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"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

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