MEN OF STRAW by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 27, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 17.

MEN OF STRAW.

By Editor

Antinomianism.

THE Christian Standard, the organ of the Disciple sect, has been greatly stirred over the advance of Sabbath truth, and the editor has of late been putting forth especial effort to "neutralize Advent teaching." Several of these papers have been sent us by different persons, and we are asked to reply to them in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

In the first place, the articles are not worth the space for reply. They do not touch the Biblical evidence or argument for the Sabbath of the Lord. They set up at convenient distances nice little men of straw, and then pop away at them with all sorts of antiquated guns and discarded modern weapons, which do not always affect seriously even the men of straw. The principal complaint the Standard makes is that Seventh-day Adventists claim to go by the Bible and the Bible alone, and then proceed to quote history in large quantities, especially in the history of the Sabbath and Sunday, and in the interpretation of prophecy. But it is still true that the Bible and the Bible alone is the norm of their faith and practice; yet we do not see why this should prevent them from showing by history the fulfilment of prophecy, and we do not know how it is possible to give a history of Sunday as a religious institution save from history, for it has no such record in the Bible.

The Standard declares that the Sabbath as the seal of God's law is based on the statement that "sign" and "seal" are synonymous terms, contrary to the Standard's understanding of the matter; that the generic term "Israel" does not include twentieth-century Christians, and that it is a great mistake to say that the United States will become a persecuting power and enforce Sunday observance under penalties.

In the first place, to put it in very few words, the great truth that the Sabbath is the seal of God's law rests on a broader, larger basis than the synonymous use of "sign" and "seal." The sign of circumcision was a seal of Abraham's righteousness. Rom. 4:11. The Sabbath, a sign between God and His people (Ex. 20:12, 20), is also a seal of His law, and becomes such to those who receive the Sabbath for what it truly means, the rest of God in Christ Jesus, both Creator and Redeemer.

As to the term "Israel," it is God's designation of His household and commonwealth. Eph. 2:19, 20. Compare with verse 12; 3:3-6. There are no promises to the world at all save through Israel. Rom. 9:4, 5. If one wishes to persist in being a Gentile, he takes himself out of the pale of God's promises.

When Seventh-day Adventists first declared, on the basis of the prophetic Word, that United States would become a persecutor through the enforcement of Sunday laws, there was not a single indication of it in the land. Since 1850 the matter has been agitated in every state in the union, several states have prosecuted and imprisoned men for the sole reason that they worked on Sunday, to the disturbance of no one, and the state laws have been upheld by Federal Courts, while the Federal Congress has three times committed itself to religious legislation. While we would to God that such action by this government, as set forth in Rev. 13:11-17, might never be, we know from the "more sure word of prophecy" that it will certainly come.

The Standard criticizes "Sabbatarian Use of History" after this sort:—

On the Sabbath question, they claim to prove from history that the church kept the Sabbath for hundreds of years after Christ; that Sunday observance came from the pagans, was brought in by Constantine, made holy by the pope; that before this, for three hundred years, it had been a common work day in the church, etc.

But where could proof for the above be found save in history? Of course it was all predicted in the Word. History, however, abundantly reveals all these claims.

These facts do not prove the Sabbath obligatory upon all men, but they do prove that God had loyal souls in the piping times of apostasy. Even down as late as 538 the council of Laodicea pronounced anathema on those Christians who kept the seventh day. Sunday was not kept before Constantine's time as a sabbath, and almost universally not for a long time after that emperor.

Abundant quotations from history are often given because they are not accessible to all, while a Bible reference is sufficient to refer all to the passage cited. One editorial of the Standard is entitled, "Did Constantine Change the Sabbath?" And more than two columns is taken to answer the question, when two letters would answer it, namely, "No." No one claims, so far as we know, that Constantine changed the Sabbath. What we do say is this: Constantine issued the first law for Sunday observance on record. And it is well to note that that first law is found, not in the Scriptures, but in the code of a sun-worshipping pagan emperor. The next day he gave instruction as to how the heathen soothsayers, or haruspices, were to proceed to determine the will of the gods. The Sunday law was doubtless given to please professed Christians, but it was given by a pagan.

Neither does any Sabbatarian affirm that the pagans rested on Sunday. Sunday was "the wild solar holiday of all pagan times," partly of work and partly given up to mirth and folly. It needed no law to lead men to carnal pleasures. This is the simple fact: The first law for Sunday was issued by a pagan emperor, for an apostate church; but his edict was not to enforce the Lord's day, but "the venerable day of the sun," a wholly pagan name.

Here are the simple facts: Constantine became emperor July 25, 306, and his victory over Maxentius, at which it was said he saw the cross, and was converted to Christianity, occurred in 312. But this victory he ascribed, not to Christ, but to instinctu divinitatis, on his arch in Rome, in 315, and he carried his pagan title to the grave, as also the figures and names of the pagan gods on his coins. He was not baptized till just before his death, in 337. His "conversion," the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia well says, "was a change of policy, rather than of moral character. Long after that event he killed his son, his second wife, several others of his relatives, and some of his most intimate friends, in passionate resentment of some fancied infringement of his rights." And this is the "Christian" (?) emperor to whom the first Sunday law can be traced.

One other statement in this article is that "they [Sabbatarians] argue that before this [321] all Christians had worked on Sunday." We simply say this, that the day was not observed as a Sabbath. Here is another sample of the Standard's recklessness:—

Just so in the time of Constantine. All Christians were keeping the Lord's day, and had done so for ages. Of this there is an abundance of historical proof.

What is meant by "keeping"? They kept the days of the betrayal and crucifixion, we are told, also. How? What is the true "Lord's day"? Let Mark 2:26, 27; Ex. 20:8-11 and Isa. 58:13 answer. The Lord has called but one day His, namely, the seventh day, the Sabbath. What is meant by "for ages"? Never till apostasy came in did professed Christians begin to observe the times and days of heathenism. Gal. 4:8-11.

When apostasy came into the Jewish Church they trampled the Sabbath underfoot, turned to pagan "times," and Jerusalem was destroyed in consequence. Ezekiel 20; Jeremiah 17. When the Christian Church apostatized (and it had already begun in Paul's day, Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Thess. 2:7), it also departed from the Sabbath of the Lord, the true Lord's day, and exalted a man to the place of Christ, and a pagan day to the place of the Sabbath of the Lord. Now, if there were none that observed the Sabbath of the Lord from the apostles' day to this, that would not make the truth of God of none effect. God's Word will stand whatever men may do.

One of the chief efforts of the devil from the beginning has been to deceive men into believing that God's law was "done away," "abolished," or "changed." He is the original antinomian. He quotes scripture, as he did to Jesus, to support his theory. He has his disciples still. He has always had them. Ever they cry, to excuse human conduct, "The law is abolished." They are crying it to-day. The sad thing is that many of those who are doing it profess to be "Christians." Of that law Christ the Lord said, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." He kept it Himself. It was a part of the character He imputes to men. The good of all Biblical ages kept it. Those who turn from that law God calls "a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of Jehovah." See Isa. 30:8-14. Jesus says, "If thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments." Matt. 19:17. Again He said, "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." John 15:10. The beloved disciple says, "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked." 1 John 2:6.

These scriptures—and a multitude of others might be adduced—are God's answer to the Standard's antinomianism. It is no wonder that our contemporary turns from the Word and endeavors to make people believe that history has been perverted by Sabbatarians. Sabbatarians have not perverted history, yet they want no one to stand on any other foundation save the law of God as it is in Christ Jesus.