Let’s allow the Bible to answer the question: Which day is the Sabbath?
The Old Testament
1-The fourth commandment states that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:10).
2-The “seventh day” of the week falls on Saturday, not Sunday. To verify, check your calendar, dictionary or encyclopedia.
3-God made the Sabbath at the beginning of the world. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:2-3).
4-The Sabbath is not Jewish, but is “the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:10). God blessed it over 2,000 years before the Jews exited, to be a blessing to all people, including Gentiles or non-Jews (Isaiah 56:6-7).
The New Testament
5- Sunday is “the first day of the week,” which means it is a regular working day (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-2; etc.).
6-Jesus Christ regularly kept the seventh day Sabbath (Luke 4:16), taught much about it (Matthew 12:12; 24:20), and clearly stated that He is “Lord even of the Sabbath day” (Matthew 12:8). Further, He declared that He didn’t come to abolish His law (Matthew 5:17,18).
7-In the books of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, Christ never mentioned “the first day of the week” (Sunday).
8-The New testament refers to Sunday only eight times (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1,19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2). Yet, it is completely silent about Sunday being sanctified in honor of our Lord’s resurrection.
9-The Sabbath was sacredly observed by Jesus Christ’s followers. After His body was placed in the tomb, Christian women “rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). And Christ expected His people to be still keeping the Sabbath in A.D. 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed. For He said, “pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20).
10-Christ’s apostles kept the Sabbath on the seventh day (Acts 13:13, 14; 17:2; 16:13; 18:4). The Sabbath was observed in the book of Acts by both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 13:42-44; 16:3).
11-There is no New Testament authorization for the change of the Bible Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
12-The sabbaths that were abolished at the Cross (Colossians 2:14-17; Ephesians 2:15; Romans 14:5) were the annual feast sabbath holidays of the Mosaic law (Leviticus 23) which were also called sabbaths. These were in addition to or “beside the (weekly) Sabbath of the Lord” (Leviticus 23:38).
End-Time Prophecy
13-Bible prophecy (Daniel 7:25) and church history both testify that the Roman Catholic Church changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. https://bibleask.org/who-changed-the-sabbath-from-saturday-to-sunday-and-when/
14-Rediscovering God’s original Sabbath is part of Bible prophecy in the end times (Compare Revelation 14:7,12 with Exodus 20:11). https://bibleask.org/what-is-the-mark-of-the-beast/
15-The seventh day will be kept in the New Earth for all eternity. “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord” (Isaiah 66:22, 23).
For more on the Sabbath, check (Lessons 91-102) of our Bible Lessons.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
