Part 4

The Biblical Truth About Sunday--Keeping

Sunday, the first day of the week, is purported to be the CHRISTIAN DAY OF WORSHIP.  It is commonly taught and believed that Jesus Christ, and the original 12 apostles--and especially the apostle Paul--taught that Christians no longer have to observe the fourth commandment, to keep the seventh day Sabbath holy.  It is alleged that commandment-keeping, and particularly, the Sabbath commandment, was "nailed to the cross."  It is claimed that Sunday, the first-day of the week is now the "Christian Day of Worship."

Is this claim true?  Can such a teaching be proved from the inspired word of God, the  Holy Scriptures?     The answer to these questions is, no.  The truth is: These assumptions cannot be supported nor proved by the Scriptures! Are you willing to believe the word of God, or accept the teachings of men as more important than the Biblical teachings of God?

If you believe that Sunday worship is Christian, and that God's inspired Word, the Holy Scriptures teach Sunday-keeping, then search the Scriptures and you will not find:

1.     One text that says that the Sabbath was ever changed from the seventh to the first-day of the week.

2.     One text where the first-day of the week is ever called a holy day.

3.     One text where we are told to keep the first-day of the week.

4.     One text that says that Jesus ever kept the first-day.

5.     One text where the first-day is ever given any sacred title.

6.     One text that tells us to keep the first-day in honor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

7.     One text that affirms that any of the apostles ever kept the first-day as the Sabbath.

8.     One text from any apostolic writings that authorizes Sunday observance as the Sabbath of God.

9.     One text where it says it was customary for the Church to observe, or meet on, the first-day of the week.

10.  One text where we are told not to work on the first-day of the week.

11.  One text where any blessings are promised for observing Sunday.

12.  One text where any punishment is threatened for working on Sunday.

13.  One text that says the seventh-day is not now God's Sabbath day.

14.  One text where the apostles ever taught their converts to keep the first-day of the week as a Sabbath.

15.  One text that says the seventh-day Sabbath is abolished.

16.  One text where the first-day is ever called the Lord's Day.

17.  One text where the first-day was ever appointed to be kept as the Lord's Day.

18.  One text that says that the Father or the Son ever rested on the first-day of the week.

19.  One text that says that the first-day of the week was ever sanctified and hallowed as a day of rest.

20.  One text that says that Jesus, Paul or any other of the apostles taught anyone to observe the first-day of the week as the Sabbath.

21.  One text that calls the seventh-day the "Jewish Sabbath" or one text that calls Sunday the "Christian Sabbath".

22.  One text authorizing anyone to abrogate, abolish or set aside God's Holy Sabbathand observe any other day.

                        (Bible Sabbath Association, Fairview, Oklahoma)

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Part 5

The Biblical Truth About Sabbath-Keeping

Sunday, the first-day of the week, is almost universally observed by "professing Christians" today.  Yet, the Bible teaches that the only day that is holy to God is the seventh day of the week, called the Sabbath day in the Word of God.  The Roman calendar in use in the United States today, shows that seventh-day of the week is Saturday.  However, in Europe their calendars have been changed to show Sunday as the seventh day of the week. In spite of that change, the true Sabbath day, Saturday, is still the true Biblical Sabbath of God, which is holy to Him.  The Bible clearly commands: "REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY. SIX DAYS SHALL YOU LABOR AND DO ALL YOUR WORK: BUT, THE SEVENTH-DAY IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD YOUR GOD (Exodus 20:8-20). 

One of the most profound understandings revealed in the New Testament is that before Jesus Christ came in the flesh, He was the Lord God of the Old Testament.  As such, He was the CREATOR OF THE SABBATH DAY.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him” (John 1:1-3, AT). 

THIS MEANS THAT JESUS CREATED THE SABBATH.  When we read of the Old Testament and all the passages that pertain to the holy Sabbath of God, the One Who spoke all those words, was, in fact, the One who became Jesus Christ.  Therefore, when Jesus Christ said that He was Lord of the Sabbath, He said it with full authority because He created it for mankind, for their good (Mark 2:27-28). 

Here are some profound reasons why the Bible shows that we should be observing the Holy Sabbath of God, as the weekly day of worship to God, in our age, today:

1.     IN THE BEGINNING God created the Sabbath day (Gen. 2:3).

2.     God rested from His labors on the seventh-day (Gen. 2:2).

3.     The Sabbath was made for man, that is, for all mankind (Mark 2:27).

4.     God blessed the seventh-day because on it He rested from the work of His creation (Gen. 2:2; Ex. 20:11).

5.     God blessed the seventh-day and named it Sabbath (Ex. 20:10-11).

6.     God not only blessed the seventh-day, but He also sanctified it, that is made it holy by His presence and declaration (Gen. 2:3).

7.     There is no record in all the Scriptures that God ever removed His blessing from the Sabbath and placed it upon another day of the week.

8.     God's people kept the Sabbath before the Ten Commandments were given at Mount Sinai (Ex. 16:22-26).

9.     God ordained that man should keep the Sabbath (Ex. 20; Heb. 4:3-9).

10.  God forbade work on the Sabbath day even in harvest time (Ex. 34:21).

11.  God promised the Gentiles, those of all nations, a blessing if they kept the Sabbath (Isa. 56:2).

12.  God Promised to bless anyone who keeps the Sabbath (Isa. 56:2).

13.  Nowhere in the Bible do we find a command to observe any other day of the week as holy, as a substitute or replacement of the seventh-day Sabbath.

14.  God calls the Sabbath His holy day (Ex. 20:10; Lev. 23:2-3; Isa. 58:13; Mk. 2:28).

15.  The keeping of the Sabbaths, weekly and annually, is a sign between God and His people (Ex. 31:12-17).

16.  The Sabbath commandment, one of the longest of the Ten, is one of the commandments God gave to His people to observe that shows our love and obedience towards God (Ex. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-15; Mat. 22:37-40).

17.  Jesus kept and observed the Sabbath as a habit, which expressed His love and obedience toward God the Father (Lk. 4:16).

18.  Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, and as such the Sabbath is the TRUE LORD'S DAY (Mk.2:28; Isa. 58:13; Mat. 12:8).

19.  Jesus Christ recognized the Sabbath commandment as binding (Mat. 12:12; 5:17-18; Mk. 3:4).

20.  Jesus Christ kept His Father's commandments which included the seventh-day Sabbath (John 15:10; 8:29; 5:46-47).

21.  The Sabbath was observed at the time of the crucifixion (Lk. 23:56).

22.  Observance of the Sabbath was the practice years after the crucifixion (Acts 17:2).

23.  Paul recognized and observed the Sabbath during his ministry, about 45 A.D. (Acts 13:27).

24.  Paul taught the Gentiles on the Sabbath day, at their own request (Acts 13:42).

25.  Paul preached to an entire city on the Sabbath day (Acts 13:44).

26.  Paul attended a prayer meeting on the Sabbath day, when no synagogue was available (Acts 16:13).

27.  It was Paul's custom to preach Jesus Christ on the Sabbath day (Acts 17:2-3).

28.  At Corinth Paul preached every Sabbath for eighteen months (Acts 18:1-4.11).

29.  James recognized the seventh-day Sabbath many years after Christ's resurrection (Acts 15:21).

30.  The seventh-day Sabbath will be observed and kept during the time of the millennium (Isa. 66:23).

31.  The apostle Paul made it clear that the day of rest, the seventh day Sabbath was to be observed as a holy day (Heb. 4:4).

32.  The sanctity of the seventh-day was never changed by Jesus Christ, nor by the apostles, to the first day of the week, neither was it changed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ nor otherwise.  Christ rose "IN THE END OF THE SABBATH" and not on Sunday (Mat. 28:1-6).

33.  As part of our Christian requirements to receive eternal life that we must keep all of God’s Ten Commandments (Mat. 19:17; Rev. 22:14).

34.  The seventh-day Sabbath remains as the day of rest for God's people (Heb. 4:9).

35.  Jesus warned that in the end time, as the tribulation was beginning, that we should not flee on the Sabbath (Mat. 24:20).

36.The sign of God's people in the end time is that they would be keeping the commandments of God (Rev. 12:17; 14:12).

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Part 6

Catholic and Protestant Admissions About Sabbath/Sunday

Catholic Admissions 

The Roman Catholic Church understands that the Bible specifically sanctifies the seventh-day weekly Sabbath.  Furthermore, it also admits and boasts that the establishment of Sunday worship is based solely on the ecclesiastical authority of the Roman Catholic Church and not on the authority of the Scriptures.  Here are some famous statements made by the Catholic officials in regard to the seventh-day weekly Sabbath and the first day of the week--Sunday.

"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" (Cardinal Gibbon, Faith of Our Fathers, 1892, p. 111).

"Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles...From the beginning to the 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 [Sydney Australia], August 25, 1900).

"The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.  Perhaps at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin" (Church History, Neander--Rose's Translation, p. 186).

The Roman Catholic Church boasts that by its authority alone they changed the day of worship from the Sabbath to Sunday: “Question: Which is the Sabbath day?  Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.  Question: Why do we worship [on] Sunday instead of Saturday? Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.  Question: Have you a way of proving that the Church [Roman Catholic] has the power to institute festivals of precept?  Answer: had she no such power, she should not have done that in which all modern religions 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” (Doctrinal Catechism, p. 147 and The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, p. 50, 1927 edition).

In the Bible, God tells us that He and He alone is the highest authority in the universe and on earth.  The apostle Paul wrote that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11, KJV).   However, the Catholic Church states that it is above the Bible: “Sunday is the mark of authority. The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance [to Sunday] is proof of that fact” (Catholic Record London, Sept. 1, 1923).  Again this claim of such authority is made: “Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change [to Sunday] was her act….And that act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things” (H. F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons).

Since God never gave that authority to any man or any church, the Catholic Church has taken that authority to herself.  Not only does the Catholic Church claim such authority, they also boast that they have made the whole world bow to her authority.  Notice: “My brethren, look about you upon the various wrangling sects and denominations.  Show me one that claims or possesses the power to make laws binding on the conscience.  There’s but one on the face of the earth—the Catholic Church that has the power upon the conscience, binding upon God, binding upon the pain of hell fire.  Take, for instance, the day we celebrate—Sunday.  What right have the Protestant churches to observe that day?  None whatsoever.  You say it is to obey the commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’  But Sunday is not the Sabbath according to the Bible and the record of time.

“Everyone knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, while Saturday is the seventh day, and the Sabbath, the consecrated as a day of rest.  It is so recognized in all civilized nations. I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who will furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money.  If any person in this town will show any scripture for it, I will tomorrow evening publicly acknowledge it and thank him for it.  It was the Holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week.  And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the Council of Laodicea, A. D. 364 anathematized those who kept the Sabbath and urged all persons to labor on the seventh day under penalty of anathema.

“Which church does the whole civilized world obey?  Protestants call us every horrible name they can think of—antiChrist, the scarlet colored beast, Babylon, etc., and at the same time profess great reverence for the Bible, and yet by their solemn act of keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the power of the Catholic Church.  The Bible says: ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’  But the Catholic Church says, ‘No, keep the first day of the week’ and the whole world bows in obedience” (From a lecture by Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, one-time president of Redemption Father’s College in Kansas City, Missouri, as published in the Industrial American, Harlan, Iowa, December 19, 1889).

Protestant Admissions

The Protestant world also understands that the seventh-day weekly Sabbath is the only day of weekly observance commanded in Scriptures.  Yet they cling to the Sunday observance which the Catholic Church instituted solely on human authority.  As a result, the Protestants are following the authority of the Roman Catholic Church for Sunday worship, while they knowingly reject the seventh-day weekly Sabbath of God.  As the Catholic Church boasts, the Protestants bow to the authority of Rome, beginning with Martin Luther.

“Even such is the observance of the Lord’s day, of Easter, of Pentecost, and the like holy days, and rites.  For they that judge that, by the authority of the Church, the observing of Sunday instead of the Sabbath-day, was ordained as a thing necessary, to do greatly err.  The Scripture permits and grants, that the keeping of the Sabbath-day is now free; for it teaches that the ceremonies of Moses’ law, since the revelation of the gospel, are not necessary.  And yet, because it was needful to ordain a certain day, it appears that the church did appoint Sunday, which day, as it appears, pleased them rather than the Sabbath day, even for this cause, that men might have an example of Christian liberty, and might know that the keeping and observance of either Saturday, or any other day, is not necessary” (Augsburg Confessions, Article 15, New York 1850).

"Is there no express commandment for observing the first day of the week as Sabbath, instead of the seventh day?  None whatsoever.  Neither Christ, nor His apostles, nor the first Christians celebrated the first day of the week instead of the seventh [day] as the Sabbath" (New York Weekly Tribune, May 24, 1900).

"The Scriptures nowhere call the first day of the week the Sabbath...There is no Scriptural authority for so doing, nor of course any Scriptural obligation" (The Baptist Watchman).

"The observation of the first instead of the seventh day rests on the testimony of the church, and the church alone" (Hobort Church News [Episcopalian], July 2, 1894).

The overwhelming evidence of the Bible and history proves that the Seventh day Sabbath—Saturday today—is the true day of rest and worship of God.  God puts His presence into that day.  He fellowships with His people on that day, as well as, the annual holy days which, He has commanded to be observed in worship of Him.

Now that you have this knowledge and God holds you responsible for it, what will you do?  Jesus Christ commands, “Repent and believe the Gospel.”  Will you repent sins and turn to God, or will you continue in your sins?  Your eternal life, or eternal death is at stake.  Turn to God and live.

If you have any questions about Sabbath-keeping, please write to:

The Christian Biblical Church of God

Post Office Box 1442

Hollister, California 95024-1442

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Listen to The Holy Sabbath audio sermons for further study.

Be sure to Read or Download - Rome's Challenge: Why Do the Protestants Keep Sunday?