Each Sunday billions of people gather for their weekly worship service. With rare exception, the various factions that comprise professing Christendom mark Sunday as their official day of rest and worship because it is “the Lord’s Day.” When church people are asked why Sunday (the 1st day of the week), not Saturday (the 7th day of the week) is one’s Sabbath, one will receive various answers, among which are 1) It is the day God chose to be His Sabbath (rest) day; 2) it is the day Christ arose from the dead; 3) it is the day Jesus gave the Apostle John the Book of Revelation; 4) it is the day God allowed man to choose after He nailed His Law to the cross of Christ; 5) millions of people have observed Sunday for thousands of years, therefore it has to be right. Not one of the reasons one will hear is Biblically true. Therein lies the problem. Can we take God at His Word (which Jesus called “Truth” (Jn. 17:17), or do His Words need man’s editing and correction? The church declares the latter to be true.

As are the answers to so many questions relative to the Holy Scriptures, the Truth concerning God’s Sabbath (which day to observe it and what can be done on that day) is found in His “fine print” where only honest Truth seekers dare to venture. Jesus warned that such seekers would be few in number (Mat. 7:13,14; 20:16), for only they would have hungered and thirsted for righteousness (Mat. 5:6), which is God’s reward for the study of, belief in and obedience to His Word, which will result in salvation (Rom. 5:21; 6:22) upon Christ’s return (Mat. 10:22). Peter noted that only the righteous people in the church would be saved, and that they would be “scarce” (2 Pet. 4:17,18). Let us take a virtual trip back in time to determine how professing Christianity came to call Sunday God’s “Sabbath of rest.”

In both Old and New Testament times, God’s people gathered to worship Him on the seventh day of the week. In Genesis 2:2,3 it is written: “God BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY and SANCTIFIED IT” (set it apart for holy use). In Mark 2:28 Jesus called Himself “the Lord of THE (one and only weekly) Sabbath.” In Isaiah 58:13 He declared THE seventh day of the week to be “My Holy Day.” He did not bless, sanctify, declare holy or call Himself the Lord of any other day of the week. In Leviticus 11:44,45 He commands His people to: “… be ye holy, FOR I am holy.” In 1 Peter 1:15 the apostle notes that: “AS He (God) is holy, be ye THEREFORE holy. Be ye holy FOR (because) He is holy.” If God is holy (and He never changes–Mal.3:6), and if we are commanded to be holy AS He is Holy and BECAUSE He is holy, and if the HOLY ONE declared the seventh day to be HIS Holy Day, should it not also be man’s holy day? If man is required to keep the other nine commandments, why was #4 exempted?

All will agree that the Lord did not give man a choice relative to the other nine commandments. So why did He make #4 an option? He had much more to say about the fourth commandment than about any other commandment, even the first two commandments combined. The entire law (Genesis to Revelation) rests (“hang”) on those two commandments (Mat. 22:40). In the Hebrew language words hand from the line.

So important to the Lord was HIS Sabbath Day that He established a separate Sabbath covenant with Israel and their spiritual descendants (Gen. 31:12-18). Why a special covenant concerning His Sabbath? Because He knew Satan would use it to deceive salvation seekers into breaking one of the Ten Commandments, thereby breaking the entire Law (Jam. 2:10), which would make them guilty of INIQUITY (LAWLESSNESS). He also knew that the 4th Commandment would be the one Satan would use to deceive the church. Read Christ’s words relative to iniquity in Matthew 7:23.

First John 3:4 tells us: that: “To transgress the Law is sin, for sin is the transgression of the Law.” Recall that Jesus told the rich man that he would not receive eternal life because of “this ONE thing” which he lacked. That one thing (sin) was obedience to the tenth commandment. Though he had much, he lusted for more. ONE SIN kept him separated from God (Isa. 59:2). The desperate salvation seeker “went away sad” because he BELIEVED JESUS. Billions of salvation seekers, having read or heard God’s Words relative to the Sabbath, have gone away glad because they DID NOT BELIEVE JESUS. Being supposedly “saved,” THEY COULD REJECT HIS DEFINITION OF RIGHT AND WRONG AND CREATE THEIR OWN VERSION. Then, those of like persuasion could join together and create their own churches, denominations, faiths, etc. This is the same lure Satan used to trap Adam and Eve. They “knew” they were right, until God showed up.

Recall that the Israelites kept the seventh day Sabbath for 40 years as they wandered in the Sinai Desert. By doing the math we find that they obeyed God’s Sabbath commandment 2,080 times in a row. They remembered that Moses had told them: “THE seventh day is THE Sabbath of the Lord” (Exo. 20:10). Though their sins kept them from entering the Promised Land, they were smart enough to obey God’s Sabbath Law. Their religious descendants have failed to learn that lesson. Satan knows which religious button to push. The Sabbath button enables him to “devour” church people at will (1 Pet. 5:8). Jesus warned that only a FEW would escape his ravenous appetite (Mat. 7:13,14; 20:16).

How did it happen that professing Christendom came to “know” that God had changed His Sabbath–the day He had blessed, sanctified, hallowed and declared His–from the seventh day of the week (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday)? When did He ordain the change? Or did He? If not, who made the change? and why? Who had the gall to replace one of God’s Commandments (Laws) which he had written in stone with His own finger? Who would have the temerity to do such a thing? The only answer is: SOMEONE GREATER THAN THE CREATER OF RIGHT AND WRONG. ONLY A GOD CAN DETERMINE RIGHT AND WRONG. WHO WAS THIS GOD WHO WAS GREATER THE BIBLICAL GOD?

Earlier, Lucifer had attempted to become greater than God–to replace Him as the determiner of right and wrong. He had failed. Undeterred, he persuaded Adam and Eve to gain the victory for him. Having done so, he ordained them as gods–gods which he (now called Satan) could control. Their descendants, with extremely rare exception, have bowed the knee to him by breaking God’s Law and enslaving themselves to “the god of this earth” who has “blinded the eyes of those who do not believe” the Biblical God (2 Cor. 4:4). See the home page/ Introduction to this website for a list of several other heathen beliefs and practices professing Christendom has embraced in obedience to their god.

When did this anti-Bible, anti-God theology enter the Christian church? When did the Holy Scriptures stop being the standard by which the church measured right and wrong relative to the Sabbath, among other things? When did Sunday enter the Sabbath picture? and why? Was the Sabbath day changed by the one who called Himself “the Lord of the Sabbath?” If so why did He change it? Or did He allow the apostles to change it? If so, when? When and why did the Creator, blesser, hallower, sanctifier and Lord of His Sabbath authorize a change in its observance? Who changed it? The answer is always “They.” Who was “they?” and who gave “them” the authority to change it? God did not issue ten options; He issued ten COMMANDS. Who changed command #4 into an option? ONLY A GREATER GOD CAN OVERRULE THE BIBLICAL GOD AND CHANGE HIS LAW. That god is MAN, who answers to an even greater god–Satan. Some of his subjects say that any day except Saturday is okay.

Following Jesus’ example of observing the seventh day (Saturday) Sabbath (Lk. 4:16), the apostles preached to both Jews and Gentiles on the seventh day Sabbath (Acts 13:42). True Christians continued to keep the seventh day of the week as “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God” for almost 300 years following the establishment of God’s church on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. In the following posting we will determine the who? what? when? and why? relative to the Sabbath abomination. L.J.