The Sabbath

and the Lord's Day

The Law

commanded by Moses" (Neh. 8:14). "God's law, which was given by Moses" (Neh. 10:29). This includes the Decalog. "Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother" (Mark 7:10). This is the fifth commandment. Again: "Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?" (John 7:19). The law against killing is here called the law of Moses.

  In Heb. 10:28 it is said that "he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses." Persons were put to death for violating the Decalog (see Deut. 17:6). They were put to death for breaking the Sabbath (Exod. 31:14), blasphemy, theft, and the like. Hence the Decalog is included in "the law of Moses."

  In Josh. 8: 30, 31, we read: "Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron." It says that this about the altar was written in the "book of the law of Moses." Now turn to Exod. 20: 25, the very chapter where the Decalog is found, and there you have the text referred to. This proves beyond denial that the Ten Commandments are in the law of Moses.

  Proposition 5. "The law" was not given till the time of Moses and Sinai.

  The texts quoted prove this. "The law was given by Moses" (John 1:17). "Did not Moses give you the law?" (John 7:19). "For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses" (Rom. 5:13, 14). The entrance of the law is here located at Moses. Every attempt to place it back of that time contradicts the plain testimony of these texts. The Bible locates the law under the Levitical priesthood. "If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law" (Heb. 7:11). This drops the bottom out of Sabbatarianism. So the giving of the law is located "430 years after the covenant with Abraham." "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty [62] years after, cannot disannul" (Gal. 3:17). This brings us to the very year the children of Israel came out of Egypt and arrived at Sinai. "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt" (Exod. 12:41). Beyond dispute, then, what the Bible calls "the law" was not given till Moses, 2,500 years after Adam, or nearly half the history of the world.

  Proposition 6. Their fathers did not have the Decalog as worded on the tables.

  This Moses directly states. (Deut. 4:12, 13) says God spoke to the children of Israel from heaven, and declared to them "his covenant," "even ten commandments."( Chapter 5:2, 3) says: "The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us." Then he repeats the Ten Commandments as that very covenant (vss. 4 22). That their fathers had the law as worded and arranged at Sinai is directly denied by Moses.

  Proposition 7. The law was given only to the children of Israel.

  This is so manifest in every item of the law that it needs no argument to prove it. Moses says (Deut. 4:8) that no nation has a law so good "as the law which I set before you this day." Then he names the Ten Commandments as a part of it (vss. 10 13). "This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel" (vs. 44). Then no other nation had the law. This is stated a hundred times over. It was addressed to the Israelites, and to them only.

  The very wording of the law proves that it was designed only for them. The Decalog is introduced thus: "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exod. 20:2). To whom is that applicable? Only to the Israelite nation. Neither angels, Adam, nor Gentile Christians were ever in Egyptian bondage. Then, the law was not addressed to them. Paul plainly states to whom the law was given. "Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the [63] law" (Rom. 9:41). It was given to Israel. In Matt 4:4 it is clearly stated that the law given in Horeb was "for all Israel."

  All these things show that this was a national law worded to fit the condition of the children of Israel at the time.

  Proposition 8. The Gentiles did not have the law.

  This has been proved already; but Paul directly says so (Rom. 2:14): "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, ... these having not the law, are a law unto themselves." This is too plain to need arguing. The Gentiles did not have the law. The law in letter as worded in detail on Sinai was never given to them.

  Proposition 9. The rewards and penalties of the law were all temporal.

  There are no promises of future rewards, nor threatenings of future punishments, in all the Mosaic law. Every careful student of that law must be aware of this feature of it. The reason is clear. It was a national, temporal law, given for a national, temporal purpose. As a sample of all, see Deut. 28:1 19. If they keep the law, they shall be blessed in children, in goods, in cattle, in health, etc. If they disobey, they shall be cursed in all these. Stoning to death was the penalty for theft, murder, Sabbath breaking, etc. Hence it was the "ministration of death written and engraver in stones" (2 Cor. 3:7), and "is done away" (vs. 11).

  Paul states that the promise of the future inheritance was made to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the law was given. From this he argues, and forcibly, too, that the keeping of the law was not necessary in order to receive Christ and the inheritance. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise" (Gal. 3: 16-18). "For the promise, that he should be the heir of [64]

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