[Sabbath Controversy #3] A Vindication of the Seventh-day Sabbath, and the Commandments of God

THE SABBATH CONTROVERSY

Once more I feel constrained to speak in vindication of the Sabbath of the Lord our God. I have been privileged to read about all the articles which have appeared in the BIBLE ADVOCATE, both for and against the Seventh day Sabbath, for about four months past; and occasionally a thrust and a challenge from the Advent Harbinger, declaring that the law of God was abolished more than eighteen hundred years ago, and that we have since that time been under grace. The most that I have feared in this controversy was, that it would not be continued long enough to bring out the whole truth, to the utter confusion and dismay of these professed Second Advent Sabbath breakers. One trait in their characters is now pretty clearly developed, that is - they are Sabbath haters! The law of God is nicknamed by them, the ‘Jewish Ritual,’ the ‘Jewish Sabbath,’ the ‘Sabbath of the old Jews,’ etc, etc., thus virtually showing up their characters in these perilous times, according to Paul, as covenant breakers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, denying the righteous law of God, and yet professing to believe the whole word of God. ‘As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses.’ so do some of these leading men resist the truth. ‘A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land, the prophets prophecy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof?’ Answer - ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’ I think it is becoming very evident that they are fulfilling Revelation 12:17, and 16:13, first clause. None others so likely to deceive as these, because of their position in the near coming of the Saviour. It amounts to almost an impossibility to get their definition of the Law and commandments. One class will tell you that the old and new testaments are the Word and Commandments of God. A second will tell you that the new testament contains all the commandments and teachings that are now required of us. I was informed of a company of professed advent believers, not thirty miles from this, having become so alarmed or tenacious, that they would not carry the old testament with them to meeting on the first day. There was nothing in it, however, that they feared but the commandment to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath. A third class will tell you that baptism, the Lord’s Supper, washing one another’s feet, holy greeting, and all the commands which are given, are commandments. Joseph Marsh, editor of the Advent Harbinger, says we are not under the law (of Moses) but under the law of grace, the new testament. Now the Apostle James has given us a test which will utterly confound all such unscriptural arguments, viz.: ‘Whosoever shall keep the whole law but shall fail with respect to one precept hath been guilty of all.’ — [Macknight’s trans.] Now to make it still plainer for us, he says, ‘For he who commanded do not commit adultery, hath commanded also, do not kill. Now if thou commit not adultery, but killest, thou hast become a transgressor of the law.’ Now I ask in all candor which of these five are right? You answer, James, the inspired one. Well, does he justify either of the other four? You answer no, for he had directed us to the tables of stone, the ten commandments in the law, recorded in Exodus 20:1-17 This is the true source. Is it doubted? Then here is the testimony of Jesus in Matthew 5:17-19 Now read the 21st and 27th verses - the very same ones James has quoted. See also the 33rd verse, the third precept. There are several others if required, but surely these two are clear. Certainly no one will doubt from the above testimony but what the ten commandments in the decalogue are all and the only ones that man is required to keep, with the exception of the new one in John 13:34, given for the church of Christ. But J. Marsh says, it is clear that all the ten commandments in the decalogue were abolished at the crucifixion of Christ. So says every one that takes this stand, and they quote for proof 2nd Col. 14-17 But it happens very unfortunately for them all that James saw his master crucified and his testimony is dated A.D. 60, about twenty-nine years beyond their point of time, and shows us that the commandments were as much enforced then and ever would be, as they were when his master was crucified twenty-nine years before. Now I say that this testimony pointedly and positively condemns them and will condemn them at the judgment. For proof of this I appeal to the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, what we must do to be saved, ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ But some will say James called it the law, therefore you must so expound it. I will let God and Jesus do that: God says positively that the keeping of the Seventh-day Sabbath is my commandment and my law. Exodus 16:28, 29 So he has in other places taught us respecting the whole decalogue, and so in like manner does Jesus. Read the same question and answer recorded in Luke 10:23-28: ‘WHAT SHALL I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?’ Jesus asks him what is written in the LAW. He repeats the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 22:36-40, or, in 37-39th verses. ‘And (Jesus) said unto him, thou hast answered RIGHT this do and THOU SHALT LIVE.’ Now, if you want it still clearer, read Matthew 5:17-19 Law and commandments are here too, synonymous: ‘Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least [laws] commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be in no esteem in the reign of heaven, but whosoever shall practice and teach them shall be highly esteemed in the reign of heaven.’ — [Campbell trans.] That he is speaking of the law of commandments in the decalogue is positive and clear from the 21st, 27th and 33rd verses. That he means the whole, is also clear from this and the above quotations in Matthew 22 and Luke 10 Now if the keeping of the commandments will secure us eternal life, and the violation of them render us of no esteem in the reign of heaven, how can those enter there who do not keep them, and especially such ones as Joseph Marsh and his adherents, who are teaching the world that there are no commandments, and are endeavoring to dissuade and discourage and reproach all of God’s honest children, who are striving to be highly esteemed in the reign of heaven. Does not the Saviour’s language as clearly apply to them now as it did when he was permanently establishing and confirming this covenant, the law and commandments of God, ‘putting them into our minds and writing them on our hearts,’ viz.: ‘Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your tradition? Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophecy of you saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips,’ Isaiah 29:13 [They are advocating his speedy coming to judge the world.] ‘but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’ Oh, but say some, we believe that the commandments are as valid now as they ever were. Why do you then constantly and perseveringly reject, scoff at, and sneeringly deride, and denounce, those that are as honest as you are, while they are endeavoring to keep the fourth commandment just as God has directed them? When you have been so repeatedly shown by their writings, drawn from the clear word that the fourth commandment is not abolished and never has undergone any change more than the other nine, and that there is no other weekly sabbath recorded or intimated in the old and new testaments. If you will follow such downright infidelity as is taught in all the second advent papers respecting God’s holy sabbath, and still continue to stigmatize the holy law of God, how can you expect to be treated otherwise than the rebellious house of Israel, and be made to feel in a very little while from this, all the horrors of a guilty conscience, urging you to do that which you now detest and abhor: even to come and bow at the feet of these very despised — as you are now disposed to term them — ‘door shutters,’ ‘mystery folks,’ ‘Judaizers,’ ‘feet washers,’ ‘deluded fanatics,’ etc. etc. See Isaiah 49:23, and 40:14; Revelation 3:9. Here your characters are delineated. You say no, these mean the nominal church. It is not so. They have rejected the message of the second advent. And you since that time (1844) have rejected the word of God. Our testimony will not be rejected when called for that you with us left them with all their creeds and confessions of faith and professed to take the whole word of God for our rule of faith and practice. This then is your clear position, even while opposing the commandments of God. If you ask why I speak in such positive terms about or concerning the commandments of God, allow me to cite you to our history, Revelation 14:12 Is not this positive proof? SC3 121.1

Also in 12:17 Do you not read your own characters as described above, on the remnant of the last end? and are not these individuals who enter the gates of the city the same remnant that are at last saved by keeping the commandments? 22:14 Does not the 15th verse describe those who are left out, ‘and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.’ How perfectly this compares with what I quoted above, Revelation 3:9 See also 1st John 2:4 ‘He that saith I know him and keep not his commandments is a LIAR and the truth is not in him.’ You will possibly say the three texts which I have quoted in Revelation 12, 14 and 22, have no reference to the Sabbath. When I come to treat on the 14. of Rev. I will look at this point. But allow me to state here, that the first three commandments in the decalogue have never been a subject of dispute (separately) in Christendom, while the fourth has been for fifteen hundred years. We know positively that this is true in our second advent experience. Therefore it is plain that by keeping the fourth commandment or the seventh-day Sabbath as it stands recorded, and in the very time too in our history, we are clearly fulfilling the prophecy, viz.: ‘Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ Allow me to state my conviction here with reference to the great mass of advent believers especially, that if they could quietly dispose of the seventh-day Sabbath and sink it with the Jewish rituals, then they would never raise their voice against the other nine commandments of God. This, then, is the evident reason why they are wielding their puny weapons to smite down the only foundation that upholds the old and new testament. It would be much easier work for them to stop the raging of the hurricane. God has them in derision, he will laugh them to scorn. But I must pass to the examination of this subject, as I intimated in the beginning. SC3 125.1