The Sabbath Verses and personal thoughts regarding the 7th day Sabbath and why it may still be for today. by Jordan Niednagel

Wow, you believe in the Sabbath? Are you crazy? Nobody worships on Saturday, you weirdo. You think all these thousands of Christians around the world are worshipping on the wrong day, not to mention some of the most notable saints throughout history? Are you a Jew? Man, you're really screwed up in the head.

These weren't someone else's words to me way back when. Rather, these were my own thoughts to myself when I first began to consider the Sabbath. To tell you the truth, they're still my thoughts. Seems like a week or a month doesn't go by where I don't ask myself at least one of these questions.

I don't know if Saturday is the day God truly wants His people to worship on. Honestly, I don't. There's a lot of things I don't know, more than I'd like to admit, actually. I don't waver on the fundamentals of Christianity, but honestly, I waver on a lot of the seemingly smaller issues, and this is one of them. So, as you read, realize that this author isn't some biased, hard-headed moron who is dogmatically forcing his beliefs on you. That's not the kind of person I am. If you know me personally, which most people who read this do, you know I'm not a controversial individual who likes to spark a debate. I steer clear of debates whenever I can, and that to a fault. I hate arguing. I hate how complicated theology can seemingly become.

Yet, I want to share my honest thoughts with you, and that's what I'm doing here. Read them, consider them, and either hold them or scold them. I don't care. I honestly don't. Your walk with Christ is all I care about, and I think one can be just as much of a powerful Christian who worships on Sunday as one who worships on Saturday.

One thing I ask you to keep in mind ... this is one of the 10 commandments. If you believe the 10 commandments are still for today, then you should look as carefully at this commandment as you would the commandment not to steal, or not to commit adultery. There are not 9 commandments, but 10, and by them we will be judged someday.

In the end, God sees the heart, and that's what truly matters.


C'mon, This Will Be Interesting

I want to keep your interest. I don't want you to get bored with hypothetical suppositions and generic verses that could be taken one way or the other. I want to start off by simply pricking your rationale, and making you start from scratch in your thinking. Try to approach this topic as though no one you knew worshipped on Sunday or Saturday. I know that's hard, but just try. Endeavor to clear yourself of your unconscious bias which events in your life have more or less taken hold of you. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but we all have bias. It's human nature. I'm gonna just simply zip through some thoughts and questions and verses regarding the Sabbath so you don't get quickly bored.


Before I Begin, My Beliefs ...

I find it difficult to Biblically support the belief that Sunday is the new mandated day for believers to worship on. That is, that one MUST worship on Sunday, else they are in error. While I think a believer can still worship on Sunday, I don't see, from Scripture, the Biblical mandate ... the direct command to do so. Thankfully, most Christians I know agree with me here. They just think Sunday is the most convenient day to worship on, and that the Lord simply wants us to give Him one day of the week.

Which leads to my overall conclusion here, before I begin expressing why Saturday could be the day God wants us to give to Him. At this point in time, I think either Saturday is the true Sabbath day, or that God simply wants us to give Him one day in seven, which would, of course, allow for Sunday worship. Unfortunately, some people close to me (even in my family) disagree with me here. I can't say that they're wrong, nor that I'm right, but simply that at this point in time I am open to both views. So, the man who faithfully keeps Saturday and the man who faithfully keeps Sunday are equal in my eyes.

One man I particularly admire who held this view was Jonathan Edwards. I've endeavored over the months to read and understand his sermon titled, "The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath," which hasn't been easy. Yet, I think I've been able to glean the heart of the sermon. Edwards writes:

The words of the fourth command do not determine which day of the week we should keep as a sabbath; they merely determine, that we should rest and keep as a sabbath every seventh day, or one day after every six. It says, "Six days thou shalt labour, and the seventh thou shalt rest ;" which implies no more, than that after six days of labour, we shall, upon the next to the sixth, rest and keep it holy. And this we are obliged to do for ever. But the words no way determine where those six days shall begin, and so where the rest or sabbath shall fall. There is no direction in the fourth command how to reckon the time, i.e. where to begin and end it; but that is supposed to be determined otherwise.

What he's saying is this ... that God commands us to work 6 days, and rest the 7th, but as to when it starts, there is no direct command. Overall I can see his point. He also says ...

The christian sabbath, in the sense of the fourth command, is as much the seventh day, as the Jewish sabbath; because it is kept after six days of labour as well as that; it is the seventh, reckoning from the beginning of our first working-day, as well as that was the seventh from the beginning of their first working day. All the difference is, that the seven days formerly began from the day after God’s rest from the creation, and now they begin the day after that. It is no matter by what names the days are called: if our nation had, for instance, called Wednesday the first of the week, it would have been all one as to this argument.

Again, I can see his point overall, though I can also see room for argument (though I won't go into that now). Again Edwards writes:

This is the reason still, as much as ever it was, why we may work but six days at a time. What is the reason that Christians rest every seventh, and not every eighth, or every ninth, or tenth day? It is because God worked six days and rested the seventh.

Clearly if a Christian were to keep every eighth day, that would be a clear violation of Scripture.

So, as you read what follows from here, please remember that this is where I currently stand. While I see many good arguments for Saturday still being the true Sabbath, I also see good arguments for the principle of one day in seven. I honestly wish I knew the answer. Such is Christianity, however, is it not? A continual journey of understanding and seeking the truth.


The Sabbath In The Garden of Eden

Did you ever notice that the Sabbath commandment is the very first commandment mentioned in the Bible? True, it's not written in the form of a command, but it still is the fourth commandment. Let's pay close attention to Genesis 2:3.

"Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."

First, why did God rest? Does the God of this universe ever grow tired? Of course not, and there are numerous scriptures attesting to this fact. The reason is plain and simple. He did it to set a pattern for mankind, just as he worked for 6 days in order to set a pattern for mankind. Think about it. Why do we even still live by a 7-day week? Is it just because it's convenient? No, it's engrained into our very being, placed there by God at the beginning of creation. Our year is measured by the earth's circling of the sun. Our month is measured by fazes of the moon. Our day is measured by the rising and setting of the sun. But what of the week? There is no natural, cosmic measure to look to. Isn't that interesting?

Let's now take the next logical step. Are we to think the Sabbath, the day of rest, a day in which God Himself rested, should be any different than the 7-day week? Was it just something that God, in His perfect, all-powerful state, arbitrarily did for His own sake, but not for feeble man's? Did God want us to keep the 7-day week, but not in the same way that He kept it? Remember, Adam was a keeper of the garden. Adam, even in his sinless state, worked everyday. Are we to assume he worked 7 days a week, neglecting the example set by God Himself? We would all agree that Adam kept a 7-day week, so why would He follow God's example in keeping the 7-day week, but not follow God's example of resting on the 7th? It is only logical and Biblical to assume the 7-day week began at the very beginning of the world, and that the Sabbath rest also began at the very beginning.

Why is this important? It is important because many argue that the Sabbath was given only to the Jews. Let us not, however, forget the words of Jesus Christ Himself. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Christ could have said "Jew," but he said, "Man." These are nearly the exact same words given in Genesis regarding woman being made for man. Yes, marriage was at the very beginning in the garden of Eden, and the Sabbath was at the very beginning in the garden of Eden. We'll touch upon this subject again in a moment.

There's also something crucial to this verse that I think too many people overlook. "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." What are we to make of this statement? Did the Lord just verbally bless the seventh day, leaving no actual sanctification or actual blessing? Do you see where I'm going with this? What if God really did actually bless and sanctify THE seventh day? What if, perhaps, there's something spiritually and physically special about the seventh day that we today are overlooking? Could it be that the actual day, or what we know today as Saturday, is still sanctified and blessed unlike the other 6 days (including Sunday)? Or, did at some point in time God remove this blessing and sanctification for some unknown reason? Maybe you think i'm assuming too much, that those who rest and worship on Saturday somehow receive a deeper and fuller measure of God's peace or something. I don't know what it fully entails, to be honest with you, but I will say that I do believe the 7th day has something special to it ... that God's blessing upon it was never taken away. If this is true, I think we all would admit that we as Christians would want to worship and rest on that special day.

The next question you may ask me is, "Well, how do we know our Saturday is still the same seventh day that it was back at creation?" I don't know if there's any way to prove one way or the other, to be honest with you. What I will point out is this: Since the dawn of mankind, nearly every civilization has kept the 7-day week. A few have tried to change it, like France during the French revolution, but it never lasted, and soon crumbled. Knowing this to be the case, it would then be rational to assume that what we know today as Saturday truly is still the 7th day. Also, consider modern-day Jews, whose ancestors have been faithfully keeping the Sabbath for millennium. Today, the Jewish Sabbath still corresponds with our Saturday. I don't think this is coincidence. The 7-day week, and the Sabbath, have been kept in tact, despite man's attempt to destroy them both.


The Bible Doesn't Mention Anyone Keeping The Sabbath Till Moses

There's an argument stating that the Sabbath was meant for the Jews and for Jews only. However, we see there was good likelihood that Adam, a non-Jew, kept the Sabbath, and we'll see here that the Sabbath and the law itself were clearly kept before the Jews ever came into being.

Think about it. Did man live without any guidelines till Moses received the law on Mount Sinai? Did God just leave mankind in the dark, forcing him to discover for himself what was right and what was wrong? Course not. Rather, we see all kinds of laws being kept by those who loved God before Moses arrived on the scene. Consider the following questions.

How did Cain & Abel know about animal & grain sacrifices?
Why would it have been wrong for Cain to murder Abel had there been no law?
How could God judge Sodom & Gomorrah without there being knowledge of sin and the law?
How could God rightly judge the entire world unless they had been aware of His law?
How could Noah decipher between the clean and unclean animals when it wasn't spoken of till Moses?

I could literally go on and on asking these types of questions. I think it's safe to say that God set down some laws before Moses ever came along. But remember, there's no mention of any of them. And thus, I answer your question in light of this. Yes, the Sabbath isn't specifically mentioned till later, but neither are any of the other commandments. In fact, if we think about it, the Sabbath is really the only commandment specifically mentioned before Moses.

God's law existed from the beginning. Paul states clearly in the NT that "without the law, there is no knowledge of sin." Sin could not even have existed without the law, so are we to think there was no sin until Moses came? If nothing else, I think you'd agree that the 10 commandments surely must have existed at that time, and if you believe that, then the 4th commandment must have as well. Remember, however, Noah was commanded to take 7 of the clean animals onto the ark, and only 2 of the unclean. Such knowledge between the clean and unclean goes well beyond the 10 commandments.


The Sabbath After Jesus Christ

I know I'm really jumping around here, but again, I want to keep your interest, so let's take a quick trip to the New Testament to discover some interesting things. Some say that Jesus Christ did away with the Sabbath, but why do we still see it being kept by Paul, the Jewish community, and even more surprising, the Gentiles after Jesus died and rose again?

"And Paul, as his manner was went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures."
- Acts 17:2

"And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God."
- Acts 13:42, 44.

How interesting to see Gentiles keeping the 7th day, and asking Paul to return the very next Sabbath to speak again. Why don't we see Paul telling them that he wants them to worship on Sunday, or that it doesn't matter what day he comes back to preach to them? One could argue that he simply did it out of convenience, but to base one's argument from silence isn't necessarily always the wisest thing to do.

Yet, there is an argument from silence that does, I believe, speak volumes. Have you ever noticed what great length and detail Paul went to in order convince fellow believers that circumcision was no longer mandated? Why did he do this? Well, because there was obviously an uproar about it. Circumcision had been very important to the Jewish community for thousands of years, and to all of a sudden have it deemed unnecessary certainly came as quite a shock. But what about the Sabbath? Why do we see so little written about it? If Paul had also taught that the Sabbath was no longer needed, or had been changed to Sunday, can you imagine the uproar? The Sabbath, one of the 10 commandments, was far more significant than circumcision. Yet, we find Paul writing very little about the Sabbath, let alone that it should be changed. While some may like to point to a few verses in the New Testament suggesting that the Sabbath is no longer for today, I would even go so far as to grant them all those verses, and yet still bring up the point that they're basing their beliefs on precious little Scripture. To completely do away with one of the 10 commandments would not have been a walk in the park for Paul, and would have seemingly required at least a few chapters to sufficiently deal with the matter.

You're probably thinking at this point, "Jordan, you seem awfully convinced of the 7th day Sabbath." You know what, I wish I was (in a sense), but I'm honestly not. I think the evidence points in that direction, but I'm not convinced of it. Maybe I'm too scared, because few other Christians in America keep it. In the end, maybe I'm too much of a coward. I'm not embarrassed to call myself a coward. I find myself often to play the coward in the midst of disagreement or opposition. I am in dire need of God's strength and grace in this matter.


The Lord's Day

"But Jor," you argue, "What about the Lord's day? You know, like John mentions in the book of Revelation. Clearly he was referring to Sunday, wasn't he?"

You've brought up a good topic of discussion. What exactly is the Lord's day? Is there any particular passage in Scripture that tells what specific day it is? Actually, no, not really. There's no clear indication as to which day it's referring to. The main argument I've heard that it refers to Sunday, the first day of the week, is that Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, and therefore it's the Lord's day.

Now wait a minute. Did Jesus Christ rise on Sunday? What I'm about to point out is something I find simply staggering. That is, it's so simple, which makes it so very staggering. Jesus Christ clearly told his disciples in Matthew 12:40, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Now let's think about it ... if Christ was crucified on Friday, and rose Sunday morning, how many nights is that? That would only be two nights, and really only two days as well. No, Christ wasn't crucified on Friday. He couldn't have been. "The sign of Jonah" Christ spoke so frequently about could not have been fulfilled had He been crucified on Friday.

Rather, He was crucified on Wednesday, which was the day before a "high sabbath." You see, there were many types of sabbaths in those days, and that particular Thursday was one of them. And so, having died on Wednesday evening, there would have been Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. That's three days and three nights. We then ask ourselves, when did Christ rise? There's really only one answer. He rose Saturday evening, and the tomb was found empty on Sunday morning. You see, just because they discovered the tomb empty on Sunday morning doesn't mean He rose on Sunday morning.

There really are no other options, if you think about it. For Christ to have been dead three days and three nights, He must have been crucified on Wednesday (or a day other than Friday). This, of course, is a completely separate study, however.

I hope you see where I'm going with this. It negates the argument that the Lord's day is called the Lord's day because He rose on that day. Simply put, I think the evidence suggests that He didn't rise on Sunday, but Saturday. So, instead it's a good argument for sabbath keepers rather than Sunday keepers, ironically.

And remember Christ's words back in Matthew 12 to the Pharisees? "For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." If Christ is Lord of the sabbath, it doesn't seem too far-fetched to call the seventh day, "The Lord's day." Seems to fit nicely.

On this last point I take issue with Edwards, who makes many arguments in support of Sunday based on the "fact" that Christ rose from the grave on Sunday. "...it is a great confirmation that the christian sabbath should be kept on the day of the rising of the real body of Christ from the grave..." he writes. I almost laugh when I find myself disagreeing with Edwards, however. Here's a man who studied the Bible some 8-12 hours a day, and here I am thinking that I possess some type of understanding that he could just not see or grasp? Seems hard to believe. Yet, I have to be honest with myself, and in all honesty I do not believe Christ actually rose from the dead on Sunday. I don't see how He could have in order to fulfill "the sign of Jonah."


TO BE CONTINUED ...


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