A10. Why God is so Serious about Remembering the Seventh Day Sabbath

a) Here’s an executive summary response to this question:

This term, “day” is a unique feature associated only with the rotation rate of our planet. God uses this feature as His Clock in the creation of this universe. There was no way in the pre-existing angel universe to mark out this “day” of ours. Hence this planet has to be re-created in the angel universe after this drama is done, in order for the angels to have the same clock.

The number 7 is God's number symbolizing perfection. It is significant now because:

1) He decided to create this universe in six days (ie 6 rotations of this planet);

2) He decided to make an extra day as a sign of all that He did in those first six days.

3) When God blessed only the 7th day, He made it holy and distinguished it (Ge 2:3 & Ex 20:11).

His rationale for adding a 7^th day and distinguishing it was to have a routine mechanism for all to remember why He created this stage in the first place.

This significance is for all time (Ex 31:16-17) between God and His people. It applies to the angels as well (Isa 6:23). All His created beings will one day remember to revere the 7th day as measured by the new Earth God will re-created in the angel world (heaven), which as in the beginning will be marking out the days by rotating without any Sun (Rev 21:1 & 22:5).

This to me ties the 7th Day Sabbath into the eternal gospel message. God created this temporary human universe solely to resolve the eternal Sin Problem, so that all His created beings could live in a perfect kingdom (i.e. with the Image of God) happily ever after. This is why all of those created beings must always remember the 7th day as a sign of this temporary creation and what it demonstrated. If they remember the lessons learned from watching us play out this sin drama on Earth, then (and only then) sin will never arise anywhere in God’s creations again.

The point about “resting” on the Sabbath Day is about revering this day for the reasons above. In heaven we won’t be working in the same fashion, nor
will we need rest as we do here, and yet we will still revere this Day. We are to make a special place in our routine activities to remember the significance of this Sabbath Day as it applies to all free-willed beings for all time.

b) Has the Sabbath Day been changed to Sunday?

Some say that Christ changed the blessed day to Sunday for the following reasons:

- Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday morning (Mat 28: 1-7).

- Jesus continued His appearances on succeeding Sundays (John 20:19, 26)

- The descent of the Holy Spirit took place on a Sunday (Acts 2:1)

- The early church was thus given the pattern of Sunday meetings and this continued regularly (Acts 20:7; 1Cor 16:2)

- Our Lord's appearance to John on "the Lord's Day" (Rev 1:10), [but the Lord’s Day is actually the Jewish Sabbath, ie the 7^th day.]

However, Christ said that He did not come to change the law but to fulfill it. We have numerous texts, which confirm that the 7th day is the only day God specifically distinguished:

Ge 2 1-3 Blessed the seventh day

Ex 16:29 Six days to gather it, but on the 7^th day, the Sabbath, there will be none
Ex 20: 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
Ex 20:10 The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall do no work.
Ex 20:11 The Lord rested on the seventh day and He blessed it
Ex 31:12-13 Keep the Sabbath Day because it is a sign for all time
Ex 31: 15 The seventh day is the solemn day of rest
Ex 31: 16-17 It is a sign because God made the heavens and Earth in 6 days (ie rotations of our planet).

Ex 34:21 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day you shall rest.

Ex 35:2 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD

Lev 23:3 Six days you may work, but the 7^th day is a Sabbath

Num 28:25 For six days, work is to be done, but not on the seventh day.

Num 28:25 On the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.

Here’s a twist that Harold Camping of Family Radio has promoted, which he feels justifies the Sunday Sabbath.

Harold admits that none of the Bible translations indicate this, but he refers to the Greek wording of Matthew 28:1. We read in the King James translation, “In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the seplechre.” This translation clearly indicates that the women were visiting the tomb on the First day of the week, ie Sunday, and not on the Sabbath day, which was of course the 7^th day (ie Saturday).

Mr. Camping states that he can interpret the Greek text of this to paint a different story. He translates the passage as follows, ”At the close of the former Sabbaths, there dawned a new Sabbath on the first day of the week,…” (See the notes on these Greek words in green below.) That’s it. That’s all he has to go on. One text (in each of the gospels), with a very dubious interpretation and suddenly God’s Laws can be changed. He further states that even though the 4^th commandment is right in the middle of God’s Law, it is not part of the Law of God, but instead, it is part of the Ceremonial Law of Moses! So, therefore, while none of the Laws of God, ie the other 9 commandments, were hung on the Cross at Christ’s death, this one was. Now he tries to back up that absurdity with a few pieces of the circumstantial evidence for Sunday worship, which were listed above.

All this is futile, because God’s reasons for instituting the Sabbath Day as a sign for all time (Ex 31 ) were never changed. There is no specific text in the Bible where God (or Christ) ever changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to any other. God's covenants with Man are sealed by the death of a pure lamb (Ex 24:7,8; Heb 9:16,17). Thereafter nothing in them can be changed (Gal 3:15). Christ sealed His new covenant with Man by His own death (1Cor 11:25 & Heb 9:16-22). Christ kept only the Jewish Sabbath Day, to the day He died. Hence, He never intended to change that commandment. Sunday observance was only started after Christ’s death supposedly to celebrate Christ’s resurrection.

Now the Catholic Church has proclaimed that they have changed the solemnity of the Sabbath Day from Saturday to Sunday, because they have the right to change God’s laws and times. Cardinal Newman once said that you can search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and never find anywhere that God has made this change. Dr Eck argued against Martin Luther that the entire Protestant world at that time recognizes the authority of the Catholic Church when they follow the Sunday Tradition instituted by the Catholic Church. This is clearly a doctrine of Men without support from God’s word. The evidence that the seventh day is still God's Sabbath is overwhelming. This 7^th Day is also what the New Testament calls the “Lord’s Day” (Rev 1:10).

Note that the “Law of God” is His 10 Commandments. They are immutable, written in stone by the finger of God. The “Old covenant” was the agreement between God and His people that if they obeyed these laws, He would prosper them (Ex 21 - 24:7). The covenant was a listing of all the ecclesiastical traditions. The “New covenant” was made by Christ because the Israelites failed to keep the old covenant. The new covenant was the agreement to keep these laws in their hearts, since they can not keep them perfectly in practice. (It focused on their desire to follow the laws, not merely go through the motions. They must be born again.) Now God’s people can rely on the sacrifice of Christ and be saved even though they are imperfect, as long as they want that relationship with God. However, the Law is not abolished or changed. The 10 Commandments remain the same. See Hebrews 8: 7-13 for the detailed explanation.

___________

Notes on the Greek words: These definitions of the Greek support the traditional interpretation of the passage in Matthew 28:1 and not Mr. Camping’s. It’s really stretching the text to find a rationale for ending the 7^th day Sabbath as the sign God intended it to be for all time. There is no personal pronoun offered in this text to justify some action such as making this change. All the text is telling us is that the events that follow happened after the Sabbath Day had ended, which is to show that they were in accordance with the Jewish tradition.

opse (op-seh'); (adverbially) late in the day; by extension, after the close of the day: KJV - (at) even, in the end.

sabbaton (sab'-bat-on); of Hebrew origin [OT:7676]; the Sabbath (i.e. Shabbath), or day of weekly repose from secular avocations (also the observance or institution itself); by extension, a se'nnight, i.e. the interval between two Sabbaths; likewise the plural in all the above applications:

epiphosko (ep-ee-foce'-ko); a form of NT:2017; to begin to grow light: KJV - begin to dawn, X draw on.

mia (mee'-ah); irregular feminine of NT:1520; one or first: KJV - a (certain), + agree, first, one, X other.

(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

c) Why then would any “day” be so important to God?

Strangely enough, we've never heard a solid explanation as to why the 7th day would be important to God, even from those who believe it is. What is the reason God wants us to remember any “day’, when a “day” is something associated only with the rotation of this particular planet. It does have an absolute meaning in inertial space. Then, beyond that, those texts are very clear about the importance of remembering the Seventh day. Those texts indicate that it is because God created this Earth and our heavens in six days. What was so important about that creation, that God would create a special need to remember it as well as to reverence it by abstaining from our normal routines?

I believe this drama on Earth is essential if any of God's created beings are to live "happily ever after"

Notice that God created the Sabbath for Man, not Man for a pre-existing Sabbath (Mark 2:27). God literally created this universe (Heavens and earth) in 6 rotations of this planet. Then He instituted a day of rest to mark this creative work. Notice that in Genesis 1 and in Revelation 21 God uses the planet Earth without any Sun, to mark out the days, as His clock. He wants everyone, who would elect to live with Him through everlasting life, to remember why He did it and what it demonstrated. When this universe passes away and only the angel universe is left, everyone must remember the Sin Drama that played out on this stage and the lessons it taught. If they do, then and only then will Sin never arise again anywhere in God's creation. “War” in heaven will cease and then God can realize His original concept of a “happily ever after paradise”.

Consider the "Mystery of Iniquity". We believe that the Bible tells us Sin arose in a pre-existing, perfect angel universe. Sin must now play out on this Human Earth. Once it does, then Sin will never arise again anywhere in God's creations (Na 1:9). To understand these mysteries, we must compile all the available information from the Bible into a consistent "Big Picture" and only interpolate where it makes logical sense overall. Once we have this clear picture we will know why remembering the seventh day Sabbath will always be extremely important to God and to all His created beings. Click here for the The Big Picture Explanation .

26 July 2001, expanded on 18 February & 9 April 2002

ß back home next à

For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com