God's Sabbath: The Only Lord's Day
In the beginning God gave man a day of rest, a day to worship Him. Many believe it is Sunday, others Saturday, some say it doesn’t matter which day as long as we worship the Lord, if we worship Him in spirit and truth. Which day did Christ and the Apostles observe? Which day did Paul teach the Gentile converts to observe? How and when did the day change from the seventh to the first day of the week? Just what is the purpose of the Sabbath Day? Does it make any difference which day we keep?
Which day is the Sabbath, and does it really matter? The first thing we need to do is look on the calendar and see which day is the seventh day and which day is the first day of the week. You will notice that Sunday is the 1st day and Saturday is the 7th day. According to the Lord He used the numbers 1-7, not our Roman names of each day of the week which were named after the Roman Gods and Goddesses. Let’s look into the Scriptures and just see what the Bible says about the First day or the Seventh day for worship.
We have been reared in the Sunday-observing world. So, naturally, we have taken Sunday-observance for granite. Naturally, the idea of a different day as the true day of worship would strike us as being absurd. Yet, today some are telling us Saturday is the right day. They insist the seventh day is the only day the Bible anywhere commands us to keep for 24 hours, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, 24 hours. But others claim that the Sabbath was done away with, nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14), and it is Jewish, and Sunday became the Christian Sabbath because Christ was resurrected on Sunday morning (Mark 16:2).
We must be willing to be corrected, if wrong. We must be careful not to “be blown about with every wind and doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). We must free our mind of all prejudice and accept what is the true day of worship, Saturday are Sunday. We must be able and willing to study both sides honestly, laying aside our ideas and desire, prayerfully asking God for guidance. Just who is right? Honest investigation of the Scriptures will confirm what and who is right (2 Timothy 2:15).
If we are wrong, we should want to know it, and if we are right, regardless if it Saturday are Sunday, we should be ready to change to please God. If we are wrong, we should want to know it, and we should quickly and willingly accept the truth as God reveals it to us (John 8:32).
The word Sunday or Saturday does not appear in the Bible numbers are used such as: the first day of the week, or the seventh day of the week. But the phrase “first day of the week” is found in the New Testament (John 20:19). It occurred in exactly eight places. Now the phrase “seventh day” occurred 47 times in the Old Testament and 2 times in the New Testament (Hebrews 4:4). Now if Jesus, Paul or one of the disciples changed the day we should find it somewhere in the Bible.
If the day had been changed by Bible authority, and if Christians find the Bible as authority, shouldn’t we then find the change to Sunday as the “Lords Day” in one of the eight verses by authority? Since the seventh day of the week has been establish as the Bible Sabbath, or the Lord’s Day, up until the day of the cross then we must prove the seventh day has been changed by these eight verses that used the first day of the week. Now let us examine carefully the Bible to see if it has been changed, honestly and prayerfully
According to the Scriptures above, we find that in the beginning of time, the time of creation, the Lord recreated the earth in 7 days, blessed, and made one day holy.
It all started in Genesis when God began to recreate the earth, when the scene unfolded, the earth has neither form nor content, but the deep is already there. Obviously, God had already created it many years before man. “Only God can create,” that’s what God can do that is impossible for man. Man, created in the image of God came at the end of creation, on the 6th day, and then He gave a day for man to rest and to worship God (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:8-11).
Now we find that in the beginning of time, the time of the creation, the Lord created, blessed, and made holy a day to worship Him. Who else has power to make anything Holy? There is only one, the Creator God (Elohim). There is a purpose to the Sabbath, to put everything to one side for 24 hours (Exodus 16:23-30), and worship and remember the creator, did you notice He said, “remember” to keep the Sabbath Day Holy? That is the only Commandment that starts out with a statement, remember (Exodus 20:8).
If you will also notice the story of the gathering of the bread (Exodus 16) the Lord promised them bread for each of the six days, but for the sixth day God provided enough bread for two days, the sixth and the seventh day because they were to rest and worship Him. The scriptures also show us that the Sabbath Day was important and commanded to be kept even before the tablets (commandments) were even given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. No, the Sabbath was not given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, but was a part of the creation by God when He recreated the heavens and the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th day from all His works (Genesis 2:3). As you can see the Seventh Day Sabbath was part of creation and wasn’t just for the Jews no more than the creation was. Man is to worship the Lord and on the Lord’s Day that He created and made Holy (Revelation 1:10).
Who was the Sabbath made for, and who is Lord over it? When Christ walked this earth, His purpose was to save the lost, preach repentance and to leave us with an example to follow! The Lord taught us that the Sabbath Day was created for man (Mark 2:27-28). He, the creator, our Saviour created a day for us to put all aside and rest and to worship Him and the Father on the 7th Day, what a loving God we have! We need that day of rest; we need that full day to put all aside and worship the Lord, and praise Him. The Lord created 6 days for us to work, to take care of business (Exodus 20:9-10), to use for recreation, but when the 7th day comes around, that day is a Holy Day, and if we are following Him, we must observe the 7th day and keep it Holy.
Jesus Christ “as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day” (Luke 4:16), and began to teach and many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “from whence that this man do these thing” (Mark 6:2)? So, we are to worship Him in the house of the Lord, to do well, to help others when needed. It is to be of fellowship with others, studying His word, praising Him. He was not a man of words only, and He never asked us anything that He did not do.
The fathers broke the covenant, as indicated by their desecration of the Sabbath. The people are instructed to learn from the example of Christ to keep the Sabbath holy. If they don’t they will suffer (Jeremiah 17:22-23). The Sabbath has been called the grandest institution in the religion of Israel. It was an outer token of Israel’s relationship with God and of a great reward of commitment and to worship Him. The proper observant symbolized Israel’s loyalty to her covenant with God. Originally the Sabbath was a delight, a day of rest, rejoicing and renewal (Isaiah 58:13-14).
In His wisdom, the Creator of man and the world established only one day of rest in seven. And He definitely chose and permanently fixed and blessed and sanctified “the seventh day” of the week as that day: making it definitely the Sabbath of the Lord, “for man.”
From the beginning to the end of His book of instructions to the world, that day, the “seventh day” of the week-Saturday, or more definitely and accurately, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset is the only day of weekly rest.
Now where in all His revelation to man is there any suggestion or hint of any such thing as two days of rest in one week? The Sabbath (Saturday) for the Jews and Sunday for Christians? Everywhere there is just one, not two days but just one day, and that is the blessed “seventh day”--“the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
And this Sabbath day—Saturday, and “the first day of the week—Sunday not only in the New Testament but throughout the Bible, are never the same day nor the same thing. They are as distinct as any other two days or things ever, in the Bible or anywhere else. And this is equally true in the time of Christ as it is today.
There is only one true Sabbath day and that is the Seventh day that was made for man not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28); and Jesus said that he was the creator or Lord of that Holy day (Luke 6:5; Matthew 12:8), then He goes on to say if you are going to be my disciple that we must follow his example (Luke 14:27).
The Lord didn’t leave anything out; He made it clear how we are to keep the Sabbath Day Holy. Our daily life style, our pleasures, our busy work schedules, they are to be put aside, aside for a 24 hour period to worship our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who died for us (Exodus 20:10-11).
“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an Holy Day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death,” a death sentence to the ones who break God’s Sabbath (Exodus 35:2).
“But, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my Holy Day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the Holy of the Lord, Honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor find thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,” (Isaiah 58:13-14).
When Sunday observance as the Sabbath is constantly urged upon all people everywhere and by every means, no apology can ever be in order for replacing what the Sabbath of the Lord really is as in the Fourth Commandment and everywhere else in the Bible, the word of God.
Jesus customarily went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day to worship; the Sabbath Jesus kept, it was the Seventh Day of the week, it was His custom. The Sabbath, He kept the same day of the week the Jews observed, for the minister and congregation were all in the synagogue and the Pharisees continually rebuked Jesus for healing on the Sabbath (Mark 4:1-6).
Jesus entered the synagogue “at Capernaum on a Sabbath day and stood up and taught” (Mark 1:21), and then He went into His own country Nazareth, on the Sabbath day, “He entered the synagogue and began to teach” (Mark 6:1-2), and “He returned to Galilee as He taught, being glorified by all” (Luke 4:14-15).
Wherever Jesus traveled He always when into the synagogue and began to teach, which was His custom. The Sabbath Jesus kept was the Seventh Day of the week.
Matthew clearly shows that even after His crucifixion the Sabbath was still the day before the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1). Therefore, it was not just any day in seven; it was the seventh day of the week. He was in the tomb, and the women came on the first day of the week (Luke 23:56; 24:1) to anoint Him.
Now briefly let us look through the New Testament to find which day Paul kept, and taught Gentile converts to keep. “But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day and Paul stood up to preach (Acts 13:14-15), and on the next Sabbath, the whole city came out to hear Paul preach. Paul was preaching the grace of God (Acts 13:42-44), and here was his opportunity to straighten out the Gentiles on the next Sabbath. If the day had now been changed to Sunday, why did not Paul tell them? “And He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and Greeks,” (Acts 18:4).
The Jewish Christian was warned not to turn back to Judaism and forfeit the spiritual blessing that Christ made possible, to do so would miss God. “For we which have believe do enter into His rest—for He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on the wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all of His works—Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For He that is entered into His rest, He also hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:3-10).
After the resurrection of the Lord you can see the Sabbath Day did not change. Paul continued going into the synagogues preaching as Christ did, and if you notice, the Gentiles were praying to be included in the worship service. Due to the Jews not excepting God’s word Paul turned to the Gentiles; the word was given to every lost soul, and every one of us is a sinner. Only through the grace of God do we have a chance for eternal life. But we have to follow Him! This includes keeping the Sabbath Day Holy! As Christians we must do what Paul did, he followed the example of Christ.
What more conclusive proof could we desire? What strong Bible evidence than this, as the true Sabbath of the New Testament? For a year and a half Paul continued working week days-six days a week-including Sundays-preaching to the Gentiles exclusively every Sabbath! Certainly, it was his custom and manner! Certainly, he would not have done this had the Sabbath been changed.
Now let us go to the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and see if their teaching that Jesus Christ rose on Sunday morning is true, they say for this is the reason that we worship our Saviour on Sunday and this is why the Sabbath was done away with.
And in all of this there is neither statement nor evidence that the Lord rose on the first day of the week. Instead of that the plain word is: “In the end of the Sabbath” (Matthew 28:1), “on the first day of the week yet when it was yet dark” (John 20:1), “the women came to the sepulcher and He was already risen and gone” (Mark 16:6). It was still dark.
The words by Mark are: “And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun,” (Mark 16:1-2). They found the sepulcher vacant, empty, except for the angel who told them that the Lord was “risen and gone.”
In all of this that is said by the four Evangelist, there is not a word that says or implies that the Lord arose on the first day of the week. All that is said of the first day of the week or relating to it is that on the first day of the week the women came to the tomb and found not a body of the Lord Jesus because “He was risen and Gone.”
Nobody was ever able to get to the tomb of Christ early enough on the first day of the week to find the Lord Jesus there or find Him rising. No one could ever have gotten to the tomb early enough to find Him there, or to find Him rising. It is made certain by the word written by Matthew, because He rose at the end of the Sabbath, (at sunset), (Matthew 28:1). According to the Law of Moses, still overseeing the Sabbath Day, they were not allowed to go there until after the setting of the sun. This is the reason why it was yet dark when Mary and the other women arrived, and why it was impossible for them to be there any earlier, the Sabbath had to be over.
Here is the true picture of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection from the four evangelists, all agree upon that “Christ would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:39-40): That He was crucified on Wednesday about 3 in the afternoon; put in the tomb about 6 that evening; He was asleep (dead) in the tomb for 72 hours; and rose at the setting of the sun at the end of the Sabbath Day. This is the reason the women came to the tomb and found it empty, He rose at the close of the Sabbath.
It is very clear that the Sabbath and the first day of the week are two different days and the Sabbath is to be kept holy, the first day of the week, a workday. There was a division made by our Lord. The Sabbath Day was not the 1st day of the week, nor was the 1st day ever called a Sabbath day.
Not once did the scriptures instruct us to keep the first day of the week holy, nor did our Lord bless or sanctify Sunday. Four of the Scriptures were telling us of the time frame of Monday gathering, when Mary came to anoint Jesus on the first day of the week, one was a gathering for fear of the Jews. In Acts 20:6 Paul was passing through Troas and had a meal with the disciples. In 1st Corinthians there was a famine at that time, and they were taking a collection up to help those without at that time. Nowhere is there any indication that they were having a church gathering with any of these Scriptures (1 Corinthians 16:1-3).
The first day of the week is mentioned 8 times in the new Testament but only one had to do with a preaching service and that was when Paul and the disciples came together to break bread (have dinner) and Paul preached unto them, being ready to depart after meeting with them and it lasted until midnight (Acts 20:70).
And then there was the time the disciples were assembled indoors for the fear of the Jews after the crucifixion of Christ and all of a sudden, “Jesus stood in the midst of them and said unto them, peace be with you” (John 20:19).
Jesus showed himself not to those who had killed Him, but to those who loved Him. He sought the fellowship of His own. They needed to be certain that He lived. Jesus associated with them for six weeks after His resurrection and He appeared unto them 10 times periodically to encourage them and that they had to learn to depend on themselves.
The Sabbath is part of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:8, written on “two tables of stone by the finger of God” Exodus 31:16-18). The idea of authority conveyed by their words comes from the fact that God as sovereign Lord has a right to be obeyed. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God is not satisfied with mere external compliance with His Commandments, but expects willing and joyful obedience coming from the heart.
The Christian obligation is to keep all Ten Commandments (Revelation 22:14) including the Sabbath Day. This is the reason God instructed us not to forget the Sabbath like many people have done. Jesus let us know that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17), or complete the work what the prophets said that the Messiah would do when He came.
But when Christ comes to rule the earth for the thousand years His Ten Commandments will be the rules that will govern the earth and from “one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship Me, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 66:22-23).
According to history, the early days of Christianity, Sunday began to replace the Seventh Day Sabbath and to be observed to honor the resurrection of Christ. Sunday was then instituted as a day of rest, consecrated especially to the service of God, by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, never by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Besides the entire blessing promised to those who observe the 7th day Sabbath (John 14:21), it is also a sign between God and His people. Remember that Israel was God’s church in the wilderness but now it has been carried over for all of God’s people. “Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep: for it is a “sign” between you and Me throughout your generation; that ye may know that I am the Lord that sanctify you, ” (Exodus 31:13-17; Ezekiel 20:12; 16).
The Sabbath was a constant “sign” between God and Israel as it is today (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). It was and is a memory of the creation for all people that God is their God and we are His people. As they, we also must keep the Sabbath Day; according to the Commandments (Luke 23:56; Exodus 20:8-11,) they and we are honoring the Creator as the one and only true God. It was and is a sign that they and we were to live obedient lives seven days a week. It is still God’s sign of sanctification, and true Sabbath observers are obligated to live holy lives “all the days of our lives” (Luke 1:74-75).
This includes all people, because the Sabbath was made (created) for “Man” (Mark 21:27). It took God to sanctify the Seventh Day Sabbath (Genesis 2:2-3) of the Ten Commandments. After that all men were to “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy” as we find in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8). All of the precepts had been God’s divine law, moral law for man since creation. God gave man a perfect moral law and He did not change or annul the law when Jesus died for the sins of the world (Psalm 19:7-8; James 1:23-25; James 2:10-12). Jesus came to take away our sins, not the Law that gives a knowledge of sin (1 John 4-5; Matthew 5:17-28; Romans 3:20).
The Sabbath law was one of the first obligations of converted Gentiles even in the Old Testament times: “Blessed is the man that doeth this, keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” Then God makes it specific to strangers, or Gentiles. “Also, the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to Love Him the name of the Lord, to everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my covenant. Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:7). This is the point and forever refutes the mistaken idea that the Sabbath was only for the Jews. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God,” (Hebrews chapters 3-4).
In conclusion, the 7th Day Sabbath is still with us, and will always be with us, and it remains the Lord’s Day, which He created, made and sanctified. No man on earth, Roman Emperor, Preachers, or Priests has the power to change God’s laws.
How long shall it be before God’s people will believe Him? Come brethren, come, all God’s people everywhere, “let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of entering His rest, any of should seem to come short of it” (Hebrew 3:18-19). “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart” (Hebrew 4:7). Let us enter into God’s rest—that holy rest of the blessed seventh day. “For God blessed the Seventh Day and hallowed it, because that in it He rested” (Gasses 2:3).
Why should Christians, professing to be “followers of God,” refuse to do on the Sabbath day what God did on the Seventh day simply because it is the Jewish Seventh Day? There are those still willing to rest, yes, they are not only willing to rest, but also to compel everybody else to rest; but they are not willing to enter into God’s rest (Hebrew 4:6). Is that loyalty? Is that the way of God, or is it their own way? “Take heed, brethren, least any of you is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Matthew 13:22).
So, the Seventh Day being the Sabbath; the Sabbath being God’s rest, and the Sabbath, being made for man at the foundation of the world; it is certainly true that it is the Sabbath that God’s rest was prepared for man at the foundation of the world.
Sabbath is the fourth law in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8), the Ten Commandments is the Law that tells us what sin is (1 John 3-4), and if you break one of these laws you are guilty of all (James 2:10) and we will be judged by the Law of Liberty (James 2:12).
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In the beginning God gave man a day of rest, a day to worship Him. Many believe it is Sunday, others Saturday, some say it doesn’t matter which day as long as we worship the Lord, if we worship Him in spirit and truth. Which day did Christ and the Apostles observe? Which day did Paul teach the Gentile converts to observe? How and when did the day change from the seventh to the first day of the week? Just what is the purpose of the Sabbath Day? Does it make any difference which day we keep?
Which day is the Sabbath, and does it really matter? The first thing we need to do is look on the calendar and see which day is the seventh day and which day is the first day of the week. You will notice that Sunday is the 1st day and Saturday is the 7th day. According to the Lord He used the numbers 1-7, not our Roman names of each day of the week which were named after the Roman Gods and Goddesses. Let’s look into the Scriptures and just see what the Bible says about the First day or the Seventh day for worship.
We have been reared in the Sunday-observing world. So, naturally, we have taken Sunday-observance for granite. Naturally, the idea of a different day as the true day of worship would strike us as being absurd. Yet, today some are telling us Saturday is the right day. They insist the seventh day is the only day the Bible anywhere commands us to keep for 24 hours, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, 24 hours. But others claim that the Sabbath was done away with, nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14), and it is Jewish, and Sunday became the Christian Sabbath because Christ was resurrected on Sunday morning (Mark 16:2).
We must be willing to be corrected, if wrong. We must be careful not to “be blown about with every wind and doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). We must free our mind of all prejudice and accept what is the true day of worship, Saturday are Sunday. We must be able and willing to study both sides honestly, laying aside our ideas and desire, prayerfully asking God for guidance. Just who is right? Honest investigation of the Scriptures will confirm what and who is right (2 Timothy 2:15).
If we are wrong, we should want to know it, and if we are right, regardless if it Saturday are Sunday, we should be ready to change to please God. If we are wrong, we should want to know it, and we should quickly and willingly accept the truth as God reveals it to us (John 8:32).
The word Sunday or Saturday does not appear in the Bible numbers are used such as: the first day of the week, or the seventh day of the week. But the phrase “first day of the week” is found in the New Testament (John 20:19). It occurred in exactly eight places. Now the phrase “seventh day” occurred 47 times in the Old Testament and 2 times in the New Testament (Hebrews 4:4). Now if Jesus, Paul or one of the disciples changed the day we should find it somewhere in the Bible.
If the day had been changed by Bible authority, and if Christians find the Bible as authority, shouldn’t we then find the change to Sunday as the “Lords Day” in one of the eight verses by authority? Since the seventh day of the week has been establish as the Bible Sabbath, or the Lord’s Day, up until the day of the cross then we must prove the seventh day has been changed by these eight verses that used the first day of the week. Now let us examine carefully the Bible to see if it has been changed, honestly and prayerfully
According to the Scriptures above, we find that in the beginning of time, the time of creation, the Lord recreated the earth in 7 days, blessed, and made one day holy.
It all started in Genesis when God began to recreate the earth, when the scene unfolded, the earth has neither form nor content, but the deep is already there. Obviously, God had already created it many years before man. “Only God can create,” that’s what God can do that is impossible for man. Man, created in the image of God came at the end of creation, on the 6th day, and then He gave a day for man to rest and to worship God (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:8-11).
Now we find that in the beginning of time, the time of the creation, the Lord created, blessed, and made holy a day to worship Him. Who else has power to make anything Holy? There is only one, the Creator God (Elohim). There is a purpose to the Sabbath, to put everything to one side for 24 hours (Exodus 16:23-30), and worship and remember the creator, did you notice He said, “remember” to keep the Sabbath Day Holy? That is the only Commandment that starts out with a statement, remember (Exodus 20:8).
If you will also notice the story of the gathering of the bread (Exodus 16) the Lord promised them bread for each of the six days, but for the sixth day God provided enough bread for two days, the sixth and the seventh day because they were to rest and worship Him. The scriptures also show us that the Sabbath Day was important and commanded to be kept even before the tablets (commandments) were even given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. No, the Sabbath was not given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, but was a part of the creation by God when He recreated the heavens and the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th day from all His works (Genesis 2:3). As you can see the Seventh Day Sabbath was part of creation and wasn’t just for the Jews no more than the creation was. Man is to worship the Lord and on the Lord’s Day that He created and made Holy (Revelation 1:10).
Who was the Sabbath made for, and who is Lord over it? When Christ walked this earth, His purpose was to save the lost, preach repentance and to leave us with an example to follow! The Lord taught us that the Sabbath Day was created for man (Mark 2:27-28). He, the creator, our Saviour created a day for us to put all aside and rest and to worship Him and the Father on the 7th Day, what a loving God we have! We need that day of rest; we need that full day to put all aside and worship the Lord, and praise Him. The Lord created 6 days for us to work, to take care of business (Exodus 20:9-10), to use for recreation, but when the 7th day comes around, that day is a Holy Day, and if we are following Him, we must observe the 7th day and keep it Holy.
Jesus Christ “as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day” (Luke 4:16), and began to teach and many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “from whence that this man do these thing” (Mark 6:2)? So, we are to worship Him in the house of the Lord, to do well, to help others when needed. It is to be of fellowship with others, studying His word, praising Him. He was not a man of words only, and He never asked us anything that He did not do.
The fathers broke the covenant, as indicated by their desecration of the Sabbath. The people are instructed to learn from the example of Christ to keep the Sabbath holy. If they don’t they will suffer (Jeremiah 17:22-23). The Sabbath has been called the grandest institution in the religion of Israel. It was an outer token of Israel’s relationship with God and of a great reward of commitment and to worship Him. The proper observant symbolized Israel’s loyalty to her covenant with God. Originally the Sabbath was a delight, a day of rest, rejoicing and renewal (Isaiah 58:13-14).
In His wisdom, the Creator of man and the world established only one day of rest in seven. And He definitely chose and permanently fixed and blessed and sanctified “the seventh day” of the week as that day: making it definitely the Sabbath of the Lord, “for man.”
From the beginning to the end of His book of instructions to the world, that day, the “seventh day” of the week-Saturday, or more definitely and accurately, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset is the only day of weekly rest.
Now where in all His revelation to man is there any suggestion or hint of any such thing as two days of rest in one week? The Sabbath (Saturday) for the Jews and Sunday for Christians? Everywhere there is just one, not two days but just one day, and that is the blessed “seventh day”--“the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
And this Sabbath day—Saturday, and “the first day of the week—Sunday not only in the New Testament but throughout the Bible, are never the same day nor the same thing. They are as distinct as any other two days or things ever, in the Bible or anywhere else. And this is equally true in the time of Christ as it is today.
There is only one true Sabbath day and that is the Seventh day that was made for man not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28); and Jesus said that he was the creator or Lord of that Holy day (Luke 6:5; Matthew 12:8), then He goes on to say if you are going to be my disciple that we must follow his example (Luke 14:27).
The Lord didn’t leave anything out; He made it clear how we are to keep the Sabbath Day Holy. Our daily life style, our pleasures, our busy work schedules, they are to be put aside, aside for a 24 hour period to worship our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who died for us (Exodus 20:10-11).
“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an Holy Day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death,” a death sentence to the ones who break God’s Sabbath (Exodus 35:2).
“But, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my Holy Day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the Holy of the Lord, Honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor find thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,” (Isaiah 58:13-14).
When Sunday observance as the Sabbath is constantly urged upon all people everywhere and by every means, no apology can ever be in order for replacing what the Sabbath of the Lord really is as in the Fourth Commandment and everywhere else in the Bible, the word of God.
Jesus customarily went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day to worship; the Sabbath Jesus kept, it was the Seventh Day of the week, it was His custom. The Sabbath, He kept the same day of the week the Jews observed, for the minister and congregation were all in the synagogue and the Pharisees continually rebuked Jesus for healing on the Sabbath (Mark 4:1-6).
Jesus entered the synagogue “at Capernaum on a Sabbath day and stood up and taught” (Mark 1:21), and then He went into His own country Nazareth, on the Sabbath day, “He entered the synagogue and began to teach” (Mark 6:1-2), and “He returned to Galilee as He taught, being glorified by all” (Luke 4:14-15).
Wherever Jesus traveled He always when into the synagogue and began to teach, which was His custom. The Sabbath Jesus kept was the Seventh Day of the week.
Matthew clearly shows that even after His crucifixion the Sabbath was still the day before the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1). Therefore, it was not just any day in seven; it was the seventh day of the week. He was in the tomb, and the women came on the first day of the week (Luke 23:56; 24:1) to anoint Him.
Now briefly let us look through the New Testament to find which day Paul kept, and taught Gentile converts to keep. “But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day and Paul stood up to preach (Acts 13:14-15), and on the next Sabbath, the whole city came out to hear Paul preach. Paul was preaching the grace of God (Acts 13:42-44), and here was his opportunity to straighten out the Gentiles on the next Sabbath. If the day had now been changed to Sunday, why did not Paul tell them? “And He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and Greeks,” (Acts 18:4).
The Jewish Christian was warned not to turn back to Judaism and forfeit the spiritual blessing that Christ made possible, to do so would miss God. “For we which have believe do enter into His rest—for He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on the wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all of His works—Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For He that is entered into His rest, He also hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:3-10).
After the resurrection of the Lord you can see the Sabbath Day did not change. Paul continued going into the synagogues preaching as Christ did, and if you notice, the Gentiles were praying to be included in the worship service. Due to the Jews not excepting God’s word Paul turned to the Gentiles; the word was given to every lost soul, and every one of us is a sinner. Only through the grace of God do we have a chance for eternal life. But we have to follow Him! This includes keeping the Sabbath Day Holy! As Christians we must do what Paul did, he followed the example of Christ.
What more conclusive proof could we desire? What strong Bible evidence than this, as the true Sabbath of the New Testament? For a year and a half Paul continued working week days-six days a week-including Sundays-preaching to the Gentiles exclusively every Sabbath! Certainly, it was his custom and manner! Certainly, he would not have done this had the Sabbath been changed.
Now let us go to the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and see if their teaching that Jesus Christ rose on Sunday morning is true, they say for this is the reason that we worship our Saviour on Sunday and this is why the Sabbath was done away with.
And in all of this there is neither statement nor evidence that the Lord rose on the first day of the week. Instead of that the plain word is: “In the end of the Sabbath” (Matthew 28:1), “on the first day of the week yet when it was yet dark” (John 20:1), “the women came to the sepulcher and He was already risen and gone” (Mark 16:6). It was still dark.
The words by Mark are: “And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun,” (Mark 16:1-2). They found the sepulcher vacant, empty, except for the angel who told them that the Lord was “risen and gone.”
In all of this that is said by the four Evangelist, there is not a word that says or implies that the Lord arose on the first day of the week. All that is said of the first day of the week or relating to it is that on the first day of the week the women came to the tomb and found not a body of the Lord Jesus because “He was risen and Gone.”
Nobody was ever able to get to the tomb of Christ early enough on the first day of the week to find the Lord Jesus there or find Him rising. No one could ever have gotten to the tomb early enough to find Him there, or to find Him rising. It is made certain by the word written by Matthew, because He rose at the end of the Sabbath, (at sunset), (Matthew 28:1). According to the Law of Moses, still overseeing the Sabbath Day, they were not allowed to go there until after the setting of the sun. This is the reason why it was yet dark when Mary and the other women arrived, and why it was impossible for them to be there any earlier, the Sabbath had to be over.
Here is the true picture of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection from the four evangelists, all agree upon that “Christ would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:39-40): That He was crucified on Wednesday about 3 in the afternoon; put in the tomb about 6 that evening; He was asleep (dead) in the tomb for 72 hours; and rose at the setting of the sun at the end of the Sabbath Day. This is the reason the women came to the tomb and found it empty, He rose at the close of the Sabbath.
It is very clear that the Sabbath and the first day of the week are two different days and the Sabbath is to be kept holy, the first day of the week, a workday. There was a division made by our Lord. The Sabbath Day was not the 1st day of the week, nor was the 1st day ever called a Sabbath day.
Not once did the scriptures instruct us to keep the first day of the week holy, nor did our Lord bless or sanctify Sunday. Four of the Scriptures were telling us of the time frame of Monday gathering, when Mary came to anoint Jesus on the first day of the week, one was a gathering for fear of the Jews. In Acts 20:6 Paul was passing through Troas and had a meal with the disciples. In 1st Corinthians there was a famine at that time, and they were taking a collection up to help those without at that time. Nowhere is there any indication that they were having a church gathering with any of these Scriptures (1 Corinthians 16:1-3).
The first day of the week is mentioned 8 times in the new Testament but only one had to do with a preaching service and that was when Paul and the disciples came together to break bread (have dinner) and Paul preached unto them, being ready to depart after meeting with them and it lasted until midnight (Acts 20:70).
And then there was the time the disciples were assembled indoors for the fear of the Jews after the crucifixion of Christ and all of a sudden, “Jesus stood in the midst of them and said unto them, peace be with you” (John 20:19).
Jesus showed himself not to those who had killed Him, but to those who loved Him. He sought the fellowship of His own. They needed to be certain that He lived. Jesus associated with them for six weeks after His resurrection and He appeared unto them 10 times periodically to encourage them and that they had to learn to depend on themselves.
The Sabbath is part of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:8, written on “two tables of stone by the finger of God” Exodus 31:16-18). The idea of authority conveyed by their words comes from the fact that God as sovereign Lord has a right to be obeyed. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God is not satisfied with mere external compliance with His Commandments, but expects willing and joyful obedience coming from the heart.
The Christian obligation is to keep all Ten Commandments (Revelation 22:14) including the Sabbath Day. This is the reason God instructed us not to forget the Sabbath like many people have done. Jesus let us know that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17), or complete the work what the prophets said that the Messiah would do when He came.
But when Christ comes to rule the earth for the thousand years His Ten Commandments will be the rules that will govern the earth and from “one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship Me, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 66:22-23).
According to history, the early days of Christianity, Sunday began to replace the Seventh Day Sabbath and to be observed to honor the resurrection of Christ. Sunday was then instituted as a day of rest, consecrated especially to the service of God, by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, never by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Besides the entire blessing promised to those who observe the 7th day Sabbath (John 14:21), it is also a sign between God and His people. Remember that Israel was God’s church in the wilderness but now it has been carried over for all of God’s people. “Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep: for it is a “sign” between you and Me throughout your generation; that ye may know that I am the Lord that sanctify you, ” (Exodus 31:13-17; Ezekiel 20:12; 16).
The Sabbath was a constant “sign” between God and Israel as it is today (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). It was and is a memory of the creation for all people that God is their God and we are His people. As they, we also must keep the Sabbath Day; according to the Commandments (Luke 23:56; Exodus 20:8-11,) they and we are honoring the Creator as the one and only true God. It was and is a sign that they and we were to live obedient lives seven days a week. It is still God’s sign of sanctification, and true Sabbath observers are obligated to live holy lives “all the days of our lives” (Luke 1:74-75).
This includes all people, because the Sabbath was made (created) for “Man” (Mark 21:27). It took God to sanctify the Seventh Day Sabbath (Genesis 2:2-3) of the Ten Commandments. After that all men were to “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy” as we find in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8). All of the precepts had been God’s divine law, moral law for man since creation. God gave man a perfect moral law and He did not change or annul the law when Jesus died for the sins of the world (Psalm 19:7-8; James 1:23-25; James 2:10-12). Jesus came to take away our sins, not the Law that gives a knowledge of sin (1 John 4-5; Matthew 5:17-28; Romans 3:20).
The Sabbath law was one of the first obligations of converted Gentiles even in the Old Testament times: “Blessed is the man that doeth this, keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” Then God makes it specific to strangers, or Gentiles. “Also, the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to Love Him the name of the Lord, to everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my covenant. Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:7). This is the point and forever refutes the mistaken idea that the Sabbath was only for the Jews. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God,” (Hebrews chapters 3-4).
In conclusion, the 7th Day Sabbath is still with us, and will always be with us, and it remains the Lord’s Day, which He created, made and sanctified. No man on earth, Roman Emperor, Preachers, or Priests has the power to change God’s laws.
How long shall it be before God’s people will believe Him? Come brethren, come, all God’s people everywhere, “let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left of entering His rest, any of should seem to come short of it” (Hebrew 3:18-19). “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart” (Hebrew 4:7). Let us enter into God’s rest—that holy rest of the blessed seventh day. “For God blessed the Seventh Day and hallowed it, because that in it He rested” (Gasses 2:3).
Why should Christians, professing to be “followers of God,” refuse to do on the Sabbath day what God did on the Seventh day simply because it is the Jewish Seventh Day? There are those still willing to rest, yes, they are not only willing to rest, but also to compel everybody else to rest; but they are not willing to enter into God’s rest (Hebrew 4:6). Is that loyalty? Is that the way of God, or is it their own way? “Take heed, brethren, least any of you is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Matthew 13:22).
So, the Seventh Day being the Sabbath; the Sabbath being God’s rest, and the Sabbath, being made for man at the foundation of the world; it is certainly true that it is the Sabbath that God’s rest was prepared for man at the foundation of the world.
Sabbath is the fourth law in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8), the Ten Commandments is the Law that tells us what sin is (1 John 3-4), and if you break one of these laws you are guilty of all (James 2:10) and we will be judged by the Law of Liberty (James 2:12).
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