Saturday

by John D Carmack

Created on: March 23, 2009

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

~ Ex 20:8

Isn't it odd? When the Bible says to "remember", that is the first thing people will forget or reason around! Would God put "Remember" on stone only to later do away with the command or change the day?

What Does "Holy" Mean?

Some believe they can keep any day of the week they wish. They will follow the traditions that have been set down by other people. Yet, Jesus and the Apostles stated that we were not to elevate traditions of men over the commandments of God (Mk 7:7-8; Ac 5:29). Can human beings make something "holy"? No! "Holy" means that something has been set apart for God's use and purpose instead of our own.[1] As Roderick C Meredith writes," You cannot "keep" cold water hot! And mortal men cannot make anything holy."[2] We need to remember WHO created all things, including the Sabbath!

The Sabbath was to be a sign of God's people through the ages (Ex 31:13; Eze 20:20). This was because God's people are also to be holy (Ex 19:6; 1Pe 1:15). A "sign" is something that points to something else. How do you find God's people? Follow the signs!

It was a serious command, and its violation was to be punishable by death (Ex 31:14). The violation of the Sabbath command is one of the cited reasons for Israel being taken captive (Eze 22:8, 38; Jer 17:27; cf Eze 20:12-24). Should we ignore how seriously God takes this command?

Not only was it to be taken seriously, but it is the first Commandment to have a direct link to blessings. The 4th Command promises "rest", even to slaves. Not only does it picture God as Creator, but it pictures God as Savior. It was to picture the rest from their labors as slaves themselves. For the Christian, slavery to sin is broken by the atonement of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit.

What About Calendar Changes?

The calendar we use today is called the Gregorian calendar. It was adopted from the Julian calendar before it. The Julian calendar assumed a solar year was exactly 365- days long. So, a leap year added a day every 4 years. Later, it was found that the year is somewhat shorter than this, so each year the seasons drifted 12 minutes and 14 seconds earlier in the longer year. This might not seem like a lot, but by the time of Pope Gregory XII, the spring equinox was occurring on 11 March instead of 21 March.

Pope Gregory introduced some changes to compensate for this. One of the main changes was to drop the leap day on years evenly divisible by 100, except for those divisible by 400. That is why 2000 was a leap year, but 1900 was not.

Next, the current state of the calendar had to be rectified. Since the year had drifted 10 days, it was proposed that 10 days be dropped off of the current calendar. Gregory dropped 10 days in order to realign the calendar seasons. The calendar drift accumulated in the 13 centuries since the Council of Nicaea was corrected by a deletion of ten days. The last day of the Julian calendar was THURSDAY, 4 October 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, FRIDAY, 15 October 1582 [4] Notice that the days of the week were not affected by this change! The last day of the old Julian calendar was THURSDAY, and the first day of the new Gregorian calendar was FRIDAY. The 7-day weekly cycle is known to have remained unbroken in Europe for almost 2,000 years.[5]

The Julian calendar had been in effect since 45 BC. This means that this would have been the civil calendar in effect at the time that Jesus lived in Israel. When Christianity began to dominate, they would have known the weekly Sabbath as it related to the civil calendar. The fact that Jesus kept the 7th day Sabbath (Mt 4:23; 9:35; 12:9; 13:54; Jn 6:59; 18:20) on a customary (i.e., regular) basis (Lk 4:16) shows that the calendar had not been lost even through the Babylonian exile. And, if the Jews of His day were keeping it on the wrong day, wouldn't He have stated such?

"There is no record of the 7-day week cycle ever having been broken. Calendar changes and reform have never interrupted the 7-day cycles. It very likely that the week cycles have run uninterrupted at least since the days of Moses (c. 1400 B.C.E.), possibly even longer."[6]

The seven day week has been traced as far back as ancient Mesopotamia.[7]

God rested on the 7th day (Ge 2:2), which was the stated reason for the Sabbath to be "holy" in Exodus 20. Even if Israel had lost the weekly cycle while in Egypt (which tended to have a 10 day week), certainly God established it again upon the Exodus. Israel wandered the wilderness for 40 years, and week after week we see the miracle of the manna (Ex 16:14-30). Even if one argued that the calendar and weekly cycle were lost, God revealed it in a miraculous manner!

Was the Law "Done Away"?

It is hypocritical that some will defend to the point of going to jail the display of the 10 Commandments in various locations, yet they will not keep all of them!

Think about it: Most Christians would agree that God should be first and foremost in our lives, and that He alone is God. Most Christians would affirm that you should not take His name in vain. Most Christians would say it is wrong to kill, to steal and to commit adultery. But, when it comes to that 4th Commandment, "The Law has been done away!"

Jesus said He did not come to abolish the Law! In Matthew 5:17, He says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." "Fulfil" means He came to fill to the brim. He came to magnify the Law and not do away with it!

"Doubtful Disputations"?

What does Paul mean about "doubtful disputations" in Romans 14? We know that those who were weak in the faith might stumble at the possibility that they could eat meat offered to idols (1Co 8:7). Paul goes on to state that some might be so weak in the faith as to be vegetarians (Ro 14:2). Then, in verse 3, Paul says, "let not him who is eating despise him who is not eating" (YLT). In other words, if you are eating, don't judge someone who is fasting! How then are we to take how some "esteemeth one day above another" (v5), given that human beings cannot make something holy? Read it in context! They esteem it by fasting! Those who eat, "eateth to the Lord" (v6), and those regard the day, "regardeth it unto the Lord" (also v6). Eating and drinking are the main topics here, as is expressed in v17, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink".

At least be consistent! If Romans 14 is saying it doesn't matter what day you esteem above the other (presumably as the Sabbath day), then do vv 7-9 mean that it doesn't matter if we live or if we die? In a manner of speaking, it does! However, does that give us the right to choose whether we live or we die? No, of course not! That is God's decision! Likewise, it is God's decision what is holy and what is not, and that includes God's Sabbath. In reality, using this passage to justify breaking God's Sabbath is equivalent to me saying that Romans 14:7-9 justifies suicide for believers.

The word "Sabbath" is nowhere to be found in these verses. Paul wasn't known for sugar-coating what he said. If he had meant that the Sabbath had been done away, he would have stated it rather plainly. Rather, nowhere in the Bible is such a statement to be found! It is interesting that one of the 10 Commandments would even be labeled "disputable" by some! It amounts to arguing that murder, stealing and adultery are disputable items!

Why the Change to Sunday?

"Contrary to what many Christians believe, Sunday was not observed by New Testament Christians as a day of worship. They kept Saturday, the seventh day of the week."[8]

It is important to realize that the Apostles did NOT keep a Sunday worship. There is no evidence in the New Testament that it was ever changed. Jude says to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." Part of that faith was a 7th day Sabbath worship! The writer of Hebrews says, "There REMAINS, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God" (Heb 4:9, NIV)!

It was a change by the Catholic Church, and not any Biblical command that changed the day of worship.

"...we find St. Csarius of Arles in the sixth century teaching that the holy Doctors of the Church had decreed that the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been transferred to the Sunday, and that Christians must keep the Sunday holy in the same way as the Jews had been commanded to keep holy the Sabbath Day."[9]

"We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."[10]

There are whole articles that contain quotes of Catholics and Protestants alike that admit there is no Scriptural basis for changing Sabbath worship to Sunday worship.[11] The irony is that Protestants supposedly broke away from Roman Catholicism with the motto "Solo Scriptura", which means "Scripture Alone". Yet, by worshiping on Sunday, they are paying homage to the "authority" of the Catholic Church to change the day of worship!

What About the "Lord's Day"?

There is only 1 verse in the entire Bible that contains the term

~ Rev 1:9-11">Lord's Day

There is no proof that this means Sunday. In fact, since it is a vision of the last days, it would be more appropriate to view it as the same term as "Day of the LORD", of which there are ample Scriptures (Zep 2:2-3; Isa 2:12; 13:6; 34:8; et al). This is referring to the time of God's wrath leading up to the 2nd return of the Messiah to rule the earth.
However, even if there were a day of the week that would be the "Lord's Day", which day would that be? What day did Jesus claim to be "Lord" over?

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

"Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath."

~ Mk 2:27-28 (cf. Mt 12:8; Lk 6:5)

Sabbath Made For Us

I hope you caught the 1st part of what Jesus said as well. He did not say the Sabbath was made for the Jews. He did not say the Sabbath was made for Israel. No, He said the Sabbath was made for "MAN", for all human beings. It was in force before the 10 Commandments were given!

* God rested on the 7th day of "creation week" (Ge 2:1-2). This was before Moses, before Judah, before Israel and even before Adam. Therefore, it does not pertain to a certain tribe or nation. Even the 10 Commandments as given in Exodus 20 hearken back to the creation. This means it was in force in the Garden of Eden. Most likely, that is when they would walk with God (cf Ge 3:8).

* The Sabbath was shown to be Israel's test commandment via the manna (Ex 16:4). This was while still in the wilderness before they got to Mt Sinai (v1). The question is whether or not Christians are passing the test.

* Eunuchs and "strangers" (Gentiles) will also be gathered together to keep the Sabbath. Doesn't this hearken of New Testament Christianity?

* It was assumed that Gentile converts would be attending Sabbath services in a synagogue (Ac 15:21).

So, I challenge you: Given the preponderance of evidence, will you obey God or follow human traditions?

-
Sources:

1. ""God's Test Command"":http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn41/testcommandment.htm, The Good News, July/August 2002

2. Roderick C Meredith, ""The Ten Commandments"":http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/cgi-bin/tw/booklets/tw-bk.cgi?category=Booklets1&item=1104416816, Tomorrow's World

3. Herbert W Armstrong (adapted), "Has Time Been Lost?, Hope of Israel

4. ""Gregorian calendar"":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar, Wikipedia

5. "Seven-day week, Wikipedia

6. ""Our Seven-day Week"":http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/week.html, Our Week | Calendars

7. ""The Names of the Days of the Week"":http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0002065.html, Infoplease.com

8. Kenneth A. Strand, ""How Sunday Became the Popular Day of Worship"":http://www.biblehistory.com/The%20Origin%20of%20Sunday%20Worship.html, Biblehistory.com

9. ""Sunday"":http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm, Catholic Encyclopedia

10. ""The Sabbath in the Catholic Catechism"":http://www.zoomnet.net/%7Ebbratt/sab-cath.html, Independent Church of God Sabbath Fellowship

11. ""Catholics Claim Power to Change Bible Laws"":http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/holy-days/why-is-bible-sabbath-important-4.html, Biblestudy.org

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