How old were you when you learned that the Bible's Sabbath Day was Saturday?
I was in my 20s at least. I was surprised, shocked even, to learn that Jews believed the Sabbath to be on Saturday. I can't remember that anybody ever actually -told- me that Sunday was the Sabbath, it was just always implied, and seemed to be "universally" understood among Christians.
Our Christian Sunday school teachers taught us the commandment that says to remember the Sabbath Day, and to keep it holy. I'm guessing that, just like me, most of the other kids in the class just assumed that they must be talking about Sunday.
Did our Sunday school teachers themselves know that Saturday was the 7th day? Did they think that Monday was the first day of the week, even though the first day of the week on the calendar is Sunday?
How many thousands of Christians, do you suppose, have gone to their graves, believing for their whole lives, that Sunday was the Sabbath day of the 10 commandments?
2010-01-12T12:39:06Z
TRUTH Speaker - I've read the Bible several times, perhaps not the same versions you've read. All the Bibles I've read speak of Sabbath days and Sabbath weeks and even Sabbath years. Your characterization of the Sabbath is interpretative and based on Catholic doctrine. Jesus and his followers literally observed the Sabbath Day on Saturday, as was believed by the same Catholic interpreters who originally came up with the idea of celebrating the Lord's Day on a Sunday.
2010-01-12T12:50:22Z
Exodiafinder - 2000 years ago the Romans used variations of the Julian solar calendar, upon which our present day calendar is based. Many of these historical calendars are still in existence. Jews and other Eastern cultures used lunar calendars which also numbered the days of the week from Sunday to Saturday using different names for the days. The format of the calendars in those days is not in dispute, and in fact the differences between those calendars formed the basis for many heated debates regarding the dating of Easter, during the early days of Christianity.
I was 28 in 1984 when I was first exposed to this truth. Growing up I had Jewish neighbors so I knew the Jews kept Friday night/Saturday, but never gave it much thought.
Some folks had better wake up and really read their Bibles and think about what the Book actually says instead of holding on to their false traditions. There is not one place in the New Testament that says the Law is something we can ignore today because we are "saved" or because "Christ did it all for us".
In fact, the way the nominal Christian lives his/her life is a direct contradiction to all the teachings of Paul:
In the verse below, why does Paul consider the law holy and what does holy mean? Do nominal Christians hold the law as something holy?
Romans 7:12 ESV So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
In the verse below, Paul is showing that obeying the law requires action, is Sabbath keeping an action that fulfills this commandment of Paul?
Romans 2:13 ESV For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
Did Paul teach that because we have grace that we could live sinful (lawless) lives?
Romans 6:12-16 KJV Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (14) For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (15) What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. (16) Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
What is sin? Do the Chosen Ones of the Almighty God live their lives in sin?
1 John 3:4-9 ESV Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (5) You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. (6) No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. (7) Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. (8) Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (9) No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
How do we know that the Biblical Sabbath is really our Friday sunset to Saturday sunset? It is because the Jews have kept this day in an unbroken string from before the time of the Maccabees. They are the living witness against those who would dishonor God by saying that no one knows when His Sabbath really is.
Romans 3:1-3 ESV Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? (2) Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. (3) What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?
What is Paul really teaching the Colossian Church? Why write the following to a gentile Church whose members the Almighty had called out of their various pagan heathen religons?
Colossians 2:16 ESV Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
The key here is "new moons". Why would these people even know what the new moons were unless Paul was teaching them how to figure out when the High Holy Days fell during the year for themselves? There is no other reason. This verse, used by many to justify their rebellion against the Most High, is actually written to encourage these people to continue doing what Paul had taught them. This is strongly supported by the rest of Paul's writing as well as the book of Hebrews and the rest of the New Testament writers.
Read Hebrews 3&4 carefully! It is warning the Church not to follow the example of the Israelites in not keeping God's Sabbath Holy. That is the whole point of those two chapters. That we should obey God. How do we obey Him?
The Church of God in the end times is shown to be a Commandment keeping Church:
Revelation 12:17 ESV Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus....
What does it mean to keep the Commandments of God?
The Sabbath was made for man, yes, and the Creator God expects man to honor His Sabbath, does this define your attitude towards God's Sabbath?
Eze 22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
1 John 2:1-4 KJV My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: (2) And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (3) And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. (4) He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Or would you rather be in this group?
1 John 5:1-3 KJV Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. (2) By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. (3) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Suppose a benefactor gave you a new car. Not only that, this person paid the insurance, pre-paid the gas and maintenance, and said it was all covered as long as you were appreciative. To show that apprectation, all you have to do was set aside Wednesday to visit with him/her. Would you think you could really be respectful if you just decided to choose a different day to go see this person? Nobody was there at creation? Well, according to the Bible, Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day of creation, and introduced to the day set aside that evening. Jesus went to the temple on the seventh day Sabbath, and the Jews around the world don't seem to have any trouble agreeing on which day is the one. Even the Roman Catholic Church has acknowledged that Sunday is the first day of the week, not the seventh day Sabbath of the Bible. No, sending God a thank you card of His preference every week does not distract us from the focus on what we are thankful for, and why we seek to honor Him.
I was in my late( older than you are now)and was very heart sick that all those years of ignorance...and why no one mentioned anything when I asked questions about the Sabbath..I had to do much Bible study on my own...the same way a person researches things...there is nothing in the Bible(old or new) regarding sun day/first day of the week worship...it is and was a day of work...not a day of worship...That is The Sabbath...in 270 languages it is The Sabbath..
many have been true to the faith (kept the Sabbath in their hearts) even though they followed the teaching of those who did not have the full truth and where following the sun day rule... it is stated in the Bible that God shall wink at their ignorance...they where doing right with the limited teaching of those at the time.
with today's knowledge and extensive Bible study of the subject matter such a pleading of ignorance is not completely valid.
The Sabbath has been the Sabbath since the week of creation...the idea of man changing it to sun day is a mockery and an insult to the creator and to The Holy Day that God created and blessed.
I was taught that when I was young. I was also taught what the Bible says about the Sabbath being made for man, rather than man being made for the Sabbath. In other words, whether our Sabbath observance is Saturday or Sunday is much less important than whether we do it at all.
The early Christians began observing the "sabbath" on Sunday after Christ's resurrection because that's widely believed, among Christians, to be the day it happened.
About 11 years ago I realized that what I had understood was wrong & then started resting on the 7th day Sabbath. From there my whole view of christianity changed & a trip to Israel sealed the deal.