1893

November 15, 1893

“The Sabbath a Sign of Creation” The Bible Echo 8, 23, pp. 361, 362.

ATJ 

A. T. JONES 

IT is written: “Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your GOD.” Ezekiel 20:20. Notice, He does not say, It is a sign that I am the LORD, but “a sign that ye may know that I am the LORD your GOD.” There is that in the Sabbath of the LORD which makes it to man the means of finding the true knowledge of the true GOD. For men only know GOD truly when they know not that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. In answer to the question, “What is his name?” He said, “I AM THAT I AM.” Exodus 3:14. Not only “I am,” but “I am what I am.” Not merely “I am” in point of existence, but “I am what I am,” in point of character. For when He proclaimed his name more fully He proclaimed it: “The LORD, the LORD GOD, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Exodus 34:5-7. This is the LORD, the true GOD; and the Sabbath of the LORD is the sign by which, when it is hallow! men may know that He is such. BEST November 15, 1893, page 361.1

Again, GOD is known as He is, only in JESUS CHRIST, for “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” Matthew 11:27. “They shall call his name EMMANUEL, being interpreted is, GOD with us.” Matthew 1:23. He is the Word—the expression of the thought—of GOD. So that practically and really He is GOD to us, as well as GOD with us. Therefore as GOD is known as He is, only in and through JESUS CHRIST, and the Sabbath of the LORD being the sign by which men may know that the LORD is GOD; it is plain that the Sabbath of the LORD is the sign of what JESUS CHRIST is to men, and by which men may know what JESUS CHRIST is to them. BEST November 15, 1893, page 362.1

It is a sign, says He, “that ye may know that I am the LORD your GOD.” Wherein is it a sign? The first of all things that GOD is to anything or any person in the universe is Creator. Therefore of the Sabbath it is written: “It is a sign, ... for [because] in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed—[took delight].” Exodus 31:17. It is a sign, therefore, by which men may know the Creator of all things, and that the LORD JEHOVAH is He. And in these days when “science” is taking the place of GOD, and evolution the place of creation, it is time that men should know GOD and his creative power for themselves. And now is the time as never before, when the sign—the Sabbath of the LORD—by which men may know Him, shall be exalted that men may find Him and know Him for themselves. It is not strange, therefore, that the enemy of all righteousness should take supreme measures to shut away from the world the sign by which men may know the creative power of GOD in JESUS CHRIST. BEST November 15, 1893, page 362.2

For it was through JESUS CHRIST that the power of GOD was manifested in the creation of the heavens and the earth and all that in them is. For “GOD, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” Hebrews 1:1, 2. “GOD ... created all things by JESUS CHRIST.” Ephesians 3:9. And this is why He challenges all false gods upon the point that they have not made the heavens and earth. Jeremiah 10:1-15. It was JESUS CHRIST who spoke, when “by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.... For He [JESUS CHRIST] spake, and it was done: He commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm 33:6, 9. It was JESUS CHRIST who rested the seventh day at the close of creation. It was He who blessed the seventh day; it was He who hallowed it, and sanctified it. It was He, JESUS CHRIST, who thus made the Sabbath—the rest—of the LORD on the seventh day. And the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Creator, is to man. And this is why it is so emphatically true that they who repudiate and put away the seventh day, the Sabbath of the LORD, do in effect repudiate and put away JESUS CHRIST. This is what the Sabbath was to man before he sinned. This is what it would have still been to him if he never had sinned. BEST November 15, 1893, page 362.3