IS SUNDAY THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH? |
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Amos
As prophecied, most
Christians refuse to open Bibles today to verify what their pastors say. In this
age of convenience they have been conditioned to trust the pastors without
question. This prophecied “lukewarm”
mindset, as Revelation 3:16 calls it, has given rise to false preachers all
around the world. These wolves in sheep’s clothing can easily lie to their
congregations knowing with absolute confidence that the majority of their
victims will never check up on them. As for the small number of Christians that
do investigate their false message using the Bible, they are quickly kicked out
of the churches so as to prevent the truth from spreading. To keep those remaining
in the church happy, they now preach prosperity messages on how to gain wealth,
amusing sermons, and even rock music mixed with Gospel lyrics to keep the
people entertained. As prophecied, they then use false doctrines that all the
world agrees with to make their flock feel they are safe and doing the right
thing with the thought that since everyone else believes in this way it must be
right. Case in point, one of the oldest and most successfully evangelized false
doctrines has to be the so called Sunday sabbath. In this tract we will look at
the verses they claim are saying the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh
day to the first day of the week.
CLAIM #1… Acts 20:7 “And upon the first
[day] of the week, when the disciples came together to break
bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the
morrow; and continued his speech until
This meeting was held at night. If you read on you also find in the next verse it mentions the "many lights in the upper chamber.” Later in verse 11 it also states after they ate, Paul “talked a long while, even till break of day.” The question then is, are they saying this a church service because they broke bread, and since it was on the “first day” it must mean the Sabbath was changed? Problem with that thought is, in Acts 2:46 it says that they normally continued "…daily …breaking bread from house to house." Since they define this is a church service, this must be the format the church must emulate today. If Acts 20:7 is the definitive proof we need to validate Sabbath being changed from the seventh day to the first day of the week, then all Sunday keeping churches must...
CLAIM #2… I Corinthians 16:2 “Upon the first [day] of the week
let every one of you lay by him in store, as [god] hath prospered him, that
there be no gatherings when I come.”
There is absolutely no
reference whatsoever of a public meeting, or church service mentioned here for
when Paul arrives. Some declare this to be a church service because Paul is
gathering what they call “tithes.” But if you read past the verse they give out
of context, you find the word “liberality”
is actually used to describe this offering in verse #3 of that same chapter.
That word defined is “monetary gift”
in Strong’s Bible Concordance. (#5485) Also notice Paul is asking for that to
be given from what "God hath prospered" in the passage given
to sanction Sunday as sabbath. I ask, is this normal tithing practices of a
church service to give from what God has prospered which is now stored in
savings? Is not Luke 18:12 rather plain wherein it says, "I give tithes of all that I possess."
Biblical truth is, it's
not a church service because first and foremost it's never declared as such.
Nor is it tithing that Paul is gathering, which for some reason they claim
makes it a church service. Paul was gathering what we call “love offerings”
today. Finally, if the entire passage is read in context it’s discovered the
passage is actually about Paul stopping by on his way to
CLAIM #3… Revelation
Some use this verse to
declare Sunday is now Sabbath simply because John uses the term "the Lord's day." Truth is, the
Scriptures already define the seventh day Sabbath as the Lord's day thousands
of years prior in Isaiah 58:13 wherein we find the Lord calling, "…the sabbath, …my holy day;”
quite bluntly. Even Jesus Himself stated in the New Testament Scriptures in Matthew
12:8 that, “…the Son of man is Lord
even of the Sabbath day.”
Many forget the very first
thing recorded in the Bible itself is work being done on Sunday in Genesis 1:1-5.
God in point of fact commands all men to work upon the first day of the week in
the heart of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11. He specifically says in
verse nine of that Commandment that, "Six
days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:" Is it wrong
for us to obey God? Did not the apostles state in Acts 5:29 that, “…we ought to obey God rather then men.”
God calls Sunday a work day in Exodus 23:12; 31:15; 34:21; 35:2, Leviticus
23:3, Deuteronomy
"...as a solar festival, Sunday was the sacred
day of Mithra; and it is interesting to notice that since Mithra was
addressed, as Dominus, 'Lord," Sunday must have been 'the Lord's Day'
long before Christian times." -The Paganism in Our Christianity, Arthur
Weigall, 1928, p136
The term "The Lord's day" was first coined
by John in the book of Revelation for the New Testament Christian church, yes.
But the Pagans of old used that term to describe their "lord's day"
as well. When
"The [Catholic] Church took the pagan
philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took
the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the
martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the
Christian Sunday. …The sun has
worshipers at this hour in
Some have
recently started using this passage to say the Sabbath is no longer valid
because Jesus broke it, or disregarded it when He was walking among us. First
of all, nowhere in this passage does it say Jesus abolished or broke the
Sabbath. What it does say here is the Pharisees assumed Jesus and the apostles
were breaking the commandment by picking corn to eat. Yet Jesus proves with
Scriptural facts regarding King David, whom the Jews respected, that He and His
apostles were not breaking Sabbath at all. Jesus clearly corrected the false
teachings of the Pharisees here. If it was ok for David to relieve his hunger
and the hunger of those with him by eating bread that had been consecrated and
set apart for holy use, then it was perfectly ok for the disciples of Christ to
satisfy their hunger by plucking the corn on Sabbath day as well. Both David
and the Apostles were in God’s employment. Basic reality dictates the temple
priests, and even pastors today, perform greater labors on each Sabbath as they
do God’s work, do they not? The same type of labor in secular business would in
fact be considered sinful. However, the work of the priests was in the service
of God. The labors they performed each Sabbath pointed to the redeeming power
of Christ. Their labor was in perfect harmony with the object of the Sabbath
day so as to get the work done that brought souls into the truth. But now,
Christ Himself had come, and was walking among them. As all Christians will
agree, the disciples, were employed by God to do a holy and sanctified work. They
were merely doing that which was necessary for the achievement of their Heavenly
appointed work on Sabbath day. Jesus
confirmed this truth by stating He is “Lord
of the Sabbath.” Seeing how His apostles followed and emulated Him, this
proves they are employed to do His work and therefore free from guilt. Just
because the Pharisees didn’t see them as men employed by God doesn’t make it
true.
Jesus or His
apostles didn’t break the Sabbath here at all. Biblical truth is, “sin is the transgression of the law”
according to 1John 3:4. In other words, breaking the Law of God is how sin is
committed. Commandment #4 concerns the Sabbath day. To say Jesus broke Sabbath,
is to say Jesus sinned by breaking God’s Law. This is exactly what the
Pharisees are trying to declare here because they hated Him and His message. Yet
as Christians we know Christ never sinned. Truth is, if He did commit sin, He
would never have been that spotless Lamb of God, and Saviour to you and me.
Jesus proved in Mark chapter two that the Pharisees were in error regarding a
sin they invented about plucking corn on Sabbath day for Gospel workers. Yes, it
would be sin for those that harvested corn for a living if done so on the Sabbath.
But Jesus and His apostles were not employed as farmers. They were simply
hungry men employed of God.
By the way, for
those who assume it is ok to break Sabbath by using this passage, you are in
reality trusting the word of a non-believing Pharisee, who was just corrected
and exposed as in error by Jesus Christ Himself. In other words, those that
believe the Jews were correct in their assumptions, and ignore how Jesus defended
the Sabbath truth, and corrected the lying Pharisees, are in fact taking the
word of the Pharisees as truth over Christ. As we all know, the Pharisees deny
Christ as Lord to this day. Who then is telling the Truth? The ones who know
not the Word? Of the one who wrote the Word Himself?
CLAIM #5… Colossians 2:16-17 “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in
drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of
Christ.”
Simple truth here is, the
"sabbaths" mentioned here are not the weekly Sabbath of the Lord. Please
read Leviticus 23:23-38 and you will find that the sabbaths mentioned in
Colossians chapter 2 are the annual sabbaths, or what most today refer to as “feast
days” that acknowledged certain events that would be fulfilled in the future when
Christ came as Messiah. This is why Paul referred to them as “a shadow of things to come” in this
passage. Make special note that after it
lists the annual sabbaths in Leviticus 23:23-37 that it says in Verse 38 that
these annual sabbaths are “besides the Sabbath of the Lord.” In
Matthew
Please read Leviticus
23:23-38 and you will find FIVE annual "sabbaths" are defined as
"feast days" of the Lord within a 15 day period. This means they can in
no way be considered the weekly Sabbath when 5 are kept within 15 days.
By the way, this is not
the only reason the sabbaths in Colossians 2:14-17 can’t possibly be weekly
Sabbaths. When you read Leviticus 23:23-38 you will notice it talks about the meat and drink offerings
mentioned in the same way they are spoken of in Colossians 2:14-17. If these
annual sabbaths are the same as the Sabbath mentioned in the Law of God, then I
must ask all that use this passage to preach Sunday as the Christian Sabbath to
please share with me where in the Ten Commandments they see "meat, drink, holydays, or new moons” as we see Colossians chapter
2 speaking of. I must also ask if they do believe this verse preaches such a
thing, why don’t their Sunday keeping churches honor “meat, drink, holydays, or new moons” today?
The Law of God is not the
same as the law of Moses that Leviticus and Colossians are obviously referring
to here. Moses law, or “commandments
contained in ordinances” ended at
the cross as Ephesians 2:15 proved. And God’s Law stands forever as Luke 16:17
proclaimed.
Hebrews 9:1,10 says, "Then verily the first covenant had
also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. Which stood
only in meats and drinks, and divers
washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation."
CLAIM #6… Galatians 4:9-11, "But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly
elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days,
and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in
vain.
Some believe
this is speaking of Sabbaths because the word "days" in a way that suggests religious observance. However,
again we find that the weekly Sabbath is not mentioned here at all. If this is
read in context we find that Paul knew how the Galatians were at one time
Pagans, and therefore used to ritualistic forms of worship. The Jewish converts
to Christianity, like those in the book of Colossians, wanted to continue on
with their feast days. Their legalistic form of worship appealed to the
Galatians because of their Pagan roots, and had to be dealt with by Paul
because he hoped to prevent what we now see happening today. Like today’s feast
day movement, they sought to mix the annual Sabbaths into New Testament church worship.
This carnal law was only “until the time
of reformation” as we learned earlier. By causing the Galatians to fall for
this error they were able to eclipse the atoning work of Christ on
CLAIM #7… Romans 14:5 "One man esteemeth one day above
another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in
his own mind.
Again, nowhere
in this passage does it say we should keep Sunday as Sabbath. This is again speaking
of the annual holy-days that some of the Jews still felt compelled to keep. Most
Gentile converts to Christianity were not compelled to keep such feast days. Many
of the Jews had difficulty in giving up their life long traditions. A good way
to compare this with today’s Christian church is where some keep Pagan holidays
like Christmas and Easter, where others prefer not partake in such celebrations
and merrymaking. If they truly see no wrong in this act, we are not to judge
them. We can try to warn them of course, but that’s where our job ends. That’s
why it clearly states, “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind”
here. We cannot force any man to believe anything we believe. By the way, if you
read all of Romans 14, you will discover the true topic and find it was again taken
completely out of context.
God never
rested on the first day of the week. He never blessed it, nor did His Son Jesus
ever acknowledge the first day of the week in any way shape or form. The
Apostles never rested on it either. In fact, the New Testament Christians were
never recorded as being at rest on the first day of the week in any historic
reference, or bible Scripture known to man. If those that believe such things would
have researched their own church history they would have found that in 321AD
You cannot find
one single line of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation that proclaims Sunday
to be blessed, sanctified, made holy, or even enforced! Think about that for a
moment. NO LAW was ever made by the God of creation to enforce the first day of
the week. Romans
One more thing should be
mentioned here. Many do claim that the day Jesus rose from the dead is the
reason all should keep Sunday holy. However, the Word of God is quite clear
about how we as Christians are to acknowledge the death and resurrection of
Christ. It is not as all the Sunday preachers suggest by going to church on
Sunday. It is done by baptism.
Romans 6:3-5, "Know ye not, that so many of us as
were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by
baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection:"
In other words, when you
go under the water, you symbolize and acknowledge His death and burial. When
you come out of the water, you symbolize and acknowledge His resurrection.
Merely stepping into a church on the day He arose each week simply cannot do
this. In fact, if His death and resurrection was really the reason for going to
church on Sunday, why is it no one goes to church every Friday? Isn’t that the
day He died?
A $10,000.00 CHALLENGE
Some years ago I posted on the ministry website a challenge for all pastors,
preachers and even bible studying Christians to find a verse that declares God
changed the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the
week. If they were able to send the verse, I promised (and still do) to send
them $10,000.00 cash! Since then I have received quite a few attempts from
people using the verses I shared in this tract. Not a single pastor, preacher,
or bible teacher have ever been able to find that verse. What most people are
unaware of is, all of the religious leaders have already agreed in writing
there is no such verse in the Bible wherein it says God changed the Sabbath
from the day seven to day one. This Sunday sabbath is nothing more than a "TRADITION OF MEN." (Mark 7:8)
Think about this as well. The
Lord thy God worked on that day when He started creation. He even worked
on this day when He rose Jesus from the dead 2000 years ago. Biblical and
historic fact is, He actually rested and left His Son in the tomb on the Sabbath day. Even the New Testament
Christian women who went to anoint the body of Jesus, stopped in their tracks
and decided not to anoint Him because the Sabbath was drawing near. Luke
Without getting too
technical. It's easy to see that the Lord's day is in fact the 7th
day. This same God that said in Malachi 3:6 “For
I [am] the Lord, I change not... “ also said in Psalms 89:34 regarding
this covenant that we should “…not break, nor alter the
thing that is gone out of my lips.” The Sabbath is important because “…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 20:11)
And I Chronicles
If your church uses the
scriptures shared here to say Sunday is the Sabbath, then the Lord plainly says
in Revelation 18:4 that you should “…Come out of her, my people, that ye be
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
After all is
said and done, if you just read this entire tract, you know that you just discovered
Biblical evidence that absolutely every single verse every used to claim Sunday
is the Sabbath was done so in a deceptive manner to make Scripture appear to
say something it never said. Some will ask why have all the churches done such
an evil act as this? In Daniel 7:25 we find it prophecied that a beast would “think to change” the Sabbath so as to
get “all the world” to wonder after
him as Revelation 13:3 predicts happens right before the end of the World. Look
around. Do you see it fulfilled? All Christian churches now keep Sunday as
Sabbath, even though you now know for a fact there is not a single verse in the
Christian Bible to warrant such change as this. In case you missed the hint as
to who it is that changed the Sabbath earlier. Perhaps the following will help.
"Of course the
Catholic Church claims that the
change (Saturday Sabbath to Sunday) was her act... And the act is a MARK
of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things." -H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons.
"Sunday is our MARK of authority. . .the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance
is proof of that fact" -Catholic
Record of
“The Bible says,
Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. The Catholic church says, No! By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep the first
day of the week. And lo, the entire
civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy
Catholic church!”
-Fr Enright, C.S.S.R. History of the Sabbath, p. 802
"Had she not
such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree
with her; --she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the
observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there
is no Scriptural authority." -Rev. Stephan Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, "On the Obedience Due to the Church,"
chap. 2, p. 174. (Imprimatur, John Cardinal McCloskey, archbishop of
"Is not every
Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday
and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance
of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may read the
Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday.
The Scriptures enforce the
religious observance of Saturday,
a day which we never
sanctify." -James Cardinal
Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (1917
ed.), pp. 72, 73.
"Is not yet
too late for Protestants to redeem themselves. Will they do it?... will they
indeed take the written word only, the Scripture alone, as their
sole authority and their sole standard? Or will they still hold the
indefensible, self contradictory, and suicidal doctrine and practice of following the authority of the Catholic
church and wear the SIGN of her authority? Will they keep the Sabbath of
the Lord, the seventh day, according to Scripture? Or will they keep the
Sunday according to the tradition of the Catholic church, -
ON LAST THING...
"On every page of God's word the injunction to obedience is plainly written, and yet how often His commands are lightly regarded or wholly set aside! The command for the observance of the holy Sabbath of the Lord is placed in the very bosom of the decalogue, and is so plain that none need err as to its import, and yet it is treated with as great profanation as were the sacred vessels at the feast of Belshazzar. The condemnation of those who trample upon God's holy Sabbath will not come because they have conscientiously observed the first day of the week, but because they neglected opportunities for searching the Scriptures and learning, not what man has said, not what the ministers say, not what the fathers have said, but what saith the infinite God! What day has God specified as His holy day? What did He command men to honour when He spoke with an audible voice from Sinai? That voice is to be obeyed above every other; the edicts of kings and nations are void before a command of God. The Lord of hosts commands our obedience." -Bible Echo September 17, 1894 par. 6 |