The Sabbath and the Christian
by Dr. Allan P. Brown
Scriptures: Exodus 20:8:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
I Timothy 1:8: “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.”
Picture
yourself sitting in my office at God’s
Again,
picture yourself being asked by a sincere student, “Colossians
I have a copy of a sermon preached by an acquaintance of mine who asserted the following: 1) “The Sabbath” is the seventh day of the week, not Sunday (the first day of the week). 2) Sunday is not the Sabbath. 3) The Bible does not change the Sabbath to Sunday. 4) The Bible does not give commandments about not “desecrating Sunday” or the “Lord’s day” as Sunday is also called. There is nothing in the Bible that says there are things that can not be done on Sunday that are all right to do on other days. 5) Teaching the “commandments of men” about Sunday is false doctrine and displeasing to God.
Was my acquaintance correct in his/her
teaching? What does the Bible teach
about the “Sabbath” and the Christian? I submit the following information for
your serious and prayerful consideration.[1]
1.
God
instituted the Sabbath during the first week of creation, long before He gave
the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. (Gen. 2:2-3)
Sabbath observance predates the giving of the Mosaic Law, and is not to be
classified as only or primarily “Mosaic law,” and thus dismissed with the
statement, “in this dispensation we are not under law, but under grace.”
2.
The
Sabbath was instituted before the fall of man [before mankind sinned] and is
part of God’s eternal design and plan for mankind. (Gen. 2:2-3; Isa.
66:22-23)
3.
The
weekly Sabbath indicates God’s design for a seven day week.
God deliberately created the heavens and earth and all that is in them in six
days and then rested on the seventh day.
He did this to establish His design for mankind’s week. A week is to be seven days consisting of six days
for work and one day for rest and worship (Gen. 2:2; Exo. 20:8-11).
4.
The
word “Sabbath” does not mean Saturday.
The word “Sabbath” (Hebrew: shabbat)
means “to rest, to cease from working.”
It does not mean “seventh” (Hebrew: shebi‘i)
as in “seventh” day. Nor does it mean “Saturday.” The word “Sabbath” does not
inherently contain in itself an indicator of a specific day of the week. God
told mankind which day of the week he wanted them to rest (keep as the Sabbath). If he had not
said the “seventh” day (Saturday), they would not have known on which day to
rest.
5.
Weekly
Sabbath observance is God’s plan for the coming new heavens and the new earth.
At the end of this age, when God destroys this present world and creates the
new heavens and the new earth, Sabbath observance remains part of God’s
plan for mankind in eternity and is mandatory for everyone in the coming new
world. “For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I make, remain before
me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name continue. And it shall
come to pass from month to month, and from sabbath to sabbath, that all
flesh shall come to worship before me in Jerusalem, saith the Lord” (Isa.
66:22-23).
Since God instituted Sabbath observance at the creation of the world, required
it of His people during the duration of the Old Covenant, and requires it of
all people in the future on the new earth, does it seem reasonable to assume
that God does not care whether or not a person honors the Sabbath during this
New Testament age? In my opinion, the answer is, “No.” God presently expects
everyone to keep the Sabbath day holy.
6.
Sabbath
observance is so important in God’s plan that He placed it in His moral code
(the Ten Commandments - Exo. 20:8-11; Deut.
Moral standards, unlike the changing aspects of a culture, do not fluctuate. “My
covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips” (Psa.
89:34). When the Lord speaks, His word stands firm forever. His standards of
right and wrong do not change from age to age: “All His precepts are
trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, to be performed with
faithfulness and uprightness” (Psa. 111:78).
7.
On
the Sabbath no one is to buy or sell (Neh.
8.
No
secular work is to be done on the Sabbath.
For example, God did not allow the Israelites to collect manna on the
Sabbath. They were to work (collect
food) six days, and then rest and worship on the seventh (Exo.
9.
Both
the animals and the human work force were to rest on the Sabbath.
No one was to hire another person to work for him on the Sabbath (Exo
10.
Anyone
who did work on the Sabbath was to be put to death.
This teaches us how strongly God feels about Sabbath desecration! “For six days work may be done, but on the
seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does
any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death” (Exo. 31:15).
There were not many sins for which the penalty was physical death. When God did
require capital punishment, it was to teach that His standard for that
particular area of life was inflexible. Thus it seems incredible to me that
people teach that God no longer cares in this New Testament dispensation
whether or not we honor one day out of seven as a “Sabbath” unto the Lord.
11.
The
Sabbath is to be a day of rest from our normal pursuits.
It is not to be a day of idleness. We
are to employ ourselves in religious exercises.
And we are to keep the whole day holy, not just a few hours during
church. “On the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation [worship
service]; you shall do no laborious work” (Num. 28:25).
12.
The Lord Jesus, who is our example, kept the
Sabbath.
However, He explained that there are three classes of deeds which do not
violate the universal principle of Sabbath observance:
a.
Deeds of
mercy, such as healing, or feeding animals, are permissible (Mat.
b. Deeds of necessity, such as the proper care of animals, are permissible (Mat.12:1-12; Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:2-5).
c.
Deeds associated with worship, such as
priests offering sacrifices, are permissible (Mat. 12:5). The priests had to
kill the animals for sacrifice, skin them, cut them up as prescribed by God,
and place them on the altar. This involved work on the Sabbath. But it was not “secular”
work for personal financial gain. It was work associated with God’s requirement
for worship.
13.
The
basic principle that is to guide one’s activities on the Sabbath is given in
Isaiah 58:13‑14:
“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure
on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD
honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking
your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the
LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you
with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
Interestingly, the only place where God directly tells us how to delight ourselves in Him is here in Isaiah 58:13-14. The Lord is saying that when we take pleasure
in the day He has set aside for rest, then we will be delighting in Him. When
we look at the Sabbath from the perspective that it reflects God’s loving
provision for rest and refreshment, should we not thank Him for the blessing of
a whole day set aside to spend time drawing near to Him?
14.
Jesus is the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mat.
12:8).
This means He has the authority to tell us which day of the week He wants His
people to set apart as the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not like a person’s “birthday”
that never changes. It is a designated day of the week that God tells us to treat
in a special, holy way.
15.
Under
the New Covenant, the Apostles were led by “the Lord of the Sabbath” (Mat.
12:8) to change the day of Sabbath worship to the first day of the week in
honor of Jesus’ resurrection.
Under the First Covenant, God established Saturday as the Sabbath day for the
nation of
16.
The
change of the Sabbath day occurred in the first century and Christian worship
on Sunday, known widely as the Christian Sabbath, has been the practice of the
Church throughout the last two millennia.
a.
In Acts 20:7, Luke writes, “And upon the
first day of the
week, (Sunday) when the
disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to
depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight (Acts 20:7). This is evidence for the assertion that Sunday
observance for worship is being
practiced at this time.
b. In 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul says, “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.” This is further evidence that the churches were now meeting for service on the Christian “Sabbath,” which was the “first day of the week” (Sunday).
c. In Revelation 1:10, John writes, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day,” expecting that his readers would understand what he was talking about. In other words, by A.D. 95-100, the term “Lord’s Day” must have been in common usage among the churches, otherwise John would have explained what he meant. Other early examples of the use of “the Lord’s day” to refer to Sunday worship are found in Ignatius’s Epistle to the Magnesians 9 (c. A.D. 110), the Didache 14 (c. A.D. 120), and the Epistle of Barnabus 15 (c. A.D. 70-130).
d.
These references serve as early indications that
the
17.
Paul
did not abolish God’s command to keep the Sabbath day holy when he wrote
Colossians 2:16.
When Paul wrote, “Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food
or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day” (Col.
2:16), he is not abrogating the Sabbath day.
First, it is important to note that the Greek text does not have the word “day”
following Sabbath and the word “Sabbath” is not singular, but plural—literally
“Sabbaths” (sabbaton). Paul is
saying, “Let no one act as your judge in regard to Sabbaths.”
Second, observe that the context lists “food,” “drink” “festivals” and the “new
moon” in connection with the term “Sabbaths.” It is therefore likely that Paul
is not referring to the weekly Sabbath day at all! Rather, by the use of the
plural term “Sabbaths,” he is speaking of the Sabbath days that were associated
with the Jewish feasts, Sabbaths which did not fall on Saturday (e.g., the
“Sabbath” on Day of Atonement, Lev.
Third, Paul is teaching that as important as the Jewish ceremonial laws were to
Jewish Christians who were just starting to understand the differences in the
New Covenant from the Old Covenant, the keeping of the ceremonial law was not
required for Gentile Christians (see Acts 15). No one is to evaluate another
person’s relationship with Jesus Christ on the basis of observance or non-observance
of any of the ceremonial laws of the First Covenant. Such ceremonies were
fulfilled in Christ. Further, Paul insisted that strict observance of food
laws, or any other ceremonial law, will not merit any person salvation.
Fourth, even if Paul were referring to the weekly Sabbath day, this verse would
not teach that the Sabbath has been done away with. It is simply teaching that
one’s relationship with Christ cannot be judged on the basis of whether or not
a person observes a certain religious rite.
18. In Romans 14:5, Paul did not teach that a
believer is permitted to choose any day of the week he wishes to be his Sabbath
day.
Paul’s statement, “One person esteems one
day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind” (
First, read the passage carefully and note that Paul does not mention the term
“Sabbath” or “the Lord’s day” in his discussion. There is no evidence that Paul
had the weekly Sabbath in mind.
Second, the context suggests that Paul is probably addressing the issue of “holy days” in general (like Passover,
Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, etc.). His point is similar to that of
Colossians 2:16. Our salvation does not stand or fall on whether we all esteem
the same holy days. Rather, we must all stand before God and give an account
for ourselves (Rom.
19.
When
Paul said in Romans
In Romans 6:1-14, Paul speaks of union believers have with Christ in His death
to sin and His resurrection to new life (Rom. 6:1-4). As a result of this
union, believers are delivered from the bondage of sin and enabled to walk in
the Spirit (
Ø Romans 3:31: “Do we then nullify the [Mosaic] Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”
Ø Romans 8:4: “The requirement of the Law might be fulfilled [is fulfilled] in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Ø Romans 8:1: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Believers are no longer under the law in the sense of being “condemned” for their
violation of God’s law. Through the Spirit, believer’s live in obedience to
God’s Law so that the just requirements of the law are fulfilled in them
(Rom.8:4). This does not mean that nothing in the Mosaic Law was changed in the
New Covenant. However, none of the moral precepts that reflect God’s unchanging
purposes of mankind were changed. Part of this unchanging moral code is the
requirement to keep the Sabbath day holy (Exod. 20:8; Deut. 5:12).
20.
The transition from Saturday to Sunday as
the Sabbath of the Lord for the
Dr. Philip Schaff, author of the authoritative History of the Christian Church and recognized as the Dean of
American Church historians, traced the transition in the Christian Church from
the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday to the Christian Sabbath on Sunday. He writes,
“The celebration of the Lord’s Day in memory of the
resurrection of Christ dates undoubtedly from the apostolic age. Nothing short
of apostolic precedent can account for the universal religious observance in
the churches of the second century. There is no dissenting voice. This custom
is confirmed by the testimonies of the earliest post-apostolic writers, as
Barnabas, Ignatius, and Justin Martyr. It is also confirmed by the younger
Pliny. The Didache calls the first day “the Lord’s Day of the Lord.”[2]
He concludes, “viewed in the light of the universal and uncontradicted
practice of the church in the second century it may be inferred that the annual
celebration of the death and the resurrection of Christ, and of the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit, originated in the apostolic age.”[3]
The transition from Saturday to Sunday worship was gradual, just as the
transition from synagogue to church was gradual. Luke records that the
believers who experienced the out-pouring of the Spirit on the Day of
Pentecost, continued participating in Temple and synagogue services as well as
daily house to house services (Acts. 2:42, 46). It took time for the
significance of the New Covenant to be assimilated by the early church. Luke
records the slow progress. For example, it took the outbreak of persecution of
the church at
Gradually, over the process of many years, as the Jewish community grew more
and more antagonistic to Christians, the Christians were forced to leave the
synagogues and meet separately. The Spirit helped them to see that the need for
animal sacrifice was no longer necessary, and in Christ all the ceremonial
aspects of the Mosaic law were fulfilled. In like manner, the Holy Spirit
gradually led the Church to abandon the Jewish Sabbath day (Saturday) and to
cleave to the Lord’s day (Sunday) as the Christian Sabbath.
21.
The testimony of Ignatius attests that the
separation between the Jewish practices and the practices of the Christian
church had not yet fully taken place by the end of the first century AD.
Ignatius, a convert and disciple of the Apostle John, who lived and
ministered in the latter half of the first century AD, became the pastor of the
church at Antioch about 69 AD, approximately 36 years after the resurrection of
Jesus. He was martyred by Roman Emperor Trajan in AD 109. Ignatius wrote,
“Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the
Jewish manner … but let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual
manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law….
After the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the
Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the
days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, “To the end,
for the eighth day,” on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory
over death was obtained in Christ….[4]
This reference reveals that the phrase, “the Lord’s Day,” was well-known
and revered in the first century AD by Christians. It also indicates that
Ignatius believed that anyone who did not keep the Lord’s Day holy in honor of
the resurrection was not a friend of Christ.
22. The testimony of Justin Martyr attests that
early in the second century AD the transition from Saturday to Sunday as the
Christian Sabbath had occurred.
Justin Martyr (100-165 AD), wrote to the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius,
less than fifty years after the death of the Apostle John. He said,
“On
the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together
to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets
are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the
president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good
things. . . . Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because
it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and
matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from
the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and
on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared
to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have
submitted to you also for your consideration.”[5]
Please note, that when Justin says, “having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things,” he dates the keeping of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath back to the time when Jesus appeared to his assembled followers just after the resurrection!
23.
The
Lord’s Day (the Christian Sabbath) was recognized by the early church as the
replacement of the Jewish Sabbath.
Dr. Philip Schaff, author of the authoritative eight volume History of the Christian Church and
recognized as the Dean of American Church historians, writes,
“The Lord’s Day
took the place of the Jewish Sabbath as the weekly day of public worship. The
substance remained, the form was changed…. The day was transferred from the
seventh to the first day of the week, not on the ground of a particular
command, but by the free spirit of the gospel and by the power of certain great
facts which lie at the foundation of the Christian church. It was on that day
that Christ rose from the dead; that he appeared to Mary, the disciples of
Emmaus, and the assembled apostles; that he poured out his Spirit and founded the
church; and that he revealed to his beloved disciple the mysteries of the
future. Hence, the first day was already in the apostolic age honorably
designated as “the Lord’s Day.” On that day Paul met with the disciples at
“The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the second century can
only be explained by the fact that it had its roots in apostolic practice. Such
observance is the more to be appreciated as it had no support in civil
legislation before the age of
Dr. Schaff’s conclusion is: “Next to the Church and the Bible, the
Lord’s Day is the chief pillar of Christian society.”[8]
24. The Seventh-Day Adventist church denies
that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. They teach that anyone who rejects
Saturday as the true Sabbath and worships on Sunday will be part of the
Antichrist church and ultimately be damned.
The
In response to the first charge concerning the practice of the early church,
one should remember that Emperor Constantine did not make his decree until the
fourth century (
What
In response to the second charge that any who worships on Sunday will receive
the mark of the beast the incur the wrath of God, there is nothing in Scripture
to support such a serious charge.
25. In the New Covenant, the transference of
the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday commemorates an event greater than
creation--the celebration of a finished atonement and the resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
Each of the four gospel evangelists are guided by the Holy Spirit to record
the fact that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week (Mat. 28:1;
Mk. 16:1, 2, 9; Lk. 24:1, Jn. 20:1, 19). Why this exact record of the day of
the week on which Jesus rose from the
dead? The day of His birth is not so recorded, nor His baptism, nor His first
appearance in the
26. The Christian Church has honored Sunday as
the Christian Sabbath for the last nineteen centuries.
The Christian Church around the world has faithfully preached and practiced
the belief that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. It was not until the twentieth
century, with the rise of dispensationalism, that portions of the Christian
church began teaching that the Sabbath was no longer binding upon New Testament
Christians. This view contradicts the teaching of the Christian Church for the
last nineteen hundred years.
27. The Sabbath is a day of remembering
deliverance from bondage.
Just as the Old Testament believer was to remember his deliverance from
bondage of slavery in Egypt on the Sabbath (Deut. 5:12-15), so the New
Testament believer should remember his deliverance from bondage to sin and
quickening to new life when he celebrates the resurrection of his lord on the
Lord’s Day.
28.
God
desires His people to regard the Christian Sabbath as a weekly celebration of
His love for us and our love for Him.
One of the great privileges of the New Covenant is to have joyous intimate
personal fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
(1 John 1:3, 4; Phil. 2:1). Most of us conceptualize this fellowship only on an
individual, personal level. We should remember that Jesus views all believers
collectively as His “bride.” He has made special promises to the collective
assembling of His people and urges us not to forsake “the assembling of
ourselves together” (Heb.
Have you fallen in love with Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath? Has Sunday, the
Christian Sabbath, become to you a day of joy? Do you delight in meeting weekly
with your beloved and betrothed Lover (2 Cor. 11:2)? Do you have a love song to
sing to your Savior and Lord on the Sabbath? Since most of us are not very good
at writing our own love songs, why not use at poetic love song God Himself
inspired for such an occasion? The Bible’s love song for the Sabbath is Psalm
92. Come, every Sunday, and join in with Christians all around the world and
sing to God Psalm 92—the love Song for the Sabbath.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, there is good
evidence from the New Testament that Sunday quickly became known as the Lord’s
Day and was regarded as a special day of meeting for the church. This evidence,
combined with that of second century Christian writers who indicate that the
early church recognized and practiced a transfer of the principles of the Old Testament
Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day, provides a compelling argument
that the Lord’s Day is the Christian Sabbath.
The
church is a new creation and is given a new day to observe as its birthday and as
its Sabbath: the first day of the week, Sunday. We remember the Sabbath to keep
it holy and honor God when we honor Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. The
principles for the proper observance of the Christian Sabbath are those that
guided the Creation Sabbath and the Jewish Sabbath: reserved by God for man, a
day of rest and worship, a day of remembrance of our deliverance from the
bondage of sin and our quickening to new life, and a day of honoring God by
ceasing from ordinary pursuits (Isa. 58:13, 14). When the new heavens and earth come, the
Sabbath will be honored weekly (Isa. 66:22, 23).
Jesus, our resurrected and reigning Lord, is still the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is to be a delightful day—the Lord’s day. According to Psalm 92, it is to be an occasion for instrumental music—a time of exuberant celebration. It is to be a time of reflecting on the goodness of God and rejoicing in His handiwork (Psa. 92:1-4). May we never view it as an intrusion upon our schedules or an interruption to our lives. Rather, let us view the Christian Sabbath as Ignatius exhorted—the Queen and Chief day of the week—and may we learn how to take pleasure in it by learning to take pleasure in our risen Savior.
[1] I have chosen to use a listing instead of paragraph form to make it easier to follow the logical progression of thought.
[2]
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church.
[3] Ibid., I, 480.
[4]
“The Epistle of
Ignatius to the Magnesians, Chapter 9: Let Us Live With Christ” in Schaff,
P. (2000). The Ante-Nicene Fathers (electronic ed.) (Vol. 1).
[5]Chapter 67: Weekly Worship Of
The Christians Schaff, P. (2000). The Ante-Nicene Fathers (electronic ed.)
(Vol. 1).
[6]
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church.
[7]
Ibid., I, 478.
[8]
Ibid., I, 478, 479.
[9] See Ellen G. White, Last Day Events, p. 224; Maranatha, p. 211.
[10] Codex Justinianus, book 3, title 12, 3 trans. In Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 5th ed. (New York: Charles Scribner, 1902), vol. 3, p. 380, note 1.
[11]
H. H. George, The Sabbath: The Day and
How to Keep it. (
[12]
Richard M. Davidson, A Love Song for the
Sabbath.