit of a change in the day," - thus striking vitally
every argument he had before presented. Hear him - he says the seventh day
is the Sabbath; it was so at that time, (in the beginning) and for many
ages after, but it is not said, that it always shall be - it is the
Sabbath day which we are to remember; and so at the close, it is the
Sabbath which was hallowed and blessed and not the seventh day. The
Sabbath then, the holy rest itself, is one thing. The day on which we are
to rest is another." I ask, in the name of common sense, how we should
know how or when to keep the Sabbath if it did not matter which day. If
the President could not see the sanctification of the seventh day in the
decalogue what did he mean by quoting Gen.2:3, so often, where it says
"God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it."
Again, he says; "Redemption is a greater work than
Creation, hence the change." Fifthly, God early consecrated the Christian
Sabbath by a most remarkable outpouring of his spirit at the day of
Pentecost. And that Jesus has left us his own example by not saying a
syllable after his resurrection about keeping the Jewish Sabbath. He also
quotes the four passages about Jesus and his disciples keeping the first
day of the week. Here, he says, the inference to our minds is irresistible
- for keeping the first day of the week instead of the seventh. And
further says, it might be proved by innumerable quotations from the
writings of the Apostolic Fathers," &c. All this may be very true in
itself, but it all falls to the ground for the want of one single precept
from the Bible. If Redemption, because it was greater than Creation, and
the remarkable display of God's power at the Pentecost, and Christ never
saying any thing about the Jewish Sabbath after his resurrection are such
strong proofs that the perpetual seventh day Sabbath was changed to the
first day at that time, and must be believed because learned men say so,
what shall we do with the sixth day, on which our blessed Saviour expired
on the cross; darkness for three hours had covered the earth, and the vail
of the Temple was rent from top to bottom, and there was such an
earthquake throughout vast creation that we have only to open our eyes and
look at the rent rocks for a clear and perfect demonstration that this
whole globe was shaken from centre to circumference, and the graves of the
dead were opened. Matt.27:50,53 You may answer me that Popery has honored
that day by calling it Good Friday, and the next first day following
Easter Sunday, &c., but after all, nothing short of Bible argument will
satisfy the earnest inquirer after truth. The President had already shown
that the Jewish Sabbath was abolished at Christ's death. What reason then
had he to believe that the Saviour would speak of it afterwards. - So also
the Pentecost had been a type from the giving the law at Sinai to be kept
annually for about 1500 years, consequently it would be solemnized on
every day of the week, at each revolving year, as is the case with the 4th
of July: three years ago it was on the fourth day and now it comes on the
seventh day of the week. Further, see Peter standing amidst the amazed
multitude, giving the Scripture reason for this miraculous display of
God's power. He does not give the most distant hint that this was, or was
to be, the day of the week for worship, or true Sabbath, neither do any of
the Apostles then, or afterwards, for when they kept this day the next
year, it must have been the second day of the week. We must have better
evidence than what has been adduced, to believe this was the Sabbath, for
according to the type, seven Sabbaths were to be complete, (and there was
no other way given them to come to the right day,) from the day they kept
the first, or from the resurrection. Here then is proof positive that the
Sabbath in this year was the day before the Pentecost. See Luke 23:55,56
If President H. is right, then was there two Sabbaths to be kept in
succession in one week. Where is the precept? Nowhere! Well, says the
inquirer, I want to see the Bible proof for this "Christian Sabbath
observed by the disciples, and owned by our Lord." W. Jenks.
Here it will be necessary for us to understand, first
how God has computed time. In Gen.1. we read, "And God said let there be
lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night,
and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." 14 v.
16 v. says, "the greater light to rule the day," - from sunrise to sunset.
Now there are many modes invented for computing time. We say our day
begins at 12 o'clock at night; seamen begin theirs twelve hours sooner, at
noon; the Jews commence their days at 6 o'clock in the evening, between
the two extremes. Are we all right? No! Who shall settle this question?
God! Very well: He called the light day, and the darkness he called night,
and the evening and the morning were the first day. Gen.1:5 Then the
twenty-four hour day commenced at 6 o'clock in the evening. How is that,
says one? Because you cannot regulate the day and night to have what the
Saviour calls twelve hours in the day, without establishing the time from
the centre of the earth, the equator, where, at the beginning of the
sacred year, the sun rises and sets at 6 o'clock. At this time, while the
sun is at the summer solstice, the inhabitants of the north pole have no
night, while at this same time at the south it is about all night,
therefore the inhabitants of the earth have no other right time to
commence their twenty-four hour day, than beginning at 6 o'clock in the
evening. God said to Moses "from even, unto even, shall you celebrate your
Sabbath." Then of course the next day must begin where the Sabbath ended.
History shows that the Jews obeyed and commenced their days at 6 o'clock
in the evening.
Now then we will try to investigate the main argument
by which these authors, and thousands of others say the Sabbath was
changed. The first is in John 20:19, "Then the same day at evening, being
the first day of the week when the doors where shut where the disciples
were assembled for fear of the Jews (mark it) came Jesus and stood in
their midst, and said peace unto you." Here we understand this to be the
same day of the resurrection. On that same day he travelled with the two
disciples to Emmaus, sixty furlongs (7 and a half miles), and they
constrained him to abide with them, for it was toward evening and the day
was far spent. Luke 24:29 After this the disciples travelled the 7 and a
half miles back to Jerusalem and soon after they found the disciples, the
Saviour, as above stated, was in their midst. Now it cannot be disputed
but what this was the evening after the resurrection, for Jesus rose in
the morning, some ten or eleven hours after the first day had commenced.
Then the evening of the first day was passing away, and therefore the
evening brought to view in the text was the close of the first day or the
commencing of the second. McKnight's translation says "in the evening of
that day." Purver's translation says, "the evening of that day on the
first after the Sabbath." Further, wherever the phrase first day of the
week, occurs in the New Testament, the word day is in italics, showing
that it is not the original; but supplied by translators. Again, it is
asserted that Jesus met with his disciples the next first day. See 26 v:
"And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with
them, then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and
said peace be unto you."
Dr. Adam Clark in referring to this 26v, says: "It
seems likely that this was precisely on that day se' night on which Christ
had appeared to them before; and from this we may learn that this was the
weekly meeting of the Apostles." Now it appears to me that a little child,
with the simple rules of addition and subtraction, could have refuted this
man. I feel astonished that men who profess to be ambassadors for God do
not expose such downright perversions of Scripture, but it may look clear
to those who want to have it so. Not many months since, in conversation
with the Second Advent lecturer in New Bedford, I brought up this subject.
He told me I did not understand it. See here, says he, I can make it
plain, counting his fingers thus: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - doesn't make eight days after? and
because I would not concede, he parted from me as one that was obstinate
and self-willed. Afterwards musing on the subject, I said, this must be
the way then to understand it: Count Sunday Twice. If any of them were to
be paid for eight days labor, they would detect the error in a moment if
their employer should attempt to put the first and last days together, and
offer them pay but for seven. Eight days after the evening of the first
day would stand thus: The second day of the week would certainly be the
first of the eight. Then to count eight days of twenty-four hours after,
we must begin at the close of the evening of the first, and count to the
close of the evening of the second day; to where the Jews (by God's
command) commenced their third day. But suppose we calculate it by our
mode of keeping time. Our Lord appears to his disciples the first time at
the close of Sunday evening. Now count eight days after, (with your
fingers or anything else,) and it will bring you to Monday evening. Now I
ask if this looks like Sunday, the first day of the week?
Father Miller also gives his reasons for the change, in
his lecture on the great Sabbath: "One is Christ's resurrection and his
often meeting with his disciples afterwards on that day. This, with the
example of the Apostles, is strong evidence that the proper creation
Sabbath to man, came on the first day of the week." His proof is this:
"Adam must have rested on the first day of his life, and thus you will see
that to Adam it was the first day of the week, for it would not be
reasonable to suppose that Adam began to reckon time before he was
created. He certainly could not be able to work six days before the first
Sabbath. And thus with the second Adam; the first day of the week he arose
and lived. And we find by the Bible and by history, that the first day of
the week "was ever afterwards observed as a day of worship."
Now I say there is no more truth in these assertions,
than there is in those I have already quoted. There is not one passage in
the Bible to show that Christ met with his disciples on the first day of
the week after the day of his resurrection, not that the first day of the
week was ever afterwards observed as a day of worship; save only in one
instance, and that shall be noticed in its place. And it seems to me if
Adam could not reckon time only from his creation then by the same rule no
other man could reckon time before his birth, and by this showing Christ
could not reckon his time until after his resurrection. It is painful to
me to expose the errors of one whom I have so long venerated, and still
love for the flood of light he has given the world in respect to the
Second Advent of our Saviour; but God's word must be vindicated if we have
to cut off a right arm, "there is nothing true but truth!"
I pray God to forgive him in joining the great
multitude of Advent believers, to sound the retreat back beyond the
tarrying time, just when the virgins had gained a glorious victory over
the world, the flesh, and the devil! Go back from this to the slumbering
quarters now; nothing but treachery to our Master's cause ever dictated
such a course! I never can be made to believe that our glorious Commander
designed that we should leave our sacrifices smoking on the altar of God,
in the midst of the enemies' land, but rather that we should be pushing
onward from victory to victory, until we are established in the Capital of
His kingdom. Would it have been expedient or a mark of courage in General
Taylor, after he had conquered the Mexican army on the 9th May last, to
have retreated back to the capital of the U. States, to place himself and
army on the broad platform of liberty, and commence to travel the ground
over again for the purpose of pursuing and overcoming his vanquished foe?
No! Every person of common sense knows that such a course would have
overwhelmed him and all his followers with unutterable disgrace, no matter
how unrighteous the contest. Not so with this, for our cause is one of the
most glorious, tho' it be the most trying that ever the sun shone upon
since God placed it in the heavens. Onward and victory, then, are our
watchwords, and no retreating back to, or beyond the cry at Midnight!
But to the subject. Did our Saviour ever meet with his
disciples on the first day of the week after the evening of the day of his
resurrection? The xxi.ch. John says "they went a fishing, and while there
Jesus appeared unto them." In the 14th v. he says, "This is now the third
time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen
from the dead." Now turn to 1Cor.15:4 - 7; Paul's testimony is, "that he
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, after that of above five hundred
brethren at once, and then of James, then of all the Apostles." These are
all that are specified, up to his going into heaven. Now pray tell me if
you can, where these men got their information respecting the frequent
meetings on the first day of the week. The Bible says no such thing. But
let us pursue the subject and look at the third text, "Upon the first day
of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered
him, that there be no gatherings when I come." Now please turn back to Dr.
Dodridge's authority, he says the argument is too obvious to need any
illustration, that the money was put into common stock, and that this was
the religions observance of the first day of the week. Now whoever will
read the first six verses of this chapter, and compare them with Rom.15:26
- 33, will see that Paul's design was to collect some money for the poor
saints at Jerusalem, and their laying it by them in store until he came
that way; for it plainly implies that they were at home, for no one could
understand that you had money lying by you in store, if it was in common
stock or in other hands. Again, see Acts 18:4,11 Paul preaching every
Sabbath day, at this very time, for eighteen months, to these very same
Corinthians, bids them farewell, to go up to the feast at Jerusalem. 21v.
By reading to 21 ch. 17v. you have his history until he arrives there. Now
I ask, if Dr. Dodridge's clear illustration can or will be relied on, when
Luke clearly teaches that Paul's manner was, and that he did always preach
to them on the Sabbath, which, of course, was the Seventh day, and not the
first day of the week. Fourth text, John says: I was in the spirit on the
Lord's day. Here Dr. D. concludes with the generality of Christian writers
on this subject that this strongly infers the extraordinary regard paid to
the first day of the week, as solemnly consecrated to Christ, &c. If the
scripture any where called this the Lord's day, there might be some reason
to believe their statements, but the seventh day Sabbath is called the
Lord's day. See Exod.20:10
Mr. Fisher, in speaking of the late Harrisburg
convention of 1844 - 45, says, "The most spirited debate that occurred at
the assembly was to fix a proper name for the first day of the week,
whether it should be called Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath or Lord's day.
The reason for this dispute was, that there was no authority for calling
the first day of the week by either one of these names. To pretend that
that command was fixed and unchangeable, and yet to alter it to please the
fancy of man, is in itself ridiculous. It is hardly possible in the nature
of man, that a class of society should be receiving pay for their services
and not be influenced thereby; - in the nature of things they will avoid
such doctrines as are repugnant to them that give them bread."
Now we come to the fifth and last, and only one spoken
of in all the New Testament, for a meeting on the first day of the week.
Luke says, "Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came
together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the
morrow: and continued his speech until midnight." Acts 20:7 Now by
following the scripture mode of computing time, from 6 o'clock in the
evening to 6 o'clock in the morning, as has been shown, Paul to commence
on the beginning of the first day would begin on what we call Saturday
evening at 6 o'clock, and preach till midnight. After that he restores to
life the young man, then breaks bread and talked till the break of day,
which would be Sunday morning. Then he commenced his journey for Jerusalem
and travelled and sailed all day Sunday, the first day of the week, and
two other days in succession. 20:11 - 15 Now it seems to me, if Paul did
teach or keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath or a holy day, he
violated the sanctity of it to all intents and purposes, without giving
one single reason for it; all the proof presented here is a night meeting.
Please see the quotation from the British Quarterly Review. But let us
look at it the way in which we compute time: I think it will be fair to
premise, that about midnight was the middle of Paul's meeting; at any rate
there is but one midnight to a twenty-four hour day. We say that Sunday,
the first day of the week, does not commence until 12 o'clock Saturday
night. Then it is very clear, if he is preaching on the first day till
midnight, according to our reckoning it must be on Sunday night, and his
celebrating the Lord's supper after midnight would make it that he broke
bread on Monday, the second day, and that the day time on Sunday is not
included, unless he had continued his speech through the day till
midnight. Now the text says that on the first day of the week they came
together to break bread. To prove that \they did break bread on that day,
we must take the mode in which the Jews computed time, and allow the first
day of the week to begin at 6 o'clock on Saturday evening, and after
daylight, but to travel, &c. If our mode of time is taken, they broke
bread on the second day, and that would destroy the meaning of the text.
Here then, in this text, is the only argument that can be adduced in the
Scriptures of divine truth, for a change of the perpetual seventh day
Sabbath of the Lord our God to the first day of the week.
Now I'll venture the assertion, that there is no law or
commandment recorded in the Bible, that God had held so sacred among men,
as the keeping of His Sabbath. Where then, I ask, is the living man that
dare stand before God and declare that here is the change for the church
of God to keep the first instead of the seventh day of the week for the
Sabbath. If it could be proved that Paul preached here all of the first
day, the only inference that could be drawn, would be, to break bread on
that day!
There is one more point worthy of our attention, that
is, the teaching and example of Jesus. I have been told by one that is
looked up to as a strong believer in the second coming of the Lord this
fall, that Jesus broke the Sabbath. Jesus says, I have kept my Father's
commandments. It is said that he "broke the Sabbath," because he allowed
his disciples to pluck the corn and eat it on that day, and the Pharisees
condemned them. He says, "If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have
mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." Then
they were not guilty. See Deut.23:25 He immediately cites them to David
and his men, shewing that it was lawful and right when hungry, even to eat
the shew bread that belonged only to the priests, and told them that he
was Lord of the Sabbath day. Here he shows too, that he was with his
disciples passing to the synagogue to teach; they ask him if it was lawful
to heal on the Sabbath day. He asks them if they had a sheep fall into the
ditch on the Sabbath, if they would not haul him out? How much better then
is a man than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath
days; and immediately healed the man with a withered hand. Matt.12:1-13 On
another Sabbath day, while he was teaching, he healed a woman that had
been bound of Satan eighteen years, and when the ruler of the synagogue
began to find fault, he called him a hypocrite, and said "doth not each
one of you on the Sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the stall and
lead him away to watering; and all his adversaries were ashamed." Luke
13:10-17, The xiv. chapter of Luke is quoted to prove that he broke the
Sabbath because he went into the Pharisees house with many others on the
Sabbath day to eat bread. Here he saw a man with the dropsy and he asked
them if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. `And they held their
peace and he took him and healed him,' and asked them `which of them
having an ox or an ass fall into the pit, would not straightway pull him
out on the Sabbath day; and they could not answer him again.' 1-6 v. And
`he continued to teach them, by showing them when they made a feast, to
call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and then they should be
blessed.' Read the chapter, and you will readily see that he took this
occasion, as the most befitting, to teach them by parables, what their
duty was at weddings and feasts, in the same manner as he taught them in
their synagogues.
There is still another passage, and I believe the only
one, to which reference has been made, (except where he opened the eyes of
a man that was born blind,) for proof that he broke the Sabbath. It is
recorded in John 5:5-17 Here Jesus found a man that had been sick
thirty-eight years, by the pool of Bethesda, `he saith unto him rise, take
up thy bed and walk, - therefore did they persecute Jesus and sought to
slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.' 16v. `But
Jesus answered them, my Father worketh hitherto and I work.' If they did
not work every hour and moment of time, it would be impossible for man to
exist: Here undoubtedly he had reference to these and other acts of
necessity and mercy; but the great sin for which professors in this
enlightened age charge the Saviour with in this transaction is, in
directing the man to take up his bed, contrary to law. It is clear the
people were forbidden to carry burdens on the Sabbath day, as in
Jer.17:21,22, but by reading the 24th v. in connection with Neh.13:15 -
22, we learn that this prohibition related to what was lawful for them to
do on the other six days of the week, viz. merchandise and trading. See
proof, Neh.10:31: also unlawful, as in Amos 8:5 We need not, nor we cannot
misunderstand the fourth commandment, taken in connection with the other
nine, they were simple and pure written by the finger of God; but in the
days of our Saviour it had become heavily laden with Jewish traditions,
hence when Jesus appeals to them whether it is lawful to do good and to
heal on the Sabbath days, their mouths are closed because they cannot
contradict him from the law nor the prophets. The Saviour nowhere
interferes with them in their most rigid observance of the day; but when
they find fault with him for performing his miracles of mercy on that day,
he tells them they have broken the law; and in another place, "If a man on
the Sabbath day receive circumcision without breaking the law of Moses,
are ye angry at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the
Sabbath day?" He then says, "Judge not according to the appearance, but
judge righteous judgment." 7:23,24 Did he break the Sabbath? Now the law
requires that the beasts shall rest; but what is the practice of many of
those who are the most strict in keeping Sunday for the Sabbath. Sick, or
well, ministers or laymen, do they not ride back and forth to meeting?
Again, it is right and lawful to carry forth our dead on the Sabbath? or
carry the communion service back and forth. The Apostle says, `believe and
be baptized.' Suppose this should be on the Sabbath and we were some
distance from the water, would any one interfere with us if we carried our
change of apparel with us and back again, or have we in so doing
transgressed the law; if we have, it is high time we made a full stop.
Jesus undoubtedly had good reasons for directing the sick man to take up
his bed and walk, but I cannot learn that he justified any one else in
carrying their bed on the Sabbath, unless in a case of necessity and
mercy, such as he cited them to, as watering their cattle, and pulling
them out of the ditch, and eating when hungry, and being healed when sick.
Be it also remembered that when the Sanhedrin tried him they did not
condemn him, as in the other cases cited; so in this, they failed for want
of Scripture testimony. He was the Lord of the Sabbath, and the law of
ceremonies were now about to cease forever, the ten commandments with the
keeping of the Sabbath therefore were to be stripped of these ceremonies
and all of their traditions, and left as pure to be written on the hearts
of the Gentiles as when first written on tables of stone, therefore Jesus
taught that it was right to do good on the Sabbath day, and whoever
follows his example and teaching will keep the seventh day Sabbath holy
and acceptable to God. They will also judge righteous judgement, and not
according to appearance.
There is but one Christian Sabbath named, or
established in the Bible, and that individual, whoever he is, that
undertakes to abolish or change it, is the real Sabbath breaker. Remember
that the keeping the commandments is the only safe guide through the gates
into the city.
My friends and neighbors, and especially my family,
know that I have for more than twenty years, strictly endeavored to keep
the first day of the week for the Sabbath, and I can say that I did it in
all good conscience before God, on the ocean, and in foreign countries as
well as any own, until about sixteen months since I read an article
published in the Hope of Israel, by a worthy brother, T.M. Preble, of
Nashua, which when I read and compared with the Bible, convinced me that
there never had been any change. Therefore the seventh day was the
Sabbath, and God required me as well as him to keep it holy. Many things
now troubled my mind as to how I could make this great change, family,
friends, and brethren and, but this one passage of Scripture was, and
always will be as clear as a sunbeam. "What is that to thee: follow thou
me". In a few days my mind was made up to begin to keep the fourth
commandment, and I bless God for the clear light he has shed upon my mind
in answer to prayer and a thorough examination of the scriptures on this
great subject. Contrary views did, after a little, shake my position some,
but I feel now that there is no argument nor sophistry that can becloud my
mind again this side of the gates of the Holy City. Brother Marsh, who no
doubt thinks, and perhaps thousands besides, that his paper is what it
purports to be, THE VOICE OF TRUTH, takes the ground with the infidel that
there is not Sabbath. Brother S.S. Snow, of New York, late editor of the
Jubilee Standard, publishes to the world that he is the Elijah, preceding
the advent of our Saviour, restoring all things: (the seventh day Sabbath
must be one of all things,) and yet he takes the same ground with Br.
Marsh, that the Sabbath is forever abolished. As the seventh day Sabbath
is a real prophecy, a picture (and not a shadow like the Jewish Sabbaths,)
of the thing typified which is to come, I cannot see how those who believe
in the change or abolition of the type, can have any confidence to look to
God for the great antitype, the Sabbath of rest, to come to them.
Brother J.B. Cook has written a short piece in his
excellent paper, the ADVENT TESTIMONY, It was pointed and good, but too
short; and as brother Preble's Tract now before me, did not embrace the
arguments which have been presented since he published it, it appeared to
me that something was called for in this time of falling back from this
great subject. I therefore present this book, hoping at least, that it
will help to strengthen and save all honest souls seeking after truth.
A WORD RESPECTING THE HISTORY. At the close of the
first century a controversy arose, whether both days should be kept or
only one, which continued until the reign of Constantine the Great. By his
laws, made in A.D. 321, it was decreed for the future that Sunday should
be kept a day of rest in all the cities and towns; but he allowed the
country people to follow husbandry. History further informs us that
Constantine murdered his two sisters husbands and son, and his own
familiar friend, that same year, and the year before boiled his wife in a
cauldron of oil. - The controversy still continued down to A.D. 603, when
Pope Gregory passed a law abolishing the seventh day Sabbath, and
establishing the first day of the week. See Baronius Councils, 603.
Barnfield's Eng. page 116, states that the Parliament of England met on
Sundays till the time of Richard II. The first law of England made for
keeping of Sunday, was in the time of Edward IV. about 1470. As these two
books are not within my reach, I have extracted from T.M. Preble's tract
on the Sabbath. Mr. Fisher says, it was Dr. Bound one of the rigid
Puritans, who applied the name Sabbath to the first day of the week, about
the year 1795. "The word Sunday is not found in the bible," it derived its
name from the heathen nations of the North, because the day was dedicated
to the sun. Neither is the Sabbath applied to the first day any more than
it is to the sixth day of the week. While Daniel beheld the little horn,
(popery) he said, among other things, he would think to change times and
laws. Now this could not mean of men, because it ever has been the
prerogative of absolute rulers like himself, to change manmade-laws. Then
to make the prophecy harmonize with the Scripture, he must have meant
times and laws established by God, because he might think and pass decrees
as he has done, but he, nor all the universe could ever change God's times
and laws. Jesus says that "times and seasons were in the power of the
father." The Sabbath is the most important law which God ever instituted.
"How long refuse ye to keep my commandments, and my laws, see for that the
Lord hath given you the Sabbath." Exod.16:28,29 Then it's clear from the
history, that this is in part what Daniel meant. Now the second advent
believers have professed all confidence in his visions; why then doubt
this. Whoever feels disposed to defend and sustain the decrees of that
"blasphemous" power, and especially Pope Gregory and the great
Constantine, the murderer, shown to be the moral reformer in this work of
changing the Sabbath, are welcome to their principles and feeling. I
detest these acts, in common with all others which have emanated from
these ten and one horned powers. The Revelations show us clearly that they
were originated by the devil. If you say this history is not true then you
are bound to refute it. If you cannot, you are as much in duty bound to
believe it as any other history, even that George Washington died in 1799!
If the Bible argument, and testimony from history are to be relied on as
evidence, then it is as clear as a sunbeam that the seventh day Sabbath is
a perpetual sign, and is as binding upon man as it ever was. But we are
told we must keep the first day of the week for the Sabbath as an
ordinance to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. I for one had rather
believe Paul. See Rom.6:3 - 5; Gal.3:27; Col.2:12
A word more respecting time. See 31st page. Here I have
shown that the sun in the centre, regardless all time for the earth -
fifty two weeks to the year, one hundred and sixty-eight hours to the
week, the seventh of which is twenty-four hours. "Jesus says there are but
twelve hours in the day, (from sunrise to sunset.) Then twelve hours night
to make a twenty-four hour day, you see, must always begin at a certain
period of time. No matter then whether the sun sets with us at eight in
summer or 4 o'clock in winter. Now by this, and this is the Scripture
rule, days and weeks can, and most probably are, kept at the North and
South polar regions. What an absurdity to believe that God does exonerate
our fathers and brothers from keeping his Sabbath while they are in these
polar regions fishing for seals and whales, should it be with them either
all day or all night. If they have lost their reckoning of days and weeks,
because there was, or was not any sun six months of the time, how could
they learn what day of the week it was when they see the sun setting at 6
o'clock on the equator, if bound home from the South? By referring to
Luke, 23 ch.55,56, and 24:1, we see that the people in Palestine had kept
the days and weeks right from the creation; since which time, astronomers
teach us that not even fifteen minutes have been lost. God does not
require us to be any more exact in keeping time, than what we may or have
learned from the above rules, but I am told there is a difference in time
of twenty-four hours to the mariner that circumnavigates the globe. That,
being true, is known to them, but it alters no time on the earth or sea.
But, says one, I should like to keep the Sabbath in
time, just as Jesus did. Then you must live in Palestine, where their day
begins seven hours earlier than ours; and yet it is at 6 o'clock in the
evening the same period, though not the same by the sun, in which we begin
our day. Let me illustrate: our earth, something in the form of an orange,
is whirling over every twenty-four hours. It measures three hundred and
sixty degrees, or about twenty-one thousand six hundred miles round, in
the manner you would pass a string round an orange. Now divide this three
hundred and sixty degrees by the twenty-four hour day, and the result is
fifteen degrees, or nine hundred miles. Then every fifteen degrees we
travel or sail eastward, the sun rises and sets one hour earlier in the
period of the twenty-four hours: therefore those who live in Palestine,
one hundred and seven degrees east of us, begin and close the day seven
hours earlier, so in proportion all the way round the globe, the sun
always stationary! Then the Sabbath begins precisely at 6 o'clock on
Friday evening, every where on this globe, and ends at the same period on
what we call Saturday evening. God says `everything on its day,' `from
even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath;' `the evening and the
morning was the first day.' He is an exact time keeper! I say then, in the
name of all that is holy, heavenly and true, and as immortality is above
all price, let us see to it that we are found fearing God and keeping his
COMMANDMENTS, for this, we are taught, `is the whole duty of man.' The
proof is positive that the seventh day Sabbath is included in the
commandments.
Bro. Marsh says, "Keeping the Sabbath is embraced in
this covenant. Deut.5:1 - 6, made with the children of Israel at Horeb. It
was not made with their Fathers (the Patriarchs) but with us, even us, who
are all of us HERE ALIVE THIS DAY. v.3 `This testimony first negative, he
made it not with our Fathers, and then positive with us, is conclusive.
Not a single proof can be presented from either the old or new testament,
that it was instituted for any other people or nation." Now it is clear
and positive that if the Sabbath is not binding on any other people than
the Jews, by the same rule not one of the commandments is binding on any
other people, who dare take such infidel ground? Was not the second
covenant written on the hearts of the Gentile, even the law of
Commandments? which Paul says `is Holy, just and good.' Thirty years after
the crucifixion he directs the Ephesians to the keeping the fifth
commandment, that they may live long on the earth not the land of Canaan.
6:2,3 Did not God say that Abraham kept his commandments, statutes, and
laws? This embraced the Sabbath for circumcision, and the Sabbath were
then the only laws, or statutes, or commandments written. The fourth
commandment was given two thousand years before Abraham was born! Is not
the stranger and all within their gates included in the covenant to keep
the Sabbath? See Exod.20:10 And did not God require them to keep THE
Sabbath before he made this covenant with them in Horeb? See Exod.16:27 -
30 Does not Isaiah say that God will bless the man, and the son of man,
and the sons of the stranger, that keep THE Sabbath? These certainly mean
the Gentiles. 56:2 - 3, 6 - 7 Also, in the 58 ch.13,14, the promise is to
all that keep the Sabbath. To what people did the Sabbath belong at the
destruction of Jerusalem, nearly forty years after the crucifixion?
Matt.24:20 The Gentiles certainly were embraced in the covenant by this
time! Why was it Paul's manner always to preach on the seventh day Sabbath
to Jews and Gentiles?
By what authority do you call the seventh day Sabbath,
the Jewish Sabbath? The Bible says it is the Sabbath of the Lord our God!
And Jesus said that he was the `Lord of the Sabbath day.' He moreover told
the Jews that the Sabbath was made for MAN! Where do you draw the
distinguishing line, to show which is and which is not MAN between the
natural seed of Abraham and the Gentiles? "Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also!" Then Paul says
`there is no difference,' and that `there is no respect of persons with
God.' Is it not clear, then, that the Sabbath was made for Adam and his
posterity, the whole family of man? How very fearful you are that God's
people should keep the Bible Sabbath! You say, `let us be cautious, lest
we disinherit ourselves by seeking the inheritance under the wrong
covenant. Your meaning is, not to seek to keep the Sabbath covenant, but
the one made to Abraham.
If you can tell us what precept there is in the
Abrahamic covenant that we must now keep to be saved, that is not embraced
in the one given at Mount Sinai, then we will endeavor to keep that too,
with the Sabbath of the Lord our God. If the Sabbath, as you say, is
abolished, why do you, JOSEPH MARSH, continue to call the first day of the
week the Sabbath. See V.T., 15th July. If you profess to utter the VOICE
OF TRUTH from the bible, do be consistent, and also willing that other
papers, besides yours and the Advent Herald, should give the present truth
to the flock of God. I say let it go with lightning speed; every way, as
does the political news by the electric telegraph. If the whole law and
the prophets hang on the commandments, and by keeping them we enter into
life, how will you, or I, enter in if we do not `keep the commandments.'
See Exod.16:28 - 30 Jesus says, "therefore whosoever shall break one of
these least commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called the least
in the kingdom," &c. "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the
whole duty of man." Amen!
GOD HAS MADE THREE EVERLASTING COVENANTS WITH MAN.
The first one is the Covenant of Inheritance "confirmed
unto Jacob for a law and unto Israel for an everlasting Inheritance." See
Psl.105:8 - 11 Acts 7:3 - 6 Eph.1:14
Second is an everlasting Covenant of Redemption." See
Isa.61:8,9 "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David
my servant, thy seed will I establish forever." Psl.89:2 - 5 See also 34 -
37 vs. "My Covenant will I not break, not alter the thing that is gone out
of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto
David, his seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me
- It shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in
heaven." Isa. says it is sure, 55:3; 54:13,14 Ezekiel calls it a Covenant
of peace. 34:25 In 37 ch.25 and 26 v. he shows clearly that David is
Christ, and this "Covenant of peace is an everlasting Covenant with his
Israel, and will be known when his sanctuary is in the midst of them
forever more." 28 v. The very same is brought to view by Paul Rom.11:26,27
These two everlasting Covenants are conditional, and in
the future. The living saints of God inherit them by keeping the
`commandments of God and testimony of Jesus, which can be nothing more nor
less than what Jer. and Paul calls the `new or second covenant.' Jer.31:31
- 33; Heb.8:6 - 10; by us the Gospel Covenant, confirmed by Christ and his
Apostles 1800 years ago. Dan.9:27; Acts 10:36 - 40; Heb.2:3,4 The old or
first Covenant was delivered to Moses at Mount Sinai 3337 years ago, and
is about 1537 years older than the new, or second, or what we call the
Gospel Covenant. Paul to the Heb.9:1, says, `This first Covenant had
ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary,' meaning the Old
Tabernacle with all its appendages, (see 23 v.,) and was dedicated with
the blood of bulls and goats. 18, 19 v. (Macknight's trans.). See also
Exo.24:8; Lev.11:15 This same Covenant was the ten commandments `written
on tables of stone by the finger of God.' Exo.34:27,28; Deut.9:4 Moses
built a Tabernacle for it. Exo.40:3,21 David had it in his heart to build
a house for it. 1Chr.28:2 Solomon built the house (the Temple) and put the
Ark into it. 2Ch.6:11 These ten commandments then, was the first Covenant.
The Tabernacle and all its furniture was appended to it, and was called
the Sanctuary, the building that contained it. This Covenant was broken by
the Jews, with whom it was first made. Deut.26:15,20; Jer.31:32;
Ezek.16:5,9, and 17:19; Isa.33:8 Now how evident it is that the Jewish
nation did not destroy nor abolish this Covenant by breaking it. As well
may it be said that the man who violates the law of his country has
abolished or destroyed the whole law. No, no! men can no more destroy the
law God has made than they can put out the light of the sun. They can
destroy themselves, but God's work can they never. Hear God speak and may
his word annihilate every thought to the contrary: "The Lord thy God he is
the faithful God, which keepeth Covenant and mercy with them that love him
and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." Is not this as much
as 63,000 years in the future? Will he break it, then think ye? No, you
know it means forever. Deut.7:9 Do you still doubt. Let him speak once
more. "My Covenant will I not BREAK nor ALTER [look at this, you that say
God has altered this Covenant so as to change, this Sabbath from the 7th
to the 1st day of the week.] the thing that has gone out of my mouth."
Psl.139:34 Then it is immutable unchangeable immortal! as well may man
undertake to annihilate the sun.
Jesus then, as I have shown, came to establish the new
Covenant, and as I have before stated, he stripped off all these
appendages, the law of ceremonies, the hand writing of ordinances, the
carnal commandments (Paul,) from the first Covenant, the ten commandments,
leaving them pure as when they first came from his Father's hand, and
nailed as Paul shows to the Col.2:14 all these ceremonies to his cross, at
the same hour he sealed the new Covenant with his blood, called the
everlasting Covenant. Heb.13:20
Paul in the 7 ch on this Covenant, extracts from
Jer.31:31-34, which shows us clearly what he means (see 8-12v,) and says
in the 7 v., if the first one had been faultless then no place could be
found for the second. 6 v. says this covenant is established on better
promises because Jesus is the mediator of it. 12:24 In 10:15,16, he quotes
from the 8 ch to show that the Holy Ghost is also a witness. See how, in
ii. Rom.13-16, "when the Gentiles which have not the law, (that is the ten
commandments on tables of stone) do the things contained in the law (the
ten commandments) they show the work of the law (the ten commandments)
written on their hearts, their thoughts in the mean while accusing, or
else excusing, (when, Paul?) in the day when God shall judge the secrets
of men by my gospel." Then it must be now. Oh no, says the reader, Paul
means at the day of judgment. - I am glad you admit that condemnation
overtakes the transgressors of the law written on our hearts somewhere.
For proof that he means the commandments read 21,22 v.; you will of course
understand that it is not the law of ceremonies, for these had been
abolished more than 25 years before. See chronology A.D. 60. Now see
Heb.8:10 again. "I will put MY laws into their minds and write them in
their hearts." This is the very same, the commandment, the covenant, for
there is no other law called God's law that we can refer to in the Bible
but this. In Jer.32:40, the everlasting covenant which Paul quotes in 13
Heb. is the same promise as in Jer.31.
Now in Ezek.16:8 This is the first covenant to Moses;
that it is broken see 59:60 - 62, shows the second covenant as in Jer.,
read the history in the chapter.
In ch 20:37, where the promise is, "I will bring you
into the bond (or delivering, see margin,) of the covenant. At first view
it would appear as though here was another implied but I think the
preceding verses, particularly the 12th and 20th, show it to be the
covenant in which the Sabbath is included, or it may be the everlasting
covenant of redemption, given to Jesus just previous to the resurrection.
Paul clearly shows that there are but two covenants under the law in his
allegory to the Galatians 4:21 - 27, and these two must of necessity, as I
have shown embrace the ten commandments. Now has this new covenant been
broken by man as was the first? Hear Isaiah; "Behold the Lord maketh the
earth empty, the inhabitants of the earth burned, and but few left." Why?
"Because they have broken the everlasting covenant." See 23:5 Read this
whole chapter. Paul says that the professed church in the last days will
be covenant breakers. 2Tim.3:2 - 5 (Macknight's translation.) This must of
course be violating, especially, the fourth commandment, the Lord's
Sabbath. It would be the height of absurdity to attempt to apply it to the
first day of the week, because this is included in the six working days,
which God never sanctified nor set apart for an holy day.
Now what is to be appended to this everlasting covenant
(called new not in respect of its date; it being made from everlasting,
and will continue forever,) to ensure us an entrance into the gates of the
holy city. Answer. The testimony of Jesus. Rev.12:17 "That old dragon the
devil is pursuing the remnant (the last end) of God's children, which keep
the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." In the
14:12, John says the faith of Jesus, (same meaning.) Now what is this
faith or "testimony of Jesus?" John shows that he was banished to Patmos
for the "word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev.1,9, he says
he "bore record of the testimony of Jesus," "and what he saw." 2 v. Just
what Jesus had directed his disciples to do. See Matt.28:19,20 "Teach all
nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." This then
is what makes the covenant new, appending to it the teaching or testimony
of Jesus, after the ceremonial law had been "Nailed to the cross." Here it
is perfectly clear that the everlasting covenant the ten commandments have
undergone no change whatever. Indeed it is impossible that the law of God
could be changed; do you say it is possible I may be mistaken? Then I will
appeal to Jesus. He says "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than
one title of the law to fail." You say this is no proof, for the law of
God is the word taught in the old and new testaments. See here then, in
Matt.5:17,18 Is not this the same law as in Luke 16:17? Yes.
Very well then, see next verse, here he unhesitatingly
calls them the commandments; for proof that he means the ten commandments,
read 21st verse, "shall not kill," now 27th "nor commit adultery," then
33d, "nor take God's name in vain." His exposition of them as a whole is
certainly as clear as this in Matt.22:35 - 40, reduced to two precepts,
love God, and love your neighbor, on these two hang all the law
(ceremonial) and the prophets. Don't you see then that if this law is
taken away, changed or abolished, that the prophets must fall with it, as
certainly as a building would if the foundation was swept away? The
argument is clear that the prophecies cannot be sustained without the law.
Again, see Luke 10:25 - 28 The lawyer says, "Master what shall I do to
inherit eternal life?" Jesus "said unto him what is written in the LAW?
how readest thou?" He begins and quotes the two precepts (the essence of
the ten commandments) given by the Saviour in Matt.xxii Jesus says, "thou
hast answered RIGHT, this do and thou shalt live." Is this a safe rule for
us? Yes, if you can believe the Saviour. I ask if it could be so if any of
the law should fail? No, that would undermine the foundation. Then I have
not appealed to Jesus in vain. If all of this does not convince you, just
hear the Prophets. "The good man's delight is in the law of the Lord, and
in his law doth he meditate day and night." Psl.1:1,2 "The law of the Lord
is perfect, converting the soul." 19 "The law of thy mouth is better unto
me than thousands of gold and silver." 19:72 "Great peace have they that
love thy, law, and nothing shall offend them." 165 Does the changing of
the law by the little horn bring peace? "He that turneth away his ear from
hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination. Prov.28:9 Read
this passage again. You that say the Lord is not so particular about his
law, whether we keep this day or that for a holy day. He says "every thing
upon his day." "Seal the law among my disciples." Isa,8:16 What for? "It
will be bindings on them in the new heavens and the new earth." 66,22,23
"To the law and the testimony." 20 What can you prove by it if it is
changed or abolished? "He will magnify the law and make it honorable."
42:21 How could he do that if he was going to change or destroy it. "The
people in whose heart is my law, fear ye not the reproach of men." 51:7
"After those days saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their inward
parts, and write it in their hearts." Jer.31:33
Then we are certainly bound to obey them. "Her Priests
have violated my law - and have put no difference between the holy and
profane - and have hid their eyes from my SABBATHS, and I am profaned
among them. Ezek.22:26 It is just so; we believe it, Lord. It is even
among them that say they are looking for Jesus daily.
Hear the Apostles. "We establish the law." Rom.3:31
"The law is holy, just and good." What do you mean Paul? The professed
Christian world does not believe your testimony; they are teaching that a
certain part of this law was changed or abolished 25 years before you made
this assertion. See chronology. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." 13:10
See Matt.7:12, and Gal.5:14 James says it is a perfect Royal law of
liberty." See page 26, ch. 1:25, and 2:8,9,10,12, and 4:2 This testimony
is also rejected as an absurdity, being no better than Paul's, 25 years
out of date, for they will have it that the 4th commandment, the Sabbath,
was changed at the Resurrection.
The commandments of God mean the same as the law. -
"All his commandments are sure, they are established forever and ever."
Who then can change the Sabbath? "A good understanding have all they that
do his commandments." "Blessed is the man that delighteth greatly in his
commandments." Ps.111 and 112 "O let me not wander from thy commandments."
19:10, and 35 "I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have
loved." 47 "Thy commandment is exceeding broad." 96 "All thy commandments
are truth." 151 Can it be proved that God ever altered or changed the
truth? Yes, if it can be proved that he changed the Sabbath. "O that thou
hadst harkened to my commandments, then had thy peace been as a river, and
thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Isa.48:18 See Jesus' exposition
and reference to the commandments Matt.5:19, 15:3 - 6 We are told by those
who can hardly bear a contradiction, that the 5th commandment means Jesus
for father, and New Jerusalem for mother. Jesus shows it is our natural
parents, and so does Paul to the Eph.6:1 - 3 See also Matt.19:17 - 19, and
22:35 - 40, Mark 12:29 - 31, John 13:34, 14:31, and 16:12 The last three
quotations relate to his own commandment. See John's testimony on this
point. 1st John 2:4,7, 3:21,24 Rev.12:17, and 14:12 Now let us hear the
conclusion of the whole matter, "fear God and keep his commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man," "Blessed are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter
in through the gates into the city." Rev.22:14, Ecc.12:13 Do you ask for
the foundation for this mass of evidence? When Israel violated the holy
Sabbath of rest given in the beginning, Gen.2:2,3, 1John 2:7, the Lord
said unto Moses, how long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
What are they, Lord? Answer, the seventh day Sabbath. See Exo.16:27 - 30
Now if we trace the Bible through in relation to the Sabbath we shall
learn that the Lord's threatenings, judgments, and promises, are more than
ten fold in comparison with the other nine commandments. What is the
reason for this? Answer, the keeping of GOD'S SABBATH HOLY, GOD'S
SANCTIFIES AND SAVES THE SOUL! but the keeping of one, or all the other
nine without it will not.
Now, dear reader, if you are still undecided about the
keeping of God's Sabbath, let me persuade you to read these two pages over
again, and settle in your mind what you will do with this mass of
testimony, directly from God; his Prophets; Jesus Christ and his Apostles.
Dare you say you are now `living by every word of God,' and yet reject all
this, with what other testimony is here presented to prove the keeping of
the seventh day Sabbath? Dare you run such a risk because the great mass
of professed believers in Christendom are doing so? Do you think you can
be saved by such a faith and practice? Your ministering spirit (if you yet
have one,) says no, no! utterly impossible! Then receive the truth in the
love of it. Do you perceive that the seventh day Sabbath is God's first
law for man? Gen.2:2,3, and the very last promise he ever made to man of a
future inheritance is based on the `doing of these commandments.' It would
not help your case at all if you could make out five thousand, instead of
ten commandments; for you would still have to include the ten to get them
all.
What a beautiful delineation the 119 Psalm is, of this
wonderful prototype delivered by God to Moses at Mount Sinai. The
Commandments are rehearsed twenty-two times. The Law, twenty-three. The
Testimony twenty-three. The Statutes twenty-one. The Precepts twenty-two.
The Judgments twenty-two. The Word thirty-eight. All referring to the Ark
of the Covenant of God. See how perfectly David and Nehemiah links them
together with the Sabbath in the 19:Psl:7 - 9; Neh.9:13,14 `The
Commandments, Law, Testimony and Judgments, are true and righteous all
together.' Proof - Commandments and laws, Exo.16:28 - 30; Testimony,
Exo.25:16; Isa.8:20; Word, Exo.34:27; Mark 7:10,13; Statutes and
Judgments, Deut.6:17,20; 10:13; Lev.18:5; Precepts, Neh.9:13,14; Dan.9:5
Who believes that the person that refrains from
worshiping `idols or images,' will be saved for that? or because he honors
his father or mother? or because he is no murderer? or does not commit
adultery, or steal, or bear false witness, or covet, or not swear?
Thousands on thousands have conformed to some and even all the nine, that
made no pretensions to religion. We must keep the whole if we would be
saved; neither can we be saved by keeping the Sabbath alone. James says
`If we fail in one we are guilty of the whole.' God says `verily my
Sabbaths ye shall keep - that ye may know that I the Lord do SANCTIFY
you.' Exo.31:13 Now I ask if there is any wise men among us than can tell
us how the soul is sanctified unless he keeps the Sabbath HOLY. Ezekiel
says the Sabbath was given that we might know that the Lord SANCTIFIES.
20. Says the reader, what do you think about those that have died in
faith, keeping the first day Sabbath? Just as I do of those that never
heard the everlasting gospel at the hour of his judgment. Look at the
state of the world now, since they have rejected this message, the answer
is plain then that condemnation comes, when light or present truth is
presented and rejected. We may think our plea of ignorance may excuse us
now. But just think of that awful hour, that gathering storm that is now
clothing the moral world with darkness that may be felt. The sure and
certain precursor of that tremendous "rush" when God roars out of Zion,
and utters his voice from Jerusalem, preparatory to the sign of the Son of
man in heaven and the trump of the archangel and a great sound, with so
much power that earth and sea will reel, and rock, and rend; and cast
forth the righteous dead, and the living saints changed; all going up
together to meet their glorified Lord. No plea of ignorance will then
answer our purpose; thoughts then rushing through our minds with more than
lightning speed, will touch every point as on the magnetic telegraph, and
show us where and when we rejected the present truth. Good God help the
honest ones to see it now, for then it certainly will be forever too late.
That God's holy Sabbath is a present truth I have not a shadow of a doubt;
that it is stamped with immortality and will be present truth forever and
ever, no mortal can dispute: - It was established in Paradise without
limitation. Gen.2:2,3 God says "my covenant will I not BREAK nor ALTER."
Jesus has shown that not one title of this covenant can be altered, and
told his children (not the Jews only) how they should pray about the
Sabbath 36 years after his death. A little further in the distance stands
John the last of the disciples pointing ut to Paradise for the
commandments. After wading through a few years tribulation, in vision he
sees the new Jerusalem, the mother of us all, the Paradise restored, and
cries out "blessed are they that DO (that practice) his commandments, they
are going into the city." There they will keep the Sabbath, without
opposition, as at the beginning. Isa.66:23, Heb.4:9 This looks just like
God's work. Man has undertaken to "break and alter" this law by changing
the Sabbath. It would be much easier for him to bail the ocean dry, and
carry the water to Jupiter by the spoonful; and sweep the thick clouds
from the heavens in a thunder storm with the wing of a raven. Who then can
alter this covenant? Echo answers, who can alter this covenant?
Now who cannot see clearly that the main pillar and
foundation of this Everlasting covenant is the ten commandments, the law
of God, the constitution of the Bible; for every nation, kindred, tongue,
and people, given first in Paradise, re-enacted with the nine additional
commandments, written on tables of stone by the finger of God on mount
Sinai, giving it the form of a statute, then delivered to Moses, broken by
the Jews, just as men break any law without destroying it? The same ten
commandments and laws, called by Paul the new or second and everlasting
covenant, confirmed by Jesus, and sealed with his own blood eighteen
hundred years ago, written in our minds and our hearts from one generation
to another to the present time, always understood when developed in the
believer's practicing and doing them, with the promise annexed that such
obedience will be rewarded by an entrance into the holy city. Rev.22:14
Now in this covenant or ten commandments God has given
us a perpetual covenant, a sign forever, and this is the seventh day
Sabbath. See Exo.31:16 This may bear some comparison with the visions of
Ezekiel and John. "Their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a
wheel." "I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name." So
with the Sabbath it is the main and essential thing. It is clearly that if
we keep this holy as God has shown us, then we shall be SANCTIFIED. So we
see a holy sanctified soul cannot violate the commandments. But if we
reject the light and still persist in saying we will keep one of the
working days holy which God never sanctified nor set apart for us, "how
does the love of God dwell in that soul?" "If ye love me keep my
commandments." Now the history of God's people for the last seven years,
or more, is described by John in Rev.14:6 - 13 An angel preaching the
everlasting gospel at the hour of God's judgment. This without any doubt
represents all those who were preaching the second Advent doctrine since
1840.
During this proclamation, there followed another angel,
saying "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." This angel was some of the same
Advent lecturers, (for invisible angels don't preach to men.) And the
angel follows them, showing the curse that befell all such as "worship the
beast or his image, or receive his mark," that is, if they go back again.
The same angel or voice that is brought to view in ch.18:4, you see he
follows the one that announces the fall of Babylon, and cries, "come out
of her my people. This was a little before and during a cry at Midnight in
the fall of 1844. And God's people did respond to that call and come out,
does any one ask where from? Answer, the professed churches and nowhere
else. These churches then are Babylon! Now when this cry ended, John
describes another very different company, in their patience, (or trying
time,) keeping the commandments of God and the faith or testimony of
Jesus; who are they? Why, the very same that came out of Babylon. Well,
were they not all good christians that obeyed and came out of Babylon?
They will be if they belong to this last company and pass through the
trial. But did they not keep the commandments of God before this company
was developed? Yes all but the 4th commandment. Therefore as I have shown,
John gave us no credit for keeping the first for the seventh day Sabbath,
neither could it be called keeping the commandments, for if we did it ever
so ignorantly, even, we still violated the very essential law in the
commandments, and all that John could say therefore was, that them which
had the mark of the beast kept some of the commandments. James says "if we
fail in one we are guilty of the whole." Now that such a people can be
found on the earth as described in the 12 v. and have been uniting in
companies for the last two years, on the commandments of God and faith or
testimony of Jesus, is indisputable and clear. I say here then is
demonstrated proof that Babylon has fallen, and whoever undertakes to
prove the contrary must annihilate this people, or "pervert the
scriptures." John further shows that this is a remnant (which of course
means the last end) made war with, (his meaning is clear,) for "keeping
the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." 12:17 Here
another question arises, why this people should be persecuted for keeping
the commandments, &c., when all, even them which have the mark of the
beast, profess to keep them.
I suppose all that enrages the Devil and his army is
this; that this remnant are actually practicing what they believe is the
testimony of God and the testimony of Jesus, selling what they have,
giving alms, laying up their treasure in heaven, casting themselves
entirely loose from this wicked world; doing as their master told them to
do, "washing one another's feet," and as the apostles have taught, `greet
all the brethren with an holy kiss,' salute every saint in Christ Jesus.'
Living `by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God,' practice
keeping the Sabbath holy, just as God has told them in the commandments.
But says the reader, there are tens of thousands that are looking for
Jesus, that don't believe the above doctrines, what will become of them?
Consult John, he knows better than we do; he has only described two
companies. See 14:9 - 11,12 One is keeping the commandments and faith of
Jesus. The other has the mark of the beast. How? See page 45 Is it not
clear that the first day of the week for the Sabbath or holy day is a mark
of the beast. It surely will be admitted that the Devil was and is the
father of all the wicked deeds of Imperial and Papal Rome. It is clear
then from this history that Sunday, or first day, is his Sabbath
throughout Christendom. And that he has succeeded among other civilized
nations to sanctify and set apart for holy days every working day which
God gave us, that he did not sanctify. See page 8th. He will be very
careful therefore not to make war on any but those who keep God's Sabbath
holy. Contrast this with page 30 John shows that these will all be judged
according to their works, or as their work shall be. But them that DO
(that practice) his commandments may enter in through the gates into the
city. But do not some of the rest go in? He does not say they do.
He says his reward is with him to give to every man
according as his work shall be. Well, who are left out? See 15 v. "And
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Now see 1John2:4 "He that saith I know
him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar." But does not the Rev.7:9
describe a great multitude saved after the 144,000? Yes, but I conclude
that these were raised from the dead. The original design of sending out
this work was to show that these commandments, the keeping of the Lord's
Sabbath, would save the living saints only at the coming of Jesus. Now
that the keeping of the seventh day Sabbath has been made void by the
working of Satan, and is to be restored as one of the all things spoken of
by all the holy prophets since the world began, before Jesus can come, is
evident. See Acts 3:20,21 "And they that shall be of THEE shall build the
old waste places - thou shalt raise up the foundation of many generations,
and thou shalt be called the REPAIRER of the breach, the RESTORER of paths
to dwell in. Isa.58:12 The two following verses show that keeping or
restoring the Sabbath is the special work. Jesus says, "they shall be
called great in the kingdom of heaven, that do and teach the
commandments." That there will yet be a mighty struggle about the
restoring and keeping the seventh day Sabbath, that will test every living
soul that enters the gates of the city, cannot be disputed. It is evident
the Devil is making war on all such. See Rev.12:17 "Remember the Sabbath
day and keep it holy." Amen.
WHO ARE THE TRUE ISRAEL?
In the 31 ch. of Exod., God says "wherefore the
children of ISRAEL shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath
throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant; it is a sign
between me and the children of Israel forever. 16,17 v. Who are the true
Israelites? Answer, God's people. Hear Paul: "Is he the God of the Jews
only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes of the Gentiles, also; from
uncircumcision through faith" Rom.3:29,30 God gave his re-enacted
commandment or covenant to the natural Jew in B.C.1491 They broke this
covenant, as he told Moses they would, for which he partially destroyed
and dispersed them; God then brought in a new covenant which continued the
sign of the Sabbath, which was confirmed by Jesus and his Apostle about
1525 years from the first. See Heb.8:8,10,13; Rom.1;15 Their breaking the
first covenant never could destroy the commandments of God. Therefore this
new or second covenant, made with the house of ISRAEL, Heb.8:10, (not the
natural Jew only.) is indelibly written upon the heart. Now every child
takes the name of his parents. Let us see what the angel Gabriel says to
Mary concerning her son: "The Lord God will give him the throne of David
his father, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever." Luke
1:31,33
Now the prophecy: "There shall come a star out of Jacob
and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel." Num. Now 1735 years before Jesus
was born, God changed Jacob's name to Israel, because he prevailed with
him. This then is the family name for all who overcome or prevail. God
gave this name to his spiritual child, namely, Israel. Then Jesus will
"reign over the house of Israel forever." This must include all that are
saved in the everlasting kingdom. Further, Joseph was the natural son of
Jacob, or Israel. In his prophetic view and dying testimony to his
children, he says, Joseph is a fruitful bough, from thence is the shepherd
the stone of Israel. Gen.49:22 - 34 Then this Shepherd (Jesus) is a
descendant, and is of the house of Israel. Does he not say that he is the
Shepherd of the Sheep? - What, of the Jews only? No, but also of the
Gentile, "for the promise is not through the law (of ceremonies) but
through the righteousness of faith, Rom.4:13 Micah says, "they shall smite
the Judge of Israel, that is to be the ruler of Israel. 5:1,2 Now Jesus
never was a judge nor ruler in Israel. This, then, is a prophecy in the
future, that he will judge, and be the Ruler over, the whole house of
Israel. All the family, both natural Jew and Gentile, will assume the
family name, the whole Israel of God. The angel Gabriel's message, then,
is clear; David is the father of Jesus, according to the flesh, and Jacob,
or rather Israel his father, and Jesus reigns over the house of Israel
forever. Paul says, "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly but he is a
Jew which is one inwardly." Rom.2 "There is no difference between the Jew
and Greek, (or Gentiles) for they are not all Israel that are of Israel,
neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children." Why?
Because the children of the promise, of Isaac (is the true seed.) chs. 9
and 10. To the Galatians he says, "now to Abraham (the Grandfather of
Israel) and his seed were the promises made; not to many, but as of one
and to thy seed which is CHRIST - then says, there is neither Jew nor
Greek - but one in Christ Jesus, and if ye be Christ then are ye Abraham's
seed and heirs according to the promise." 3 "And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the ISRAEL of God." 6
This, then, is the name of the whole family in heaven; Christ is God's
only son and lawful heir, none but the true seed can be joint heirs with
Christ in the covenant made with Abraham. Ezekiel's prophecy in 37 ch.,
God says "he will bring up out of their graves the whole house of Israel."
"and I will put my spirit in you and ye shall live." 17-14 If God here
means any other than the spiritual Israel, then Universalism is true - for
the whole house of natural Israel did not die in faith; if the wicked Jews
are to be raised and live before God, then will all the wicked! For God is
not respecter of persons; "And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do
sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them
forevermore." 28v. Here, then, we prove that the dead and living saints
are the whole Israel of God, and the Covenant and Sign is binding on them
into the gates of the holy city. Rev.20:14
TWO QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERDS AND PRINCIPALS
OF THE FLOCK, ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE.
When and where has God abolished his commandments and
laws namely the seventh day Sabbath as recorded in Exo.16:28 - 30? When,
and where did God ever sanctify the first, or any other day but the
seventh to be kept for a holy day of rest? Will God ever justify any
living soul for attempting to keep one of the six working days holy?
RECAPITULATION
1. Page 5. When was the Sabbath instituted? Here we
have endeavored to show when, and how it continued until its re-enactment
on Mount Sinai.
2. Page 11. Has the Sabbath been abolished since the
seventh day of creation? If so, when. and where is the proof? Here we
believe we have adduced incontestable proof from the Scriptures; from the
two separate codes of laws given, viz: the first on tables of stone,
called by God, prophets, Jesus, and his Apostle. 3. The commandments of
God. 2d code, the Book of Moses, as written from the mouth of God, the
book of ceremonies, combining ecclesiastical and civil law, which Paul
shows was nailed to the cross with all their Sabbaths as carnal
commandments, (the law of ceremonies,) because their feasts commenced and
ended with a Sabbath. See Lev.23
Please read from 20th page onward, how Jesus and the
Apostle make the distinction.
3. Page 31. Was the seventh day Sabbath ever changed?
If so, when, and for what reason? Here we find, by examining the proofs
set forth by those who favor and insist upon the change, that there is not
one passage of Scripture in the Bible to sustain it, but to the contrary,
that Jesus kept it and gave directions about it at the destruction of
Jerusalem. Paul also, and other Apostles taught how we were to keep the
commandments.
4. Page 45. The History which is uncontroverted.
5, The time when the Sabbath commences. See pages 35
and 36, not 31, as on page 46 The sun in the centre of the globe, at the
commencement of the sacred year (March or April) is the great regulator or
time-keeper for every living soul on this planet. Gen.1:14, Exo.12:2
6. Page 49 begins with the covenants. Here by tracing
them through the Bible we find them founded on the ten commandments. The
Sabbath of the Lord our God, the connecting link, or covenant within the
covenant; the first law ever given, annexed to the last promise ever made,
which if obeyed will save them that are alive when Jesus comes . . .*
Sabbath HOLY.
. . .* principals of the flock.
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* The original copy has been damaged. We are unable to
retrieve the remaining text.