It's another beautiful day to learn about Jesus and the Bible... right?
Well hello my beautiful friend! Whether this is the first time you join us or not, THANK YOU for being here with us. Today we're going to be talking about the Sabbath vs. Sunday debate but before beginning our discussion, I'd like to point out that there is a LOT that can be said about this famous debate. From biblical, historical and traditional standpoints, much can be argued about which day God truly blessed and separated for us. Despite all the things that can be said, at its very essence and core, the answer and clarification to this debate can be as short and straightforward as a single sentenced-answer. The true day of worship is... (blank)... you really thought I was going to answer it straightaway? I'm going to make you read a bit more :) ...
IMPORTANT NOTE: this topic aims to simply answer the question 'which day God truly blessed and separated for us to remember Him as the creator and worship Him?'. This is NOT a post intended to criticize in ANY way beliefs or different religions. We will solely answer the mentioned question and, hopefully/ultimately, you can apply what you've learned to your life and make an informed decision about your journey with God. Deal?
Why talk about this?
As a christian, or perhaps even as a non-christian, you have heard arguments such as these:
"Does it really matter on which day you worship? The point is to honor God..."
"We're supposed to honor God every day, not just one day a week... everyday is God's day..."
"Whether Sabbath or Sunday, the idea is the exact same... "
...etc...
To the common-sense ear, statements as such sound extremely valid and, to a certain degree, invalidate the idea of even discussing whether we should honor the Sabbath or Sunday as God's day. However, to the Bible-student ear, such statements are deceiving in nature because the Bible, God's word, is VERY clear as to the importance one day has over all the other six.
It is indeed true that we should worship and honor God everyday and in everything we do, yet this statement in no way diminishes or eliminates the fact that God separated one day for our rest, for our remembrance of Him, for our worship to him; the Bible makes this clear. Furthermore, the worship and remembrance of God on that specific day is part of the 10 commandments in the Bible; it takes part in the law of God. Given this, not recognizing the importance of that day above all other ones makes us transgress the law of God which means... let's read from the Bible:
"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness." - 1 John 3:4
Let's clear this up... taking lightly the fact the God blessed that specific day which we'll mention in a few, and not giving that day the importance God asks for it is, indeed, a sin. From our studies in Bible prophecy we have overstated that it is Satan's purpose to destroy us, to separate us from God, and we have studied how behind everything that has happened, that happens, and that will happen, there's an invisible war between God and Satan. With this in mind, who do you think was and is behind the idea of creating a counterfeit "God's day" with the sole purpose of deceiving minds and make them, sometimes unconsciously, dishonor God?
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."- James 2:10
Now, can you see why it's important to discuss the whole Sabbath vs. Sunday deal? Why it is extremely important to keep the right day? With this, and as always, let's take a look at the Bible to find our answers.
So, Sabbath or Sunday?
Without much going around let's answer the question straight up. The day that God blessed and separated for us to remember Him by was (and is) the Sabbath. In the Bible there's no mention or record whatsoever of the Sunday being a day to worship God in. The honoring of the Sabbath is actually so important that (1) God makes reference to it on His law - the 10 commandments, and (2) God takes it as it being His mark to separate His people from the rest. Don't take it from me... let's look at some Bible verses:
This first one is the 4th commandment, it's a part of God's law as given in Exodus 20:
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." - Exodus 20:8-11
Now, note the following verses and how God makes it absolutely clear that the Sabbath is the sign, the mark between Him and His people:
"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.''" - Exodus 31:12-13
"Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” - Ezekiel 20:20
"Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy." - Ezekiel 20:12
Now let's read a verse about the very origin of the Sabbath (7th day):
"By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day (Sabbath) he rested from all his work." - Genesis 2:2
Note even that the keeping of the Sabbath will be honored even after the new heavens and earth...
“For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, 'So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me' says the Lord." - Isaiah 66:22-23
**Please note one VERY IMPORTANT THING, the Sabbath is the sign, a mark, between God and His people. Keep this in mind because we WILL come back to this at later studies.**
Just in the best interest of doing an exercise, I did a biblical concordance search for the word "Sabbath" using the New King James Version and, there are simply MANY verses alluding to the keeping of the Sabbath. In fact, I invite you to do the same search in your computer or phone; there's simply an overwhelming amount of biblical evidence for the keeping of the Sabbath.
A read at Jesus' life throughout the gospels in the New Testament will come to show that Jesus kept the Sabbath holy and gave great importance to it as an example to us all. Furthermore, note that Jesus honored God's law, and His coming in no way affected the way we're supposed to follow God's law nor invalidated it. Refer to our previous study for more information.
" (Jesus speaking) Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." - Matthew 5:17-18
A.K.A, the Sabbath commandment is still very much in effect today. It is our spiritual duty and responsibility to honor the Sabbath in God's remembrance because the sabbath marked the day God rested from His creation, hence, it recognizes God as the creator of everything that exists. Amongst all the verses that we've read, note that there's no mention of the Sunday day as a worship day at all. Here's why... Sunday is a man-made day institution. How come? Keep reading...
Before next section... I invite you to the same biblical concordance search using the word "Sunday". After that, is it clear that Sabbath is the day God blessed and separated for our rest?
So... why Sunday?
Let me cite some quotes from Roman Catholic scholars here; references at the end of each quote:
“Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is bound to believe, nor do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to practice. Not to mention other examples, is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we [Catholics] never sanctify.” James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (Baltimore: James Murphy Company, 110th edition revised and enlarged) p. 80
“Nothing is said in the Bible about the change of the Lord’s day from Saturday to Sunday. We know of the change only from the tradition of the Church—a fact handed down to us from the earliest times by the living voice of the Church. That is why we find so illogical the attitude of many non-Catholics, who say that they will believe nothing unless they can find it in the Bible and yet will continue to keep Sunday as the Lord’s day on the say-so of the Catholic Church.” Rev. Leo J. Trese and John J. Castletot, S. S., Salvation History and the Commandments (1963 edition), p. 294
“The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday. We say by virtue of her divine mission, because he who called himself the ‘Lord of the Sabbath,’ endowed her with his own power to teach, ‘he that heareth you, heareth me;’ commanded all who believe in him to hear her under penalty of being placed with the ‘heathen and publican;’ and promised to be with her tothe end of the world. She holds her charter as teacher from him—a charter as infallible as perpetual. The Protestant world at its birth [in the Reformation of the sixteenth century] found the Christian Sabbath too strongly entrenched to run counter to its existence; it was therefore placed under the necessity of acquiescing in the arrangement, thus implying the church’s right to change the day, for over three hundred years. The Christian Sabbath is therefore to this day, the acknowledged offspring of the Catholic Church as spouse of the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant world.” The Catholic Mirror (Baltimore, September 23, 1893)
"If you follow the Bible alone there can be no question that you are obliged to keep Saturday holy, since that is the day especially prescribed by Almighty God to be kept holy to the Lord. In keeping Sunday, non-Catholics are simply following the practice of the Catholic Church for 1800 years, a tradition, and not a Bible ordinance... ” F. G. Lentz, The Question Box (New York: Christian Press Association, 1900), pp. 98, 99
Need we say anything else? There's much to say about the institution, the politico-religious entity of the Catholic Church (and we will in our prophecies study), but for now let's understand and make clear the fact that the keeping of the Sunday is NOT a biblical mandate (hence, not a God-given mandate) but a man-made mandate; an institution that thought of itself as having the authority to change the law and mandate of God. Note how even the Catholic Scholars themselves mock, in a way, the protestant churches that say to keep the Bible commands, yet they honor the Sunday and not the Saturday. Either consciously or unconsciously they are, without a shadow of a doubt, following the tradition of the Catholic Church and not the word of God.
If you are interested in understanding the roots about the Sunday, how it came about to be along with the beginnings of the Catholic Church, I highly recommend reading chapters 2-3 of the Book "The Great Controversy" by Ellen G. White. Link to an online read below.
Closing
There's obviously much more to talk about in regards to the Sabbath vs. Sunday conflict, yet, when we really think about it, answering the question becomes quite simple... the answer is in the Bible itself and clear as the day. There's no authority in the Bible for even the mentioning of Sunday as a worship day. God made his day clear; the Sabbath is His blessed day for us to worship and remember Him as the Creator. The Sabbath is His mark, His seal to His people.
Yes, there might be very beautiful arguments for the keeping of the Sunday such as "because that's the day our Lord Jesus resurrected"... but as beautiful as that sounds, God does not recognize that day as a worship day. God's law is clear. Good? Makes sense? I hope it does.
Stay tuned as we continue our prophecy introductory series as we'll talk, I promise, much more about this Sabbath vs. Sunday deal. Here's a question for you to ponder on in preparation for later...
If God's seal / mark / sign between Him as His people is the Sabbath day, what do you believe the 'mark of the beast' spoken off in the book of Revelations is?
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Suggestions? Please feel free to reach out to us. We can't wait to hear what you have to share!! 😃
Until next one friend!
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