How can such texts be found when you may search your Bible from the first word in Genesis to the last word in Revelation and you will find neither the word “moral” nor the word “ceremonial”? Those words are not in the Bible. I challenge the Sabbatarians to find either of them.
Even if the first two texts named above could be found, the Adventist theory would not be established unless the last two could also be found. In fact, it would be destroyed, for in the very nature of the case the sabbath commandment is a ceremonial one. There is nothing moral about it. According to Webster (the Bible doesn’t mention the word) a moral commandment is one that’s based on common sense and on our natural knowledge of what rules should guide us in our relationships one to another. The sabbath commandment does not come in this class. There’s nothing moral about one day in the week any more than another. Nothing could distinguish one day from another, except a positive decree from God Almighty. In that case it would be ceremonial. If you were to sleep for an indefinite period, upon awaking you wouldn’t know the day of the week. You couldn’t tell Saturday from any other day to save your life. As far as our natural senses go, one day is just like another. There is no authority, Biblical or otherwise, for calling Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 the “moral law” and the rest of the Mosaic code the “ceremonial law.”
IV
The Sinaitic Law a Unit
The Bible speaks of the law which God gave to the Jews in the wilderness in the singular, as one law, not two laws. Such expressions as “the book of the law of Moses,” “the law,” “the book of the law,” and “the law of God” are used interchangeably in the Bible to designate all of the Jewish law (See Nehemiah 8:1, 2, 3, 8). They are never used to distinguish one part of it from another part. “The law of Moses” and “the law of the Lord” are used interchangeably in Luke 2:21-24. All of it is called “the law of God” because God was the author of all of it. It is called “the law of Moses” because it was all given through Moses as a mediator (Gal. 3:19; John 1:17; Deut. 5:5). It was all written by Moses (Exod. 31:24-27). Exodus 20:2-17 was originally written by the finger of God on tables of stone but those tables were destroyed (Exod. 32:19) and it was written the second time by Moses himself (Exod. 34:27, 28). The only thing we know about that law today is what Moses wrote in the first five books of the Bible. It was all given at the same time, through the same mediator, to the same people, by the same authority, for the same purpose, and was all taken “out of the way” at the cross (Col. 2:14-16).
In an effort to make it appear that God gave two laws (one “ceremonial,” the other “moral,” one eternal and the other temporal) to the Jews at Sinai, this pamphlet has arranged, in parallel columns. Scriptures that apparently do not apply to the same law. This is well designed to confuse or mislead the untaught; but, in fact, it proves absolutely nothing. The Bible speaks of many other laws in addition to the one God gave to the Jews in the wilderness. For instance, “the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2); “the law of the Medes and Persians” (Dan. 6:8); “the law of my mind” and “the law of sin” (Rom. 7:23); “the law of works”; “the law of faith” (Rom. 3:27); “the law of liberty” (Jas. 2:12); “the royal law” (Jas. 2:8); etc., etc. In addition to all this, there are the laws or commandments that God gave to Adam, Cain, Noah, Abraham, et al.
With the Bible speaking of so many different laws, it is not surprising that you can find references that apparently do not apply to the same law. It would be surprising if you couldn’t. In order to harmonize such texts it certainly is not necessary to apply them to two imaginary laws that are not even named in the word of God. The law of faith was established at the cross; the law God gave to the Jews was abolished at the cross (Eph. 2:10-22). The law of Christ is written on the hearts of Christians; the law of Moses was written, in part, on tablets of stone (Heb. 8:8-11). The author of the pamphlet places three references from Romans, chapter 7, in his “moral” column. Even if he were correct in doing this, his theory would still be ruined, for verse 6 of that same chapter says, “But now we have been discharged from the law ...” (ARV).
Some of the references placed in opposing columns by the author really apply to the same law, and present no conflict whatsoever. For instance, the law which God gave the Jews at Sinai was both established and abolished. It was first established and then abolished. It could not have been abolished if it had not first been established. It was established by the life of Christ; it was abolished by the death of Christ. Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill (Matt. 5:17, 18). Jesus said “... all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44). Christ fulfilled every prophecy concerning the Messiah in the law and obeyed every commandment in the law. In that sense he established the law, and after having done so, he abolished it when he died upon the cross. Salvation through faith and obedience to Christ is in fulfillment of the prophecies found in the law of Moses. In that sense the law of faith establishes the law given to the Jews at Sinai and abolished by Christ when he was crucified (Col. 2:14-16).
Not a single text listed by the author in his parallel columns serves to establish the distinction for which he contends. If this is the best he can do in that respect, it only serves to advertise the weakness of his contention. Every text he cites refers either to the law God gave the Jews at Sinai and abolished at the cross, or to the law God gave to the world through Christ and which went into force when he died at Calvary. When this is so clearly the case, isn’t it strange that a preacher would try to make it appear that these Scriptures apply to two imaginary laws that are not even named in these texts or at any other place in the Bible?
Since the law given at Sinai was a unit, every Scripture which teaches that it was taken away at the cross, indeed teaches that it was taken away as a whole, in its entirety. Please listen again then to Ephesians 2:11-18: “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh ... ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel ... but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain [Jew and Gentile] one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both [Jew and Gentile] unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby ... for through him we both [Jew and Gentile] have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”
The entire law of Moses, and especially the sabbath commandment (Ex. 31:16, 17), was the middle wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles. The Holy Spirit says in the text just quoted that it was broken down, abolished, at the cross. This text is a sample of the many additional texts that could be cited to show that the entire Sinaitic law was taken out of the way at the cross, but even one is enough to convince all who love the truth. In Colossians 3:13-16 the Holy Spirit clearly teaches that this law has been taken out of the way, and that, therefore, the Jews themselves are no longer required to keep the sabbaths of the Old Testament. Since the middle wall of partition has been broken down, there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ, but all are one—Christian.