Christ and the Sabbath

WHO CAN SAVE?

Consider now that we have before us two days; one is the sign of the power of God in creation and salvation; the other has been instituted by Christ’s rival, and has been taken up as a Sabbath, or a pretended Sabbath, by that power (the papacy) through which Satan has wrought for a longer time, and in a more marked manner, than in any other power in the earth’s history. One is a sign, or a mark, of the power of God; the other is a sign, or a mark, of the rival power. The question then comes, In whom shall we trust for salvation-in the power of God in Christ, or in a rival power? In whom shall we place our confidence for forgiveness of sins-in God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth, or in that rival power that would exalt itself against God? Who can save-the one of whose power for the creation anew in Christ Jesus the true Sabbath is the sign, or mark, or the one of whose pretended power the false Sabbath is the sign or mark? CAS 33.2

The Lord says: “Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.... And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Ezekiel 20:12, 20. But the Catholic Church says: “It is worth while to remember that this observance of the Sabbath, in which, after all, the only Protestant worship consists, not only has no foundation in the Bible, but it is a flagrant contradiction of its letter, which commands rest on the Sabbath, which is Saturday. It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this to the Sunday, in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the Catholic Church,”-“Plain Talk About the Protestantism of To-day,” p. 213. CAS 33.3

What does this mean?-It means this; and the whole question is now clearly before us. The true Sabbath is the sign of the power of God in Jesus Christ, however, wherever, whenever manifested. In the creation of the heaven and the earth, in the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt, in the re-creation of the individual,-that is, in conversion, which is but the deliverance of the individual from spiritual bondage,-the Sabbath is the sign of the true God, and of his power manifested through Jesus Christ. The Sunday is but a pretended Sabbath, a rival Sabbath, the sign of the rival power. CAS 34.1