MEMORY SELECTION: Exodus 20: 8-11

INTRODUCTION

The doctrine of the Sabbath has been the doctrine which has created more controversy that any other.  There has been more fiction surrounding this topic that that around any other, despite the fact that the teachings of the Scriptures are quite plain.  To understand this strange thing we must therefore look closely at what Sabbath is, what it’s very existence implies, the benefits that it has for man, and the almost universal rejection of people who attempt to take the Sabbath seriously as commanded by God.

Logically, anyone who professes to follow the Bible strictly as their only rule of faith and practice is bound to keep the seventh day as Sabbath.  Baptists, who pride themselves as having the Bible as their only rule of faith, should be Sabbath keepers.

Having however moved away from strict adherence to the Bible, the mainstream Christians cannot appeal to the Word of God to reverse the tremendous decline in the practice of worship on Sundays.  Appealing to Christians to follow a practice that is not  rooted in the Word of God is inevitably doomed to failure. 

Any non-biblically based appeal is a poor reflection on, and really condemns the erring leadership in the churches, who have to resort to theories such as the “one day in seven” theory, the simple “rest-day” theory, the “civil Sabbath” theory, as well as others.  Note that none of these arguments are based at all on the Bible.

Any other day of worship apart from the seventh day Sabbath, is based on “Tradition”, and has little justification in the teachings of Christ and the apostles.  This “Tradition” contradicts the Bible when it claims that the seventh day Sabbath has been set aside for Sunday.

It should be stated now, though we will discuss it later, that Roman Catholicism and its predecessor structural perversions has been responsible for many changes in biblical teachings.  The Roman Catholic Church encompasses the greater part of western Christianity, and was the culmination of pagan influences, philosophical and political systems and ideas from Greece and Rome which brought into the Church Sunday observance, Easter, Good Friday, baptismal regeneration, the use of lights in worship, prayers for the dead, sprinkling and pouring in addition to immersion, the worship of the saints, the power of the official religious hierarchy to make or to eliminate established laws and practice, and many other additions.

There are several commonly accepted ideas about the Sabbath which are totally false, and clearly without biblical support, but nevertheless are repeated over and over again.  Several of these false ideas are listed by one writer:

1. The early New Testament Christians began worshipping on the first day of the week instead of the seventh day Sabbath.
2. The Sabbath was a Jewish institution which originated with Moses.
3. The Sabbath of the Old Testament was a day of legalistic restrictions, a burden and yoke for the Israelites.
4. Roman Catholic and other theologians rely primarily on the Bible for justification for observing Sunday as a holy day.

To be able to refute these false ideas we should now therefore look at what the Sabbath is all about and who established it.

THE ORIGINS OF THE SABBATH

The word ‘ Sabbath’ comes from a verb “to cease, to abstain, to desist from, to terminate, to be at an end”.  It also has another meeting of “to be inactive, to rest”.

The Bible tells us that after God created the heavens and the earth, he then created man on the sixth day.  When God “finished” this great, powerful, marvelous, beautiful, and unparalleled creative work, he chose to cease, to rest, to step back, and to delight in what he had created.

He then chose to create the Sabbath, blessing it, sanctifying it, and making it the holy seventh day.  Note that in Genesis the day is called the “seventh day”, a terminology which links the creation with the “rest” that God had done.

Clearly, God did not rest because he was tired.  God is spirit, and not flesh, yet he chose to ‘rest’, and to bless this particular “seventh day”.  At its creation therefore, there was no link with any “Jewish” institution or people, because of course none of these existed at that time.

The hallowing and blessing of the “seventh day” carries with it the idea of  ‘separateness’.  God separated the seventh day from the rest of creation in a special act  notwithstanding the declared fact in Genesis 1: 31, that the creation was “good”.

Here we must stress therefore, that it was nothing but the favor and grace of God that lead God to declare that the ‘seventh day’ was holy and blessed.  God himself set an example and rested, a very deliberate act.  The Sabbath is therefore based on God's “rest”, and common sense should tell us that nothing in this universe will ever or can ever supplant or set aside this tremendous display of grace, power, and gracious example.

The “seventh day”, as a blessed and holy day, created by God himself, over at least two thousand years before the birth of Moses, was made for man.

In Mark 2: 27 Jesus had to rebuke the Pharisees, and to remind them that “the Sabbath was made for man”.

Note that the Sabbath was made for man, not just for Israel.  It was made for man thousands of years before Moses.  Man was not created just to serve the day, but the day was created to benefit man.

In Exodus 20: 8-11, the ‘ rest’ and ‘ holiness’ connected with the ‘seventh day’, makes it clear that for man there is an issue of obedience.  Man was to do what God commanded, that is, rest and worship, for that would benefit man.  Man should therefore not shy away from doing what is for his benefit, for in addition this shows his obedience to God.

The question of obedience and rest on the ‘seventh day’ is therefore a moral matter. The necessity to obey was built into the foundations at the time of creation.

The ‘seventh day’ Sabbath has a universal application for all creation, and has perpetual repercussions for all creation. 

It was created in “time”, and reflects the fact that “time” is a creation of God.  Man is a creature of time, and God has made one particular ‘time’ stand out to remind man that he is a creature of time, created by God, the only one who holds the breath or the ‘ time’ of man in his hands.

Playing around with the Sabbath is therefore a very serious matter.  In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 66, verse 23 to 24, the scene is set when Christ returns to the earth in judgment.  He judges and disciplines the disobedient and unfaithful, and declares plainly that from “seventh day” to “seventh day” all flesh must and would come to worship before him.  To make men to understand how serious He is, he will have them see the corpses of those who have transgressed against him.  See verse 24. 

 ORIGINS OF THE SABBATH IN SECULAR HISTORY

The scholars have always argued over whether the Sabbath was observed during the time from Adam to Moses.  This argument is heightened by the fact that there is no specific or direct reference to Noah, Abraham, Joseph, or the other Patriarchs keeping the Sabbath.  We know however that in Genesis 26: 5 God described Abraham as a man who obeyed him, and who kept his requirements (or his charge), his Commandments, his statutes, and his laws.  Abraham certainly knew about many of God’s rules. It would appear then that the Patriarchs knew about God's rather detailed wishes and desires.  They knew that many sins such as adultery (see the case of Joseph), and stealing (see the case of Jacob in Genesis 31) was wrong. Abraham even tithed, even though the bible did not teach about the necessity for this practice.

There are five schools of thought, which teach that mankind had some concept of the Sabbath well before Moses. We can list these schools as the Babylonian, the Lunar, the Kenite, the socioeconomic, and the calendrical. We will look at three of these views.

The Babylonian school hold that the “sapattu” was a Babylonian “taboo sabbath” day, which also was adopted by the Caananites, the Hebrews and other peoples of the Near East.  One writer states

“This day was designated specifically as the “day of quieting the heart”.  The precise meeting of this expression is uncertain, but at least the concept of relaxation is implicit therein.  Furthermore, the seventh, 14th, 21st, and 28th days of certain months, and not  improbably of every month, and likewise the 19th day-that is, the 49th, the seven times seventh, day from the first day of the preceding month-were regarded as “evil days”.

Upon these days the physician, the oracular priest, and above all, the king, might not function in any official or professional capacity whatsoever.  While there is no definite evidence that these successive seventh days were identical with the “sabattu”, it is a reasonable inference that such was actually the case.  On the basis of this evidence certain scholars have maintained that the biblical Sabbath was of a Babylonian origin.”

Certainly, some of the restrictions on the Babylonian king, who as a representative of the gods was forbidden to do certain things lest he arouse their anger, seems to resemble several biblical laws concerning the Sabbath.  This would on the surface suggest a possible relationship between the two.

The Babylonian king was forbidden to eat meat roasted on coals, or any food touched by fire.  This was similar to the Exodus 35: 3 command with respect to cooking.  The king was forbidden to ride in his chariot, change his clothes, or discuss affairs of state, similar to the Exodus 16: 29 command.

The Babylonian priests were not to consult the oracles, and physicians were not treat the sick.  The ‘seven times seven’ or 19th day of the month when it fell, was also significant for all Babylonian officials.

For Babylon these were ‘evil days’ or ‘ unlucky days’ based on superstitious fear, with the restrictions meant to appease the angry gods. 

This is certainly different in terms of ‘rest’, ‘blessing’, and ‘ holiness’ that the Bible speaks about.  But it seems apparent that this is just the result of the corruption and perversion caused by disobedience and sin.  When the nations before Abraham fell into gross sin and idolatry, it was to be expected that their knowledge of the true meaning of the Sabbath would become perverted.  Exactly the same thing happened in Israel, forcing the prophets to continually rail against the corruption and neglect of the Sabbath in that country.

Another school regard the Sabbath as originating in a distinctively agricultural and primitive calendar.  This calendar was based upon and recorded the successive stages into planting, ripening, harvesting, and use of the annual crop.  It is believed that this was the original calendar, and that the Babylonian ‘sapattu’ and the Canaanite and Semitic institutions came from it.

This calendar had a week of seven days as its basic unit of time reckoning.  Its secondary time unit was the period of 50 days, that it, consisting of seven weeks, that is, the seven times seven days plus 1 additional day, which stood outside the week and which was known and celebrated as a festival of conclusions or termination.

This school make great attempts to explain the Feasts of Israel, the Sabbatical year, and the year Jubilee by this alleged so-called basic agricultural calendar. But this is only a theory attempting to harmonize or find a common cause for similar cultural and economic  practices. It is only conjecture.

With respect to the Lunar theory, it is speculated that the Hebrew word for Sabbath originally referred to the day of the full moon.  Jewish tradition has always interpreted the phrase “the morrow after the Sabbath”, as in Leviticus 23:11,15, to mean not the first day of the week, but the morrow after the first day of the Passover, which always falls on a day of the full moon.

In this biblical phrase, the word for Sabbath (Shabbat) always means “the day of the full moon”.  This is clearly a very ancient meaning of the word (Shabbat) but where the word is used in any other place, it always refers to the 7th day of the week.

The Bible however frequently links the new moon and the Sabbath, mentioning the new moon first. See 2 Kings 4:23, Amos 8: 4-5, Isaiah 1: 13.  Some therefore hold that there was a time when the Sabbath referred to the day of the full moon, a very important religious festival.

This however only suggests that the word Sabbath (Shabbat) at an earlier period, had a different or additional meaning, and that the word could refer to the day of the full moon.  The word, by the time of the Exodus, was also used to refer to the weekly seventh day Sabbath.  This 7th day Sabbath, was regarded as of superior sanctity, and worshipped on more often, that all the other festival or Feast days, which were also called Sabbaths. 

Note that these other “Sabbaths” were also holy days and rest days, but they were never treated as the seventh day Sabbath, for this seventh day Sabbath had always be based on the ‘rest’ of God.  This seventh day Sabbath was special and was never based on the Lunar day. 

THE TRUE OLD TESTAMENT SABBATH

In the light of the teaching of the Bible, and paying due regard to the distortions in the ancient secular world, we can now look at what the Sabbath was intended to be.

The Sabbath was always to be a day of joy and to be a day of rest.  The time of the first seventh day celebrations by Adam and Eve must have been one of Utopian delight. Adam and Eve were perfect, fully aware of each other, and aware of the presence and warmth of God’s love and affection.

Indeed, it has been pointed out that Adam and Eve rested with God, on the first day of their existence, even though they had not experienced a week of labour. Resting therefore is not simply ceasing from labour. The Sabbath pleasure is not just resting from work. There is more to it.

When sin came, the Sabbath also came to be a day of freedom from the drudgery of hard toil and labor. Remember that because of sin, work was now a painful experience for results would only come by the sweat of the brow, and earth would only yield its substance reluctantly.

Isaiah 58: 13-14 speaks of the Sabbath as a day of joy and delight, not a day of burden and oppression.

For the children of Israel who had been released from slavery, this would be a special blessing, for they would on the Sabbath remember that their horrible burdens had been lifted by God.

Psalm 92, a Psalm of the Sabbath, gives us a good insight into what the Sabbath should be, what we should be thinking of, how we should be regarding God, and what we should be doing at that time.

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

To declare your lovingkindness in the morning,

And your faithfulness every night,

On an instrument of ten strings,

On the lute,

And on the Harp,

With melodious sound.

For you, Lord, have made me glad through Your Work;

I will triumph in the works of Your hands.

O Lord, how great are Your works!

Your thoughts are very deep.

A senseless man does not know,

Nor does a fool understand this.

When the wicked spring up like grass,

And when all the workers of iniquity flourish,

It is that they may be destroyed forever.

But you, Lord, are on high forevermore.

For behold, your enemies, O Lord,

For behold, your enemies shall perish;

All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

But my horn You have exalted like the wild ox;

I have been anointed with fresh oil.

My eyes also has seen my desire on my enemies;

My ears hear my desire on the wicked

Who rise up against me.

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,

He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon,

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord

Shall flourish in the courts of our God.

They shall still bear fruit in old age;

They shall be fresh and flourishing,

To declare that the Lord is upright;

He is my rock, and there is no

Unrighteousness in Him.” 

The restrictions like staying at home (Exodus 16:29), lighting fires (Exodus 35:3), picking up sticks (Numbers 15:32), bearing burdens (Jeremiah 17:19-27), were intended to ensure that the people did not do difficult home or commercial activities, but rather ensured that they were free to rejoice and rest on the Sabbath.

The temptations to work and be burdened by routine physical activities were too much for Israel, and they often desecrated the Sabbath, doing what was not beneficial for them.

Note that many of the restrictions that Jews later adopted were not from the Bible, but came from the many interpretations of the Law by Rabbis who wanted to preserve the sanctity of the Sabbath. In doing so, they did create many difficulties for the people, and in addition, they also came up with compromises which voided some aspects of the biblical commands.

One writer notes how the Jewish leaders went too far and distorted God’s intention for Sabbath worship. He states

“Two entire treatises of the Talmud deal with how the Sabbath was to be kept. Thirty-nine types of work were not to be done on the Sabbath. For example, writing more than one letter was prohibited. Tying certain type of knots was prohibited, but others were permitted. A Levite in the Temple could retie a broken string on a musical instrument, but he could not put on a new one. Practicing medicine was not allowed- unless life was endangered. Hence, a man with a toothache could rinse his mouth with vinegar on the Sabbath- as long as he swallowed it (that was eating); but he could not rinse his mouth and then spit out the vinegar (that was practicing medicine).

Travel on the Sabbath was limited to a specific distance from one’s domicile. However, if one wanted to go further on the Sabbath, he could legally extend his domicile by placing some of his belongings at a distant point; then he could begin counting his Sabbath’s journey from that distant point…..

No wonder Jesus called the Pharisees and the Scribes a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites (Mark 7:9-13).”

Note the danger of not closely following the Bible. Some disregard the Bible and desecrate the Sabbath, while others overdo the rules, create their own rules, and offend God.

It is to be noted that the Jewish celebration of the Sabbath, was never and is not now bleak and joyless. It is a day when special food is prepared, specially prepared clothes are made ready and used, and intellectual and religious activities pursuits followed.

The Sabbath then is a time for communion with God, thinking about him, for it is his Sabbath.

It is also a time for remembering the Covenant with God, for God had regarded the Sabbath as a sign of the Covenant he had established with Israel. See Exodus 31:13-17.

The Sabbath was therefore important to Israel, for it symbolized their unique role among the nations.

Ezekiel 20:12-20 emphasized the important of the Sabbath for Israel for the prophet stressed that God had linked this to Israel’s election.

Worship of God, and remembering the relationship with God was therefore of utmost importance. The Sabbath reminded Israel of God’s presence, and his loyalty to them.

The Sabbath therefore does many things. It is a time for worship and praise and remembering God in a special way, in spirit and truth. It is a time for our gratitude to flow out to God for what he has done.

When Israel forgot that, the Sabbath stood as a witness against her. Disobedience among the Covenant people was never treated as a simple matter by God. The Sabbath can thus never be treated as something to be ritually observed. It must be observed with all its meaning and purpose in full view.

God has always given the Sabbath prominence in his dealing with his people. Observing the Sabbath is clearly an integral part of God’s will for all men.

Israel is an example for us all. They received the Ten Commandments, which were written with the finger of God himself. He spoke it with his own voice, and the people heard the voice of God. When the people of Israel desecrated the Sabbath, they were sent into exile. We need nothing else to understand the importance of the Sabbath to God.

We must render due and appropriate service to God on the Sabbath.

We must also render due and appropriate service to others on the Sabbath. This is a day that we should remember those around us, the manservant and the maidservant, the cattle and animals, and the stranger within our gates. See Exodus 20:10; 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:14. We must also do “good” on the Sabbath . See Exodus 20, Matthew 12:7-12, Mark 3:4, Luke 13:12.

All of us must ensure that the Sabbath is a delight. We should use it to reach out to others. We must not follow inhumane, burdensome traditions. Jesus insisted that we observe the Sabbath as he intended it to be observed.

We must remind ourselves continually that the Sabbath is special. It tells us

1. That we belong to God, that we are God’s people,
2. That we are closely bound to anyone who belongs to God.
3. It reminds us often of our responsibility toward God, our Creator and Lord.
4. It reminds us of our responsibility to others around us, as well as to the people of God.
5. It assures us that we are in the covenant, and that God will always save and sustain us.
6. That God knows what is best for us, and that his plans for us are always good.
7. It is an integral part of God’s plan to keep us healthy, mentally, physically and spiritually. It is the best stress reliever known, if properly observed.
8. There is joy in serving God. We are reminded of this when we eat what we have prepared or what we have been given by others who see our need.
9. That there is an eternity coming, when we will enjoy fully the “rest” with God.

Jesus and the Apostles are our guide for how we should observe the Sabbath. They did not follow the Pharisaical approach, which was a distorted view of the Sabbath. Believers must focus on keeping the explicit intent of the Sabbath, devoting their time to God and their fellows, avoiding work, and the idle pleasures of life, and commune instead with God. With that, we must make the Sabbath a delight, and not a dread, being careful to be reverent, since we are on God’s day of special communion.

The general rule is to center everything you do on God. Act as if you truly are the Priest of God and his Christ, and his Ambassador on this planet.

JESUS AND THE SABBATH

Jesus never hinted that the Sabbath was to be changed. As a matter of fact, Jesus was the greatest of Jews, and scrupulously upheld the Law, showing what the Law was intended to be.

Jesus denounced the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees when these traditions clashed with and voided the Scriptures. He always showed the positive intent of the Sabbath, as in Mark 2:27-28, where he showed that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath. See also Luke 13:15-15 and Matthew 12:10.

Note how Jesus, in the John 5:1-18 scene acted. He healed the man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus’ action did not indicate he wanted to change the Sabbath, but showed the spiritual, moral and humanitarian qualities in the Sabbath.

In John 7, Jesus again showed his overriding regard for the spiritual welfare of men. The Sabbath was no hindrance to his acts of mercy and kindness.

In John 9, Jesus again healed another man, this time the man who was born blind. He did this despite the fact that he knew his enemies would use his action to accuse him.

But we also know that Jesus was never accused of breaking the Sabbath, except for doing acts of mercy and kindness, and showing that man could bring joy and peace to meet his needs on the Sabbath.

In addition, at his Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Jesus warned his disciples of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, pointing out to them that they should pray that they did not have to run on the Sabbath Day or in winter. Obviously, Jesus knew that they would be keeping the Sabbath at those times, and would be reluctant to flee, and risk violating God’s purpose. Jesus showed that he knew that his followers would be keeping the Sabbath when Jerusalem fell. He never as much as hinted that this was not what they should be doing.

THE APOSTLES AND THE EARLY CHURCH

It cannot be denied that the Apostles and the earliest Christians were Jews and Gentile God fearers who kept the Sabbath.  The writing of Luke describe the behavior of the women who rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the Commandments and then after the Sabbath went to the tomb of Jesus.  Luke obviously stressed this aspect in his writing even though he was doing it well after the Resurrection.  We note that Luke was writing to Gentiles, and it would indeed be strange for him to be advocating changing the day of the Sabbath, or worshipping on another day, while highlighting the worship on and the reverential regard for the Sabbath.

Throughout the Book of Acts, we read of Paul and his companions attending synagogue services.  In Acts 13: 44 we hear of the whole city gathered to hear the word of God on the Sabbath, with no indication of any change in worship day.

In the Book of Acts 16: 12-15 we see Paul attending the place of prayer where the few believing people gathered.  This was also on the Sabbath.

It was when Paul was on his way to the Sabbath service that he healed the girl with a evil spirit of divination. (Acts 16:16) Paul behaved just as Jesus behaved.

In Acts 17 it is recorded that as Paul was accustomed to, he argued with the people on three Sabbath consecutively, constantly proclaiming the message of Jesus.

In Acts 18 Paul is noted to have argued in his synagogue every Sabbath, persuading both Greeks and Jews.

There is no indication by Luke that Paul had any intention or authority to change the Sabbath law.  Paul sought every opportunity to teach on the Sabbath.

None of the Apostles ever indicated their rejection of the Sabbath laws.  In fact, at the Jerusalem Council meeting, which was called to discuss problems of importance only to Gentiles, everyone was in agreement that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and undergo rituals necessary to show that they were now in the Covenant community.

However, Gentiles Christians were instructed to follow certain laws from the Old Testament that were of particular importance to their lifestyle, them being former pagans. 

Note that matters discussed at the conference had to do with Gentiles only.There was no thought of Jews forsaking the Law of Moses or any Biblical laws.  The decision and conference did not excuse the Gentiles from following the moral and spiritual laws in the Scriptures.  It simply dealt with whether or not Gentiles had to become proselytes.  They were admitted to the community as Gentiles, and not as proselytes. They too, like the Jews, had to follow the Law.

THE ORIGINS OF SUNDAY

The Bible never refers to “Sunday” or the “day of the sun”.  It does refer to the ‘first day of the week’ and to ‘ the Lord's day’.  There is nothing directly in the words of Jesus or the gospel writers, to suggest that there is any reference for the first day of the week.

John's ‘ day of the Lord’ refers to a futuristic day, an eschatological day, a day which was also discussed by other old Testament prophets.

Paul never links the resurrection to any special resurrection day observance.  He preached the cross and resurrection of Christ many times, including on the Sabbath as recorded in Acts. 

Some try to use the incident when Paul was in Troas (Acts 20:7) to try to prove that the term ‘ breaking of bread’ suggests a Sunday worship time.  But this is simply only intellectual dishonesty. Hiley H. Ward, himself a proponent of Sunday worship, admits as follows in his book Space Age Sunday:

“The meeting time of the early church, as recorded in Acts, is difficult to pinpoint… But this arrangement of days is a factor to be considered in understanding the Jewish reckoning of time as used in the Book of Acts.  In Acts 20: 7 Paul is in Troas. “And upon the first day of the week, when to disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached onto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” The word “day” does not appear in the Greek text; the word for “week” here is the same as “Sabbath” and the whole phrase could very well be translated literally as “upon the first of the Sabbaths”.  But we shall assume, with most translators past and present (Calvin is an exception), that “day” should be inserted and “Sabbaths” translated “week” on the basis that this comes from a Hebrew and Aramaic idiom of time”

This writer is honest enough to admit his bias and the bias of most translators, except for Calvin. Rarely will you hear this fact. Ward does go on to say

“ even if the phrase is taken as it is traditionally supposed: “on the first day of the week”, what sanction does this special first day offering gave in setting aside the first day as a special holy day on a par with or as a replacement for the Jewish Sabbath?…

The Scriptures are very disappointing-if we seek to pluck sanctions for Sunday or Saturday from the words and actions of our Saviour or from Paul, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, or the Apocalypse.  If on the other hand, our motive is to capture the faith, and its meaning for the times, rather than argue for our against a religious observance, the Scriptures speak with clarity and significance.”

It is clear that this author is stating his bias, and is not prepared to strictly follow the word of God.  He admits that the earliest Christians worshipped as Jews, for they knew of no other way to worship.  He states that Jesus lived in the framework of the Jewish pattern, as did the disciples.  But he will not go along with fully keeping up this pattern, though recognizing that much of the Christian worship pattern came from Judaism.

We know however from history, how and over what period of time the change took place from the seventh day Sabbath to Sunday.  It took many centuries, and happened because religious, political, and social forces in the Roman Empire created pressures, and led church leaders of that time to compromise the Word of God, and move as far away as possible from anything that could be considered Jewish, especially the Sabbath.  They substituted Sunday, a much more acceptable day to the pagan Roman world.

Several factors can be noted.  Every writer agree with the following

1. With the increasing amount of Gentiles there was likely to be a pulling away from strict orthodoxy. Dissension was bound to develop.
2. The fact that Jews persecuted Christians did not help the situation.
3. The Romans faced powerful opposition and rebellion from Jews.  Even after the fall of Jerusalem and the tremendous slaughter in A.D. 70, Jews revolted in Cyrene, Egypt, and Cyprus in A.D.115, and more than 220,000 Greeks and Romans perished in Cyrene alone.  Roman suppression was ruthless.  In A.D. 132-135 the Jews again revolted and the Romans lost so many troops that their top general had to be recalled from Britain to lead the fight.  It took three years to crush this last revolt, and the leader Bar Kochba was killed.  Roman anti-Judaism was high.  Jews were forbidden, under threat of death, to enter Jerusalem. Hadrian outlawed Judaism, the study of the torah, and Sabbathkeeping. Judaism was called a barbarous superstition, and Jews were called by Seneca an accursed race.  With this anti-Semitism, the Christians, who were not yet differentiated from Jews, took steps to appear to be distinct so that they would not be attacked.  They thus began to ease away from “anything Jewish”.
4. Sun worship was a prominent feature in the pagan system of nature worship.  The biggest challenge to Christianity was a cult called Mithraism.  Many felt that this would supplant Christianity.  Many pagans came from this sort of worshipping background into Christianity, and brought their views with them.  One heresy, the Manichaean heresy, thought that Jesus was the visible image of the sun.  All the Roman Emperors including Nero, Hadrian, and others, erected images, obelisks, and altars in honor of the sun.  Thus worshipping on Sundays as well as on Saturdays was practiced. This continued steadily for a long time. Mosaics began to picture Christ with rays of light shining from the back of his head. The symbol of Christ was that of “the Sun of righteousness”.  The church at Rome began celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25th, the same day as the pagans celebrated the birth of the ‘Invincible Sun’. Christians like sun worshippers began praying toward the East, the direction of the rising sun.  It is recorded that Tertullian had to refute charges that Christians were sun worshippers.    

The church leaders had to come up with some reason for adopting Sunday, since they had no support in the Bible. Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) said Sunday commemorate the first day of creation particularly the creation of light.  On this day God transformed the darkness and matter, creating the world. In addition, he stated, God imposed the Sabbath on Jews as a mark to single them out for the punishment they deserved for their infidelities.

Marcion, in 144 A.D, another early church father, and Victorinus, a Bishop, in 304 A.D. also interpreted the Sabbath of the Jews as something which God hated, and which he used to punish them. Eusebius (A.D 260-340) and Jerome (340-420) also said that they celebrated Sunday because God created light on that day. 

When sun worship began to fade from the Empire, the church leaders  began to use the resurrection as the primary reason for Sunday worship. They still do so today.  Many of course fought these ideas, but they lost out of to those in the seat of power and prominence.  Many  Christians in Asia and other places still observed the seventh day Sabbath. 

When the Emperor Constantine, a sun worshipper himself came to power, he recognized three special days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  He called on all subjects to observe Sunday as the Lord’s Day, and observe Friday, to honour what Christ did on that day. Gregory of Nyssa and even the Council of Laodicea, while condemning the Jewish observance of Saturday, designated it as a festival and a day of worship. Constantine depended on his army, who were worshippers of Mithras, the “Unconquerable sun”, and he appeased them, by transferring and imposing the Day of the Sun, as the new chief worship Day. Athanasius, in the fourth century, then argued that it was Christ himself who had really transferred the day of the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day.

The philosophical foundation which led to all this error was that of Gnosticism, a philosophy of creation which was very anti-Judaism.

In this system Jehovah was the inferior and national God of the Jews, who created the world of matter and inferior beings. Yahweh was not the God of the Pleroma or Fullness, and his people were inferior.  Since he created the material world, his revelation, the Old Testament, was of no value except to Jews.

This gave the intellectual foundation for the rejection of God and his laws. Justin Martyr, one of the pagan born philosopher Christians, quite early developed this idea that the Sabbath was an institution of the Jews and that this Sabbath was not binding on Christians.

He made the first definite known reference to Sunday so we should look at it carefully, for it is often quoted.  This is what he says and it is found in his “Dialogue with Trypho, the Jew”:

“On the day which is called Sunday there is an assembly in one place of all who dwell either in towns or in the country, and the Memoirs of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets, are read, as long as the time permits. Then, when the reader hath ceased, the President delivers a discourse in which he reminds and exhorts them to the imitation of all these good things. We then all stand up together and put forth prayers. Then, as we have already said, when we cease from prayer, bread is brought, and wine, and water; and the President in like manner offers up prayers and praises with his utmost power; and the people express their assent by saying Amen. The consecrated elements are then distributed and received by every one, and a portion is sent by the deacons to whom are absent.

Each of those also who have abundance, and are willing, according to his choice, gives what he thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the President, who succors the fatherless and widows, and those who are in necessity from disease or any other cause; those also who are in bonds, and the strangers who are sojourning among us; and, in a word, takes care of all who are in need.

We all of us assemble together on Sunday, because it is the first day in which God changed darkness and matter and made the world. On the same day also Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead. For he was crucified the day before that of Saturn; and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them what we now submit to your consideration”. “First apology,” chapter 67.

Abraham Lewis analysed this passage as follows, in order to show the drift away from the Bible. Lewis stated

“Analysed, this gives the following. A religious service was held on Sunday. Beyond that fact there is no evidence of any cessation of business. There is no word of Sunday as the Sabbath, nor is it or its observance associated with the fourth Commandment. Sunday appears as a new institution, based on reasons wholly unlike those which produced the Sabbath.

The first reason is drawn directly from Gnostic speculation. The second reason is a pure invention, so far as the bible is concerned. Men talk loosely about observing Sunday in honor of the resurrection of Christ. But the fact remains that the bible nowhere associates the observance of Sunday or any other day with the resurrection of Christ.

The Bible does not even say that Christ’s resurrection took place on Sunday. It was made known to his disciples on that day, but they did not believe the report to be true. There is much evidence that the exact time of Christ’s resurrection was in the evening of the Sabbath. (Matt. 28:1)

Justin is the first writer to make it a reason, direct or indirect, for any regard for Sunday. The first recorded reasons for holding an assembly on Sunday are coined by Justin. They are both extra-biblical and anti-biblical.

The leading influences in this birth of Sunday as a day of assembling are easily seen. In the theories of Justin, the old Testament, the Decalogue, and the Sabbath, had been pushed out of sight. Semi-pagan leaders had begun the work of harmonizing and mingling Christianity and the prevailing pagan systems. Analogy had been invented between the Rising Sun and the Risen Christ.

This form of introducing Sunday into Christianity was the first definite product in the process of religious syncretism which developed so widely and rapidly in the succeeding centuries.

We are therefore prepared for the following descriptions of Sunday as a chief holiday, about fifty years after Justin tells of its introduction into Christian history.”

Almost all, if not all, the so called early church Fathers show this clear rebellion to the Word of God, and denigrate Jews and everything Jewish.

In both Constantine’s century, and ours, we see the pagan state and the church in a close relationship, one supplying the ideas, and the other providing the authority. This Church-State union is an embarrassment to Christians. The seed of Dachau was planted then.

Jews have been forced from the first century to identity themselves as Jews, and to submit to church rites. They have been massacred, and expelled from Christian countries.

They constantly had to flee, and often not even conversion could save them. The Roman Catholic Church has, by and large, supported and participated in this tragedy.

But in spite of everything, the Word of God has never been wiped out. Disparate and strange groups have fought against the established authority, and kept the faith alive.

Many attempts have been made to keep the Sunday worship alive, by imposing Sunday laws, but its degeneration and decay has continued. It will be impossible to revive it and stop its slow decay, since it is not based on the Word of God.

THE ERROR OF MAN’S WAYS

The problem is that Gentiles Christians either try to establish that they have the power to change of transfer what God has commanded to whatever they like, or have tried to establish a radical break between the Old and the New Testaments.

 They therefore attempt to ignore the teaching of the Scriptures, and affirm that the Sabbath was introduced by Moses exclusively for the Jews.

They then add that since the Jews were disobedient, and God rejected and punished them, Christ’s coming involved changing the entire structure, and eliminate things Jewish.

Some are more sophisticated, arguing that Christ showed his authority by rendering the Jewish Sabbath to be an anachronism. His followers have been given the power to reject the Sabbath, and institute any other day that they wish.

It is therefore taught that there is a radical break and difference between the Old and the New Testament, Law and Grace, Judaism and Christianity.

But none of this is based on the Bible, but is rather based on intellectual sophistry. It has only led to disaster, and anti-Semitism, this, despite the warnings of Paul. The truth is that the Bible is a seamless Book, with one theme and one message inspired by the same Holy Spirit. It is consistent throughout, and the writers were all inspired.

The misunderstandings of Paul’s references to the law and to the Sabbath has made many people hold up Paul as a man who constantly disagreed with, and wrote and taught things which are contrary to those things taught by the other Apostles.  It said that he did away with the Sabbath for Gentile Christians, while the other Apostles clung to the “outdated” ways.

This is of course absurd fantasy. It was the same Holy Spirit which inspired the ancient prophets, and guided, taught and inspired all the Apostles, including Paul.  To suggest that there is a contradiction between the prophets and the Apostles, or contradictions among the Apostles in doctrine, is to think and proclaim an unimaginable heresy.

Similarly, to suggest that Moses was in error when he wrote the passage about the 7th day in Genesis 2 and in Exodus 20 is not worthy of true believers.  The Holy Spirit cannot inspire error.

Paul was not an hypocrite, nor was he trying to trick the Jews by pretending he was serious about the vows he took on his last visit to Jerusalem.

In Colossians Paul was addressing the astrological practices that had gripped and enslaved pagans.  When he referred to observing times and days, he was using a term which referred to the belief that the planets controlled human affairs, and he was not referring to Jewish practices or to the law of Moses.

In the Book Times and Seasons, this comment is made

“When St. Paul in some of his letters speaks of people being enslaved under the ‘stoicheia’, for a long time it was uncertain what he meant, because ‘stoicheia’ can mean ‘the alphabet’ or the ‘rudiments of knowledge’, and to translate the word in this way does not seem to make any sense of the passages in Galatians 4:3 and Colossians 2:8. ‘Stoicheia’ is, however, used for ‘the elements’, in the sense of the ‘signs of the zodiac’ or ‘the planets’, and if we use this translation we get very good sense. What St. Paul aims at showing is that until people become Christians they are enslaved by a belief in astrology, that is to say they think that the planets control the events of life from day to day, and as he says, they observe days and months and seasons and years, and are always on the lookout for lucky and unlucky, auspicious and inauspicious days and even hours, and therefore have no real freedom, but are just puppets.”

Clearly then, Paul is not referring to the weekly Sabbath, or even the Jewish holy days in his comments to the Galatians and the Galatians. He was attacking superstition, and the hold it had on the people.

Paul observed the Sabbath, as did the other Apostles. They observed the Jewish holy days. It is ridiculous to even think that Paul could be saying that these observances were heretical and foolish. If he were doing that, he would have been condemning himself.

The texts generally quoted, have nothing to do with Sabbath observance, but are really references to other practices.

It seems clear that Gentiles have not learned the lessons which Jews neglected, and themselves have corrupted the Sabbath worship. This is a tragedy.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SEVENTH DAY

Some scientists are now pointing to the innate seven day rhythms of living things. They state that even cells in the body have their own rhythms. The idea is that the millions of daily functions that occur in our bodies are organized within some rhythmic system. Some bodily tasks occur quickly in seconds, minutes or hours, while others occur more slowly over time.

Jeremy Campbell explains how this operates:

“A particular function of the body may have a spectrum of rhythms with a dominant frequency that is very different from the dominant frequency of the spectrum of rhythms in another function, widely separated in space.

Yet no matter which frequency component is the primary one in any given function, all rhythmic systems of the body possess an innate circaseptan frequency so that when they cooperate to perform a specific task which is body-wide, say, an immune reaction, the reaction occurs on a weekly schedule.

That schedule is a compromise between too much time and too little. A day and a night, which is the dominant frequency in the spectrum of many routine body chores, would not be long enough to complete the complicated array of chemical and other activities that compose the immune and defence reaction, and a month would be too long.

In addition to being the key coordinating rhythm for the rest of the body’s many rhythmic interactions, a seven day cycle has been found in fluctuations of blood pressure, acid content in blood, red blood cells, heartbeat, oral temperature, urine chemistry and volume, the ratio between the two important neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and epinephrine, and the rise and fall of several body chemicals such as stress coping hormone, cortisol.

“In fact”, Perry and Dawson note, “weekly rhythms appear easiest to detect when the body is under stress, such as when it is defending itself again a virus, bacterium, or other harmful intruder. For example, cold symptoms last about a week. Chickenpox symptoms usually appear almost exactly two weeks after exposure to the illness.

Doctors have long observed that response to malarial infection and pneumonia crisis peaked at seven days. Organ transplants face similar crises as the body’s immune system attack the foreign organ. Campbell explains: “When a human patient receives a kidney transplant, there is a rhythm of about seven days, a predictable rise and fall in the probability that the body’s immune system will reject the new kidney. A major peak of rejection occurs seven days after the operation, and when a serum is given to suppress the immune reaction, a series of peaks occur, with increasing risk of rejection, at one week, two weeks, three weeks, and at four weeks, the time of the highest of all…..

Every living being has embedded in its primal genetic material a rhythm, a clock, a beat, a frequency, a resonance that helps it to get in sync to live and function as designed.

Now we discover that the beat all life is tuned to is seven.

In Franz Halberg’s view, “summarizes Campbell, “a central feature of biological time structure is the harmonic relationship that exists.. a striking aspect of this relationship is that the components themselves appear to be harmonics or subharmonics, multiples or submultiples of seven, a number that has played a disproportionately large role in human culture, myth, religion, magic, and the calendar.”

The Bible has already told us that the Creator had designed and made this world. He set up and established it in seven days. The cycle of Creation was closed at seven days, and the clock of time was set forward. God gave life the frequency of seven. It is the beat of creation, that points to the One who started life.

We therefore propose, as the Bible teaches, that you get into tune with your Creator. He made the Sabbath for man, so that he would commune with his Creator on the seventh day, and close off that cycle in perfect harmony with God.

Let us obey God and worship him on the seventh day Sabbath as he commanded. There is much to learn about his relationship with us. We must never disobey him. What seems to be a little thing might in fact be a matter of life and death.