FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
WHAT THE AUTHOR OF THE ‘BAPTIST MANUAL’ SAYS ABOUT THE BURNING ISSUE OF WHICH IS THE TRUE SABBATH
“Dr. Edward D. Hiscox, author of the ‘Baptist Manual’ says:
‘There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, with some show of triumph [?!], that the Sabbath was TRANSFERRED from the seventh day to first day of the week, with all the duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring INFORMATION on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ASK, where can the record of such a transaction [change] be 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 this aspect of it [the ‘transactional change’] is THE GRAVEST and MOST PERPLEXING QUESTION CONNECTED WITH CHRISTIAN PEOPLE; and the only reason that it is not a MORE DISTURBING ELEMENT in Christian thought and in religious discussions, is BECAUSE the Christian world has settled down CONTENT on the conviction that SOMEHOW a transference has taken place at the beginning of Christian history.
‘To me, it seems UNACCOUNTABLE that Jesus during three ears’ intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the SABBATH QUESTION, discussing it in some of its various aspects, FREEING it from the false glosses, NEVER ALLUDED TO A TRANSFERENCE of the day; also that during 40 days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated.
‘Nor so far as we know, did the (Holy) Spirit which was given ‘to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever He had said unto them,’ deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, IN PREACHING THE GOSPEL, founding churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach this subject.
‘Of course I quite well know that Sunday did come into the early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a PITY it comes BRANDED with the mark of Paganism, and christened with the name of the SUN-GOD, when adopted and sanctioned by the PAPAL APOSTASY, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy(??) to PROTESTANTISM!’” – A paper read before a New York Ministers’ Conference, held Nov. 13, 1893. From a copy furnished by Dr. Hiscox for the ‘Source Book,’ pp. 513, 514. Wash., D.C., Review & Herald, 1892 – Facts of Faith, Christian Edwardson, pp.107, 108. Southern Pub.Asso., 1943.
Bless all, but only with and in the truth as it is in Jesus, NMF.