Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

According to God’s teachings and for sincere Christians who want to live a faithful life; who are always looking forward to the kingdom of heaven, there is an important command of God. It is the Seventh day.

There are many denominations in the world and each has their sacred day of worship, all claim to be keeping the appointed day of worship. However, they are turning away from righteous commands of God and teachings in the bible.

In the bible, there are records about Sabbath day; its origin and blessings given by keeping it. Let’s enjoy happiness to become one with God by observing the precious truth taught by Him.

Those who love God also Love His commands (John 14:15).

The Origin of Sabbath

Sabbath is a day of rest. God created all things in six days and on the seventh day He rested from all His work. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy as memorial of the authority of the creator.

Genesis 2:1-3 Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.  By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work.  Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Thus, the Sabbath originated with the creation, the last day of the week, God also made the Sabbath day as the fourth Commandment of the Ten commandments so that we can remember it and keep it holy.

Exodus 20:8-11 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, he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

God made a clear distinction between the seventh day and other days, and commanded us to keep it as the Sabbath day.

The Sabbath is an important commandment of God, which appears more than a hundred times in the bible.

What Day Is Sabbath Day in the Bible

The biblical Sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday. Today, many churches worship on Sunday, mistakenly recognizing it as the Sabbath. Through the Biblical and historical evidence, we can see that the Sabbath is Saturday.

In the English dictionary, Sunday is recorded as the first day of the week while Saturday is recorded as the seventh day of the week.

Evidence From the Bible

Mark, the author of the Gospel, clearly testifies that the Sabbath is Saturday.

Mark 16:9(NIV) When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene …

Mark 16:9(TEV) After Jesus rose from death early on Sunday, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,

Jesus resurrected on the first day of the week, the day after Sabbath as recorded in Mark 16:1-2. The first day of the week is Sunday as recorded in Today’s English Version (TEV) Bible.

Evidence From Christian History

The Catholic Church acknowledges that the Sabbath of the Bible is Saturday, not Sunday and some protestant books also show that Sunday was decreed as a day of worship and a legal holiday by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 321 A.D. Let’s confirm this fact through the historical evidence so that we can discern the truth and follow it.

The Faith of Our Fathers, pp 72-73
“Not to mention other examples, is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Isn’t 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.”

Even a catholic book says that the Sabbath is not Sunday, but Saturday. It is because the fact is so clear even though they keep Sunday worship.

God’s Will for the Sabbath

Exodus 31:13-14 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. Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people.

God established the Sabbath to be an everlasting sign between Him and His people, so that He makes them holy. Can we say that those who do not keep the Sabbath are the people of God?

In the Old Testament, anyone who was found desecrating the Sabbath was put to death as recorded in Numbers 15:32, but in this age our spirit come to die if we desecrate the Sabbath day.

Just as parents feed their children who are weak, nutritious foods to keep them healthy, God has given His children, who are weak, the Sabbath to pour out heavenly blessings upon them.

In Isaiah 56:1-7 God commands us to keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, He testifies that the man who holds fast to the Sabbath is blessed, and that He will lead him to the holy Mountain of God and give him joy in His beautiful house forever.

Jesus and His Apostles Kept the Sabbath

Some say that the Sabbath was abolished in the New Testament times, are they right? Jesus Himself kept the precious law of the Sabbath day.

Luke 4:16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read

Luke 4:16(ESV) And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read

Jesus acknowledged the Sabbath as a sacred law and made it His custom to worship on the Sabbath day. If a person does something once or twice, can we say it is a custom? No. Jesus set an example of keeping the Sabbath every week. Moreover, He proclaimed the Sabbath as the day of the Mighty Creator, when he acknowledged that the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mt 12:8).

The disciples who followed Jesus also kept the Sabbath holy. Every Sabbath, they gathered together to pray and ruminate on Jesus’ words and teachings as their spiritual food.

Acts 18:4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Acts 17:2-3 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said.

The Apostle Paul kept the Sabbath following the example of Jesus, so it is wrong to insist that the Sabbath day was abolished after the crucifixion. The New Testament never says we should keep Sunday worship instead of the Sabbath.

For how long should the Sabbath be kept? The bible only commands us to keep the Sabbath day until the end of the age (Mathew 24:20).

Old Covenant Sabbath and New Covenant Sabbath

We are not keeping the Sabbath of the Old Covenant but the Sabbath of the New Covenant according to the example of Christ.

Sabbath of the Old Covenant

Numbers 28:9-10 On the Sabbath day, make an offering of two lambs a year old without defect, together with its drink offering and a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil.  This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering

In the Old Covenant, on the Sabbath day, they worshiped God with the blood of sacrificed animals.

This was a shadow of things to come.

Jesus is the reality of the sacrificial lamb in the New Testament times and as the reality, He has appeared in the New Testament times. Therefore, there is no more need to sacrifice animals as the burnt offering on the Sabbath Day.

Sabbath of the New Covenant

Then how can we worship God on the Sabbath day in the New Testament times?

John 4:21-23 Jesus replied, … a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem… Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

In the Old Testament, they worshiped God through blood of sacrificed animals but in the New Testament Times, we worship God in Spirit and Truth.

That’s why Jesus set the example of worshiping God in Spirit and Truth on Sabbath.

The method of worshiping God has been completely changed by Jesus. In regard to this, the Bible says that the law must be changed as the priesthood was changed at the coming of Jesus.

Hebrews 7:12 For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.

Does the Bible say that the law must disappear? No. It says there must be a change of the law.

Therefore, we must keep the Sabbath day of the New Covenant on every seventh day of the week and worship God in Spirit and Truth.