IN DEFENSE OF THE FAITH
The
Truth About Seventh-day Adventists
A
REPLY TO CANRIGHT
by
William
H. Branson
7. THE NATURE OF THE SABBATH
COMMANDMENT
ONE Of Mr. Canright's
strong arguments against the Sabbath commandment is that it is not
entirely moral
in its nature, but
partly ceremonial, and was therefore of temporary obligation only. On
this point, after
becoming a Baptist, he
wrote:
That the Sabbath of
the Ten Commandments was partly moral and partly ceremonial, or
positive, in its
nature has been the
doctrine of the church as taught by its best theologians in all ages.
Seventh-day
Adventism Renounced, p.
166.
Adventists claim
that there was nothing ceremonial in the Ten Commandments or about the
Sabbath. But let us consider what a
ceremony is. Webster says: 'Ceremony. Outward rite, external form in
religion.' That
is exactly what the
observance of the Sabbath was in Jewish worship....
The observance of
the Sabbath on a particular day was a ceremonial service. Ibid., P.
171.
Now this further
objection is not difficult to answer. In fact, Mr. Canright, in one of
his former publications, The
Morality of the Sabbath, written while he was still a Seventh-day
Adventist, makes such a comprehensive and
convincing reply to this later quibble. of his that we will again grant
him the privilege of demolishing his own
argument.
At that time he wrote:
When the claims of
God's holy Sabbath are presented, and its observance is urged upon the
people, then
every effort is made by
its opponents to belittle it as an institution of small account. It is
said that the
Sabbath law is only a
ceremonial precept, given simply for man's convenience, and that its
observance or
nonobservance is a
matter of little importance. While it is admitted that all the other
precepts of the Ten
Commandments are moral
and their observance all-important, it is asserted that the fourth
commandment is
of a very different
nature, containing no test of moral character. The only importance
attached to it is that of
a day for physical rest
and religious gatherings.
While the Sabbath is
regarded in this light, of course men will not feel very particular
about observing it.
We propose, therefore,
to show that the nature and. design of God's Sabbath day is as much
higher than this
view of it as heaven is
higher than the earth. That it is not only a moral institution, but that
it is the most
important precept in
the whole Ten Commandments. In proof that the Sabbath is a moral
precept, we offer
the following facts:
Moral duties and
precepts are such as grow out of the attributes of God. Creative power
is the
distinguishing
attribute of the living God, and the Sabbath grew directly out of the
exercise of this attribute
in the creation of the
world.
I do not see how the
truthfulness of this proposition can he denied by any one. Why are we
morally bound
to serve God? - Because
He created us and all the blessings which we enjoy. None will deny that
this is the
basis of all our duties
to God. A little reflection will show that it is not much the wisdom, or
the justice, or
the holiness, or any
other attribute, of the Deity, as it is His act of creating which makes
it our moral duty to
obey Him. Not
withstanding God is infinitely wise, just, holy, etc., could we bring
ourselves into existence
and sustain ourselves
without His aid, we would be under no obligation to serve Him. This is
an important
fact which we wish the
reader to weigh carefully. It is, then, God's attribute of creative
power above all others, that is the
basis of all our moral duties to Him. He made us by His power as a
Creator, and by His power He can destroy
us; hence He has a perfect right to say what we shall, or shall not, do.
So Paul argues in Romans 9:20-23.
Now the very basis of
the Sabbath was God's act of creating the world in six days and resting
upon the seventh. 'Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that
in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [for this reason] the
Lord blessed the
Sabbath day, and
hallowed it.' Ex. 20:8-11; Gen. 2:1-3.
The foundation of
the Sabbatic precept, then, is the same as that of all other moral
precepts; and hence it
Must be moral.
The Sabbath, like
all other moral precepts, rests upon eternal and unalterable facts.
In creating the
world, God worked the first six days of the first week of time. He then
rested upon the
seventh day. That act
made it His rest day, or Sabbath day. Sabbath is a Hebrew word
signifying rest.
Hence, the Sabbath day
of the Lord signifies the rest day of the Lord. Therefore, when God had
rested upon
the seventh day, that
day had thus become distinguished from all the other days of the week as
God's rest,
or Sabbath, day. When a
man is born upon a certain day, that day becomes his birthday. No other
day in the
year is his birthday.
So the day upon which God rested, the seventh day, and no other, is
God's Sabbath
day.
These facts of
creation are just as true now as they were when the Sabbath was first
given, six thousand
years ago. Is it not as
true now as it was then that God did work the first six days of the
week? Certainly.
Then these are still
only working days, as the Lord has properly named them. 'Thus says the
Lord God, The
gate of the inner court
that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on
the Sabbath it
shall be opened.' Eze.
46:1. Is it not also just as true now as it was then that the seventh
day is God's
Sabbath day? Is it not
still the day upon which He rested, and, hence, His rest day? Can you
change your
birthday from the day
upon which you were born to one upon which you were not born? Of course
not.
Neither can the Lord's
rest day be changed from the day upon which He did rest to one upon
which He did not rest. Has the first
day of the week become the Sabbath (rest) day of the Lord? Impossible,
because no day can become God's
rest day till He has first rested upon that day. But God never did rest
upon any day except the seventh.
Hence, the Sabbath day of the Lord is unchangeably fixed to the seventh
day. This will
always remain a fixed
fact while the earth stands, which will be eternally. For this earth is
to be purified
and become the
everlasting abode of the righteous. Isa. 65:17-25; 2 Peter 3:7-13; Isa.
66:22,23. So long as
days shall, continue to
succeed each other, so long must the seventh day continue to be the
Creator's
Sabbath day. And so we
read in Isaiah 66:22,23: 'For as the new heavens and the new earth,
which I will
make, shall remain
before Me, says the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And
it shall come
to pass, that from one
new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh
come to
worship before Me, says
the Lord.' This evidence proves my proposition true, that the Sabbath is
founded
upon unchangeable and
eternal facts, the same as all moral precepts are. Here, also, it seems
to me that all
must admit the
truthfulness of this proposition.
The principle of
every moral precept existed before the fall, and would have existed if
man had never
fallen. This is true of
the Sabbath. But all ceremonial precepts were introduced after the fall,
to shadow
forth redemption. . . .
But the Sabbath was
given before man sinned, and hence was not a typical or ceremonial
institution. So
we find that the
Sabbath is a primary institution, all the reasons for which, like those
for every moral
precept, existed before
the fall. . . .
Every fact and
reason upon which the Sabbath was founded did exist before man fell in
Eden. Hence the
record in Genesis
2:1-3, which says that God made, blessed, and set apart the Sabbath day
in Eden, is true
and reasonable. Hence
it cannot be typical or ceremonial. Pages -11.
Thus Mr. Canright while
an Adventist shows conclusively that the Sabbath command is neither
typical nor
ceremonial, but is a
great moral precept. Yet he later declares it to have been ceremonial
and to have ended
at the cross with the
other ceremonies of Moses' law. But let him continue to argue against
himself. We still
quote from his former
publications:
Thus the Sabbath is
declared to be a divinely appointed memorial of God's great work of
creation. Its
importance cannot be
overestimated. God instituted it for a great moral purpose, namely, to
preserve in the
memory of men a
knowledge of His work of creation.
Had the human family
carefully observed this sacred memorial, they never would, have
forgotten the
living God and have
become atheists or the worshippers of false gods.
'Had all men
properly kept the Sabbath, all would have known Jehovah and worshiped
Him from the
creation of the world
to the present time, and idolatry never would have been practiced on the
earth. - Justin
Edwards.
The Sabbath,
therefore, does have for its object the greatest of all moral
principles, namely, the
preservation in the
earth of the knowledge of the true and living God, the Creator of the
earth. The reader
cannot fail to observe
that, if this be so, the farther we come from creation the more
important becomes the
careful observance of
the Sabbath. For during the first few generations, the facts of creation
might have
been handed down from
father to son without any memorial. But now, when all such traditional
knowledge
has been lost, and men
are becoming skeptical with regard to God's existence and the miraculous
work of
creation, how morally
important becomes the preservation of the ancient and divinely
instituted memorial
of creation, God's holy
rest day. -Ibid., pp. .14, 15.
The fact that God
Himself has associated the Sabbath with the moral precepts affords
conclusive proof
that it is a moral
institution.
'Fallen man has one
document which came directly from the living God Himself, and that is
the ten
commandments. God came
down personally upon Mt. Sinai amidst thunderings and lightnings and
most
terrible majesty, and
there, in the hearing of the whole nation, He spoke from heaven, with
His own voice,
His moral law of Ten
Commandments.
Webster, in defining
the moral law, says that it is 'summarily contained in the, Ten
Commandments.'
When God spoke this
law, His voice shook the earth. Heb. 12:26. With His own divine finger
He then
engraved it in
imperishable stone (Ex. 31:18); here again indicating that this law was
as imperishable and
as enduring as the
solid rock. It was then deposited in the ark, under the Shekinah in the
holy of holies. No
other part of the
Bible, no other law of God, was ever given in such a solemn manner. Why
was this? This
question our opponents
have never been able to answer. Nine Of these Ten Commandments are
universally
acknowledged to be
moral in their nature, and of perpetual and universal application,
applying through all
ages and to all
nations. Look at them. 1. You shall have no other gods. 2. You shall not
make and worship
an image. 3. You shall
not profane God's name. 5. Honor your parents. 6. Do not kill. 7. Do not
commit
adultery. 8. Do not
steal. 9. Do not bear false witness. 10. Do not covet.
Reader, are not
these commandments all moral, and as enduring as truth itself? There is
not a shadowy or
ceremonial precept in
the whole ten, except it be the Sabbath. Now, we ask the reader, If the
Sabbath was,
unlike the other nine
precepts, a mere ceremonial institution, why did God place it in the
moral law? Why
did He not put it where
it belonged, with those precepts which are confessedly only types and
shadows?
Shall we impugn God's
wisdom to sustain our theories? Would God mar an otherwise perfect moral
law?
God's own action gives
the lie to that baseless theory. It is a true saying that a man is known
by the
company he keeps. Now
look at the Sabbath. God, who knew its character, has placed it in the
midst of a
strictly moral
neighborhood. It has three perfectly moral neighbors on one side, and
six on the other. We
claim that this
important fact shows that the all wise God has put His stamp upon the
Sabbath as a moral
institution. What God
has joined together let no man put asunder. Ibid., pp. 36-38.
It is not a type.
Types were given after the fall to shadow forth redemption; but the
Sabbath points back to
creation, not forward
to redemption. (See Ex. 20:11.) Ibid., p. 43.
All admit 'that the
eighth commandment, 'Thou shall not steal,' is a moral commandment. Why?
- Because
it guards the right of
property. You shall not take and appropriate to your own use that which
belongs to
another. The Creator,
who is the author of everything, has divided time into weeks of seven
days each. All
these days were the
Lord's; but He, in His benevolence and goodness, has given six of them
to man to be
properly used in his
own necessary business, but the seventh day, God's rest day, He has
reserved to
Himself. The fourth
precept is given to guard this Sabbath day. It forbids our appropriating
to our own use
that which belongs to
another, viz., to God. The right of property then, is recognized in this
commandment
the same as in the
eighth commandment; and, hence, if one is moral the other is also for
the same reason.
'To illustrate: A
wealthy man has seven apple trees, all bearing fruit. He has a poor
neighbor living near
him. He takes him into
the orchard and tells him to use freely of the fruit of the first six
trees; but the
seventh one he forbids
him to touch, as that he has reserved for a special purpose to himself.
This would be
a very generous act on
the part of the rich man. Now how ungrateful and wicked it would be on
the part of
the poor man to use not
only the fruit from the six trees, but to take that of the seventh also.
It would be a
grossly immoral act.
Just so God has
given us six days which we can freely use in an honorable manner; but
the seventh day
belongs to God. Thus
the Lord says by the mouth of Isaiah: 'If thou turn away thy foot from
the Sabbath,
from doing thy pleasure
on My holy day,' etc. Chap. 58:13. Again, the Lord says, 'Verily My
Sabbaths you
shall keep.' Ex. 31:13.
And so the fourth commandment says, 'The seventh day is the Sabbath of
the Lord
thy God.' Ex. 20:10. It
is not our day, our time, nor our property. It belongs to God.
And the fourth
commandment is given to guard the Lord's right to this day. Another
prophet exclaims,
'Will a man rob God?
But you say, 'Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. You
are cursed
with a curse; for you
have robbed Me, even this whole nation.' Mal. 3:8, 9. God -had reserved
to Himself
one tenth of all their
increase. This belonged to Him. Thus He says, 'And all the tithe of the
land, whether
of the seed of the
land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's; it is holy unto the
Lord.' Lev. 27:30. But the
people had taken these
tithes which belonged to the Lord and had used them for their own
benefit. In doing
this they had 'robbed
God.' Then a man can rob the Lord.
If this was true in
the above case, with how much greater force can it be said that a man
robs God who
every week takes God's
holy day and appropriates it to his own worldly purposes! Verily, he is
guilty of
stealing. A little
reflection will show that the same motive which leads a man to steal
from his neighbor,
also leads him to break
the Sabbath. He covets his neighbor's property, that he may use it for
his own
selfish purposes; so he
takes it without his consent. So a man covets God's holy day, that he
may use it in
his own worldly
business or pleasure; hence he proceeds to appropriate that sacred time
to his own
purposes. A man who
knowingly appropriates God's Sabbath to his own use is robbing God, and
thus
violating the very
highest principle of morality. If it is wrong to rob our neighbor who is
our equal, how
much more wicked is it
to rob God our Creator? The same moral principle, then, is involved in
the Sabbath
precept that is in the
precept against theft; and therefore it is moral for the same reason.
Ibid., pp. 38-41.
The seventh-day
Sabbath was placed in the moral law. Ex. 20:1-17. No others were. This
is a stubborn
fact which our
opponents can never account for. If the Sabbath was a mere typical,
shadowy, or ceremonial
institution, as were
the festival days of the Jews, why did God Himself put it in the moral
law, and thus
associate it with moral
precepts? Why did He not place it with the other Jewish holy days if it
was like
them? Did God make a
mistake and place it where it did not belong? Our opponents, with their
view of the
Sabbath, certainly
never would have put it where God did, in the moral law. Here God has
marked an
important difference
between the Sabbath and all other sacred Rays. . . .
All other holy days
grew out of man's actions as a sinner, and they would never have existed
but for sin.
Here we have a marked
contrast which we wish the reader to distinctly notice. The Sabbath grew
out of the
action of a holy and
infinite God, but all festival days originated in some action of man
himself. (See a
complete list of these
days in Leviticus 23.)
All other holy days
originated this side of the fall, after types and shadows were
introduced. This marks
them as shadowy and
typical. But the Sabbath, as we have shown, was given in Eden before
types were
instituted. . . .
So many and so
marked differences between God's holy Sabbath and all other holy days
show that they
are of very different
natures, - the first was unchangeable, perpetual, and for all people;
but the second was
only ceremonial,
temporal, and for one nation. Ibid., pp. 59-61.
'From the foregoing we
see that the Sabbath is an institution of the greatest importance to man
physically,
mentally, morally, and
spiritually. It has been plainly shown that men absolutely need such a
day of rest
from physical or mental
labor. The man who does not obey this law of nature, sins against
himself, and will
inevitably suffer loss
in the end. The social benefits of the Sabbath in promoting friendly
intercourse, moral
culture, and refinement
of manners, are beyond all estimation even if only this life is
considered.
But it is in the
holy work of religion, in man's duties to his Creator, that the highest
importance of the
Sabbath is seen. It
sets apart a definite, regular, and oft-recurring day of rest from all
worldly employments,
upon which men can be
free to attend to the worship of God. No other law can compare in
importance with
the Sabbath in
preserving and promoting the knowledge and worship of the true God. We
have seen that it
is the sign which
distinguishes the true God from all false gods. It [the Sabbath] is the
memorial of the great
work of creation. It is
the seal to the moral law of Jehovah, without which that law would -be
of no
authority. This fact
alone elevates the Sabbath precept in importance above any other. We
have shown that
the Sabbath is a moral
precept in every sense of the term. Every argument against it falls with
equal weight
against one or more of
the other commandments of the moral law.
Upon the conclusion of
this argument Canright writes the following appeal:
DANGER OF WORLDLINESS
Our great and
constant danger is that we shall become 'choked with cares and riches
and pleasures of this
life' (Luke 8:14); and
so bear no fruit for the Lord. To obviate this, the Lord has interposed
the Sabbath
after six days of labor,
to break up the tide of worldliness and call man's attention back to
God. If it were
not for this provision,
the business of the world would absorb all man's attention, and God
would soon be
forgotten. Man needs a
constant reminder of his duty to God, an oft-recurring test of his own
spiritual
condition. For this
purpose, no other precept is like the Sabbath.
'We have before shown
that the principle involved in the violation of all the other
commandments is also
involved in the
violation of the Sabbath. A man covets his neighbor's property. This
leads him to steal it. So
a man covets God's time
for his own work; hence he proceeds to take it and use
it for himself, and he
thus robs God. A man who will knowingly and deliberately use God's holy
day for his
own worldly, selfish
purposes, would also steal if he could do it with the same impunity. If
a man will steal
from his Creator, will
he not from his fellow men? I know that men do not like to regard it in
this light, but
it is true,
notwithstanding. When we come to look at the claims and sacredness of
the Sabbath day in a
proper light, it must
be seen that it is no slight offense to disregard the Sabbath. I cannot
conceive how a
man could set at naught
God's authority in so defiant a manner as this.
Look at the facts a
moment. The omnipotent God, whose glory fills all heaven, whose hands
have made
the universe, has
created our earth, ourselves, and every blessing which we enjoy. To
commemorate this
great work, He has set
apart, as sacred to Himself, the Sabbath day. With a voice that shook
the earth, He
has forbidden us to use
this day in doing our own work. With a full knowledge of these facts
before him,
with the law of God
pointing out his duty, with the eyes of Jehovah upon him, a man arises
Sabbath
morning and
deliberately proceeds to use this holy time in his own business. How
must such an act appear
in the eyes of God? How
will it appear on the record in the judgment? What act could puny man
perform
which would more
deliberately set at naught the law and authority of the great Creator?
Reader, we beseech
you to stop and think
seriously of this matter, and consider whether the observance of the
Sabbath is not of
greater importance than
you have hitherto considered it. Ibid., pp. 89-91.
With all these facts
before us, we appeal to the reader's judgment and conscience to decide
whether or not
the Sabbath is of so
little importance as its opponents are wont to represent it. Is it not,
on the other hand,
the keystone of God's
great, moral law, without which the law would have no strength to stand?
Dear
reader, as you value
your soul and the favor of your Creator, do not pass by the light which
God in His
providence is now
causing to shine out so clearly upon the subject of His holy but
downtrodden Sabbath
day. May the Lord help
you to turn away your feet from the Sabbath, and call it 'a delight, the
holy of the
Lord, honorable. -
Ibid., P. 96.
What a pity that, after
seeing so clearly the light concerning the great moral obligation of the
Sabbath, Mr.
Canright should later
have gone so far into darkness, that he could no longer discern this
light. He referred
to the Sabbath as the
keystone of the great moral law, and then later, when he renounced
Seventh-day
Adventism, he proceeded
to try to remove this keystone and thus destroy the law in its entirety.
In 1898 D. L. Moody
published his little book Weighed and Wanting, devoted to a discussion
of the Ten
Commandments. In his
chapter on the fourth commandment, although he was not an observer of
the
seventh day, Mr. Moody
speaks of those who try to excuse themselves from the obligation to keep
the
Sabbath, as follows:
But some one says:
'Mr. Moody, what are you going to do? I have to work seven days a week
or starve.'
Then starve!
Wouldn't it be a grand thing to have a martyr in the nineteenth century?
'The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of
the church.' Some one says the seed is getting very low; it has been a
long time since
we have had any seed. I
would give something to erect a monument to such a martyr to his
fidelity to God's
law. I would go around
the world to attend his funeral.
We want today men
who will make up their minds to do what is right, and stand by it if the
heavens
tumble on their heads.
. . . Let men call you narrow and bigoted, but be man enough to stand by
God's law,
and you will have power
and blessing. That is the kind of Christianity we want just now in this
country.
Any man can go with the
crowd, but we want men who will go against the current.
Sabbath breaker, are
you ready to step into the scales - Pages 61, 62.
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