What Is The Sabbath Day
During Creation, our Father created the heavens, earth and all that is contained within them in six days. On the seventh day, God rested from His Work, .
Our Father designated this day as the day of rest so that we could cease from our own works. To provide us with a day of rest so that we could reflect on what He has done for us. This seventh day is known as the Sabbath Day, being one day of rest out of seven.
Is The Seventh Day The Sabbath
The New Testament is in agreement as to which day is the seventh day of the week. One of the most straight-forward references is found in Luke 23:53-56 & Luke 24:1, and describes Joseph of Arimathaea taking the body of Jesus down off the cross. 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. 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 theSabbath according to the commandment. 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.
This Bible passage shows the chronology of the week including how the Sabbath day and the first day of the week relate to each other. According to Luke 23:54, Jesus died on the preparation day which we now call Good Friday. The next day, Sabbath, the women rested according to the commandment. Finally, after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week, Jesus was resurrected.
Preparation day or sixth day = FridaySabbath day or seventh day = SaturdayResurrection day or first day = Sunday
Which Day Is The Sabbath Day
Which day is the Sabbath day? Is Sabbath spiritually a day?
From the article worshiping the Sabbath day, we have learned how to answer controversial questions.
I am sure you have heard this question or someone has asked you, which day is the Sabbath day? All sorts of explanation, perversions and twists have been brought out but where is the truth?
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What Activities Constitute Work
In the years after the temple was rebuilt following the exile , scribes and rabbis studied the words of Scripture, interpreting every detail. What kinds of work could be allowed on the Sabbath within the Law? For example, according to the Law, no work was to be done on the Sabbath, so that meant burdens were not to be carried on that day. So scholars debated what constituted a burden. On the surface, the scribes had good reasons for interpreting the Law carefully since they did not want anyone to break it inadvertently. But their interpretations increasingly emphasized external adherence to the Law rather than cultivating an attitude of submission before God. Obeying their own interpretations became a source of pride instead of an expression of love for God.
Jesus healings on the Sabbath enraged the religious teachers who classified healing as work and therefore prohibited it . He revealed the rabbis hypocrisy with his response.
The Pharisees said to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? answered, Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.
Then he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is Asked A 1969 Hit Song What About Holy Time Ordained By God Do We Really Know What Day Is The Sabbath
Some say Gods Sabbath is Sunday some say its Saturday. Others say both are wrong, and that Friday is Gods holy time. Still others say it doesnt make any difference which day we pick as long as we worship and honor God on that day.
How can we know for sure which day was the Sabbath of the Bible? The Bible was written so long ago and there have been so many calendars, calculated in so many ways, since then, havent there?
Are the days of the week counted as they were at the time of creation? Or even since the time of Christ?
Some of those who ask such questions then tell us that since we cant know for sure what day is the Sabbath today we just need to acknowledge one day in seven to worship, and all will be well!
Sounds logical, doesnt it? After all, there are more than 40 different calendars in use today around the world. There have been so many changes and so many different ways of calculation, that some may think time has been lost.
That may sound right and provide an excuse to justify not carefully proving which day is the Christian Sabbath. But the fact is that this premise is false. Time has not been lost, and we can know for certain that the seventh day of the week is still the Sabbath established at creation.
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Esteeming One Day Above Another
Some cite Romans 14:5-6 as proof that it doesn’t matter which day we keep as the Sabbath or whether we keep any day at all. In this passage, the Apostle Paul states, “One person esteems one day above another another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.” But is this really talking about Sabbath-keeping?
Notice the rest of verse 6: “He who EATS, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks and he who DOES NOT EAT, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.” What is this about? Romans 14 begins with Paul telling the Christians in Rome to receive those who are “weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things” -i.e. things some we are not sure about. In verse 2, Paul mentions some who would eat only vegetables for various religious reasons-even though the Bible shows in many places that it is acceptable to eat clean meat. For instance, the parable of the prodigal son pictures a righteous father preparing a “fatted calf” to be eaten .
So to those who thought it was all right to eat meat, Paul said, “Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat” . But continuing in the same verse, he said, “And let not him who does not eat judge him who eats for God has received him.” Yet Paul told those who thought it was okay not to flaunt that in front of those who did not .
Forget Your Former Image
So finding mercy when you come to the throne of grace means you forget your former image of a grasshopper the language used in Numbers 13. The language of the New Testament is to let go of sin consciousness. You let go of your imperfection.
When you come to the throne of grace what you experience is the man that is seated declaring the work is finished so why do you labor?
- Why is your soul still trying to get into that motion?
- Why is your soul not enjoying union with Him and sitting in the same place?
- Why is your soul not realizing that this place was actually yours the day that I raised from the dead and I ascended and I was seated?
So right now our rest is our sitting with Christ, being where He is, seeing us the way He is.
About the author
Masoud & Rose Ramandi were born in Iran into Muslim families. They encountered Jesus Christ when they were reading the Bible for the first time. They experienced such a life transformation that they never new it was even existed. They realized that Jesus Christ is the Mystery of all ages that needs to be revealed through Spirit and Truth daily until humanity is transformed to the image of His Son. They now have the passion to teach the revelation of the mystery and help everyone to grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ, to the Perfect Man!
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The Sabbath Is In The Conscience
The land of Egypt, which was actually the land of bondage, was the place that they came out of but when they came out Egypt their consciousness had not changed.
This brings us to the book of Hebrews which uses the word conscience more than any other book of the bible. Do you think its a coincidence that we have a book that talks about conscience, rest and perfection more than any other book in the bible? No, its not, because they are related.
This is what God is saying: If your conscience sees your perfection you enter into your rest but if your conscience does not believe what God says about you then you will not enter into rest.
This is the rest that He speaks about just as God in the past extended this day, which is today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart.
He has extended that day forever, so that today, finally for you, it happens.
This means there would be a day that when you hear you would no longer harden your heart and I understand this had been gradually happening in some areas, maybe better than other areas, but lets understand the concept.
He says in hearing what the Holy Spirit says we would enter into REST
So guess what the Holy Spirit should be speaking to us about:
It is PERFECTION!!!
God didnt want humanity to see imperfection in them because the moment you see imperfection you respond imperfectly
But the moment you see perfection you respond perfectly, or in perfection.
What Is A Day
Naturally, a day is a 24 hour period of time marked by one revolution of the earth from sunrise to sunrise. This revolution brings us day and night, the sun ruling the day and the stars and moon ruling the night. That is how mankind calculates a day, but what about our Father?
Were the six days of Genesis days as we think of them?
I do not believe so.
Scripture tells us the lights in the firmament, the sun, moon and stars were not appointed until the fourth day, . So how can we believe four days, four 24 hour periods of time, the rising and setting of the sun occurred when the sun, stars and moon were not yet in place to mark the days calculation?
Regardless of ones belief here, my point is simple, we cannot be 100% certain what day is truly the seventh day of the week. The seventh day is simply a marker for us, one day out of seven should be our rest.
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The Origins Of Sabbath
Before we answer that question, lets take a quick look at the idea of Sabbath rest in the Hebrew Scriptures . There are two main Hebrew words used for rest in the Bible. The first is shabbat, which gets partially translated into the English word sabbath. This word for rest simply means to stop working. Think of an hourly job where you clock out at the end of a shift. The work is done theres no more until you clock back in.
The other main Hebrew word for rest used in the Hebrew Scriptures is nuakh. This means to dwell or settle. This is not the same as clocking out from an hourly job. This type of rest is like sitting in front of a fire with a loved one or unpacking a suitcase to stay at grandmas house for the holidays. Its essentially about being restfully present.
God sets up shabbat and nuakh right around the same time. In the Bibles account of creation, God works for six days creating the world and rests on the seventh day . After six days of bringing order to chaos, now it is time to shabbat from this work. Only a few verses later, we read that God creates humans and then immediately rests them or settles them with himself in the garden of Eden . It seems like the ideas of shabbat and nuakh are meant to work together. God leads by example as he rests from work and then dwells together with his people. How will the rest of the story go?
Practice Of The Original Apostles
Throughout the book of Acts, we find that the Apostles continued to observe the Sabbath regularly. They did this with Jews as well as with Gentiles, and-guided by the Holy Spirit-the entire early New Testament Church continued to meet on the seventh-day Sabbath for decades after Jesus’ death. Even mainline Protestant historians acknowledge this fact. In his book, The Story of the Christian Church, Jesse Lyman Hurlbut states, “As long as the church was mainly Jewish, the Hebrew sabbath was kept but as it became increasingly Gentile the first day gradually took the place of the seventh day” .
Notice that Hurlbut says the first day “gradually” replaced the seventh-day Sabbath. Did God gradually do away with His law? Ridiculous! As we shall see later, conniving me “gradually” DECEIVED millions of professing Christians into doing away with not only the Sabbath, but the entire concept of obedience to God’s law!
However, no such change took place during the lifetime of Christ’s original Apostles. Even the Apostle Paul-the Apostle to the Gentiles-kept the Sabbath regularly. And he wasn’t even converted to Christianity until well after Christ’s resurrection. Notice the account of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13:14: “But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down.”
We do NOT!
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Can We Buy And Sell On Sabbath Day
We know that we are not supposed to work on the Sabbath Day, but there are more instructions concerning our actions. The scriptures below tell us there is no buying or selling:
Nehemiah 10:31
And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day:
As you can see from scriptures buying or selling clothes or food is also not permitted on the Sabbath Day.
These are all things that we would be unaware of, if we hadnt studying the scriptures the way we have been commanded to:
2 Timothy 2:15
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Bible Verses About The Sabbath Day
There is so much confusion about what is the Sabbath Day and are Christians required to keep the fourth commandment, the Sabbath? No, Christians are not required to keep the Sabbath Day like many strict legalistic groups say. This is dangerous. Requiring someone to keep the Sabbath for salvation is salvation by faith and works. This is putting chains back on those who were free from those chains by Christ.
The Sabbath is a day of rest in remembrance of the Lord creating The Universe in six days and then resting on the seventh day. Many strict legalist groups have changed the meaning from rest to all out worship.
We should worship God with our lives every day not just one day of the week. Jesus is our everlasting Sabbath. We dont have to fight for our salvation. We may rest upon His perfect work on the cross.
Quotes
- The external observance of the Sabbath rest is a Jewish ceremonial ordinance and no longer binding on Christians. Sabbatarians surpass the Jews three times over in a crass and carnal Sabbatarian superstition. John Calvin
- Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of Gods grace. Charles Spurgeon
- Justification is a completed fact for the believer it is not an ongoing process. John MacArthur
When God commanded the Sabbath in Exodus we see that it was a covenant between Him and Israel.
Bonus
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Early Christians Kept The Sabbath
After Jesus ascended into heaven, early Christians continued to observe the Sabbath.
Aside from the daily meetings , they also met for Sabbath worship.
Acts 17:2 tells us that it was Pauls custom to go into the synagogue on Sabbath and reason with the people from the Scriptures. In this case while at Thessalonica, He did this for three Sabbath days in a row.
This is the same description that was used about Jesus as we saw earlier.
While at Corinth, Paul persuaded both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue on Sabbath .
And in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas went to the Synagogue on Sabbath. When asked to speak to the people after the main presentation, Paul explained to them about Jesus being the fulfilment of Gods promise of the Messiah .
And after the Jews went out of the Synagogue, the gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath .
And on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God .
Sabbath meetings were also time for prayer.
And at times, the meetings were held outdoors, not in the synagogue. This was Pauls experience at Philippi:
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together