I can hardly wait for the Sabbath to begin on Fridays at sunset. After a gruelling week of ups and downs, the ins and outs, work and no play, tiredness and weariness, for me, and countless others, Friday evenings bring a relief and joy that any human description would be wholly inadequate. The truth is the entire world, especially professing Christians, is missing out on the benefits, spiritually and physically, on this remarkable 24-hour period of the week!
The human body is built that it cannot go on and on without getting a period to rest and rejuvenate. It becomes obvious as we labour during the week and our preoccupation with life’s other challenges, that we can see why God created the Sabbath. He even issued that reminder “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” (Exodus 20:8). In Exodus 23, it points out both animals and humans should rest on the Sabbath to be “refreshed.” But the Sabbath is not just for rest alone, as you will notice the last four words of the fourth commandment “to keep it holy.”
In Gen. 2:3, we read God “rest on the seventh day from all his work.” Has it occurred to non-adherents of the Sabbath that God did not rest because He was tired? Or, was he setting an example for us? The answer is obvious. Let’s look at the next verse. “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it (or made it holy).” Of all the seven days of the week that God gave us, only one is sanctified and is set apart for holy use. I challenge anyone to show in the scripture where another day of the week has been sanctified like the seventh day Sabbath. There’s no other day like it!
It’s such a pity that most people who claim to follow Jesus Christ cannot see the stark truth from the scriptures. Instead, traditional Christian, headed by the Catholic Church, makes no apology in saying the seventh day Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. The Catholic Church is on record as saying it made the change on its own without the authority of scripture or otherwise.
If Jesus Christ, who created the Sabbath, observed it while on Earth as did His followers, and says ALL NATIONS will have to come to worship before Him on the Sabbath when His kingdom is established on Earth, how come the Sabbath has changed to Sunday? Why is traditional Christianity so confused? They say the Sabbath is for the Jews. Was the Sabbath made for man or man-made for the Sabbath? Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). Is Christianity Judeo-Christian or Christian-pagan?
The influential Christian Broadcasting Network, in a recent commentary said this, “But here is the opportunity you and I have. We know that not only is the Sabbath meant for refreshment, but it is also a much deeper, grander sign of our need for spiritual rest. Back in Exodus 31, God called the Sabbath an “eternal sign.” He created it—along with many other things—as a reminder of our need for Him.”
Does this organization keep the seventh day Sabbath? Of course not! Unbelievable! It observes Sunday as a day of rest – a day that was not made holy by God. It, like many other organizations and churches in Christianity, chooses their own day, instead of the God-given day. What is the reason for this? They claim Christ rose on Sunday and the early church kept the “first day of the week,” after His resurrection. These two reasons are debatable. For one Christ was not crucified on Good Friday and rose on Sunday morning; surely that’s not three days and three nights in the tomb, the sign He gave to the Pharisees that He was Messiah.
Furthermore, take a careful study of the eight references in the New Testament where the phrase “the first day of the week,” is used or as should be properly translated, “first of the weeks,” (notice the word day is in italics, it was not in the original text, it was added by translators) and you will discover NONE of them is talking about a Sunday church service. The claim Sunday is the LORD’s DAY or the day for Christians to worship walks a thin line. Forget the Lord’s day of Rev. 1:10 because it’s not talking about Sunday, as a day of worship – far from it. This text is used as a desperate attempt to justify Sunday worship much like how December 25, is used to justify the Christ’s birthday.
Here’s a pertinent question. The very last verse in the book of Luke tells us that for the 40-days Jesus remained on Earth after His resurrection, His followers “were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.” There was no Sunday service. If Jesus wanted to change from Saturday to Sunday, that would have been the perfect opportunity to do it. He didn’t do it!
We hear all kinds of excuses from our priests and pastors trying to justify Sunday worship and gathering instead on the Sabbath. They say you can worship God on any day, which is true, but He has set aside a day for worship and that’s why there can be no other day like the Sabbath. He did that, not a human being, but Very God. They say Jesus is our Sabbath rest. Yes, He is, so why are you not worshipping on HIS DAY and choose another day instead, and worst of all a day when the false gods were worshipped? Why choose another day that is wrapped up in pagan worship? For the pagan god Mithra, Sunday was the LORD’s DAY. They say the Sabbath is for the Jews. Well, all the Ten Commandments were given to Israel/Jews, none to the Gentiles, which means “thou shalt not kill/murder,” is Jewish Law. Why only single out the Sabbath? The answer is simple: they don’t want to keep it.
Which day did the primitive church keep? The Sabbath of course, both the weekly and annual Sabbaths of Lev. 23 – no Christmas, no Easter, the man-made holy days. They kept the days God made holy. Only God can make a day holy, not human beings, something many Christians fail to understand!
When will our pastors, if ever at all, stand up for the truth of the Bible and proclaim the Sabbath to be like no other day of the week? It’s holy time! That Sunday worship has no authority in scripture; that the Sabbath will have to be kept when Christ returns; that the law of God is not done away with; that the scriptures being used to justify Sunday worship cannot stand up to biblical scrutiny, and that as Hebrews 4:9 when properly translated states “There remains therefore, the keeping of a Sabbath (Greek: Sabbatismos) to the people of God.” When? For more on this subject, download FREE our booklet UNDERSTANDING THE SABBATH DAY.
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