The Seventh-day Adventists point the people to the Decalog as God’s eternal law, superior to all else, that which governs angels in heaven governed Adam in Eden, and will govern the teeming millions of redeemed ones to all eternity. These extravagant claims are the main pillars underneath the whole doctrine and argument used by them for the observance of the seventh day. If Adventists are wrong here, their whole doctrine falls to the ground. And fall it must under the hammer of eternal truth.
When the lawyer asked Jesus, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus did not point to the Decalog. In fact, he did not quote one precept from the tables of stone. “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. 22:37-40). Here are two commands not found in the Decalog. Yet the Master said that these are “the first of all the commandments,” and that “there is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31). This spoils the Adventist theory in pointing to the Decalog as God’s superior and eternal law. These two—enjoining love to God and fellow beings—are first and greatest. On them the Decalog hangs. Hence it is inferior to that higher law which is eternal. The Decalog was hung to that first and greater law. But twenty-five hundred years of man’s history passed before this took place. “The law was given by Moses.” Not until Moses’ time was the Decalog given and coupled to that higher law. This is settled beyond question by Moses himself. Referring directly to the Ten Commandments (see Deut. 5:2-22), he says, “The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us [Israel” (vs. 3).
The very wording of the Decalog proves that it was given to Israel as a nation alone. On the tables were written all the words God spoke in the mount (Deut. 9:10). These words you will find written out in full in Deut. 5:6-22. “These words” “he wrote in two tables of stone” (vs. 22). Now lay down the book and carefully read verses 6 to 22 inclusive, and you have exactly what was on the tables—the Decalog. To whom does it apply? To whom it was given is told by the very first words: “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me,” etc. (Exod. 20:2, 3; Deut. 5:6, 7). This was on the tables, written with God’s own finger, and placed in the ark. When Adventist lecturers hang up their charts, it will be noticed that they have left out this part, and begun with “Thou shalt have no other gods.” Why do they do this? The reason is apparent. To put the whole Decalog on their chart would betray the falsity of their claims. Was Egypt the abode of Adam? How many of the millions of Christians which constitute the new testament church were under King Pharaoh in Egyptian bondage? Not one. It cannot possibly apply to any but the Israelitish nation.
Look at the Sabbath commandment as written on the stone tables. “Keep the Sabbath Day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man servant and thy maid servant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day” (Deut. 5:12-15). Can this apply to all people in all ages? Can it apply to angels? Will it apply to the redeemed in heaven forever? Reason and common sense answer, “No.” Angels—servants in the land of Egypt! “Thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle.” Do the angels in heaven own oxen, work asses, and feed cattle? Will this be true of the redeemed millions around the throne in eternity? “Thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” Would this apply to Adam in Eden? Did he have servants, and let strangers in his gates back there? The language shows that Israel is referred to. It cannot possibly apply elsewhere. “Thy stranger in thy gates” refers to the Gentiles that entered the gates of their cities.
“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” What land was given? Answer: Canaan. To whom was it given? Answer: Israel. Then the fifth commandment was given to Israel. Angels do not have fathers and mothers. How can they honor what they do not have? Are the angels under the fifth commandment? Preposterous. Then that law cannot govern the hosts of heaven. It was given to a single nation—Israel—in a limited territory—Canaan.
“Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Does this command govern angels in heaven? Will it be the law that will rule the untold millions of immortal beings around the throne in eternity? These lecturers hang up their charts, and teach men that this law is eternal, governs angels, and will govern the redeemed forever; that it must stand eternally. This is all done to save their idolized Sabbath. But their argument is false from the ground up. The Decalog cannot apply universally. It was given by Moses from God to Israel to restrain wickedness from men’s hearts. Think of God telling the angels, who are spirit-beings, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Would that not sound a little strange to the millions in heaven with immortal, spiritual and glorified bodies? Yet on just such absurdities rests the whole structure of Sabbatarianism.
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.” Strange language this would have been to Adam while in Eden. Stranger yet it would sound to angels in heaven, and to the immortal saints around the throne, where “they neither marry, nor are given in marriage.”
The wording of the Decalog throughout shows that it was only a prohibitory national law, worded to fit the circumstances, and adapted to the social condition of the Jews as a nation in the land of Canaan. To apply it to Eden, to angels, and to heaven, is nonsense.
Adventists make a great ado over the fact that the Ten Commandments were spoken by God’s voice, written by his finger, engraven in stones, and placed in the ark. “Why,” ask they, “was it thus kept separate, if not more prominent than the rest of the law?” We answer: The Ten Commandments were written by Moses in the book of the law, along with the other precepts (see Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). They were included in the book of the covenant which was sprinkled with blood, and which Paul says “was taken away” and “abolished” that Christ might establish the “second” or “new covenant.”
But it was customary at the time of the giving of the law, that, when a solemn covenant or agreement was entered into between parties, some object be selected as a witness or testimony of the transaction. I shall cite a few examples. Jacob set up a pillar as a witness of his vow to God (see Gen. 2:18). When Jacob and Laban made a covenant, “they took stones and made a heap.” “And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day” (Gen. 31:45-48). On this point I quote from Canright:
“Just so when the solemn covenant was made between God and Israel at Sinai, the Lord gave them the tables of stone to be always kept as a witness or ‘testimony’ of that agreement. Hence they are called ‘the tables of testimony,’ that is, witness (Exod. 31:18). So the tabernacle was ‘the tabernacle of testimony’ (Num. 1:53), or, ‘the tabernacle of witness’ (Num. 17:7; Acts 7:44). These tables of stone, then, containing some of the chief items of the law, were always to be kept as ‘witness’ of the covenant which Israel had made to keep that law. This is the reason why the Decalog was given as it was, and not because it was a perfect and eternal law in and of itself.” This is sound and logical. These reasons are so simple and clear that the imaginary reasonings invented by Sabbatarians fade away.
Another thought just here: The Decalog of necessity was only a national law for Israel and temporal in its obligations, because the penalty for its violation was stoning to death. “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses” (Heb. 10:28). Adventists admit that the penalty of the law was abolished at the cross, and this admission proves that the law itself ceased there too; for a law without a penalty is a nullity.
But as a last effort, these preachers cry, “If the Decalog is no longer in force, then there is nothing to condemn crime, such as adultery, idolatry, etc.” This is another man of straw that the fire of truth will consume. The New Testament does condemn these.
Idolatry—“Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). “Neither be ye idolaters” (1 Cor. 10:7). “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Cor. 10:14).
Adultery—“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9, 10).
Theft—“Steal no more” (Eph. 4:28).
Lying—“Lie not one to another” (Col. 3:9).
“All liars shall have their portion in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 21:8).
Murder—“No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15).
Covetousness—“Covetousness, let it not once be named among you” (Eph. 5:3). “Covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).
The New Testament forbids not only evils condemned in the Decalog, but also scores of others not mentioned in that code, such as drunkenness, love of pleasure, pride, anger, impatience, selfishness, boasting, filthy talk, evil thoughts, foolishness, uncleanness, strife, hatred, envyings, revelings, etc. Thus, it became necessary to supersede the Decalog and all that clustered around it with the new testament, which is “a better covenant, established upon better promises.”
All chapters from The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day.
The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day. By H. M. Riggle, 1922. Life Assurance Ministries, Inc.
- The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day - October 2, 2021
- 27. Sunday-Keeping is Not the Mark of the Beast - July 8, 2020
- 26. The Pope and the Sabbath - July 2, 2020