From the Perspective of a Calvinist
Sabbatharian
Uit die oogpunt van ’n Calvinistiese Sabbatariër
Ek glo die Sewende Dag
Sabbat van die HERE jou God, máár, nóg vir die redes wat die Jode die Sewende
Dag Sabbat glo, nóg vir die redes wat die Rooms Katolieke glo die Sewende Dag
die Sabbat is.
Want ek glo die Sewende
Dag Sabbat van die HERE jou God vir die redes wat die Protestante glo die
Sabbat nié die Sewende Dag nie, maar die Eerste Dag van die week is. Ek glo
naamlik die Sewende Dag Sabbat volgens die Verborgenheid van Sy wil en die Hoop
van Sy roeping na die werking van die krag van sy sterkte wat Hy gewerk het in
Christus toe Hy Hom opgewek het uit die dode “In die vol ure van die Sabbatdag,
midde ligdag dalend die Eerste Dag van die week teë” (Matteus 28:1).
Hierdie artikel gee dan
die redes waarom ek nié die Sewende Dag Sabbat glo soos en waarom die Rooms
Katolieke glo die Sewende Dag die Sabbat is nie.
Sien gevolgtrekking aan
einde van artikel.
We believe the Seventh Day
Sabbath of the LORD your God, neither for the reasons the Jews believe the
Seventh Day Sabbath, nor for the reasons the Roman Catholics believe the
Seventh Day is the Sabbath.
Because we believe the
Seventh Day the Sabbath of the LORD your God for the very reasons the
Protestants believe the Sabbath is not the Seventh Day, but the First Day of
the week. We believe in fact the Seventh Day Sabbath according to the Mystery
of His will and the Hope of His calling according to the working of His mighty
power to us-ward which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead
“In the fullness of the Sabbath’s slow hours having turned towards the First
Day” (Matthew 28:1).
This article then will
supply the reasons we believe the Seventh Day Sabbath not like and why the
Roman Catholics believe the Seventh Day is the Sabbath.
See our conclusion at the
end of this article.
of Protestant Sabbath-Breakers
by Rev. J. O'Keefe
The following sermon by Rev. J. O'Keefe, a priest
of some prominence in the Roman Catholic diocese of
Apparently this sermon was
based on a series of four editorials, which previously appeared in the Catholic
Mirror on September, 2, 9, 16, and 23, of 1893
Catholic
Mirror - Sunday, July
3, 1897
ON last Sunday Rev. J.
O'Keefe delivered a sermon at
"But
these men blaspheme whatever things they know not; and what things so ever they
naturally know, like dumb beasts, in these they are corrupted." (Jude 10).
The morning
paper of last Monday spread before its readers a compendium of seven sermons
delivered the day before, by as many Baptist preachers, on the topic of
[Sunday] Sabbath desecration. This simultaneous concert of action was the
result of previous arrangement.
As it
is the duty of every citizen who has at heart the public welfare to aid, as far
as possible, in promoting the diffusion of knowledge, and at the same time in
the correction of error, I feel I would be guilty of a gross injustice to my
fellow citizens were I not to furnish them with the exact truth, especially
since false ideas are being constantly promulgated by men either grossly and
criminally ignorant of what they should know, and who, assuming the office of
public guides, convey false information derived either from false premises, or
inconsecutive conclusions from the same, or, knowing better, maliciously and
unscrupulously abuse the influence they accidentally wield over simple and
unsophisticated people, by deliberately impregnating their ductile and plastic
minds with erroneous views that practically interfere with the rational
exercise of their liberty in the ordinary routine of life.
In the
fifteenth chapter, tenth verse, of the Acts of the Apostles, we read of a case
in point. A sect of the Pharisees gave much annoyance to the primitive
Christians by requiring circumcision and the full observance of the Mosaic law.
Peter arose in the assembly and asked, "Now therefore, why tempt ye God,
to put a yoke on the necks of the disciples which neither our fathers, nor we
have been able to bear?" (Acts 15:10). A sect of the same order of modern
Pharisees, in their self-righteousness, gave vent to their mock solicitude for
the spiritual welfare of their contemporaries by denouncing most emphatically
the practices of barrooms, cigars, tobacco, soda water, bicycles,
confectionery, parks, trolley cars, Sunday papers, reporters, ice-cream
saloons, etc., etc., on Sunday, with a highly commendable and virtuous
indignation; but it is my purpose to meet their crusade in the spirit of common
sense, and ask with St. Peter, "Why, therefore, tempt ye God to put a yoke
on the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able
to bear?" And this is precisely what these self-constituted guides of the
people undertake to do, when they assume to dictate into what is permitted and
what is forbidden on the Sabbath.
And,
just here, I boldly proclaim that this meddlesome interference with the
God-given liberties of our citizens is an assumption of authority that has no
warrant whatsoever in God's law, and amounts to what may be truthfully
designated an impertinent attempt at an unauthorized despotism. For whilst the
American people are tolerant of every law, divine and human, that appeals to
their reason, yet they must be convinced that the ordinance has a divine or
human sanction for the enforcement of its obligations.
It is
my purpose to submit to my fellow citizens the true grounds for the
obligation of cessation from labor one day of the week, and of the duty of
sanctifying the same day. The seven reverend gentlemen who on last Sunday
assumed to impose their views on their fellow citizens anent [concerning] the
question of [Sunday] Sabbath desecration, have no warrant whatsoever for such
imposition, save what can be found in their acknowledged teacher, the Bible.
Let us then open the pages of this guide and teacher, and learn from it the
commands of God on this point. We are at least equally intelligent with them in
construing the expressed will of God, in drawing rational conclusions, and in
inferring conclusively the correctness or falsity of their claim to impose
their views on us.
The
first intimation that reaches us of God's will on this important point is found
in Genesis 2:2: "And on the seventh day He [God] rested . . . from all His
work which He had made." And it is conclusive that the patriarchs under
the immediate direction of God, continued, by oral tradition, the same
observance of God's Sabbath, until He gave through Moses the same commandment
by written tradition (Exodus 20:8-11), "Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy;" and the sacred text informs us He did so command for that
reason, viz.: "Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and
sanctified it." (Exodus 20:11). Again, the Lord calls the Sabbath "a
perpetual covenant." (Exodus 31:16).
Once
more, we will refer to the most positive repetition of this command: "Six
days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy work. The seventh is the day of
the Sabbath, that is, the rest of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not do any work
therein," etc. (Deuteronomy 5:13-14)
On a
careful examination of the Old Testament, we find this reference to the Sabbath
126 times. And now it is incumbent on us to ascertain which is the seventh
day on which God rested, and which He blessed and sanctified: which day,
also, He designated as "a perpetual covenant." The answer to this
question is furnished by the Hebrew race, who all through the patriarchal age
to Moses' day, over 2,500 years, thence from Moses 2514 A.M. [B.C.] to A.D.
1897, a period of 5,897 years, have scrupulously kept every Saturday, from the
days of Adam, who walked with God, through the days of the patriarchs, the law,
and the prophets, and through the full period of the New Law to yesterday
[Saturday]. Thus the Hebrew race form a living historical chain of nearly 5,900
annual links — a perpetual, living testimony of God's rest (His Sabbath) to
today, through oral and written tradition. Therefore, if the testimony of men
could ever be regarded as an infallible motive of credibility, it must be
recognized as such in the constant weekly keeping of God's [Saturday] Sabbath
synchronous with time itself.
The Old
Testament is also, from the days of Moses, the living witness of this
undeniable fact, sustained by the oral living testimony of the Hebrew people to
the advent of the Messiah. To deny this effectively, it would be necessary to
destroy the Jewish people and the Old Testament.
Having
placed beyond the reach of all successful denial; the grand historical fact
that up to the coming of the Messiah, the Lord's Sabbath — that of the seventh
day — was alone recognized and kept, from the last day of Creation to
the coming of the Messiah — this by the positive precept of God in the Old Law
and the ever-living testimony and practice of the Hebrew race, it now behooves
us to trace the history of this arrangement to date, or as far, at least, as
the apostolic records testify under the New Law. On approaching this period,
involving as it does an era of nearly nineteen full centuries, we naturally
inquire whether a divine statute, which God Himself was pleased to designate a
"perpetual covenant," continued to be observed by the people of
Israel and Christians collectively; that is, whether the day enjoined by God
(Saturday) has always been kept by Christians and Jews collectively for these
nineteen centuries, or, if not, where in the pages of the New Testament is
found a divine decree cancelling the mandate of the Old Law, and at the
same time specifying the day to substitute [for] Saturday. For inasmuch as
Saturday was ordered to be kept by divine authority, so, also, divine
authority, under the form of a cancelling decree, is absolutely necessary to do
away with Saturday, and another decree emanating from the same divine source is
equally necessary to appoint another Sabbath. A close and critical examination
of the New Testament is now necessary to discover these two decrees — the one
cancelling Saturday, the other selecting another day to replace it.
The
Hebrew Sabbath, or Saturday, is referred to in the New Testament 61 times. In
the four Gospels the same Sabbath (Saturday) is mentioned 51 times. We find
that the Saviour during life constantly adopted the same day to teach in the
synagogues and to work miracles.
In one
instance, quoted by Matthew and Luke He designated Himself the "Lord of
the Sabbath;" [1]
but to the last hour of His life He utilized that day and gives no indication
of a desire to change it. After His crucifixion, His apostles and personal
friends kept it (Saturday) strictly, whilst yet in the tomb; that St. Luke
informs us of: "And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and
rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment." (23:56)
And having strictly kept the Sabbath, as St. Luke has just now described, they
felt themselves free to commence the new week with the corporal work of mercy,
viz., embalming the body of their Master.
This
proceeding is quoted by St. Luke in the next verse: "And on the first
day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre,
bringing the spices they had prepared." (24:1) Can anything be more
conclusive than that up to the day of Christ's death, from St. Luke's
testimony?
Thus we
are forced from all we read in the Gospels to conclude that the "Lord of
the Sabbath," as Christ calls Himself, never kept during his mortal
life any other Sabbath than Saturday, testifying His respect for it
on several occasions by His severe rebukes to the scribes and Pharisees for
their fanatical mode of keeping it; and after His death the apostles, and the
holy women, who were the best exponents of His will, followed His example by
doing on Sunday what the commandment forbade them to do on Saturday. It is
then undeniable that the Jewish Saturday was alone kept by the Saviour, His
apostles, and friends up to the period of His death, covering thirty-three
years of the Christian era.
Come we
now to examine the history of this interesting question for thirty years more
after Christ's death, as recorded by the evangelist St. Luke, in his Acts of
the Apostles. Surely we must find some trace of the cancelling act during this
period involving a lifetime. But, alas! not a vestige of it can be discovered;
and what is worse, we find in the nine passages referred to in the Acts of the
Apostles that they invariably kept Saturday. I shall quote them: "They . .
. went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, . . . . And after the
reading of the law and the prophets," etc. (Acts 13:14-15). Again, verse
27: "For they. . . because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the
prophets which are read every Sabbath," etc. Behold here the
testimony of
Again,
verse 42: "And when the Jews had gone out, the Gentiles besought that
these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath," not the
next Sunday. Observe next how the Greeks or Gentiles kept the Sabbath with the
Jews: "And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city to hear the
Word of God." (verse 44) Not Sunday, but the Sabbath still!
Once
more: James, the apostle, publicly says: "Men and brethren, hear now to
me. . . . For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being
read in the synagogues every Sabbath day." (Acts 15:13, 21) No
vestige of a change to Sunday yet. Again: "And Paul, as his manner was,
went unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the
Scriptures." (Acts 17:2) And, to cap the climax and exhaust all scriptural
resources: "And he [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath,
and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." (Acts 18:4)
Thus
it is absolutely certain that neither our Lord during His life of thirty-three
years, nor His apostles for thirty years subsequently, ever kept any Sabbath
save Saturday.
But,
before I close my argument, I propose to answer the argument of the apologists
for the change of day not to be found in the New Testament. Their
arguments are grounded on the words "the Lord's day" and "the
day of the Lord," as the drowning man grasps a straw. The first of these
(Acts 2:20): "The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into
blood before that great and notable day of the Lord shall come." Is this
Sunday? Again: "Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:8) Who is
silly enough to interpret these words of Sunday? Again: "To deliver such a
one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord Jesus." (1 Corinthians 5:5) Is this Sunday? Again:
"And I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end . . . even as ye also
are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians
1:13-14) Is this day Sunday or the day of judgment? Whilst once more:
"Being confident of this very thing that He who hath begun a good work in
you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians
1:6) Until next Sunday, of course! Sixth text: "That ye may be sincere and
without offence till the day of Christ." (Philippians 1:10) Till
next Sunday, forsooth! Seventh text: "But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night." (2 Peter 3:10) Sunday next! Eighth text:
"Looking out for and hastening unto the coming of the day of the Lord,
wherein the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved." (2 Peter 3:12)
Look out for the fireworks on [next] Sunday, if not too late today [Sunday]!
I have
thus disposed of eight of nine texts from the apostolic writings which the
apologists for the change of day grounded on the words, "the day of the
Lord," "the Lord's day," "the day of Christ," and
shown the absurdity of their application to Sunday, referring in each instance
to the day of judgment. There is a ninth, and the only one left which does not
bear its own interpretation like the others.
Any
attempt to interpret the above texts, the day of the Lord or the Lord's day, as
meaning Sunday, is therefore absurd. And what will confirm this reasoning
beyond all doubt is the language of the same St. John in two passages in his
Gospels; speaking of Sunday (Easter) he does not say, "on the Lord's
day," But, "on the first day of the week" (John 20:1): and
speaking of the following Sunday, he does not designate it "the Lord's
day," but, "Now when it was late that same day, the first of the
week." (chapter 20:19) This disposes forever of
A False Supposition
To
conclude my proofs, I propose to call attention to and reply to an argument
that would suppose a change of day. Five times the first day of the week is
referred to as being the day substituted for the Sabbath in five passages of
the Gospel, Acts, and Epistles. St. Luke 24:33-40 and
The
third occasion was the meeting of Christ arisen with the eleven (including
Thomas), for the purpose of confounding the incredulity of Thomas, as
And the
apologists for the change of day call attention to Acts 20:7: "And upon
the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,"
etc. the application of the axiom in logic, "Quod probat nimis, probat
nihil" (What proves too much, proves nothing), puts a quietus on this text
when I introduce words from the Acts: " And they continuing daily . . .
in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house," etc.,
(2:46) which shows that this was a daily practise which is claimed in
this instance for Sunday.
Fifthly
and finally, we are invited to 1 Corinthians 16:1-2: "Now concerning the
collection for the saints. . . . On the first day of the week, let every one of
you lay by him in store," etc. Presuming that this was done as
What
more absurd conclusion than to infer that the reading of the Scriptures,
exhortation, and praying, which formed the routine duties of every Saturday, or
Sabbath, were overslaughed, by a request to take up a collection, on a
particular occasion, another day of the week? Which occupation was more in
keeping with the service of the Lord's day?
The Summing Up
Having
placed before you all the references in the sacred writings — Gospels, Acts,
and Epistles — I will now sum up the result of my examination of the relative
use of the Sundays and Saturdays from these same records, constituting the New
Testament, and covering a period of over 60 years. Every Sabbath, or Saturday,
was kept, according to the record, 3,276 times by Christ and His apostles,
whilst the beggarly record of the Sunday meetings by the apostles number five
within the same period, viz., Easter Sunday comes first; next, [the] Sunday
when Thomas was converted; but not a prayer, nor reading of the Scripture, nor
preaching on either occasion; Pentecost Sunday, a part of the ceremonial law of
the Jews kept for 1,500 years before; the Sunday referred to in Acts 20:7,
where the breaking of bread alone is referred to, but which in Acts 2:46 is
designated a daily work; and fifthly, collection Sunday (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)
has no vestige of prayer, reading of Scripture, sermon, or any other act of
divine worship connected with it. Add to these, nine references to the
"Lord's day;" "the day of the Lord," "the day of
Christ," mentioned nine times, each one of which refers, as I have proved,
to the day of judgment, and you have every vestige of any claim that might be
made of a change of day from Saturday during the period of over 60 years from
the dawn of Christianity.
With
this truthful and exhaustive exposition before us, based in the Sacred
Writings, and against which I defy successful contradiction, let us apply our
valuable information practically to the existing position of Protestantism and
its relative bearing on Judaism, because they both acknowledge the same
teacher, the Bible, with this difference, however, whilst the Jew's teacher,
the Old Testament, closes with the Messiah's coming, the Biblical Christian has
the New Testament superadded to the Old, whilst he enjoys the teaching and
practise of the Saviour together with those of the apostles for over 60 years,
and all these in perfect conformity with the Old Testament. For
whilst the Jewish people — patriarchs, law, and prophets — have, after the
example of God Himself, kept "the Sabbath of the Lord" for nearly
6,000 years, up to yesterday [Saturday], the New Testament, the supplemental teacher
of Protestantism, testifies to the positive teachings of the Saviour,
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;" and His life and those of
the apostles, as we learn from the Sacred Record, were in perfect keeping with
the practise of the Jewish people. Today, however, so-called followers of
Christ, (who was Himself to the hour of His death an obedient follower of the
law of the Sabbath), in direct contradiction of the law and the Gospel, have
for over three centuries raised the flag of revolt against this "perpetual
covenant." as God Himself is pleased to call it, and for fully 10
generations not one representative of Protestant Christianity, with a feigned
and hypocritical affection of respect for his teacher, the Bible, has once
kept the day ordered to be kept over 160 times by the Old Testament and over 60
times by the New.
A
more transparent contradiction,
involving millions of human beings, does not exist in the earth today — a
teacher, assumed to be of divine origin by its disciples — utterly ignored, and
the voice of God Himself echoing in every page, as they profess to believe,
utterly disregarded by every Protestant Christian on earth today, for not one [2] of
them has once obeyed His command to keep His Sabbath, during life. Christ, as
their teacher, informs them, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments," and the chief and most emphatic of these is, "Remember
the Sabbath day."
Viewing
the situation from a common-sense standpoint it is almost incredible that men
endowed with average intelligence could consent to occupy before the world, for
an hour, such a self-stultifying, self-contradictory position as this.
Professing to adore God, professing to obey His commands, yet they stand today
before heaven and earth, with His Written Word clasped to their breast, and
which they profess to obey, the most pronounced Sabbath-breakers on earth.
The Jew
is rational; he obeys his teacher, the Bible, pointing to the command,
"Keep holy the Sabbath;" the Catholic is ever rational, he obeys the
teacher appointed him by Christ [the Church]; but the Protestant obeys
neither God nor his teacher, the Bible. Thus I have in this sermon shown
his utter abandonment of his professed teacher, the Bible, and his public
apostasy from the positive injunctions of God, speaking to him through it; but
he had descended to a still lower depth of degradation. Having abandoned the
teachings of his Bible, and having poured out the vials of his apparently
honest indignation against the Catholic Church, all his life he is found today,
after having consummated his apostasy from his own religious principles and
teacher, knocking at the door of the Catholic Church to notify her that he
is about to borrow her day; thus this traitor to his professed teacher and
guide throws open the doors of his meetinghouse on each Sunday with a notice
overhead, "OPEN EVERY ROMAN SABBATH.' 'CLOSED EVERY BIBLE SABBATH,'
whilst the notice on every synagogue on Saturday reads, "OPEN TO-DAY, THE
BIBLE SABBATH." Nor does his unscrupulous treachery to his Bible end
here; but with insolent swagger and cool effrontery, like Cain, addressing his
descendants on brotherly love, with the broad brand of murderer on his brow;
like Judas moralizing on deicide; like the squatter who insolently intrudes
himself; and like the robber glorying in his ill-gotten goods; in a word, like
Satan rebuking sin, he inveighs, through his seven clerical drummers, against
barrooms, cigars, tobacco, soda water, bicycles, confectionery, parks, trolley
cars, Sunday papers, reporters, ice-cream saloons, etc., etc., whilst there is
not a living representative of these different avocations whose records before
the bar of reason, religion, and God are not comparatively immaculate when
contrasted with the record of these very people who stand before God, reason,
and religion as the most inveterate Sabbath-breakers on earth.
Before
closing this discourse, I publicly invite those seven reverends, and all their
confederate Sabbath-breakers, to purge themselves from the above imputation.
But I
predict with absolute certainty that the seven eloquent orators of last Sunday
will be mute and dumb next and future Sundays on this subject.
EDITORIAL REMARKS by The Editors of the Bible Student Library, July
1897,
In the foregoing paper we
do not adopt nor do we commend the harshness, sharpness, or acerbity of
language in which Mr. O'Keefe has set forth the two solemn facts: (1) That the
only Bible Sabbath is the seventh day; and (2) that for first-day sacredness or
observance there is no Bible warrant. We would that these facts had been told
in a milder manner, in language which it seems to us would be more consonant
with the Gospel of Christ; but we beg the Protestant reader to forget the
acidity of the writing, and weigh the solemn facts in the light of the Bible
and the judgment.
Conclusion
I say, nonsense! When
truth hurts, it should hurt – it is the Law’s function to hurt, either to drive
us to Christ, or into perdition.
If only O’Keefe had not
submitted everything he wrote to the authority of the (Roman Catholic) Church,
most of it would have been wholesome truth and amenable to discipline. But let
us rather – Calvinists believing and endeavouring to honour the Sabbath of the
Bible – whenever heard defending the Sabbath of the Bible, not be recognised
for Jews, or, for Roman Catholics, but – let it be – for Bible punchers and
resurrection romantics. (CGE)
As Calvinistiese en
Protestantse gelowiges, let ons dadelik op – ná ons vele besprekings reeds oor
Calvyn en die Sabbat en die Sondag – dat Calvyn van al die, sal ons maar sê,
feite waarvan O’Keefe in die negentiende eeu gebruik gemaak het, al in sý dag,
deeglik van bewus was. In Bybelkennis staan Calvyn natuurlik vir g’n niemand
tot vandag toe terug nie. Dit is egter geen saak van blote Bybelkennis nie, of
van logiese gevolgtrekkingsvermoëns nie, of van EQ ‘emotional intelligence’
nie, maar van Geloofsoortuiging. “Geloofsoortuiging” met ’n hoofletter
geskrywe, want ek praat nie van die subjektiewe geloofsoortuiging nie. Dit gaan
oor die goddelike en reddende Waarheid soos in Jesus Christus vervat, bevat en
verpersoonlik, en soos so mooi en raak uitgedruk deur Calvyn juis hier in sy
hoofstuk oor die Sabbatsgebod in die Institusies (2,8,31b et al).
Calvyn kon – omdat hy die saak van die Hervorming so trou was – nie die
Protestantse Gemeente so kras oordeel soos O’Keefe dan doen nie, maar het
nogtans nie die Kerk so heeltemal soos O’Keefe as outoriteit bo die Skrifte
gestel nie. Eenvoudig: Calvyn het gladnie Sondag vir die Sabbat van die Skrif
gehou nie, maar het duidelik heimlik na die Sewende Dag Sabbat gehunker. Dit is
my gevolgtrekking na aanleiding van die duidelik ondubbelsinnige én net so
duidelik dubbelsinnige standpunte wat hy inneem. (CGE)
Gerhard
Ebersöhn
Private
Bag 43
Sunninghill
2157