Two Laws: The Trick to Keep the Sabbath
Waggoner divides the law into an eternal decalogue and an abolished ceremonial law in order to keep the Sabbath obligatory, ignoring that the ministry engraved on stones came to an end.
Por Rodrigo Custódio ·
The moment
On Thursday, June 2, 1881, the weekly Signs of the Times, founded by James White and published in Oakland, California, carried on page 247 the article "Whose Is the Law?", signed by E. J. Waggoner. The issue was volume 7, number 21 — and the text responded to a paragraph circulating in the religious press: "Moses, with his decalogue, could never accomplish what was achieved by Christ and his cross" — for Waggoner, an attempt to "place Christ in antagonism to the ten commandments."
The answer is the doctrine of the two laws: there would be two distinct laws — the "law of God," the decalogue, perpetual; and the "law of Moses," ceremonial, abolished. The proof, the article asks, where does the Bible record the "decalogue of Moses"? Moses did not originate the law, did not speak it to the people, nor even write it: it was God who spoke all the words at Sinai (Ex 20:1), and the tablets were "written with the finger of God" (Ex 31:18). The decalogue, therefore, would not be Moses' — it would be God's, and the law of God is not abolished.
The other law — that of Moses — would have been given on the mount and written by Moses in a book (Dt 31:9, 24), with Nehemiah 9:13-14 as final proof of the distinction between the law of God and that of Moses. One law engraved on stone by the divine finger; another written in a book by the hand of Moses. One eternal; another abolished. The cut is surgical — and it falls exactly where the Sabbath needs to be kept away from the cross.
The aim was never disguised: to keep the Ten Commandments — including the fourth, the Sabbath — obligatory for Christians, while all the rest of the Mosaic law is dispatched to the cross. It is theological sleight of hand: the law is abolished, except the part that matters; the Christian is free from the law, except from the Sabbath. Two laws, one purpose: to save the Sabbath from the cross.
Carpenter's workshop with a workbench, saws and two stone tablets on the top — atmospheric illustration.
The absurdity
The law is sawed in two to save the Sabbath: the decalogue would be the "law of God," eternal, because Moses neither originated nor wrote it; the ceremonial law would be the "law of Moses," abolished on the cross. One law for the cross to carry away, another for the Christian to keep. Read the exact words of the printed page:
"but where in the Bible do we find any record of the decalogue of Moses? Moses did not originate the law, did not speak it to the people, nor even write it. Throughout the Bible the ten commandments are distinctly called the law of God. ... There is a law that is sometimes called the law of Moses, but it was distinct from the decalogue. It was the law of ceremonies that God gave to Moses when he was on the mount."
Source: Signs of the Times, vol. 7, no. 21, June 2, 1881 — p. 247.
Highlighted clipping of page 247 with the two quoted passages, June 2, 1881 issue — marker over the original.
Why this is serious
The first casualty is the unity of the law. The Bible never divides the law into two halves with different destinies — whoever stumbles at one point becomes guilty of all (Jas 2:10), precisely because the law is one. The artifice ignores that the decalogue itself is called the law of Moses in the Scriptures — Jesus attributes the fifth commandment to Moses in Mk 7:10. The division is a later invention, not a biblical category.
The second casualty is the testimony of Paul, which the article pretends does not exist. The apostle speaks of the "ministry of death, engraved with letters on stones" — a description that fits only the decalogue — and declares that ministry transitory before the greater glory of the ministry of the Spirit (2 Cor 3:7-11). Paul makes no exception for the decalogue: he names it by its physical medium — stones — and announces its setting.
There is yet the irony of the central argument: "Moses did not write the decalogue, therefore it is eternal." Yet human authorship was never a criterion of perpetuity: the prophets wrote under inspiration without their writings being temporary. The criterion is arbitrary: the hand of Moses disqualifies the ceremonial law, but the mouth of Moses transmitting the decalogue to the people does not disqualify it. The argument proves only what was already decided before it.
And the method reveals the haste: the article cites Nehemiah 9:13-14 as proof of the distinction, but Nehemiah mentions statutes and judgments without drawing the boundary Waggoner needs — it is read into the text, not drawn from it. When the thesis comes ready-made, any verse serves as a witness for the defense.
Ruins of an ancient city under a stormy sky, with birds flying over the rubble — atmospheric illustration.
The verdict of the Scriptures
Paul did not saw the law in two — he announced the end of the ministry engraved on stones: "the ministry of death, engraved with letters on stones... if what was transitory was in glory, much more in glory is what remains" (2 Cor 3:7-11). The decalogue is identified beyond any doubt — letters on stones — and classified as transitory. There are no two laws in the text; there is one ministry that passed and another that remains.
And the verdict on the law as a system is definitive: "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom 10:4). End — télos — term, goal, conclusion. Christ did not preserve half the law and abolish the other; He is the end of the law as a way of righteousness. Whoever believes is not "under the law, but under grace" (Rom 6:14) — and that sentence does not come with an asterisk excluding the decalogue.
Colossians describes what the cross did with the law: Christ "wiped out the handwriting that was against us in its ordinances... nailing it to the cross" (Col 2:14). The handwriting — the document of debt — was nailed whole, not sliced. And the following verse includes the sacred calendar: "let no one judge you... in respect of a feast day or a new moon or sabbaths" (Col 2:16) — the Sabbath nominally included in what the cross brought to an end.
As for the article's question — "where is the decalogue of Moses?" — the Bible answers without embarrassment: Jesus called the fifth commandment a "commandment of God" and, in the same breath, a word of "Moses" (Mk 7:8-10). The same law is both God's and Moses', because Moses was the mediator, not the owner. The distinction the article needs exists only in the necessity of saving the Sabbath — and a doctrine that invents categories in order to survive has already confessed that Scripture does not sustain it.