GLORIFY GOD AS GOD by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 13, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 18.

GLORIFY GOD AS GOD.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

ROMANS 1:21.

THE apostle Paul says of the heathen that they are "without excuse; because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Rom. 1:21. We have already seen, from the preceding verse, how they knew God. His eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen by the things that are made. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork." Ps. 19:1. Even the unlearned savage sees in nature evidences of the power and glory of God; and history affords abundant testimony to the fact that the ancient heathen philosophers and priests, although they worshiped idols, and taught the people idolatry, did have knowledge of a supreme Deity. Therefore they were "without excuse." The heathen do not need a second probation, in order that they may have "a fair chance." Not a man has ever lived on this earth to whom enough light has not been given either to save him or to witness to the justness of his condemnation.

"When they knew God, they glorified him not as God." How could they have glorified him as God? The answer is suggested by the verse which tells how they knew him. How did they know God?—By his works. Then it is evident that to glorify him as God, would have been to honor him as Creator. God has "made his wonderful works to be remembered," for it is by remembering them that men remember him. And the one thing which he has given as the memorial of his creative power is the Sabbath. Thus the fourth commandment says:—

"Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; 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." Ex. 20:8-11.

The fact that Jehovah made the heavens and the earth is that which distinguishes him above all false gods. See Ps. 96:4, 5; Jer. 10:10-13. And the seventh-day rest is the one thing which he has given to enable man to remember that it is he that made all these things, and that he alone is worthy of worship. Therefore it is evident that only by keeping the Sabbath according to God's commandment could the ancients have glorified him as God, and retained their knowledge of him.

The Scriptures state this fact very clearly. In the song for the Sabbath-day (Ps. 92) the psalmist says: "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High; to show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this." Verses 1-6. The fool does not consider the works of God's hands, therefore he says in his heart, "There is no God."

When God chose Abraham from among the heathen, as the one to be the father of the faithful, it was because Abraham alone served him. Afterwards he made the Israelites the depositaries of his law, because, of all the nations, they alone cared to know him. All others had lost the knowledge of God, and like Pharaoh could say, "I know not Jehovah." Yet to his own chosen people, who had the knowledge of his wonderful works to the children of men, the Lord said: "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Ex. 31:13. The Sabbath alone stood between them and heathenism. If they had kept the Sabbath according to the commandment, they would never have gone into idolatry; when they did join the nations round about them in their corrupt practices, it was only after their neglect of the Sabbath had resulted in their forgetting God, whose mighty power and goodness it commemorated. Thus all the punishment that came upon the Israelites, and all their captivities, were declared to be because they did not keep the Sabbath. Forgetting the Sabbath was a synonym for forgetting God, and indulging in the abominations of the heathen.

Nowhere is this more clearly set forth than in the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel. So plainly does the Lord there show the connection between Sabbath-breaking and the abominations of idolatry, that a simple reading of the passage is about all that is necessary. Speaking of the children of Israel, the Lord says:—

"Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness; they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my Sabbaths they greatly polluted; then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols; I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you; that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against me; they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my Sabbaths; then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness." Eze. 20:12-21.

From this it is evident that Sabbath-breaking always led to idolatry. The twentieth verse plainly states that the Sabbath was the means by which the Israelites could retain their knowledge of God. They could not by any possibility keep the Sabbath and be idolators at the same time; neither could they be idolators so long as they kept the Sabbath as God commanded them.

The Sabbath, therefore, as the safeguard against idolatry, is the mark of true religion. In the proper observance of the Sabbath, we find the highest expression of Christian life. Without the observance of the Sabbath, there can be no real worship of God; for he who does not worship God as the Creator of all things, does not glorify him as God; and the Sabbath is that by which we acknowledge him as Creator.

It is often stated by the people who call themselves National Reformers, that the Sabbath is the only safeguard against heathenism; that if a nation ceases to keep the Sabbath, it will inevitably run into heathenism. This is true, as we have shown; but it is not true as they say it, because by the word "Sabbath" they refer to Sunday; and Sunday, instead of being a safeguard against heathenism, is the "wild solar holiday of all pagan times." There is nothing in the observance of Sunday that can show anything whatever about God. Only the seventh day can be the memorial of creation, for only on that day did God rest, and it was that day only that he blessed and set apart. The first day cannot, as it is claimed, be the memorial of the resurrection of Christ; for it was never appointed as such a memorial, even as it could not appropriately commemorate such an event. Besides, in baptism we have the divinely appointed memorial of the death and resurrection of Christ. So, as before stated, there is nothing about Sunday which can show the power of God, any more than could be shown by Monday or Friday.

The form of idolatry which has existed almost universally from the most ancient times, is sun-worship, for which Sunday stands. This was the day dedicated to the sun, and observed by the heathen, not as a sabbath, but as a day of wild, unbridled, sensual indulgence. And so, as sun-worship, with all its attendant abominations, stands as God's great rival in the allegiance of mankind, Sunday stands opposed to the Sabbath, as the holiday universally observed by men when they ceased to glorify the Creator as God. E. J. W.