Which Day of the Week is the Sabbath?

TrustAndObey · Nov 24, 2005

pjw said:
please tell me where the Bible specifies that the last day of the week is the Sabbath?

PICK ME! PICK ME!

Matthew 28:1 - In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

Sunday is the first day of the week (check any encyclopedia or dictionary), therefore the Sabbath is the seventh day, the last day of the week.

Our weekly cycle (7 days) is based on creation week. There is no other explanation for a 7-day week.

lmnop9876 · Nov 24, 2005

PICK ME! PICK ME!

Matthew 28:1 - In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

Sunday is the first day of the week (check any encyclopedia or dictionary), therefore the Sabbath is the seventh day, the last day of the week.

Our weekly cycle (7 days) is based on creation week. There is no other explanation for a 7-day week.

but this isn't a command from God, it's just the Jewish practice. God simply specified one day in seven, not necessarily the last day of the week.

Cliff2 · Nov 24, 2005

pjw said:
but this isn't a command from God, it's just the Jewish practice. God simply specified one day in seven, not necessarily the last day of the week.

I doubt very much if you will get too mcuh Biblical support for what you have wrote.

Can you show me from the Bible where you get your concept from?

TrustAndObey · Nov 24, 2005

Genesis 2:3 - And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Exodus 16:26 - Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

In the Ten Commandments:

Exodus 20:10 - But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Sophia7 · Nov 24, 2005

prodromos said:
Could you please summarise the evidence in Acts and also explain what is meant by the term "Sabbath keeping"?

John

I am posting my comments from several pages ago on this because this is how I believe "Sabbath-keeping" is defined--not as a legalistic burden but as a spiritual experience of communion with God. I began with a discussion of the old and new covenants because some have said that the Sabbath is irrelevant today because we are under the new covenant.
_______________________________________________________

From post #321:

I believe that the Sabbath commandment, just like all of the other commandments of God, should be written in our hearts and minds; that is what the new covenant is all about:

Hebrews 8:10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

Actually, under the old covenant, the law was supposed to be internalized as well; salvation was always about grace, not about keeping the law externally with no spiritual conversion:

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

The old covenant was not the law; it was the agreement that God made with His people at Mount Sinai, when God spoke His law directly to the people and then wrote His law on tablets of stone, which He gave to Moses. The people promised to obey Him, and they confirmed the covenant with the blood of bulls (Exodus 24). God's promise to them under the old covenant was that if they obeyed Him, He would bless them, and if they disobeyed, He would curse them. (See Leviticus 26 for a description of the covenant curses and blessings.)

The problem with the old covenant was that the people never followed through on their promises. They did not understand how the law was supposed to be kept--through grace. They did not trust God or keep His laws in their hearts. They sometimes followed the external regulations, even gradually adding to them and making them impossibly burdensome, which is why Jesus had to remind people of what the law of God was really about--loving God and loving our neighbors. What they missed was what many people today overlook as well--the fact that doing the right things doesn't make us righteous:

MT 15:16 "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. 17 "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.' 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man `unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.' "

When we accept Jesus, He transforms our minds and makes His laws a part of our character. He recreates us spiritually in His image. That is what being born again is all about. We still keep the law but it is through the grace and power of God, not through our own willpower and effort:

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Therefore, the new covenant is sealed by Jesus, not by us. Hebrews 8:6 says that the new covenant is founded on better promises than the old covenant. Jesus entered the heavenly sanctuary after His resurrection and confirmed the new covenant with His own blood, not with the blood of bulls or goats (Hebrews 10). It was founded on His promise to engrave His law on our hearts rather than on stone tablets. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law, which requires a sacrifice to save a sinner from the death penalty, in a way that no animal sacrifice could ever do. The sacrificial system dealt with the consequences of breaking God's law. Jesus' death put an end to the need for sacrifices because He paid the penalty for every violation of His law. His death did not put an end to the law itself; rather, it opened the way into the heavenly sanctuary so that we could have full and direct access to the grace and power of God that keeps us from sinning:

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

The Sabbath is important because it is a part of God's Ten Commandments. I agree with GraceInHim's quote:

GraceInHim said:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:36-40).

A reflective reading of Christ's teaching reveals that the first four commandments given to the children of Israel are contained in the statement: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." It continues that the last six commandments are enclosed in the statement: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

The Sabbath is about loving and honoring God, not about staying in our houses and keeping the lights off and eating cold food and sitting around doing nothing and being bored and miserable. If that's what we thought, then it would be legalism. Unlike the Pharisees of Jesus' time, we do not have a code of acceptable Sabbath activities that everyone is supposed to adhere to. Jewish tradition dictated that people couldn't carry food between two houses on Sabbath unless they stuck a plank between them to connect them so that they would be considered one house. Jewish tradition dictated that people couldn't walk more than a certain distance (about 3/4 mile) unless they had buried food ahead of time at intervals so that they could consider those places their homes. Jewish tradition dictated that people couldn't even carry a handkerchief unless they sewed it to their clothing. The Sabbath was never meant to be about that, even under the old covenant. The Sabbath was always intended to be a time of spiritual communion with God, not a burden of physical restrictions. That's why Jesus cut through all of the legalism of the Jewish teachers and showed them what the Sabbath was supposed to be about, making them so angry that they wanted to kill Him:

Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."

3 He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread--which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, `I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

11 He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

13 Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

I believe that the Sabbath is a time to worship God and to help others, as Jesus did; this is not to say that we shouldn't worship God all the time, but the Sabbath is a holy day set apart (sanctified) by God at creation. The difference between worshiping God on Sabbath and worshiping Him on other days is that on Sabbath we rest from our jobs and our secular activities (although there are differences of opinion among Adventists as to what kinds of activities are acceptable on Sabbath) and devote ourselves fully to God, without the outside distractions that often preoccupy our time during the rest of the week. Thus, the Sabbath is not meant to be a burden or a legalistic way of trying to earn salvation, but a blessing from God to help us draw closer to Him. Here is a quote from Isaiah 58, which I think conveys the attitude that God wants us to have toward the Sabbath:

13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The Sabbath is about finding joy in the Lord, and it's easier to do that when we can completely focus on Him and not have to think about going to work and cleaning our houses and paying our bills and grocery shopping and all of the other activities that normally take up most of our time and cause us to push God into the background. Beyond physical rest, the Sabbath is most importantly a time of spiritual rest and renewal, a time of thanksgiving for the grace that God has given us.

PaleHorse · Nov 24, 2005

pjw said:
but this isn't a command from God, it's just the Jewish practice. God simply specified one day in seven, not necessarily the last day of the week.

I really can't add to what T&O and Sophia7 has stated - they are right on the money and have certainly answered this important question.

lmnop9876 · Nov 25, 2005

Genesis 2:3 - And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Exodus 16:26 - Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

In the Ten Commandments:

Exodus 20:10 - But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

sorry, but those verses still don't specify that it's the last day of the week. they still only specify one day in seven.

Cliff2 · Nov 25, 2005

pjw said:
sorry, but those verses still don't specify that it's the last day of the week. they still only specify one day in seven.

Genesis 2:3 - And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Click to expand...

When do you think the seventh day is?

lmnop9876 · Nov 25, 2005

When do you think the seventh day is?

the seventh day is the day after any period of six days.

Cliff2 · Nov 25, 2005

pjw said:
the seventh day is the day after any period of six days.

God made the 7th day holy.

TrustAndObey · Nov 25, 2005

pjw said:
the seventh day is the day after any period of six days.

Well if that's true, we have a problem. The Bible says Jesus died on Preparation Day (that is what Friday is called in the Bible). That He was in the grave (hades) on Sabbath and His mother and Mary M. had to leave to rest for the Sabbath (according to the commandment) and that as the Sabbath was ending it dawned toward the first day of the week.

So PJW, what day of the week do you think Jesus rose? If you say Sunday then you cannot deny that Saturday is the seventh day, the Sabbath. The Bible verifies it.

Normann · Nov 25, 2005

Cliff2 said:
During the past year many threads have been opened up concerning the Sabbath.

There are a few points that we could probably look at in some detail.

Such as these.

Was the Sabbath kept before the Law was given to the Children of Israel?

Is the Sabbath really Jewish and there for not binding on Christians today?

If there are other points that need to be brought up then by all means do that.

Debi has kindly consented to help out in this discussion by transfering information from other threads as she sees fit to do so.

Thanking you in advance for your help.

Your welcome I'm glad to help again...
Cliff, are you back again with the only doctrine the 7th day people have?
My friend, I have at my own expense sent you enough information to kill your sabbath doctrine!

Where in the Bible does it say the Sabbath is on Saturday?
Where in the Bible does it say that the 7th day is Saturday?
Where in the New Testament are we commanded to keep the Sabbath?

IN THE MASTER'S SERVICE,
Normann

amgine · Nov 25, 2005

Oblio said:
Saturday.

The fulfillment of the Sabbath was Great and Holy Saturday when Christ rested from His work in defeating death by death. It is no longer an obligation for anyone. Jew or Gentile.

.

i do agree. you can read through it in the book of Romans, concerning the breaking of the obligation.

TrustAndObey · Nov 25, 2005

amgine said:
i do agree. you can read through it in the book of Romans, concerning the breaking of the obligation.

The book of Romans never even mentions the Sabbath day.

BigNorsk · Nov 25, 2005

TrustAndObey said:
PICK ME! PICK ME!

Matthew 28:1 - In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

Sunday is the first day of the week (check any encyclopedia or dictionary), therefore the Sabbath is the seventh day, the last day of the week.

Our weekly cycle (7 days) is based on creation week. There is no other explanation for a 7-day week.

You do know that what it says is literally "Now late on the sabbath, towards the first sabbath...."

Marv

TrustAndObey · Nov 25, 2005

BigNorsk said:
You do know that what it says is literally "Now late on the sabbath, towards the first sabbath...."

Marv

That isn't what mia sabbaton means at all. This discussion has already been discussed in this thread.

prodromos · Nov 25, 2005

TrustAndObey said:
So PJW, what day of the week do you think Jesus rose? If you say Sunday then you cannot deny that Saturday is the seventh day, the Sabbath. The Bible verifies it.

Absolutely correct! I never understood that kind of argumentation anyway.

John

prodromos · Nov 25, 2005

PaleHorse said:
1) This indicates that they were keeping the Sabbath as the Jews were but he now is advocating observance to Sunday. This tells me that Sabbath-keeping was still being done by non-Jewish Christians up to around 100 A.D. (roughly).

The Sabbath keeping was due to the Jewish christians insisting on keeping the law. Judaizers were a problem in the churches all over Asia Minor. Just read Paul's letters to the Galatians, the Ephesians and the Colossians.

2) This line indicates that Ignatius is advocating breaking Gods Commandment because Ignatius says not in relaxation of the body; but the Commandment says to rest and do no work.

Again he is speaking against the attitude of the Judaizers in much the same manner in which Christ spoke against the Pharasees regarding the Sabbath.

3) This line indicates that he is saying that Sabbath is still around but that Christians should observe the Lords Day (meaning Sunday to him) ignoring the scriptures that indicate that Christs death/resurrection are to be observed by baptism (Romans 6:3-5) and we should take Communion to remember Christ in general (Luke 22:19, 1 Cor 11:24-25)

You have got to be kidding me on Romans 6:3-5. As for the rest, I had Holy Communion at a vigil service last night .

John

PaleHorse · Nov 25, 2005

prodromos said:
The Sabbath keeping was due to the Jewish christians insisting on keeping the law. Judaizers were a problem in the churches all over Asia Minor. Just read Paul's letters to the Galatians, the Ephesians and the Colossians.

Which law? In Galatians, for instance, we see that one of the main topics was circumcision - that there were many Jews who were insisting that Christians be circumcised. But here is the question; was circumcision part of the decalogue? No. Circumcision is part of Moses' ceremonial law, not God's moral law.

You seem to be overlooking what is obvious from his Letter, that simply is that non-Jewish Christians, living under grace, were still keeping the seventh-day Sabbath according to the Commandment. They weren't doing this as a means of salvation, that it was a "work", but because it is a commandment of God's law; put on the same level as "thou shalt not murder". I didn't put it on that level, God did.

Sentiments against the Jews may have risen in Rome because of persecution. Due to several Jewish revolts culminating in the revolt of Bar Kokaba in A.D. 132-135, Jews were expelled from Palestine by emperor Hadrian who had outlawed Jewish practices as circumcision. There was also a large population of Jews in Alexandria. The Romans considered Christianity as a Jewish sect, so to distance themselves from Jews the church at Rome and Alexandria began to observe Sunday only. Not because Sunday observance was found in the scriptures but because of their aversion to the Jews - i.e. racism.

Again he is speaking against the attitude of the Judaizers in much the same manner in which Christ spoke against the Pharasees regarding the Sabbath.

While I do agree that there were many Jews (those that did not accept Jesus as the Messiah) who insisted on keeping the law as a means of salvation, that really is beside the point. Christ spoke against the Pharasees because of all the oral traditions they added to God's moral law - they took it too far and made the Sabbath a burden. Christ never broke the seventh-day Sabbath, not even in death.

You have got to be kidding me on Romans 6:3-5. As for the rest, I had Holy Communion at a vigil service last night .

John

No, I'm not kidding you. Romans 6:3-5 describes the symbology connected to baptism as it relates to Christ's death.

PaleHorse · Nov 25, 2005

prodromos said:
Absolutely correct! I never understood that kind of argumentation anyway.

John

Same here.

Which Day of the Week is the Sabbath?

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