“In the Spirit and Power of Elias”
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profaned My Sabbaths.” “Therefore have I poured out Mine indigna-
tion upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath: their
own way have I recompensed upon their heads.”
Ezekiel 22:8, 31
.
At the restoration of Jerusalem, in the days of Nehemiah, Sabbath-
breaking was met with the stern inquiry, “Did not your fathers thus,
and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet
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ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”
Nehemiah
13:18
.
Christ, during His earthly ministry, emphasized the binding claims
of the Sabbath; in all His teaching He showed reverence for the in-
stitution He Himself had given. In His days the Sabbath had become
so perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and
arbitrary men rather than the character of God. Christ set aside the
false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepre-
sented Him. Although followed with merciless hostility by the rabbis,
He did not even appear to conform to their requirements, but went
straight forward keeping the Sabbath according to the law of God.
In unmistakable language He testified to His regard for the law
of Jehovah. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets,” He said; “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily
I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore
shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so,
he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever
shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17-19
.
During the Christian dispensation, the great enemy of man’s hap-
piness has made the Sabbath of the fourth commandment an object of
special attack. Satan says, “I will work at cross purposes with God. I
will empower my followers to set aside God’s memorial, the seventh-
day Sabbath. Thus I will show the world that the day sanctified and
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blessed by God has been changed. That day shall not live in the minds
of the people. I will obliterate the memory of it. I will place in its
stead a day that does not bear the credentials of God, a day that cannot
be a sign between God and His people. I will lead those who accept
this day to place upon it the sanctity that God placed upon the seventh
day.