The
Seventh Day Sabbath Discussion - 2
In the
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This
article takes a firm stand concerning the Sabbath issue based solely on the Word
of God. With support from the Holy Bible
alone an unshakable and very strong position can be made for the Seventh Day
Sabbath. Many of the beliefs and
practices that are held by opponents of the Sabbath are derived from
non-canonical works after the post-apostolic period therefore have scant or no biblical support at all. Arguments do not establish truth,
they only confuse readers and lead them astray.
Objection
# 1
The
Seventh Day Sabbath is given mainly to the children of
Response #
1
The Holy Bible states clearly the children of
"Thus the heavens
and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day
God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all
His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." (Gen.2:1-3).
Since God
created the world for mankind and He had established the Seventh Day Sabbath as
part of His creation therefore He has surely given it to mankind. At the time when the Sabbath was first
established by God there was no nation, no Israel and no Jew, so there is no
biblical support that God would give the Seventh Day Sabbath only to the
Children of Israel and to the Jews.
The Lord
Jesus Christ said it very plainly, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for
the Sabbath.” (Mk. 2:27) The word “man”
represents mankind. Nobody can interpret
the word “man” to mean an Israelite or a Jew.
God chose
“On the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed
from the
Objection
# 2
The
Seventh Day Sabbath serves only the Children of
Response
# 2
The Bible does not tell us what Adam and Eve were doing on
the seventh day of Creation, but that day would have been their first full day
on earth. On that day they were perfect
creatures made in the image of God, and in perfect
relationship with the perfect God who was keeping the first Sabbath, the
seventh day. Their first awareness of
God would see Him as the Lord of the Sabbath.
On this first Sabbath of Creation week, God was at rest to enjoy His
children and His relationship with them.
Objection # 3
The Seventh
Day Sabbath is not known to other people of the world, and God only made it
known to the Children of
Response # 3
Some
have argued that what God sanctified at Creation is only a statement. and not intended for His people to observe a weekly Seventh
Day Sabbath. Hence, they teach the
Sabbath was unknown and unobserved during the 2,500 years from Adam to
Moses. A reading of the Fourth
Commandment gives us a clear understanding of the reason for the Seventh Day
Sabbath. “Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall
labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your
God. In it you shall do no work: . . . .
For in six days the LORD made the heavens, and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, and rested the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Ex.
20:8-11) Any believer who knows the One True
God will find it difficult to believe the Creator would not let the Patriarchs such
as Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob know about His Creation and its close
connection to the Seventh Day Sabbath.
Why should this important universal knowledge of His Creation and the
Seventh Day Sabbath be withheld for 2,500 years and be given only to the
children of Israel and not to the rest of mankind?
That
the children of Adam and Eve continued to regard every seventh day as a day of
rest and worship is clearly implied in the story of Cain and Abel.
“And in process of time
it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the
LORD. And Abel also brought of the
firstlings of his flock and of the fat.
And the LORD respected Abel and his offering,” (Gen. 4:3, 4).
On
this particular day, Cain was not tilling the ground, as he normally did, nor
was Abel tending his sheep. On this day,
they met with the LORD and brought Him their offerings.
And
what day was that? The phrase "in process of time" is, literally, "at the end of the
days" ("process" = Hebrew qets = "end"; "time" =
Hebrew yamim = "days").
The day on which they brought their offerings was the day "at the end of the
days,"
and this clearly can be nothing but the Seventh Day Sabbath, the day that God
had rested, blessed and sanctified.
The
story of Noah contains many allusions to the seven-day week. Note the following
in Chapters 7 and 8 of Genesis:
1.
"For after seven more days, and I will cause
it to rain upon the earth" (7:4)
2.
"And it came to pass after seven days that
the waters of the flood were on the earth" (
3.
Forty weeks later (280 days—compare
4.
"And he waited yet another seven days; and
again he sent forth the dove" (
5.
"And he waited yet other seven days; and
sent forth the dove " (
6.
Noah and his family left the ark exactly 371 days, or 53 weeks, after they had entered it (compare verses
Whether
these repeated references to actions taken every seven days imply that they all
took place on God's Sabbath Day is not stated, although it does seem
probable. In any case, it is clear that
both God and Noah were ordering events in terms of a seven-day cycle. There is strong possibility Noah kept some
primitive form of calendar consisting of days, weeks and months to mark the
important events during the Flood (Gen. 8:4-5)
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. This is the genealogy
of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in
his generations, Noah walked with God.” (Gen. 6:8-9) “Thus Noah did; according to all that God
commanded him, so he did.” (Gen. 6:22)
Since
Noah was obedient to the One True God, he and his family could possibly
have also kept the Seventh Day Sabbath.
God said: “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My
commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” (Gen. 26:5) Abraham was to teach his family and
descendents God's Laws and commandments so they would obey them (Gen.
18:19). If the commandments had included
the Sabbath as in the Ten Commandments then Abraham would have also kept the
Seventh Day Sabbath.
Objection # 4
How do we
know the present Seventh Day Sabbath and the one given
to the Children of
Response # 4
Miracle 1. The
Israelites were told not to save manna overnight for the next working day (Ex.
Miracle 2. The Israelites had
to gather twice the normal amount of manna on the Sixth Day [ Friday ] morning
(Ex. 16:5) This double portion would be
enough for both Friday and Saturday, the seventh-day Sabbath (Ex. 16:23). The manna that was saved overnight for the
Sabbath did not stink and breed worms ((Ex.
Miracle 3. God withheld
manna from falling on the seventh day, and miraculously preserved the portions
saved for the Sabbath (Ex.
“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? . . . . So the people rested on
the seventh day.” (Ex. 16:28-30).
COMMENT:
There are two direct statements God spoke through the mouth of Moses
that identified the exact Seventh Day Sabbath. “Then he said to them, ‘This
is what the LORD has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the
LORD. . . (Ex. 16:23) Then Moses said,
‘Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it
in the field.” (Ex. 16:25) The absence of manna on the seventh
day identified exactly which day was the Sabbath on which the Israelites were
to rest from all their labors. Thus God miraculously revealed His exact Seventh
Day Sabbath day to them!
Notice
that God performed several miracles every week to point out the exact day of
the Sabbath to the Israelites. He miraculously gave the people manna on the
first six days of the week, including a double portion on the sixth day. And He
preserved the leftover portion of Friday’s manna so it could be eaten on the Sabbath,
since there would be none to gather on the seventh day, thereby giving the
people rest from working on His Holy Day.
Every
week God clearly reminded the Israelites of His Seventh Day Sabbath. He
performed these miracles week after week for forty years! (Ex. 16:35.) This means God had performed this miracle of
the manna at least 2,080 times. With so
many repetitive miracles it will take a very hard-hearted, close-minded or
brainless person not to know which day is the exact Seventh
Day Sabbath!
A
common objection to the Sabbath is that nobody actually knows which is the exact Seventh Day so how can anyone keep it. God knows because He is the Creator of the
Sabbath, and He has revealed it to Moses and the children of Israel who have
kept it faithfully from that time in the wilderness until today.
Objection # 5
The
Seventh Day Sabbath is a sign of a covenant between God and the Children of
Objection # 5
An important feature of the Seventh
Day Sabbath as the sign of a covenant between God and the Children of
At that time
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people
but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained
mercy.” (1 Pet. 2:9-10)
Here is a clear biblical injunction
for the New Covenant “people of God” who are believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ to observe the Seventh Day Sabbath.
“There remains therefore a rest (Sabbatismos)
for the people of God. For he who has
entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from
His. Let us therefore be diligent to
enter that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.” (Heb. 4:9-11)
The “people of God” include both Jews and Gentiles who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus. For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there
is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:26-29)
The
“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the
members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into
one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – have all been made
to drink into one Spirit. For in fact
the body is not one member but many.” (1 Cor. 12:12-14)
Being a united body the
42 And when the Jews went out of the synagogue,
the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next
Sabbath.
43 Now when the congregation had broken up, many of
the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44 On the next Sabbath
almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
This is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
Although
the Seventh Day Sabbath was “a sign of the covenant between God and
the children of
“Also the sons of
foreigner who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him, and to love the name
of the LORD, to be His servants – Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
and holds fast My covenant – Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make
them joyful in My House of Prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on My altar,
For My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all nations.” (Isa. 56:6-7)
This
prophecy has already been fulfilled for decades even up to our present
time. God had the original intention
that Gentile Christians - “sons of foreigner who
join themselves to the LORD“ - would observe the
Seventh Day Sabbath and hold fast to God’s covenant. This is the evidence that God’s Church is
definitely a
Objection # 6
Christians are now under grace and no longer
under the law, therefore they no longer need to observe the Seventh Day Sabbath
anymore.
Response
# 6
It is true that Christians are now under grace
and no longer under the law. But there
are people in the New Testament time that misunderstand and abuse their liberty
by saying that since they are now under grace they can do whatever they like. “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law
but under grace? Certainly not! What is sin? “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness,
and sin is lawlessness.” (1 Jn.
3:4)
What has sin got to do with the Seventh Day
Sabbath? God gave mankind the Ten
Commandments which is called the Royal Law (Jas. 2:8-11). If you break the Fourth Commandment which is the
Seventh Day Sabbath you are committing sin.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has declared: “Do not think that I came
to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I
did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or
one tittle will by no means pass from the law till
all is fulfilled.” (Mt. 5:17-18)
Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us this warning, “Not everyone who says
to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your
name, cast out demons in Your name? And
then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me,
you who practice lawlessness.” (Mt.
7:21-22) Those that break the Seventh
Day Sabbath Commandment are practicing lawlessness. Although they may be calling Jesus “Lord, Lord” but He will be telling
them; “I never
knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness.”
May God bless
you
Link to: Sabbath Truths that are easy to understand
This article is a presentation of Paul Wong
to the ARK Forum on
For
comments please write first to: arkpw@sbcglobal.net
Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the
President of ARK International. |