Our Day Part 22

They had thought that Christ was introducing novelties, preaching new things, contrary to established church custom and practice. He showed them that He really stood for the old and established things of G.o.d's Word, and that their own religious customs, however old, were really the novelties, without divine authority. He said,

"In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." And finally He added the words quoted above, "Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up."

Let the principles be applied to the question of Sabbath observance.

Sometimes in our day those who preach the word of G.o.d regarding the abiding holiness of the seventh-day Sabbath are accused of preaching new doctrines, contrary to the traditions and customs of the church. But really, the observance of Sunday, the first day, is the innovation; the seventh-day Sabbath is of ancient foundation.

Is the Seventh-day Sabbath a Plant of Our Heavenly Father's Planting?

Which of these two inst.i.tutions has our heavenly Father planted? It is possible to ascertain to a surety; for every plant of His planting, every doctrine of His truth, will be found rooted in the Holy Scriptures. 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.

The Old Testament Record

_From the Beginning._--When the Creator made the earth and man upon it, He made the seventh day of the weekly cycle His holy Sabbath.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.... And G.o.d blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which G.o.d created and made."

Gen. 2:1-3.

To sanctify is "to set apart," and so the day made holy and blessed by G.o.d was set apart for man. Then it was, as Jesus said, that "the Sabbath was made for man." Mark 2:27. Here the Sabbath inst.i.tution was planted at the beginning of the world.

_At the Exodus._--The people of Israel, in their bondage in Egypt, had fallen away from the knowledge of G.o.d and become corrupted by the idolatrous worship of Egypt, Hence, as the Lord called them out to be His people, He tested their loyalty to His law by observing how they regarded His holy Sabbath:

"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no."

Ex. 16:4.

So through the forty years the Lord sent the manna for them to gather on the six working days, withholding it on the Sabbath. (This scripture shows also that the Sabbath was a part of G.o.d's law before He spoke it from Sinai.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: h.o.r.eB, THE SACRED MOUNT

A modern view of the summit of Mt. Sinai.]

_At Sinai._--When the time came that the Lord would speak His holy law from heaven, the eternal foundation of His moral government, the Sabbath precept was enshrined in the heart of it:

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy G.o.d: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex.

20:8-11.

_Through Israel's History._--Sabbath keeping was the great mark of loyalty to G.o.d. When Israel fell into idolatry, they "observed times"

(see 2 Kings 21:6),--doubtless such heathen festivals to the sun G.o.d and other deities as were common among the idolatrous nations. These observances of other days meant Sabbath breaking. "Neither shall ye ...

observe times.... Ye shall keep My Sabbaths." Lev. 19:26-30. The Lord had promised concerning Jerusalem:

"If ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David,...

and this city shall remain forever." Jer. 17:24, 25.

The divine pleading was slighted, and Jerusalem's fall and the Babylonian captivity came as the result of the Israelites' disregard of G.o.d's holy day.

Thus throughout the inspired record of the Old Testament the seventh-day Sabbath appears as a plant of the heavenly Father's own planting.

The New Testament Record

_The Example and Teaching of Jesus._--It was Christ's "custom" to worship on the seventh day. Luke 4:16.

Jesus, who Himself made the Sabbath at creation (John 1:3), taught that it was "made for man,"--for the human race,--and declared, "The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2:27, 28. It is, therefore, "the Lord's day." Rev. 1:10.

He did on the Sabbath only that which was "lawful," or according to the law of G.o.d's holy day. Matt. 12:12.

He kept His Father's commandments throughout His earthly life. John 15:10.

And giving instruction regarding events to take place many years after His ascension, He showed that He recognized the continued existence of the Sabbath in the command, "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24:20.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHRIST HEALING THE MAN WITH A WITHERED HAND

"It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." Matt. 12:12.]

_Among New Testament Disciples._--The women, after the crucifixion, "rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:56.

Inspiration says that the apostle Paul's custom was to preach the gospel publicly Sabbath after Sabbath. Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:1, 2; 18:4. When the Gentiles of Antioch heard the gospel preached by the apostle one Sabbath, they "besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." Acts 13:42.

Throughout the New Testament, written years after Christ's ascension, the Holy Spirit, speaking of the seventh day, calls it "the Sabbath"

upwards of fifty times. "Sabbath" means rest; therefore when the Holy Spirit, in the Christian age, calls the seventh day the rest day, it must infallibly be the day of rest for Christians, the Christian Sabbath.

In the Levitical or sacrificial ordinances of the sanctuary services there were annual sabbaths and feasts, a.s.sociated with meats and drinks and ceremonial observances. But in appointing these the Lord specifically distinguished between them and the one and only weekly Sabbath, which was from the beginning. "These are the feasts of the Lord," He said, "beside the Sabbaths of the Lord." Lev. 23:37, 38.

The annual festivals and sabbaths, like all the ordinances of the Levitical service, were shadows of things to come, and found their fulfilment in the great sacrifice of Calvary. Col. 2:16, 17.

But the Sabbath of the Lord was made blessed and holy by G.o.d at the creation, before sin had entered the world, before any sacrificial or shadowy service was inst.i.tuted to point to a coming Redeemer. It is a fundamental and primary inst.i.tution, a part of the moral order of G.o.d's government for man, the same as the obligations set forth in each of the other commandments.

And Inspiration declares the eternal perpetuity of the blessed Sabbath day in the future home of the saved, when the prophet describes the felicity of the redeemed, as from month to month, and "from one Sabbath to another," all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord. Isa.

66:23.

Thus we find the seventh-day Sabbath a plant of the heavenly Father's planting, rooted deep in all Holy Scripture, and abiding eternally in the world to come.

Is the First-day Rest an Inst.i.tution of G.o.d's Planting?

In the beginning, the first day was employed by G.o.d in the work of creation. Gen. 1:1-5.

Throughout all the Old Testament history it was one of "the six working days." Eze. 46:1.

It was the day of Christ's resurrection; but Inspiration says specifically that "the Sabbath was past" when that "first day of the week" came. Mark 16:1, 2. Inspiration called this first day merely by the ordinary secular name in common business use, with never a suggestion of attaching any sacredness to the day. For some of the disciples it was a day of journeying, in which the risen Christ joined them. Luke 24:13-29. Later He appeared to the other disciples in Jerusalem, gathered not in meeting, but at supper in their common dwelling house. Mark 16:14.

The only religious meeting recorded as occurring on the first day of the week was that held at Troas. (See Acts 20:6-13.) The context shows that it was an evening meeting, after the Sabbath,--Sat.u.r.day night, as we would call it, for the Bible reckoning is from evening to evening. It was the last time the believers were ever to see the apostle's face, and as they lingered after the close of the Sabbath, he held an all-night farewell meeting, breaking bread with the believers, and leaving at daybreak Sunday morning for the eighteen- or twenty-mile journey afoot, across country to a.s.sos. And while he spent the first day traveling afoot, his companions were journeying by boat.

Conybeare and Howson (of the Church of England), in that standard work, "Life and Epistles of St. Paul," tell the plain fact of the inspired record, save that manifestly they should not have applied the t.i.tle "Jewish" to G.o.d's Sabbath; for it was not the Sabbath of the Jews, but "the Sabbath of the Lord thy G.o.d:"

"It was the evening which succeeded the Jewish Sabbath. On the Sunday morning the vessel was about to sail."--_Chapter 20, p.

520._

Describing the road between Troas and a.s.sos, they add: