Sunday, the first day of the week, is heralded today as the
"Christian Sabbath". But it has not always been so! Since
ancient times, Sunday has been a day in which pagans, witches, shamans, and
other occult and spiritualistic peoples worshiped the sun: hence the name –
Sun-day. It was not a day to worship the God of heaven, but to worship
the god of this earth--Lucifer or Satan or the devil, and can be traced all the
way back to ancient Babylon and Nimrod.
But since the first day of the week is almost universally
observed by Christians today instead of the seventh day Sabbath of creation which
the Creator required that we must remember to keep holy (see Genesis 2:2-3;
Exodus 20:8-11), many justify the change from Saturday to Sunday upon Biblical
reasons.
There are several main reasons urged for the observance of
the first day of the week, instead of the Sabbath of the Bible, which we will
here examine.
First Reason:
"Redemption is greater than creation; therefore, we
ought to keep the day of Christ's resurrection instead of the ancient Sabbath
of the Lord."
Where has God said this? It is no where to be found in
God's word. What right then, has any man to make such an assertion and
then to base the change of the Sabbath upon it? God never required men to
keep any day as a memorial of redemption. But He did command us to keep
holy the seventh day Sabbath as a memorial of creation thereby recognizing God
as our Creator.
If however, it were a duty to observe one day of the week for
the above reason, most certainly the crucifixion day presents the strongest
claims. It is not said that we have redemption through Christ's
resurrection, but it is said that we have redemption through the shedding of
His blood (see Revelation 5:9; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews
9:12,15). The wonder of the act of Jehovah in giving His beloved and only
begotten Son to die for a race of rebels was a spectacle of redeeming love on
which the universe might gaze in wonder throughout all eternity. Who
could wonder that the sun was veiled in darkness and that all nature trembled
at the sight! Friday, the crucifixion day, therefore, has far greater
claims than the day of the resurrection; but God has not enjoined the
observance of either.
If we would commemorate redemption, there is no necessity of
robbing the Lord's rest day of its holiness in order to do it. For God
has provided us with memorials for this event (see 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
Second Reason:
"The disciples met on the day of our Lord's resurrection
to commemorate that event, and the Saviour sanctioned this meeting by uniting
with them, thereby making it the Sabbath" (see John 20:19).
Even were this true, it would not prove that the Sabbath of
the Lord has been changed. For several days the disciples did not believe
that their Lord had been raised from the dead, but were assembled for the
purpose of eating a common meal and to seclude themselves from the Jews (see
Mark 16:12-14; John 20:19). So the disciples were not commemorating the
resurrection of the Saviour, and it is equally evident that they had not the
slightest idea of a change of the Sabbath. They kept the Sabbath,
according to the commandment, and resumed their labor on the first day of the
week (see Luke 23:55-56, 24:1).
Third Reason:
"‘After eight days,’ Jesus met with His disciples again
(see John 20:26). This must have been the first day of the week, which is
thereby proved to be the Christian Sabbath."
Who can be certain that "after eight days" means
just a week? A literal construction of the language would lead one to
conclude that this was upon the ninth day "after eight days" were
passed.
But even if "after eight days" means only a literal
week, how does this prove that Sunday has become the "Christian
Sabbath" when there is not a particle of evidence that either Christ or
His apostles ever rested on that day? There is no such term as "Christian
Sabbath" found in the Bible. The only weekly Sabbath named in the
Bible is called the Sabbath of the Lord--the seventh day (see Genesis 2:2-3).
It should not be very remarkable that Christ should find His
disciples together, inasmuch as they had one common abode (see Acts 1:13).
Fourth Reason:
"The Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples on the day
of Pentecost, which was the first day of the week. Therefore, the first day of
the week should be observed instead of the Sabbath of the Lord" (see Acts
2:1-2).
Admitting that the day of Pentecost occurred upon the first
day of the week, it remains to be proven that this day thereby became the
Sabbath. It was the feast of Pentecost, and not the first day of the
week, that God designed to honor.
The day of Pentecost is distinctly named, but the day of the
week on which it occurred is passed by in silence. It was not the design
of Heaven to honor the first day of the week, but to mark the anti-type of the
feast of Pentecost.
The slaying of the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the
first month had met its anti-type in the death of the Lamb of God on that day
(see Exodus 12; John 19; 1 Corinthians 5:7). The offering of the
firstfruits on the sixteenth day of the first month had met its anti-type in
the resurrection of our Lord on that day, the firstfruits of them that slept
(see Leviticus 23; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; Acts 1:1-2). And the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost fulfilled the type of the feast of
Pentecost. It was not the day in which these events occurred that was
of importance, but that these ancient symbolic ceremonies and services were
meeting their fulfillment in type.
God spoke nothing in this place respecting the day in which
these events occurred, and thus no proof exists for a change in the time of
God's Sabbath. "Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee,
and thou be found a liar" Proverbs 30:6.
Fifth Reason:
"Paul once broke bread upon the first day of the week.
Hence this day was observed as the Christian Sabbath" (see Acts
20:7).
At one period the Apostolic church at Jerusalem broke bread
every day (see Acts 2:42-46). If a single instance of breaking bread at
Troas upon the first day of the week constituted it the Sabbath, would not the
continued practice of the Apostolic church at Jerusalem in breaking bread on
other days be sufficient to make these days a Sabbath also?
Why try to grasp at a single instance in which an evening
meeting was held on Sunday, and then try to vainly prove that the Sabbath has
been changed, while overlooking the fact that this same apostle Paul preached
every seventh day Sabbath, not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles? (See
Acts 13:14,42,44, 16:13, 17:2, 18:4.)
Sixth Reason:
"We are to find our rest in Jesus, and Jesus declared
Himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath. Thus the seventh day of the week
is no longer to be kept holy, because Jesus is our Sabbath Rest" (see
Matthew 12:8, 11:28-30)!
While it is true that all are to find rest in Jesus (rest
from all their cares, burdens, anxieties, sins, etc.), and while it is also
true that Jesus declared Himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath day, yet it is
not correct to therefore conclude that Jesus is the Sabbath day Himself!
The Queen of England is not England herself, but only the
sovereign over it. In like manner, Jesus is not the Sabbath day
Himself, but only the Sovereign or Lord over it. So as we find our
rest in Jesus, we must not neglect to also rest from our labors upon His weekly
Sabbath day. And since Jesus is still today the Lord of all His
followers, then there is still a Sabbath day which He is Lord of and which all
of His followers are to be observing today! And what day of the week is
this Sabbath day of God in this New Covenant period?
"For he (God) spake in a certain place of the seventh
day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works....There
remaineth therefore a rest (a keeping of the Sabbath) to the people of God. (NOTE:
this word for "rest" in Greek is "sabbatismos" and
literally translates Sabbath keeping--see Strong's Exhaustive
Concordance, Greek word #4520.) For he that is entered into his rest, he
also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour
therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief." Hebrews 4:4,9-11.
Thus Paul clearly declares that there is indeed a Sabbath day
which all of God's followers are to observe in this New Covenant period, and
this day of the week is the same day which God made holy at creation--the
seventh day or Saturday! Let us heed Paul's counsel and avoid falling
from God's grace because of unbelief by not keeping His Sabbath day of rest!
Seventh Reason:
"Paul commanded the church at Corinth to take up a
public collection on the first day of the week; therefore, this must have been
a day of public worship and consequently is the Christian Sabbath" (see 1
Corinthians 16:2).
Paul, however, does not say: "Place your alms in the
church treasury on the first day of the week;" but says: "Upon the
first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store."
The apostle simply told each of the Corinthian brethren to
lay up at home some portion of their weekly gains on the first day or the
beginning of the week before they had a chance to spend it all up. In
following Paul's advice, they would be putting God and His cause first in their
financial affairs, instead of at the end of the week after all their money had
been depleted.
The whole question turns upon the meaning of the expression,
"by him." Two Latin versions, the Vulgate and that of Castellio
render the phrase, "apud se," as meaning "with one's self, at
home." A similar rendering is given in numerous other versions.
The text, therefore, does not prove that the Corinthian church
was assembled for public worship on Sunday; but, on the contrary, it does prove
that each must be at his own home where he could examine his worldly affairs
and lay by himself in store at the beginning of each week as God had prospered
him. If each one would do thus, when the apostle should come, their
bounty would be ready and each would be able to present to him what they had
gathered.
Eighth Reason:
"No one really knows when the original seventh day of
the week falls on. So each person needs to decide which day of the week
they will keep sacred to God as His Sabbath, and Sunday is as good as any other
day!"
Yet there has been no time lost since creation took place all
the way up to the present time. So the same seven day weekly cycle
established at creation is the same seven day weekly cycle we continue to
observe today, even though the names of the days of the week have been changed
depending on the calendar used!
When the calendar was changed from the Julian to the
Gregorian, back in the sixteenth century, it was discovered that the Julian
calendar was off 10 days from the actual solar year. But the same weekly
seven day cycle was not altered even though 10 days were added to the Gregorian
calendar. Thursday, October 4, 1582 in the Julian calendar, was
immediately followed by Friday, October 15, 1582 in the Gregorian calendar--thus
keeping the continuity of the Sunday to Saturday weekly cycle! But
even though some will not believe the fact that there has been no time lost
since creation, God does indeed show all of His people what day of the week
today is the seventh day of the week--the true Sabbath worship day of God!
When Christ was on this earth, being the Lord of the Sabbath,
He definitely knew which day of the week was the ancient seventh day Sabbath of
creation to worship God on. But since we use a different calendar today
than what Christ used, which day of the week in our modern calendar does this
seventh day Sabbath fall upon? The Bible plainly and clearly shows to all
who will see, in the events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, exactly which day of the week today is God's
holy Sabbath.
The Bible records that Christ was crucified on the sixth day
of the week, or the preparation day--the day before the Sabbath was to occur
(see Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31, 42; Matthew 27:62), He was resurrected
on the first day of the week, or the day after the Sabbath had passed (see
Matthew 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-10; Luke 24:1-8; John 20:1), thus showing that Christ
was resting in the tomb during the seventh day Sabbath. It is plain
knowledge that Christ arose from the tomb on Sunday morning--which many refer
to as Easter (see Acts 12:4). With this knowledge of truth, it then
becomes easy to determine exactly which days of the week in our modern calendar
correspond with the days of the week anciently.
As Christ arose on the day we call Sunday today, this day
corresponds to the first day of the week anciently--or the day after the
Sabbath had passed. Then the day we call Saturday in our modern calendar,
corresponds to the seventh day of the week anciently, and the day we call
Friday in our modern calendar, corresponds to the sixth day of the week
anciently--or the preparation day before the Sabbath occurs! Thus all who
desire to follow and serve God with their whole heart, mind, soul, and
strength, out of love for what He has done and is continuing to do for them,
will see that the seventh day Sabbath of God today is Saturday--the day after
Friday, and the day before Sunday! This then plainly shows us that the
Sabbath day of God has not changed its seventh place in the weekly cycle since
it was made holy at creation, and it never will!
God's Sabbath was established in Eden before sin had entered
the world as the seventh day of creation week (see Genesis 2:2-3). God
re-established the same seventh day Sabbath after sin had entered the world for
all His chosen people to observe and worship Him on, after the Exodus from
Egypt--some 2500 years later (see Exodus 20:8-11). The very same seventh
day Sabbath was observed by Christ and His disciples--some 1500 years afterwards.
The very same seventh day Sabbath was still to be observed by all of
God's people some 33 years after the death of Christ in the New Covenant period
(see Hebrews 4:4-11). And did you realize, that this very same seventh
day Sabbath will continue to be observed after Christ comes again and the earth
is made new? (see Isaiah 66:22-23). This is because the seventh day
Sabbath is a memorial of creation, and will forever point directly to God as
our Creator! You can no more change this seventh day Sabbath to
another day of the week than you can change the day of your birth to another
day! Thus the seventh day or Saturday--the Sabbath worship day of
God, will never change, but will always remain the Sabbath day to worship God
on throughout eternity!
May
God grant us His Spirit of grace and the strength to serve and worship Him on
His chosen Sabbath day of Saturday, and not on Sunday or on any other day of
the week. Thus in doing so, we will show that we serve and worship the
true God of creation, and not any other so-called god!
Ninth Reason:
"We are to worship God every day, not just one day a
week. So there is no need to keep only one day a week as a Sabbath day to
God."
While it is true that Christians are to worship and serve God
every moment of each day, yet it is impossible that they can keep each day of
the week as a Sabbath day holy to God! God clearly states:
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six
days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath
of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8-11.
There are several points which this statement and command of
God shows the above reason and belief to be in error.
First: God commanded all His followers to observe His Sabbath
by not working upon this day of worship. So if one would try to keep each
day of the week as a Sabbath worship day to God, then neither they, nor any
other person connected with them, could do any work in seeking to earn a living
throughout each day of every week! If the average person would try to
follow this plan, they would soon be destitute and starve to death!
So obviously, it is incorrect to believe that we are to keep each day as
a Sabbath worship day to God.
Second: God commanded all of His followers to work six days
of each week, but to only keep the seventh day Sabbath of each week as a
special sacred worship day with no work to be done! Thus if one tries to
keep each day of the week as a Sabbath worship day to God, thereby refusing to
work on six days of the week as God commanded, then they would be directly
going against the will of the God whom they profess to serve. This
also clearly shows that Sunday, along with the other 5 days of the week, are
nothing more than common work days with no sanctity whatsoever, while
Saturday is the only day of the week God declares to be holy!
Third: God clearly stated that only the seventh day of each
week was to be held sacred as His Sabbath worship day, not any other day of the
week: not the first, or second, or third, etc., but only the seventh day!
Hence any follower of God keeping any other day of the week as a
Sabbath worship day to God, would be going directly against the command and
will of the God whom they profess to serve!
Tenth Reason:
"The Sabbath was part of the Old Covenant Ceremonial
laws; thus was nailed to the cross when Christ died, and Sunday has taken its
place in this New Covenant period" (see Colossians 2:14-17).
As was already noted, the seventh day Sabbath was given to
God's people at creation. This means that the Sabbath was in existence
before sin entered the world, and thus before the sacrificial and ceremonial
laws were instituted. Therefore the weekly Sabbath of God could not be
part of the ceremonial laws, and so could not have been nailed to the cross
along with these sacrificial laws.
Since many have trouble differentiating between the
ceremonial laws written by Moses, and the Moral Law of 10 commandments spoken
and written by God, let us examine the clear differences between the two.
The ceremonial law is termed "the law of a carnal
commandment" (Hebrews 7:16); and the moral Law of God, it is affirmed,
"We know that the law is spiritual." Romans 7:14. The one is a
law of which "there was made of necessity a change." Hebrews 7:12.
The moral is that Law of which Christ says, "Till heaven and earth
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled." Matthew 5:18.
The ceremonial law was a "shadow of good things to
come" (Hebrews 10:1), and was only imposed "until the time of
reformation." Hebrews 9:10. But the other was a moral code, of which
it is said by John, "Whosever committeth sin transgresseth also the law:
for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. The one is a
yoke not able to be borne (see Acts 15:10); the other is that "law of
liberty" by which we shall be judged (see James 2:8-12).
The ceremonial is that law which Christ "abolished in
His flesh" (see Ephesians 2:15); the moral is that Law which He did not
come to destroy (see Matthew 5:17). The one is termed "the
handwriting of ordinances" "which was contrary to us," which was
nailed to the cross and taken out of the way by the death of Christ (see
Colossians 2:14); the other is that Law which He came to magnify and make
honorable (see Isaiah 42:21) and which James affirms is "the royal
law" which is a sin to transgress (see James 2:8-12). The one was a
temporary law which was disannulled "for the weakness and unprofitableness
thereof" (see Hebrews 7:18); the other is an eternal unchanging Law which
cannot be made void: "Do we then make void the law through faith?
God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31.
The ceremonial law is that law which was the middle wall of partition
between Jews and Gentiles (see Ephesians 2:14); the other is that Law, the work
of which even the Gentiles are said to have written in their hearts (see Romans
2:14-15). The one is the law of commandments contained in ordinances (see
Ephesians 2:15); the moral Law is the commandments of God, which it is the duty
of all mankind to keep (see Ecclesiastes 12:13).
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