Sir 33:7 Why doth one day excel another, when as all the light of every day in the year is of the sun?
Sir 33:8 By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished: and he altered seasons and feasts.
Sir 33:9 Some of them hath he made high days, and hallowed them, and some of them hath he made ordinary days.
From the root word meaning to sit or return to your dwelling. Literally, in the ancient Hebrew pictographs, Shabbat means to return by the covenant to the house (House of Elohim)
Shabbat comes from the root word:
SABBATH INSTITUTED AT CREATION
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had made. And He rested (heb. shabbat) on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because He rested from all His work on it, which God had created to make.
DID THE MOST HIGH NEED TO REST?
Isa 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? YHWH, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth; He is not faint, nor does He grow weary; there is no searching to His understanding.
The Sabbath is still for believers, it is a weekly rehearsal of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is why the Most High rested on the 7th day, He was setting a precedent for the 7th Millenium of rest.
Heb 4:9 So, then, there remains a sabbath rest (G4520) to the people of God.
G4520 σαββατισμός sabbatismos
Thayer Definition:
1) a keeping sabbath
Heb 4:10 For he entering into His rest (G2663), he himself also rested (G2664) from his works, as God had rested from His own. LXX-Psa. 95:11; Gen. 2:2
Heb 4:11 Therefore, let us exert ourselves to enter into that rest (G2664), that not anyone fall in the same example of disobedience.
G2663 κατάπαυσις katapausis
Thayer Definition:
1) a putting to rest
1a) calming of the winds
2) a resting place
2a) metaphorically the heavenly blessedness in which God dwells, and of which he has promised to make persevering believers in Christ partakers after the toils and trials of life on earth are ended
G2664 καταπαύω katapauō
Thayer Definition:
1) to make quiet, to cause to be at rest, to grant rest
1a) to lead to a quiet abode
1b) to still, restrain, to cause (one striving to do something) to desist
2) to rest, take rest
The Hebrew origin of these words is:
H4496
מנחה / מנוּחה
menûchâh
BDB Definition:
1) resting place, rest
1a) resting place
1b) rest, quietness
The root of this word is beautiful in context with the Sabbath:
Psa 23:1 A Psalm of David. YHWH is my shepherd; I shall not lack.
Psa 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me to waters of rest;
Psa 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
The sabbath was made known to Yisrael, not instituted at that time. It was instituted at creation.
Neh 9:14 And You made Your holy sabbath known to them, and You commanded commandments, statutes, and laws, to them by the hand of Your servant Moses.
In Matthew 24 at the ‘Olivet discourse’, Yahshua speaks of the Sabbath as being kept after the cross, specifically during the end of days. Yah willing, more examples of the Torah being kept after the cross will be put in a future study.click here
Mat 24:20 And pray that your flight will not occur in winter nor in a sabbath.
Sabbath will be kept forever
Eze 44:23 And they shall teach My people between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, to make them known.
Eze 44:24 And in a dispute, they shall stand to judge, they shall judge it by My judgments. And they shall observe My laws and My statutes in My appointed feasts, and they shall sanctify My sabbaths.
Eze 45:17 And responsibility for burnt offerings shall be on the prince, and a food offering, and drink offerings, in the feasts and on the new moons and on the sabbaths, in all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He shall make the sin offering, and the food offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to atone for the house of Israel.
Eze 46:3 And the people of the land shall worship at the door of that gate on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, before YHWH.
Eze 46:4 And the burnt offering that the prince shall bring near to YHWH on the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.
Isa 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth which I make stand before Me, declares YHWH, so your seed and your name shall stand.
Isa 66:23 And it will be, from new moon to its new moon, and from sabbath to its sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says YHWH.
YHWH DOES NOT CHANGE
Mal 3:6 For I, YHWH, change not. Because of this, you sons of Jacob are not destroyed.
YAHSHUA DOESN’T CHANGE
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever.
The sabbath is forever. YHWH/Yahshua does not change…where is the Scriptural support that the sabbath is not to be kept any longer by believers?
WE INHERITED LIES
Jer 16:19 O YHWH, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, Our fathers have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.
Our fathers have inherited lies…one of the major lies propagated down through the centuries is that the sabbath has been done away with or has been changed to Sunday. This is vanity and brings no profit.
The Sabbath isn’t a feast of the Jews, it is YHWH’s feast
Lev 23:1 And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, The appointed feasts of YHWH which you shall proclaim, holy gatherings, shall be these: These are My appointed seasons:
Lev 23:3 Work is to be done six days, and in the seventh day shall be a sabbath of rest, a holy gathering; you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to YHWH in all your dwellings.
Lev 23:4 These are appointed seasons of YHWH, holy gatherings which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons:
Yahshua is YHWHclick here, therefore the Feasts are Yahshua’s Feasts
1Co 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
Every knee shall bow
Phi 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
Phi 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
Phi 2:11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Isa 45:22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
Isa 45:23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Mt of Olives
Zec 14:3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Zec 14:4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
Act 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
Act 1:10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Act 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Act 1:12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.
YAHSHUA IS LORD OF THE SABBATH
Mat 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Mar 2:28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Luk 6:5 And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
G2962 κύριος kurios koo’-ree-os
From κῦρος kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority, that is, (as noun) controller;
Thayer Definition:
1) he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord
Many use this verse to indicate that this now means that observing the sabbath need not be done any longer because ‘Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath’. Indeed, He is the Lord of the Sabbath…He is the one who Has supreme authority and to whom the day belongs. One cannot be Lord of something that has passed away.
YAHSHUA THE LAWGIVER
Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor?
Deu 33:1 This is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
Deu 33:2 He said, “The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned from Se’ir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran, he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand.
1000’s of Saints
Jud 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
No one has seen or heard the voice of the Father…who’s voice did Yisrael hear at Mt. Sinai?
Joh 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
YAHSHUA KEPT TORAH
Psa 40:7 Then I said, “Lo, I come; in the roll of the book it is written of me;
Psa 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my heart.”
YAHSHUA KEPT THE SABBATH
Luk 4:16 And He came to Nazareth where He was brought up. And as was His custom, He went in on the day of the sabbaths, into the synagogue, and He stood up to read.
WE SHOULD WALK AS HE WALKED
1Jn 2:3 And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commands.
1Jn 2:4 The one saying, I have known Him, and not keeping His commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that one.
1Jn 2:5 But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.
1Jn 2:6 The one claiming to rest in Him ought so to walk himself as that One walked.
Sabbath is a remembrance of Creation (Exodus 20) & Redemption (Deuteronomy 5)
CREATION
Exo 31:16 And the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to do the Sabbath for their generations; it is a never ending covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign forever between Me and the sons of Israel; for in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.
YHWH created the universe by His Word
Psa 33:6 Through the Word of YHWH the heavens were made; and all their host were made by the breath of His mouth.
Yahshua is our Creator
Col 1:15 who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation.
Col 1:16 For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible; whether thrones, or lordships, or rulers, or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him.
REDEMPTION
Deu 5:15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and YHWH your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. On account of this YHWH your God has commanded you to keep the sabbath day.
Yahshua is our Redeemer
Tit 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Tit 2:14 who gave Himself on our behalf, “that He might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify a special people for Himself,” zealous of good works. Psa. 130:8; Eze. 37:23; Deut. 14:2
Sabbath isn’t for Israelites only, it is for all believers
Isa 56:1 Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
Isa 56:2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
Isa 56:3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
Isa 56:4 For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
Isa 56:5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
Isa 56:6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
Isa 56:7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
Isa 56:8 The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
Sabbath is for all men, not just Israelites…Notice the text does not say for the Jew’s sake.
Mar 2:27 And He said to them, The sabbath came into being for man’s sake, not man for the sabbath’s sake.
Believers are no longer ‘gentiles’click here
Eph 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
1Co 12:2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles (past tense), carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
ONE LAW FOR ISRAEL AND STRANGER AMONG THEM
Exo 12:49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
Lev 24:22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.
Num 15:16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
“GENTILES KEPT SABBATH”
Act 13:42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
Act 13:44 And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God
Sabbath in heathen cultures
Sacred Books & Early Literature 4 pg 69 Exodus Rabba
Moses, before he left Egypt, succeeded in securing for the Israelites the observance of rest on the Sabbath, by pointing out to Pharaoh the necessity in his own interest of granting his slaves one day every week freedom from labor, and thereby invigorating them for the renewal of labor after their rest.
Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions pg 34
In cuneiform texts of ancient Babylon the word ’shabattm’ is used with indicates the day of rest
Of the three branches of Noah’s family after the flood, that of Ham was the least favoured. Of Ham’s family, the portion descended from Canaan was the worst of all. Of them God said, “cursed be Canaan” (Genesis 9, 25). Yet, of the Phoenicians, a Canaanite race, we have the following testimony in antiquity: “The Phoenicians consecrated one day in seven as holy.” These are the words of the Greek writer Porphyry. “The Phoenicians,” he said, “the Phoenicians of all people, consecrated one day in seven as holy.” The Greeks are noted to the modern world for their polytheism and sensuality, yet they observed a Sabbath for all that. Two of their earliest and most noted poets tell us this: ‘the seventh day is holy’.
The Greek philosophers and poets were men of genius, but they were in thick religious darkness. Yet, even of them we are told by the church historian, Eusebius, almost all the philosophers and poets acknowledge the seventh day as holy. He is referring of course to the Greek world. Vastly worse than the Greeks in many ways, were the Barbarians or non-Greeks. Yet, of these, we have the testimony from the Jewish historian, Josephus: “No city of Greeks or Barbarians,” he says, “can be found, which does not acknowledge the seventh day’s rest from labour.”
The Romans were no lovers of the Hebrew religious outlook, yet one of their own poets has to admit this: Tibullus it is, who says, “The seventh day which is kept holy by the Jews is also a festival to the Roman women.”
From Theology by Timothy Dwight pg 255
Hesiod “The seventh day is holy.”
Homer and Callimachus give it the same title.
Theophilus of Antioch “The day, which all mankind celebrate.”
Porphyry “The Phoenicians consecrated on day in seven as holy.”
Linus “A seventh day is observed among saints, or holy people.”
Lucian “The seventh day is geven to school-boys as a holy day.”
Eusebius “Almost all the philosophers, and poets, acknowledge the seventh day as holy.”
Clemens Alexandrinus “The Greeks, as well as the Hebrews, observe the seventh day as holy.”
Philo “The seventh day, is a festival to every nation.”
Tibullus “The seventh day, which is kept holy by the Jews, is also a festival of the Roman women.”
Manna
Exo 16:22 And it came about on the sixth day, they gathered double bread, two omers for one. And all the leaders of the congregation came and reported to Moses.
Exo 16:23 And he said to them, That is what YHWH said, Tomorrow is a rest, a holy sabbath to YHWH. What you will bake, bake. And boil what you will boil. And lay up for yourselves all that is left over, to keep it until the morning.
Exo 16:24 And they laid it up until the morning, as Moses commanded. And it did not stink and no maggot was in it.
Exo 16:25 And Moses said, Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to YHWH. Today you will not find it in the field.
Exo 16:26 You shall gather it six days, and on the seventh is a sabbath; in it none shall be found.
Exo 16:27 And it happened on the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and did not find any.
Exo 16:28 And YHWH said to Moses, Until when do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?
Exo 16:29 Behold! Because YHWH has given the sabbath to you, therefore He is giving to you two days of bread on the sixth day. Each one of you remain in his place. Do not let anyone go out from his place on the seventh day.
Exo 16:30 And the people rested on the seventh day.
MANNA WAS A TEST
Exo 16:4 And YHWH said to Moses, Behold, I AM! Bread will rain from the heavens for you. And the people shall go out and gather the matter of a day in its day, so that I may test them, whether they will walk in My Law or not.
Shabbat is the test that is used to see what is in the hearts of believers, whether they are obedient or stiffnecked.
We are not to buy or sell or conduct business on Shabbat
Neh 13:15 In those days I saw in Judah ones treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves and loading asses; and also wine, grapes, and figs, and all burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I testified against them on the day they sold food.
Neh 13:16 Men of Tyre also lived in it, who brought fish and all wares, and were selling on the Sabbath to the sons of Judah, even in Jerusalem.
Neh 13:17 And I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, What is this evil thing that you do, defiling the Sabbath day?
Neh 13:18 Did not your fathers do this, and did not our God bring all this evil on us and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by defiling the Sabbath.
Neh 13:19 And it happened, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, so that there should be no burden brought in on the Sabbath day.
Neh 13:20 And the merchants and sellers of all the wares stayed the night outside Jerusalem once or twice.
Neh 13:21 Then I testified against them and said to them, Why are you staying around the wall? If you do it again, I will send a hand against you. From that time they did not come on the Sabbath.
Neh 13:22 And I said to the Levites that they should be cleansing themselves, and they should come guarding the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. O my God, remember me for this also and spare me according to the greatness of Your mercy.
Not to carry your burdens
Jer 17:21 So says YHWH, Take heed for the sake of your lives, and do not carry a burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
Jer 17:22 And do not carry a burden from your houses on the sabbath day, nor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
Jer 17:23 But they did not obey nor bow down their ear, but they made their neck stiff, not to hear, nor to receive instruction.
Jer 17:24 And it shall be, if you carefully listen to me, says YHWH, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but keep the sabbath day holy, to do no work in it,
Jer 17:25 even kings and rulers sitting on the throne of David shall enter into the gates of this city, riding on chariots and on horses, they and their rulers, the men of Judah, and those living in Jerusalem. And this city will be inhabited forever.
Jer 17:26 And they will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and grain offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of YHWH.
Jer 17:27 But if you will not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy, and to not carry a burden and enter at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in her gates. And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem; yea, it shall not be put out.
We are to seek Him on Shabbat, not our own pleasures
Isa 58:13 If you turn your foot away because of the sabbath*, from doing what you please on My holy days, and call the sabbath a delight, to the holiness of YHWH, glorified; and shall glorify Him, to the holiness of not doing your own ways, from finding your own pleasure or speaking your word;
Isa 58:14 then you shall delight yourself in YHWH. And I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and make you eat with the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of YHWH has spoken.
*Literally if you turn from my sabbath your foot, as in walking in your own paths and going your own ways.
We are to remain in our place (maqom) on Shabbat
Exo 16:29 Behold! Because YHWH has given the sabbath to you, therefore He is giving to you two days of bread on the sixth day. Each one of you remain in his place. Do not let anyone go out from his place on the seventh day.
LXX
Exo 16:29 See, for the Lord has given you this day as the Sabbath, therefore He has given you on the sixth day the bread of two days. You shall sit each of you in your houses; let no one go forth from his place on the seventh day.
TARGUM
And the Lord said to Mosheh, How long will ye refuse to keep My commandments and My laws ? Behold, because I have given you the Sabbath, I gave you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man abide in his Place, and not wander from one locality to another, beyond four yards;[7] nor let any man go forth to walk beyond two thousand yards on the seventh day; for the people shall repose on the seventh day.
Exo 16:29 Behold! Because YHWH has given the sabbath to you, therefore He is giving to you two days of bread on the sixth day. Each one of you remain in his place*. Do not let anyone go out from his place** on the seventh day.
*Tachat is also a term which can be translated as instead of, because when a man and wife become one, when a man is out working in the field and the woman is at home preparing the food that was brought home yesterday, both man and wife partake of the labor in the field as well as the labor in the home. When man and wife are following proper spiritual authority, both benefit by being two places at the same time. This is why we are said to be in heavenly places in Messiah
Eph 2:6 and raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,
We are not physically in heaven yet, but because we are one with the Messiah, because He is physically there…so are we. We also have an important job of manifesting His presence here on earth. This is why it is so important for His body to be where they are supposed to be on the Shabbat. When we are where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to be doing, He can live through us.
Joh 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The Words which I speak to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me, He does the works.
Joh 14:11 Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe Me because of the works themselves.
Spiritually, this day is a rehearsal of when the Messiah the bridegroom and Yisrael the bride become one and abide together in one place which the second hebrew word translated as place refers to.
Zec 3:10 In that day, says YHWH of Hosts, you shall call each man to his neighbor to sit under (tachat) the vine and under the fig tree.
Under the vine and fig tree is a Hebrew idiom referring to the Kingdom, or dwelling in peace in your own land.
Interestingly, the numerical value of the Sabbath & His wife is the same- 707.
**maqom- a place one rises up to.
The picture seen in this word maqom is that when we enter the Kingdom we enter with what we bring to it…our place/standing. We cannot ask for more time to bear fruit. This is why we are to STAY in our PLACES on Shabbat. It is a shadow picture of the millenium of rest where we keep our place. When erev shabbat comes whatever unfinished business is left will have to wait until the next week. When the Kingdom comes, whatever unfinished business is left will not be finished. YHWH rested on the 7th day from what He created and we too will rest when the Kingdom comes. Whatever we “create” will be all that we have after the 6 days.
the Kingdom of REST…the Restoration of all things
Psa 37:7 Rest in YHWH and wait patiently for Him; inflame not yourself with him who prospers in his way, with the man practicing evil wiles.
Heb 3:7 Because of this, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear His voice,
Heb 3:8 do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
Heb 3:9 there where your fathers tempted Me, testing Me, and saw My works forty years.
Heb 3:10 Because of this, I was angry with that generation and said, They always go astray in their heart; and they did not know My ways;
Heb 3:11 so I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.” LXX-Psalm 94:7-11; MT-Psalm 95:7-11
Heb 3:17 But with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with the ones sinning, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
Heb 3:18 And to whom did “He swear” “they would not enter into His rest,” except to those not obeying? LXX-Psa. 94:11; MT-Psa. 95:11
Heb 3:19 And we see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
Heb 4:1 Therefore, let us fear lest perhaps a promise having been left to enter into His rest, that any of you may seem to come short.
Heb 4:2 For, indeed, we have had the gospel preached to us, even as they also; but the Word did not profit those hearing it, not having been mixed with faith in the ones who heard.
Heb 4:3 For we, the ones believing, enter into the rest, even as He said, “As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest,” though the works had come into being from the foundation of the world. LXX-Psa. 94:11; MT-Psa. 95:11
Heb 4:4 For He has spoken somewhere about the seventh day this way, “And God rested from all His works in the seventh day.” Gen. 2:2
Heb 4:5 And in this again, “They shall not enter into My rest.” MT-Psalm 95:11
Heb 4:6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter into it, and those who formerly had the gospel preached did not enter in on account of disobedience,
Heb 4:7 He again marks out a certain day, saying in David, Today (after so long a time, according as He has said), “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” MT-Psalm 95:7, 8
Heb 4:8 For if Joshua gave them rest, then He would not have afterwards spoken about another day.
Heb 4:9 So, then, there remains a sabbath rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10 For he entering into His rest, he himself also rested from his works, as God had rested from His own. LXX-Psa. 95:11; Gen. 2:2
Heb 4:11 Therefore, let us exert ourselves to enter into that rest, that not anyone fall in the same example of disobedience.
Isa 11:10 And it shall be in that day, the Root of Jesse stands as a banner of peoples; nations shall seek to Him; and His resting place shall be glory.
Isa 11:11 And it shall be in that day, the Lord shall again set His hand, the second time, to recover the remnant of His people that remains, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Ethiopia, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the coasts of the sea.
Isa 11:12 And He shall lift up a banner for the nations, and shall gather the outcasts of Israel, and gather those dispersed from Judah, from the four wings of the earth.
Isa 14:1 For YHWH will have pity on Jacob, and will yet choose among Israel, and set them in their own land. And the stranger shall be joined to them; and they shall cling to the house of Jacob.
Isa 14:2 And the peoples shall take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of YHWH for slaves and slave girls. And they shall be captives of their captors; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Isa 14:3 And it shall be, in the day that YHWH shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard bondage which was pressed on you,
Isa 14:4 you shall lift up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: How the exacter, the gold gatherer, has ceased!
Isa 14:5 YHWH has broken the rod of the wicked, the staff of rulers,
Isa 14:6 who struck the peoples in wrath, a blow without turning away, ruling the nations in anger, dealing out persecution without restraint.
Isa 14:7 All the earth is at rest, quiet; they break forth into singing.
Isa 32:17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the service of righteousness shall be quietness and hope forever.
Isa 32:18 And My people shall live in a peaceful home, and in safe dwellings, and in secure resting places.
Isa 58:12 And those who come of you shall build the old ruins; you shall rear the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to live in.
Isa 58:13 If you turn your foot away because of the sabbath, from doing what you please on My holy days, and call the sabbath a delight, to the holiness of Jehovah, glorified; and shall glorify Him, to the holiness of not doing your own ways, from finding your own pleasure or speaking your word;
Isa 58:14 then you shall delight yourself in YHWH. And I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and make you eat with the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of YHWH has spoken.
Jer 31:1 At that time, says YHWH, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.
Jer 31:2 So says YHWH, Israel, the people, the survivors of the sword, have found grace in the wilderness, I will go to give rest to him.
‘JESUS IS OUR REST NOW”
We have always rested in YHWH
Psa 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Psa 62:5 My being, find rest in Elohim alone, Because my expectation is from Him.
Isa 11:10 And in that day there shall be a Root of Yishai, standing as a banner to the people. Unto Him the gentiles shall seek, and His rest shall be esteem.
Mat 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I shall give you rest.
2Ch 14:11 And Asa called to YHWH his God, and said, O YHWH, it is nothing to You to help between the mighty and him with no strength. Help us, O YHWH our God; for we rest on You, and in Your name we come against this host. O YHWH, You are our God. Do not let man hold out against You.
SABBATH IS A SIGN
Exo 31:12 And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying,
Exo 31:13 And you speak to the sons of Israel, saying, Keeping you shall keep My sabbaths; for it is a sign between Me and you for your generation; to know that I am YHWH your sanctifier.
Exo 31:14 And you shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you; the profaners of it dying shall die; for everyone doing work in it, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of his people.
Exo 31:15 Work may be done six days, and on the seventh day is a sabbath of rest, holy to YHWH; everyone doing work on the Sabbath day dying shall die.
Exo 31:16 And the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to do the Sabbath for their generations; it is a never ending covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign forever between Me and the sons of Israel; for in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.
Exo 31:18 And when He finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave to Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.
Eze 20:12 And I also gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am YHWH who sets them apart.
Eze 20:13 But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man does them he will even live by them. And they greatly profaned My sabbaths. Then I said, I will pour out My fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them.
Eze 20:20 And keep My sabbaths holy, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am YHWH your God.
Eze 20:21 But the sons rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes, and they did not keep My judgments, to do them, which if a man does them, he shall live by them. They profaned My sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them, to fulfill My anger against them in the wilderness.
The Mark of the Beast is a counterfeit of YHWH’s signs
”Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.’‘ C. F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons, in answer to a letter regarding the change of the Sabbath, November 11, 1895.
Daniel prophesied that the antichrist (little horn) would think to change times and laws
Dan 7:25 And he shall speak words against the Most High, and he shall wear out the saints of the Most High. And he intends to change times and law. And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and one half time.
Antiochus Ephiphanes was a shadow picture of the antichrist
1Ma 1:41 Moreover king Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people,
1Ma 1:42 And every one should leave his laws: so all the heathen agreed according to the commandment of the king.
Antiochus destroyed the Temple service, and forbid Israel from keeping the Torah
1Ma 1:20 And after that Antiochus had smitten Egypt, he returned again in the hundred forty and third year, and went up against Israel and Jerusalem with a great multitude,
1Ma 1:21 And entered proudly into the sanctuary, and took away the golden altar, and the candlestick of light, and all the vessels thereof,
1Ma 1:22 And the table of the shewbread, and the pouring vessels, and the vials. and the censers of gold, and the veil, and the crown, and the golden ornaments that were before the temple, all which he pulled off.
1Ma 1:23 He took also the silver and the gold, and the precious vessels: also he took the hidden treasures which he found.
1Ma 1:24 And when he had taken all away, he went into his own land, having made a great massacre, and spoken very proudly. (((Romans also did this in 70AD)))
Interestingly, this destroying the Temple system and abrogating the Torah is the charge that the Pharisees gave against the teachings of the believers in Yahshua which the Holy Scriptures call FALSE
Act 6:12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes. And coming on, they together seized him and led him into the sanhedrin.
Act 6:13 And they stood up false witnesses, who were saying, This man does not cease speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law;
Act 6:14 for we have heard him saying that this Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and will change the customs which Moses delivered over to us.
Did the REAL Yahshua of Nazareth do these things?
Mat 5:17 Do not think that I came to annul the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to annul, but to fulfill.
Mat 5:18 Truly I say to you, Until the heaven and the earth pass away, in no way shall one iota or one point pass away from the Law until all comes to pass.
1Ma 1:41 Moreover king Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people,
1Ma 1:42 And every one should leave his laws: so all the heathen agreed according to the commandment of the king.
1Ma 1:43 Yea, many also of the Israelites consented to his religion, and sacrificed unto idols, and profaned the sabbath. (Many Christians fell for this same thing in the person and orders of Constantine)
1Ma 1:44 For the king had sent letters by messengers unto Jerusalem and the cities of Juda that they should follow the strange laws of the land,
1Ma 1:45 And forbid burnt offerings, and sacrifice, and drink offerings, in the temple; and that they should profane the sabbaths and festival days:
1Ma 1:46 And pollute the sanctuary and holy people:
1Ma 1:47 Set up altars, and groves, and chapels of idols, and sacrifice swine’s flesh, and unclean beasts:
1Ma 1:48 That they should also leave their children uncircumcised, and make their souls abominable with all manner of uncleanness and profanation:
1Ma 1:49 To the end they might forget the law, and change all the ordinances.
1Ma 1:50 And whosoever would not do according to the commandment of the king, he said, he should die.
Constantine
For 250 years it was a martyrs’ assembly of believers; the persecutions were fueled by the refusal of Christians to worship the state and the Roman emperor. There were persecutions under Nero, Domitian, Trajan and the other Antonines, Maximinus Thrax, Decius, Valerian, Diocletian and Galerius; Decius ordered the first official persecution in 250. In 313, Constantine I and Licinius announced toleration of Christianity in the Edict of Milan. In the East the church passed from persecution directly to imperial control (caesaropapism), inaugurated by Constantine, enshrined later in Justinian’s laws, and always a problem for the Orthodox churches. In the West the church remained independent because of the weakness of the emperor and the well-established authority of the bishop of Rome.
Constantine made all Christians agree to the following:
I renounce all customs, legalisms, unleavened breads and sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews And all the other Feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspirations, purifications, and Propitiations and fast and new moons and sabbaths and superstitions and hymns and chants, And observances and synagogues, absolutely everything Jewish, every law, rite and custom and if Afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with jews Or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly Confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Cain and the leprosy of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable. And may I be an anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with satan And the devils.”
(stcfano Assemani, Acta Sanctorium
Martyrum Orientaliom at Accidentalium, Vol.
1 Rome 1748 page 105
This is the technique that the adversary has always used. This can be seen in the book of Nehemiah.
1) Adversaries are grieved
Neh 2:10 And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard. And it grieved them greatly that a man had come to seek the good of the sons of Israel.
This what we see with the opposition of believers in Messiah
Act 4:16 saying, What may we do to these men? For that a notable miracle indeed has occurred through them is plain to all those living in Jerusalem, and we are not able to deny it.
Act 4:17 But that it may not be spread abroad further to the people, let us threaten them with a threat that they no longer speak on this name to any one of men.
Act 4:18 And calling them, they ordered them not to speak at all, nor to teach on the name of Jesus.
2) Laughter & mocking & despising
Neh 2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard, then they mocked us and despised us. And they said, What is this that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?
3) Wrath and opposition against believers
Neh 4:1 And it happened, when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was angry, and it was greatly enraging to him, and he mocked the Jews.
Act 6:9 But some of those of the synagogue called Libertines, rose up, also some Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some of those from Cilicia and Asia Minor, disputing with Stephen.
4) Fighting against believers
Neh 4:7 And it happened, when Sanballat and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that repairing of the walls of Jerusalem had gone up, that the breaks were being closed up, it was very angering to them.
Neh 4:8 And all of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and do harm to it.
Act 7:57 And crying out with a loud voice, they held their ears and rushed on him with one passion.
Act 7:58 And throwing him outside the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses put off their garments at the feet of a young man called Saul.
Act 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, invoking and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Act 7:60 And placing the knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not make stand this sin to them. And having said this, he fell asleep.
5) Conspiracy against believers
Neh 6:1 And it happened, when it was heard by Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies, that I had built the wall, and that no break was left in it though at that time I had not set up doors on the gates,
Neh 6:2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do evil to me.
Act 23:12 And it becoming day, some of the Jews making a conspiracy cursed themselves, saying neither to eat nor to drink until they should kill Paul.
Act 23:13 And those making this plot were more than forty;
Act 23:14 who, having come near to the chief priests and to the elders, said, With a curse we have cursed ourselves to taste of nothing until we shall kill Paul.
Act 23:15 Now, then, you with the sanhedrin inform the chiliarch, so that tomorrow he may bring him down to you, as intending more accurately to find out about him. And before his drawing near, we are ready to kill him.
6) Joining and infiltrating the believers to corrupt them
Neh 6:10 And I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up. And he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple. For they will come to kill you. Yea, in the night they will come to kill you.
Neh 6:11 And I said, Should such a man as I flee? And who being as I am would go into the temple and live? I will not go in.
Neh 6:12 And I understood that, behold, God had not sent him. For he spoke the prophecy against me, and Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
Neh 6:13 So he was hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and I should sin, and become for them for an evil name with which they might reproach me.
Neh 6:14 O God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also to the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets who are my alarmers.
1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they left so that it might be revealed that they all are not of us.
So too the same process repeated in greater fashion with the Roman government. First mocking, then opposing, afterwards persecuting then joining with false belief to the faith.
Council of Nicea AD 325
EASTER
Schaff’s History of the Christian Church 3.79 states: “The feast of the resurrection was thenceforth required to be celebrated everywhere on a Sunday, and never on the day of the Jewish passover, but always after the fourteenth of Nisan, on the Sunday after the first vernal full moon. The leading motive for this regulation was opposition to Judaism, which had dishonored the passover by the crucifixion of the Lord.” Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, Book 3 chapter 18 records Constantine as writing: “… it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. … Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way.”
Theodoret’s Ecclesiastical History 1.9 records The Epistle of the Emperor Constantine, concerning the matters transacted at the Council, addressed to those Bishops who were not present: “It was, in the first place, declared improper to follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy festival, because, their hands having been stained with crime, the minds of these wretched men are necessarily blinded. … Let us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our adversaries. … avoiding all contact with that evil way. … who, after having compassed the death of the Lord, being out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries them. … a people so utterly depraved. … Therefore, this irregularity must be corrected, in order that we may no more have any thing in common with those parricides and the murderers of our Lord. … no single point in common with the perjury of the Jews.”
Who then changed it to Sunday, in effect nullifying it? In Dan. 7:25 we read of a horn, a sovereign (remember: in those days the gentiles regarded their sovereigns as deities). This one is often interpreted as being the Anti-Messiah, the enemy of the Chosen People. In Dan. 7:25 we read that he would “intend to change appointed times (or, festivals) and law.” The Roman Catholic Church openly boast that they changed the Sabbath to Sunday. This change was preceded by Emperor Constantine legislating, in the year 321, that “the venerable day of the Sun” was to be kept as a day of rest. Remember: Constantine was a worshipper of Sol Invictus, the sun-deity. The “Church” soon followed suit, and in the year 336 (some give the date as 364), at the Council of Laodicea, Canon 29, the christians were commanded to observe the Sunday as well. Bishop Eusebius (270-338 CE), who worked with Constantine, admits to the Church’s decision to change from Sabbath to Sunday.
Council of Laodicea
This last one, canon 29, included no more resting on the Sabbath (Saturday), but restricted Christians to honoring the Lord on Sunday even though canon 16 says the Gospels are to be read on the Sabbath. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 approved the canon of this council, making these canon ecumenical.
Flavius Theodosius 347-395 also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great reigned from 379-395, reunited the western and eastern portions of the Roman empire and is credited for making Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire
Codex Theodosius XV
….On the Lords day which is the first day of the week, on Christmas, and the days of Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost…believers are to be occupied with the worship of God. Those who follow this law we command shall be comprised under the name of Catholic Christians; but others indeed, we require as insane and raving, to bear the infamy of heretical teaching.
Codex Theodosius XVI
Their gatherings shall not receive the name of churches, they are to be smitten first with the divine judgment and after that by the vengeance of our indignation
Judaizers is a term used by Pauline Christianity, particularly after the third century, to describe Jewish Christian groups like the Ebionites and Nazarenes who believed that followers of Yahshua needed to keep the Law of Moses.
The origins of Pauline Christianity lie in the teachings of Paul of Tarsus, who declared himself the “Apostle to the Gentiles,” and its development in his circle and among his followers. In the history of Christianity (q.v. for detailed discussion), “Pauline Christianity” is a term commonly employed to specify the eventually dominant form taken by “official” or “catholic” (signifying “universal”) Christianity
Pauline Christianity derives its name from the teachings of Paul, yet Paul never said the Torah was done away with. This is a twisted interpretation of his writings which the Apostle Peter warned us of:
2Pe 3:15 And think of the long-suffering of our Lord as salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him;
2Pe 3:16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unsettled pervert, as also they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17 Then beloved, you knowing beforehand, watch lest being led away by the error of the lawless you fall from your own steadfastness
What about Paul? Paul kept the Torah and the Sabbaths and did not teach believers that they were annulled. More on this in a future article, Yah willing.
Act 17:2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
Act 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
THE FEASTS AND SABBATHS OF THE PEOPLE
Hos 2:8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
Hos 2:9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
Hos 2:10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
Hos 2:11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
Hos 2:12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
Hos 2:13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
THE EXAMPLE OF JEROBOAM
1Ki 12:26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom shall turn back to the house of David;
1Ki 12:27 if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of YHWH at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people shall turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam the king of Judah, and they will kill me and go again to Rehoboam the king of Judah.
1Ki 12:28 And the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
Jeroboam leads the people back into the Babylonian worship system…this is what Constantine and then later the Roman Catholic Church did.
1Ki 12:29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
1Ki 12:30 And this thing became a sin, for the people went before the one, to Dan.
1Ki 12:31 And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
Changing of the priesthood…cardinals, bishops etc. after the similitude of the Roman governmental system
1Ki 12:32 And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, in the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah; and he offered on the altar, so he did in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves which he made; and he made stand in Bethel the priests of the high places that he made.
Changing set apart times…Sunday, Easter, Christmas etc…
1Ki 12:33 And he offered up on the altar that he made in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month that he devised out of his own heart; and he made a feast for the sons of Israel, and offered on the altar, to burn incense.
A false altar…mass
1Ki 14:7 Go, say to Jeroboam, So says YHWH, God of Israel, Because I have exalted you from among the people, and have appointed you leader over My people Israel;
1Ki 14:8 and have torn the kingdom from the house of David, and have given it to you, and you have not been as My servant David who kept My commandments, and who walked after Me with all his heart, to do only that which is right in My eyes;
1Ki 14:9 and you did evil above all who have been before you, and went and made for yourself other gods and casted images to provoke Me to anger; and you have cast Me behind your back
1Ki 14:10 therefore, behold, I am bringing evil to the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him who urinates against the wall, bound and free in Israel; and will sweep away the rest of the house of Jeroboam as a man sweeps away the dung, until it is all gone.
PUNISHMENT FOR BREAKING SHABBAT
Exo 35:2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
Capital punishment for breaking the Sabbath…certainly not a light matter. Murder, adultery, idolatry were capital offences which most would not argue with the punishment yet believers of today are appauled at the thought of capital punishment for profaning Shabbat.
Num 15:32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
Num 15:33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Heb 10:28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Heb 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Did Yahshua really break the Sabbath?
Joh 9:16 Then some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, because He does not keep the sabbath*. Others said, How can a man, a sinner, do such miraculous signs? And there was a division among them.
*Notice, this is what the Pharisees were saying about the Messiah. It does not mean this is true. They also said He casted out devils by Beelzebub.
Rabbinic interpretation of the Sabbath added 39 additional laws
Mishnah Appointed Times Shabbat 7:2
The actual restrictions are known as the “39 Av Melachot” (literally “Fathers of Work”) – 39 prohibited classes of work, based on the 39 types of work that were involved in building the temporary Sanctuary (the Mishkan) that travelled with the Children of Israel during their wonderings in the desert after leaving Egypt. There’s more information on their details at 39 Melachot, but here’s a quick summary list.
Planting, plowing, cutting, gathering in piles, threshing, winnowing, sorting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, whitening, combing, dyeing, spinning, mounting the warp, setting 2 heddles, weaving 2 threads, removing 2 threads, tying a knot, untying a knot, sewing 32 stitches, tearing in order to sew 2 stitches, trapping animals, slaughtering, skinning, salting, tanning a hide, smoothing, cutting, writing 2 letters, erasing 2 letters in order to write 2 letters, building, destroying (for the purpose to build), putting out a fire, lighting, hitting the final blow, and carrying objects from one type of property domain to another.
Yahshua challenged these teachings of the Pharisees and brought people back to the liberty that is in the Torah. The Written Scriptures speak nothing of 39 prohibitions on the Shabbat.
The first Scripture that people use to ‘prove’ Messiah changed or broke the Sabbath is where Yahshua our Lord speaks of David eating of the “bread of the Face,” something that was reserved for the priests to eat (from 1 Samuel 21:6), followed by how the Torah allows for priests to do certain type of work on the Sabbath, as part of their Temple service (Leviticus 24:5-9). His point in quoting these, is to establish the principle that within the framework of the Torah is a hierarchy of principles.
The Pharisees recognized this fact, as in the Talmud makes it clear that both the commands of circumcision and Temple sacrificial service, take precedence over the command not to do work on the Sabbath:
Talmud – Mas. Shabbath 132b – whilst the sacrificial service supersedes the Sabbath, yet circumcision supersedes it: then the Sabbath, which is superseded by the sacrificial service, surely circumcision supersedes it.
Here, Yahshua makes it clear that it is not wrong to eat when you are hungry on the Sabbath even though you haven’t gone through all the religious rituals that the religious leaders of that time were expecting the people to perform.
Was it wrong to heal on the sabbath? Even the Pharisees said it was acceptable to heal on the sabbath.
In the Mekhilta Tractate Shabbata to Exodus 31
“R. Ishmael, answering the question said: Behold it says: `If a thief is found breaking in,’ etc. (Ex. 22:1). Now what case does the law speak? Of a case when there is a doubt whether the burglar came merely to steal or even to kill. Now, by using the method of kal vahomer, it is to be reasoned: Even shedding blood, which defiles the land and causes the Shekinah to remove, is to supersede the laws of the Sabbath if it is to be done in protection of one’s life. How much more should the duty of saving life supersede the Sabbath laws! R. Eleazor b. Azariah, answering the question, said: If in performing the ceremony of circumcision, which affects only one member of the body, one is to disregard the Sabbath laws, how much more should one do so for the whole body when it is in danger!
…R. Akiba says: If punishment for murder sets aside even Temple service, which in turn supersedes the Sabbath, how much more should the saving of life supersede the Sabbath laws!”
The problem the Jews had with Yahshua is that He wasn’t healing according to their ways. He wasn’t playing their religious games.
Along a similar line, Mishnah Shabbat chapter 14 and its corresponding Tosefta chapters state:
“A. He who is concerned about his teeth may not suck vinegar though them (on the Sabbath).
B. But he dunks his bread in the normal way,
C. and if he is healed, he is healed.”
Vinegar was a common healing remedy for a toothache. It was often applied to a sore tooth with the intention of helping the tooth to heal. This case describes the use of vinegar for a toothache on the Sabbath. Although it is prohibited to directly apply the vinegar to the tooth, a similar effect can be achieved by dipping bread into vinegar and eating the bread. Therefore if one encounters a healing remedy simply by living out one’s everyday life, it is acceptable on the Sabbath.
According to the Mishnah then, one can make an exception to the prohibition on healing if that healing either saves a life, or is incidental. Using these two criteria to examine the culpability of Yahshua’s healing of the man with the withered hand, we find that from the Pharisaic viewpoint, Yahshua is wrong on both accounts. Not only is his action conscious and deliberate, but the healing takes place when it is not necessary for saving life.
Getting back to the question at hand, it is obvious from the silence of the Pharisees that they disapprove of the act of healing, yet they choose not to enter into a discussion of halakha which would allow for the exact reason of their disapproval to be explained. In Mark, Yahshua asks a rhetorical question which appears to desire a response in halakhaic terms yet does not root itself directly in the language of halakha. It is possible then that the Pharisees did not respond in halakhaic terms because they were not addressed in them, but I do not believe this to be the case. In the Gospel According to Matthew, the same story appears, yet in this case the language of Yahshua’s case is rooted deeply in halakha.
“Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:11-12)
Yahshua in the book of Matthew appeals to the worth of an individual in relation to the worth of an animal. Yahshua gives an example of when the violation of the Sabbath law not to “carry [uproot the feet of] a domestic beast” (Tosefta Shabbat 15:1) can be safely overridden. According to Yahshua, it can be overridden when there is great worth involved.
Physiology of man
Gestation with the Human species is 280 days (or 40×7).
The women’s menstrual cycle is based on 28 day (4 x 7).
Sabbath and man’s pulse
E.W. Bullinger Number in Scripture pg 10
Man’s pulse beats on the seven-day principle, for Dr. Stratton points out that for six days out of the seven it beats faster in the morning than in the evening, while on the seventh day it beats slower. Thus the number seven is stamped upon physiology, and he is thus admonished, as man, to rest one day in seven. He cannot violate this law with impunity, for it is interwoven with his very being. He may say “I will rest when I please,”— one day in ten, or irregularly, or not at all. He might as well say of his eight-day clock, “It is mine, and I will wind it up when I please.” Unless he wound it at least once in eight days, according to the principle on which it was made, it would be worthless as a clock. So with man’s body. If he rests not according to the Divine law, he will, sooner or later, be compelled to “keep his sabbaths,” and the rest which he would not take at regular intervals, at God’s command, he has to take at the command of man all at once! Even in this case God gives him more rest than he can get for himself; for God would have him take 52 days’ rest in the year, and the few days’ “change” he is able to get for himself is a poor substitute for this. It is like all man’s attempts to improve on God’s way.
“The Approaching End of the Age,” H. Grattan Guinness, page 268, 269.
Dr. Grattan Guinness:
“As to man his very pulse keeps time to the seven-day period. Dr. Stratton states (as the result of several series of observations) that in health, human pulse is more frequent in the morning than in the evening, for six days out of seven; and that on the seventh day it is slower. And man’s life as a whole is a week a week of decades. ‘The days of our years are threescore years and ten’ and that by Divine appointment. Combining the testimony of all these facts, we are bound to admit that there prevails in nature a law of septiform periods. In organic nature a law of completion in weeks.”
Dr. Stratton states as a physiological and pathological fact, that “in health the human pulse is more frequent in the morning than in the evening for six days out of seven; and that on the seventh day it is slower.” (Ibid. Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal, Jan. 1843.)
Sabbath History
1st Century -
it is clear in the Gospels and the Book of Acts that believers in the Messiah kept the Sabbath. Here are a few examples:
“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16
“And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56
“And Paul, as his manner was went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures” Acts 17:2
Here we find Gentiles in a Gentile city gathering on the Sabbath. It was not a synagogue meeting in verse 44, for it says almost the whole city came together, verse 42 says they asked to hear the message the “next Sabbath.”
Josephus
“There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the Barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come!” M’Clatchie, “Notes and Queries on China and Japan” (edited by Dennys), Vol 4, Nos 7, 8, p.100.
Philo
Declares the seventh day to be a festival, not of this or of that city, but of the universe. M’Clatchie, “Notes and Queries,” Vol. 4, 99
2nd Century
“It is certain that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed (together with the celebration of the Lord’s day) by the Christians of the East Church, above three hundred years after our Saviour’s death.”
“A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath,” p. 77
“The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the Apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to the purpose.” “Dialogues on the Lord’s Day,” p. 189. London: 1701, By Dr. T.H. Morer (A Church of England divine).
“…The Sabbath was a strong tie which united them with the life of the whole people, and in keeping the Sabbath holy they followed not only the example but also the command of Jesus.” “Geschichte des Sonntags,” pp.13, 14
“The Gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath,” Gieseler’s “Church History,” Vol.1, ch. 2, par. 30, 93.
Early Christians
“The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews;…therefore the Christians, for a long time together, did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council.” “The Whole Works” of Jeremy Taylor, Vol. IX,p. 416 (R. Heber’s Edition, Vol XII, p. 416).
“It is certain that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed (together with the celebration of the Lord’s day) by the Christians of the East Church, above three hundred years after our Saviour’s death.” “A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath,” p. 77
Note: By the “Lord’s day” here the writer means Sunday and not the true Sabbath,” which the Bible says is the Sabbath. This quotation shows Sunday coming into use in the early centuries soon after the death of the Apostles. Paul the Apostle foretold a great “falling away” from the Truth that would take place soon after his death.
2nd, 3rd, 4th Centuries
“From the apostles’ time until the council of Laodicea, which was about the year 364, the holy observance of the Jews’ Sabbath continued, as may be proved out of many authors: yea, notwithstanding the decree of the council against it.” “Sunday a Sabbath.” John Ley, p.163. London: 1640.
3rd Century
“The seventh-day Sabbath was…solemnised by Christ, the Apostles, and primitive Christians, till the Laodicean Council did in manner quite abolish the observations of it.” “Dissertation on the Lord’s Day,” pp. 33, 34
Egypt (Oxyrhynchus Papyrus) (200-250 A.D.)
“Except ye make the sabbath a real sabbath (sabbatize the Sabbath,” Greek), ye shall not see the Father.” “The oxyrhynchus Papyri,” pt,1, p.3, Logion 2, verso 4-11 (London Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898).
Early Christians-C 3rd
“Thou shalt observe the Sabbath, on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation, but ceased not from His work of providence: it is a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of the hands.” “The Anti-Nicene Fathers,” Vol 7,p. 413. From “Constitutions of the Holy Apostles,” a document of the 3rd and 4th Centuries.
Africa (Alexandria) Origen
“After the festival of the unceasing sacrifice (the crucifixion) is put the second festival of the Sabbath, and it is fitting for whoever is righteous among the saints to keep also the festival of the Sabbath. There remaineth therefore a sabbatismus, that is, a keeping of the Sabbath, to the people of God (Hebrews 4:9).” “Homily on Numbers 23,” par.4, in Migne, “Patrologia Graeca,” Vol. 12,cols. 749, 750.
Palestine to India (Church of the East)
As early as A.D. 225 there existed lallrge bishoprics or conferences of the Church of the East (Sabbath-keeping) stretching from Palestine to India. Mingana, “Early Spread of Christianity.” Vol.10, p. 460.
India (Buddhist Controversy, 220 A.D.)
The Kushan Dynasty of North India called a famous council of Buddhist priests at Vaisalia to bring uniformity among the Buddhist monks on the observance of their weekly Sabbath. Some had been so impressed by the writings of the Old Testament that they had begun to keep holy the Sabbath. Lloyd, “The Creed of Half Japan,” p. 23.
“The seventh-day Sabbath was…solemnised by Christ, the Apostles, and primitive Christians, till the Laodicean Council did in manner quite abolish the observations of it.” “Dissertation on the Lord’s Day,” pp. 33, 34
4th Century
“When you are in Rome, do as Rome does.”
Ambrose, the celebrated bishop of Milan gave rise to this proverb by stating that when he was in Milan he observed Saturday, but when in Rome he observed Sunday. (See page 70 in this Online version of Truth Triumphant)
Italy AND EAST-C 4th
“It was the practice generally of the Easterne Churches; and some churches of the west…For in the Church of Millaine (Milan);…it seems the Saturday was held in a farre esteeme… Not that the Easterne Churches, or any of the rest which observed that day, were inclined to Iudaisme (Judaism); but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Iesus (Jesus) Christ the Lord of the Sabbath.” “History of the Sabbath” (original spelling retained), Part 2, par. 5, pp.73, 74. London: 1636. Dr. Heylyn.
Italy – Milan
“Ambrose, the celebrated bishop of Milan, said that when he was in Milan he observed Saturday, but when in Rome observed Sunday. This gave rise to the proverb, ‘When you are in Rome, do as Rome does.’” Heylyn, “The History of the Sabbath” (1612)
Orient And Most Of World
“The ancient Christians were very careful in the observance of Saturday, or the seventh day…It is plain that all the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival…Athanasius likewise tells us that they held religious assembles on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, Epiphanius says the same.” “Antiquities of the Christian Church,” Vol.II Book XX, chap. 3, sec.1, 66. 1137,1138.
Abyssinia – Remnants of Philip’s Evangelism
“In the last half of that century St. Ambrose of Milan stated officially that the Abyssinian bishop, Museus, had ‘traveled almost everywhere in the country of the Seres’ (China). For more than seventeen centuries the Abyssinian Church continued to sanctify Saturday as the holy day of the fourth commandment.” Ambrose, DeMoribus, Brachmanorium Opera Ominia, 1132, found in Migne, Patrologia Latima, Vol.17, pp.1131,1132.
Arabia, Persia, India, China
“Mingana proves that in 370 A.D. Abyssinian Christianity (a Sabbath keeping church) was so popular that its famous director, Musacus, travelled extensively in the East promoting the church in Arabia, Persia, India and China.” “Truth Triumphant,”p.308 (Footnote 27). (Page numbers vary in this Online version)
Spain – Council Elvira (A.D.305)
Canon 26 of the Council of Elvira reveals that the Church of Spainat that time kept Saturday, the seventh day. “As to fasting every Sabbath: Resolved, that the error be corrected of fasting every Sabbath.” This resolution of the council is in direct opposition to the policy the church at Rome had inaugurated, that of commanding Sabbath as a fast day in order to humiliate it and make it repugnant to the people.
Spain
It is a point of further interest to note that in north-eastern Spainnear the city of Barcelona is a city called Sabadell, in a district originaly inhabited. By a people called both “Valldenses” and Sabbatati.”
Persia-A.D. 335-375 (40 Years Persecution Under Shapur II)
The popular complaint against the Christians-”They despise our sungod, they have divine services on Saturday, they desecrate the sacred the earth by burying their dead in it.” Truth Triumphant,” (Online Version p. 261)
Persia-A.D.335-375
“They despise our sun-god. Did not Zorcaster, the sainted founder of our divine beliefs, institute Sunday one thousand years ago in honour of the sun and supplant the Sabbath of the Old Testament. Yet these Christians have divine services on Saturday.” O’Leary, “The Syriac Church and Fathers,” pp.83, 84.
Council Laodicea – A.D.365
“Canon 16-On Saturday the Gospels and other portions of the Scripture shall be read aloud.” “Canon 29-Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day.” Hefele’s “Councils,” Vol. 2, b. 6. (See an online version of this council on the Roman Catholic New Advent website – see Canon 29)
5th Century
“The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.” Socrates, “Ecclesiastical History,” Book 7, chap.19.
The World
“For although almost all churches throughout The World celebrated the sacred mysteries (the Lord’s Supper) on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Allexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this.” The footnote which accompanies the foregoing quotation explains the use of the word “Sabbath.” It says: “That is, upon the Saturday. It should be observed, that Sunday is never called “the Sabbath’ by the ancient Fathers and historians.” Sacrates, “Ecclestical History,” Book 5, chap. 22, p. 289.
Constantinople
“The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.” Socrates, “Ecclesiastical History,” Book 7, chap.19.
The World – Augustine, Bishop Of Hippo (North Africa)
Augustine shows here that the Sabbath was observed in his day “in the greater part of the Christian world,” and his testimony in this respect is all the more valuable because he himself was an earnest and consistent Sunday-keeper. See “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” 1st Series, Vol.1, pp. 353, 354.
Pope Innocent (402-417)
Pope Sylvester (314-335) was the first to order the churches to fast on Saturday, and Pope Innocent (402-417) made it a binding law in the churches that obeyed him, (In order to bring the Sabbath into disfavour.) “Innocentius did ordain the Saturday or Sabbath to be always fasted.” Dr. Peter Heylyn, “History of the Sabbath, Part 2, p. 44.
5th Century Christians
Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church. “Ancient Christianity Exemplified,” Lyman Coleman, ch. 26, sec. 2, p. 527.
In Jerome’s day (420 A.D.) the devoutest Christians did ordinary work on Sunday. “Treatise of the Sabbath Day,” by Dr. White, Lord Bishop of Ely, p. 219.
France
“Wherefore, except Vespers and Nocturns, there are no public services among them in the day except on Saturday (Sabbath) and Sunday.” John Cassian, A French monk, “Institutes,” Book 3, ch. 2.
Africa
“Augustine deplored the fact that in two neighbouring churches in Africa one observes the seventh-day Sabbath, another fasted on it.” Dr. Peter Heylyn, “The History of the Sabbath.” p. 416.
Spain (400 A.D.)
“Ambrose sanctified the seventh day as the Sabbath (as he himself says). Ambrose had great influence in Spain, which was also observing the Saturday Sabbath.” Truth Triumphant, p. 68.
Sidonius (Speaking Of King Theodoric Of The Goths, A.D. 454-526)
“It is a fact that it was formerly the custom in the East to keep the Sabbath in the same manner as the Lord’s day and to hold sacred assemblies: while on the other hand, the people of the West, contending for the Lord’s day have neglected the celebration of the Sabbath.” “Apollinaries Sidonli Epistolae,” lib.1, 2; Migne, 57.
Church Of The East
“Mingana proves that in 410 Isaac, supreme director of the Church of the East, held a world council,-stimulated, some think, by the trip of Musacus,-attended by eastern delegates from forty grand metrop olitan divisions. In 411 he appointed a metropolitan director for China. These churches were sanctifying the seventh day.”
Egypt
“There are several cities and villages in Egypt where, contrary to the usage established elsewhere, the people meet together on Sabbath evenings, and, although they have dined previously, partake of the mysteries.” Sozomen. “Ecclesiastical History Book 7, ch. 119
6th Century
Scottish Church
“In this latter instance they seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early monastic church of Ireland by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours.” W.T. Skene, “Adamnan Llife of St. Columbs” 1874, p.96.
Scotland, Ireland
“We seem to see here an allusion to the custom, observed in the early monastic Church of Ireland, of keeping the day of rest on Saturday, or the Sabbath.” “History of the Catholic Church in Scotland,” Vol.1, p. 86, by Catholic historian Bellesheim.
Scotland – Columba
“Having continued his labours in Scotland thirty-four years, he clearly and openly foretold his death, and on Saturday, the month of June, said to his disciple Diermit: “This day is called the Sabbath, that is the rest day, and such will it truly be to me; for it will put an end to my labours.’” “Butler’s Lives of the Saints,” Vol.1, A.D. 597, art. “St. Columba” p. 762
Columba (Re Dr. Butler’s Description Of His Death)
The editor of the best biography of Columbia says in a footnote: “Our Saturday. The custom to call the Lord’s day Sabbath did not commence until a thousand years later.” Adamnan’s “Life of Columba” (Dublin, 1857), p. 230.
7th Century
Scotland and Ireland
Professor James C. Moffatt, D.D., Professor of Church History at Princeton, says: It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labour. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of week.” “The Church in Scotland,” p.140.
Scotland and Ireland
“The Celts used a Latin Bible unlike the Vulgate (R.C.) and kept Saturday as a day of rest, with special religious services on Sunday.” Flick, “The Rise of Mediaeval Church,” p. 237
Rome
Gregory I (A.D. 590-640) wrote against “Roman citizens (who) forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day.” “Nicene and Post- Nicene Fathers,” Second Series, Vol, XIII, p.13, epist. 1
Rome (Pope Gregory I, A.D.590 TO 604)
“Gregory, bishop by the grace of God to his well-beloved sons, the Roman citizens: It has come to me that certain men of perverse spirit have disseminated among you things depraved and opposed to the holy faith, so that they forbid anything to be done on the day of the Sabbath. What shall I call them except preachers of anti-Christ?” Epistles, b.13:1
Rome (Pope Gregory I)
Declared that when anti-Christ should come he would keep Saturday as the Sabbath. “Epistles of Gregory I, “b 13, epist.1. found in “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.”
“Moreover, this same Pope Gregory had issued an official pronouncement against a section of the city of Rome itself because the Christian believers there rested and worshipped on the Sabbath.” Same reference.
8th Century
Council Of Friaul, Italy-A.D. 791 (Canon 13)
“We command all Christians to observe the Lord’s day to be held not in honour of the past Sabbath, but on account of that holy night of the first of the week called the Lord’s day. When speaking of that Sabbath which the Jews observe, the last day of the week, and which also our peasants observe..” Mansi, 13, 851
Persia and Mesopotamia
“The hills of Persia and the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates reechoed their songs of praise. They reaped their harvests and paid their tithes. They repaired to their churches on the Sabbath day for the worship of God.” “Realencyclopaedie fur Protestatische and Krche,” art. “Nestorianer”; also Yule, “The Book of ser Marco Polo,” Vol.2, p.409.
India, China, Persia, ETC
“Widespread and enduring was the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath among the believers of the Church of the East and the St. Thomas Christians of India, who never were connected with Rome. It also was maintained among those bodies which broke off from Rome after the Council of Chalcedon namely, the Abyssinians, the Jacobites, the Maronites, and the Armenians,” Schaff-Herzog, The New Enclopadia of Religious Knowledge,” art. “Nestorians”; also Realencyclopaedie fur Protestantische Theologie und Kirche,” art. “Nestorianer.”
Council Of Liftinae, Belgium – A.D.745 (Attended By Boniface)
“The third allocution of this council warns against the observance of the Sabbath, referring to the decree of the council of Laodicea.” Dr. Hefele, Counciliengfesch, 3, 512, sec. 362
China – A.D.781
In A.D. 781 the famous ChinaMonument was inscribed in marble to tell of the growth of Christianity in Chinaat that time. The inscription, consisting of 763 words, was unearthed in 1625 near the city of Changan and now stands in the “Forest of Tablets,” Changan. The following extract from the stone shows that the Sabbath was observed:
“On the seventh day we offer sacrifices, after having purified our hearts, and received absolution for our sins. This religion, so perfect and so excellent, is difficult to name, but it enlightens darkness by its brilliant precepts.” Christianity in China, M. I’Abbe Huc, Vol. I, ch.2, pp. 48, 49
9th Century
Bulgaria
“Bulgariain the early season of its evangelization had been taught that no work should be performed on the Sabbath.” Responsa Nicolai Papae I and Con-Consulta Bulllllgarorum, Responsum 10, found in Mansi, Sacrorum Concilorum Nova et Amplissima Colectio, Vol.15; p. 406; also Hefele, Conciliengeschicte, Vol.4, sec. 478
Bulgaria
(Pope Nicholas I, in answer to letter from Bogaris, ruling prince of Bulgaria.) “Ques. 6-Bathing is allowed on Sunday. Ques. 10-One is to cease from work on Sunday, but not also on the Sabbath.” Hefele, 4,346- 352, sec. 478
The Bulgarians had been accustomed to rest on the Sabbath. Pope Nicholas writes against this practice.
Constantinople
(Photuus, Patriarch of Constantinople {in counter- synod that deposed Nicolas}, thus accused Papacy). Against the canons, they induced the Bulgarians to fast on the Sabbath.” Photius, vonKard, Hergenrother, 1, 643
Note: The Papacy tried to bring the seventh-day Sabbath into disrepute by insisting that all should fast on that day. In this manner (she sought to turn people towards Sunday, the first day, the day that Rome had adopted.
Athingians
Cardinal Hergenrother says that they stood in intimate relation with Emperor Michael II (821-829) and testifies that they observed the Sabbath. Kirchengeschichte, 1, 527
India, Abyssinia
“Widespread and enduring was the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath among the believers of the Church of the East and the St. Thomas Christians of India. It was also maintained by the Abyssinians.
Bulgaria
“Pope Nicholas I, in the ninth century, sent the ruling prince of Bulgaria a long document saying in it that one is to cease from work on Sunday, but not on the Sabbath. The head of the Greek Church, offended at the interference of the Papacy, declared the Pope ex-communicated.” Truth Triumphant, p. 232
10th Century
Scotland
“They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a Sabbatical manner.” A history of Scotland from the Roman Occupation, Vol. I, p.96. Andrew Lang
Church Of The East – Kurdistan
“The Nestorians eat no pork and keep the Sabbath. They believe in neither auricular confession nor purgatory.” Schaff-Herzog, “The New Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge,” art. “Nestorians.”
Waldenses
“And because they observed no other day of rest but the Sabbath days, they called them Insabathas, as much as to say, as they observed no Sabbath.” Luther’s “Fore-Runners” (original spelling), PP. 7, 8
Waldenses
Roman Catholic writers try to evade the apostolic origin of the Waldenses, so as to make it appear that the Roman is the only apostolic church, and that all others are later novelties. And for this reason they try to make out that the Waldenses originated with Peter Waldo of the twelfth century. Dr. Peter Allix says:
“Some Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for them…It is absolutely false, that these churches were ever found by Peter Waldo…it is a pure forgery.” Ancient Church of Piedmont, pp.192, Oxford: 1821
Waldenses
“It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses, or Vaudes, before his time, from the valleys in which they dwelt.” “Id., p. 182
Waldenses
On the other hand, he “was called Valdus, or Waldo, because he received his religious notions from the inhabitants of the valleys.” History of the Christian Church, William Jones, Vol II, p.2
11th Century
Scotland
They held that Saturday was properly the Sabbath on which they abstained from work. “Celtic Scotland,” Vol. 2, p. 350
Scotland
“They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a sabbatical manner…These things Margaret abolished.” A History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation,” Vol.1, p. 96.
Scotland
“It was another custom of theirs to neglect the reverence due to the Lord’s day, by devoting themselves to every kind of worldly business upon it, just as they did upon other days. That this was contrary to the law, she (Queen Margaret) proved to them as well by reason as by authority. ‘Let us venerate the Lord’s day,’ said she, ‘because of the resurrection of our Lord, which happened upon that day, and let us no longer do servile works upon it; bearing in mind that upon this day we were redeemed from the slavery of the devil. The blessed Pope Gregory affirms the same.’” Life of Saint Margaret, Turgot, p. 49 (British Museum Library)
Scotland
(Historian Skene commenting upon the work of Queen Margaret) “Her next point was that they did not duly reverence the Lord’s day, but in this latter instance they seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early Church of Ireland, by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours.” Skene, “Celtic Scotland,” Vol.2, p. 349
Scotland And Ireland
“T. Ratcliffe Barnett, in his book on the fervent Catholic queen of Scotland who in 1060 was first to attempt the ruin of Columba’s brethren, writes: ‘In this matter the Scots had perhaps kept up the traditional usage of the ancient Irish Church which observed Saturday instead of Sunday as the day of rest.’” Barnett, “Margaret of Scotland: Queen and Saint,” p.97
Council Of Clermont
“During the first crusade, Pope Urban II decreed at the council of Clermont (A.D.1095) that the Sabbath be set aside in honour of the Virgin Mary.” History of the Sabbath, p.672
Constantinople
“Because you observe the Sabbath with the Jews and the Lord’s Day with us, you seem to imitate with such observance the sect of Nazarenes.” Migne, “Patrologia Latina,” Vol. 145, p.506; also Hergenroether, “Photius,” Vol. 3, p.746. (The Nazarenes were a Christian denomination.)
Greek Church
“The observance of Saturday is, as everyone knows, the subject of a bitter dispute between the Greeks and the Latins.” Neale, “A History of the Holy Eastern Church,” Vol 1, p. 731. (Referring to the separation of the Greek Church from the Latin in 1054)
12th Century
“Robinson gives an account of some of the Waldenses of the Alps, who were called Sabbati, Sabbatati, Insabbatati, but more frequently Inzabbatati. “One says they were so named from the Hebrew word Sabbath, because they kept the Saturday for the Lord’s day.’” General History of the Baptist Denomination, Vol.II, P. 413
Lombardy
“Traces of Sabbath-keepers are found in the times of Gregory I, Gregory VII, and in the twelfth century in Lombardy.” Strong’s Cyclopaedia, 1, 660
Spain (Alphonse of Aragon)
“Alphonse, king of Aragon, etc., to all archbishops, bishops and to all others…’We command you that heretics, to wit, Waldenses and Insabbathi, should be expelled away from the face of God and from all Catholics and ordered to depart from our kingdom.’” Marianse, Praefatio in Lucam Tudensem, found in “Macima Gibliotheca Veterum Patrum,” Vol.25, p.190
Hungary France, England, Italy, Germany. (Referring to the Sabbath- keeping Pasagini) “The spread of heresy at this time is almost incredible. From Gulgaria to the Ebro, from nothern France to the Tiber, everywhere we meet them. Whole countries are infested, like Hungary and southern France; they abound in many other countries, in Germany, in Italy, in the Netherlands and even in England they put forth their efforts.” Dr. Hahn, “Gesch. der Ketzer.” 1, 13, 14
Waldenses
“Among the documents. we have by the same peoples, an explanation of the Ten Commandments dated by Boyer 1120. Observance of the Sabbath by ceasing from worldly labours, is enjoined.” Blair, History of the Waldenses, Vol.1, p. 220
“Robinson gives an account of some of the Waldenses of the Alps, who were called Sabbati, Sabbatati, Insabbatati, but more frequently Inzabbatati. “One says they were so named from the Hebrew word Sabbath, because they kept the Saturday for the Lord’s day.’” General History of the Baptist Denomination, Vol.II, P. 413
Wales
“There is much evidence that the Sabbath prevailed in Wales university until A.D.1115, when the first Roman bishop was seated at St. David’s. The old Welsh Sabbath-keeping churches did not even then altogether bow the knee to Rome, but fled to their hiding places.” Lewis, “Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America,” Vol.1, p.29
France
“For twenty years Peter de Bruys stirred southern France. He especialy emphasised a day of worship that was recognized at that time among the Celtic churches of the British Isles, among the Paulicians, and in the great Church of the East namely, the the seventh day of the fourth commandment.”
Pasagini
The papal author, Bonacursus, wrote the following against the “Pasagaini”: “Not a few, but many know what are the errors of those who are called Pasaagini…First, they teach that we should obey the Sabbath. Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church.” D’Achery, Spicilegium I,f.211-214; Muratory, Antiq. med. aevi.5, f.152, Hahn, 3, 209
13th Century
“The inquisitors…[declare] that the sign of a Vaudois(Waldenses of France), deemed worthy of death, was that he followed Christ and sought to obey the commandments of God.” History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages,” H.C.Les, vol.1
Waldenses
“They say that the blessed Pope Sylvester was the Antichrist of whom mention is made in the Epistles of St. Paul as having been the son of perdition.[They also say] that the keeping of the Sabbath ought to take place.” Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches ofPiedmont,” p.169 (by prominent Roman Cathholic author writing about Waldenses)
France (Waldenses)
To destroy completely these heretics Pope Innocent III sent Dominican inquistors into France, and also crusaders, promising “a plenary remission of all sins, to those who took on them the crusade…against the albigenses.” Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol.XII, art.”Raymond VI,” p. 670
France
Thousands of God’s people were tortured to death by the Inquisition, buried alive, burned to death, or hacked to pieces by the crusaders. While devastating the city of Biterre the soldiers asked the Catholic leaders how they should know who were heretics; “Slay them all, for the Lord knows who is His.” History of the Inquisition, pp.96
France-King Louis IX,1229
Published the statute “Cupientes” in which he charges himself to clear southern France from heretics as the Sabbath-keepers were called.
Waldenses Of France
“The heresy of the Vaudois, or poor people of Lyons, is of great antiquity, for some say that it has been continued down ever since the time of Pope Sylvester; and others, ever since that of the apostles.” The Roman Inquisitor, Reinerus Sacho, writing about 1230
FRANCE-Council Toulouse, 1229
Canons against Sabbath-keepers: “Canon 3.-The lords of the different districts shall have the villas, houses and woods diligently searched, and the hiding-places of the heretics destroyed.
“Canon 14-Lay members are not allowed to possess the books of either the Old or the New Testaments.” Hefele, 5, 931, 962
Europe
“The Paulicians, Petrobusinas, Passaginians, Waldenses, Insabbatati were great Sabbath-keeping bodies of Europe down to 1250 A.D.”
Pasaginians
Dr. Hahn says that if the Pasaginians referred to the 4th Commandment to support the Sabbath, the Roman priests answered, “The Sabbath symbolised the eternal rest of the saints.”
Mongolia
“The Mongolian conquest did not injure the Church of the East. (Sabbath-keeping.) On the contrary, a number of the Mongolian princes and a larger number of Mongolian queens were members of this church.”
14th Century
“Also the priests have caused the people to keep Saturdays as Sundays.” Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway (See below), Vol.1, p.184 Oslo
Waldenses
“That we are to worship one only God, who is able to help us, and not the Saints departed; that we ought to keep holy the Sabbath day.” Luther’s Fore-runners,” p. 38
Insabbati
“For centuries evangelical bodies, especially the Waldenses, were called Insabbati because of Sabbath-keeping.” Gui, Manueld’ Inquisiteur
Bohemia, 1310 (Modern Czechoslovakia)
“In 1310, two hundred years before Luther’s theses, the Bohemian brethern constituted onefourth of the population of Bohemia, and that they were in touch with the Waldenseswho abounded in Austria, Lombardy,. Bohemia, north Germany, Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Moravia. Erasmus pointed out how strictly Bohemian Waldenseskept the seventh day Sabbath.” Armitage, “A History of the Baptists,” p.313; Cox, “The Literature of the Sabbath Question,” vol. 2, pp. 201-202
Norway
Then, too, in the “Catechism” that was used during the fourteenth century, the Sabbath commandment read thus; “Thou shalt not forget to keep the seventh day.” This is quoted from “Documents and Studies Concerning the History of the Lutheran Catechism in the Nordish Churches,” p.89. Christiania 1893
Norway
“Also the priests have caused the people to keep Saturdays as Sundays.” Theological Periodicals for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway, Vol.1, p.184 Oslo
England, Holland, Bohemia
“We wrote of the Sabbatarians in Bohemia, Transylvania, England and Holland between 1250 and 1600 A.D.” Truth Triumphant, Wilkinson, p.309
15th Century
“The accused [Sabbath-keepers] were summoned; they openly acknowledged the new faith, and defended the same. The most eminent of them, the secretary of state, Kuritzyn, Ivan Maximow, Kassian, archimandrite of the Fury Monastery of Novgorod, were condemned to death, and burned publicly in cages, at Moscow; Dec. 17,1503.” Geschichte der Juden” (Leipsig, 1873), pp.117-122
Bohemia
“Erasmus testifies that even as late as about 1500 these Bohemians not only kept the seventh day scrupulously, but also were called Sabbatarians.” Cox, “The Literature of the Sabbath Question,” Vol.2, pp.201, 202 “Truth Triumphant,” p.264
Norway
(Church Council held at Bergin, August 22,1435) “The first matter concerned a keeping holy of Saturday. It had come to the earth of the archbishop that people in different places of the kingdom had ventured the keeping holy of Saturday. It is strictly forbidden-it is stated-in the Church Law, for any one to keep or to adopt holy-days, outside of those which the pope, archbishop, or bishops appoint.” The History of the Norwegian Church under Catholicism, R. Keyser, Vol.II, p. 488.Oslo: 1858
Norway, 1435 (Catholic Provincial Council at Bergin)
“We are informed that some people in different districts of the kingdom, have adopted and observed Saturday-keeping. It is severely forbidden-in holy church canon-one and all to observe days excepting those which the holy Pope archbishop, or the bishops command. Saturday-keeping must under no circumstances be permitted hereafter further than the church canon commands. ,Therefore we ccounsel all the friends of God throughout all Norway who want to be obedient towards the holy church to let this evil of Saturday- keeping alone; and the rest we forbid under penalty of sever church punishment to keep Saturday holy.” Dip. Norveg., 7, 397
Norway, 1436
(Church Conference at Oslo) “It is forbidden under the same penalty to keep Saturday holy by refraining from labour.” History of the Norwegian Church, p.401
Russia (Council, Moscow, 1490)
“The accused [Sabbath-keepers] were summoned; they openly acknowledged the new faith, and defended the same. The most eminent of them, the secretary of state, Kuritzyn, Ivan Maximow, Kassian, archimandrite of the Fury Monastery of Novgorod, were condemned to death, and burned publicly in cages, at Moscow; Dec. 17,1503.” H.Sternberfi, “Geschichte der Juden” (Leipsig, 1873), pp.117-122
France – Waldenses
“Louis XII, King of France (1498-1515), being informed by the enemies of the Waldense inhabiting a part of the province, that several heinous crimes were laid to their account, sent the Master of Requests, and a certain doctor of the Sorbonne, to make inquiry into this matter. On their return they reported that they had visited all the parishes, but could not discover any traces of those crimes with which they were charged. On the contrary, they kept the Sabbath day, observed the ordinance of baptism, according to the primitive church, instructed their children in the articles of the Christian faith, and the commandments of God. The King having heard the report of his commissioners, said with an oath that they were better men than himself or his people.” History of the Christian Church, Vol.II, pp. 71, 72, third edition. London: 1818
India
“Separated from the Western world for a thousand years, they were naturally ignorant of many novelties introduced by the councils and decrees of the Lateran. ‘We are Christians, and not idolaters,’ was their expressive reply when required to do homage to the image of the Virgin Mary.’”
16th Century
“The famous Jesuit, Francis Xavier, called for the Inquisition, which was set up in Goa, India, in 1560, to check the ‘Jewish wickedness’ (Sabbath-keeping).” Adeney, “The Greek and Eastern Churches,” p.527, 528
England
“In the reign of Elizabeth, it occurred to many conscientious and independent thinkers (as it previously had done to some Protestants in Bohemia) that the fourth commandment required of them the observance, not of the first, but of the specified ’seventh’ day of the week.” Chambers’ Cyclopaedia, article “Sabbath,” Vol. 8, p. 462, 1537
Sweden
“This zeal for Saturday-keeping continued for a long time: even little things which might strengthen the practice of keeping Saturday were punished.” Bishop Anjou, “Svenska Kirkans Historia after Motetthiers, Upsala
Lichenstein Family
(estates in Austria, Bohemia, Morovia, Hungary. Lichenstein in the Rhine Valley wasn’t their country until the end of the 7th century). “The Sabbatarians teach that the outward Sabbath, i.e. Saturday, still must be observed, They say that Sunday is the Pope’s invention.” Refutation of Sabbath, by Wolfgang Capito, published 1599
Bohemia (the Bohemian Brethren)
Dr. R. Cox says: “I find from a passage in Erasmus that at the early period of the Reformantion when he wrote, there were Sabbatarians in Bohemia, who not only kept the seventh day, but were said to be…scrupulous in resting on it.” Literature of the Sabbath Question, Cox, Vol. II, pp. 201, 202
Historian’s List Of Churches (16th Century)
“Sabbatarians, so called because they reject the observance of the Lord’s day as not commanded in Scripture, they consider the Sabbath alone to be holy, as God rested on that day and commanded to keep it holy and to rest on it.” A. Ross
Gremany
-Dr. Esk (while refuting the Reformers) “However, the church has transferred the observance from Saturday to Sunday by virtue of her own power, without Scripture.” Dr. Esk’s “Enchiridion,” 1533, pp.78,79
Princes Of Lichtenstein (Europe)
About the year 1520 many of these Sabbath-keepers found shelter on the estate of Lord Leonhardt of Lichtensein held to the observance of the true Sabbath.” J.N.Andrews, History of the Sabbath, p. 649, ed.
India
“The famous Jesuit, Francis Xavier, called for the Inquisition, which was set up in Goa, India, in 1560, to check the ‘Jewish wickedness’ (Sabbath-keeping).” Adeney, “The Greek and Eastern Churches,” p.527, 528
Norway – 1544
“Some of you, contrary to the warning, keep Saturday. You ought to be severely punished. Whoever shall be found keeping Saturday, must pay a fine of ten marks.” History of King Christian the Third,” Niels Krag and S. Stephanius
Austria
“Sabatarians now exist in Austria.” Luther, “Lectures on Genesis,” A.D.1523-27
Abyssinia – A.D. 1534
(Abyssinian legate at court of Lisbon) “It is not therefore, in imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ and His holy apostles, that we observe the day.” Gedde’s “Church History of Ethiopia,” pp. 87,8
Dr. Martin Luther
“God blessed the Sabbath and sanctified it to Himself. God willed that this command concerning the Sabbath should remain. He willed that on the seventh day the word should be preached.” Commentary on Genesis, Vol.1, pp.138-140
Baptists
“Some have suffered torture because they would not rest when others kept Sunday, for they declared it to be the holiday and law of Antichrist.” Sebastian Frank (A.D. 1536)
Finland – Dec. 6,1554
(King Gustavus Vasa I, of Sweden’s letter to the people of Finland) “Some time ago we heard that some people in Finland had fallen into a great error and observed the seventh day, called Saturday.” State Library at Helsingfors, Reichsregister, Vom J., 1554, Teil B.B. leaf 1120, pp.175-180a
Switzerland
“The observance of the Sabbath is a part of the moral law. It has been kept holy since the beginning of the world.” Ref. Noted Swiss writer, R Hospinian, 1592
Holland And Germany
Barbara of Thiers, who was executed in 1529, declared: “God has commanded us to rest on the seventh day.” Another martyr, Christina Tolingerin, is mentioned thus: “Concerning holy days and Sundays, she said: ‘In six days the Lord made the world, on the seventh day he rested. The other holy days have been instituted by popes, cardinals, and archbishops.’” Martyrology of the Churches of Christ, commonly called Baptists, during the era of the Reformation, from the Dutch of T.J. Van Bright, London, 1850,1, pp.113-4.
17th Century
“A Christian keeping the commandment of God and the faith of Jesus, being baptised about the year 1648, and keeping the seventh day for the Sabbath above thirty-two years.”
Monument over the grave of Dr. Peter Chamberlain (view it)
Hungary, Romania
“But as they rejected Sunday and rested on the Sabbath, Prince Sigmond Bathory ordered their persecution. Pechi advanced to position of chancellor of state and next in line to throne of Transylvania. He studied his Bible, and composed a number of hymns, mostly in honour of the Sabbath. Pechi was arrested and died in 1640.
Sweden And Finland
“We can trace these opinions over almost the whole extent of Sweden of that day-from Finland and northern Sweden. “In the district of Upsala the farmers kept Saturday in place of Sunday. “About the year 1625 this religious tendency became so pronounced in these countries that not only large numbers of the common people began to keep Saturday as the rest day, but even many priests did the same.” History of the Swedish Church, Vol.I, p.256
Muscovit Russian Church
“They solemnize Saturday (the old Sabbath). Samuel Purchase- “His Pilgrims.” Vol. I, p. 350
India – 1625 (Jacobites)
“They kept Saturday holy. They have solemn service on Saturdays.” Pilgrimmes, Part 2, p.1269
America – 1664
“Stephen Mumford, the first Sabbath-keeper in America come from London in 1664.” History of the Seventh-day Baptist Gen. Conf. by Jas. Bailey, pp. 237, 238
America – 1671 (Seventh-day Baptists)
“Broke from Baptist Church in order to keep Sabbath.” See Bailey’s History, pp. 9,10
America 1603-1683 “ The pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, … speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws; but he is the son of perdition.” Roger Williams, First Baptist pastor in America (1603-1683) — The Bloody Tenet of Persecution, quoted in L. E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3, p. 52. Emphasis supplied.
England
Charles I,1647 (when querying the Parliament Commissioners) “For it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is no longer to be kept, or turned into the Sunday wherefore it must be the Church’s authority that changed the one and instituted the other.” Cox, “Sabbath Laws,” p.333
England – John Milton
“It will surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first.” Sab. Lit. 2, 46-54
England
“Upon the publication of the ‘Book of Sports’ in 1618 a violent controversy arose among English divines on two points: first, whether the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was in force; and, secondly, on what ground the first day of the week was entitled to be observed as ‘the Sabbath.’” Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates, art. “Sabbatarians.” p.602
England – 1618
“At last for teaching only five days in the week, and resting upon Saturday she was carried to the new prison in Maiden Lane, a place then appointed for the restraint of several other persons of different opinions from the Church of England. Mrs. Traske lay fifteen or sixteen years a prisoner for her opinion about the Saturday Sabbath.” Pagitt’s “Heresiography.” p.196
England – 1668
“Here in England are about nine or ten churches that keep the Sabbath, besides many scattered disciples, who have eminently preserved.” Stennet’s letters, 1668 and 1670. Cox, Sab.,1, 268
Ethiopia – 1604
Jesuits tried to induce the Abyssinian church to accept Roman Catholicism. They influenced King Zadenghel to propose to submit to the Papacy (A.D.1604). “Prohibiting all his subjects, upon severe penalties, to observe Saturday any longer.” Gedde’s “Church History of Ethiopia.” p.311, also Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall,” ch. 47
Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, Germany
“one of the counsellors and lords of the court was John Gerendi, head of the Sabbatarians, a people who did not keep Sunday, but Saturday.” Lamy, “The History of Socinianism.” p. 60
Telegraph Print, Napier
The inscription on the monument over the grave of Dr. Peter Chamberlain, physician to King James and Queen Anne, King Charles I and Queen Katherine says that Dr. Chamberlain was “a Christian keeping the commandment of God and the faith of Jesus, being baptised about the year 1648, and keeping the seventh day for the Sabbath above thirty-two years.”
18th Century
“It cannot be shown that Sunday has taken the place of the Sabbath (P.366). the Lord God has sanctified the last day of the week. Antichrist, on the other hand, has appointed the first day of the week.” Ki Auszug aus Tennhardt’s “Schriften,” P.49 (printed 1712)
Abyssinia
“The Jacobites assembled on the Sabbath day, before the Domical day, in the temple, and kept that day, as do also the Abyssinians as we have seen from the confession of their faith by the Ethiopian king Claudius.” Abundacnus, ‘Historia Jacobatarum,”p.118-9 (18th Century)
Romania, 1760 (and what is today) Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia
“Joseph II’s edict of tolerance did not apply to the Sabbatarians, some of whom again lost all of their possessions.” Jahrgang 2, 254
“Catholic priests aided by soldiers forcing them to accept Romanism nominally, and compelling the remainder to labour on the Sabbath and to attend church on Sunday,-these were the methods employed for two hundred fifty years to turn the Sabbatarians.
Germany-Tennhardt of Nuremberg
“He holds strictly to the doctrine of the Sabbath, because it is one of the ten commandments.” Bengel’s “Leban und Wirken,” Burk, p.579
He himself says: “It cannot be shown that Sunday has taken the place of the Sabbath (P.366). the Lord God has sanctified the last day of the week. Antichrist, on the other hand, has appointed the first day of the week.” Ki Auszug aus Tennhardt’s “Schriften,” P.49 (printed 1712)
Bohemia and Moravia (Today Czechoslovakia).
Their history from 1635 to 1867 is thus described by Adolf Dux: “The condition of the Sabbatarians was dreadful. Their books and writings had to be delivered to the Karlsburg Consistory to become the spoils of flames.” Aus Ungarn, pp. 289-291. Leipzig, 1850
Holland and Germany
“Dr. Cornelius stated of East Friesland, that when Baptists were numerous, “Sunday and holidays were not observed,” (they were Sabbath-keepers). Der Anteil Ostfrieslands and Ref. Muenster,” 1852, pp l29, 34
Moravia-Count Zinzendorf
In 1738 Zinzendorf wrote of his keeping the Sabbath thus: “That I have employed the Sabbath for rest many years already, and our Sunday for the proclamation of the gospel.” Budingsche Sammlung, Sec. 8, p. 224. Leipzig, 1742
America – 1741
-Moravian Brethren (after Zinzendorf arrived from Europe). “As a special instance it deserves to be noticed that he is resolved with the church at Bethlehem to observe the seventh day as rest day. Id., pp. 5, 1421, 1422
America
But before Zinzendorf and the Moravians at Bethlehem thus began the observance of the Sabbath and prospered, there was a small body of German Sabbath-keepers in Pennsylvania. See Rupp’s “History of Religious Denominations in the United States,” pp.109- 123
19th Century
“But the majority moved to the Crimea and the Caucasus, where they remain true to their doctrine in spite of persecution until this present time. The people call them Subotniki, or Sabbatarians,”
Sternberg, “Geschichte der Juden in Polen,” p.124
China
“At this time Hung prohibited the use of opium, and even tobacco, and all intoxicating drinks, and the Sabbath was religiously observed.” The Ti-Ping Revolution,” by Llin-Le, and officer among them, Vol. 1, pp.36-48, 84
“The seventh day is most religiously and strictly observed. The Taiping Sabbath is kept upon our Saturday.” P. 319
China
“The Taipings when asked why they observed the seventh day Sabbath, replied that it was, first, because the Bible taught it, and, second, because their ancestors observed it as a day of worship.” A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday.
India and Persia
“Besides, they maintain the solemn observance of Christian worship throughout our Empire, on the seventh day.” Christian Researches in Asia,” p.143
Denmark
“This agitation was not without its effect. Pastor M.A. Sommer began observing the seventh day, and wrote in his church paper. “Indovet Kristendom” No.5,1875 an impressive article about the true Sabbath. In a letter to Elder John G.Matteson, he says:
“Among the Baptists here in Denmark there is a great agitation regarding the Sabbath commandment..However, I am probably the only preacher in Denmark who stands so near to the Adventists and who for many years has proclaimed Christ’s second coming.” Advent Tidente,” May, 1875
Russia
“But the majority moved to the Crimea and the Caucasus, where they remain true to their doctrine in spite of persecution until this present time. The people call them Subotniki, or Sabbatarians,” Sternberg, “Geschichte der Juden in Polen,” p.124
Sweden (Baptists)
“We will now endeavour to show that the sanctification of the Sabbath has its foundation and its origin in a law which God at creation itself established for the whole world, and as a consequence thereof is binding on all men in all ages.” Evangelisten (The Evangelist). Stockholm, May 30 to August 15,1863 (Swedish Baptist Church)
America – 1845
“Thus we see Dan. 7, 25, fulfilled, the little horn changing ‘times and laws. ‘Therefore it appears to me that all who keep the first day for the Sabbath are Pope’s Sunday-keepers and God’s Sabbath- breakers.” Elder T.M. Preble, Feb.13, 1845
America (Seventh-day Adventists)
In 1844 Seventh-day Adventists arose and had spread to nearly all the world by the close of the 19th Century. Their name is derived from their teaching of the seventh-day Sabbath and the Advent of Jesus. In 1874 their work was established in Europe, 1885 -Australasia, 1887-South Africa, 1888-Asia, 1888-South America. Seventh-day Adventists uphold the same Sabbath that Jesus and His followers kept. The sacred Torch of Truth was not extinguished through the long centuries. Adventists are working today in nearly 1000 languages of earth and have over 27,000 churches. Over ten million members around the globe welcome the sacred Sabbath hours.
Sabbath Confessions
McClintock and Strong, “Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical
Literature,” Vol. 9, p. 196
Until well into the second century (a hundred years after Christ) we do not find the
slightest indication in our source that Christians marked Sunday by any kind of
abstention from work.
W. Rordorf, “Sunday,” p. 157
The ancient Sabbath (7th day) did remain and was observed, by the Christians in the
Eastern Church (in the area near Palestine) above three hundred years after our Savior’s
death.
“A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath,” p. 77
The Festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always a human ordinance, and it was
far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far
from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of Sabbath to
Sunday.
Augustus Neander, “The History of the Christian Religion and Church,” 1843, p. 186
Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the Sabbath
observance of that day (Sunday) is known to have been ordained, is the edict of
Constantine, 321 AD.
Roman Catholic Confessions
Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 4 pg 153
“The Church…after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the third commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day.”
“But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom, even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the Bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away – like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.” The Faith of Millions
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. “The Day of the Lord” (dies Dominica) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power. The day of resurrection, the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, came on the first day of the week. So this would be the new Sabbath. People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.” Sentinel, Pastor’s page, Saint Catherine Catholic Church, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995
“If Protestants would follow the Bible, they would worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church.” Albert Smith, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replying for the Cardinal, in a letter dated February 10, 1920.
Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About (1927), p. 136.
Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday…. Now the Church … instituted, by God’s authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday.
“The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church.” Monsignor Louis Segur, ‘Plain Talk about the Protestantism of Today’, p. 213.
What Important Question Does the Papacy Ask Protestants?
Protestants have repeatedly asked the papacy, “”How could you dare to change God’s law?”" But the question posed to Protestants by the Catholic church is even more penetrating.
Here it is officially: “”You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead?
This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer. You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded.
The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered.”" *Library of Christian Doctrine: Why Don’t You Keep Holy the Sabbath-Day? (London: Burns and Oates, Ltd.), pp. 3, 4.
”I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ The Catholic Church says, No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the Holy Catholic Church.” Priest Thomas Enright, C.S.S.R., February 18, 1884, Printed in the American Sentinel, a New York Roman Catholic journal in June 1893, p. 173.
T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18,1884.
“There is but one church on the face of the earth which has the power, or claims power, to make laws binding on the conscience, binding before God, binding under penalty of hell-fire. For instance, the institution of Sunday. What right has any other church to keep this day? You answer by virtue of the third commandment (the papacy did away with the 2nd regarding the worship of graven images, and called the 4th the 3rd), which says ‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.’ But Sunday is not the Sabbath. Any schoolboy knows that Sunday is the first day of the week. I have repeatedly offered one thousand dollars to anyone who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the first day of the week.” – T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture delivered in 1893.
”Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.” C. F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons, in answer to a letter regarding the change of the Sabbath, November 11, 1895.
“Tradition, not Scripture, is the rock on which the church of Jesus Christ is built.” Adrien Nampon, Catholic Doctrine as Defined by the Council of Trent, p. 157
“The Pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine law”. The pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts a vicegerent of God upon earth” Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca, art. Papa, II, Vol. VI, p. 29.
Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
“The leader of the Catholic church is defined by the faith as the Vicar of Jesus Christ (and is accepted as such by believers). The Pope is considered the man on earth who “takes the place” of the Second Person of the omnipotent God of the Trinity.” John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 3, 1994
“…pastoral intuition suggested to the Church the christianization of the notion of Sunday as “the day of the sun”, which was the Roman name for the day and which is retained in some modern languages.(29) This was in order to draw the faithful away from the seduction of cults which worshipped the sun, and to direct the celebration of the day to Christ, humanity’s true “sun”.” John Paul II, Dies Domini, 27. The day of Christ-Light, 1998 (Prominent protestant leaders agree with this statement – See above for a statement by Dr. E. T. Hiscox, author of the ‘Baptist Manual’)
“The Sun was a foremost god with heathen-dom…The sun has worshippers at this hour in Persia and other lands…. There is, in truth, something royal, kingly about the sun, making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence the church in these countries would seem to have said, to ‘Keep that old pagan name [Sunday]. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.’ And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus.” William Gildea, Doctor of Divinity, The Catholic World, March, 1894, p. 809
“The retention of the old pagan name of Dies Solis, for Sunday is, in a great measure, owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects – pagan and Christian alike – as the ‘venerable’ day of the sun.”" Arthur P. Stanley, History of the Eastern Church, p. 184
“When St. Paul repudiated the works of the law, he was not thinking of the Ten Commandments, which are as unchangeable as God Himself is, which God could not change and still remain the infinitely holy God.”-Our Sunday Visitor, Oct. 7, I951.
“Question: How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holydays?
Answer: By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church.” Henry Tuberville, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine (1833 approbation), p.58 (Same statement in Manual of Christian Doctrine, ed. by Daniel Ferris [1916 ed.], p.67)
“Sunday is a Catholic institution, and… can be defended only on Catholic principles…. From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.” Catholic Press, Aug. 25, 1900
“The Sabbath was Saturday, not Sunday. The Church altered the observance of the Sabbath to the observance of Sunday. Protestants must be rather puzzled by the keeping of Sunday when God distinctly said, ‘Keep holy the Sabbath Day.’ The word Sunday does not come anywhere in the Bible, so, without knowing it they are obeying the authority of the Catholic Church.” Canon Cafferata, The Catechism Explained, p. 89.
”Reason and sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.” John Cardinal Gibbons, The Catholic Mirror, December 23, 1893.
James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers, 88th ed., pp. 89.
But 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.
Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed., p. 174.
Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her – she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural
authority.
John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies (1
936), vol. 1, P. 51.
Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the New Law, that He Himself has explicitly substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days.
James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore (1877-1921), in a signed letter.
Is Saturday the seventh day according to the Bible and the Ten Commandments? I answer yes. Is Sunday the first day of the week and did the Church change the seventh day – Saturday – for Sunday, the first day? I answer yes. Did Christ change the day? I answer no!
Faithfully yours, J. Card. Gibbons
The Catholic Mirror, official publication of James Cardinal Gibbons, Sept. 23, 1893.
The Catholic Church, . . . by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.
Catholic Virginian Oct. 3, 1947, p. 9, art. “To Tell You the Truth.”
For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the [Roman Catholic] church outside the Bible.
Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R., The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957), p. 50.
Question: Which is the Sabbath day?
Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”
Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975), Chicago,
Illinois.
Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts:
1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man.
2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws.” It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible.
Protestant Confessions
Protestant theologians and preachers from a wide spectrum of denominations have been quite candid in admitting that there is no Biblical authority for observing Sunday as a Sabbath.
American Congregationalist:
“The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament.” Dr. Layman Abbot, in the Christian Union, June 26, 1890.
Anglican/Episcopal
Isaac Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism, vol. 1, pp.334, 336.
And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day…. The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it.
Canon Eyton, The Ten Commandments, pp. 52, 63, 65.
There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday…. into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters…. The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday.
Episcopalian:
“We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church of Christ.” Bishop Symour, Why We keep Sunday.
Baptist
Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, a paper read before a New York ministers’ conference, Nov. 13, 1893, reported in New York Examiner, Nov.16, 1893.
“There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not on Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of truimph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the Seventh to the First day of the week, with all its duties, privileges and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament – absolutely not. There is no scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the Seventh to the First day of the week… “I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in this aspect of it, is the gravest and most perlexing question connected with Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people; and the only reason that it is not a more disturbing element in Christian thought and in religious discussion is because the Christian world has settled down content on the conviction that some how a transference has taken place at the beginning of Christian history. “To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years’ discussion with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false glosses [of Jewish traditions], never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated. Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that He had said unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instruction those founded, discuss or approach the subject.
“Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of a sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to protestantism!” Dr. Edward Hiscox, author of The Baptist Manual. From a photostatic copy of a notarized statement by Dr. Hiscox.
William Owen Carver, The Lord’s Day in Our Day, p. 49.
“There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath to the Christian first-day observance.” -WILLIAM OWEN CARVER, “The Lord’s Day in Our Day,” page 49.
“There is nothing in Scripture that requires us to keep Sunday rather than Saturday as a holy day.” Harold Lindsell (editor), Christianity Today, Nov. 5, 1976
Brethren:
“With the views of the law and the Sabbath we once held … and which are still held by perhaps the great majority of the most earnest Christians, we confess that we could not answer Adventists. What is more, neither before or since have I heard or read what would conclusively answer an Adventist in his Scriptural contention that the Seventh day is the Sabbath (Ex. 20:10). It is not ‘one day in seven’ as some put it, but ‘the seventh day according to the commandment.’ ” Words of Truth and Grace, p. 281.
CHURCH OF CHRIST:
“Finally, we have the testimony of Christ on this subject. In Mark 2:27, he says: ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’ From this passage it is evident that the Sabbath was made not merely for the Israelites, as Paley and Hengstenberg would have us believe, but for ….. that is, for the race. Hence we conclude that the Sabbath was sanctified from the beginning, and that it was given to Adam, even in Eden, as one of those primeval institutions that God ordained for the happiness of all men. “-Robert Milligan, Schetne of Redempiten, (St. Louis, The Fethany Press, 1962), p.165.
“But we do not find any direct command from God, or instruction from the risen Christ, or admonition from the early apostles, that the first day is to be substituted for the seventh day Sabbath.” “Let us be clear on this point. Though to the Christian ‘that day, the first day of the week’ is the most memorable of all days … there is no command or warrant in the New Testament for observing it as a holy day.” “The Roman Church selected the first day of the week in honour of the resurrection of Christ. …” Bible Standard, May, 1916, Auckland, New Zealand.
“… If the fourth command is binding upon us Gentiles by all means keep it. But let those who demand a strict observance of the Sabbath remember that the seventh day is the ONLY sabbath day commanded, and God never repealed that command. If you would keep the Sabbath, keep it; but Sunday is not the Sabbath. The argument of the ‘Seventh-day Adventists’ is on one point unassailable. It is the Seventh day not the first day that the command refers to.” G. Alridge, Editor, The Bible Standard, April, 1916.
“There is no direct Scriptural authority for designating the first day the Lord’s day.”-DR. D. H. LUCAS, Christian Oracle, Jan. 23, 1890.
“It has reversed the fourth commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God’s Word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday.” DR. N. SUMMERBELL, “History of the Christian Church,” Third Edition, page 4I5.
“To command…men…to observe…the Lord’s day…is contrary to the gospel.” – “Memoirs of Alexander Campbell,” Vol. 1, page 528.
“It is clearly proved that the pastors of the churches have struck out one of God’s ten words, which, not only in the Old Testament, but in all revelation, are the most emphatically regarded as the synopsis of all religion and morality.”-ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, “Debate With Purcell,” page 214.
“I do not believe that the Lord’s day came in the room of the Jewish Sabbath, or that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day, for this plain reason, where there is no testimony, there can be no faith. Now there is no testimony in all the oracles of heaven that the Sabbath was changed, or that the Lord’s day came in the room of it.”-ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Washington Reporter, Oct. 8, 1821.
Church of England:
No warrant from scripture for the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday “Neither did he (Jesus), or his disciples, ordain another Sabbath in the place of this, as if they had intended only to shift the day; and to transfer this honor to some other time. Their doctrine and their practise are directly contrary, to so new a fancy. It is true, that in some tract of time, the Church in honor of his resurrection, did set apart that day on the which he rose, to holy exercises: but this upon their own authority, and without warrant from above, that we can hear of; more then the generall warrant which God gave his Church, that all things in it be done decently, and in comely order.” Dr. Peter Heylyn of the Church of England, quoted in History of the Sabbath, Pt 2, Ch.2, p7
“Many people think that Sunday is the Sabbath. But neither in the New Testament nor in the early church is there anything to suggest that we have any right to transfer the observance of the seventh day of the week to the first. The Sabbath was and is Saturday and not Sunday, and if it were binding on us then we should observe it on that day, and on no other.” Rev. Lionel Beere, All-Saints Church, Ponsonby, N.Z. in Church and People, Sept. 1, 1947.
“Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. …! That is Saturday.” P. Carrington, Archbishop of Quebec, Oct. 27, 1949.
“The observance of the first instead of the seventh day rests on the testimony of the church, and the church alone.” Hobart Church News.
“Where are we told in Scripture that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the Seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day. The reason why we keep the first day holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many things, not because the Bible, but because the Church, has enjoined them.” Rev. Isaac Williams, Ser. on Catechism, p. 334.
“The seventh day, the commandment says, is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. No kind of arithmetic, no kind of almanac, can make seven equal one, nor the seventh mean the first, nor Saturday mean Sunday. … The fact is that we are all Sabbath breakers, every one of us.” Rev. Geo. Hodges.
“Not any ecclesiastical writer of the first three centuries attributed the origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or to His apostles.”-SIR WILLIAM DOMVILLE, “Examination of the Six Texts,” pages 6, 7. (Supplement).
“Is there any command in the New Testament to change the day of weekly rest from Saturday to Sunday? None.”-”Manual of Christian Doctrine,” page 127.
“The Lord’s day did not succeed in the place of the Sabbath….The Lord’s day was merely an ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment, because for almost three hundred years together they kept that day which was in that commandment…The primitive Christians did all manner of works upon the Lord’s day, even in times of persecution, when they are the strictest observers of all the divine commandments; but in this they knew there was none.”-BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR, “Ductor Dubitantium,” Part I, Book II, Chap. 2, Rule 6. Sec. 51, 59.
“The Puritan idea was historically unhappy. It made Sunday into the Sabbath day. Even educated people call Sunday the Sabbath. Even clergymen do.”
“But, unless my reckoning is all wrong, the Sabbath day lasts twenty-four hours from six o’clock on Friday evening. It gives over, therefore, before we come to Sunday. If you suggest to a Sabbatarian that he ought to observe the Sabbath on the proper day, you arouse no enthusiasm. He at once replies that the day, not the principle, has been changed. But changed by whom? There is no injunction in the whole of the New Testament to Christians to change the Sabbath into Sunday.’ – D. MORSEBOYCOTT, Daily Herald, London, Feb. 26, 1931.
“The Christian church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious transference of the one day to the other.”- F.W. FARRAR, D.D., “The Voice From Sinai,” page 167.
“Take which you will, either of the Fathers or the moderns, and we shall find no Lord’s day instituted by any apostolical mandate; no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week.”-PETER HEYLYN, “History of the Sabbath,” page 410.
“Merely to denounce the tendency to secularise Sunday is as futile as it is easy. What we want is to find some principle, to which as Christians we can appeal, and on which we can base both our conduct and our advice. We turn to the New Testament, and we look in vain for any authoritative rule. There is no recorded word of Christ, there is no word of any of the apostles, which tells how we should keep Sunday, or indeed that we should keep it at all. It is disappointing, for it would make our task much easier if we could point to a definite rule, which left us no option but simple obedience or disobedience. . . . There is no rule for Sunday observance, either in Scripture or history.”-DR. STEPHEN, Bishop of Newcastle, N.S.W., in an address reported in the Newcastle Morning Herald, May 14, 1924.
Congregational:
“The Christian Sabbath’ [Sunday] is not in the Scripture, and was not by the primitive [early Christian] church called the Sabbath.” Timothy Dwight, Theology, sermon 107, 1818 ed., Vol. IV, p49 Note: Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) was president of Yale University from 1795-1817.
“It is quite clear that, however rigidly or devoutly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath … The Sabbath was founded on a specific divine command. We can plead no such command for the obligation to observe Sunday … There is not a single sentence in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanctity of Sunday.” Dr. Dale, The Ten Commandments, pp. 106, 107.
“It must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day.” Buck’s Theological Dictionary page 403.
“There is no command in the Bible requiring us to observe the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath.”-ORIN FOWLER, A.M., “Mode and Subjects of Baptism.”
“The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament.”-DR. LYMAN ABBOTT, Christian Union, Jan. 18, 1882.
Timothy Dwight, Theology: Explained and Defended (1823), Ser. 107, vol. 3,
p. 258.
. . . the Christian Sabbath [Sunday] is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the primitive Church called the Sabbath.
Christian Church:
“It has reversed the fourth commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God’s Word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday.” – Dr. N. Summerbell, History of the Christian Church, Third Edition, p. 415
“There is no direct scriptural authority for designating the first day the Lord’s day.” – Dr. D. H. Lucas, Christian Oracle, Jan. 23, 1890.
“The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just preceeding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of the Sabbath. There never was any change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change.” First-Day Observance, pp. 17, 19.
Disciples of Christ:
“There is no direct Scriptural authority for designating the first day ‘the Lord’s Day.’” Dr D.H. Lucas, Christian Oracle, January, 1890
Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824,vol. 1. no. 7, p. 164.
“But,” say some, “it was changed from the seventh to the first day.” Where? when? and by whom? No man can tell. No; it never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation was to be gone through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed! It is all old wives’ fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio – I think his name is Doctor Antichrist.
Episcopal:
Bible commandment says the seventh day “The Bible commandment says on the seventh-day thou shalt rest. That is Saturday. Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday.” Phillip Carrington, quoted in Toronto Daily Star, Oct 26, 1949 [Carrington (1892-), Anglican archbishop of Quebec, spoke the avove in a message on this subject delivered to a packed assembly of clergymen. It was widely reported at the time in the news media].
Lutheran
The Sunday Problem, a study book of the United Lutheran Church (1923), p. 36.
We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish Sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both.
Augsburg Confession of Faith art. 28; written by Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, 1530; as published in The Book of Concord of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Henry Jacobs, ed. (1 91 1), p. 63.
They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day, a shaving been changed into the Lord’s Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!
Dr. Augustus Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church Henry John Rose, tr. (1843), p. 186.
The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.
John Theodore Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday, pp. 15, 16.
But they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the seventh day had to be kept by the children of Israel…. These churches err in their teaching, for Scripture has in no way ordained the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect.
“The observance of the Lord’s Day (Sunday) is founded not on any command of God, but on the authority of the Church.” Augsburg Confession of Faith.
“They [Roman Catholics] allege the change of the Sabbath into the Lord’s day, as it seemeth, to the Decalogue [the ten commandments]; and they have no example more in their mouths than they change of the Sabbath. They will needs have the Church’s power to be very great, because it hath dispensed with the precept of the Decalogue.” The Augsburg Confession, 1530 A.D. (Lutheran), part 2, art 7, in Philip Schaff, the Creeds of Christiandom, 4th Edition, vol 3, p64 [this important statement was made by the Lutherans and written by Melanchthon, only thirteen years after Luther nailed his theses to the door and began the Reformation].
“For up to this day mankind has absolutely trifled with the original and most special revelation of the Holy God, the ten words written upon the tables of the Law from Sinai.”-”Crown Theological Library,” page I78.
“The Christians in the ancient church very soon distinguished the first day of the week, Sunday; however, not as a Sabbath, but as an assembly day of the church, to study the Word of God together, and to celebrate the ordinances one with another: without a shadow of doubt, this took place as early as the first part of the second century.”-Bishop GRIMELUND, “History of the Sabbath,” page 60.
“I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of Ten Commandments…Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also.”-MARTIN LUTHER, Spiritual Antichrist,” pages 71, 72.
Lutheran Free Church:
“For when there could not be produced one solitary place in the Holy Scriptures which testified that either the Lord Himself or the apostles had ordered such a transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday, then it was not easy to answer the question: Who has transferred the Sabbath, and who has the right to do it?” George Sverdrup, ‘A New Day.’
Methodist
Harris Franklin Rall, Christian Advocate, July 2, 1942, p.26.
Take the matter of Sunday. There are indications in the New Testament as to how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day of worship, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or to transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day.
John Wesley, The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., John Emory, ed. (New York: Eaton & Mains), Sermon 25,vol. 1, p. 221.
But, the moral law contained in the ten commandments, and enforced by the prophets, he [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of his coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken…. Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other.
Dwight L. Moody, D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting (Fleming H. Revell Co.: New York), pp. 47,48.
The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word “remember,” showing that the Sabbath already existed when God Wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?
Clovis G. Chappell- Ten Rules For Living- ‘The reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on no positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from the seventh day to the first.”
Moody Bible Institute: “Sabbath was before Sinai”
“I honestly believe that this commandment [the Sabbath commandment] is just as binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated [abolilshed], but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’ [mark 2:27]. It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was – in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age. (Moody was also a Methodist)
“This Fourth is not a commandment for one place, or one time, but for all places and times.”
“No Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.”-”Methodist Church Discipline,” (I904), page 23.
“The Sabbath was made for MAN; not for the Hebrews, but for all men.”-E.O. HAVEN, “Pillars of Truth,” page 88.
“The reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on no positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from the seventh day to the first. The early Christians began to worship on the first day of the week because Jesus rose from the dead on that day. By and by, this day of worship was made also a day of rest, a legal holiday. This took place in the year 321.
“The reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on no positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from the seventh day to the first… Our Christian Sabbath, therefore, is not a matter of positive command. It is a gift of the church… “-CLOVIS G. CHAPPELL, “Ten Rules for Living,” page 61.
“Sabbath in the Hebrew language signifies rest, and is the seventh day of the week… and it must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day.” Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary, “Sabbath”
“In the days of very long ago the people of the world began to give names to everything, and they turned the sounds of the lips into words, so that the lips could speak a thought. In those days the people worshipped the sun because many words were made to tell of many thoughts about many things. The people became Christians and were ruled by an emperor whose name was Constantine. This emperor made Sunday the Christian Sabbath, because of the blessing of light and heat which came from the sun. So our Sunday is a sun-day, isn’t it?”-Sunday School Advocate, Dec. 31, 1921.
“The moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken… Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other.”-JOHN WESLEY, “Sermons on Several Occasions,” Vol. I, Sermon XXV.
“It is true that there is no positive command for infant baptism. Nor is there any for the keeping of the first day of the week. Many believe that Christ changed the Sabbath. But, from His own words, we see that He came for no such purpose. Those who believe that Jesus changed the Sabbath base it only on a supposition.” Amos Binney, ‘Theological Compendium’, p. 180-181
“The Sabbath instituted in the beginning, and confirmed again and again by Moses and the prophets, has never been abrogated. A part of the moral law, not a jot or a tittle of its sanctity has been taken away.” Bishops Pastoral.
D.L. Moody, at San Francisco, Jan. 1st, 1881.
PENTECOSTAL:
“‘Why do we worship on Sunday? Doesn’t the Bible teach us that Saturday should be the Lord’s Day?’…Apparently we will have to seek the answer from some other source than the New Testament.”-D5~~d A. Womack, “Is Sunday the Lord’s Day?” The Pentecostal Evangel, Aug. 9,1959, No.2361, p.3.
Presbyterian
T. C. Blake, D.D., Theology Condensed, pp.474, 475.
The Sabbath is a part of the decalogue – the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution . . .. Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand . . .. The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath.
“Sunday being the first day of which the Gentiles solemnly adored that planet and called it Sunday, partly from its influence on that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body (as they conceived it) the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear carelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice that might be otherwise taken against the gospel” T.M. Morer, Dialogues on the Lord’s Day
“The Christian Sabbath (Sunday) is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the primitive church called the Sabbath.” Dwight’s Theology, Vol. 14, p. 401.
“A further argument for the perpetuity of the Sabbath we have in Matthew 24:20, Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter neither on the Sabbath day. But the final destruction of Jerusalem was after the Christian dispensation was fully set up (AD 70). Yet it is plainly implied in these words of the Lord that even then Christians were bound to strict observation of the Sabbath.” Works of Jonathon Edwards, (Presby.) Vol. 4, p. 621.
“We must not imagine that the coming of Christ has freed us from the authority of the law; for it is the eternal rule of a devout and holy life, and must therefore be as unchangeable as the justice of God, which it embraced, is constant and uniform.” JOHN CALVIN, “Commentary on a Harmony of the Gospels,” Vol. 1, page 277.
“God instituted the Sabbath at the creation of man, setting apart the seventh day for the purpose, and imposed its observance as a universal and perpetual moral obligation upon the race.” American Presbyterian Board of Publication, Tract No. 175.
“The observance of the seventh-day Sabbath did not cease till it was abolished after the [Roman] empire became Christian,” American Presbyterian Board of Publication, Tract No. 118.
“The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard to the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Christ in the gospel in any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.” “Westminster Confession of Faith,” Chap. 19, Art. 5.
“Some have tried to build the observance of Sunday upon Apostolic command, whereas the Apostles gave no command on the matter at all…. The truth is, so soon as we appeal to the litera scripta [literal writing] of the Bible, the Sabbatarians have the best of the argument.” The Christian at Work, April 19, 1883, and Jan. 1884
Protestant Episcopal:
“The day is now changed from the seventh to the first day… but as we meet with no Scriptural direction for the change, we may conclude it was done by the authority of the church.” ‘Explanation of Catechism’
Southern Baptist:
“The sacred name of the Seventh day is Sabbath. This fact is too clear to require argument [Exodus 20:10 quoted]… on this point the plain teaching of the Word has been admitted in all ages… Not once did the disciples apply the Sabbath law to the first day of the week, — that folly was left for a later age, nor did they pretend that the first day supplanted the seventh.” Joseph Hudson Taylor, ‘The Sabbatic Question’, p. 14-17, 41.
“The first four commandments set forth man’s obligations directly toward God…. But when we keep the first four commandments, we are likely to keep the other six. . . . The fourth commandment sets forth God’s claim on man’s time and thought…. The six days of labour and the rest on the Sabbath are to be maintained as a witness to God’s toil and rest in the creation. . . . No one of the ten words is of merely racial significance…. The Sabbath was established originally (long before Moses) in no special connection with the Hebrews, but as an institution for all mankind, in commemoration of God’s rest after the six days of creation. It was designed for all the descendants of Adam.”-Adult Quarterly, Southern Baptist Convention series, Aug. 15, 1937.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias:
“Sunday was a name given by the heathens to the first day of the week, because it was the day on which they worshipped the sun, …the seventh day was blessed and hallowed by God Himself, and …He requires His creatures to keep it holy to Him. This commandment is of universal and perpetual obligation…The Creator ‘blessed the seventh day’-declared it to be a day above all days, a day- on which His favour should assuredly rest. …So long, then, as man exists, and the world around him endures,’ does the law of the early Sabbath remain. It cannot be set aside so long as its foundations last…. It is not the Jewish Sabbath, properly so-called, which is ordained in the fourth commandment. In the whole of that injunction there is no Jewish element, any more than there is in the third commandment, or the sixth.” Eadie’s Biblical Cyclopedia, 1872 Edition, page 561.
“Thus we learn from Socrates (H.E., vi.c.8) that in his time public worship was held in the churches of Constantinople on both days…. The view that the Christian’s Lord’s day or Sunday is but the Christian Sabbath deliberately transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week does not indeed find categorical expression till a much later period…. The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in A.D. 321, enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday (venerabili die Solis), with an exception in favour of those engaged in agricultural labour…The Council of Laodicea (363) … forbids Christians from judaizing and resting on the Sabbath day, preferring the Lord’s day, and so far as possible resting as Christians.”-Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1899 Edition, Vol. XXIII, page 654.
“Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the sabbatical observance of Sunday is known to have been ordained is the sabbatical edict of Constantine, A.D. 32I.” Chambers’ Encyclopedia, Article “Sunday.”
“It must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day.”-M’CLINTOCK AND STRONG, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. IX, page 196.
“Sunday (Dies Solis, of the Roman calendar, ‘day of the sun,’ because dedicated to the sun), the first day of the week, was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship. The ’sun’ of Latin adoration they interpreted as the ‘Sun of Righteousness.’ . . . No regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor, indeed, is its observance even enjoined.”-SCHAFF HERZOG, Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1891 Edition, Vol. IV, Art. “Sunday.”
“As the Sabbath is of divine institution, so it is to be kept holy unto the Lord. Numerous have been the days appointed by men for religious services; but these are not binding, because of human institution. Not so the Sabbath. Hence the fourth commandment is ushered in with a peculiar emphasis-’Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.’…The abolition of it would be unreasonable.”-’CHARLES BUCK, “A Theological Dictionary,” 1830 Edition, page 537.
“But although it [Sunday] was in the primitive times indifferently called the Lord’s day, or Sunday, yet it was never denominated the Sabbath; a name constantly appropriate to Saturday, or the seventh day, both by sacred and ecclesiastical writers.”-Id., page 572.
“The notion of a formal substitution by apostolic authority of the Lord’s day [meaning Sunday] for the Jewish Sabbath [or the first for the seventh day]…and the transference to it, perhaps in a spiritualized form, of the sabbatical obligation established by the promulgation of the fourth commandment, has no basis whatever, either in Holy Scripture or in Christian antiquity.” – SIR WILLIAM SMITH AND SAMUEL CHEETHAM, “A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities,” Vol. 11, page 182, Article “Sabbath.”
“This long series of temporal enactments (in considering which we have, for the sake of exhibiting them as a whole, anticipated chronological order) must have told very powerfully upon the conception of the Lord’s day in the church itself, not only tending to formalize its celebration, but to invest it in great degree with the character of a sabbath. Still, however, there was no connexion of its observance with the obligation of the fourth commandment, and therefore no application to it either of the laws of the Jewish sabbath, or of our Lord’s teaching on the subject, as modifying and spiritualizing these laws.” -Id., page 1047
Miscellaneous:
“The first precept in the Bible is that of sanctifying the seventh day: ‘God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.’ Genesis 2:3. This precept was confirmed by God in the Ten Commandments: ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep It holy. …The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.’ Exodus 20: 8, 10. On the other hand, Christ declares that He is not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. (Matthew 5: 17.) He Himself observed the Sabbath: ‘And, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.’ Luke 4: r6. His disciples likewise observed it after His death: ‘They . . . rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.’ Luke 23: 56. Yet with all this weight of Scripture authority for keeping the Sabbath or seventh day holy, Protestants of all denominations make this a profane day and transfer the obligation of it to the first day of the week, or the Sunday. Now what authority have they for doing this? None at all but the unwritten word, or tradition of the Catholic Church, which declares that the apostle made the change in honour of Christ’s resurrection, and the descent of the Holy Ghost on that day of the week.”-JOHN MILNER, “The End of Religious Controversy,” page 71.
“Sabbath means, of course, Saturday, the seventh day of the week, but the early Christians changed the observance to Sunday, to honour the day on which Christ arose from the dead.”-FULTON OURSLER. Cosmopolitan, Sept. 1951, pages 34, 35.
“I do not pretend to be even an amateur scholar of the Scriptures. I read the Decalogue merely as an average man searching for guidance, and in the immortal ‘Ten Words’ I find a blueprint for the good life.”-Id., page 33.
“Most certainly the Commandments are needed today, perhaps more than ever before. Their divine message confronts us with a profound moral challenge in an epidemic of evil; a unifying message acceptable alike to Jew, Moslem, and Christian. Who, reading the Ten in the light of history and of current events, can doubt their identity with the eternal law of nature?”-Id., page 124.
“The Sabbath is commanded to be kept on the seventh day. It could not be kept on any other day. To observe the first day of the week or the fourth is not to observe the Sabbath. . . . It was the last day of the week, after six days of work, that was to be kept holy. The observance of no other day would fulfil the law.”-H. J. FLOWERS, B.A., B.D., “The Permanent Value of the Ten Commandments,” page 13.
“The evaluation of Sunday, the traditionally accepted day of the resurrection of Christ, has varied greatly throughout the centuries of the Christian Era. From time to time it has been confused with the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath. English speaking peoples have been the most consistent in perpetuating the erroneous assumption that the obligation of the fourth commandment has passed over to Sunday. In popular speech, Sunday is frequently, but erroneously, spoken of as the Sabbath.”-F. M. SETZLER, Head Curator, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institute, from a letter dated Sept. 1, 1949.
“He that observes the Sabbath aright holds the history of that which it celebrates to be authentic, and therefore believes in the creation of the first man; in the creation of a fair abode for man in the space of six days; in the primeval and absolute creation of the heavens and the earth, and, as a necessary antecedent to all this, in the Creator, who at the close of His latest creative effort, rested on the seventh day. The Sabbath thus becomes a sign by which the believers in a historical revelation are distinguished from those who have allowed these great facts to fade from their remembrance.’ – JAMES G. MURPHY, “Commentary on the Book of Exodus,” comments on Exodus 20: 8-11.
2006; EMAIL RESPONSES TO SABBATH QUESTION
“Are 7th day Adventists correct in stating that the Roman Catholic Church changed the sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?”
Dear Levi,
In regard to your question concerning the Sabbath, it never has been
changed. Saturday is the Sabbath and was intended for the Jew. Paul makes
it clear in Colossians 2:16 that we should not allow anyone to judge us in
the Sabbath days. In other words, he is saying that the Christian
recognizes the Lord’s day as the day He was resurrected, which is Sunday.
The Sabbath was never intended for the Christian, it was intended for the
Jew. Colossians 2:16 says, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in
drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days.” In this scripture it is made clear that no man has the right to
judge another. At Grace Cathedral we worship the Lord on the first day of
the week which is, of course, Sunday.
Yours depending on Jesus,
Reverend Ernest Angley
Greetings from the Crystal Cathedral.
Thank you for your question about the Sabbath Day. We honor you for
taking the Bible seriously and the guidance it gives to us. One way to
see the Bible is as a guide book into living abundantly. When God tells
us to “keep the Sabbath day holy” we need to take that seriously; not
only to honor God, but also to care for ourselves. Now, the question of
how we apply that command:
First, we do take very seriously the command to keep the Sabbath Day
holy. It is noted frequently throughout the Old and New Testaments.
Second, how to we interpret the command to “keep the Sabbath Day holy?”
A primary meaning of Sabbath is “stopping.” A primary meaning of holy is
“set aside from the others.” Therefore, keeping the Sabbath Day holy
means to “maintain a stopping day that is set aside from the others.”
One day in seven is to be kept different from the other six in that it
is to be a day in which we stop from the usual. The Bible helps us
understand better what this means when it tells us to work six days and
stop from that work on the seventh (Exodus 20). It also tells us to stop
our routine one day in seven in order to rest and renew our
relationships with God, ourselves, others, and nature. In summary, we
believe that it is important to set aside one day in seven from work for
rest and renewal.
Third, what day should this be – Saturday or Sunday? Throughout the Old
Testament, for many religions, and in some Christian churches people
observe the Sabbath from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday. This
interprets the command to work six days and “stop” on the seventh day as
meaning to work on Sunday through Friday and stop on Saturday. After
Jesus arose from the dead on a Sunday morning, most Christian churches
decided to honor that “Resurrection Day” as their “stopping day.” This
interprets the command as to work for six days each week (observe a
usual routine), but to stop on the remaining day.
We follow the second interpretation. We believe it is important to stop
one day out of seven each week. We have found that it makes most sense
for our congregation that Sunday become that “stopping day.”
I hope this answers your question!
“Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the
Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.”
2 John 1:3
Victoria
info@crystalcathedral.org
Saturday is still a sabbath day – a day of rest. The early Christian
Church chose to worship on the first day of the week because that
represents the day Christ rose from the dead and when the Holy Spirit
appeared to the disciples gathered in the upper room.
Miriam L. Woolbert
ELCA Communication Services
Dear Levi,
On behalf of John Hagee Ministries, we appreciate the support and confidence you have in Pastor Hagee’s teachings. Hopefully, our response, along with your own prayerful study of God’s word will give you the wisdom and direction you are seeking to strive to please Him with your living. We understand there are conflicting views by New Testament Bible Scholars concerning the Sabbath, the one-day a week we choose to honor God. We thank you for sharing your views concerning the Sabbath. Pastor Hagee teaches the following:
JEWISH SABBATH
Is the Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday? The Sabbath is the 7th day. The Jews celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday and do to this day. In the early church the Christians desired to be considered separately from the Jews, so they began to worship the Lord on “the first day of the week”, which is Sunday. See I Cor. 16:2. After all, you must remember what the Bible says, that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, which simply means that the Sabbath was given to men to rest one day out of seven and we do that on Sunday.
Jesus kept the Sabbath Himself (Luke 4:16) and commanded the Jews of His day to do so also (Matt. 5:18, 19), but He condemned the keeping of the Sabbath Day merely as an external act of obedience to law (Matt. 12:1-13; John 5:1-18). Many Christians feel that God expects them to observe the Sabbath, because the Sabbath originated at the creation (prior to the giving of the Law). Also, because it is part of the Ten Commandments, something they believe is morally binding upon all people for all time. However, Christians have historically observed the Sabbath day on Sunday, the first day of the week, to differentiate themselves from Jews who are still under the Law and celebrate the Sabbath on the last day of the week, our Saturday. They note that Christ arose on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1) and that the New Testament church regularly worshipped on Sunday (Acts. 20:7, I Cor. 16:2). The day on which Jesus arose was called the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10).
In the present dispensation of grace Sunday perpetuates the truth that one-seventh of one’s time belongs to God.
The Sabbath or Lord’s Day should be honored to please our Father, not to earn our salvation. It is a love offering to show God we are thankful for His Kingdom. When done in the right spirit it is about relationship and attitude, not legalism.
We suggest that you prayerfully read Matthew 22:35-40. If we keep the commandments of God, “loving Him with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind”, and loving our neighbors as ourselves, we have the fullest proof that we have the saving knowledge of God and Christ.
The Lord bless you with peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Sincerely,
Edward Martinez
John Hagee Ministries
Dear Levi,
Thank you for your email and for your interest in Joyce Meyer Ministries.
Regarding your questions about the Sabbath, Joyce asked us to share with you her belief that every day is holy unto the Lord. Romans 14:5-6a says, “One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike [sacred]. Let everyone be fully convinced (satisfied) in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.”
The Old Testament commanded resting the physical man while the New Testament stresses a spiritual rest. Hebrews 4:9-10 says, “So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God; for he who has once entered [God's] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own.”
We do know that God wants us to set aside one day a week for Him and for our minds, emotions, and bodies to rest. We believe that God will honor the day we set aside for rest, worship, and prayer just as He honors the financial tithe we give Him. God will help us to get more accomplished in six days than we do in seven, just as He helps us do more with 90 percent than we could do with 100 percent of our income.
We hope this answers your questions regarding the Sabbath. We encourage you to allow God’s peace to be your umpire in this and all such questions. Dave and Joyce appreciate you and send their love.
In His grace,
Joyce Meyer Ministries
Dear Levi,
Thank you for writing to Dr. Kennedy with your questions. As to a response to how to answer a Seventh Day Adventist, you may not want to go into such a debate. They are very convinced in their position, and we do not believe that there is any thing wrong with attending Church on Saturday or considering Saturday as their Sabbath Day.
However, if they insist on your believing and converting or you may not be saved, then we object.
I have included an article on the Sabbath Day by Dr. Kennedy that will address this issue and the claims of the Catholic Church.
Even the Catholic Church claims to have made such a change, so in that face (i.e., “the claim”) they are correct. But, the Bible makes it clear enough that this change took place from the beginning of the Church after the resurrection of Jesus.
The second article will give you the scriptures and answers to the Seventh Day challenges.
I hope this is helpful.
Rev. David Rice
Assistant to Dr. Kennedy
Pastoral Resource Department
Coral Ridge Ministries
5554 N. Federal Highway
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
Dear Levi,
Thank you for contacting us. Please accept our sincere apology for the delay in our response. We appreciate your question regarding the Sabbath. As we consider this topic it is important to remember that the Sabbath is not a day of the week but a day of rest. The word “Sabbath” means rest. When God set up the Sabbath, it was to be a day of rest. It was not until Mount Sinai and the giving of the Law that the Jews under Moses made the Sabbath on what we now know as Saturday. After the resurrection, the followers of Jesus continued to worship in the synagogues on Saturday and celebrate the resurrection on Sunday morning. When the Christians were forced to leave the synagogues between 70 and 90 A.D., they chose to continue their worship on Sunday. Scriptural warrant for giving special worship and honor to Christ on Sunday, the “Lord’s Day,” is found in Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, Revelation 1:10. This occurred much before the establishment of the Catholic Church. Below this message is an article which you may find to be of interest.
Sincerely, Mary L. Precup (kb)
Christian Guidance Department
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
littleguyintheeye@gmail.com
The problem the Jews had with Yahshua is He wasn’t doing it according to their ways. He wasn’t playing their religious games.
Along a similar line, Mishnah Shabbat chapter 14 and its corresponding Tosefta chapters state:”A. He who is concerned about his teeth may not suck vinegar though them (on the Sabbath).
B. But he dunks his bread in the normal way,
C. and if he is healed, he is healed.”Vinegar was a common healing remedy for a toothache. It was often applied to a sore tooth with the intention of helping the tooth to heal. This case describes the use of vinegar for a toothache on the Sabbath. Although it is prohibited to directly apply the vinegar to the tooth, a similar effect can be achieved by dipping bread into vinegar and eating the bread. Therefore if one encounters a healing remedy simply by living out one’s everyday life, it is acceptable on the Sabbath.
According to the Mishnah then, one can make an exception to the prohibition on healing if that healing either saves a life, or is incidental. Using these two criteria to examine the culpability of Jesus’ healing of the man with the withered hand, we find that from the Pharisaic viewpoint, Jesus is wrong on both accounts. Not only is his action conscious and deliberate, but the healing takes place when it is not necessary for saving life.
Getting back to the question at hand, it is obvious from the silence of the Pharisees that they disapprove of the act of healing, yet they choose not to enter into a discussion of halakha which would allow for the exact reason of their disapproval to be explained. In Mark, Jesus asks a rhetorical question which appears to desire a response in halakhaic terms yet does not root itself directly in the language of halakha. It is possible then that the Pharisees did not respond in halakhaic terms because they were not addressed in them, but I do not believe this to be the case. In the Gospel According to Matthew, the same story appears, yet in this case the language of Jesus’ case is rooted deeply in halakha.
“Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:11-12)
The Jesus of Matthew then, appeals to the worth of an individual in relation to the worth of an animal. Jesus gives an example of when the violation of the Sabbath law not to “carry [uproot the feet of] a domestic beast” (Tosefta Shabbat 15:1) can be safely overridden. According to Jesus, it can be overridden when there is great worth involved. The logic then unfolds that if a man’s only sheep is of great worth, certainly the man would be as well. The only problem with this argument is that it simply does not stand up. No such existing examples of Rabbinic literature offer a glimpse at a teaching similar to the one Jesus refers to. Talmud Shabbat, in fact, explicitly states that the reverse is actually expected. If a foal falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, it is expected that you leave the foal there until the Sabbath day ends.
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Another association of the eagles wing’s is the Word. Abiding under the shadow of His wings = abiding in the Word/Messiah.
The Olive tree of Yisrael was cut down/died. It was ‘born again’ through Messiah Yahshua.
What is the Thule Society?
Why does it say 322 at the bottom of the Skull & Bones symbol?
Lilith is the demon of the night…interesting.
Halloween is a festival that ‘binds’ believers and is celebrated in a repeated fashion each year on the same day. This is the same root word for mo’edim which is translated as the feasts/appointed times of YHWH. Here we see in Psalm 119 that believers are not to forgot the Torah even though we are bound on all sides by pagan feasts. We are to keep the Torah in the night and be lights to this fallen world.