SABBATH KEEPING
by Ed Stevens
Extreme confusion and deceived over-confidence generally prevail concerning the
sabbath question. Some call Sunday the sabbath, others, Saturday. Since the
Bible speaks very plainly on the subject let us see "what saith the Scriptures?"
The first recorded religious day to be observed by man
was given to Israel, in Exod. 12:6. It was the fourteenth day of the Jewish
first month called "Passover day," in commemoration of the angel of death
passing over the Israelites in Egypt when all the first born Egyptian children
died. The next recorded religious day observance is found in Exod. 16:23:
"Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath (meaning intermission, or rest) unto
the Lord." Please note that the word "tomorrow" here referred to the seventh day
that Israel first received the manna from heaven (v. 12, 27-29) and according to
the context, had no connection whatsoever with specific calendar week days,
which are not mentioned. Every seventh day thereafter was to be for Israel a
holy day of rest—the sabbath, regardless of calendar week days. Israel had also
other sabbaths. Compare John 19:31, "That sabbath was an high day," i.e., it was
the passover, which was a sabbath as well as the first and last days of the
following seven days of eating unleavened bread. Christ was crucified on
Wednesday and not traditional Friday. His body was to be three full days in the
tomb—actually three sabbath days in succession—passover, first day of unleavened
bread and the weekly sabbath. Lev. 23:4-8; Matt. 12:40; 28:1; Luke 23:55, 56;
24:1 proves this conclusively. "In the end of the sabbaths," is the original of
Matt. 28:1.
According to the record, not until the ten
commandments were given to Israel did God make mention of His memorial sabbath,
when He rested after six days work of creation. He called both it and Israel's
rest day "the sabbath of the Lord thy God." Israel's seventh day of rest was not
given them to commemorate God's work of creation or even the giving of the
manna. This can be seen from Deut. 5 :12-15,—"and remember that thou wast a
servant in Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a
mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded
thee to keep the sabbath day." The sabbath was for Israel also "a sign between
God and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify (set apart)
them" (Exod. 31:17; Ezek. 20:12, 20). To say that sabbath observance was
commanded men prior to Moses' day has no scriptural support whatever. Neh. 9:14
informs us that God "made known to them (Israel) thy holy sabbath and
commanded them precepts, statutes and laws by the hand of thy servant Moses."
This, the only ceremonial law in the ten commandments, was "a shadow of good
things to come" (Heb. 10:1), namely, the believer's resting in the saving,
finished work of Jesus Christ and also the coming millennial "rest of the whole
earth" (Isa. 14:7).
Is the term "Christian sabbath" scriptural? It is
argued that Paul kept the sabbath. Yes, and "many thousands of Jews" which
believed were zealous of the law" during the book of Acts period (Acts 21:20),
for God had not yet revealed that Mosaic law, as far as this present
parenthetical Church dispensation is concerned, was to be "abolished." This was
revealed some thirty years after the cross through the apostle Paul (Eph. 2:14;
Col. 2:14-16; Heb. 8:7-9, 14—all written about A. D. 63. "Let no man therefore
judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or
of the sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come; but the Body (Church) is
of Christ" (Col. 2:16, 17). That Mosaic law and the sabbath will again be
observed during the coming millennium (thousand year reign of Christ on earth)
can be deduced from Isa. 2:3; 66:23; Mic. 4:2; Zech. 14 :16-21.
The fact that Paul, "the minister of Jesus Christ to
the gentiles" (Rom. 15:16; 11:13; I Tim. 2:7), re-iterated in his epistles all
the ten commandments in over 120 commands and admonitions, but left out
altogether the fourth, about the sabbath, is unanswerable for the sabbatarians.
Another indisputable fact they cannot face is that in Acts 15:1-29 it was made
quite plain to the early church that no Mosaic law was to be imposed on gentile
believers. Acts 21:25 states: "As touching the gentiles which believe, we have
written and concluded that they observe no such thing."
It is argued that the Pope changed the Jewish Saturday
sabbath to Sunday at the council of Laodicea in 336. To the Christian, what
matters this, or the Catholic decision in 393 as to what writings should make up
the Bible, when, as Catholics themselves admit, the holy, inspired Word of God
had already existed over three hundred years in the Church (before Roman
Catholicism began) as being entirely sufficient for Christian faith and
practice, without need of so-called "infallible" interpreters and cannonizers?
Any unbiased reader of the book of Acts can see that Jews convened in synagogues
on the Jewish sabbath day and that Christians generally met together on the
first day of the week without direct command from God. We read in Rom. 14:5,
"One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."
Other arguments of sabbatarians are:
(1) "The sabbath was made for man and not man for the
sabbath" (Mark 2:27). True. It was beneficial physically and spiritually.
Although written about Israel "for our learning" (Rom. 15:4), we find one day's
rest in seven likewise beneficial for us, but we are not divinely commanded to
rest. "For ye, brethren, have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty as
an occasion for the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is
fulfilled in one word, even in this: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
But if ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the law" (Gal. 5:13, 14, 18).
See also Rom. 13:8-10.
(2) Christ said, "Whosoever therefore shall break one
of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least
in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 5:19). But these same people who
love to quote this verse for sabbath keeping, teach that whosoever does not keep
the ten commandments, especially the Saturday sabbath, will be lost forever and
will therefore not be "in the kingdom of heaven" at all!
(3) They argue that the coming "Beast" or world
dictator "will think to change times and laws," according to Dan. 7:25, and
therefore the keeping of Sunday is "the mark of the beast" referred to in Rev.
13:16, 17. This is truly far fetched and unscriptural for it is nowhere revealed
just what the "mark" will be. What about the millions who observed Sunday before
Mrs. E. G. White, founder of Seventh Day Adventism, had her visions (see Col.
1:25; 2:18) concerning the sabbath? Must we believe they are forever doomed
because they observed Sunday? Adventists teach that those who had not "the
light" on keeping the sabbath will not be judged for keeping Sunday. God's Word
teaches that the "light of the gospel" of the grace of God only determines one's
salvation—not light concerning works, as sabbath keeping, etc. Beware of all who
teach "another gospel" of grace plus works!
The first half of the fourth commandment is almost
universally overlooked: "six days shalt thou do all thy work." This "work" for
us of course includes perfectly performing all the "good works that God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). Christ is the only one
that ever kept the sabbath, in that every six days of His life on earth He did
all His work, in no way coming "short of the glory of God" in thought, word or
deed (compare Rom. 3:23).
Heb. 4:1-10 explains that God's sabbath was a shadow
or type of a Christian's having ceased from his own works to be righteous before
God and his resting in the finished work of Christ, which included both His
perfect law keeping and paying the whole world's penalty for having broken
God's laws in thought, word and deed. Verse 9: "There remaineth therefore a
rest to the people of God", does not denote an obligation to keep a literal
weekly sabbath, but a resting or ceasing "from his own works" to enter into
the perpetual spiritual rest of salvation in Christ. (v. 10). "The wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord" (Rom. 6:23). "Christ tasted death for every man" (Heb. 2:9). Every day
is a Christian's sabbath in a spiritual sense. "We are the circumcision (of the
heart, and not so-called 'spiritual Israel') who worship God in the spirit and
have no confidence, in the flesh", i.e. carnal ordinances (Phil. 3:3).
Those who are too self-righteously proud to believe
the gospel of the grace of God, that our only hope for heaven lies in our humbly
accepting Christ's imputed righteousness and His vicarious death, stubbornly
refuse to believe that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every
one that believeth" on Him (Rom. 10:4). They will compass sea and land to bring
people under the law. Paul speaks of such in Gal. 4:17: "They zealously seek you
in no good way; nay they desire to shut you out (i.e., from God's true servants)
that ye may seek them" (R.V.). In all their law preaching they do not forget of
course, the remunerative stressing of giving "tithes." Our giving today is
entirely on a voluntary (not legal) basis. See Gal. 6:6; I Cor. 9 and II Cor. 9.
"O foolish Galatians," said Paul, "Who hath bewitched
you that ye should not obey the truth? Ye observe days and months and times and
years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Christ
is become of no effect unto you (ye are severed from Christ, R.V.) whosoever of
you are (or would be) justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Gal. 3:1;
4:10, 11; 5:4).. "Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren, that through
this man (Christ) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all
that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified
by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38, 39).
To know how to "believe" on Christ and what to believe
to be instantly and eternally saved please read prayerfully I Cor. 15:1-5 along
with John 3:36 and 5:24.