The Sabbath Called Seventh-Day Sabbath

Also called Lord’s Sabbath, it is the most celebrated Sabbath in terms of number of days per year: 52 days.

⁸ Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. EXODUS 20

God started the commandment with the word Remember. It signified observance of the Sabbath before the Law of Moses was given. God rested immediately after the creation and celebrated the Sabbath with our first parents!

Its General Significance

Seventh-Day Sabbath points to a past activity of God. It is a weekly memorial of the Creation, of God’s power to create. It reminds everyone that God is our Creator and the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Everything that exists originated from Him and is dependent upon Him. And God is God and we are not.

³ Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. JOHN 1

Seventh-Day Sabbath points to a present activity of God. It reminds us that the creative process is continuing and that God is re-creating us in His image. It speaks of His wonderful plan for us, which is, from a perfect creation to a perfect re-creation.

Seventh-Day Sabbath points to the future. It encourages us to endure the process of re-creation, that we might be restored. God looks forward to the day when we would dwell and find rest in His kingdom, to feast and have fun with Him—forever. 

Related Misconceptions

IS IT TRUE THAT SEVENTH-DAY OBSERVANCE HAS BEEN MOVED TO SUNDAY?

No, the Sabbath has not been moved to any other day. Seventh day was how the Son of Man observed it. Seventh day was how the early Christians observed it for 300 years, that is, until 365 ad. Seventh day is how our heavenly Father has been observing it in His kingdom! 

Which seventh day? God gave the instruction through the Jews, referring to the seventh day of their week. The day is not Friday sundown to Saturday sundown as we are made to believe. It is the 8th, 15th, 22th and 29th day after the New Moon, which is the day the moon starts to reappear and considered the first day of the Jewish month. New Moon can never be a Sabbath-Day Sabbath because it is not counted in the days of the week.

God did the creation before resting. He did not rest on his first day of work or at midweek, or on the sixth day. God worked for six straight days then rested on the seventh day. It was the seventh day that was made holy, God made it holy, so we must observe it as holy.

¹² Keep it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. DEUTERONOMY 5

why DO the Eastern churches, the Roman Catholic Church and most of the Protestant churches observE the Sabbath on Sundays?

Sunday observance is a man-made tradition. It is about sun-worship, which Deuteronomy 4:19 says is detestable to God. God’s decree was superseded by a human decree.

²⁹ We must obey God rather than men! ACTS 5

Sunday observance began when the Roman emperor Constantine the Great issued an edict on March 7, 321 ad mandating, “All things what so ever that it was duty to do on Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s Day.”

In the Scripture, Lord’s Day is a reference to the Second Coming of Y’shua. Obviously the edict was not referring to it. Its “Lord’s Day” was no doubt a euphemism for the Day of the Sun. The Romans were sun-worshipers. To them the emperor was sun-god enthroned in a human body. It was a weekly ritual of sun-worshipers to assemble at dawn on Sunday to greet the sun at its rising. They considered everyone who did not worship the sun to be an atheist and a traitor.    

The edict effected three things: It moved the Sabbath to the Day of the Sun, renamed it from Lord’s Sabbath to “Lord’s Day,” and legalized the two corruptions, making it demandable of everyone in the empire and its violation punishable with death. The corruptions came with the imprimatur of the Catholic Church. In 365 ad its Council of Laodicea even forbade “Sabbath of rest to the Lord” to be done on the seventh day. To this day the church stubbornly (and deceptively) requires its church members to “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.” [1]

Acts 20:7 was cited to justify the church action:

⁷ On the first day of the week we came together to break bread; and Paul spoke to the people because he intended to leave the next day. ACTS 20

It was presumed that the Sabbath meal was eaten and the Sabbath observed. This justified the movement of the Sabbath to Sunday. But was the church stand biblically accurate? The answer was a big No.

Don Esposito said Acts 20:7 was erroneously translated. The original Greek says “On one of the Sabbaths,” not “On the first day of the week.” (The Great Falling Away, p. 36)

And we say the breaking of bread did not commemorate the Sabbath meal.

To break bread is a common Hebrew idiom to this day that means “to partake of an ordinary meal with others.” Bread in ancient times was a flat pancake type, which would be broken by the host and passed around. Y’shua “broke the bread” in feeding the five thousand (Matthew 14:19). He walked with two of His disciples to Emmaus, sat with them at the table and “broke the bread” (Luke 24:30). Acts 2:46 and 25:35 are two other instances of breaking bread that do not mean the Sabbath meal was commemorated.

Acts 20:7 is worded in such a way that the Acts writer was simply noting, “Paul had a meal with the Christians there.” Being stressed was the point that “all the believers had everything in common” (Acts 2:44); “Every day they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people” (Acts 2:46-47).  

Acts 20:7 contains no conclusive evidence that the Sabbath meal was eaten or the Sabbath observed. It cannot justify the movement of the Sabbath to Sunday.    

Sunday celebration is a man-made tradition, papal decreed after the edict of Emperor Constantine. Celebrating it acquiesces to the claim that the Catholic Church can override the instructions of God. Celebrating it is also highly inconsistent with the Protestant stand of sola scriptura—that the Scripture is the Word of God and only the Scripture, not the pope, has the final say on morals and religious faith.”The Protestants have continued to observe custom even if it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the Bible,” wrote Rev. John O’Brien in The Faith of Millions.

“You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify,” says Cardinal Gibbons in Faith of Our Fathers.

 “It is always somewhat laughable to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislature, demand the observance of Sundays of which there is nothing in the Bible,” wrote Peter R. Tramer as editor of the Catholic Extension Magazine. (Ten Commandments Twice Removed, pp. 97-104) 

Many churches CLAIM THat it was more appropriate to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, it being the day when Y’SHUA rose from the grave. DID THE RESURRECTION HAPPEN ON A SUNDAY?

It did not. The belief that Y’shua’s death came on a Friday and His resurrection at dawn of Sunday is biblically inaccurate. Y’shua prophesied of His death and resurrection: 

⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. MATTHEW 12

³¹ He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the Law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. MARK 8

Three days and three nights are equivalent to 72 hours. Interment near sunset of Friday and resurrection at dawn of Sunday would only be equivalent to 36 hours.

Which brings us to our next point: 72 hours means the resurrection would occur at more or less the same time of day the body was interred. If interment was done near sunset (as pronounced in Matthew 27:57, Luke 23:52-54, John 19:42), the resurrection would have to occur near sunset. If interment were made on Friday, the resurrection would have to occur near sunset of Monday. But no resurrection occurred near sunset of Monday, not even near sunset of Sunday. Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to anoint Y’shua’s body Sunday dawn but it was no longer in the grave.

⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man [Matthew 28:5 says he was an angel] dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. ⁶ “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Y’shua the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here.” MARK 16

Let us assume the resurrection occurred near sunset of Saturday. Count three days and three nights backwards and see what happens. Day 3 in the grave would be near sunset of Friday to near sunset of Saturday. Day 2 would be near sunset of Thursday to near sunset of Friday. Day 1 would be near sunset of Wednesday to near sunset of Thursday. Y’shua dying and being interred near sunset of Wednesday would fit the historical fact that the Passover in 31 ad—the year of His death—fell on a Wednesday.

Contrary to common belief, the Passover Feast is not fixed on a Friday. It may fall on other days of the week in our Gregorian calendar.

[Why 31 ad as the year of death? Y’shua began His ministry soon after John the Baptist began his, which is “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” (Luke 3:1), between August of 28 ad and August of 29 ad. Y’shua’s ministry lasted 3-1/2 years. Add 3-1/2 years to 28 ad and we get to 31 ad.]

What are the implications of the above to our religious beliefs and practices?

Celebrating the resurrection on a Sunday would be wrong. Likewise holding Sunday as the day of worship (sacred assembly) on the belief it was the “glorious day of resurrection.”

Y’shua rose from the dead just as He said He would (Matthew 28:6, John 16:16). He died on a Wednesday and resurrected three days after (Matthew 27:63). That makes our Black Saturday (midnight to late afternoon of Saturday) correct. Also our Sabado de gloria (near sunset of Saturday to near midnight of Sunday).

Traditionally, Filipino children are told on Good Friday, “Sshhhh. Don’t be noisy. Let us mourn the death of God.” Please, don’t do that. First of all, the crucifixion did not happen on a Friday. The prophecy of Daniel 9:26, 27 is correct that the Messiah would be cut off “in the midst of the week.” Secondly, the Passover is a festive, joyous occasion. God intervening in our affairs and our pass over from the realm of the dead to the realm of the living are good enough reasons for us to celebrate. Leave the mourning to the demonic forces.

Take note: Four Sabbath days occurred during the period between the interment and the resurrection. Wednesday was the Passover, Thursday the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Friday the Feast of Firstfruits. Thursday was a special Sabbath (John 19:31). The kjv calls it’s a high day, this is when a yearly Sabbath feast begins or ends on a Seventh-Day Sabbath. The common translation of Matthew 28:1 says, “The women went back to the tomb after the Sabbath.” But Herbert Armstrong noted that in the Greek text, the word is in the plural and that Ferrar Fenton’s version of “after the Sabbaths” renders it correctly. The four Sabbath days must have given birth to the observance of Holy Week.

The false teachings on the death, interment and resurrection of Y’shua must be dishonored and given eternal rest. Everyone must be told the truth. God must be worshiped in truth. Those who do are the kind of worshipers He seeks (John 4:23).

Timeline of the Death and Resurrection

Nisan 14

Nisan 15

Nisan 16

Nisan 17

Passover Feast--Tuesday sunset to Wednesday sunset

Feast of Unleavened Bread / Seventh-Day Sabbath--Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset

Feast of Firstfruits--Thursday sunset to Friday sunset

Friday sunset to Saturday sunset

Interment--Near Wednesday sunset

Resurrection--Near Saturday sunset

Day 1 in Grave--Near Wednesday sunset to near Thursday sunset

Day 2 in Grave--Near Thursday sunset to near Friday sunset

Day 3 in Grave--Near Friday sunset to near Saturday sunset

Here’s an important footnote: Matthew 16:21 and 17:23 say that Y’shua rose on the third day (not after three days). What if He did? If He rose between sunset of Friday to midnight of Saturday, resurrection day would be on a Friday. If He rose before sunset of Friday, resurrection day would be the Feast of Firstfruits. Either way, the claim that He resurrected on a Sunday would walk farther from the truth. But what explains the discrepancy between the on the third day and the after three days? Textual alterations were probably made to mislead us into believing the resurrection happened on a Sunday. More probably, to align Y’shua with pagan gods like Phoenix and Osiris who were said to have resurrected on the third day. God forbids such alterations (Deuteronomy 12:32). He does not want anyone to be confused and miss the mark.

IF THE RESURRECTION DID NOT HAPPEN ON A SUNDAY, WHAT IS THE CORRECT DAY FOR WORSHIP?

Daily worship would be correct. God is up and accessible 24/7. He can be worshiped on Sabbath days and on non-Sabbath days. The Law does not prohibit it; in fact, God looks forward to it.

²³ “From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before Me,” says the Lord. ISAIAH 66

Speaking of worship, take note of the difference between personal worship and corporate worship. Personal worship is expected of you everyday as an individual. Corporate worship is expected of you as a member of the Church. You may do personal worship everyday but that does not take away your obligation to participate in corporate worship on Sabbath days, which must be held at a chapel or church house where the name of Y’shua dwells and where 100% obedience is promoted. To do otherwise is to miss the mark.

Test of Conscientiousness. Going back to the Seventh-Day Sabbath, God is the one who requested the weekly appointment. He has been longing to gather His children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings (Matthew 23:37). Our response to His request illustrates our relationship with Him.  

⁵ One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶ He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. ROMANS 14

² The seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. EXODUS 35

It being a day of corporate worship, everyone is stopped from earning a living, vacationing and gossiping (Isaiah 58:13-14).

²¹ Even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. EXODUS 34

¹² Do no work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed. EXODUS 23

The Israelites go to the extent of fasting after sundown and waiting until the sacred assembly is over before they eat again.

²³ This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning… ²⁹ Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out. EXODUS 16

Recommended Course of Action

Observance of the Seventh-Day Sabbath should be “a lasting ordinance for the generations to come” (Numbers 15:15). Sad to say, the greater number of the world population does not observe it; and the greater number of those who do profess that they couldn’t care less whether it is observed on a Sunday or seventh day. Lucifer loves it!

Isolate the disobedient. A pastor called for seventh-day observance in his church, even for Eriv Shabbat and the Sabbath meal. But we stopped supporting him after seven months. Why? Mainly because he approved of his junior pastors and church members who did not observe the Sabbath. And because he continued in holding Sunday services to accommodate their disobedience.

Also, because he stopped the Sabbath meal. And he was quoting Bible verses that could not be found in the Scripture. And he gave instruction to his junior pastors to focus on saving the rich. And he was caught lying on some occasions he was in a tight fix. And he would not satisfy the congregational demand for transparency on church collections and expenditures. And he tolerated a church member to prostitute herself in Japan, accepted tithes and offerings from her, and allowed her to pay for his apartment, saying there was nothing wrong with it.

Clergymen who teach and tolerate disobedience do not lead us to life.

Many clergymen insist on Sunday observance on the pretext that their church members go to work on other days. That kind of reasoning is a fallacy and a satanic trap. No one teaches obedience (and no one pleases God) by bending His instructions.  

²⁴ The priests are to keep My Sabbaths holy. EZEKIEL 44                        

How to deal with evangelists and clergymen (also with teachers and writers) who teach that Sabbath-keeping is no longer necessary? who do Sunday, not seventh day? who bend God’s instructions? who assert that obedience of the Ten-C is empty legalism? They are ignorant of the Word. God’s thoughts are not their thoughts.

Let us pray that they open their eyes while they can. However, until they do, bar them from the pulpit and the entire congregation, so that no one may be contaminated by their erroneous thinking.

¹⁶ Why should you recite My commandments? Why should you talk about My covenant? ¹⁷ …You reject My commands. PSALM 50

⁸ You have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble… ⁹ you have not followed My ways but have shown partiality in matters of the Law. MALACHI 2

⁶ Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as My priests; because you have ignored the Law of your God, I also will ignore your children. HOSEA 4

¹¹ They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach. TITUS 1

²⁶ Cursed is the man who does not carry out and uphold the words of this Law. DEUTERONOMY 27

³ If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instructions of the Lord Y’shua the Messiah and to godly teaching, ⁴ he is conceited and understands nothing. 1 TIMOTHY 6

⁹ Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. ¹¹ Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work. 2 JOHN

⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a Gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned. GALATIANS 1

Build critical mass. Lucifer uses Government and Business so we may be amiss in observing the Sabbaths. The Church must lobby for two legislations: (1) A ban on doing business and opening shop on Sabbath days; and (2) A ban on employers from obliging their employees to work on Sabbath days. The Muslim countries are doing it.

In the meantime that a legal ban is absent, encourage employers to voluntarily observe the Sabbaths or at least to let their employees do so. (The absent on the seventh day could be made to work on Sundays.) Elect into public office only the Sabbath-observers. Patronize only Sabbath-observing enterprises and boycott the non-observing. Group into partnerships, cooperatives and corporations for the purpose of going into self-employment so that you may not be obliged to work on Sabbath days. Build critical mass and pray for media support. Convince more and more people of how beneficial Sabbath observance can be. For if critical mass is attained, societal adjustment would follow.

¹⁵ [God] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them. 2 CORINTHIANS 5

Observe purity. God does not approve of the corruptions grafted into the commandments. Lucifer planted them and they are bringing about different philosophies, ideologies and religions. People end up misinformed, confused and divided. What has become of the Seventh-Day Sabbath can be our classic example. The Muslims observe it on Fridays, from sunrise to sunset. The Messianic Christians, the Adventists and the Jews observe it from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. The Catholics and the Born-Again Christians do it on Sundays. Remember now, the real Seventh-Day Sabbath is to be observed on the 8th, 15th, 22th and 29th day after the New Moon. 

⁹ You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! ¹³ Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. MARK 7

Observing God’s instructions in its pure form is the only way for the dead to enter life. This explains why Paul wrote to the water-baptized:

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on the Messiah… ²⁰ Since you died with the Messiah to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules? ²¹ Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch! ²² These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. ²³ Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence [sinful desires]. COLOSSIANS 2

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. EPHESIANS 5

¹⁶ Therefore, let no one judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in the Messiah. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. ¹⁹ [Such a person] has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. COLOSSIANS 2

Endnote

[1] Constantine’s edict (which Eusebius of Caesarea recorded) and the ban of the Council of Laodicea give us two historical proofs that the early Christians observed the Seventh-Day Sabbath for 300 years.  

The Council’s Canon 29 states: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema (excommunicated) from Christ.” Canon 37–38 states: “It is not lawful to receive portions sent from the feasts of Jews or heretics, nor to feast together with them.” and “It is not lawful to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety.” (Wikipedia)

Apparently the canon-makers and implementers have considered obeying God’s instructions as judaizing, not as being holy and sensible!