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... SUNDAY or SATURDAY? By Oswald J. Smith Toronto, Canada
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I N discussing this question, we can not use the Old Testament except for example and precept. Church doctrine is found only in the Scrip tures written after Pentecost. God commanded Israel to do many things that He never repeated to the church. Our sole authority therefore must be the New Testament, especially the Acts and the Epistles. We cannot ap ply the instructions given to the Jews to us. In the whole of the New Testament there is no command to keep the Sab bath. All the other commandments are repeated again and again, but the Sabbath commandment is not even mentioned. In enumerating the com mandments to the rich young ruler, Jesus never even referred to the Sab bath. Sabbath-breaking is never desig nated as a sin in the New Testament Scriptures. Jesus did not command His disciples to keep the Sabbath. In fact the Jews tried to kill Him because, according to their views, He himself had broken it (John 5:16-18). The Council at Jerusalem never even mentioned the Sabbath when telling Gentile converts what to do (Acts 15:19-29). The Epistles of Hebrews and James written to Israel make no reference whatever to the Sabbath. And Paul never hints at Sabbath keeping in any of his letters. Why then do the Seventh-Day Adventists insist upon keeping it? The word Sabbath occurs for the first time in Exodus 16:23. For 2000 years there was no reference to it. There is no record that the patriarchs ever heard o f it. In Nehemiah 9:13, 14 we have the statement, “ Thou . . . madest known unto them thy holy sabbath,” and in Ezekiel 20:12, “ I gave them my sabbaths.” Both of these announcements have to do with the days of Moses. In Genesis 2:1-3 it is stated that God rested on the seventh day, but that was not called the Sab bath. Let me state very emphatically that the Seventh-Day Adventists did not start keeping the Sabbath because of J A N U A R Y , 1 9 5 1
all ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ and abolished, namely, eating (1 Tim. 4:4-5), circumcision (1 Cor. 7:18), and Sabbath-keeping (Col. 2:16-17). We are even warned against Sabbath-keeping in the New Testa ment. “ Let no man judge you in re spect of the sabbath days” (Col. 2:16, 17). Why then do the Seventh-Day Adventists pass judgment on those who do not keep it ? Paul urges a com plete break with Judaism along these lines. In Galatians 4:10, 11, he says: “Ye observe days . . . I am afraid for you.” In any case we are not saved by keeping the law, either moral or cere monial, but by trusting Christ. Works are but the evidence of salvation. The Bible says absolutely nothing about Sunday observance being the mark of the Beast, as Seventh-Day Adventists claim. The Pope did not change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. The Council o f Laodicea merely confirmed that the Jewish Sab bath was not binding on Christians. Long before then the Church observed the first day. Saturday has always been the seventh day, and Exodus 20:10 states: “ But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Saturday is therefore the Jewish Sab bath. Sunday is not the Sabbath. Sun day is the Lord’s Day. The Sabbath day has never been changed. “Why then,” ask the Adventists, “ did Paul go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day?” Simply because he went where the people were. It was in the syna gogue they congregated and it was on the Sabbath, and it was there he could give them the gospel. We are not commanded to keep Sun day. We do so willingly. First, because it commemorates the resurrection of our Lord. Second, because God com mands us to meet together, and since the early Christians met on the first day we follow their example. (Heb. 10:25; Acts 20:7). Why did they not meet on the Sabbath? Third, because John worshiped on that day, and so do we. The Sabbath was only for rest. (Continued on Page 22) Page Nine
anything the Bible has to say about it. Do not let them deceive you. Their ar guments were not based on the Word of God. Even Mrs. Ellen White, their founder, did not believe that the IN M E M O R IA M — LOU IS S. B A U M A N Christian Warrior Loose the sandals, drop the shield, Sheathe the sword, the battlefield— Its glorious victories won— is past, The warrior is Home at lastl Past, the blood, the sweat, the tears, Past, the long march of the years. Taps have sounded, sinks the sun; Weariness and strife are done. Lay the dented armor down; Now the victor's palms, the crown! Happy warrior, you shall be With the King eternally! Martha Snell Nicholson Written on the occasion of the death of Dr. Louis S. Bauman, whose encouragement some twenty-five years ago,1led the writer to devote her life to the writing of poetry. fourth commandment was binding. Her observance of the Sabbath, as well as that of her followers, was based purely and wholly upon a sup posed revelation which she claimed. She speaks o f it as a vision in which she saw the fourth commandment en circled by a halo of light, and it was only after that experience that she taught that it must be observed. Think of building a doctrine on the vision of a woman! Sabbath observance was a cere monial law. Moral law is for everyone. All know right and wrong, even the heathen. But no one could possibly know which day to keep until God re vealed it. The same is true of tithing, circumcision, and eating. These cere monial laws show that the Israelites were set apart (sanctified) from all other nations (Ex. 31:12, 13). Now
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