Refutation of Forty-Four So-Called Objections Against the Ancient Sabbath

A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF Hebrews 3:11-19 AND Hebrews 4:1-10

In Hebrews 3:11-19 and 4:1-10, Paul speaks, first, of the rest of the Israelites in the land of promise, and then of the true rest of which the rest in the land of Canaan was but a type. Joshua introduced those who believed in the rest in Canaan; but there were some who could not enter into that rest because of unbelief. Chap. 3:19. Joshua did not give the Israelites the true rest. If he had given them that rest, then would he not have spoken of another day. What day? Is it another Sabbath which was to take the place of the seventh day? Paul does not teach such a doctrine; but he declares that it is a day that God calls “to-day,” “saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Hebrews 3:7 and Psalm 95:7, 8. This day is therefore a period of grace and probation in which we should prepare to enter into the true rest. This day existed in the time of David; so that if it is a new Sabbath, this Sabbath was in existence ages before the opening of this dispensation! That which proves too much proves nothing. In this passage the seventh day is not put in contrast with the first day. It is mentioned to show that the works of God which were preparatory to the true rest that God designed to give his children in their state of innocency, “were finished from the foundation of the world.” Hebrews 4:3. “For we which have believed,” says Paul, “do [or shall, French Trans.] enter into that rest.” In Hebrews 4:11 we are exhorted to “labor to enter into that rest.” It is a rest into which we have not yet entered. Our opponents cannot therefore apply this rest to the first day; for they already keep that day. RFOS 73.1

Verse 10: “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” If this verse refers to Christ, as some affirm, then it simply shows that Christ has entered into the eternal rest, which the saints shall enter. But if, according to certain translations, it signifies that “he having entered his rest, will also himself rest from his works, like as God did from his own” (Emphatic Diaglott, etc.), then it refers to all those who shall finally enjoy the eternal rest that remains for the people of God, in which the holy Sabbath shall be observed in honor of the God of heaven. Isaiah 66:22, 23. RFOS 74.1