XXXIX - 4(06)

“Watchman,

what of the night?”

"The hour has come, the hour is striking and striking at you,
the hour and the end!"          Eze. 7:6 (Moffatt)

The Sabbath

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Dr. E.T. Hiscox Concluded

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T. Enright, CSSR

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The Catholic World

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Editor's Preface

Each issue of WWN is posted in two mailings: In the United States it goes as a "bulk mail," while outside of the United States, it is sent as a periodical and placed in an envelope. This makes an extra page (8) for the periodical mailing. Besides the required postal information for periodical mailing, we sometimes place additional data for our readers. In this issue, we entered a quote from Wm. H. Mason, which is very apropos for an issue on the Sabbath. He wrote —"The Sabbath is a time when the spent spirit may catch its breath, and man may look into the face of God and be refreshed."

Also in this issue are other items of interest, including paragraphs from a documented paper read at a Baptist minister's meeting held in Saratoga, New York. Then, we noted the saga of T. Enright of the Redemptorist Fathers of the Roman Church and his $1,000 reward to anyone who could find a Bible text authorizing the keeping of the first day of the week. We closed this issue with two paragraphs from The Catholic World published in 1894, regarding Balder, sun-god of the ancient Scandinavians. If you would wish a copy of any (indicate which) or all of these above references, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to P. O. Box 69, Ozone, Arkansas, 72854. We will respond to your request. For those living in Canada or Australia, send your request to the respective office address. (This service is no longer available.)

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The Sabbath

Six days of creation were about to close. Adam had completed naming the created kinds, but for him had been found no "helpmeet" (Gen. 2:19-20). Sleep overtook him, and when he awakened there stood before him Eve, in all her beauty. They closed the first day of their lives together; for Adam most of the day, for Eve but a few hours. Their second day was spent in communion with the Lord God. It was God who "rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." It was God who "blessed the seventh day and sanctified it" (Gen. 2:3). It was the day that He made holy, that He consecrated, and gave to man (Mark 2:27-28).

For our first parents, their first Sabbath was not the seventh-day of their lives, but the second. The seventh-day Sabbath is God's Sabbath, not man's Sabbath. As stated in the Law given by God Himself, "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord [Jehovah] thy God" (Ex. 20:10). It, along with the "breath of life" (Gen. 2:7), were God's creation gifts to man.

We are not told how long Adam and Eve worshiped in the bliss of Eden with God from week to week. A change occurred after sin entered, not a change of day but a change of ritual and meaning. "In the process of time" - "at the end of the days" (Heb., margin) - Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof" (Gen. 4:3-4). One gift represented what produced the incident of sin, along with the products of the cursed ground; the other gift came to represent the means devised for man's redemption - the blood of the lamb (margin. V. 4). To Abel and to his offering God had respect. Cain's countenance fell in his wrath. The Lord told him that if he did well, he would be accepted (4:7). They both worshiped on the same day, but Jesus declared that the true worshiper must "worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23).

The next mention of the Sabbath in Scripture does not occur again until centuries had passed, and the world that then was had become the world that now is, and sacred history paralleled secular history. Genesis chapters 1-6 record in brief the world that then was; chapters 7-8 the transition to the world that now is. Chapter 11 introduces what was the beginning of the kingdoms of this world, "in the land of Shinar;" while chapter 12 introduces God's plan by which "all families of the earth" shall "be blessed." Between these two forces, is the "conflict of the ages" that does not cease until "great Babylon" comes "in remembrance before God" (Rev. 16:19).

In God's covenant with Abraham are to be found not only the elements of righteousness by faith - Abraham "believed in the Lord" and it was "counted to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:6), but also a prophecy was given concerning the servitude of his seed "in a land that was not theirs" (15:13). During this servitude, the Sabbath was introduced and became a point of contention. In an exchange between Moses and Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler accused Moses of making the children of Israel "rest" from their burdens (Ex. 5:5). It could be translated - "to keep sabbath." One of the first lessons God taught the children of Israel when liberated from Egypt was which day was the Sabbath. Manna was given daily; a double portion was

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provided on the sixth day; and none on the seventh day. The text reads –

See, for that the Lord hath given you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day (Ex. 16:29-3o).

Having clearly established which day was which in the giving of the manna, the Lord then proclaimed from Sinai -"The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God" (Ex. 20:10). The reason is clearly given:

"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it" (20:11).

Prior to the crossing of the Jordan into the Land Canaan, Moses reviewed the covenant God made with the children of Israel at Horeb. He stated:

The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone (Deut. 4:12-13).

In reciting these ten commandments, Moses called their attention to another "remember." Not only were they to "remember" the Sabbath day per se, but they were to remember their servitude in and their deliverance from Egypt. The Mosaic version reads:

Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord brought thee out thence through a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day (Deut. 5:15).

It is at this point many stumble and fall. God has never altered from the giving of the Sabbath to man. He is the Creator! Neither has He altered in giving the Sabbath to His chosen people. He is their Deliverer and Redeemer! Through Abraham "all families of earth" were to be blessed (Gen. 12:3). The key connection is emphatically stated by Paul as he set forth the gospel given him "by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:12) - if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (3:29).

To the Romans, Paul stated it another way - who a genuine "Jew" really is:

He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and the circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God" (Rom. 2:28-29).

Again, in the same letter he wrote:

They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed (Rom. 9:6-8).

To the Ephesians, Paul would write that they were at one time "without Christ" but became "fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;" and "were built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone" (2:19-20).

By the flesh, we all have a blood line, be it French, German, Russian, Spanish, whatever. In the Spirit, we also have a blood line, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that blood line makes us a "spiritual Israel," even the seed of Abraham. This places the question of the Sabbath in a different perspective than it is usually perceived. The central point that needs to be kept in focus is the fact that Paul declared the Gospel he proclaimed was not from man but by direct revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:12); and that whoever preached a different gospel, be it even "an angel

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from heaven" let him be "accursed" (1:8-9). We need to ponder long the force of what Paul wrote - "If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed." With this, we need to include Peter's declaration that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12), save the name of Christ. We need to ever remember that we do not keep God's holy day to be saved, but because we have been saved by the blood of Calvary, and as Abraham's seed we have been given in trust "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" (Rom. 9:4).

In the sacred history of the Old Testament, the Sabbath is interrelated with the other feasts given to the children of Israel. These, the Passover, Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, are stated to be "beside the Sabbaths of the Lord." The Sabbath was distinct; it was and is the Sabbath of the Lord (Lev. 23:3-4, 37-38). One of the marks of difference between the feasts and the Sabbaths, except for the Day of Atonement, was the work permitted. On the feast days, no "servile work" was to be done" (Lev. 23:7, 8, 21, 25, 35, 36); while on the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement, "no work" was permitted (Lev. 23:3, 28).

In the Old Testament from Moses to Christ little reference is found regarding the Sabbath. A rich blessing is promised to those who keep the day holy by refraining from their "pleasure" and "call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor Him not doing (their) own ways, nor finding (their) own pleasure, nor speaking (their) own words" (Isa. 58:13-14). On the other hand, there were those who considered the Sabbath a burden, and who anxiously looked forward to its closing so they could renew their cheating in business transactions. The prophet Amos cried out against this hypocrisy in the days Uzziah, king of Judah (Amos 8:5-7).

Following the captivity in Babylon, Nehemiah notes that much merchandising was done on the streets of Jerusalem on the Sabbath by the Jews who had returned as well as merchants from Tyre. Nehemiah rebuked severely the nobles of Judah for profaning the Sabbath, and in so doing revealed that this had been one of the sins which provoked the captivity (13:15-22).

The book of Isaiah closes with a prophecy regarding worship in the new heavens and new earth. It reads:

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith 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, saith the Lord (Isa. 66:22-23).

In the hymn book of Israel - the Psalms - there is a verse which is pulled out of context but which is used nevertheless as supporting worship and religious services on Sunday as the "Lord's day." The first time I was confronted by this use of Ps. 118:24, was in a challenge to debate by a Church of Christ minister when I was engaged in public evangelism in the South. Imagine my surprise when I was noting what the new Catholic Catechism had to say about the Sabbath commandment to discover that this verse - "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" - was used to preface the section on "The Lord's Day" (p. 524).

While the verse in context does not justify such a conclusion, it is of interest to note that the day is governed by nature, even as the month and the year, but not so the week. It was deliberately

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set by God and He made the seventh day, His Sabbath. So if the meaning of this verse in Psalms concerns a day which He has made, it is the Sabbath, the day on which we are to enter "the gates of righteousness" for praise unto our God who is our "salvation" (Ps. 118: 19-21).

As we open the New Testament, Luke, as he begins his record of Jesus' ministry, notes Jesus coming to Nazareth "where He had been brought up: and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day," and took part in the worship service (Luke 4:16).

It was not which day that was an issue of discussion in the gospels in regard to the Sabbath. That was clearly understood. Luke states that the day following the crucifixion was "the Sabbath day according to the commandment" (23:56). The confrontation was over how the Sabbath was to be observed. Jesus pronounced forthrightly - "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days" (Matt. 12:12). He Himself operated according to this dictum even to the extent of restoring sight to one who had been born blind (John 9:1, 14).

There is a principle of law set forth in the book of Hebrews which needs to be considered. Paul contended that if the blood of bulls and goats sanctified to the purifying of the flesh under the old covenant, "much more shall the blood of Christ ... purge (the) conscience from dead works to serve the living God. For this cause He is a mediator of the new testament"(Heb. 9:14-15). The principle is then stated:

Where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth (Heb. 9:16-17).

To put it plainly, yet simply: If there were to be any changes as far as the Sabbath was concerned under the new testament, those changes would have had to have been made and stated prior to Christ's final cry from the cross - "It is finished." In the Scriptures, there is no record of any such change. Thus, as proclaimed from Mt. Sinai, the Ten Commandments stand as originally given.

The book of Acts contains, for the most part, the missionary activities of the Apostle Paul. His approach, when entering a new city was to go to the local synagogue, and as opportunity opened, to speak to the Jews of the Diaspora who assembled there, concerning Jesus the Christ. See 17:2; 18:4. Even when no synagogue existed, he sought the place where prayer was made on the Sabbath and spoke to the group who gathered there. See 16:12‑13. He instituted no new day of worship.

In the New Testament the first day of the week is mentioned in connection with the resurrection of Jesus (Luke 24:1-3); but no instruction for nor suggestion of worship on that day is given. The one lone gathering recorded on that day was because "the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews" (John 20:19).

The theology for the New Testament seventh day Sabbath as expressed in the book of Hebrews connects the Sabbath rest with the "rest" which Jesus promised to give to all who come unto Him (Matt. 11:28:30). Both in Hebrews 4:10 and Matthew 11:28 the word, "rest" is compounded with a preposition on the same Greek root word, παυω. In Hebrews 4:10 it is καταπαυσιν, while in Matthew 11:28 it is αναπαυσω Then in Hebrews 4:9-10, it states clearly - "There remaineth therefore a rest (margin - "a keeping of

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Sabbath (Gr. σαββατισμοζ) to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest hath ceased from his own works, as God from His." Verse 4 had declared "God did rest the seventh day from all His works.

Dr. E. T. Hiscox Stated ----

Dr. E. T. Hiscox, a Baptist clergyman, and author of their Manual was invited to speak at a ministers' meeting, August 20, 1893, in Saratoga, New York. The assigned topic was "The Transference of the Sabbath." Present at this meeting was Elder F. C. Gilbert who received a copy from Dr. Hiscox of what he read, corrected and approved by him.

The following is from that paper:

It will however be readily said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the Seventh to the First day of the week, with all its duties, privileges and sanctions. Earnestly desiring the information on this subject, which I have studied for many years I ask, where can the record of such a transaction by found? Not in the New Testament, -- absolutely not. There is no scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the Seventh to the First day of the week. I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in that aspect of it, is in my judgment the gravest and most perplexing question connected with Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people. And the only reason why it is not a more disturbing element in Christian thought, and in religious discussions, is because the Christian world has settled down content with the conviction that somehow, a transference did take place at the beginning of Christian history, and with a comfortable apathy, the matter stands, as of insufficient importance to cause any special concern, save indeed on the part of a small company of "Sabbatarian Cranks," of whom I am one only in so far as my views expressed in this paper agree with theirs....

I do not assert that it was not the divine intention that the Christian holy day, should be the first day of the week, but there is no evidence of such intention is these instances cited. I do not assert that Christians should not commemorate the resurrection on Sunday; but as no one knows when the resurrection took place, and as there is strong evidence against Christ's having risen on the first day of the week, it seems somewhat needless to press claims for the sanctity of that day on that ground. To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus during three years' intercourse with His disciples, giving instruction as to His kingdom, constantly, coming in contact with the Sabbath question, often discussing it in some of its aspects, freeing it from its false glosses, and teaching its true nature and purpose, never alluded to any change to any transference of the day. Also that during the forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated. Nor so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring all things to their remembrance, whatsoever He had said unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired Apostles in preaching the Gospel, founding Churches, counselling and instructing those founded discuss or approach this subject. Of course I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of Paganism, and Christened with the name of the Sun-god. Then adopted and sanctified by the Papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism, and the Christian world, just as Easter which the churches hankering after ritualism are now so lovingly pressing to their hearts, comes bearing the sign Manual of a heathen divinity, instead of - if something purely Christian could not be had - at least bearing a sign and designation of pascha from the old dispensation. But in those early ages, when Christian ritualism largely received its form, the mould in which it was cast was rather pagan than Jewish, as preferred by a carnal and secularized Church establishment.

T. Enright, CSSR

On June 16, 1899, at Kansas City, Missouri, T. Enright of the Redemporist fathers of the Roman Church wrote on a piece of scratch paper - "I hereby offer $1,000 to any one who can prove to me from the Bible alone, that I am bound under pain of grievous sin to keep Sunday holy" - and signed it.

It would appear that a Methodist minister, Samuel Walter Gamble stated that Fr. Enright had withdrawn his offer. In the meantime

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he had moved to Detroit, Michigan. To one who wrote him checking on Gamble's assertion, Enright replied in a letter dated April 26, 1902:

Your note was forwarded to me here where I reside at present. I have never seen Mr. Gamble, never read a line from any one of that name. The assertion that I have withdrawn the offer is utterly false. I still offer $1,000 to anyone who can prove from the Bible alone, that I am bound under pain of grievous sin to keep Sunday holy. We keep Sunday in obedience to the law of the Catholic Church. The church made this law after the Bible was written; hence the law is not in the Bible. The Catholic Church abolished not only the Sabbath, but all the other Jewish Festivals

There is no record of Mr. Gamble ever attempting to collect the $1,000; but Enright in 1905 reiterated his offer. He wrote again, this time from St. Louis, Missouri:

I have offered and still offer $1,000 to any one who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound under pain of grievous sin to keep Sunday holy.

It was the Catholic Church which made the law obliging us to keep Sunday holy. The Church made this law long after the Bible was written. Hence said law is not in the Bible.

Christ our Lord empowered the Church to make laws binding on conscience. He said to His apostles and their lawful successors in the priesthood, "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" Mat. 16:19. The Catholic Church abolished not only the Sabbath, but all the other Jewish festivals.

From The Catholic World

A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science

The church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season.

Sunday and Easter day are, if we consider their derivation, much the same. In truth, all Sundays are Sundays only because they are a weekly, partial recurrence of Easter day. The pagan Sunday was, in a manner, an unconscious preparation for Easter day. The sun was a foremost god with heathendom. Balder the beautiful, the White God, the old Scandinavians called him. The sun has worshippers at this hour in Persia and other lands. "Some of you" says Carlyle, "may remember that fancy of Plato's. A man is kept in the some dark, underground cave from childhood till maturity; then suddenly is carried to the upper airs. For the first time he sees the sun shining in its splendor overhead. He must fall down, says Plato, and adore it." There is in truth, something royal, kingly about the sun, making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence the church in these countries would seem to have said, "Keep that old, pagan name. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified." And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus (March 1894, p. 809).

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"The Sabbath is a time when the spent spirit can catch its breath, and man can look into the face of God and be refreshed. — Wm. H. Mason