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T WAS never given to any other
people but the Jews,” say those
who oppose God’s holy Sabbath,
the seventh day. How does this statement
harmonize with Mark 2: 27, 28, wherein
Christ says: “The Sabbath was made for
man, and not man for the Sabbath: there-
fore the Son of man is Lord also of the
Sabbath.”
They also say: “No Gentile ever kept
the Sabbath by divine authority.”
God says: “Blessed is the man that
doeth this, and the son of man that layeth
hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from
polluting it, and keepeth his hand from
doing any evil. . . . Also the sons of the
stranger, that join themselves to the Lord,
to serve Him, and to love the name of the
Lord, to be His servants, every one that
keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it,
and taketh hold of My covenant; even
them will I bring to My holy mountain,
and make them joyful in My house of
prayer: their burnt offerings and their
sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine
altar; for mine house shall be called an
house of prayer for all people.” Isaiah
56:2, 6, 7.
This shows that God designed that the
blessings of salvation should be for the
Gentiles also when they should “take
PAGE 10
“Shall We Sin, because We Are Not under the Law,
but under Grace? '- III
FIRST
or SEVENTH--
WHICH DAY?
By S. O. Martin
A former minister of the Church of
Christ, who was for 18 years a mis-
stonary of that denomination in India.
hold” of His covenant. Taking hold of
God’s covenant includes keeping the
Sabbath. God made this promise to
the Gentiles, “every one that keepeth the
Sabbath from polluting it.” Verse 6.
The Ten Commandments expressly en-
join the keeping of the Sabbath upon
“the stranger that is within thy gates.”
Exodus 20: 8-11. Who was that stranger?
He too was a member of the human
family, although he was not a Jew. He
too was a man, one for whom the Sab-
bath was made. (Mark 2: 27.)
The New Testament specifically states
that Gentiles were keeping the Sabbath in
apostolic times. When Paul and Barna-
bas were in Antioch of Pisidia one Sab-
bath, “the Gentiles besought that these
words might be preached to them the
next Sabbath. . . . And the next Sab-
bath day came almost the whole city
together to hear the word of God.” Acts
13: 42, 44. At the Sabbath service in
Philippi, a Gentile city of Macedonia,
there were present a woman from
Thyatira. (Acts 16: 12-14.) At the three
Sabbath services conducted by Paul in
the Grecian city of Thessalonica the
audience was made up ‘of the devout
Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief
women not a few.” Acts 17:1-4. In
Corinth, another Grecian metropolis,
Paul preached “every Sabbath, and per-
suaded the Jews and the Greeks. . . .
Many of the Corinthians hearing be-
lieved, and were baptized.” Acts 18:
1-4, 8, 11.
Josephus, the Jewish priest and his-
torian who wrote in the days of the
apostle John, said: “The multitude of
mankind itself have had a great inclina-
tion of a long time to follow our religious
observances; for there is not any city o
the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians,
nor any nation whatsoever, whither our
custom of resting on the seventh day hath
not come.”—Flavius Josephus, ‘Against
Apion,” book 2, sec. 40 (Whistor’s trans-
lation).
“The Mosaic law was done away in
Christ,” we are told. In this our oppo-
nents are correct. The Mosaic law is
different from the law of God. The book
of the law of Moses contained the cere-
monial laws. There are no ceremonis’
precepts in the Decalogue. (Exodus 2t
Oscar von Miller, founder of the German museum in Munich, left,
when he died, a sum of money for the purpose of erecting this inter-
esting clock that is seen on the court side of the bridge tower. It not
only tells the time of day, but also indicates the month of the year
and days of the week, which are represented by the astrological
symbols of the zodiac and the hebdomad of planetary gods.
THE WATCHMAN MAGAZINE