Christians have wrestled with this question over the years, and several small groups preach even today that God wants Christians today to “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” in the same way the Israelites were commanded to keep it. The point out that the Sabbath is rooted in Creation (Genesis 2.1–3: “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation”).
Why, then, do most Christians meet on the first day of the week and not the seventh? Why do many Christian groups even call Sunday the “Christian Sabbath,” even though no such language is found in Scripture? Christians have been meeting on the first day of the week since the early days of the church; there must be a reason. The question is: Is it a good reason? Is it a God-breathed reason?
Let’s examine some arguments made by the Church of God International and see if they hold up under scrutiny. From an article on their website entitled “SUNDAY, SATURDAY—WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?” we find this summary at the end:
- The Sabbath was made at Creation; it was made for man.
- The continuing cycle of sabbaths, occurring every seventh day, was never lost. It was carefully preserved by both Jews and Christians.
- The Sabbath was to be a sign between God and His true people.
- The Sabbath was to be a perpetual covenant.
- The command to keep holy the seventh day is found in the Decalogue, alongside commandments against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and so on.
- The importance of keeping the Sabbath (from God’s perspective) is seen in the punishment of Sabbath-breaking brought upon Israel.
- The prophets tell us that both Israelites and gentiles will keep God’s weekly and annual Sabbaths during the Millennium.
When we add to the above the fact that Jesus Christ kept the Sabbath, the fact that the apostles and early New Testament church kept the Sabbath, and the fact that both Christ and the apostles upheld the so-called “Old Testament law,” the only conclusion we can come to is that we should be keeping the Sabbath!
https://www.cgi.org/sunday-saturday-what-difference-does-it-make
Let’s examine these one point at a time.
The Sabbath was made at Creation; it was made for man.
The Jew’s Sabbath rest was rooted in Creation. God rested on the Sabbath day. This principle was true from the beginning—God shows us that rest comes after good work, and rest is good. However, we have no historical record of God expecting anyone to keep a Sabbath rest on the Seventh Day of the week until He commanded them in the wilderness in Exod. 16.23ff.
The continuing cycle of sabbaths, occurring every seventh day, was never lost. It was carefully preserved by both Jews and Christians.
The Jews certainly preserved the seventh day as the sabbath, but did Christians? That is what must be proven. The article we are examining says many Christians through the years have made a distinction between the seventh day and the first day of the week, even as they have argued for Christians meeting on the first day of the week. That tells me that Christians from early times were meeting on the first day of the week and they had no trouble distinguishing between their Sunday-meeting and the Jews’ Sabbath-keeping. The article falls short of providing evidence for Christians historically meeting on the seventh day of the week.
The Sabbath was to be a sign between God and His true people.
The Sabbath was to be a sign between God and ISRAEL, for sure (Exod. 31.13). The question remains if God intended it to be for all nations for all time. I already noted above that we have no record of God’s people observing a Sabbath day before Exodus 16.23–29. Neither do we have any record of God commanding any other nation to observe the Sabbath. If someone “joined himself to YHWH,” as Isaiah 56.3–4 says, then yes, he should keep the Sabbath. That person would be a proselyte—one who converted to Judaism—and he would be expected to keep all Jewish laws, including circumcision. But gentiles in general during OT times were never commanded to keep the Sabbath day holy.
The Sabbath was to be a perpetual covenant.
The Sabbath was to be a perpetual covenant between God and ISRAEL, according to Exod. 31.16: “throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.” But notice this kind of language is used in several other places in the Mosaic Covenant:
“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work…” (Lev. 16.29). This refers to the Day of Atonement. Verse 31: “It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever.”
Circumcision has similar language applied in Genesis 17.9–14. “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your offspring after you: every male among you shall be circumcised…So shall My covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
Because the Day of Atonement was to be a statute forever, should God’s people today still observe it? Because circumcision was an everlasting covenant, should God’s people still circumcise our boys? We know both of these things are certainly not true because the New Covenant explicitly tells us the Old Covenant priesthood, sacrificial system, and circumcision are no longer in effect—not even for the Jews.
So why could we not also understand that the Sabbath Day as the Jews used to keep it is no longer in effect today? How, then, do all these things still exist as a perpetual covenant?
Part 2 coming soon…