The Sabbath

and the Lord's Day

The Law

  spoke of its establishment or its abolition."—Kitto's Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, —Art. Law.

  Adventists have drawn up a long list of things which they claim are true of what they call the "moral law" and an opposite list which they apply to their "ceremonial law." These two they contrast and make out two laws. Thus U. Smith: "Moral law":—"Was spoken from Sinai by the voice of God and twice written upon tables of stone by his own finger. Was deposited in the golden ark. Related only to moral duties."—Synopsis of Present Truth, page 266. Of course, this was just the Ten Commandments, nothing more, nothing less. So here we have their "moral law." Now here is the other one: "The ceremonial law": "Was communicated to Moses privately and was by Moses written with a pen in a book (Deut. 31:9)." "Was put into a receptacle by the side of the ark (Deut. 31:26)." "Was wholly ceremonial" (same page).

  Hence everything not found in the Decalog belongs to the ceremonial law, and everything Moses himself wrote in the book of the law placed in the side of the ark is "wholly ceremonial." Deut. 31:26 reads: "Take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark." We enquire, then, how much "the book of the law" contained. The answer is easy: It contained all the five books of Moses— Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Thus 2 Kings 14:6 says it "is written in the book of the law of Moses," and then quotes Deut. 24:16, as the book of the law. 2 Chron. 35:12 says: "It is written in the book of Moses," and refers to Lev. 3:3. Ezra 6:18 says: "It is written in the book of Moses," and refers to Num. 3:6. Josh. 8:31 quotes Exod. 20:25, as that which "is written in the book of the law." 1 Cor. 14:34 refers to Gen. 3:16, as "the law." This settles beyond question that the book of the law deposited in the side of the ark was the five books of Moses. Dr. Scott on Deut. 31:26 says: "This [book] appears to have been a correct and authentic copy of the five books of Moses."

  This book, Adventists say, is "wholly ceremonial." It is their ceremonial law. Yet that very book contained scores of precepts as purely moral as any in the Decalog. Read these: "Thou shalt not vex a stranger." "Ye shall [56] not afflict any widow or fatherless child" (Exod. 22:21,22). "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil" (Exod. 23:2). "Ye shall be holy." "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people." "Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. 19:2, 16,18). "Thou shalt not respect persons." "Thou shalt perfect" (Deut. 16:19; 18:13). These are but a few among scores of moral precepts not found in the tables of stone, but in the book of the law. Are all these to be classed ceremonial because God did not write them on a stone, but gave them to Moses to write in a book? Surely not. Then, the nature of a precept was not determined by the way it was given. God gave them all at different times as it pleased him.

  "The law" embraces the "whole law" (Gal. 5:3). Of course' in that law, some precepts refer to moral duties, others to civil, and others to ceremonial; but all are only different parts of the same law, called, as a whole, "the law." Thus, Jesus quotes from Leviticus 19, as "the law" (Matt. 22:36 40). Now read the whole chapter, Leviticus 19, and you find moral, civil, and ceremonial precepts all mingled together, and often in the same verse.

  Another thought: The "book of the law," which U. Smith calls "wholly ceremonial," contains the Ten Commandments word for word twice repeated (Exod. 20 and Deut. 5). G. I. Butler (Adventist) himself makes this concession: "The book of the law, which was placed in the side of the ark, or at the side of it, contained both the moral and ceremonial laws."—Law in Galatians, page 39. That drops the bottom out of their theory that the moral law was "in the ark, and the ceremonial law in the side of the ark."

  On close examination, every text on which they rely for two laws will fail them. That the "book of the law" did contain moral precepts is settled by Gal. 3:10: "It is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Where in the book of the law is this written? In Deut. 27:26. Turning there, we have a curse against images (vs. 15): disobedience to parents (vs. 16): adultery (vs. [57] 20); murder (vs. 24); bribery (vs. 25); then comes the verse quoted as "the book of the law." So if the Decalog contains moral law, then the book did too. This shows the utter fallacy of their theory of two laws.

  The following passage alone overturns the two law theory of Adventists: "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt. 22:36 40).

  1. These two great commandments were "in the law." 2. Neither of them is found in the Decalog. 3. Both of them are in what Adventists call the ceremonial law. 4. Neither of them was spoken by God, nor written by him, nor engraver on stones, nor put into the ark. Both were given by God to Moses privately, and he wrote them with a pen in the book of the law which was placed in the side of the ark. And yet these two precepts are the greatest of all. Jesus said of the first one that it is "the first of all the commandments." Of the two he said, "There is none other commandments greater than these," and "on these hang all the law." So the greatest commandments are in the book of the law, not on the tables of stone. This utterly demolishes the Adventist two law theory. The Ten Commandments on tables of stone, then, were not superior, but inferior, to commandments that were given through Moses in the book of the law.

  We shall examine a few more of their contrasts of the two laws as they arrange them.

  "1. Moral: Existed in Eden before the fall. Ceremonial: Was given after the fall."

  Answer: Where do they read that the Decalog was given in Eden ? Nowhere. This they assume not only without proof, but against the plain record of Exodus 19, 20, and Deuteronomy 5, that it was given at Sinai. So their very first comparison is a failure.

  "2. Moral: Was perfect (Ps. 19:7). Ceremonial: Made nothing perfect (Heb. 7:19)." [58]

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