The Sabbath is God's Gift to Mankind

Down through the centuries, Bible scholars have searched the New Testament (Apostolic Writings) for verses that clearly state that the weekly observance of the Biblical seventh-day Sabbath (Shabbat) was moved to Sunday. The results are always the same; they do not exist. However, men have been successful at providing “good-sounding reasons” to justify and perpetuate their traditional beliefs. We will examine these reasons, as well as, how these beliefs were established.

There is a phrase in the Apostolic Writings, “first day of the week,” that has led many to come to the wrong understanding about the day “Sunday” and what this phrase really means. It has been “lost (hidden) in translation.” See our article “Was Messiah’s Resurrection on "First Day of The Week" - Sunday?” It will answer this question, “was the resurrection on Sunday?” We believe the correct answer is “NO.”

Some say they, “celebrate Jesus’ resurrection day on Sunday” and that is why they meet on that day. First, there is no commandment to observe a resurrection day, unless it is tied to observing Passover, which is the correct time to remember Messiah Yeshua’s (Jesus’) resurrection.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that there is no biblical reason not to meet on a Sunday. The response is, “What about the commandment to assemble on the Sabbath?”

We could not find a single biblical text that shows that Messiah Yeshua advocated replacement of the Sabbath or eliminating (destroying) any of the Torah (Law). When Yeshua was asked by a young man on what he must do to inherit eternal life, His response was simply, “if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt 19:16-21). What commandments? There is only ONE set; those that God gave Moses to teach Israel.

As we will see below, a change took place within Christianity long after the death of Yeshua, His Apostles, their first century disciples, and the Jewish authors of the Apostolic Writings. Therefore, in order to arrive at the correct biblical understanding concerning this issue, we must know our well documented history. All we have to do is read and think for ourselves. Use your browser…

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH CHALLENGE

The Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly offered money to anyone within Christianity who can provide a Bible verse that states the Sabbath day was changed to Sunday in the Apostolic Writings (i.e., Bishop T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18, 1884). Guess what? No one has collected!

The point of the Catholic Church’s offer is to substantiate their claim that the Pope is the Vicar (man’s mediator on earth) who alone has the authority to make biblical changes. Therefore, they say, if you keep Sunday as the Sabbath, you are under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.

After examining all of the issues concerning moving the Sabbath to Sunday by the Pope, we believe that nowhere in the Bible does it give a man the authority to change or choose which day of the week to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. In fact, Scripture warns that anyone who “adds to or takes away from” the WORD (Bible) will not inherit eternal life. (Deut. 4:2, 12:32; Rev. 22:18)

One litmus test for man’s biblical interpretation is, “Where in the Bible can I find that?” If it takes an esoteric (obscure) explanation, concluded with “trust me on this one,” then it is probably a “bad doctrine” and should be ignored! God wrote the Bible so that everyone could read it, understand it, and know how to apply the basics of His Covenant to their lives. He tells us in Malachi 3:6, “For I, the LORD, do not change…”

Let us strive to be like the first century Bereans and search out the scripture; demonstrating that we are “lovers of truth,” not blind people following blind guides. As God Fearers, we want to obey God and not man.

ROME’S INFLUENCE

James Cardinal Gibbons [The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893 and The Faith of Our Fathers, page 111]:

• “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.”

• “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.”

Augsburg Confession of Faith (Lutheran):

• “The observance of the Lord's Day (Sunday) is founded, not on any command of God, but on the authority of the Church.”

Dr. Edward T Hiscox, Author of the “Baptist Manual”:

• “There was and is a command to keep holy the Sabbath day: but the Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask: Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week.”

Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, in his book, From Sabbath to Sunday:

• “The expression ‘Lord’s day which first appeared as an undisputed Christian designation for Sunday near the end part of the second century...the sayings of Christ found in the Gospels do not contain the expression “Lord’s day”....In a passage.... Epiphanius (ca. A.D. 315-403) suggests that until A.D. 135, Christians everywhere observed Passover on the Jewish date, namely, on Nisan 15, irrespective of the day of the week.....no necessity has been felt to institute a Sunday memorial (whether annual or weekly) to honor his resurrection.....the role that the Church of Rome played in causing the abandonment of the Sabbath and the adoption of Sunday has been underestimated, if not totally neglected, in recent studies. If one recognizes, as admitted by O. Cullmann, that ‘in deliberate distinction from Judaism, the first Christians selected the first day of the week.’”

There are many more sources that support the above facts about Sunday but not enough room to include all of them.

Did worship on Sunday exist before Messiah’s first coming? Yes, it was a day for worshiping other deities. Thus, the name “Sun-Day.”

SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH (SHABBAT)

God Himself observed the first Sabbath in Genesis to provide us with a pattern and example to follow. This was long before there was an Israel or a “Church:”

• “And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested (Sabbath) on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because on it He rested (Shabbat) from all His work which Elohim (God) in creating had made.” (Gen 2:2-3)

From these verses, we are taught that God blessed and sanctified (set apart) the Sabbath day. Man cannot change or “un-bless” what God has blessed. Mankind’s only options are obedience or disobedience.

God wanted the seventh-day observed to commemorate His creative work, a memorial of creation (Ex 20:11). This is why He included it in the “Ten Commandments.” God used more words to express the importance of this commandment than any other commandment listed.

• “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…” (Ex 20:8-11)

God gave the Sabbath as a visible or outward sign of His covenant to identify or mark His people. This sign carries with it a picture of a marriage covenant, like the wedding ring, as the outward “sign” of the marriage covenant. It shows we are betrothed to Yeshua and we are waiting for the marriage supper of the Lamb:

• “Speak to the children of Israel…My Sabbaths you shall keep as a sign between you and me throughout your generations. That you may know that I am the L-rd who sanctifies you….a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever…”(Ex 31:13-17)

God’s sign of the covenant (Sabbath) was reinforced by the Prophets:

• “I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; And hallow my Sabbaths (Leviticus 23); and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” (Ezekiel 20:19-20)

There is an opposing sign mentioned in the Apostolic Writings, in the form of a “mark” that identifies other people as followers of another Messiah:

• He [false messiah] performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth…He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads…mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name…Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”

This mark and number mentioned here is “man’s system,” which is a false system, that deceives mankind. When mankind is deceived, they do not realize that they are following a false system.

SABBATH: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

God spoke through the prophets to tell us that after Messiah returns to establish His kingdom, EVERYONE will keep the Sabbath:

• “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me…from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 66:22-23)

• In the future Ezekiel Temple (Ezekiel 46:1-5): “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: The gate of the inner court facing east is to be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day and on the day of the New Moon it is to be opened. The prince is to enter from the outside through the portico of the gateway and stand by the gatepost…on the Sabbaths and New Moons the people of the land are to worship in the presence of the LORD at the entrance to that gateway.”

Yeshua also taught that the Sabbath commandment would be observed in the last days in Matt 24:20-21:

• “And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

SABBATH IS GOD’S GIFT TO MANKIND – NOT A BURDEN

No other ancient society gave their citizens a day off from their labor. A Sabbath did not exist in other cultures. This is why the Romans struggled with Israel; calling them lazy since they wanted to rest for a whole day on the Sabbath.

Yeshua tells us that the Sabbath is a “gift” to mankind from God and He is the Master of the Sabbath:

• “And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’” (Mark 2:27)

• “For the Son of man is Master, of the Sabbath day.” (Matt 12:8)

Note that Yeshua never said, “The Sabbath was made for Jewish people only.” He plainly said the Sabbath was made for all mankind (See Isaiah 56:6-7). God’s gifts are irrevocable. He cannot take them back or change His mind. (Mal 3:6)

Paul also taught about the importance of keeping the Sabbath:

• · “So let no one judge you…regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance (body) of Messiah.” (Col. 2:16-17)

Paul is saying here, “let no man judge you in your lawfulness (how you observe these commandments).” Verses 16 and 17 contrast with verse 18 where Paul clearly identifies pagan practices that should not be mixed with the worship of God.

Paul also states these appointed times listed in Leviticus 23 are “shadows of things to come,” or outlines of future events (beware of bad translations of this phrase in modern bibles). If the Sabbath, new moon, and festivals teach us about the time Yeshua is to come, is it not important for us to know what they are teaching?

When Paul speaks of “festivals,” he is speaking of God’s “annual Sabbaths.” These are the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonements, and Feast of Tabernacles; all of them point to our Messiah.

YESHUA’S FOLLOWERS

After witnessing Yeshua’s death on the tree, His followers kept one of these festivals, a High Shabbat, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23), that fell on a Thursday that week. This is not the weekly Sabbath:

• “And it was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was approaching. And the women who had come with Him [Yeshua] from Galil followed after, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. And having returned, they prepared spices and perfumes. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the command.” (Luke 23:54-56)

Paul tells the Corinthian assembly in 1 Cor 5:7-8 to observe this same feast:

• Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

THE SABBATH IS NOT ONLY FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE, GOD INCLUDED GOD-FEARERS

The Sabbath was established at creation (Genesis 2:1-3). It was not given to a particular group of people but set as a memorial for all mankind to remember and observe God’s creative work.

The Sabbath applied to the “aliens” who attached (grafted) themselves to the Abrahamic Covenant. An alien is a person who in Hebrew is called a “ger,” a righteous God-Fearer from the nations who was grafted into Israel.

• Leviticus 19:34, “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

• Isaiah 14:1, “The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.”

In Leviticus 23:1, the Sabbath is listed as one of the “feasts of the Lord.”

Isaiah 56:6-7 states, “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer...”

People from the nations were joining Israel before Yeshua came and they continue to join them today through Yeshua. Paul states in Ephesians, Chapter 2, that God Fearers were once:

• “…strangers and foreigners excluded from the covenants of the promise but now, through Messiah, have become “fellow citizens.”

God-Fearers do not replace the Jewish people but become “joint heirs” and part of Israel, taking on the commandments of Yeshua (Jesus), the Master of the Sabbath.

SABBATH GOES ON

Hebrews 4:1-11 speaks of the Sabbath rest a person enters into when they cease from their own efforts to obtain salvation, when correctly translated, verses 9-11 state,

• "So there remains a Shabbat-keeping for God’s people. For the one who has entered God’s rest has also rested from his own works, as God did from his. Therefore, let us do our best to enter that rest; so that no one will fall short because of the same kind of disobedience.” (Complete Jewish Bible, Dr. David Stern]

CONCLUSION

Sadly, Christianity has been following and perpetuating bad traditions for almost 2000 years; causing countless numbers of people to break this extremely important covenant commandment, the Sabbath.

Remember, NO ONE is exempt from being deceived, even leadership. Paul tells us that in the last days men would become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of Truth. They would have “itchy ears” for false doctrines/teaching, be lovers of self, and lovers of money.

A closing comment about the Sabbath from a Jewish Scholar and a follower of Yeshua, Dr. John Fischer, Messianic Rabbi, Congregational Leader, and Hebrew scholar, states in his Siddur for Messianic Jews:

• “From the biblical covenant perspective, Shabbat and the other traditions are not legalism but gifts of grace from God, teachers of his truth, and expressions of our enthusiastic love and gratitude to him....Shabbat then serves as a picture of God’s life and relationship with his people, as a foretaste of his kingdom (the ‘eternal Shabbat’), and as a means of helping his people recognize or picture what he is like...Therefore, Shabbat helps us reflect the image of our King....Shabbat serves as a symbolic expectation of our Messiah’s second coming, as well as an opportunity to experience now in a small way the rest and harmony that will exist then.”