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WHY Keep The Sabbath Day?
April 5, 2019
WHY KEEP THE SABBATH DAY?
Who made it? When was it made, and for whom? Which day is the true Sabbath? Many keep the first day of the week, or Sunday. What Bible authority have they for this? Some keep the seventh day, or Saturday. What Scripture have they for that? Here are the facts about both days, as plainly stated in the Word of God:
After working the first six days of the week in creating this earth, YHWH rested on the seventh day. (Genesis 2:1.3.)
The Creator blessed the seventh day. (Genesis 2:3.)
He sanctified the seventh day. (Exodus 20:11.)
YHWH says it was made for man (Mark 2:27), that is, for the race, as the word man is here unlimited; hence, for the Gentile as well as for the Jew.
It is a memorial of creation. (Exodus 20:11; 31:17.) Every time we rest upon the seventh day, as God did at creation, we commemorate that grand event.
It is’ not a Jewish institution, for it was made 2,300 years before ever there was a Jew.
The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath, but always “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
It was a part of God’s law before Sinai. (Exodus 16:4, 27-29.)
Then God placed it in the heart middle of His moral law. (Exodus 20:1-17.) Why did He place it there if it was not like the other nine precepts, which all admit to be immutable?
The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God. (Deuteronomy 4:12,13.)
Then He wrote the commandment with His own finger. (Exodus 31:18.) He engraved it in the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature.
God forbade work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times. (Exodus 34:21.)
God destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness because they profaned the Sabbath. (Ezekiel 20:12, 13.)
It is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know Him from false gods. (Ezekiel 20:20.)
God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:24, 25.)
He sent them into the Babylonish captivity for breaking it. (Nehemiah 13:18.)
He destroyed Jerusalem for its violation. (Jeremiah 17:27.)
God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep it. (Isaiah 56:6, 7.)
God has promised to bless all who keep the Sabbath. (Isaiah 56:2.)
YHWH requires us to call it “honourable”. (Isaiah 58:13.) After the holy Sabbath has been trodden down “many generations,” it is to be restored in the last days. (Isaiah 58:12,13.)
All the holy prophets kept the seventh day.
When the Messiah came, He kept the seventh day all His life. (Luke 4:16)
YHWH was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), that is, to love and protect it, He vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man’s good. (Mark 2:23-28.)
Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, He carefully taught how it should be observed. (Matthew 12:1-13.) He taught His disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was “lawful” (Matthew 12:12.)
He instructed His apostles that the Sabbath would be keep at the end of the age. (Matthew 24:20.)
Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it the “Sabbath day” in A.D. 45. (Acts 13:27.)
The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath. (Acts 13:42.)
Luke, the inspired Messiahian historian, writing as late as A.D. 62, calls it the “Sabbath day.” (Acts 13:44.)
In the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the “Sabbath day.” (Acts 15:21.)
It was customary to hold prayer meetings upon that day. (Acts 16:13.)
Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on that day and it was his custom to preach upon that day. (Acts 17:2,3.)
There was never any dispute between the Messiahians and the Jews about the Sabbath day. This is proof that the Messiahians still observed the same day that the Jews did.
The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine times, and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament, “the Sabbath day.”
Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath’s being abolished, done away, changed, or anything of the kind.
No Messiahian of the New Testament, either before or after the resurrection, ever did ordinary work upon the seventh day.
There is no record that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the seventh day.
As the Sabbath was kept in Eden before the fall, so it will be observed eternally in the new earth after the restitution. (Isaiah 66:22, 23.)
The seventh-day Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from His own mouth, and was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai. (See Exodus 20.) When Messiah began His work, He expressly declared that He had not come to destroy the law. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets.” Matthew 5:17
SCRIPTURAL FACTS CONCERNING THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK
The very first thing recorded In the Bible is work done on Sunday, the first day of the week. (Genesis l: l-5.) The Creator Himself did this. If God made the earth on Sunday, can it be wicked for us to work on Sunday?
God commands men to work upon the first day of the week. (Exodus 20.8-11.)
None of the patriarchs ever kept it.
None of the holy prophets ever kept it.
By the express command of-God, His holy people used the first day of the week as a common working day for 4,000 years, at least.
God Himself calls it a “working” day. (Ezekiel 46:1.)
God did not rest upon it.
He never blessed it.
Messiah did not rest upon it. Messiah was a carpenter (Mark 6:3), and worked at His trade until He was thirty years old. He kept the Sabbath and worked six days in the week.
The apostles worked upon it during the same time.
The apostles never rested upon it.
Messiah never blessed it.
It has never been sanctified.
No law was ever given to enforce the keeping of it, hence it is no transgression to work upon it. “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” Romans 4:15 (See also 1 John 3:4.)
The New Testament nowhere forbids work to be done on it.
No penalty is provided for its violation.
No blessing is promised for its observance.
No regulation is given as to how it ought to be observed. Would this be so if the Lord wished us to keep it?
It is never called the Messiahian Sabbath.
It is never called the Sabbath day at all.
It is never called even a rest day.
No sacred title whatever is applied to it. Then why should we call it holy?
It is simply called “first day of the week.”
The word Sunday never occurs in the Bible at all.
The first day of the week is mentioned only eight times in all the New Testament. (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.) Six of these texts refer to the same first day of the week.
The Bible nowhere says that the first day of the week commemorates the resurrection of Messiah. This is a tradition of men, which contradicts the law of God. (Matthew 15:1-9.) Baptism commemorates the burial and resurrection of YHWH. (Romans 6:3-5.)
Finally, the New Testament is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath day or any sacredness for the first day.
Acts 2:38
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Yahwah Ha Mashiach for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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