Sabbath vs Sunday: Part 1 - God Instituted the Sabbath to Stand Forever
At Grafted Branch Church, we worship on the seventh day of the week—the Sabbath, more commonly known as Saturday. We strive to honor it by refraining from work and by spending the day focusing on Yehovah. This is in stark contrast to the practice of many in mainstream Christianity. Most professing Christians today believe the Sabbath was either changed to Sunday, or was done away with entirely, in response to the death and resurrection of the Messiah—a belief many in Grafted Branch Church also shared at one time. However, as we tested our practice of Sunday worship against scripture, we found it is not consistent with Yehovah’s clear instructions, and our reasons for worshiping on Sunday were lacking. Instead, we found that God clearly demands to be worshiped on the Sabbath day, beginning, incidentally, in the first book of the Bible:
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 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.
—Genesis 2:1-3
When one studies the scriptures, one of the themes that quickly becomes apparent throughout is that God expects us follow His example. He desires us to love what He loves, hate what He hates; accept what He accepts and reject what He rejects. To be holy, as He is holy. We are to follow the example He has laid out for us in the person of His Son, the Messiah. But the very first pattern He set out for those who follow Him to imitate is the one laid out in creation week: six days of labor, one day of rest; six days of labor, one day of rest; ad infinitum. Lest you think I am exaggerating the application of this passage, consider how Moses makes the very same point in the second book of the Bible, Exodus:
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
—Exodus 31:12-17
Obviously, the omnipotent Creator did not require six long days to form the earth; and certainly He did not need a day to rest because He was weary. No, His decision to work six days and rest the seventh was based solely on His desire to establish a pattern that he wished man to follow. How important this pattern must be in the eyes of Yehovah, and how strongly He must desire for man to keep it, for Him to model creation week after it! Indeed, it was so important to Him, that the penalty for breaking the Sabbath was death, as the passage above clearly stated more than once:
…Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death….
—Exodus 31:14-15
Clearly, God is very serious about His day of rest. However, many believe that despite Yehovah’s intense interest in the day in the past, after the Messiah came, the day had served its purpose and the keeping of it would lose importance. However, this is not the feeling one gets from reading this passage. Consider the verses again:
…Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
—Exodus 31:16-17
It is interesting how God points to the pattern of creation as the reason the practice is to last forever. It is not difficult to understand the logic that if God began time with a pattern, the requirement to follow the pattern would be timeless. We are sure no one would disagree that when Yehovah says something will last “forever”, whether He is talking about eternal life, the Sabbath, or anything else, it means it will never, ever end. Clearly, this means Yehovah’s command to keep the Sabbath is applicable yesterday, today, tomorrow, and “forever”.
One objection that is raised to this clear command to keep the Sabbath in perpetuity, however, is that it is directed to “the children of Israel” in “their” generations. Thus, it is argued, it does not apply to gentiles. It is interesting to note that many who would make this argument would also say that there is no need for anyone at all to keep the Sabbath, including those who are of Jewish blood. In other words, even this explanation of the passage does not make sense with their position. But as one thinks about it, it does not make sense that God is only concerned about those ethnically Jewish keeping the Sabbath. Nor does scripture support the idea:
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: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
—Exodus 20:10-11
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, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
—Deuteronomy 5:14
One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD. One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
—Numbers 15:15-16
From these passages, it is clear that the command to keep the Sabbath extended not only to those of semitic heritage, but also to any stranger (meaning “gentile”) that resided with them. Indeed, Isaiah prophecies of blessing that will come on those gentiles who seek covenant with Yehovah by keeping His Sabbath far into the future during the millennial reign of the Messiah:
Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
—Isaiah 56:6-7
Why would Yehovah promise to bless gentiles who keep the Sabbath in the millennium, which is set to occur thousands of years after the death of the Messiah, unless there is an expectation for both Jews and gentiles to keep the Sabbath “forever”? If the Messiah rendered the Sabbath obsolete, why keep it thousands of years after His death?
These questions are worth considering. Because clearly, Yehovah is serious about His day of worship. He set the pattern with creation, and decreed anyone breaking it was worthy of death. This pattern would be continue to be kept by generations of Jews and Yehovah-seeking gentiles for millennia after creation and Moses. These people recognized the importance of this sacred day, and were wary of anyone who would seek to turn them aside from keeping it. If, for some reason, God were to choose to change His day of worship entirely—for example, by moving it from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week in honor of the Messiah’s resurrection—one would expect He would make His intentions abundantly clear. We would expect to see clear proclamations from the mouth of Yehovah, His Messiah, and His prophets of this radical change that seemed to challenge and contradict every scriptural passage on the subject up to that point and was never once prophesied to occur. We should see not one, but at least two or three witnesses to establish the matter.
But there is not even one. At best, there are but a handful of unclear New Testament passages that appear to depict believers worshiping on the first day of the week. Many in mainstream Christianity point to these passages as setting a pattern for Sunday worship—one that purportedly supersedes the pattern Yehovah established at the beginning of time. In light of the passages we have just finished studying, however, it is clear that these passages can only be interpreted in one of two ways: either a), the passages record disobedience, or b), the passages are misunderstood and do not truly portray Sunday worship.
Which is it? In Part 2 of this series, we will take an in-depth look at these passages, many of which at one time caused many in Grafted Branch Church to stumble. As you will see, many of these passages are simply misunderstood by countless sincere Christians today due to translational prejudice, biased interpretation, and widespread lack of Old Testament knowledge. As you continue through the series, you will find, as we did, that Yehovah does not change: He is the same—yesterday, today, and forever.