Introduction.
As we know, there is a great disagreement about the Sabbath among the Christians. I have discussed the reason for this disagreement in «This is the Sabbath part 1, 2, 3 and 4». Now we will take a closer look at six of the most common objections to Saturday, the seventh day of the week, as the Sabbath. Those who do not want to accept that God chose the seventh day of the week as his holy day already during creation, search with light and lantern for verses in the Bible that they can use to defend their view of the Sabbath. Even the day of Jesus’ resurrection is an argument that is used to ‘disprove’ Saturday as the Sabbath.
When God had finished creating, He stated that what He had created was exceedingly good, (Genesis 1:31; A Faithful Version). In other words, everything God had created was perfect. Then we read in Genesis 2:2-3: 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. 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.
This tells us something about what God thinks is important to him. Already the day after man was created, the Lord set aside a day that was to be a day of rest and worship, and God blessed this day, the seventh day, and sanctified it. God did not do this because this day was to be a torment for mankind, but because God wanted us also to set aside a special day where we could be with Him, rest in His presence and receive His rich blessings, which also applies to this day.
The first thing God did for Adam and Eve was to give them a day to be set aside for rest, a day when man would give up his work, a day they could meet their Creator in a special way, in the way He wants us to meet Him. It was not just any day that God gave to mankind, but God chose the day God Himself rested after creation, the day He blessed and sanctified. It must therefore be important, and it must mean a lot that God blessed and sanctified a special day. Therefore, I believe that it must be important for us to follow what God did and rest on the seventh day of the week.
The six objections are really just one objection. Those who raise these objections use different words and different Bible verses to describe and substantiate their claims. Because of this, the answer to the first objection will be the most complete, and you will find that there will be many similarities in my argumentation, and that I will use some of the same Bible verses more than once. This as a direct consequence of the objections that have been raised.
All Bible texts are taken from King James Version 1611/1769 unless otherwise stated.
The objections.
Objection 1, Romans 14:6: He that regardeth the day, regardeth [it] unto the Lord …
Many cite Romans 14 as proof that it is indifferent which day of the week is kept holy. In Romans 14:5 it says: One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day [alike]. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Here in Romans 14.5 Paul says that all days are equal, and in verse 6 it says that whoever keeps any day, let him do it for the Lord. Therefore, they conclude that we may as well keep Sunday holy like any other day. You just have to follow your convictions.
Answer to the objection:
Those who advance an argument like this engage in what is called «cold table theology». They pick out a verse or sometimes just part of a verse while skipping what they don’t «like». Then they twist and turn the meaning so that it fits the individual’s view.
Is it certain that Paul is talking about the weekly Sabbath in this verse? As usual, one cuts out a verse and kneads the text until it fits into a preconceived view. Romans chapter 14 deals with the differences between those who are called strong and weak and says that the strong should not look down on the weak even if they do things in a different way. The context of this text indicates that it is not about the weekly Sabbath when Paul writes that some keep all days to be equal, because this is in connection with food (the one who eats; verse 6). All laws and regulations related to food can be found in the Law of Ceremonies, which is part of the Law of Moses, and all holidays and feast days can also be found in the Law of Moses. This law was given to Israel at Sinai, and it was written by Moses – hence the Law of Moses. The law dealing with the Sabbath is, on the other hand, part of God’s Ten Commandments. These commandments are eternal, and have been since before men were created, and will last for all eternity.
We have to read from the first verse of the chapter to see the context, and then it becomes clear that it is not the seventh days sabbath, which is subject to the ten commandments, Paul addresses here but the sabbath days referred to here and subject to the ceremonial law, and along with the question that occupied many Jews at Paul’s time, namely, whether one could eat meat sacrificed to idols. This meat was sold together with other meat.
It is the many festivals and feast days that the Jewish calendar was full of that are Paul’s concern in this text. All festivals and feast days were holidays, and by definition called Sabbath days in the plural. The weekly Sabbath is always referred to in the singular. Israel had the following «sabbath days»:
The Passover, 14th Abib
The unleavened breads feast, 15th to 21st Abib
The feast of the first fruit,16th Abib and 6th Sivan
The Pentecost, also 6th Sivan
The feast of the trumpets, 1st Tishri
The day of atonement, 10th Tishri
The feast of tabernacles, 15th to 22nd Tishri
These pointed to Jesus’ first coming and the service He would do.
In addition to this, seven annual feasts the following days was celebrated:
The day of the new moon, the first day in every month.
Hanukkah, the feast of the dedication, an eight days feast to remember the cleansing of the temple after the Syrian pollution.
Purim, 14th and 15th Adar.
Hanukkah and Purim were not initiated by God but were made public holidays due to the events they point back to.
That Paul does not mean the weekly Sabbath should be raised over any doubt when he wrote this in the same letter about the Ten Commandments:
Romans 3,31: Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Romans 7,12: Wherefore the law [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Romans 8,4: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
It then becomes something sought when we put this against the assertion that Paul says that all days are equal. Why would he defend the Ten Commandments again and again, and so in the same letter, repeal one of the Commandments?
In the Old Testament we find the word Sabbath used in different ways 109 times, and 105 of those times it is about the seventh day of the week. Three of the times, in Leviticus 25:6 once and in Leviticus 25:8 twice, it is used in connection with the «sabbath year», that is, the seventh year when the Israelites / Jews should not cultivate the earth, and once in 2 Kings 16:18, it is used in connection with «the covert for the sabbath» they had built in the houses.
The Sabbath day is used twice in the Old Testament
The holy day of the Lord is used once in connection with the sabbath
The seventh day is used in connection with the sabbath 29 times in the Old Testament, and there are 20 times where the seventh day is used where we cannot be sure if it points to the sabbath.
In the New Testament, we find the word Sabbath in different forms 59 times, and 57 of those times are on the seventh day of the week, once in Acts 1:12, it is used in connection with «a sabbaths day’s journey» or so far as the Jews could travel on the Sabbath without breaking the law, and once in Colossians 2:16 it is used in connection with other holidays (sabbaths) as in the Feast of Unleavened Bread = the seven days after easter this is stated in Colossians 2:17, which continues saying that these days, in verse 16, are just … a shadow of things to come …
The seventh day is used twice in the New Testament in connection with the sabbath
When God spends so much time telling how important this day is, it should be clear that this day, the seventh day of the week, our Saturday, has a special position with God. It is the only day God has blessed and sanctified (in this context in the sense of setting aside for holy use).
No less than 195 times the seventh-day Sabbath is directly lifted up in one way or another. Indirectly, the Sabbath is lifted up 24 times, and in addition, the Sabbath day is referred to in other ways and with other words.
Objection 2, Matthew 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.
Christ’s resurrection, which happened on the first day of the week, Sunday, is such an important event that it is natural that we remember and celebrate that day as a public holiday. This is a common claim by many Christians. But does this argument hold? Do we find anything in the Bible that says we should remember Jesus’ death and resurrection, and if so, what is it?
Answer to the objection:
Christ died on the cross on a Friday, and without Him dying, He could not have risen again. These are two out of three equal events. Jesus’ ascension is as important as his death and resurrection, and the ascension took place on a Thursday. If we look at the week, we work on Thursdays and Fridays. Why? Well, there is nothing in the Bible that indicates that God has given a command to keep either Thursday or Friday holy. Nor is there a single indication that God has changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. If it had been God’s will to change the day of rest, He would have clearly communicated this to the people. The prophet Amos says something about this problem: Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, (Amos 3:7).
God never once hinted that He would change the Sabbath. Not even Jesus’ resurrection would change the Lord’s Sabbath. On the contrary, Jesus rested in the grave on the Sabbath and rose again on the first day of the week – Sunday.
But to the question of whether Jesus himself has said anything about how we should remember his death and resurrection. During the Last Supper, Holy Thursday, the day before He died on the cross, Jesus says: And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake [it], and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me, (Luke 22:19). In other words, it is the Lord’s Supper that is the way we should remember Jesus’ death and resurrection. This do, says Jesus, partake of the Lord’s Supper, and do it to remember my sacrifice on the cross.
There is also a strong argument in the verse that is used (Matthew 28:2) “to prove” that the Sabbath has been moved from Saturday to Sunday. When we read this verse together with Luke 23:54-56 and Mark 16:1-2 we can form a correct picture of what happened on Friday (preparation day, the sixth day of the week), Saturday (the seventh day of the week) and Sunday ( the first day of the week).
Luke 23:54-56: And that day was the preparation (Friday, the sixth day of the week), and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
Mark 16:1-2: And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the [mother] of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first [day] of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
As we see from Luke and Mark there was full activity in preparing Jesus’ body on Friday, there was no activity on the Sabbath, and they had planned a larger activity to complete the anointing of Jesus’ body on Sunday. Just look how short and simple Luke says it: rested on the Sabbath as the commandment says.
Both Jesus, the disciples, the women and all the others who followed Jesus rested on the Sabbath. It is strange if Jesus had changed the day of rest.
Objection 3, Colossians 3:23: And whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.
Here, too, they justify everything they do by saying that they do it for the Lord, an argument that proves to be very applicable. Some people do not pay tithes but build themselves a big and showy house instead and say that they are building the house for the Lord… … …
Everything they do they claim that they do it heartily, and to the Lord, and it is implicit in their argument that they keep Sunday as the Sabbath to honor the Lord. They also say that the Sabbath is a Jewish invention, or that it was given to Israel at Sinai, and is therefore not valid for those who belong to the Christian Church.
Answer to the objection:
This is both an absurd claim and a great mystery that directly contradicts what God’s word says in the fourth commandment, the only commandment that begins with «REMEMBER», and which is the commandment that the vast majority of Christians want to forget: 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 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: 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, (Genesis 20:8-11).
Why did God give man a day of rest to REMEMBER which He blessed and sanctified and as He sat aside for holy use if all days were equal? It is not only contrary to the word of God but also to common sense.
If we look carefully at the text, we will see that verses 9, 10 and 11 are a direct link to creation, and we read in the creation account that God created on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th day. Then the following is written about the seventh day in Genesis 2:2-3: 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. 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. It says that the completion of creation was to bless the seventh day and sanctify it. There is no other day that has been sanctified by God, nor blessed like the seventh day of the week.
Let’s look at what makes a day holy. Can you or I decide that a day should be holy? Can the Pope decide that? The short answer to these two questions is NO, not at all. We humans cannot make anything holy, because we are not holy in ourselves. Only God can make something holy, and a day becomes holy because God the Creator is especially present on the day He chose during creation, the day He blessed and sanctified.
When we follow God’s commandments and choose to rest on the Sabbath in the true sense of the word, God will bless us. This is something that has to be experienced, because I can’t explain it. The blessing I receive from the Lord for keeping the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as the Sabbath, as God’s word says I shall do, is indescribable, and it follows me throughout the week.
Objection 4, Colossians 2:16: Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath [days].
Here we also find the same argument. It is claimed that here Paul writes that no one should be judged for food, drink, festivals, new moon days or Sabbaths, and means by this that it is not necessary to keep the Sabbath holy. But they completely ignore a small but important detail.
Answer to the objection:
Firstly, here too there is something more in the text that is of decisive importance for the understanding of the verse. This is the small but important detail. The Sabbaths mentioned are not the weekly Sabbath. Here Sabbaths is written in the plural, and is therefore a plural word, and therefore has nothing to do with the singular Sabbath – the weekly Sabbath.
Secondly, we must read verse 17 and see what this verse says. It says: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [is] of Christ.
Since meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath [days] are only shadows of things to come (verse 17), this therefore refers to the arrangements of the ceremonial law. Leviticus chapter 23 and Deuteronomy chapter 16 are both about the ceremonial law, also called «the great feasts». Of the ceremonial Sabbaths, there were at least seven that come in connection with Easter and the Day of Atonement and more, and these are the Sabbaths that Christians in Colossae should not be judged for not keeping. These were ceremonial feast days that pointed to Christ, and which had been brought to an end through Jesus’ death.
The Lord’s Sabbath on the other hand, the seventh day of the week – Saturday, has never been a shadow like the ceremonial Sabbaths. It was instituted by the Lord himself in the Garden of Eden on the seventh day of the creation week before sin came into being, and even before there was any need for any shadow or type of the salvation in Jesus Christ.
Objection 5, Galatians 4:10: Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
This must be an obvious and scathing criticism of those who keep the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, holy! These Adventists criticize anyone who does not keep the Jewish Sabbath.
Answer to the objection:
This is rather a criticism of those who observe days, and months, and times, and years, those days and festivals that are unknown to the New Testament. In the previous verse, verse 9, Paul blames the Galatians by saying: But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
We must bear in mind that these were newly converted people when Paul writes to them, and that perhaps already in childhood they learned to celebrate these pagan feast days dedicated to their pagan gods. It may also be the case that they celebrated the Old Testament feast days in a formalistic way.
After Paul had left on his missionary journey, they had begun to celebrate these pagan or ceremonial days again, that is, what they had learned in childhood and the days that not converted Jews still celebrated. This is what Paul warns against, he does not warn against resting on the Sabbath or keeping the Lord’s Sabbath, which at that time was a revelation to all Christians.
Objection 6, Revelation 1:10: I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.
Here John says that he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and this day is Sunday. Therefore, Sunday must be the Lord’s holy day in the new covenant.
In my favourite Bible, BGO 1988, where the editors were mostly Pentecostals, the following is written in the footnotes to Revelation 1:10: «This is the first reference in Christian literature where the first day of the week is called the Lord’s Day».
Answer to the objection:
The Lord’s Day is Sunday only if it can be proven from the Bible that Sunday is the Lord’s day in the new covenant, but such evidence does not exist, and then this argument becomes just a baseless claim. The first day of the week is not mentioned as the Lord’s day once in the Bible, not once.
As I said, the footnote I referred to is coloured by the Pentecostal charismatic view and is a subjective view, not an objective view. There is also no indication of which day is meant by the Lord’s Day. Let’s take a look at the expression Lord’s Day: The expression the Lord’s Day occurs 22 times in 20 different verses, and once as the Lord’s holy day (Isaiah 58:13; New International Version 1984), a total of 23 times in the Bible.
These are the relevant verses:
Isaiah 13:9; 13:9; 58:13-14; Ezekiel 13:5; 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1; 2:11; 3:4; 3:19; Amos 5:18 (twice); 5:20; Obadiah 1:15; Zephaniah 1:7; 1:14 (twice); Zechariah 14:1; Malachi 4:5; Acts 2:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 1:10.
21 times it is about the judgment or doomsday as an extended expression when it comes to the end time. Once it is about the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week (Isaiah 58:13). It is only in Revelation 1:10 that we cannot read directly from the verse that it is judgment day or the Sabbath, but when the Bible is a self-explanatory book, it is easy to see a pattern in the other 22 times the phrase Lord’s day occurs in one or another form, that it is about God’s Sabbath – the seventh day of the week or judgment day and end time. Why should it be any different with this single verse? But if Revelation 1:10 is not to be interpreted as a day of judgment (as an extended period), then this day as mentioned here must refer to God’s Sabbath. The seventh day is referred to as «the Lord’s holy day», and God himself says: «My holy day»:
Isaiah 58:13-14: If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honourable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.
We can safely assume that Isaiah meant the seventh day of the week since this was written approx. 800 BC However, it can be objected to the fact that this is in the Old Testament and therefore belongs to the old covenant, but we find a clear answer to this call to «keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath» which means «do not work on the Sabbath» in the New Testament. Luke tells us what the women did, and not least what they did not do on the Sabbath with Jesus’ body after his death. We read in Luke 23:56: And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
Before the Sabbath, they, the women, could prepare spices and ointments, but according to the fourth commandment they could not anoint Jesus’ body on the Sabbath because this was considered work, and therefore they waited until Sunday, the first day of the week – which is not the Sabbath , before they went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body: 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.
Bearing in mind that the Revelation reveals events that lead to the events in connection with Jesus’ return, we can interpret the expression was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day to mean that John is taken in the spirit down through time to the Lord’s Day (Joel 3:4) and finds himself in heaven before the Lord’s throne in the end times, or doomsday as an extended term. The Lord’s throne here is the throne of God the Father. One can also interpret the Lord’s day in a traditional way, that it is the Sabbath in question. Those who interpret the Lord’s Day in this way claim they find evidence for their view in chapter 4, verses 1 and 2 where John sees an open door into heaven and heard a voice saying come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. Although many believe that the Lord’s Day is the special day that John received the Revelation while sitting on Patmos, we must not forget to put it all into its proper context. There are certain things we must take into account, and they are:
a) where John is, (verse 9)
b) the reason why he is precisely there, (verse 9) and
c) in what state he was when he received the revelations (verse 10).
So John was on the island of Patmos, and the reason why he was there was for God
for the sake of the word and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and the state he was in was in the spirit. We can therefore state that it is not the day of the week on which John receives his visions that is of interest, but the reasons why he receives them, and this is what leads to the first interpretation of the Lord’s day, as the day of judgment in the extended understanding.
There is nothing in the Bible that suggests that Jesus changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, it is rather the opposite. Everything that is written in the New Testament was written after Jesus died, and then it is very strange that they do not mention that this day has been changed by Jesus. Instead, they all point out that the Sabbath is the same as it has been since creation. The arguments used by those who do not like to keep the Sabbath are only straw men and nothing else. The arguments they come up with are constructed arguments that have no basis in the Bible. It is probably rather the reluctance to keep the Sabbath as God’s day of rest that is the reason, because when it comes to keeping Sunday as a Sabbath day, then it is suddenly of the utmost importance to keep this false Sabbath day. Understand it whoever can.