Is Sunday the True Sabbath of God?
IV
It will no doubt be of interest to the reader to know how Mr. Gamble makes Sunday to be the seventh day in his book. STSG 45.3
He does it by having first: the first year of Israel after the leaving of Egypt to begin on the Sabbath (Saturday); and, by this, having the Passover also to fall on Sabbath. STSG 45.4
Next: since he will have Pentecost to be the morrow after the weekly Sabbath, this gives him Sunday, Sivan 5, as Pentecost. STSG 45.5
Next: he says that Pentecost was kept by Israel as commemorative of the giving the law, the ten commandments, at Sinai. STSG 45.6
By this, he has the ten commandments spoken from heaven on Sunday. STSG 45.7
Next: he will have it, that by the commandment there must be six days of work before there could be a Sabbath. STSG 45.8
Next: since he has the ten commandments spoken from Sinai on Sunday, this and the events which accompanied the giving of the law that day, he makes to occupy all the day, so that “they did not work on that Sunday.” Thereby he makes that Sunday to have been “not one of the six work days;” but “the Sabbath that preceded the six work days.” STSG 45.9
Finally, and of course, “take the chart,” with that ever-convenient and serviceable slide, “and count the six work days, commencing with Monday, Sivan 6 the seventh day will be Sunday, Sivan 12.” STSG 46.1
And that is how he makes Sunday to be the seventh day, the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and the creation seventh-day Sabbath, in his book. And that is how it is “a mathematical demonstration”—“or nothing.” STSG 46.2
Then he bolsters it up, by the following contrivance:— STSG 46.3
“Since in the minds of so many people Sunday has come to be regarded as the ‘first day of the week,’ and if it be the first, no man can prove that it is the seventh day.... In conclusion, let me say, Adam was created near the close of God’s sixth day. After being shown what God had made, he was put to sleep, and while he slept, that Saturday night, God took a rib and made Eve.” STSG 46.4
It will be seen that this rests for its point upon what he has already said in his making God give the ten commandments on Sunday, and then counting that as a day of no work, and then from that, making that day to be the seventh day of the commandment, in which “thou shalt not do any work.” For it will be noticed that in the quotation just now made, he by a sleight-of-hand slips in Saturday as the sixth day for he says, “Adam was created near the close of the sixth day,” and then was “put to sleep;” and that “while he slept that Saturday night,” etc. And so, having thus deftly insinuated Saturday as the sixth day, of creation week, he proceeds as follows:— STSG 46.5
“The first day Eve ever saw was God’s seventh day, and the first whole day Adam ever saw was a Sabbath. Sunday morning God performed a religious ceremony. He married Adam and Eve, and established the home. Then God rested. Time began with man, then, on the Sabbath day.” (The italics are his.) STSG 47.1
And of course, since the first day that Eve ever saw he makes to have been God’s seventh day; and the first whole day that Adam ever saw he makes to have been a Sabbath; and since he has made that day to have been Sunday; therefore by all this Gambleing contrivance he makes Sunday the first day, seventh day, Sabbath. STSG 47.2
And that is how Mr. Gamble accomplishes the feat of making Sunday the seventh day. And by the same Gambleing contrivance he could just as easily make Monday or any other day the seventh day, or any other day. And that is how his argument is “a mathematical demonstration”—“or nothing.” STSG 47.3