"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
Trouble was brewing up in college between a group of students and the administration over a graduation ceremony date. The issue was that the school administration had scheduled graduation to take place on a Saturday, which to this group of students was the Sabbath day. Negotiation between the college and the students to settle the issue seemed to bear no fruit. The situation was getting out of hand when the students threatened to go to court to make the college change the date.
A friend of mine from this group came and talked to me about it. He was very saddened that after four years he was not going to be seen in full graduation attire in front of his family members and friends, which he had longed for. But he was not prepared to go against what he always held to be right, and that was the law of the Sabbath. According to his church Saturday was a holy day when one was not allowed to do any kind of work.
The college administration intended to discipline anyone who supported this group. It was even more risky if you were a current student or employee. I was still a student, which meant exercising great caution in giving my opinion on this issue.
The question of the Sabbath was not new to me. Some years back I myself had struggled with it. At one point I didn’t know which day I could rest from working. My family rests on Sunday, and therefore I regarded Sunday as my Sabbath. But I gained a new insight when I took up the study of Christian Science. The idea came to share with my fried my understanding of the Sabbath as taught in Science and Health.
First I asked why he thought that Saturday was the Sabbath, and he explained what underlay the Jewish practice, according to their understanding of the Bible. Then I shared with him something important Mrs Eddy says, that we need to understand “the spiritual signification of Scripture” (SH 241:14). Our God is spiritual (see John 4:24), and man being in His image and likeness, he too is spiritual. Therefore this is where all that is God’s belongs, including the Sabbath.
The subject of the Sabbath can be traced back to the early days of creation where it is recorded in the Bible that God rested from all His work once and for all on the seventh day. Now the question is, is the seventh day Saturday? My answer is NO! Because the conventional Saturday we know is not the seventh day in God’s spiritual creation. The solar days of the week were given names by man. But the Bible says, “One day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” (II Peter 3:8). This clearly indicates that God’s days are totally different from what man understands day to be. So what is God’s day? This is understood in Christian Science as “...the irradiance of Life [God]; light, the spiritual idea of Truth [God] and Love [God]. (Science and Health, p. 548:1)
From the spiritual point of view, we then, need to understand that the Sabbath is the state where our Maker rested from all His work once and for all. Man needs to work towards this point where he will too rest from his turmoil of trying to make his life better than what God has already made. Observing the Sabbath means reaching that point where we will not ever have any other gods (material medicine, charms, relying on witchdoctors and astrologers etc), but only one God (Life, Truth, Love) (See Ex. 20:3) At this point we will be observing the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not meant to enslave man but to better him. Christ Jesus noted, “the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) It will therefore be of no importance to God whether you attend the graduation on Saturday or not.
After this analysis my friend left, and asked me whether I could lend him my copy of Science and Health, which I did. Three days later he came back with some of his friends so that I could again share with them these teachings. After a discussion all were on agreement that Saturday was not the Sabbath and this could not stop them attending the graduation ceremony. They dropped the matter and later attended the ceremony without any feelings of guilt, or sense of doing what is wrong before God.