From the preceding it will be evident that it is important properly to observe the weekly sabbath, and that the desecration of that sabbath day is a sad sign of spiritual deterioration.
First of all, it will be plain that they who insist on the seventh day instead of the first day of the week are utterly in error, proceed from a wrong conception principally, and fail to understand the significance of the Christian sabbath.
This error is not to be found only in the mistaken notion that one day is holier than the other. The error of the Seventh Day Adventist much rather consist in this, that he does not understand the progress of God's work, and fails to see that God repeatedly spoke of another day. He does not understand that our sabbath consists principally in our entering into the work of God, which He perfected for us in Christ Jesus our Lord, and that therefore, if we must celebrate a special day at all, the Christian church, following Scripture, chose the first day as being the resurrection-day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Seventh Day Adventist insists on the sabbath of creation and of the shadows. He closes his eyes to the fact that God has provided some better thing for us.
The sabbath of creation is gone forever, and cannot possibly be celebrated by the Christian church. It was lost when a man fell into sin and death.
The first paradise will never, and must never, return.
Moreover, the sabbath of the shadows was temporary, as are all the shadows. And the earthly land of Canaan is forever destroyed, to open up new vistas for the better, that is, the heavenly country. For this better country already the patriarchs of the old dispensation hoped, as they dwelt in the land of Canaan as in a strange country. For we read: "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. 11:9, 10. And again, in the same chapter, vss. 13-16. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city."
A better day has dawned. And the dawn of this better day the Seventh Day Adventist ignores, does not see. It dawned on the first day of the week, the resurrection-day of the Lord, that gives us rest. Small wonder that the disciples from the outset met on that day. Small wonder, especially in the light of the fact that again on the first day of the week the risen, glorified Lord returned in the Spirit, and sanctified that day until His coming again in glory. On that first day of the week God entered into His rest through our Lord Jesus Christ, when He raised Him from the dead. On the first day of the week He spiritually bestowed that rest upon His church which is the temple of God with men. It is on that day that the people of God celebrate the sabbath of the Lord their God.
From all that we have said about the sabbath of the Lord, it will also be self- evident that it is quite impossible to legislate the world into proper observance of the sabbath day. It is impossible for the unbelieving world to observe the sabbath of the Lord our God. I have no objection that proper legislation be passed, and that the already existing laws be enforced, pertaining to restriction of labor, business, traffic, and public amusements of Sunday. But at best, such legislation may be conducive to create a better atmosphere for the people of God in the world to keep the weekly sabbath holy and to fill their minds and hearts with the things concerning the kingdom of God. Nevertheless, the ungodly cannot possibly celebrate the sabbath, even though they spend it in complete idleness and refraining from all labor. The sabbath is strictly a spiritual idea. The keeping of the sabbath is a high spiritual act, the expression of hope and faith on the part of the Christian sojourner in the midst of this present world. It is for this reason a very sick faith and a waning hope, when they that call themselves Christians, that outwardly join the band of Christian pilgrims in the world, evince no longing to keep the sabbath properly, desecrate it, and more and more join the world, to follow after their own desires, speak their own words, and do their own evil works.
For the Christian is really a stranger and sojourner, a pilgrim in a strange country, because principally he entered into the sabbath of the Lord through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He is begotten again unto a lively hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When he is regenerated, he receives the beginning of that new and resurrection life of the Lord. He ceased from his labor and toil. He rests from sin and from the world and its evil works. And he becomes a new man, the citizen of another country, the heavenly, of the new Jerusalem, that will descend out of heaven from God in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. He lives the sabbath life. Hence, his whole life is a sabbatic life, a ceasing from sin, and an entering into the rest of God's perfected covenant.
But in this world his life is a sojourner's sabbath. For he still sojourns in Babylon. And in Babylon they do not know the sabbath of the Lord our God. They are aliens to the very idea of the sabbath, of the rest of God's tabernacle. We need not be surprised, therefore, that in the world they devote the first day of the week to the pursuit of earthly and worldly things, of the things of the flesh. It is usually especially on the sabbath that all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, becomes emphatically manifest. But this is all the more reason why the Christian sojourner, living his sabbath life in the midst of the world, where he feels that he is a stranger, where he meets with Babylon's opposition and reproach, where all things tend to draw him downward and to make it difficult for him to live his life of rest, shall long for the say of the Lord, the weekly sabbath, which the Lord in His great mercy provided for him, and shall insist to keep it holy. He shall not entertain the notion that by merely refraining from earthly labor he is observing the sabbath of the Lord. He shall not imagine that one day is holier than the other. But he shall as much as is in him desist from every earthly task, to remove from his mind and heart all earthly cares, in order that the whole day may be occupied only with the sabbath of the Lord; congregate with His people in His house diligently; meditate on His Word; take hold of His promises; and let his hole conversation be in heaven.
"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 his hand from doing any evil." Is. 56:2
For even as this keeping of the sabbath itself the expression of a healthy and vigorous spiritual life, of the lively hope unto which we are begotten again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, so the proper observance of the weekly sabbath will bear the fruit that the believer individually and the church of Christ organically are strengthened in the most holy faith. Quickened in the hope eternal, sustained and encouraged by the proper observance of the weekly sabbath, the believer will yield himself to the Lord, to work by His Holy Spirit in him. And he will be encouraged once more to take up his pilgrim's staff and pursue his journey in the world, looking forward to the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God.
Blessed is the man that doeth this, for he has the sure promise of the Lord: "My salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed."
Herman Hoeksema
The Triple Knowledge, III: 267-271
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