George Burnside
WHY WAS IT NOT FOUND OUT BEFORE?
When we have clearly proved from the Bible that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and should be kept, Sunday-keepers say, "If this is so why was it not found out before?" And because pious and learned men have lived and died without keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, they claim that it cannot be right. The fallacy of this argument may be readily shown.
First, such reasoning judge the Bible by the opinions and actions of poor, fallible man. Instead of reading the Bible to learn what men ought to do. They inquire what men have done, to learn what the Bible should mean.
Secondly, this objection has always been urged against every reformation in religion. On this principle we must never learn anything which our fathers did not know.
God's truth is always progressive-new truths being brought out and old truths revived in different ages, as circumstances may require. To each generation God gives additional light, some truth that He has not given before. In many cases the people are brought back to doctrines which have been lost sight of for generations. So of the Sabbath. In the providence of God, the time has now come when light is being given, and a reformation is being wrought upon this subject.
It was foretold in prophecy that the Papacy would change God's Sabbath, and enforce that change for 1260 years. This is the reason it was not found out before. In Daniel 7 we have the prophecy of the four kingdoms. It is universally agreed that the last of these represents Rome, and that the blasphemous horn is a symbol of the Papacy. Verse 25 says, " 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 hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." How exactly have the popes fulfilled this prophecy? They have blasphemed God and slain His saints. But this power was also to think to change times and laws. Whose laws and times?
Those of the Most High; for it is against God that the beast makes war. Human laws are constantly changing, so it would be nothing remarkable that these should be changed. But that a man should think to change the law and times of God would be remarkable. Beyond doubt, then, the prophecy refers to God's law and God’s holy time.
Is there any precept in that law relating to time? Just one, and only one - the Sabbath command. The other commandments say nothing about time, while this relates to nothing else. Time is inseparably connected with this commandment, so that to change the commandment would be to change the time. The prophecy said the Papacy should think to change God's laws and times. But God's laws relate to no time except the weekly Sabbath. Hence we have here the most explicit prediction that the Papacy was to change the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
Has the pope changed the Sabbath? Yes, emphatically; the proof is abundant.
1. The law plainly says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath!” Exodus 20:8-11.
"Question - Which is the Sabbath day? Answer - Saturday is the Sabbath day.”
"Question - We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (AD 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday." - The Convent's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, page 50.
"Question - Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
Answer - Had she no such power she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree, with her-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day-a change for which there is no scriptural authority." - The Controversial Catechism or Protestantism Refuted, page 124, 125.
How could evidence be any clearer? The Papacy then, did change the Sabbath, according to the prophecy.
Now the prophecies just as clearly predict that this breach in the law of God will be repaired and the Sabbath restored in the last days. Thus in Daniel 7:25, before quoted, after stating that the Papacy would persecute the saints, and change times and laws, the prophet says, "And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time!” This period is just 1260 years. See any commentary. God's laws and times are to be given into his hand until this specified time. This is equivalent to saying that they will be taken out of his hand at the expiration of that time. So even here the restoration of the Sabbath at the end of the 1260 years is strongly implied.
In Revelation 12:14 is a prediction of the same period, during which the dragon persecutes the woman, the church, as stated in Daniel. When the time is expired, we find a remnant people keeping all the commandments of God. Thus "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Verse 17. This is after the close of the 1260 years, the period after which the law and Sabbath were to be taken out of the pope's hand, according to Daniel 7:25. What do we find here?
This certainly indicates that all these commandments had not been kept before this time, but that here a people will be raised up who will keep them. Notice that this observance of the commandments brings upon them hatred and persecution. This plainly shows that they are keeping some one of these commandments that is not generally kept; for people are not persecuted for doing what everybody else 'is doing. But those that keep the Sabbath are persecuted, as the prophecy foretells.
Now let us consider the law of God. Except the Sabbath commandment, people are agreed, in keeping all of the Ten Commandments. But let a man step out to keep the Sabbath commandment just as it reads "The seventh day is the Sabbath” and he immediately becomes peculiar, and brings upon himself hatred and persecution, as we see wherever the Sabbath question is agitated.
This is just what the prophecy foretold; and it is this day fulfilled before our eyes in the Sabbath reform.
Another striking prediction of this reformation concerning the law of God is found in Revelation 14:9-12. It is here stated that just preceding the second Advent of Christ to reap the harvest of the earth (verses 14-16), a message will be given, to bring out and prepare a people for that event. Of those thus brought out it says, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
Verse 12. "Here are they." Where? Just before Christ is seen coming in the clouds. Verse 14. The time, then, is the same as that of the remnant of Revelation 12 17 above considered. What is the peculiarity of this people? They keep the commandments of God. This, again, is just what was said of the remnant in Chapter 12:17. In the mind of God this must be an important fact, since it 'is repeated twice in so close connection. The expression, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God," implies that the custom of keeping the commandments of God is quite unusual at this time.
Then in the last days there will be a reformation in some way touching the commandments. It must be on the Sabbath; for all are agreed upon the other nine. But through the influence of the Papacy the Sabbath commandment has been ignorantly broken till of late. Now, however, just at the time mentioned in the Third Angel's Message (Revelation 14:9-12), thousands are turning to keep the Sabbath.
The movement is wide-spread and rapidly increasing. It embraces many countries and languages. The prophecy has become fact. Take heed how you reject it. Here, again, we have the reason why this truth was not found out before-it was reserved to be the last warning message to the world.
In the book of Ezekiel is another prophecy of the restoration of the Sabbath in the last days. First, the prophet speaks of the false teachers as neglecting to do God's work due in the last days. Chapter 13:411. He says that certain "gaps" were to be built up (verse 5); but they refuse to build. These gaps were to be made up, that the people of God might "stand in the battle in the day of the Lord."
Verse 5. All the scriptures located "the day of the Lord" at the Second Advent, when "the battle of that great day of God Almighty" is to transpire. Revelation 16:14. At that time the wrath of God will be poured out in the seven last plagues (Revelation 16), the last of which will be great hailstones from heaven. Verse 21. God's saints need a special preparation to stand then. Ezekiel refers to this and to the great hailstones which will fall, and says these "gaps" must be made up, that the people of God may stand at that time, but that these false teachers will not do it. They see "vanity and lying divination, saying. The Lord said; and the Lord bath not sent them." Verse 6. Also they cried, "Peace, and there was no peace." Verse 10. In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4, Paul locates this peace-and-safety cry just before the Second Advent.
All these points show the time of which Ezekiel speaks. He says, "One built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar." Verse 10. In Ezekiel 22, where the same subject is again brought up, we find that the gap is the breach made in the law of God by breaking down the Sabbath commandment. Read verses 25 to 30, and you will see that the same teachers are referred to, the "daubing with untempered mortar," the "seeing vanity and divining lies unto them saying, Thus said the Lord God, when the Lord has not spoken." He sought for a man to make up the hedge and "stand in the gap" and found none.
In verse 26 he throws aside the figure, and plainly says it is the law of God and the Sabbath which they are violating. "Her priests have violated My Law." Even the priests are breaking the law of God. Which precept? "And have profaned Mine holy things (His holy Sabbath); they have put no difference between the holy and profane (between the Sabbath and the. secular, working days); neither have they showed difference between the unclean, and the clean, and have hid their eyes from the Sabbaths." This is the trouble. They are violating God's law by hiding their eyes from the Sabbath, and refusing to prepare a people for the day of the Lord by building up the gap.
In Isaiah 58 the same work of building up "the gap" and repairing "the breach" by restoring the Sabbath, is foretold. The Lord first commands to cry aloud and show His people their sins. Verse 1. Among other things He says that they who do so "shall build the old waste places; thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." Verse 12. Some important reformation is here spoken of. Something that has been neglected for ages must now be restored. Those who do this work will repair "the breach;" the same as in Ezekiel. It is the Sabbath, as the very next verse, in which the conditions are stated, shows, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath." God's Sabbath is being trampled in the dust. Men have their feet upon it. They have had them there for "many generations." Now if they will take them off, they will be called the repairers of the breach.
This prophecy shows that after the Sabbath has been neglected and trodden under foot for "many generations," there will be a reformation upon that point, and the holy Sabbath will again be honored. This is just the work which Seventh-day Adventists are now doing. Will you have a part in it?
Isaiah 56 also predicts the restoration of the Sabbath in the last days. In verse 1 the Lord says, "My salvation is near to come." This must be a short time before the coming of Christ. Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5. At that time "blessed is the man that lays hold on it; that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it." Isaiah 56:2. You cannot lay hold of what you are already holding. But here a blessing is pronounced on all who will lay hold on the Sabbath and keep it all that time.
All the prophets, then, have foretold that in the last days there will be a work of reformation concerning the law of God and His holy Sabbath. The time has come and the work has commenced. Reader, do not reject the law of God; do not hide your eyes from His holy Sabbath.
It's Jewish
When we present God's holy law,
And arguments from Scripture draw,
Objectors say to pick a flaw,
It's Jewish!
Though at the first Jehovah blessed
And sanctified His day of rest,
The same belief is still expressed,
It's Jewish!
Though with creation this rest began,
And thence through all the Scriptures ran,
And Jesus said it was made for man,
It's Jewish
Though not with Jewish rites which passed
But with the moral law it was classed.
Which must exist while time shall last,
It's Jewish
If from the Bible we present
The Sabbath's meaning and intent,
This answers every argument
It's Jewish
Though the disciples, Luke and Paul,
Continue still this rest to call
The "Sabbath-day," this answers all-
It's Jewish
The Gospel Teacher's plain expression,
That sin is of the law transgression,
Seems not to make the least impression-
It's Jewish
They love the day of man's invention - Sunday.
But if Jehovah's rest we mention,
This puts an end to all contention
It's Jewish
Oh, you who thus God's day abuse
Simply because it was kept by Jews, the
Savior too, you must refuse
He's Jewish!
The Scriptures then, we may expect
For the same reason you'll reject;
For, if you'll stop to recollect
They're Jewish!
Thus the apostles, too, must fall:
For Andrew, Peter, James, and Paul,
Thomas, and Matthew, John and All.
were Jewish.
So, to your hapless state resign
Yourself in wretchedness to pine;
Salvation surely you'll decline-
It's Jewish!
John 4:22