How the Sabbath came to be acknowledged or accepted as Sunday is a whole topic on it's own that needs time devoted to it. I would recommend reading a book which not only goes into the history of the early Christians from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem through the Dark ages, when Christians suffered and died during the Protestant Reformation at the hands of the Roman Catholic church. It also gives a glimpse of the challenges that are comig ahead not only for Christians but generally what is going to be happening that will affect everyone. It touches on the subject of how the Sabbath was changed.
The book is by E.G. White and it is called, The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan.
There are other books also that touch on this subject like one by Samuele Bacchiochi which is also a good read on this subject. From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity.
There are many others and I encourage for those of you who would like to know which Sabbath the lord would have us to keep, to search and study and pray for the lord's guidance while at that. I think it is important to know which day is the Lord's Sabbath, since He tells us to observe it in one of the Ten Commandments.
I have found that many acknowledge the Ten Commandments but all of a sudeen, when it comes to the Sabbath, it was changed and the Law is no longer binding.
Christ gave us the greatest commandment:
[37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[38] This is the first and great commandment.
[39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:37-40.
On these 2 hang all the commandments as seen in Exodus 20:3-17.
Loving God with all thy heart, all thy soul and with all thy mind is summed up in the first 4 commandments:
1st
[3] Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2nd
[4] Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
[5] Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
[6] And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3rd
[7] Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4th
[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.
The last 6 commandments have to do with love for man or your neighbour:
5th
[12] Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6th
[13] Thou shalt not kill.
7th
[14] Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8th
[15] Thou shalt not steal.
9th
[16] Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10th
[17] Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
[32] And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32.
What the majority believes to be the truth is not a standard of or a criterion for measuring the truth. There is no democracy when it comes to the truth especially when what you believe can have eternal consequences.
Just because the majority believes, practices or have come to accept something, that does not make it right. Sincerity does not change the truth either. One can be sincerely wrong. Just because the culture or world customs are hostile towards the 7th day or Saturday Sabbath, that does not make it wrong either. It just so happens that a lot of business and entertainment happens on that day, making it difficult to keep it as God would have it to be kept. In this case, there is so much resistance to keeping it that it almost seems
Just because the prevailing culture, customs or norms are hostile towards the keeping of the Sabbath as God would have it to be kept, does not mean one should compromise and give in.
The Sabbath in keeping it is a commemoration and reminder for us that:
God is the Creator
Of all the commandments, the Sabbath commandment is the only one in which He declares that He created us and all things.
It serves to draw attention to Him as being the Creator of all things and so keeping it is an acknowledgement of this fact:
[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. Exodus 20:11.
Ultimately there is nothing we can do to sustain ourselves. God is the one who provides.
In the commandment, we are commanded to not do any work at all. In the present day, that would seem like an impossible or difficult thing to do. A lot of jobs require workers to work at some or all of the time on the Sabbath (Saturday). That is a very busy day in general. So most workers have to work on that day whether they like it or not if they would like to keep their jobs.
So society and the tradition works against the keeping of this day. In this depressed economy, it makes it even more difficult to not work on that day if one wants to keep the Sabbath. One is faced with the decision to either pass up on a job because they are required to work on that day or to compromise and just work because there are mouths to be fed and bills to be paid. To pass up a job in a recession seems like madness because one might not get another opportunity again.
So what does one do? Do you compromise to survive or believe that the Lord who has set aside that time for us to spend with Him will provide? If one keeps the job because they have to feed their family and pay bills, this is an act of self preservation, self trust and doubting God's ability to provide.
If one chooses to keep the job or to work on that day, they doubt that God can provide, and yet there is no guarantee that they will have the job tomorrow. If you keep the job today but lose it tomorrow, what or who are you going to trust in for survival? There is nothing left to hold on to.
But if one by faith believes that if God requests for us to spend that time with Him, He is more than capable to provide; whether it is through a job that is off on the Sabbath or through means that we know not of or can comprehend.
If we put Him first, He has promised to provide:
[30] Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
[31] Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
[32] (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
[33] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
[34] Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:30-34.
So God knows that you have bills to pay and mouths to feed but don't doubt his power or resources to provide. Keeping the Sabbath is a commemoration of this fact that our livelihood and very existence depends on His will and providence.
We rest from the works of the flesh which is sin in Him comemorating that our souls find rest and refuge in Him.
The works of the flesh are sin and we sin continually, mostly against our will. We can't seem to stop and only Christ gives us rest from these labors of the flesh:
[19] Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
[20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
[21] Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21.
The Sabbath is a commemoration of this rest from the labors of sin and also the burdens of life, pain, sorrow, etc:
[28] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
[30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30.
We rest from attempting to work and thus earn righteousness resting in his works of righteousness on our behalf.
The keeping of the Law is righteousness and we have been commanded to keep the Law. But keeping the Law in our own strength does not justify us but rather the Law informs us of what sin is. Not keeping the Law however is sin, as is written:
[20] Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20.
[4] Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4.
How then shall we keep his Law which seems impossible to keep in our own strength and which we seem to keep breaking? He keeps it for us when we rest in Him. The Sabbath is a commemoration of this rest:
[13] For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure(keeping of His commandments). Philippians 2:13.
[29] Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:29.
[28] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:28-29.
So the Sabbath is not just another day but special and hallowed and reminds us of all these things.
My prayer is for us to come to understand what it means and what it is individually, and that God will guide us all into that truth.
The book is by E.G. White and it is called, The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan.
There are other books also that touch on this subject like one by Samuele Bacchiochi which is also a good read on this subject. From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity.
There are many others and I encourage for those of you who would like to know which Sabbath the lord would have us to keep, to search and study and pray for the lord's guidance while at that. I think it is important to know which day is the Lord's Sabbath, since He tells us to observe it in one of the Ten Commandments.
I have found that many acknowledge the Ten Commandments but all of a sudeen, when it comes to the Sabbath, it was changed and the Law is no longer binding.
Christ gave us the greatest commandment:
[37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
[38] This is the first and great commandment.
[39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:37-40.
On these 2 hang all the commandments as seen in Exodus 20:3-17.
Loving God with all thy heart, all thy soul and with all thy mind is summed up in the first 4 commandments:
1st
[3] Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2nd
[4] Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
[5] Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
[6] And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3rd
[7] Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4th
[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.
The last 6 commandments have to do with love for man or your neighbour:
5th
[12] Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6th
[13] Thou shalt not kill.
7th
[14] Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8th
[15] Thou shalt not steal.
9th
[16] Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10th
[17] Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
If we are truly seeking for the truth, it is ultimately up to us individually to search for it and find it as is written in the following verse:
[15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15.
If we humbly approach this subject without any biases towards whatever we might believe to be the truth, if we staudy and pray for the Lord's guidance while at it, the Lord will guide us to the truth as is written:
[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. John 16:13.[32] And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32.
What the majority believes to be the truth is not a standard of or a criterion for measuring the truth. There is no democracy when it comes to the truth especially when what you believe can have eternal consequences.
Just because the majority believes, practices or have come to accept something, that does not make it right. Sincerity does not change the truth either. One can be sincerely wrong. Just because the culture or world customs are hostile towards the 7th day or Saturday Sabbath, that does not make it wrong either. It just so happens that a lot of business and entertainment happens on that day, making it difficult to keep it as God would have it to be kept. In this case, there is so much resistance to keeping it that it almost seems
Just because the prevailing culture, customs or norms are hostile towards the keeping of the Sabbath as God would have it to be kept, does not mean one should compromise and give in.
The Sabbath in keeping it is a commemoration and reminder for us that:
- God is the Creator
- Ultimately there is nothing we can do to sustain ourselves. God is the one who provides.
- We rest from the works of the flesh which is sin in Him comemorating that our souls find rest and refuge in Him.
- We rest from attempting to work and thus earn righteousness resting in his works of righteousness on our behalf.
God is the Creator
Of all the commandments, the Sabbath commandment is the only one in which He declares that He created us and all things.
It serves to draw attention to Him as being the Creator of all things and so keeping it is an acknowledgement of this fact:
[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. Exodus 20:11.
Ultimately there is nothing we can do to sustain ourselves. God is the one who provides.
In the commandment, we are commanded to not do any work at all. In the present day, that would seem like an impossible or difficult thing to do. A lot of jobs require workers to work at some or all of the time on the Sabbath (Saturday). That is a very busy day in general. So most workers have to work on that day whether they like it or not if they would like to keep their jobs.
So society and the tradition works against the keeping of this day. In this depressed economy, it makes it even more difficult to not work on that day if one wants to keep the Sabbath. One is faced with the decision to either pass up on a job because they are required to work on that day or to compromise and just work because there are mouths to be fed and bills to be paid. To pass up a job in a recession seems like madness because one might not get another opportunity again.
So what does one do? Do you compromise to survive or believe that the Lord who has set aside that time for us to spend with Him will provide? If one keeps the job because they have to feed their family and pay bills, this is an act of self preservation, self trust and doubting God's ability to provide.
If one chooses to keep the job or to work on that day, they doubt that God can provide, and yet there is no guarantee that they will have the job tomorrow. If you keep the job today but lose it tomorrow, what or who are you going to trust in for survival? There is nothing left to hold on to.
But if one by faith believes that if God requests for us to spend that time with Him, He is more than capable to provide; whether it is through a job that is off on the Sabbath or through means that we know not of or can comprehend.
If we put Him first, He has promised to provide:
[30] Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
[31] Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
[32] (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
[33] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
[34] Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:30-34.
So God knows that you have bills to pay and mouths to feed but don't doubt his power or resources to provide. Keeping the Sabbath is a commemoration of this fact that our livelihood and very existence depends on His will and providence.
We rest from the works of the flesh which is sin in Him comemorating that our souls find rest and refuge in Him.
The works of the flesh are sin and we sin continually, mostly against our will. We can't seem to stop and only Christ gives us rest from these labors of the flesh:
[19] Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
[20] Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
[21] Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21.
The Sabbath is a commemoration of this rest from the labors of sin and also the burdens of life, pain, sorrow, etc:
[28] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
[30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30.
We rest from attempting to work and thus earn righteousness resting in his works of righteousness on our behalf.
The keeping of the Law is righteousness and we have been commanded to keep the Law. But keeping the Law in our own strength does not justify us but rather the Law informs us of what sin is. Not keeping the Law however is sin, as is written:
[20] Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20.
[4] Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4.
How then shall we keep his Law which seems impossible to keep in our own strength and which we seem to keep breaking? He keeps it for us when we rest in Him. The Sabbath is a commemoration of this rest:
[13] For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure(keeping of His commandments). Philippians 2:13.
[29] Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:29.
[28] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:28-29.
So the Sabbath is not just another day but special and hallowed and reminds us of all these things.
My prayer is for us to come to understand what it means and what it is individually, and that God will guide us all into that truth.
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