BOTH SIDES on the SABBATH and LAW - Part 01

Both Sides on the Sabbath and Law

REVIEW OF T. M. PREBLE.

BY URIAH SMITH.

“He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbor cometh and searcheth him.” Proverbs 18:17.

REVIEW OF PREBLE

A NUMBER of articles have lately appeared in the World’s Crisis, from the pen of T. M. Preble, under the title of “The seventh-day Sabbath - The Law. The Old ‘Dead Schoolmaster!’ The Living Jesus.” It is well known that Eld. Preble first called the attention of Adventists to the Sabbath, by some essays in its favor, in 1845; and though he soon gave it up, others commenced its advocacy, and the work has moved steadily on until fourteen or fifteen thousand Seventh-day Adventists are now, in obedience to the command of the Lord by the prophet, Isaiah 58:13, calling “the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honorable.” It will interest such to learn by what means Eld. P. came to consider it a yoke of bondage which he was not able to bear. The subject is confessedly one of importance. The Sabbath is introduced to us on the opening page of revelation. It bears a prominent place in all the instructions which God has given his people in any age or dispensation, touching their duties to himself. It is an institution that he has ever claimed as peculiarly his own, committing it to man only as a heavenly keepsake, and a memorial of his great and glorious name. He is jealous of his praise and glory, and has declared that his honor is involved in the keeping of his Sabbath. Thus says the prophet: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13, 14. Aside from the gracious promise contained in this scripture for the faithful Sabbath-keeper, we learn that to refrain from our own ways, finding our own pleasure, or speaking our own words, on the Sabbath, was, anciently, at least, to honor the Most High. We should beware, therefore, how we hastily decide against this institution, lest haply we be found to fight against God; for no amount of honor bestowed upon the Son, no amount of professed reverence for the living Jesus, will compensate for the least dishonor offered to the great Jehovah, inasmuch as our Saviour has expressly declared that he and his Father are one. {BSSL 3.1}

We propose, therefore, to carefully and candidly consider Eld. Preble’s present position; and in doing this, we shall let him speak for himself, giving his entire article, simply dividing it into such portions as are convenient for reply. He enters upon his subject as follows: {BSSL 4.1}

“MY EXPERIENCE. TO THE SAINTS SCATTERED ABROAD, GREETING:- MY BRETHREN: I have once been an observer of the seventh-day Sabbath! This was from about the middle of the year 1844, to the middle of 1847; when, becoming convinced that I was wrong, I gave it up, and returned to the observance of the ‘first-day’ again. {BSSL 4.2}

“As I wrote and published some upon this subject, and a few of the ‘tracts’ are yet in being, Sabbatarians are making what use they can of them to advance their cause. Wishing to atone in part, or as far as I am able, for the evils I may have done in publishing so far as I did this error; and especially as many have solicited my reasons for the change of my views, and what scriptural grounds I have for my present position; I deem it my duty to publish still more; but now on the right side of the question.” {BSSL 4.3}

“Where it is deemed good policy, I learn that some are trying to make all the capital out of my old tract on the seventh-day Sabbath they can, and sometimes appear to place about as much confidence in reading it to their hearers, to establish the doctrine of Sabbatarians, as they do in reading from the Bible; and say that I am now a “backslider,” and “going to perdition,” because of my return to the observance of the “first day!” {BSSL 5.1}

“As I have several letters now on hand, soliciting my views on the Sabbath question, which I have been unable to answer of late, in consequence of sickness in my family, and other cares and labors: I deem it my duty to prepare an article for the paper, and if the Crisis will have the goodness to speak for me on this vexing or “bewitching” question, I hope it will prove to be a satisfactory answer to my friends; and others, who are interested in this subject, be benefited by it, in these last days of temptation and trial. Amen.” {BSSL 5.2}

REPLY. - The interest of others whose attention has been called to this subject, has not proved so transient as Eld. P.’ s, but on the other hand has deepened with their increasing experience and further light. The “evil,” if such it be, is increasing. The prospect before the Sabbath cause was never more encouraging, nor the halo of light that encompasses the subject more bright and glorious. The ball has been set in motion; and it bids fair to be even like the barley loaf that tumbled into the camp of the Midianites, laying prostrate their tents and leading on to perfect victory. To arrest this work will require more than his present effort. He will need to send forth publications which can cope with such works as the History of the Sabbath by J. N. Andrews, which not only has not been answered, but remains to be even attacked. We would not however counsel him to any such effort; for we sincerely regard him as laboring under a deception, and pursuing a course, in which if he continues, he will suffer loss in the day that cometh, which shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. He cannot plead like many who are now keeping the first-day, that he has never had the light on the subject, although it may be proper to add that the light that had come forth upon this question at the time he bade farewell to God’s great memorial, was not a tithe of what it is now. Still it is not without something of marvel that we behold a man turning away from a position on which the light gleamed however faintly, to one which could boast of nothing but total darkness. {BSSL 5.3}

He speaks of this “bewitching” question. If by this he would imply that people are ever bewitched into the keeping of the seventh instead of the first-day, we would suggest that he has applied the term to the wrong side of the question. Neither revelation nor experience furnish an instance of a person’s being bewitched into a practice that calls for increased sacrifice, self-denial, and separation from the world, which are more or less involved in the keeping of the Sabbath, while we do have instances of just the reverse. Paul reproved his Galatian converts for being bewitched that they should not obey the truth. The witchery always operates in behalf of a lower standard and an easier position; hence it would not be strange if Sunday, complacently arraying itself in the robe of popular favor, and popular practice, and pointing to a broad and easy way in which the multitude travel, should beguile the ease-loving and unstable. May God save his people from being dazzled with the tinsel and glitter of the false and the counterfeit. {BSSL 6.1}

But our friend has a confession to make to which we will now listen: {BSSL 7.1}

Preble. - “MY CONFESSION. - Here let me now confess, that if there is any one day mentioned in the Scriptures which is now more ‘holy’ than another, made so by the express or direct command of Almighty God, then the ‘seventh day’ is the one. And as I have often said, within the last fifteen years, to those who have questioned me on this subject, that if they would point out one single text to me in the New Testament that will show that the seventh day is now more ‘holy’ than another, and that it thus proves that Christians should observe it as ‘holy’ time, then I will observe with them the next seventh day; and will preach and practice after that, the observance of the ‘seventh-day Sabbath’, as in former years. But not a man of them has yet, neither can they show this. Many, both in public and in private, have been silenced in this way, and have never opened their mouth to me on the seventh-day Sabbath question, after this statement. This statement stands good against me yet, and if any Sabbatarians wish me to observe with them again the seventh day, let them just comply with the above request, and they will find me true to my word. This puts the laboring oar into their hands. Let them use it if they can.” {BSSL 7.2}

REPLY. - In the above, Eld. P. has indeed “witnessed a good confession,” in the admission that if any one day is now more holy than another, “the seventh day is the one.” No day can be holy except made so by the command of Almighty God; hence if the seventh day is not now holy, there is no holy time in this dispensation. Let the reader set this down as Waymark No.1. We shall have more or less occasion to refer to it as we proceed. The remainder of the paragraph is occupied with the stale and incessant clamor for testimony from the New Testament that the seventh day is now holy, or for a repetition of God’s command for its observance. {BSSL 7.3}

He adroitly endeavors to put the laboring oar into our hands. We beg leave, however, to decline said oar, and think we can show him that it is still in his charge. Prove to him, he says, that the seventh day is now holy, and he will observe it; to which we might respond, Prove to us that it is not holy, and we will immediately cease its observance. The commandment must be repeated in the New Testament before he can believe it to be binding. But we would ask him to give a moment’s serious thought to this one question. Why should the commandment be repeated in the New Testament, or why should we expect it? We know that the seventh day was once to be regarded as holy time by the express command of God; we know that its observance was once binding. Now it must be apparent to all that there is no need of re-asserting its holiness, or repeating the law for its observance, unless it can be shown to have been abolished. But if he asserts that it has been abolished, then we say, Let him prove it; for here we deny and he affirms. It is an established principle, and all logicians will sustain it, that all the presumption lies “in favor of the old opinion and established usage;” and any institution which is known to have been once firmly established, is presumed to be still in existence, unless it can be shown why and when it was to cease, or did cease, to exist. Again we say, if he would have us turn with him from the seventh day to the first day, let him show (and no man is better able to show) where the former has been done away. But when he has done this, the work is only half accomplished; for a law yet remains to be found enforcing the new institution. Thus a double burden of proof is found resting upon his shoulders; let him dispose of it if he can. When he will prove what we have shown to be incumbent on him to prove, we will join him in his present position, and again observe the first-day Sabbath as in former years. His objection goes upon the ground that all our duty is enjoined in the New Testament, which we will set down as Fallacy No.1, and shall consider it in another place. {BSSL 8.1}

Preble. - “WE SHOULD BE NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANS. For any one to start a subject founded upon the Old Testament Scriptures, and then try to make the New Testament conform to it, instead of taking their starting-point in the New, and then see that the Old is made to harmonize with this, that is putting a ‘yoke’ upon their own ‘necks,’ and upon the necks of others who are made to believe them, ‘which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.’ And as the apostle says to the Corinthians: {BSSL 9.1}

“‘But their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.’ 2 Corinthians 3:14-16. {BSSL 9.2}

“And I will repeat that at ‘this day,’ many ‘minds are blinded,’ because ‘the same veil’ remains ‘untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament;’ and it is a great pity that men will not turn their ‘hearts’ to the Lord Jesus; then ‘the veil shall be taken away,’ and thus be no longer ‘upon their hearts.’ But if men are determined to go it ‘BLIND,’ the ‘ditch’ must take them up.” {BSSL 9.3}

REPLY. - With the statement that we should be New-Testament Christians, we heartily sympathize. “The faith of Jesus” is by no means a small item of our belief. But do we fall from grace, or come under the curse, because we connect therewith that great rule of moral rectitude, the commandments of God? “The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” this same New Testament holds up together as the characteristics of the true people of God, just before the coming of Christ. Revelation 14:12. But must we, to be New-Testament Christians, reject the Old Testament? If the New Testament is a complete standard in itself, and the Old is only something which is to be “made to harmonize” with it, we might just as well cast it one side at once. But so far is this from being the case that we will lay down the proposition that there is not a single new principle of morality introduced in the New Testament, not one. They are all found in the Old, and from that are quoted into the New. Christ and his apostles appealed to the Old as their authority. By it they enforced the claims of their mission. By it they established the truths of the gospel. The Old Testament is the very foundation of the New. Without it the New never could have had an existence. Separate the New from the Old, and the New dies, as surely as a branch when detached from its parent stock. With every New-Testament writer, an appeal to the Old is an end of all controversy. Far be it from us to esteem or treat it any less lightly. It is a part of God’s infallible revelation of his will to man. It is the testimony of holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The words of the Lord in the Old as well as the New Testament, are pure words, and from Genesis to Revelation they are dear and precious unto us. {BSSL 10.1}

In regard to the vail that Paul told the Corinthians was upon the hearts of the children of Israel, 2 Corinthians 3, the testimony had reference to the ministration of the law, not to any moral principle whatever. Here he falls into Fallacy No.2. The law, and the ministration of the law, are two things. There is no sane man living that we know of, except the Jews, who believes that the former ministration is still in force. We have turned our hearts unto the Lord Jesus, and we behold him enjoining obedience to all his Father’s commandments, declaring that not one jot or tittle should pass from the law till all (not all the law, but all things Greek,) should be fulfilled. We find him throughout his whole ministry laboring to vindicate the Sabbath from Pharisaic abuse, defining what was lawful, or according to the Sabbath law, to be done on that day. We find him commending it to the peculiar affection of his disciples by styling himself its Lord. If we love the Lord of the Sabbath, we should also love his Sabbath. And finally, we behold him dying upon the cross, for our transgressions of the law, and not for ours only, but for those also under the former dispensation. Man had sinned; but the law that he had violated could not be set aside. He, or a substitute, must die. God could give up his only son to death, but he could not violate the integrity of his government, by abrogating or relaxing in the least degree, the claims of his holy law. And to him who reads revelation aright, no scene could more impressively set forth the immutability and perpetuity of the law of God, than the darkened heavens, the trembling earth, and the expiring agonies of the Lord Jesus, on the day of his crucifixion. “It is a pity that men” should take such derogatory views of our Saviour and his mission, as to suppose that he came down to do the unnecessary, yea, blasphemous, work of dying to abolish his Father’s law. {BSSL 11.1}

Preble. - “DIFFERENCE OF DAYS. I think it will be safe for us to take our position with the apostle Paul, as found in Romans 14:5, 6: {BSSL 12.1}

“‘One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully 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.’ {BSSL 12.2}

“If any one believes otherwise, let him be ‘fully persuaded in his own mind;’ and I, for myself, intend to be fully persuaded, or assured, as the margin reads, in my own mind; so, if any one thinks he ought to observe the seventh day for the Sabbath, I do not wish to have contention with him about it; for if he can regard the day ‘unto the Lord,’ let him do so; but as for myself, I do not now so regard it. I carried that ‘yoke’ as long as I think I could regard the day ‘unto the Lord.’ If others wish to esteem the seventh day above another, let them try it until they are satisfied, as I have been. I now regard the ‘first day’ ‘unto the Lord’” {BSSL 12.3}

REPLY. - This is plain; that is, there is no mistaking the position of the writer. It is that the observance of one day above another is a matter of complete indifference. It is no matter if we do, and it is no matter if we don’t. This comports well with his previous argument that there is no holy time in this dispensation, and we will set it down as Waymark No.2. {BSSL 12.4}

Before dismissing this point, however, we will just remark that it is fortunate for Eld. P. that he was not among the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. They were told to go out and gather manna every day. Exodus 16:4. Every day, Eld. P. would have reasoned, means of course every day; and hence we should have seen him with the disobedient ones, out of his tent upon the Sabbath day, searching for the manna. Would he have retired abashed and confounded before the withering rebuke of the Lord, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath.” {BSSL 12.5}

Here, then, we have the expression “every day,” and still the Sabbath is excepted, that expression referring only to the working days. Just so in Romans 14; for the apostle is there speaking of a class of days with which the Sabbath is in no wise connected. The chapter opens thus: “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye.” What faith? The faith of the gospel which Paul was laboring to establish; the change from the meats, drinks, carnal ordinances, and feast days of the Jewish ritual to the spiritual worship of the Lord Jesus. {BSSL 13.1}

That system had its distinctions of meats and drinks and its yearly sabbaths. It was connected together as a whole; and when the apostle, in remarking upon that system, speaks of days, he means the days connected therewith, and those only. So he says in verse 2, “For one believeth that he may eat all things; another who is weak eateth herbs.” And so also in reference to the same system, “one man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike.” And the observance of these things was a matter of indifference so long as they did not seek justification through them, and thus be led to reject the sacrifice of the Saviour. {BSSL 13.2}

But did God ever utter anything with his own voice concerning meats and drinks, in like manner as he spoke the Sabbath? Never. Did he write anything about them on the tables of stone where he engraved the commandment for the observance of his rest-day? Not a word. The Sabbath belongs to entirely another system, to which the 14th chapter of Romans makes no sort of reference whatever. {BSSL 13.3}

Preble. - “REASONS FOR MY GIVING UP THE SEVENTH DAY. During the whole period of the three years that I observed the seventh day as the Sabbath, no one was ever able, that I met with, to meet my arguments, and no argument adduced by others ever affected my mind in the least degree, until in a correspondence with Eld. Joseph Marsh in the ‘Voice of Truth,’ in answer to questions I proposed to him on this subject, he, among other things, proposed to me this question: ‘ARE THE GENTILES A TYPICAL PEOPLE?’ This question opened to me a new door of thought; and after full three weeks of careful review of this whole question, I became satisfied that I was wrong, and then I confessed my error. And from that day to this, not a shadow of a doubt has passed my mind in regard to my present position.” {BSSL 14.1}

REPLY. - The question as to whether or not the Gentiles are a typical people, is not difficult to answer. Of course they are not. But what of that! We should have been glad had Eld. P. led us through his “door of thought” that we also might have explored the hidden mysteries of the new apartment that was opened to him. As it is, we are left to make the following inference: The Gentiles are not a typical people, hence have nothing to do with types: the Sabbath is a type, hence they have nothing to do with that. The whole objection, then, resolves itself into this one assumption, that the Sabbath is a type. And is this his reason for “giving up the seventh day?” Was he so feebly grounded in his position that a paper sailing under the false title of the “Voice of Truth,” could, by merely making a suggestion based on this assumption, overthrow him? Was he so weak in the truth as to be unable to stand before this, one of the flimsiest objections against the Sabbath that ever issued from the realm of darkness? That the Sabbath is not a type, will be shown in its proper place. {BSSL 14.2}

Preble. - “THE SABBATH A “SIGN” UNTO THE “CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,” AND UNTO THEM ONLY. I know that Sabbatarians deny this, but I shall prove it, their denial to the contrary notwithstanding. Proof: {BSSL 15.1}

“‘Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 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: in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ Exodus 31:13-17. {BSSL 15.2}

“For the sake of brevity, and for emphasis or greater force, the reader will notice that I have taken the liberty to italicize a few words in my quotations from the Scriptures. I shall be pardoned in this, I trust. But still more proof: {BSSL 15.3}

“‘Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.’ Ezekiel 29:10-12. {BSSL 15.4}

“The passage just quoted from Ezekiel 31, proves positively that the Sabbath referred to is ‘the seventh-day’ Sabbath, ‘the Sabbath of rest,’ the one called ‘holy to the Lord:’ and yet the LORD JEHOVAH says, ‘IT is a SIGN between him and ‘the children of Israel.’ How long? ‘Throughout their generations.’ And let all God’s people say, Amen. How long did the generations of the children of Israel continue? See Matthew 1:1, 17. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. {BSSL 16.1}

“Let any one find the generations of the children of Israel to continue any longer than ‘until John,’ or until Christ, if they can. Let God be true, though ‘the seventh-day Sabbath’ perish!” {BSSL 16.2}

REPLY. - It is a characteristic of truth that it can always afford to be fair, and not unfrequently can concede the greater portion of the claims of its opponents, without compromising its position. And for our own part, we always like to get as near to an opponent as possible, agreeing with his positions as far as we can, and differing only where we are compelled to differ by the plain testimony of the case. We can thus make the reasons for that difference the more apparent. We shall not therefore deny that the Sabbath was a sign unto the children of Israel. We will take as literally as any of our opponents could wish, everything that the Bible says about the Sabbath’s being a sign between God and Israel, or, if they like it any better, between God and the Jews. But when Eld. P. adds, “and them only,” we would remind him that that is an interpolation of his own! the Bible says nothing of the kind. Take the very strongest testimony which declares that the Sabbath was given to Israel to be a sign between God and them, a sign throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant, etc., and even in that we find no evidence either expressed or implied, that the Sabbath could not be a sign between God and anybody else, at that time, or before, or since. {BSSL 16.3}

Here Eld. P. is guilty of Fallacy No.3, by assuming that a fact cannot have a general application, because it is only stated to be true in a particular instance. But as the opponents of the Sabbath uniformly try to make great capital out of this fact, that the Sabbath was a sign to the Hebrews, we will notice it more at length. {BSSL 17.1}

1. Why were Israel set apart as they were from all nations? It was not the Sabbath that set them apart, but God set them apart because all other nations had given themselves to idolatry. Finding the family of Abraham faithful, he took this means to preserve his truth, a knowledge of himself, and his worship in the earth. Thus they were made for a time the depositaries and guardians not of the Sabbath only, but of all divine truth. {BSSL 17.2}

2. As the most expressive sign that could exist between God and his people, he gave them his Sabbath. But what were the reasons on which that sign was based. Was it to signify their deliverance from Egypt? It was not. Was it based on any reason peculiarly Jewish? It was not. But it pointed back to the beginning for its origin; and the reason given for it was, because God in six days made heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh. The Sabbath, therefore, on the part of the people signified that they were worshipers of the true God; and on the part of God, it signified that he who sanctified them was the great Jehovah, the maker of heaven and earth. It was a sign, therefore, because God in six days made heaven and earth. Aside from this fact it could not have been a sign even to Israel; but in the great events of creation week, other nations have an equal interest with the Jews; and when a Gentile, in the former dispensation, joined himself to that people, did not the Sabbath become a sign to him just as much as to the Jews? No one will deny it. And when, finally, the middle wall of partition was broken down, and the Gentiles were taken in to be fellow-heirs with them of the promises of God, would it not be equally a sign to them? We see, then, that the Sabbath had nothing Jewish in its nature. It is God’s great memorial, and the only memorial of himself ever given to man. It is the great bulwark against atheism and idolatry. In view of these facts, it is no less than absurd to say that it was not designed for all nations, or not to be observed by all who owe allegiance to God. The Jews were for a while its only observers, just as they were the only observers of other of God’s commandments; because all other nations had apostatized from him. {BSSL 17.3}

3. But, it may be urged, the Sabbath is said to have been given to the Jews, hence it became Jewish, and limited to that people. Will the objector take the ground that whatever was given to the Jews, became Jewish, and was to cease with the existence of that people as a nation? This is the position he must take to make his objection against the Sabbath valid; but if he takes it, it will not take long to land him in the deepest bogs of atheism; for God gave himself to that people to the same extent, and even more emphatically than he did his Sabbath. He declared that he brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt to be their God. Leviticus 11:45. He styled himself the God of the Hebrews, and the God of Israel. Genesis 17:7, 8; Exodus 3:18; Isaiah 45:3. Did he thus become Jewish, and cease 1800 years ago? If such expressions as these could be found relative to the Sabbath; if we could read that God brought them up out of Egypt to give them the Sabbath; that he gave it to them to be their Sabbath, or find where it is called the Sabbath of the Hebrews, and the Sabbath of Israel, there would be more plausibility in the position of our opponents; but even then, their claim would not be proved; because God, who applies all these expressions to himself, is not the God of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also. Romans 3:29. {BSSL 18.1}

4. It is still objected that the giving of the Sabbath to Israel shows that it was not before known, but had its origin with that people. Too fast again; for the children of Israel had the Sabbath at least a month previous to coming to Sinai, where Nehemiah says it was made known to them. This expression can therefore only signify its more complete unfolding. A striking illustration of this point is found in Ezekiel 20:5, where God is said to have made himself known unto Israel in Egypt; yet they were not ignorant of the true God up to that time; for they had been his peculiar people since the days of Abraham. The language in both cases would rather imply the prior existence of the true God and of the Sabbath. This objection is again shown to be groundless by the Saviour’s language respecting circumcision: John 7:22: “Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;” yet God had enjoined that ordinance upon Abraham and his family four hundred years previous, and it had been retained by them. The conclusion is therefore apparent that if the declaration that Moses gave them circumcision does not show that it had its origin at that time, neither does the statement that God gave to Israel his Sabbath, prove that it originated with them. {BSSL 19.1}

5. But it was only to last through their generations. Who says that? Not the Bible, by any means. But how long a time is meant by their generations? Eld. P., by a peculiar process, attempts to cut it short at John or Christ, seemingly in doubt which. The testimony he quotes, however, to prove the length of “the generations of the children of Israel,” unfortunately for him only reads, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ!” Are Jesus Christ and the children of Israel synonymous terms! The only definition that can be given to the word generation as applied to the existence of a particular class of people or a nation, is, the regular succession of descendants, from father to son. To make good his position, therefore, that the generations of Israel ceased with Christ, he must show that not a single Jew has been born since the birth of Christ, but that through the agency of some stupendous miracle the vitality of the nation suddenly ceased, and the race expired with the generation then living! The generations of Israel have assuredly not yet ceased; and if the Sabbath is not now binding, it must be accounted for on other ground than this. But not to press this point, suppose we admit that the generations of the Jews, in a scriptural sense, did cease at the cross. What then? Would this contain anything to show that the Sabbath must then cease, or that it could not be a sign between God and any other people who should become his worshipers after that? Nothing at all; for it would still be true that the Sabbath was to them a sign throughout their generations, even though it continued to exist after their generations ceased. {BSSL 20.1}

6. The expression, “throughout your generations,” even allowing the generations to be literal, and to cease at the cross, does not of itself limit the existence of any institution or ordinance. Proof. Leviticus 3:17. It was a perpetual statute for Israel throughout their generations, to eat no blood: yet the same prohibition rested upon Noah, before Israel had an existence; Genesis 4:4; and after, as it is claimed, the generations of Israel ceased, the same prohibition was still obligatory upon the Gentiles. Acts 15:20. Can any man living show why it may not be exactly thus with the Sabbath? {BSSL 21.1}

7. But the Sabbath by being a sign became a shadow, and hence was to cease with the typical dispensation. And who says this? There is certainly no Bible statement for it. There is nothing in the meaning of the word sign, to show that it is a type or shadow. A sign is one thing, a type or shadow, is entirely another and a different thing. A sign is simply that by which a certain relation or state is signified; a type is that which foreshadows, or points forward to, something. Types always point forward, but the Sabbath as a sign between God and Israel, pointed back to the works of creation, and signified that the author of those works, the maker of heaven and earth, was their God. To still more utterly demolish this objection, we introduce the following from the History of the Sabbath, pp.56,57: “As a sign it [the Sabbath] did not thereby become a shadow and a ceremony; for the Lord of the Sabbath was himself a sign. ‘Behold I, and the children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth in mount Zion.’ Isaiah 8:18. In Hebrews 2:13, this language is referred to Christ. ‘And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary, his mother, Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.’ Luke 2:34. That the Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel, throughout their generations, that is, for the time they were his peculiar people, no more proves that it is now abolished, than the fact that Jesus is now a sign that is spoken against, proves that he will cease to exist when he shall no longer be such a sign.” {BSSL 21.2}

8. Do the scriptures that speak of the Sabbath as a sign between God and Israel, teach that it was made for Israel? Nothing of the kind. {BSSL 22.1}

9. Do they teach that it was made after Israel came out of Egypt? No intimation of any such thing. {BSSL 22.2}

10. Do they even seem to contradict those other scriptures which place the origin of the Sabbath at creation? Not at all. {BSSL 22.3}

Therefore, allowing the generations to be exclusively literal, and allowing that they ceased with Christ, we submit, that it does not in the least degree affect the origin of the Sabbath, or the perpetuity of that divine institution. And if an argument was ever produced, more thoroughly futile than this against the Sabbath, we should be happy to see it. For our own part, we rejoice that the Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel. We rejoice that God conferred upon it such a signal honor as to take it, in preference to any of his other commandments, to be the badge of his loyal people in the midst of a world of apostates and rebels. {BSSL 22.4}[TO BE CONTINUED]

NEXT: BOTH SIDES on the SABBATH and LAW - Part 02