Sunday
Is it the Christian Sabbath?
Is Sunday, the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath? Did it replace
the seventh day (Saturday) as the rest day of Almighty God? Has the fourth of the Ten Commandments as recorded in Exodus 20:8-11
been changed or done away with? If all the praiseworthy characters mentioned in
the Bible - including the Savior and his twelve apostles - kept the seventh day
Sabbath, then why are the majority of Christians keeping Sunday?
These and similar questions are being asked today by believers all over the
globe and the answers to them fall into three distinct categories.
- "The days of the week are all alike," say some believers, "so
there is no need to become emotionally polarized about any particular one.
Saturday, Sunday or even Friday for that matter, they are all the same to God.
The important thing is to keep yourself holy every day of the week and
forget about a weekly Sabbath, because it no longer exists. The Sabbath
commandment has been fulfilled, superseded, done away with and nailed to the
cross. Christians meet for worship on Sunday, not because it is the Sabbath of
the ten Commandments, but because it is convenient. The law has been fulfilled
by Jesus Christ and is now obsolete: so there is no longer a Sabbath
commandment to observe. It is the Spirit that matters, not the day of the week
on which you choose to rest."
- "The law of God still stands" say others "but Sunday, the
first day of the week, is the new Christian Sabbath. It commemorates the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Lord's Day and has
replaced the seventh-day Sabbath by the authority of the inspired Apostles
and, therefore, by Christ himself. Christians are certainly under obligation
to observe it."
- "Sunday is not the Sabbath day at all," says a third group. "The
Almighty's Sabbath, according to His unalterable Ten Commandments (Exodus
20:8-11, Matthew 5:17-18) is the seventh day of the week, the day
commonly known as Saturday. You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation
and you will not find a single verse authorizing the observance of Sunday. The
true weekly Sabbath of Yahweh, the Almighty God of Israel was, is, and ever
will be, the seventh day of the week."
Therefore the arguments rage back and forth across the globe and are even now
stirring the minds of many in your area. We trust that this article will
settle the matter for you once and for all, and prepare you for the days ahead
when this very issue concerning the Almighty's Sabbath becomes a point of
interest for all the inhabitants of the earth.
In your own interests, therefore, we will advise you to carefully study
this page and be ready to answer this critical question: Is Sunday the
Christian Sabbath?
Before we present our answer it is obvious that we should first settle the
issue of whether or not a Sabbath day exists. In other words, does the
Almighty still want mankind to observe a Sabbath day - or are all the days of
the week alike?
The answer to that question is: Yahweh's Sabbath still exists and He
most certainly wants people to observe it. The following verses will prove
that the Sabbath commandment was not done away with at the cross, but is still
on the statute books of heaven.
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The First Proof Text is:
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Matthew 24:
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20: But pray that your flight be not in the winter,
neither on the Sabbath day. |
In this passage the Master advised His followers to request His Father to so
arrange circumstances for the church that Sabbath observance would be made
easier for them at the time of Jerusalem's capture; this prophecy would apply
to the destruction of Jerusalem 40 years after the crucifixion, as well as
the final fulfillment at the end of the ages--2,000 years after the
crucifixion. Now pause and think about
that advice: If the Sabbath commandment was scheduled for cancellation at the
cross - as some suppose - then why did Jesus give his disciples this
instruction about keeping the Sabbath? What was the point in advising them to
pray to the Father about a commandment that would not be in existence in AD
70 and at the end of time?
The answer is perfectly obvious: The Sabbath commandment was not scheduled
for cancellation at the cross; it was to continue. The Savior knew this, and
that is why He advised his followers, who were mostly Israelites at that time,
to pray to God to arrange a weekday flight from Jerusalem. They would not then
be exposed to the temptation of breaking the Sabbath commandment in their
haste to get away from the besieged city.
The presence of this text is irrefutable evidence that the Savior had
absolutely no intention of doing away with the Sabbath commandment at Calvary;
a fact which he had previously pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount when he
said:
| Matthew 5:
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17: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I
am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
18: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or
one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
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The Second Proof Text is:
| Hebrews 4:
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9: There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10: For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own
work as God did from his.
11: Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall
after the same example of unbelief. |
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