Here are four positive proofs which identify the
true Sabbath
today:
1. According to
the Scriptures
, Christ died on Friday and rose on Sunday, the
first day of the week
. Practically all churches acknowledge this fact by observing Easter Sunday and Good Friday. Here is
the Bible
evidence: "This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of
Jesus
. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and
the sabbath
drew on."
Luke 23:52-54.
Here is proof that Jesus died the day before the Sabbath. It was called "
the preparation day
" because it was the time to get ready for the Sabbath. Let us read the next verses: "And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to
the commandment
." Verses 55, 56.
Please notice that the women rested over the Sabbath "according to the commandment." The commandment says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath," so we know they were observing Saturday. But the very next verse says, "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared. ... And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre."
Luke 24:1,
2.
How clearly these three consecutive days are described for us. He died Friday, the preparation day, commonly called
Good Friday
. He rested in the tomb on the seventh day, Sabbath, "according to the commandment." That was Saturday. Then on Sunday, the first day of the week, Easter Sunday to many, Jesus arose from the grave.
Anyone who can locate Good Friday or Easter Sunday will have absolutely no difficulty finding the true Sabbath.
2.
The calendar has not been changed
so as to confuse the days of the week. We can be positive that our
seventh day
is the same day Jesus observed when He was here. Pope Gregory XIII did make a calendar change in 1582, but it did not interfere with the weekly cycle. Our present Gregorian calendar was named after him when he made that small change in 1582.
What did Pope Gregory do to the calendar? Before 1582 the Julian calendar had been in effect, instituted by
Julius Ceasar
about 46 B.C. and named after him. But the Julian calendar had calculated the length of the year as 365 1/4 days, and the year is actually eleven minutes less than 365 1/4 days. Those eleven minutes accumulated, and by 1582 the numbering of the calendar was ten days out of harmony with the solar system. Gregory simply dropped those ten days out of the numbering of the calendar. It was Thursday, October 4, 1582, and the next day, Friday, should have been October 5. But Gregory made it October 15 instead, dropping exactly ten days to bring the calendar back into harmony with the heavenly bodies.
Were the days of the week confused? No. Friday still followed Thursday, and Saturday still followed Friday. The same seventh day remained, and the weekly cycle was not disturbed in the least. When we keep the
seventh day on Saturday
, we are observing the same day Jesus kept, and He did it every week according to
Luke 4:16.
3. The third evidence for the true Sabbath is the most conclusive of all. The Jewish people have been observing the seventh day from the time of Abraham, and they still keep it today. Here is a whole nation - millions of individuals - who have been counting off time meticulously, week after week, calendar or no calendar, for thousands of years. Could they have lost track? Impossible. The only way they could have lost a day would have been for the entire nation to have slept over an extra 24 hours and for no one ever to tell them about it afterwards.
There has been no change or loss of the Sabbath since God made it in Genesis. The origin of the week is found in the creation story. There is no scientific or astronomical reason for measuring time in cycles of seven days. It is an arbitrary arrangement of God and has been miraculously preserved for one reason - because the holy Sabbath day points to the creative power of the only true God. It is a sign of His sovereignty over the world and over human life; a sign of creation and redemption.
Is this not the reason God will preserve
Sabbath-keeping
throughout eternity? We read in
Isaiah 66:22,
23: "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord."
The Sabbath is so precious to God that He will have His people observe it throughout all time to come in the beautiful new earth. If it is so precious to Him, should it not be precious to us? If we are going to keep it then, should we not keep it now?
In an age of false gods, of atheistic evolution, and traditions of men, the world needs the Sabbath more than ever as a test of our loyalty to the great Creator-God and a sign of our sanctification through His power.
4. Proof number four lies in the fact that over one hundred languages of the earth use the word "Sabbath" for Saturday. For example, the Spanish word for Saturday is "
Sabado
," meaning Sabbath. What does this prove? It proves that when those hundred languages originated in the long, long ago, Saturday was recognized as the Sabbath day and was incorporated into the very name of the day.
