The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: The Sabbath Penetrates the Western World

I. Continental European Agitation Transferred to America

A similar revival of the seventh-day Sabbath observance occurred in Germany and Holland in the seventeenth century. Certain Pietistic groups sought to foster a more vital religious experience, with serious controversies arising as a result. One of these groups was known as the German Baptists, or Dunkers. Persecution drove many, like the Mennonites and Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren, to seek refuge in America. Some settled in Pennsylvania, near Germantown. Another group located at Ephrata, near Lancaster, where the seventh-day Sabbath began to be observed. Conrad Beissel and Michael Wohlfarth issued books in 1728 and 1729, on the principles at stake in the seventh-day Sabbath observance. The Beissel title reads, The Mystery of Lawlessness: or Lawless Antichrist Discover’d and Disclos’d Shewing that ALL those do belong to that Lawless Antichrist, who wilfully reject the Commandments of GOD, amongst which, is his holy, and by himself bless’d Seventh-day-Sabbath., or his holy Rest, of which the same is a Type. PFF4 918.1

Wohlfarth likewise published his own account of the certainty of the Sabbath, The Lord’s Seventh Day, in both German and English, entitled The Naked Truth, Standing against all Painted and Disguised Lies, Deceit and Falsehood, or the Lord’s Seventh-day-Sabbath Standing as a Mountain Immovable Forever. PFF4 918.2

Picture 1: TWO 1729 SABBATH TREATISES PRINTED IN PHILADELPHIA
(Left) English translation of conrad Beissel’s unique mystery of lawlessness, First printed in German; and (right) translator Michael Wohlfarth’s the naked truth, Issued at the same time. One was printed on benjamin franklin’s press
Page 919

A spectacular pilgrimage to Philadelphia, in 1735, was climaxed by the solemn proclamation of the seventh-day Sabbath from the steps of the city courthouse. Similar pilgrimages followed to New Jersey in 1738 and New England in 1744. PFF4 919.1

As noted, the Old World Sabbatarian writers had uniformly charged the Papacy with presumptuous responsibility for the attempted change of the Sabbath, as predicted in Daniel 7:25, which Little Horn power was considered to be the same as the Beast and the Babylon of the Apocalypse. Such audacious tampering, they declared, must be repudiated. So taught Tillam (1651), Sailer (1657), Chamberlen (1682), Bampfield (1792), and others in the Old World-their positions thus tallying with these independent writers in the New. So eighteenth-century Sabbath agitation and Sabbath observance in North America were tied inseparably to Bible prophecy, and the substitution of Sunday was declared to be but a human act, without divine authorization and therefore invalid. Hence they maintained that the seventh day was still the Christian Sabbath, binding upon all men. PFF4 919.2

This was true of Samuel Beebee (1722), English Seventh Day Baptist of Long Island, who published the earliest controversial work in America on the Sabbath. He too placed the issue squarely on the prophetic basis, borne out by the historical fulfillment. Here is his contention: PFF4 920.1

“Daniel also prophesied of this change, in his seventh chapter where he is speaking of the fourth Beast; supposed to be the Roman Empire, and ten kings, the powers thereof; and another shall Rise after them, diverse from the rest; which I take to be the Roman Power (called Christian, which is the Woman, the false Church, the Mother of Harlots Rode upon, Revelation 17:3) and he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the Saints of the Most High and think to CHANGE TIMES and LAWS: and they shall be given into his hands, etc. PFF4 920.2

“And now we see those Prophecies fulfilled, to wit, that the false Church, the Mother of Harlots, who Ruled over the Roman Power; and in Conjunction with it, TRANSGRESSED THE LAWS OF GOD. CHANGED THE TIME, AND ORDINANCES OF GOD’S SABBATH, and thereby broke the Everlasting Covenant; which was begun by Constantine’s Edict, in the 4th Cent, which was the first Law that ever the First Day of the Week had for its celebration and was afterwards Confirmed by succeeding Emperors.” ¹ PFF4 920.3

And this Sabbath revival, spreading in ever-widening circles, appears in the early nineteenth century in new sections of the New World as well as the Old. We shall next note a South American patriot, and then a Scottish advocate of the seventh-day Sabbath. Such developments form the background and throw clarifying light on the Sabbath emphasis of the slowly developing Sabbatarian Adventists. PFF4 920.4