The Sabbath

The purpose of this article is to discuss the Sabbath day as put forth in Holy Scripture.
The whole need to discuss the truth of the Sabbath arises from the misguided notion that
Sunday is the Sabbath. It is amazing how many people actually believe this. However, it's
not that surprising because the Catholic church wholly condones this idea. In fact, they
even admit that they supposedly changed the day of worship. The purpose being to move
their doctrines closer to the pagan "religions" to make it easier to gain new converts.
So Catholics do have an excuse of sorts to worship on Sunday, but what about
Protestants? Most of the mainstream Protestant churches worship on Sunday as well.
What excuse do they have? None. But let us see exactly what the Catholic Church has to
say about the sabbath. The following quotes are from a couple different Catholic
Catechisms.

Penny Catechism

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT Catholics changed the
Sabbath to Sunday

192. What is the third Commandment?
The third Commandment is "Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day."

193. What are we commanded by the third Commandment?
By the third Commandment we are commanded to keep the Sunday holy.

The Most Rev. Dr. James Butler's Catechism

Q. Say the Third Commandment.
A. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
Q. What is commanded by the Third Commandment?
A. To sanctify the Sunday.
Q. Which is the chief duty by which we are commanded to sanctify the Sunday?
A. Assisting at the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

Notice how the commandment is shortened in Catholic Catechisms? In Exodus
20:8-11, the complete commandment (which is the fourth in reality, not the third) is 98
words long. Catholics have shortened it to 8. Now for what reason could this be? What
else, but to take out any mention of what day is actually holy so they can make any claims
they want to about the sabbath and teach it as God-given truth.
To sort out this whole situation, let's start by looking at where the sabbath began.

Gen 2:2 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.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he
had rested.

So the Sabbath began on the seventh day of creation. Adam and Eve were
created on the sixth day, so they were present when God hallowed the seventh day
and were the first to celebrate His day of rest. One claim put forth by proponents of
Sunday worship claim that the seventh-day sabbath was only a Jewish tradition. But
then how could that be possible if the sabbath existed thousands of years before a
Jew even existed?

Mark 2:27-- And he [Jesus] said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man
for the sabbath:
Mark 2:28-- Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

So God made the sabbath for man, not just for Adam and Eve, nor just for the
Jews. He made it for all humanity. But then some people try to say that over the
generations, the sabbath was changed to Sunday. Let's look at some more verses about
Sabbath-keeping in the Bible.

Gen 26:5-- Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my
commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Here, it tells of Abraham obeying God's commandments and laws. This includes
the Sabbath commandment. And Abraham was born 1000 years after Adam died! So
we know that the Sabbath was still honored in his day. Next, let's look at a
verse in Exodus. This is before the Israelites had gotten the commandments from
Mount Sinai.

Exo 16:23-- And he [Moses] said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To
morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD. So bake what you want to bake
and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.'"

Exodus 16 mainly concerns the manna and quail that God saw fit to give the
Israelites in the Desert of Sin. The chapter explains that Moses told the people to
gather twice the daily manna on Friday because no manna would fall on the Sabbath;
Saturday. And the manna continued to do this for 40 years! Next, let's see exactly
what the ten commandments say about the issue.

Exo 20:8-- Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9-- Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10-- 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:
Exo 20:11-- 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.

God says, "Remember the sabbath day..." It's not like the Sabbath was anything
new to the Israelites. They had already been keeping the Sabbath and God only wanted
them to "remember" it so they wouldn't forget it and fall into apostasy.

Another popular argument to make for the case of Sunday worship is, "What if I
just rest on one day in seven? Would that work?" Even the Catholic Church teaches that
God allows us to pick one day in seven to worship:

Radio Replies, First Volume, by Rev. Dr. Leslie Rumble

1157. Did not God command us to observe Saturday, and not Sunday at all?

No. The command as given by Moses in the Name of God to the Jews was that the
Sabbath, and not Saturday, should be kept holy. The word Sabbath means rest.
The law includes two elements; one essential, that one day in seven should be
dedicated to God; the other ceremonial, that the particular day should be chosen.
The Jews selected Saturday. ...

1159.

... The Jews decided to observe Saturday, while Christians decided to observe
Sunday. The seventh day as God's day was not changed. The Sabbath, God's rest
day, was transferred from Saturday to Sunday.

The problem with this theory is that it has no scriptural authority. There is no
place in the Bible where the Israelites, or anyone else, is given the option of
choosing their day of worship. Go back to Exodus 16 and read what happened to
those people who went out to gather manna on the Sabbath day.

Exo 16:27-- And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh
day for to gather, and they found none.
Exo 16:28-- And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my
commandments and my laws?
Exo 16:29-- See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore
he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his
place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Exo 16:30-- So the people rested on the seventh day.

See how it says in verse 29 that the "Lord hath given you the sabbath..." The
Israelites didn't choose the Sabbath. God instituted it at creation as a memorial of His
works. By keeping the Sabbath He has given us, we show Him love and loyalty. It is
a sign of rebellion when we do not obey His law.

But then some may argue, "How do we know what day is the sabbath day?
What if the calendar changed?" People say this about the Saturday Sabbath, but they
totally accept that Jesus arose on a Sunday and it's been celebrated on Sunday ever
since. Notice the discrepancy? Some people seem so unsure about what day is the
Sabbath, but they are absolutely sure what day Jesus was resurrected. Let's
make sure:

Mat 28:1-- 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.

Mark 16:2-- And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the
sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

Luke 24:1-- 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.
Luke 24:2-- And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.

So, Jesus rested in the tomb over Saturday, the Sabbath, and the women came to the
tomb early on Sunday. So Sunday was the resurrection day. Sundaykeepers have no
doubts about that, but when it comes to the previous day, there's all sorts of talk about
calendar changes and not knowing if Saturday is still the seventh day.
Even Jesus Himself, who should obviously know which day is the Sabbath, kept it.

Luke 4:16-- And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom
was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

So Jesus was a seventh-day Sabbath keeper. Obviously, the Jews hadn't lost track
of what day was the Sabbath. But, then, some people say that the calendar was confused
in the Middle Ages when there were all those calendar reforms. Let's look at the evidence.

The calendar reform of 1582 was initiated by Pope Gregory XIII because
under the calendar established by Julius Caesar, the date of the vernal equinox had
moved from March 21st in 325 A.D. to March 11th in 1582. This was due to the
fact that the Julian calendar added a leap day every 4 years, without exception, and
this resulted in adding too many days than required for a stable solar calendar. The
Julian calendar had commenced the 1st of January of the 46th year before the birth of
Christ (the 708th from the foundation of Rome), and by 1582 the calendar had drifted
earlier by 10 days. This error was important to the Catholic church because under the
Julian calendar, the date of Easter was gradually creeping farther and farther (earlier
and earlier) away from the time of year set by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., when
the equinox fell about March 21st.

To correct this perceived Easter problem, Pope Gregory XIII returned the
Spring equinox to March 21st by decreeing that Thursday, October 4th, 1582, would
be followed not by the 5th, but by Friday, October 15th. He jumped the calendar 10
days numerically, but did not change the weekly cycle of days. Easter was then
observed by Roman Catholics on the first Sunday after the full moon occurring after
the Spring Equinox.

So that this correction would be maintained, the Pope then decreed that
leap years would occur only when the year was divisible by four, and only the
centennial years that were divisible by 400 would be leap years. During a leap
year, one day is added to the month of February (the 29th), as a correction. This
method of calendar keeping was gradually adopted across Europe, and the world, and
is nearly universal today.

Source--Michael Scheifler's Bible Light Homepage

So therefore, history and the Bible show that the days of the week were never
changed. The Saturday of today has always been Saturday.

So, if the seventh-day biblical Sabbath was never changed, then who decided
to make the change?

"It is the day of Christ's resurrection and Christians have transferred the
solemnity of Sabbath to Sunday to honor that event."

That sounds like proof, right? Unfortunately, if we are to hold true to the
claim of sola scriptura as the Bible says to, then we can't accept the above statement.
It, nor anything like it, can be found in the Bible. However, ample evidence can be
found for the seventh-day Sabbath.

Gen 2:3-- 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.

Exo 20:11-- For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them
is, and rested the seventh day: herefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed
it.

Exo 31:16-- Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the
sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Exo 31:17-- It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the
LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

So God blessed the seventh day as a memorial of his creation and gave the
Sabbath to us to help us remember Him. In Exodus 31: 17, God says that it is a sign
forever. If God says forever, he means forever. Where can be found a verse
in the Scriptures that says Sunday is the new sabbath? Or that the seventh-day
Sabbath is no longer binding? No where. So then who actually authorized it to be
changed? Who felt that they had the power to make such a change?

... They (those who assert church authority) also refer to the example of the
Apostles, who commanded to abstain from blood and from things strangled, Acts 15,
29. They refer to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary
to the Decalog, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more
than concerning the changing of the Sabbath-day. Great, say they, is the power of
the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!

The Augsburg Confession, Philip Melanchthon (1530)

So it is the Roman Catholic Church that felt it had the power to
change God's law.

63. Christ came to accomplish a new "exodus", to restore freedom to the
oppressed. He performed many healings on the Sabbath (cf. Mt 12:9-14 and parallels),
certainly not to violate the Lord's Day, but to reveal its full meaning: "The
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mk 2:27). Opposing the
excessively legalistic interpretation of some of his contemporaries, and developing
the true meaning of the biblical Sabbath, Jesus, as "Lord of the Sabbath" (Mk 2:28),
restores to the Sabbath observance its liberating character, carefully safeguarding
the rights of God and the rights of man. This is why Christians, called as they are
to proclaim the liberation won by the blood of Christ, felt that they had the
authority to transfer the meaning of the Sabbath to the day of the Resurrection.

Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini.

How could any man, even the Pope who is a man not Christ, ever presume to
change God's law? He made it as a memorial of his creation. He never said
we could change it!

All of us believe many things in regard to religion that we do not find in the Bible.
For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that
the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God
given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday.
Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the Church
outside the Bible.

The Catholic Virginian

So, again, there is no biblical proof for the changing of the Sabbath. The
Catholic Church chose to change the day of worship.

"... 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? But, 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 never sanctify."

The Faith of Our Fathers, by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore

Catholic authorities themselves freely admit that there is no scriptural authority
for the change. They just felt that they had the power and decided to use it. Their
excuse for the change, though, is quite thin. To the question of "What proof do you
have of the Church's power?," They answer, "Had she not such power, she could not
have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her - she could not
have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the
observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural
authority. (Controversial Catechism, by the Rev. Stephen Keenan).
What a fallacy! That is circular logic to say, 'We have the power to change
it because we did.' Nothing like that could ever stand up in court. That would be like
saying, 'I'm allowed to steal your car because I can.' Who can deny the stupidity of
that type of statement?

I hope that you now know that Sunday has always been Sunday and Saturday
has always been Saturday. No where in the Bible is Sunday blessed or sanctified as a
holy day. Only by pagan-influenced Catholic tradition is Sunday worshipped as the
Sabbath of the Lord.
And Sundaykeeping Protestants, if you really are a Protestant, why do you
worship on Sunday? If you say you believe in 'the Bible and the Bible only,' then you
cannot believe in the false sabbath. You have only Catholic tradition on which to rely
to excuse your actions. If you worship on Sunday, you are pretty much a Catholic on
the matter of the Sabbath. You throw away the Word of God and obey the traditions of
a misguided church.

You have to ask yourself, will you follow the Word of God in all things, which
commands you to worship on Saturday, or follow Catholic tradition, requiring Sunday
worship? There is only one choice. To save your eternal soul, choose the Lord.