The Sabbath Day or the Lord’s Day – Which? / Part1

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All Scripture references are from the
New Scofield Reference Bible.
Printed in the United States of America
Revised 2006

One man esteemeth one day above another;
another esteemeth every day alike.
Let every man be fully persuaded in
his own mind. (Romans 14:5)

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 Sabbath day is Saturday. It is the seventh day of the week according to our calendar. Furthermore, the Sabbath day has never been changed to Sunday.

The present-day controversy over which day of the week Christians should observe hinges upon a false premise, which resulted in a warped and distorted viewpoint of the real meaning of the Sabbath day as found in the Word of God. Many Christians have a woeful misconception of why the church has always observed the first day of the week. Nothing but abysmal ignorance has permitted the protagonists of the Sabbath day to traffic in their legalistic system.

The question, “When was the Sabbath changed to Sunday?” is like the old chestnut asked of the man who was very much a Mr. Milquetoast: “Do you still beat your wife?” You cannot answer that question without getting into a peck of trouble. If you say, “Yes,” you are wrong. If you say, “No,” you are wrong, and you are immediately in difficulty. For the same reason, “When was the Sabbath day changed to Sunday?” is one of those questions that cannot be answered in a word or two since it is based upon a false premise.

I am going to ask that you think with me as I deal with this subject, for I believe this to be one of the most important of the commandments, and it is essential that we understand what it means.

The Ten Commandments are given first in Exodus 20. They are repeated in Deuteronomy 5, but it is interesting to note that in no instance is this a repetition of the Law – it is rather an interpretation of the Law in the lives of the people and nation after forty years of experience with it in the wilderness. Therefore, all the commandments that we find given in Deuteronomy are identical to those given in Exodus with one exception: The fourth commandment, the one that has to do with the Sabbath day. Thereby hangs a tale, and this is something our legalistic friends never call to our attention.

Basis in Exodus – Ceremonial

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 20:11)

The reason given in Exodus for the observance of the Sabbath day is that God in creating did all the work in six days, and He rested on the seventh and hallowed that day. Therefore, in Exodus the basis is ceremonial or, as we could say today, theological or religious. It is founded upon the fact that God rested on the seventh day.

After Christ had healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda, the religious rulers accused Him of breaking the Mosaic Law because He had done it on the Sabbath day. He said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). In other words, “We are not observing a Sabbath day any longer; we are working!”

Basis in Deuteronomy – Humanitarian

When we turn to Deuteronomy we find an altogether different reason given for the observance of the Sabbath day. Note this passage:

And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of
Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out from
there through a mighty hand and by an outstretched
arm; therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to
keep the sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15)

Back in Exodus, the basis is that God rested on the Sabbath – the seventh day – and that basis is theological, ceremonial. But in Deuteronomy we learn that God brought them out of bondage from the land of Egypt, and because of this they were to observe the Sabbath day. They had worked as slaves in hard labor seven days a week, from sunup till sunset, without respite from sorrow or weariness. Now God tells them that, because He has delivered them out of the land of Egypt and permitted them to keep one day of rest, He wants them to be equally considerate of their servants and all their animals. Man and beast must rest one day out of each week. That is humanitarian.

You will recall that our Lord had this in mind when His disciples were plucking the ears of grain on the Sabbath and the rulers challenged Him because of this. He said to the religious rulers:

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

This is a flat statement of the humanitarian aspect of the question. These two reasons are tremendous, and we would do well to keep them in mind.

The Sabbath Belongs to the Hebrews

Since the Sabbath day actually originated in creation – “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day...” (Genesis 2:2) – one would think that all the primitive nations of the world would have observed it in some form and at some time. They all did have a garbled account of the Flood and a garbled account of creation, which reveals that there was one reliable source for these. But the interesting thing is that this very important matter of the Sabbath day is not found to be observed by the other nations.

A similar observance in Babylon led liberal scholars to try to trace the Hebrews’ observance of the Sabbath back to Babylon. The Babylonians observed the new moon, and there were four quarters in their month. That would work out to seven and sometimes eight days to a week, but it was never Sabbath to them.

Dr. R. H. Charles followed the findings of the liberals and their subsequent teachings and made this statement: “The Sabbath belongs to the Hebrews.” Isn’t that interesting! God had said when He first gave the Law to His people that He wanted them to observe the Sabbath because He had delivered them out of the land of Egypt.

Well, who were God’s chosen people? I dare say that there are very few reading this message whose ancestors were slaves in Egypt. And even if they were, I have a notion very few of you have ancestors delivered out of the land of Egypt by a mighty act of redemption on God’s part. Obviously this applies to a certain group of people who are easily recognized as the nation Israel.

Proofs Pertaining to Israel and the Sabbath

I turn now to several significant verses in the Word of God. First notice Exodus 31:13:

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel [now we know to whom He is speaking], saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations….

Here God marked the Sabbath day as a peculiar sign between Himself and the children of Israel. Then in the next verse God cautioned them further:

Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death….
(Exodus 31:14)

That was very serious, was it not? They were to forfeit their very lives for defiling or profaning the Sabbath day. They were to be dealt with as if they had murdered someone in cold blood.

Then following through with verses 16 and 17:

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever….

It is a sign between God and the people of Israel. That is clear, is it not?

Like the rite of circumcision, the Sabbath belongs to the old creation, for the Sabbath was built primarily on the old creation. After God had created during the six days, He rested on the seventh day. Israel, an earthly people, belonged to an old creation, and the Sabbath was given to them as a peculiar sign.

Now if you are not convinced that God meant business about this, turn to another portion in the Book of Numbers. If you are one who feels that you can keep the Sabbath day and you do keep it, the penalty for breaking it should make your hair stand on end.

Numbers 15 includes an example of one who broke the Sabbath law:

And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man who gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. (Numbers 15:32)

Now I may be wrong, but I have a notion that any one of you readers does more work on the Sabbath or seventh day than this man did. He only picked up a few sticks. Do you want to go under Sabbath day restrictions? Let’s read further and learn what happened:

And they who found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in prison, because it was not declared what should be done to him. (Numbers 15:33, 34)

We have come now to God’s verdict, and it is harsh:

And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. And all the congregation brought him outside the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses. (Numbers 15:35, 36)

Do you want to be under the law of the Sabbath day? I’m afraid that a great many people who talk of keeping the Sabbath day are breaking it. God meant business about this Sabbath day. Before we conclude this study we shall see the reason God protected the day as He did. We will see that it was symbolic of something tremendous that He has done for you and me. He did not want it violated in any fashion whatsoever. Neither can those who talk of keeping the Sabbath violate what it symbolizes, as we shall see.

Next Part 2.