There are those that propose that through different calendar changes and other factors, the true seventh day of the week cannot be rightly spotted. But this is not right. Here are four proofs that identify the true Sabbath today:
A-The Sabbath is the day before Easter Sunday.
According to the Bible, Jesus died on Friday, the sixth day of the week, and was resurrected on Sunday, the first day of the week. Virtually all churches admit this fact when they keep Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Here is the Bible evidence:
“This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever lain before. That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near” (Luke 23:52-54). This is a solid proof that Jesus was crucified the day before the Sabbath. It was called “the preparation day” because it was the time to prepare for the Sabbath.
The following verses state: “And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment” (verses 55, 56). Here, we find that the women rested on the Sabbath “according to the commandment,” which says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath” (Exodus 20:10). So, we see that they were keeping the seventh day (Saturday).
The following verse states, “Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb” (Luke 24:1, 2).
From the above, we can see that Jesus was crucified on Friday, the preparation day, the sixth day of the week. He rested in the tomb, “according to the commandment,” on Saturday, the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. And then He was resurrected from the grave on Sunday, Easter Sunday, the first day of the week.
Anyone who can pinpoint Good Friday or Easter Sunday will have perfectly no difficulty locating the true Sabbath ‘rest’ between them!
B-Calendar changes haven’t altered the seventh day.
Some propose that a calendar change made by Pope Gregory XIII means the days of the week have been disturbed and, therefore, Christians today can’t find the true seventh day. It is a fact that, in 1582, Pope Gregory made a change to the calendar. But this change did not affect the weekly cycle.
Before 1582, the Julian calendar had been used, initiated by Julius Caesar around 46 BC. But the Julian calendar had calculated the length of the year as 365-1/4 days, however, the year is eleven minutes less than 365-1/4 days. Those eleven minutes added up, and by 1582, the numbering of the calendar was ten days out of line with the solar system. So, Gregory deleted 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, letting go exactly ten days to bring the calendar back in line with the celestial bodies.
Thus we can see that Pope Gregory’s calendar change did not disrupt the days of the week. Friday still came after Thursday, and Saturday still came after Friday. The same seventh day remained, and the weekly cycle was not confused. So, when Christians today observe the Sabbath on Saturday, they can be sure that their seventh day of the week is the same seventh day of the week that Jesus kept (Luke 4:16).
D-For thousands of years, the Jews kept the seventh day as Sabbath.
The Jews have been keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day from the time of Abraham, till our day today. A whole nation has been counting off time scrupulously, week after week, for thousands of years. It is not possible that they would have made an error.
There has been no change or misplacement of the Sabbath day since the Lord instituted it at the very beginning of time (Genesis 2:2,3). There is no celestial reason for computing time in cycles of seven days. The seventh-day Sabbath is the creation of God and has been miraculously kept throughout history, and even throughout eternity (Isaiah 66:22, 23).
D-The seventh day is called a ‘rest day’ in many languages.
The word for “Sabbath” in many languages through the world is the same word used to name the seventh-day of the week, known as Saturday. For example, the Spanish word for “Saturday” is “Sábado,” which means “Sabbath.” When these languages originated, the seventh day of the week – Saturday – was identified as the Sabbath day, and Sabbath was integrated into the very calling of the day.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
