Is there a "day of the week" reference anywhere that can solidify that Saturday is really Saturday and Sunday is really Sunday? ...
The weekly cycle has never changed. In brief, the week has come down from Creation unchanged. The Sabbath, given at the beginning of our world and written on rock 2,500 years later, was kept by the people of God down through the ages. The seventh day of Jesus is to be our day, for He is Lord of it (Mark 2:28).
At the time that Christ was on earth, the calendar being used was called the "Julian Calendar." This is the calendar under which Jesus kept the Bible Sabbath. His followers kept it after His death (Luke 23:56), and later in their missionary work (Acts 13:14-16, 40-46, 16:12-1 5, 17:1-4.
We know, from historical records, that many Christians kept the true Sabbath for the first five centuries after the time of Christ. After that a persecuted minority continued to keep it during the centuries which followed. All during this time, the Julian Calendar continued in effect—and multiplied millions of historical and business records over those years witness to the fact. Then, in 1582, an error in the length of the year was corrected. The Julian Calendar was 365.25 solar days long, but the length of the year is actually slightly different—365.242195 days in length. Because of this discrepancy, as the centuries passed, the seasons shifted. This shift amount to ten days by A.D. 1582, and so the "Gregorian Calendar" was initiated to remedy the problem. It corrected the ten-day error and also began our leap-year cycle. Here is the calendar when the change came:
OCTOBER 1582
— 1 2 3 4 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 — — — — — —
Carefully observe that the week was not changed! only the length of that month and year. The week had always been seven days in length. That weekly cycle did not change.
Spain, Portugal, and Italy adopted the new calendar at once. France waited until December of that year. Half of Germany adopted it in 1583; the other half waited until 1700. About that time the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark adopted the new calendar also. England did not accept it until 1752. Yet all through those years, when it was Saturday in Spain it was Saturday in England. The NUMBERS or DATES of the month were different, but the DAYS of the week remained the same.
Astronomers tell us that there has never been any change in the weekly cycle. Historians tell us the same thing. The most learned reference books and encyclopedias in the world agree with this. The week has never changed. The unchangable nature of the Sabbath is even proven by the languages of mankind. Dr. William Mead Jones of London, England, analyzed 160 ancient and modern languages—and found that 108 of them call the seventh day of the week the "Sabbath." This is three out of five of the known languages of mankind!
But do not forget the Jew: Nearly every ancient race of mankind has been obliterated through warfare and intermarriage, except the Hebrew race. God has preserved them alive as a living testimony of the truth of the Bible and the Bible Sabbath,—the seventh-day Sabbath. For ages the Jewish race has kept the Bible Sabbath. And what day is the Bible Sabbath? Ask any Jew. He will tell you it is the seventh day of the week. (Friday sunset till Saturday sunset)
