I have shied away from writing this blog post for some time now for fear of stepping on toes. Jesus is persistent though, because I find that the more I turn away His voice, the harder He knocks on my heart to write this. Lately, I have been asked quite often about the Sabbath and why the Sabbath that we observe is on a different day than Sunday. I feel that God is telling me that the time is now to speak. I always tell my kids that sometimes we have to do things that are uncomfortable or scary, so I guess it's my turn to practice what I preach. I have done weeks of research so that it is not my words on this page explaining why I believe what I do, but rather God's. My prayer is that you will read this post in it's entirety even if it's to just gain a better understanding of me. In no way is this post a pointed finger. It is simply a really detailed, (sorry) explanation of what and why I believe the Sabbath is on Saturday. Whatever the case, I hope you will read this and understand why our family worships on Saturday.
Deep breath...
Often when we tell people that we homeschool our kids we generally get that 'ooohhh really?' response, you know, the long drawn out 'oh' that you get when someone is offering sympathy. What has always kind of amazed me is that I tend to get a similar response when I tell someone that I am a Seventh-day Adventist and my Sabbath is on Saturday. For our family the Sabbath is a 24 hour period - not just a snippet of what we can offer from our busy schedules. It is sacred, peaceful, rejuvenating, family oriented fellowship that we look forward to at the end of our hectic week. Each and every one of them.
In the Bible God sanctifies places and things to communicate to His people. He set apart the ark of the covenant and tabernacle. He set apart His holy book—the Bible. He set apart His Holy Son—Jesus, and He set apart a holy day—the Sabbath. God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it… (Gen. 2:3).
The Sabbath is a day of rest, it begins on Friday evening and ends on Saturday evening.
Exodus 20:8-11
King James Version (KJV)
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
10 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:
11 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.
What would your reaction be if your boss came to you and said, “I want you to take tomorrow off to rest. Enjoy yourself, eat, rest, read, just don’t even think about work.” How would you feel?
The Sabbath is a holy time of resting from our weekly work in order to come into a joyous worship of God. It is a time of release from the stress and pressure of making a living. It is a time to rest from our normal pursuit of physical gain and to remember our Creator.
Did you know that the fourth commandment which instructs us to keep the Sabbath day holy is thirty percent of the Ten Commandments? The Ten Commandments contains 322 words. 98 of those words are are about the Sabbath.
Keeping the Sabbath honors God, our Creator, who also rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:3). It also connects our families and sets priorities for them. This day of rest refreshes us spiritually and physically. It provides us time that we can be together, reflecting on God without the stress of our everyday activities.
When Did Sabbath Change from Saturday to Sunday?
The Bible is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath day or any sacredness for Sunday.
The adoption of Sunday observance in place of the Sabbath did not occur in the early Church of Jerusalem by virtue of the authority of Christ or of the Apostles, but it actually took place several decades later.
In 132 A.D. Bar-Kokhba led a revolt against the Romans. When he was done, 50 percent of the population of Judea was dead and tens of thousands of men and women who remained alive were sold into slavery. Jews were forbidden to set foot in Jerusalem, and the province was renamed Palestine. It was a dangerous time to be identified with the Jews. During this period, the predominate day of worship among Christians gradually began to change from the Sabbath to Sunday. The day changed, in part, because of the need to disassociate the Christian movement from the Jewish nation.
Years later, the Church of Rome: Canon 29, Council of Laodicea, 364 C.E., worried about Judaizing and gave the following statement: “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, the Sabbath, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day (which is another term for Sunday) they shall honor, and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia states that it was the Catholics who changed the day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday and claims this as a mark of its authority. Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine said, “Sunday observance is from when the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”
We have seen that one of the major reasons the earth was created was to illustrate to the universe the wickedness which results when people disregard the law of God. We saw that each of the commandments is extremely important and that when a person breaks any one of the Ten Commandments he is guilty of breaking all of them.
The Fourth Commandment has been chosen by God for a very special purpose, and God has given it with great significance. The Fourth Commandment will also play a key role in events just before Christ's second coming.
Jeremiah 17:22-24 says this:
The Message (MSG)
21-24 "Be careful, if you care about your lives, not to desecrate the Sabbath by turning it into just another workday, lugging stuff here and there. Don’t use the Sabbath to do business as usual. Keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. They never did it, as you know. They paid no attention to what I said and went about their own business, refusing to be guided or instructed by me. But now, take seriously what I tell you. Quit desecrating the Sabbath by busily going about your own work, and keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing business as usual."
God has organized a special day of the week that we are to put aside our secular activities and concern ourselves only with fellowship with Him. The Sabbath day is to be a day of pleasant companionship with God, much like the first Sabbath in the Garden of Eden.
Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the Sabbath day. The day to be kept holy has been changed for the world, not by God, but by a worldly power claiming the prerogatives of God.
Psalms 111:7-9 tells us clearly that all of the Ten Commandments, God’s covenant, will continue to be in effect forever.
7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.
8 They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.
The Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath commandment, will therefore stand firm for ever and ever. This commandment is in effect today, and God requires us to obey this commandment for our whole lives.
We are told in 1 Peter 2:21 that Jesus Christ is our example, and that we should pattern our lives after His.
English Standard Version (ESV)
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
Since Christ’s custom was to keep the Sabbath day holy and to worship God on the Sabbath day, and since He is our example, we should follow in His steps and also obey the Fourth Commandment the way that it was originally intended.
1 John 2:3-6 tells us in rather forceful way that we should follow Jesus’ example.
New Living Translation (NLT)
3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
Acts 13:42-44 records an time in which the Gentiles were extremely interested in the message of the gospel being preached in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day.
42-43 When the service was over, Paul and Barnabas were invited back to preach again the next Sabbath. As the meeting broke up, a good many Jews and converts to Judaism went along with Paul and Barnabas, who urged them in long conversations to stick with what they’d started, this living in and by God’s grace.
44 When the next Sabbath came around, practically the whole city showed up to hear the Word of God.
Notice that these verses describe Sabbath observance after Christ’s resurrection. If the Sabbath day had been changed, if the Sabbath commandment had been nailed to the cross, why did these devoted followers of Christ not know anything about it? Paul was among them, preaching to them. If the law had been nailed to the cross or otherwise abolished, surely he would have known about it and would have told them. No, the Sabbath commandment was never abolished; it is, in fact, in total harmony with the grace of God, as these verses clearly indicate that.
Another instance in which the people were keeping the Sabbath day holy is found in Acts 16:13:
13 On the Sabbath, we left the city and went down along the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting. We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them.
Sabbath-keeping was practiced everywhere among Christians of the New Testament.
Paul, in fact, as well as Christ, had a habit of keeping the Sabbath day holy according to the Fourth Commandment and of worshiping God on the Sabbath day.
Acts 17:2 describes:
2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
If the day to be kept holy had been changed to Sunday, the first day of the week, why did Paul not abide by the change and observe Sunday?
Acts 18:4,11 tells us that Paul kept the Sabbath day holy according to the commandment during the year and six months that he preached the gospel to both the Jews and Gentiles.
New King James Version (NKJV)
4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Since he was keeping every Sabbath day holy, the Word of God that he was teaching must have included the Fourth Commandment. This year and six months Paul spent in Corinth preaching the word of God includes 78 Sabbath days which he kept holy.
Near the end of his life Paul could make the statement that he had done nothing against the customs of the Jews. Therefore, throughout his entire life, he faithfully kept each Sabbath day holy.
Acts 28:17 describes to us:
17 Three days after his arrival, he called together the local Jewish leaders and spoke to them as follows:
“Brothers, I was arrested by the Jews in Jerusalem and handed over to the Roman government for prosecution, even though I had harmed no one nor violated the customs of our ancestors.
If we are to keep Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath, why did Paul disobey his Lord and not abide by this change? Simply because the change was not made by God but occurred hundreds of years later by the decree of man.
There is not one verse in the Bible that states that Paul or the other disciples had a custom of worshiping on Sunday. The Ten Commandments received on Mount Sinai, written by the finger of God on two tables of stone to show their permanence and stability, are still in effect today.
The fact that Saturday is the Sabbath day is shown by the events immediately following Christ’s death on the cross. The Jews had names for only two days of the week. The other days were numbered. The Jewish week was as follows: First day, Second day, Third day, Fourth day, Fifth day, Preparation day, and the Sabbath day. Friday was called the Preparation day because that was the day on which the people prepared for the Sabbath. They cooked their food, cleaned their houses, and finished other business and household chores so that they would be free to spend the Sabbath day with the Lord.
That fact that the Preparation day (Friday) preceded the Sabbath is shown in Mark 15:42.
42 And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
Mark 1:32 indicates that “even” is evening at sunset.
32 And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.
The days as God instituted them in creation week began in the evening and ended at evening the following day. This is shown in the first chapter of Genesis, where the days of creation are described successively as “the evening and the morning were the first day,” etc. The Sabbath is observed from sunset Friday night to sunset Saturday night, according to Leviticus 23:32:
32 It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: from even (sunset) unto even (sunset), shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.
Both history and the Bible show that Christ was crucified and died on Friday. Many celebrate Good Friday in commemoration of Christ’s death and Easter Sunday in commemoration of His resurrection. The following verses make it abundantly clear that the Sabbath day, which falls between Friday (the Preparation day) and Sunday (the First day), is Saturday.
With these facts in mind, consider Luke 23:50-Luke 24:3.
50 And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just:
51 (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.
52 This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
24 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
sep·ul·cher
ˈsepəlkər/
noun
1.
a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried.
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This is truly amazing. The Sabbath was so important to the followers of Jesus that they would not even embalm the body of Christ. WHAT?? The Sabbath was so important to the followers of Jesus that they would not even embalm the body of Christ, their Lord, on the Sabbath, but waited until the first day of the week (Sunday morning). The women did not have sufficient time to prepare spices and ointments and return to the tomb to embalm Christ’s body before the sun set on Friday evening, when the Sabbath began. They waited in accordance with the Fourth Commandment until the Sabbath ended at sundown Saturday night. Since it was then too dark to see, they had to wait until Sunday morning. If the Sabbath had been changed as the day of worship, these devoted followers of Christ knew nothing about the change.
Some claim that the Sabbath of Luke 23:56 was not the weekly seventh-day Sabbath, but one of the special yearly Sabbaths which the Jewish people celebrated. But, John 19:31 shows that the Sabbath day during which Christ rested in the tomb was both the regular weekly Sabbath and also one of the yearly Sabbaths.
John 19:31
King James Version (KJV)
31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
The term “high day” was used to denote the occurrence of both the weekly Sabbath and a special yearly Sabbath on the same day. The Sabbath after the crucifixion, therefore, was both the weekly Sabbath and also one of the yearly Sabbaths.
Some people claim that because of changes in the calendar, we cannot be sure which day is the Sabbath. There was a major change made in the calendar in October, 1582, but this change did not interrupt the weekly seven-day cycle. In order to correct for certain errors which had crept in over the centuries, ten days were dropped from that particular month. Thursday was the fourth, and Friday was made the fifteenth. Actually, we change our calendars every four years by adding an additional day to February and call that year leap year. These changes do not interrupt the normal sequence of the days of the week. The calendar has never been changed in such a way as to disrupt the normal sequence of the weekly cycle.
As further evidence that Saturday is God’s holy Sabbath day, let us look at a quote from the Catholic Church that explains their change of the day of worship which day is the Sabbath:
Question: Which is the Sabbath day?
Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
(above information found from) Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957 ed.), p. 50.
Ecclesiastes 3:14 tells us that what God does shall be forever.
14 And I know this, that whatever God does is final—nothing can be added or taken from it; God’s purpose in this is that man should fear the all-powerful God.
When God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day, as described in Genesis 2:2-3, it would remain blessed and sanctified forever.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Will the Sabbath day be changed? According to these verses, it will not. The Sabbath is the day which God blessed and sanctified and shall forever remain the day which we should keep holy.
Those who worship on Sunday refer to Sunday as “the Lord’s day.” Where did this term come from? The Bible certainly never calls Sunday the Lord’s day. In Revelation 1:10 John says,
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet
Is John speaking about Sunday here? We saw that it was the custom of the early church to observe the Sabbath day as the Lord’s day, and indeed, this verse is referring to God’s holy Sabbath day.
In Isaiah 58:13,14 God tells us that His day is the Sabbath day:
13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
Yes! God says so!
What did God call His Sabbath day? He called it “My Holy Day.” The Lord’s day is the Sabbath day, as these verses plainly show.
The term “first day of the week” is mentioned only eight times in the Bible, all of them being in the New Testament. Most of these verses emphasize the fact that Christ’s resurrection occurred on the first day of the week, the third day after His crucifixion. The following four texts relate that the women returned to anoint the body of Christ on the first day after having rested on the Sabbath day according to the Fourth Commandment.
Matthew 28:1
King James Version (KJV)
28 In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
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Mark 16:1
King James Version (KJV)
16 And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
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Luke 23:56-24:1
King James Version (KJV)
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
24 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
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John 20:1
King James Version (KJV)
20 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
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In Mark 16:9 we see that Jesus appeared first to Mary after His resurrection on the first day.
9 Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
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John 20:19 describes a gathering of the disciples on the first day of the week.
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week (the days ran from sunset to sunset), when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
The disciples were not gathered here to worship or to recall Christ’s resurrection, as some people claim; they were gathered for fear of the Jews, as the verse plainly states. The Jews were still inflamed over the evil business of the crucifixion, and the disciples feared for their lives because of their close association with Jesus. Jesus came to comfort them and tell them not to be afraid.
Another meeting on the first day of the week is described in Acts 20:7.
7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
Here Paul preached to the people after sunset on Saturday and continued until midnight. The Jewish days, remember, ran from sunset to sunset, and the Sabbath day ended at sunset Saturday night. The first day of the week, of course, began at sunset Saturday night, which is when Paul started to preach. In our modern reckoning of the days of the week, Sunday starts at midnight, which is when Paul ended his preaching. So, you see, according to this verse Paul did no preaching on Sunday. Many refer to this verse as an example of a Sunday religious meeting in the New Testament, but as we have seen, Paul stopped preaching just as Sunday was beginning, at midnight.
Another text that mentions the first day of the week is 1 Corinthians 16:1,2. Paul was collecting money to help the Christians in Jerusalem, the majority of whom were poor due to oppression and persecution by the Jews at that time.
16 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
Notice that the word “day” is in italics in many editions of the King James translation of the Bible. These italicized words are words which the translators have added and which were not in the original text. The word “day” was therefore not in the original text. It was the custom of the Jewish people to do their bookkeeping after the Sabbath was over at sundown Saturday night, and Paul was simply instructing each person individually to set aside his offering at the first of the week so that he could collect the offerings quickly on his way to Jerusalem.
Out of every Bible verse which mentions the term “first day of the week”, notice that there is no commandment, instruction, injunction, mandate, precept, or even a suggestion that Sunday should be kept holy. There is certainly no clear command from God, as there was on Mt. Sinai when the Fourth Commandment concerning the Sabbath day was given. There is no precedent for Sunday observance anywhere in the entire Bible.
As Adventists we don't go to ball games or wash our cars or clean our houses or do our shopping on the Sabbath. Most Adventists don't engage in secular activities on the day that was given to us to keep holy.
I found this chart to be very interesting. It compares the Fourth Commandment in the Bible with the third commandment as published by the Catholic Church. Remember, that the Catholic Church deleted the Second Commandment; consequently their third corresponds to the Bible’s Fourth.
God, you see, has given us instructions as to how to keep the Sabbath holy. The papacy did not do this. The papacy, therefore, tried to change not only the day, but also the way it is to be kept.
God gives us this message in Proverbs 1:24-33.
24 I have called you so often, but still you won’t come. I have pleaded, but all in vain. 25 For you have spurned my counsel and reproof. 26 Some day you’ll be in trouble, and I’ll laugh! Mock me, will you?—I’ll mock you! 27 When a storm of terror surrounds you, and when you are engulfed by anguish and distress, 28 then I will not answer your cry for help. It will be too late though you search for me ever so anxiously.
29 “For you closed your eyes to the facts and did not choose to reverence and trust the Lord, 30 and you turned your back on me, spurning my advice. 31 That is why you must eat the bitter fruit of having your own way and experience the full terrors of the pathway you have chosen. 32 For you turned away from me—to death; your own complacency will kill you. Fools! 33 But all who listen to me shall live in peace and safety, unafraid.”
Jesus tells us in John 10:14-16,26-28 that He is the shepherd and His sheep follow Him.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Christ’s followers, when they understand the truth about the Sabbath, will have a burden placed on their heart to reconcile with Him. Christ says “other sheep I have which are not of this fold.” This refers to His true people in all the churches, and He has a special message for them in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.
14-18 Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:
“I’ll live in them, move into them;
I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you;
you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
The Word of the Master, God.
God’s true people are now starting to meet in small groups in people’s houses, just as they did shortly after Christ was crucified. Romans 16:5 mentions one of these church groups meeting in a house.
5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house.
Understand that the people are a part of God’s true church and not any organization or building. When Christ was on earth the denomination at that time was the Jewish organization, and the Jewish people were God’s true church, but after they crucified Christ the true church consisted of true Christians and not the Jewish organization.
It is the responsibility of each of us to study the Bible continually so that we will understand enough to be able to locate a group of people who are God’s true church. We will see that just before the end, the entire world will be arrayed against the small groups of people that make up God’s true church in an attempt to put them to death.
I have prayed over this blog post for weeks and my prayer was that it would never come across as anything but an explanation of what my family believes. I have been a Seventh-day Adventist my whole life and yet I feel that one of the main reasons that the Lord wanted me to write this was to also better educate myself as to what I believe. My kids often ask why we go to church on a different day than many of their friends. At their ages it's difficult to get too detailed and they would only understand a small smidgen of the information in this post. But, what I can honestly tell them is this; because Jesus wants us to and because we love Him so much we choose to follow His instruction even if it seems different.
As I find myself finalizing this; even if am the only one who made it to the end of this post :) , I can honestly say that it was well worth it.
