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The Sabbath Commandment - Has it been Changed?

by Henry Dering

Foreword

What is the original sabbath day as it came from the hand of the Creator? Should one day out of seven be kept today? Does it really matter which day a person worships on?

The following material reveals the real truth about the one commandment that has been ignored and forgotten by almost the entire world. This commandment has been tampered with by a gigantic religious system that has openly admitted to having attempted to change the law of God.

"It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth." Exodus 31:17

"Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.." Ezekiel 20: 12.

To emphasize certain words in quoted material used italicized type.

Hopefully, this booklet will prove a blessing to the reader and help him to determine which day is God''s true rest day-the Sabbath of the Bible.

Henry Dering

Jesus kept the Sabbth approximately 1700 times during
His life on the earth

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4:16

Which day is the Sabbath?

"But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God." Exodus 20: 10.

Meaning of the word Saturday:
The seventh and last day of the week.
Webster''s New World Dictionary, 2nd college ed.

God made the Sabbath when He created the world

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth... And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Genesis 1:1; 2:2,3.

God rested on the seventh day of the week. He also blessed and sanctified this special holy day. Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that the Creator blessed Sunday, the first day of the week.

"The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." Mark 2:27.

The seventh day was made for the whole human race (men and woman).

There were not any Jews when the earth was created. The Jews did not exist until 2500 years after the Sabbath was made.

God ordains Sabbath keeping in His Ten Commandments

The fourth commandment reads: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8-11.

The Creator commands us to remember the seventh day of the week and to keep it holy. Nowhere in the Bible are we asked to remember any of the six workdays of the week. Saturday, not Sunday, is God''s special day of rest.

"The sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word: ''remember,'' showing that the sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?" D.L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting (1898 ed.), p. 46,47.

Can God''s Ten Commandment Law ever be changed?

God wrote His law on tables of stone, signifying that it is eternal and unchangeable.

1. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matthew 5:17,18.

2. "For am the Lord, I change not..." Malachi 3: 6.

3. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Hebrews 13:8,

4. "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." Psalm 89:34.

5. "The works of His hands are verity and judgment; an his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Psalms 111:7,8.

Thus, God''s law will never be changed.

Did Jesus abolish the fourth commandment after His death?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

"And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:55,56.

The faithful women rested on the Sabbath day. They knew they could not embalm the body of Christ on the Lord''s Day. No work was done until Sunday morning, the resurrection day.

Jesus never stated that after His death, the Sabbath would be changed and celebrated on Sunday.

The Sabbath was kept after Christ''s resurrection

Jesus foretold that Jerusalem would be destroyed by enemy armies. He warned His followers of the time of the invasion saying, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:" Matthew 24:20.

Before the invading Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Christians safely fled from the city and were spared from death. Their departure was in the autumn and not on the holy Sabbath day. Jesus wanted His children to be happy and to keep the Sabbath after His resurrection.

No Bible texts in the New Testament warrant a change of worship from Saturday to Sunday after Christ''s resurrection and ascension.

The Apostle Paul and the Gentiles kept the Sabbath Day after Jesus'' death

Paul preaches on the Sabbath day in Antioch: "And when the Jews were gone out the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath… And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." Acts 13:42-44

Paul preaches on the Sabbath day near Philippi: "And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Acts 16:13,14.

Paul preach on the Sabbath day in Thessalonica: "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures," Acts 17:2

Paul preaches on the Sabbath day in Corinth; "And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks," Acts18:4

Paul was very active in teaching the Gentiles to worship on the seventh day, the Sabbath. He never advocated Sunday sacredness and worship.

The Sabbath will be Kept on the New Earth

"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." ''Isaiah 66:22,23.

For all of eternity God''s children will worship on the Sabbath on the new earth. There will be no special Sunday worship; only Sabbath observance to honor the Creator.

Sunday Keeping

Why do people in the 21 century observe Sunday instead of Saturday?

"Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matthew 15:3,9.

"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 14:12.

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." 2 Corinthians 4:4.

Many people follow the traditions that have been handed down to them by their family, friends, and church leaders. They are sincere in their beliefs, but quite often, they have grave misunderstandings about certain teachings of the Bible. One particular point of doctrine that millions are unaware of is the Sabbath day. Tradition seemingly is more important than God''s Word, the Holy Scriptures.

Someone centuries ago tampered with God''s law with the intent to deceive the whole world. This gross deception has led many to believe that the Lord''s Day is Sunday. Shall we follow tradition or the Word of God?

Bible predict attempted change Who tampered with the Lord''s day?

"And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the time and the law." Daniel 7:25, R.S.V.

What religious system claims authority to have changed God''s eternal law? "The pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws The pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth." Translated from Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca (Ready Library), "Papa," art.2.

Which commandment in particular has the papacy attempted to change?

Answer: THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

"Question: How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holydays?
"Answer: By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.

"Question: How prove you that?
"Answer: Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church''s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin."
Henry Tuberville, D.D. An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine (R.C.), page 58.

"Sunday is a Catholic institution~ and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles... From beginning to end of scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first." Catholic Press~ Sydney, Australia 1900.

"If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh-day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew... Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher, should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the Church?" Question Box, by Conway, 1903, pp.254, 255.

"But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn''t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time, the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the Bible." John A. OBrien, Ph.D., LL.D. The Faith of Millions: The Credentials of the Catholic Religion, Huntington, Indiana, Our Sunday Visitor, pp. 400, 401.

"Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. "The Day of the Lord" (dies Dominica) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church''s sense of its own power People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy."

St. Catherine Catholic Church, Sentinel, May 21, 1995, Volume 50, Number 22, page 1.

"The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday." The Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1893.

It Is Time to Choose Sabbath or Sunday

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve." Joshua 24:15.

"Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 11: 26-28.

"Enter ye in the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matthew 7:13,14

"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Revelation 22:14

"If you love me, keep my commandments"
John 14:15

That includes the Sabbath Commandment.

Do you really love Jesus with all your heart? If you do love Him, you will follow Jesus and keep the seventh-day of the week holy. He is tenderly appealing to you to choose Him as your Master. The right decision will lead to happiness and eternal life.

Joshua said, "but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15.

Won''t you also follow Joshua''s good example? You have nothing to lose but everything to gain and to be with Jesus for eternity.

Accept Jesus and His free grace to, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Exodus 20:8.