SABBATH OR SUNDAY
 ANSWERING THE CHALLENGE FROM A
Catholic Website:

What Do The Holy Scriptures Really Say?

In the following paragraphs the challenge against the Sabbath day is written in pink letters, the answers in white. The statement was made that the Sabbath is Dead. We say the Sabbath is not dead and that Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. It is our prayer that those who read will understand — for the battle is not between people, the battle is to distinguish between truth and error.
Sabbath: Saturday the seventh day of the week in Jewish (Mosaic Old Covenant) religious law, and Sunday, the day of rest for most Christians, as defined in secular dictionaries.

Yes, Sabbath is Saturday, and yes, the Israelites were asked to "REMEMBER" the Sabbath Day. However, part of that "remembering" is to realize that the Sabbath did not originate at Mt. Sinai, but was given at the beginning of the world.
Before there was sin there was the Sabbath. Before there was a need for a covenant to restore humanity to God, there was the Sabbath. Before there was a Jew, there was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was created for man. (Mark 2:27)

The Seventh-day Sabbath is the Sabbath spoken of in Holy Scripture. Sunday is NOT the Sabbath, even if the dictionary indicates such.

The word "Sabbath" is not a synonym for Saturday, just because it is practiced on Saturday by some.

Yet in many countries the name for the seventh day, is NOT "saturn" day, as it is in English, but simply Sabbath. The word "Sabbath" and the concept of resting from work on the seventh day of the week (Saturday) is common to most of the ancient and modern languages of the world. In the study of the many languages of mankind you will find two important facts:
1. In the majority of the principal languages the last, or seventh, day of the week is designated as "Sabbath."
2. There is not even one language which designates another day as the "day of rest."

Ancient language studies have shown that the seventh day was called the Sabbath even before Moses time. So tightly linked is Saturday to the Sabbath that in over 100 languages (one source says 160) the name for Saturday is some variation of the word "Sabbath."

The day of rest for Christianity has been replaced by Sunday, the Lords day, because Jesus Christ was resurrected on Sunday. I have been told repeatedly that there is no Biblical evidence for moving the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, and these people invariably quote Old Testament verses while at the same time denying New Testament verses which are contrary to their teaching.
Sabbatarians refer to the ten commandments of Ex 20:1-17, but ignore Matt 22:34-40, where Jesus is asked what is the great commandment IN THE LAW.

If Jesus would have replaced the Sabbath with his resurrection day, why did he not say to the disciples when he appeared to them that day, "This is resurrection day, on this day thou shalt hence forth worship me." But no, there is no such verse anywhere in scripture.

Sabbatarians do not ignore Matt 22:34-40, for indeed the greatest commandment is to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls. Yet HOW do we love God? That is described in the first FOUR commandments.
1. Do not have any other gods, before God. Make Him first and best and most important in your life!
2. Do not turn God into a finite image, do not make any graven images and bow down to them. God is infinitely greater than anything humanity can create. Worship Him!
3. Do not bring dishonor to God's name. Glorify Him in words and deeds.
4. Remember to keep the 7th Day HOLY, for in six days God created heaven and earth and rested on the Sabbath, wherefore He blessed the 7th day and sanctified it. To sanctify, means to set aside for a holy purpose. A special date with God!

Jesus grouped all ten commandments as listed in the law, into only two. Love GOD, which are in commandments 1-3, and love your neighbor which are in 4-10. Love of GOD includes keeping a "day of rest" which is the real meaning of Sabbath. Not one word did Jesus say that this day would continue to be a Saturday.

Yes, the commandments are grouped into the two "love" commandments. But notice two attempted changes above, to God's holy Law. The power that seeks to change God's times and laws has done just that in the paragraph above.
1. First notice there are only three commandments dealing with loving God, for they have thrown out the second commandment so they can uphold their tradition of reverencing images.
(They split the 10th into two to make it seem they still have ten.)

2. They say the Sabbath commandment is changed, because Jesus was silent on the matter?!? Yes, Jesus said NOT one WORD that the Sabbath would be changed from Saturday to Sunday, not one word did Christ utter that the 7th day Sabbath which God blessed and sanctified, would no longer be the Sabbath day. Nor does the writer tell us that Jesus said that He, Christ, is Lord of that Sabbath. He is Lord of the Sabbath which was created for mankind in the beginning. (see Mark 2:27,28 cp Gen. 2:1-3)

They say keeping the Sabbath means keeping " A" day of rest? Yet the commandment says, Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it HOLY.
Our resting does not make anything holy!
The only ONE who can make anything HOLY is Christ, and the only day we read about being sanctified, or made HOLY by God is the seventh day. He made the 7th day HOLY in the very beginning of the world. (Genesis 2:3)tells us that "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." To sanctify means to set aside for a holy purpose.

We don't make the Sabbath holy by resting, God made the Sabbath holy by sanctifying it. God says, worshipping Him on the Sabbath is for a sign between HIM and us, throughout all generations, to show that it is HE, the Lord, who makes US holy." (Ex 31:31) No legalism here — our resting upon the 7th day is a sign that God makes us holy, or as Ezekiel 20:12 puts it, "My Sabbaths are a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that SANCTIFIES them."

I will deal with the demise of the Old Covenant first, which negates all Old Testament verses regarding worship on the Sabbath.
The Old Testament beginnings of the Sabbath:
And immediately, hints of its ending:

Exodus 31:13, "You must also tell the Israelites: Take care to keep My Sabbaths, for this is to be the token (a sign) between you and Me throughout the generations, to show that it is I, the Lord, who makes you holy."

Exodus 31:16-17, "So shall the Israelites observe the Sabbath, keeping it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. Between Me and the Israelites it is to be an everlasting token; ( a sign) for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and abstained from work."

Did you notice that the Sabbath is referred to as a "token" and that it was binding between GOD and the Israelites, and not between GOD and the rest of the world?

Just notice something here, when speaking of the SIGN of the Sabbath as the covenant— it speaks of the EVERLASTING COVENANT. The everlasting covenant was instituted in Eden, immediately after the fall, when God made a covenant with Adam and Eve and promised to put enmity in their hearts against evil. (see Gen. 3:15) The above verses clearly point back to the creation of the Sabbath long before their was a Jew or an Israelite. However, the Sabbath came before the covenant, (see Gen. 2:1-3) for the Sabbath DAY was time set apart by God at the end of the creation week. The Sabbath DAY was blessed and sanctified, or set apart for holy purposes before there was sin. Without the covenants, after the fall, mankind would have been completely severed from any communication with God. So yes, the Sabbath, is a sign that God has not cut us off, but has established an everlasting covenant for our salvation.

Also, notice when it speaks of the new covenant being made, with whom it is made:
"I will make with the HOUSE OF ISRAEL a new covenant, not like the old covenant, and with the house of Judah...." Hebrews 8:8.
Are we to say the new covenant is only for the literal descendants of Jacob?
Of course we don't, for Israel, means the victorious ones. The true meaning of the term Israel encompasses all the children of God.

Compare this verse:
Genesis 17:11, "You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; it shall be a token of the covenant between you and Me. (Hebrews only)."

Is circumcision binding in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ? No, as that practice, "being only a token" was replaced by Baptism. See Colossians 2:11-14

What the writer fails to tell his readers is that Paul clearly says:
1 Cor. 7.19 "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." But, like many others who use the abolishment of circumcision to try to abolish the Sabbath with it, they ignore this clear reference to the keeping of the commandments of GOD. The commandments of God spoken by God's own voice, written by God's own finger, are unchangable! Yet they try to lump them in with the ceremonial laws and then seek to set up a day after the tradition of men in the place of God's holy day.

Christ made it plain that the setting aside of one of the ten commandments and putting tradition in it's place results in VAIN, or USELESS worship.

"Why do you break the commandments of GOD with your traditions? (He quotes 5th commandment) You are making the commandment of God of none effect by your traditions, In Vain you do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Matt. 15:3-9) Besides, if the abolishment of circumcision caused so much trouble and needed so many references to show it really was abolished, think of the commotion it would have caused had Paul told the Gentiles they need not keep the Sabbath. The uproar would have been tremendous. Yet there is no hint that the Sabbath was a controversial issue at all.

Another point-- IF God's ten commandments are "abolished", as many claim, with the ceremonial laws, why do these same Christians who will use this argument against Sabbath keepers, yet lobby to have the ten commandments posted in courtrooms and schools? The evidence is clear-- people don't believe their own misguided logic, yet they will cling to it in the war against God's sanctified and blessed day!

Some Bibles use the words "symbol" or "sign", instead of token, but the meaning is the same. A symbol, or a sign, or a token, or a shadow, or a Type , or a prefigurement, all used in Holy Scripture, are not the end result, but merely signs of the end result.

But is this true? Is a sign that we belong to Christ, and that He makes us holy, the same as the symbol of a sacrificed lamb which was fulfilled with Christ's death? Are we comparing things that are vastly different? And why does Revelation speak of tokens in the forehead and in the hand. For in the end those signs or tokens will show what side a person is on. The writer is making a strong point that the Sabbath is a token or sign, and Revelation says "don't have the wrong token or sign" in your forehead or in your hand during the last great crises.

Read Hebrews 10:1
"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the image of the things...."

Hebrews 10:1 continues: "...can never with those sacrifices, which were offered year by year continually make the comers perfect. ....for the blood of bulls and of goats ....burnt offerings......etc. What is Hebrews 10 speaking of? Is it saying God's moral law contained in the ten commandments is a shadow to come? No, it is speaking of the things in the earthly tabernacle services coming to an end, and Christ, (whose ministry was modeled in the earthly tabernacle), with His own shed blood, began His ministry in the heavenly. The old earthly sanctuary was the shadow of the sacrifice and priestly ministry of Christ.

The Sabbath on the other hand is enshrined in the heart of God's moral law, the ten commandments. To get rid of the Sabbath as a shadow, one has to get rid of the entire commandments if one reasons they were the old covenant which is done away with. Surely no one sees "not stealing, not killing, etc. as shadows that no longer have to be obeyed.. Now our writer changes his approach and presents an old argument that arose during the gnostic era. This argument says the eighth day (Sunday) is greater than the seventh (Sabbath)

Many Old Testament verses portray a "Type" of an eighth day on which to worship or to make a special offering.

"And he read in the book of the law of GOD day by day, from the first day till the last, and they kept the solemnity seven days, and IN THE EIGHTH DAY A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY ACCORDING TO THE MANNER." Nehemiah 8:18

Let's get the context of this verse, it says that the Israelites observed the feast of booths for the first time in centuries. This feast lasted a whole week and everyday they came together to hear the words of scripture. Then on the last day they had a special assembly. Like our camp meetings— our camp meetings are also eight days long, the first day of campmeeting is a Sabbath [Saturday] and the last, or eighth day is a Sabbath [Saturday] .
That so called "eighth day" in these verses has nothing to do with Sabbath being moved to Sunday! Besides, Sunday is the first day, not the eighth day!

Doesn't "Solemn Assembly on the EIGHTH DAY" sound like Sunday worship in a Church? See also, Leviticus 9:1-2, 14:23, 15:14-15,29-30, 22:27, 23:36-39, Numbers 6:10-11, 29:35, and Ezekiel 43:27

Activities were done for a week, then on the eighth day there was a change of activities. This still does not prove anything at all about Sunday. The activities could have started on a Wednesday! To now take a sequence of events that happened to last seven days, with a change happening upon the eighth day as proof of a change in the weekly cycle is rather irrational. It's trying to incorporate an eighth day into a seven day weekly cycle.

The Bible speaks several times of the "ninth day" Speaking of the day of atonement in Lev. 23.32 "It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: on the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath."

Do we therefore now say the week is nine days long and Monday is the Sabbath? No, that type of reasoning does not stand.
Also it would seem the "eighth" day concept, connects much more to circumcision than to the Holy Sabbath.

Artist: Herbert Rudeen
One of the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 states, "Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day". All of the commandments are binding upon our day to day, or minute to minute existence except for one, and that one is, keeping of a weekly Sabbath. All of the commandments dwell upon one word. They are "Moral" laws. The Sabbath, being a weekly obligation, falls into the same category as "New Moons" (monthly), and "Festivals" (yearly). Keeping of the Sabbath is not a moral law but a "Ceremonial law", and is therefore subject to change,

This is strictly philosophical reasoning. Earlier the writer confirmed that the Sabbath commandment was part of the "love the Lord with all your heart". But now he neatly attempts to takes it out of the Decalogue, which God spoke with His own voice from Mt. Sinia, and wrote with His own finger upon stone. God placed the Sabbath commandment in the VERY HEART of the Decalogue, His moral law, yet finite beings decide sinful mankind has the authority to change God's law and substitute a day that God NEVER blessed, or sanctified or asked us to remember.

[Sabbath a ceremonial law], was completed in Colossians 2:16-17, which plainly states that the Sabbath is but a "shadow" of things to come.

 Wait a minute. Colossians 2:16-17 does not so neatly do away with the Sabbath.

The more I read that text the more I think it was written to be a blessing to end-time Sabbath keepers rather than a negative.

Yes, the word used for "Sabbath" in the Greek is "sabbata" in Col. 2:16.
Sabbata, is used in Matt. 12:1,5,10,11,12 and Matt. 28:1 (and many more) all of which refer to the Sabbath Day.

The text in the Greek interlinear reads: " Let no one judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon, or of sabbaths, which IS a shadow of things coming." (future)

Now consider these points and the immense meaning they take on when we view the messages from the Catholic Church that Sunday is the NEW day of worship. From evidence obtained from Catholic writings, we know they substitute their man made Sabbath in the place of God's Sabbath and, as has happened in history past, will enforce this spurious Sabbath with legal penalties. All we need to do is read their page on the inquisition and know what they will do once they have the legal right to do it.

Now consider the fact that the text in Colossians 2:16 says, "let no man judge you...." and that it is put in the frame of these two texts:
1. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, AFTER THE TRADITIONS OF MEN, after the principles of the world, and not after Christ." Col 2:8

2. "Why are you subject to rules after the COMMANDMENTS OF MEN and DOCTRINES OF MEN? Col 2:22

Consider too, what Jesus said in Matt. 15:3,6,9
Using the 5th commandment as an example he says:
"In vain they worship me, teaching for doctrines THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN....Why do you transgress the COMMANDMENT OF GOD by your tradition...making of none effect the commandment of God by your tradition....In vain you worship me.....

Now notice something unusual: Paul is speaking in future tense -- Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink or in respect to a holy day or festival or of the Sabbath. which IS a shadow of things TO COME...

The commotion over certain people urging certain man made rules in these Colossian texts, were not about whether or not to keep God's commandments -- they were concerned with MAN MADE rules --
This commotion was a shadow of what IS to come--
The so called Christian church would arise and tell people to fast upon the Sabbath, celebrate upon the sun's day, it would tell the people to observe a whole liturgy of holy days and festivals and to keep the wrong Sabbath day. AND WOULD EXCOMMUNICATE and consign to hell any who disobeyed her.

Now if this were only a church believing it was right, it would be no problem, most all churches are established on the bases that they feel they have the truth. What is the problem here is that this church wants to dominate and control others.

Let no man judge you.
The Catholic Church claims it has the keys of heaven and hell, the priests, according to their dogmas, have the authority to assign or deliver people to heaven or hell. AND GOD HIMSELF must abide by their decisions-- that is straight from their "Duties of the Priest" books.

But the Bible says let no MAN judge you.
Also so important in this--

Our sins -- that which is against us, is blotted out by the blood of Christ which was shed on Calvary.
NEVER by an earthly priest who "absolves" the sinner.

Let no ecclesiastical body judge your eternal destiny. Let no person push a man made Sabbath on you and judge you as evil for not keeping that man made Sabbath. Obey God and His commandments, commit yourself to His mercy and judgment-- He alone is Lord and Savior!

Continued on Page Two
 where we are dealing with arguments that supposedly say the old testament predicted the demise of the Sabbath and the New Testament implimented it.
Yet is this really what the Bible is saying? Or is it wresting scripture for their own destruction? We need to know!

Page Three The discussion continues when the Catholic writer tries to say Sunday is the New day!
More on Colossians
The Sabbath and the Judgment

by UU