QUESTIONS/ANSWERS ON THE SABBATH
QUESTION #261 -- My Roman
Catholic neighbor claims that
the Catholic Church changed the
Sabbath day from Saturday to
Sunday. Now if we broke away
from the Catholic Church in
other matters why do we not
break away on this and return to
keeping the day that Jesus kept?
ANSWER #261 In the first place,
the Roman Catholic Church did
not change the Sabbath day from
Saturday to Sunday. The Seventh
Day Adventists usually say that
Constantine, the Roman emperor
made the change. But neither is
this claim true. What
Constantine did was to issue a
decree which exempted the
soldiers from drill service on
Sunday, and far from marking the
beginning of the observance of
Sunday as the Christian Sabbath,
this was but an admission that
its observance was a well
established custom already. The
Christian Sabbath is as much
"the seventh day" as the old
Jewish Sabbath, for as informed
people know, the Jewish Sabbath
did not go in unbroken
succession throughout one year,
much less throughout long
periods of years. The subject is
too complicated for me to
discuss it here, but the Jews
followed the lunar or moon
calendar, and in order to make
their weeks correspond with the
solar or sun year, they added in
days between certain weeks at
certain seasons of the year, and
these days did not count in the
regular succession. That
resulted in the Sabbath coming
on various days of the week, and
in the course of time every day
of the week was observed, so
that Seventh Day Sabbath people
are more rigid and hidebound
than the ritualistic Jews, and
the Sabbath they keep today-I do
not know when they made their
start on calculation-may be any
day of the old Jewish week, and
there is no record that any
Sabbath at all was kept for
2,500 years after creation. So
that assuming they are in the
succession established by that
first week of days mentioned in
Genesis is utterly without
either proof or likelihood. And
what is more, in the calendar of
today the days do not agree with
what they were before the
calendar was corrected. Even
George Washington was not born
on February 22. He was born on
February 11. But when the
calendar was corrected eleven
days were lopped off, and
February 22 took the place of
what was February 11 in 1732, 50
we have gone on celebrating the
22nd which does now mark the
anniversary of Washington's
birth, but neither the day of
the month nor the days of the
week correspond. And more yet,
Seventh Day people around the
world do not keep the same day
right now. They cannot do it. At
the International Date Line in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean
there is a change in the days of
the week and month, and part of
the Seventh Day Sabbath people
in the world are keeping
Saturday, and the others are
keeping either Friday or Sunday,
counting by the calendar of the
other group. It is just all a
lot of nonsense and illustrates
how impossible it is to put the
wine of Christianity into the
worn-out bottles of Judaism. The
Jewish Sabbath was given to a
special people to be observed in
a special country -- Palestine
and its extension to the
Gentiles and to the whole face
of the earth is a fallacy and an
impossibility. The Christian
Sabbath, on the other hand,
belongs in the list with "the
new song," "the song of the
Lamb." It commemorates the
Lord's Resurrection, and has
been the "Lord's Day" with
Christians from the earliest
times of the present age. It is
the Church's principal occasion
for propagation and evangelism,
and is more significant than
either the Saturday Sabbath of
the Jews or the Friday Sabbath
of the Mohammedans. I suggest
that you send to the Nazarene
Publishing House for a copy of
Dr. Corlett's book on "The
Christian Sabbath." It is
inexpensive and yet convincing.
In the meantime, do not listen
to any who would spy out this
liberty we have in Christ and
get you to turn back again into
bondage.
* * *
QUESTION #262 -- What is meant
in the fourth chapter of Hebrews
where a day of rest is mentioned
so many times? Especially the
eighth verse seems almost to
indicate that we should keep
Saturday as a rest day.
ANSWER #262 -- This "rest" in
the book of Hebrews has no
fundamental reference to any
weekly rest day whatsoever, but
to a spiritual rest which is the
heritage of all God's people. It
is the rest of holiness, the
rest of soul experienced by
those who, after they were born
again, have been baptized with
the Holy Ghost and fire by means
of which they are cleansed from
all sin and filled with the
perfect love of God. This is the
rest that is essential and the
Sabbath that is satisfying. Let
us by all means "labor" (and
here you have the same idea as
that used in Joshua when it is
said the people "made haste to
pass over") to enter into this
rest.
* * *
QUESTION #263 -- Do you think it
is necessary for a person who
has been taught to say "Sabbath"
from his childhood to change to
saying, "Sunday," as seems to be
the general custom in our
church?
ANSWER #263 -- Sabbath and
Sunday are not really
interchangeable words, and if
you want to be really accurate
you will say Sabbath when you
refer to the religious
significance of the day and
Sunday when you refer to the day
in the ordinary sense. For
example I may say, "I will come
over to your house next Sunday
and we will attend the Sabbath
services at your church." But
here again is a distinction that
is not generally observed. But
if you have been taught to say
Sabbath and want to continue to
say it I believe you should
train yourself to make the
distinction more than is
expected of those who have grown
up to use the secular name. For
instance, in enumerating the
days of the week, say Sunday,
and in speaking of any thing,
like a birthday or the other
idea not connected with the
religious significance of the
day, say Sunday, otherwise you
are degrading the more
significant name.
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