This lesson may seem off-topic after the previous series of lessons, but I promise you, it is perfectly on
topic. But before I can explain why in a few lessons, I need you to back up and ask yourself some hard
questions about your faith. The first one is, why do you worship God on Sunday?
Do you know? Did you ever stop to ask, “Why Sunday? Why not Monday or Thursday?”. Where in the
Bible will you find the command that sets Sunday apart from the other days of the week, as a day to
gather with others to worship your Creator? Does which day you worship even make a difference?
Most people go to church their entire lives and never stop to ask these simple questions! Most simply
accept what they’ve always been told and leave it at that; but you will be shocked when you learn just
WHY you keep Sunday!
God commands every true Christian to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good”
(1 Thessalonians 5:21). But do they? Have you? Because if you read the Bible from cover to cover
you will never find a verse which commands you to keep Sunday holy!
Sunday, which the Bible calls merely “the first day of the week”, was a day of work throughout
Biblical times. Every Christian minister who has read the Bible knows this – so why do they teach you
to keep Sunday holy in spite of what they see clearly written again and again throughout the pages of
their own Bible?
They’ll tell you “we keep Sunday to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection”. First, let me ask a question you
should have asked them already: “where is the BIBLICAL command, suggestion, example, or even a
HINT that we should commemorate Jesus’ resurrection?”
Yes, it might sound like a good idea to the human mind, but God never mentioned it – and what is the
result of “the way that seems right to a man”? Proverbs 14:12. Does God like it if you make up
additional observances and call it part of His religion? Deuteronomy 12:32.
Search the scriptures for yourself – see where it says you should keep Sunday to remember the
resurrection of Jesus! GO FIND IT! Then ask your preacher to find it for you! But he won’t, because it
doesn’t exist. Men made it up!
The second question you should have asked yourself should be obvious to students of this course –
how can you keep Sunday to honor Jesus’ resurrection when the very first lesson conclusively
proved that Jesus was NOT resurrected on Sunday!!
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TheSimpleAnswers.com
The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 3 – 6
The proof that Jesus was not resurrected at dawn on Sunday is conclusive. And if Jesus wasn’t
resurrected on Sunday, then what is your excuse for keeping Sunday holy?
WHERE IS THE PROOF?
Here’s a fun question – I’d like you to guess how often Sunday – called “the first day of the week” in
the Bible – is mentioned in the NT? Go on, guess! 100 times? 50 times? Go ahead, guess!
*****
The entire Christian world believes that the Sabbath was transferred to Sunday in the Bible. So
we should find the NT FULL of examples of Paul keeping Sunday, like you probably do, right?
So how many times was Sunday mentioned in the NT?
Eight! And five of those were talking about one single day, the day after Jesus was resurrected!!
That means there are THREE verses in the NT that might show a church service on Sunday. Obviously,
if the Bible transferred the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday, it must have done so in one of the verses that
MENTIONS the first day of the week!
As I’ve said so many times (yet can never say too often), to properly understand the Bible you have to
merge every verse on the subject! When you do that, and simply listen to each and every one of them,
then they all speak in harmony, and true doctrine becomes inescapable.
I like to start with the most obvious question; was the 4th commandment (Exodus 20:8-11) the ONLY
law that was abolished? We have proved that EVERY OTHER LAW survived the death of Jesus – was
this the exception? Or was it made even MORE binding, like adultery, lying, idolatry and all the
other Ten Commandments were, so that now it applies both externally AND internally?
THE FIRST TEST
What day did God initially rest? Genesis 2:2. Did God do anything special to that day? Verse 3. Why?
(Same verse). Did God give the same seventh-day Sabbath to the Israelites? Exodus 16:22-23. To
whom was this Sabbath observed? Verse 25-26. Why did God give them this Sabbath? Verses 4-5.
God gave them the Sabbath “to prove them”, or as other versions say, “to test them”, to see whether
they would obey His law or not. So from the first, the Sabbath was a test command, to see whether
someone really wanted to obey God – or preferred to go out and gather manna instead (or go out and
earn a living to buy your “daily bread”).
This commandment is a test of faith for us as well as them. It took faith to go to all the work of
gathering extra, and trust that it wouldn’t spoil like it usually did (Exodus 16:20). It took faith not to
gather it on Saturday.
Likewise, it takes faith not to work on Saturday, to lose jobs and business opportunities to keep God’s
command. To set yourself apart from nearly the entire Christian world by worshiping on a different day
takes faith. Most of the world fails this test, miserably, every week. Do you?
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The Sabbath command was the first one God gave them after they left Egypt; four chapters and a few
weeks before the rest of the Ten Commandments were given. So it pre-dated the law of Moses, with the
sacrifices, washings, and ceremonies. Clearly it was no part of the curse that was abolished by
Christ.
Was God angry when Israel went out to gather their daily bread on the Sabbath – a clear metaphor for
working to earn a living? Exodus 16:27-28. After the rebels were dealt with, which day did the people
rest on? Verses 29-30. Why did God give them the Sabbath? Exodus 31:13. A sign of what? (Same
verse).
How long will this Sabbath be kept? (Same verse). Was this sign temporary, only while they were in the
wilderness, or did God say the same thing as much as 1,000 years later? Ezekiel 20:12. Did God get
furious when they broke the Sabbath, and rejected His sign? Verse 13.
Notice that it was a sign so you would know the true God! A sign that you are following Him, that He
is your God. This sign was given to God’s people as a sign FOREVER, a PERPETUAL covenant –
does that sound like something that was destined to be repealed or changed in the New Testament?
What was the penalty for breaking the Sabbath? Exodus 31:14-15. Was that ever enforced? Numbers
15:32-36. How long will Israel keep the Sabbath? Exodus 31:16-17. And why was the seventh day
made special? Verse 17.
No other day can say that! God did not rest on the first day, HE WORKED! (Genesis 1:3-5). Nor did
God make Sunday holy, nor did He bless it. No other day is a sign between God and His people. Only
the seventh day – the day we call Saturday.
THE ISRAELITE SABBATH
Many people dismiss the Sabbath saying, “Oh, that’s just the Jewish Sabbath” – but is that what the
Bible just said? Whose Sabbath is it? Exodus 31:13. Is it the Jew’s Sabbath? Or GOD’S Sabbath?
(Same verse). Of which day is Jesus Lord? Which day of the week is the true “Lord’s Day”, according
to the Bible? Mark 2:28.
If God commands it to be made holy, should it be holy to you? Exodus 31:14. Do you, or anyone else,
have the right to transfer that holiness to some other day? Revelation 22:18-19 (Common sense also
answers that question – at least, you’d think it would…).
You learned in Lesson 2-1 that if you are a part of the New Covenant, then you are a child of
Abraham; if you are a true Christian, THEN YOU ARE AN ISRAELITE! A spiritual Jew!
(Romans 2:29). You share in their enormous blessings and also in their obligations!
So you don’t get to sneer “oh, that’s just the Jewish Sabbath, I don’t have to do that because I’m a
Gentile” because if you have faith, like faithful Abraham, then you’ll be keeping the Sabbath God
gave his family!
Because the Sabbath IS the sign God gave TO KEEP TRACK OF ABRAHAM’S CHILDREN! It is the
banner his physical AND spiritual heirs carry, the badge that helps God – and the rest of the world –
identify them!
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So if you don’t have this sign – if YOU don’t keep the Sabbath holy – it means you really ARE a
gentile, a spiritual gentile, who will NOT be in the Kingdom of God! (Ephesians 4:17-18). Because
this day is a sign between the true Israel and God forever!
If you are a true Christian, YOU ARE AN ISRAELITE. That is the good news Christ brought! And if
you now realize that you’re not one of God’s people – because you have no such sign – then keeping
the Sabbath is a great place to start showing faith in the true God!
A WEEKLY TEST OF FAITH
Does buying and selling constitute work? Nehemiah 13:15-17. Did Sabbath-breaking get Israel kicked
out of the promised land? Verse 18. If necessary, is it appropriate to lock your gates (or turn off cell
phones!) to keep salesmen and other “unwanted guests” out? Verses 19-21. Does the command not to
work on the Sabbath apply even when you really “need” to work on the Sabbath? Exodus 34:21.
Sabbath observance is a test command – a matter of faith. It is a weekly test of whether or not you have
the faith to trust God that you won’t lose your job, or that if you do, you’ll find a better one – and that
whether you do or not, you’re going to obey God. Read Daniel 3:17-18. They trusted that God was
going to deliver them – but that even if He didn’t, they were going to obey His commands anyway.
It is a weekly test where you will risk offending your friends, your family, and stand alone if necessary
against the world. You risk money and convenience. It doesn’t require much faith in the grand scheme
of things – after all, no one is tortured for keeping the Sabbath these days. But still, it takes faith to
keep the Sabbath. You must ask yourself…
Will God let your family starve because you obeyed Him? Psalms 37:25. Is God unrighteous to forget
your good works? Hebrews 6:10. If you haven’t the faith to obey God in a good time, with a relatively
easy thing like the Sabbath, do you suppose you’ll have the faith to obey God when they put a gun to
your head and order you to renounce your belief in God? Jeremiah 12:5. Is the Sabbath made FOR
you, or is it against you? Mark 2:27.
Jesus abolished the parts of the law that were against us, contrary to us – the curse. But the Sabbath
was never contrary to us, it was made FOR man – for his good! What admonition did Jeremiah give the
backsliding, apostate nation of Judah about the Sabbath? Jeremiah 17:21-27. Is keeping the Sabbath a
blessing? Isaiah 56:2.
Will those who keep it, regardless of their status in this life, have a place in God’s house? Verses 4-7.
But to get that blessing, to inherit a place in God’s house (i.e., salvation), what must you do? Isaiah
58:13. And what does He promise afterwards? Verse 14. On the other hand, if you don’t “call the
Sabbath a delight”, and God doesn’t hear your prayers, why is that? Isaiah 59:1-2.
THE GENTILE SABBATH
How many times have you heard the quotation “mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all
people”? It’s on billboards, on the side of churches, everyone loves it and uses it! And it is correctly
applied to the Gentile church!
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But the greatest key to Bible study, greater even than merge and harmonize, is READ THE CONTEXT.
So read Isaiah 56:5-7, where that quote came from. This passage is specifically addressed to “sons of
the stranger” (gentiles) who “love the name of the Lord”, and who will have a name “better than sons
and daughters”. Gentile saints, in other words!
These Gentiles who are joined to the Lord, these Gentiles who call God’s temple “a house of prayer for
all people”… are those who keep the Sabbath! Those who don’t pollute it by working on it! Those
who keep it holy as God commanded all the children of Israel, physical and spiritual alike, to do!
If people had actually read these verses instead of pulling one heart-warming quote out of them, they
wouldn’t have put it on their church and then attended on Sunday! This is a command for all those
who “take hold of His covenant”. But which covenant? God doesn’t specify because He means both!
Remember, God said the Sabbath was a sign for His people – ALL His people! OC physical Israel
and NC spiritual Israel alike keep the Sabbath!
After the New Testament times, even after this life, what happens in the future – after the new temple is
built, does the Sabbath have any place there? Isaiah 66:22-23. And in that new temple (described in
great detail throughout the latter part of Ezekiel), will people keep God’s Sabbath? Ezekiel 44:24. Will
people still worship on the Sabbath? Ezekiel 46:3.
So if the Sabbath has always been kept, and is going to be kept in that period in the distant future… is it
likely that God has completely shoved it aside now in favor of another day? If so, God must have said
so very clearly in the New Testament. Did He? In one of those three verses? Wait and see!
WHAT DID JESUS DO?
We would surely expect Jesus to have known the true way of observing the New Testament Sabbath.
After all, if He didn’t, why are we Christians? And surely He would have told the apostles, His closest
friends, the true day of worship. So what did they do?
Who is our perfect example in all things? 1 Peter 2:21. And should we walk (and teach) as Jesus
walked? 1 John 2:6. On which day did Jesus teach? Mark 1:21. Was it just one time, or did it happen
again? Mark 6:2. Did Jesus make a habit of always attending church and (when His time was come)
teaching on the Sabbath day? Luke 4:16.
So Jesus’ example was to keep the Sabbath. Not Sunday – there is not one word that hints at Sunday
being observed by Jesus, ever. Remember, Jesus had to PERFECTLY fulfill BOTH covenants in order
to be a fit sacrifice! If the New Covenant required Sunday observance He would have had to do that
too!
But He didn’t! In fact, shortly before Jesus died, His disciples asked Him what would be the sign of His
return – the end of the New Testament age (Matthew 24:3). And among other things He strongly
implied that His true disciples would be keeping the Sabbath day just before He returned (verse 20).
If Jesus’ death, mere days after this, was to change the Sabbath day to Sunday, why would Jesus
prophesy that just before His return His disciples should pray that their flight not be “on the Sabbath
day”?
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If the Sabbath was to lose all of its significance, as it has for so many Christians today, then why would
they care which day their flight was on? Which modern church would care if their flight was on “the
Jewish Sabbath”?
Yet you have here a proclamation from the lips of Jesus Himself that the Sabbath day would be a
matter of great importance to His disciples just before He returned. To His true disciples. Is it
important to your church? Is it important to you?
Surely, if anyone changed the Sabbath to Sunday, Paul would have known about it – which day did he
observe? Acts 13:14. Did he keep Sabbath with the Jews, but observe Sunday with the Gentiles? Acts
13:42-45.
Notice what happened there! The Jews had LEFT the building! And the GENTILES asked to hear
Paul again the next SABBATH! And the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together EXCEPT
the Jews, who were “moved with envy”.
With this whole group exclusively made up of Gentiles, if Sunday were the day of worship for New
Testament Gentiles, surely Paul would have told them so, and kept Sunday with them! But your Bible
says he did no such thing!
Is that the only time Paul kept the Sabbath? Acts 16:13. Did Paul, like Jesus, make a HABIT of
keeping the Sabbath regularly, week after week? Acts 17:2. With both Jew and Greek alike? Acts 18:4.
What about the people who knew Jesus and His commands best – which day did they keep after His
death? Luke 23:56.
The women who had been present at Jesus’ crucifixion returned after His burial – after He was dead
and buried, His blood having completed the changes to the law, and they STILL returned and kept the
Sabbath according to the commandment! Just as Paul REGULARLY kept the Sabbath, week after
week, “as his custom was”!
These scriptures are clear. They are not vague, they cannot be misinterpreted, nor are they a matter of
opinion. Jesus kept the Sabbath, so did Mary, the other Mary, and Paul – who kept the Sabbath with his
Gentile and Jewish converts alike.
Remember the rule of Bible study – a large number of clear scriptures ALWAYS, without exception,
trumps a tiny number of vague, unclear verses. The clear you merge; the vague you harmonize.
There are a handful of unclear verses regarding Sunday, and we will now go through them one by one
and harmonize them with the clear majority.
SUNDAY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
As I said above, Sunday is only mentioned eight times in the NT. So we will go through every single
verse and see if any of them commands, justifies, or even exemplifies a change from seventh-day
worship to first-day worship.
The first verse is in Matthew 28:1. Does it show them observing Sunday, or does it show them
working? Does it say the first day of the week was AFTER the Sabbath was over? Next we have Mark
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16:2, Mark 16:9, Luke 24:1 and John 20:1. These all record the same events as Matthew 28:1, with
minor details added or left out.
Do any of these provide any evidence of worship, prayer, singing, preaching, reading the scriptures or
anything else associated with a church service? Next is John 20:19. Does this show them assembling?
Why? Was it for a church service, or was it out of FEAR of the Jews? Is anything said about a change
in the day of worship in the context? Verses 20-23.
After that the next verse is in Acts 20:7. This is the first verse that shows anything like a church
service. But before we get into examining it, exactly what does this say? Does it mention a change in
the law that cancels out the 148 verses that teach the Sabbath in the OT and the 55 that teach it in the
NT? Does it say that Sunday is the new Christian Sabbath? No! So what exactly does it say?
There are two basic assumptions people make about this verse, which when challenged, show what was
really happening. The first assumption is that “breaking bread” is necessarily a part of a church service.
Is it? Read 1 Corinthians 10:16. Does it say it is a part of a regular church service? Does it say it takes
place every Sunday? Cast aside preconceptions! Does it say that?
Or does it simply talk about a cup of communion and a bread that is broken, and then move on to other
subjects? Matthew 26:26. Did the last supper take place on a Sunday? Wasn’t Jesus dead, buried, and
resurrected long before Sunday services could possibly have been kept? So then MUST breaking bread
be a part of a church service?
Read Acts 27:32-36. Was Paul sharing communion bread on Sunday morning with pagan sailors? Or
was he encouraging them to EAT food “for their health”? In Luke 24:30, what was the incognito Jesus
doing before He broke the bread?
Notice! Jesus was EATING! Sitting at MEAT with them – when He broke bread and gave it to them.
And this took place in the evening of the first day – possibly even after dark! (Luke 24:29). Surely this
was no part of a church service, but a part of an ordinary meal that happened to have an extraordinary
guest!
For thousands of years, man has not had soft bread. Even when bread was leavened, it was usually
quite hard. So it was a common practice to “break bread together” at a meal, an expression which still
survives in our language to this day. It need have no particular connection to a church service – as for
instance at the feeding of the 5,000 men (Mark 6:41), which we know took place in the evening (verse
35), or of the 4,000 (Mark 8:6).
Further, if breaking bread is done only, or even usually, as part of a Sunday church service, then how is
it that the early apostles did it EVERY DAY? Acts 2:46. Or were they merely EATING regular meals
in different houses each day? Verses 42-45.
There is no reason to assume that “they came together to break bread” meant taking communion – and
EVERY reason to conclude they came together to eat DINNER! A meal which ALWAYS involved the
breaking of bread.
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If you still are not convinced, there is more evidence later in the same chapter – as there usually is.
Remember they initially came together to “break bread” on “the first day of the week”, which is alleged
proof of Sunday observance.
Then read the story in Acts 20:9-12 of the man who fell, died, was resurrected. This took place at about
midnight (verse 7). Then look at what Paul did in verse 11! He broke bread AGAIN! Do you get the
significance of that?
The Bible doesn’t count time the way we do today. The days did not begin and end at midnight, as they
do today – that was a Roman invention – they began and ended at sunset (Genesis 1:5, etc., and
Leviticus 23:32). So Sunday night at 10 pm, by our reckoning, would actually be very early Monday
according to Biblical reckoning.
Monday begins as the sun sets Sunday evening. This was figured this way throughout the Bible. So
when Paul said they gathered “the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7), and “preached until midnight”,
we have two choices.
First, they met sometime on the daylight portion of Sunday as most people believe and broke bread.
The fact they broke bread is the biggest proof this was a church service, remember! So they came
together to break bread, at noon, let’s say.
Then Paul preached a man to death, at midnight, at which point it was no longer Sunday, but
MONDAY, at which point Paul AGAIN broke bread! (Verse 11).
If breaking bread on a certain day proves church services are being held, and the Sabbath has been
transferred to Sunday, then this verse proves not only the Sabbath was transferred to Sunday, but to
MONDAY as well!!
That of course, is absurd – but allow me to offer a much more plausible alternative; a number of
scriptures tell us clearly that Paul kept the Sabbath. Suppose that, as his custom was, he met with the
disciples on the Sabbath. They had a regular Sabbath church service, just as they did every other
time recorded in the Bible. Then after sundown on the Sabbath, it became the first day of the week!
And on “the first day of the week” which began just after sundown, perhaps at 7 pm (that would be, to
us, 7 pm Saturday), the disciples came together to eat dinner! Not having eaten since church that
morning, surely they’d be hungry! And naturally, at that dinner they broke bread!
And then Paul talked until midnight, resurrected the man, then what did he think of next? Food! It had
been 5 hours since he ate, so he was hungry again and ONCE AGAIN broke bread and ATE! Then he
had the strength to talk till dawn, at which point the meeting broke up – probably because everyone
was hungry again, as they surely would have been!
Does that not make more sense of the scriptures? Harmonizing 100% of them, not throwing away 98%
of the scriptures – the clear ones – in order to cling to 2% of the scriptures – the vague ones? Honest
Bible study makes the whole Bible fit together; most Bible study today forces a few scriptures in the
Bible to fit preconceived ideas while ignoring the rest of them. It’s no wonder there are so many
squabbling religions and differing opinions about God!
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But I said initially there were two assumptions about this verse (Acts 20:7); I dealt with the more
complicated one first. The other is simply that preaching necessarily makes a day holy. Did Jesus only
preach on the Sabbath day? Did Paul? Of course not. Then clearly, that alone doesn’t make a day holy.
What makes a day holy?
Genesis 2:3 (BBE) And God gave his blessing to the seventh day and made it holy: because on that
day he took his rest from all the work which he had made and done.
Nothing else can make a day holy!
TAKING A COLLECTION ON SUNDAY
Finally, we have one last scripture that mentions the first day of the week, 1 Corinthians 16:2. As
always, what does this scripture actually say? Does it say the Sabbath has changed? Does it say they
were to keep services on Sunday? Does it say a single word about reading scriptures, singing,
preaching, teaching, praising, worship, or anything associated with church?
Next, this collection it speaks of – is this passing the offering plate as you’re used to? What does the
context say? Verse 1. Is this same event recorded elsewhere? Romans 15:25-26. Achaia was a region
of Greece, the capitol of which was Corinth, where the letter to the Corinthians was addressed. Those
of Achaia (i.e., the Corinthians), had made a contribution to “the poor saints of Jerusalem”. This was
not a regular offering! It was a special contribution for the poor of Jerusalem. So why did Paul tell
them to do this on Sunday? Think about this!
IF Sunday was the day of worship, and if these Corinthians knew this, why would he tell them to pass
the plate on Sunday – like they were going to do anyway? But if Paul was trying to tell the Corinthians
to stop keeping Saturday and start keeping Sunday – as most preachers believe – was a single line
about collections enough to do so?
Seriously? When it’s the only verse in the Bible that says so? No, the reason Paul did this, far from
proving the Sabbath is done away, actually proves Paul did this to keep it holy!
The saints at Jerusalem were to receive a special offering of money and goods; this would only have
served to distract from the “rest” on the Sabbath day which Paul always observed in every single
example we have!
So Paul commanded them to wait until SUNDAY to do this work, rather than defile the SABBATH day
with gathering, sorting, and packing these donations! So Paul left explicit instructions to do this on the
FIRST day of the week, to make sure the Corinthians did NOT do it on the Sabbath!
Be honest, doesn’t that make more sense?
LET NO MAN JUDGE YOU
Read Colossians 2:16. Again, what does it say? People use this scripture to say you don’t have to
keep the Sabbath! But is that what it says?? Read it again and again. Does it say that? What does it
say – to someone not desperate to cling to their comfortable tradition of keeping Sunday?
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Does it say you shouldn’t eat meat? Does it say you shouldn’t drink wine? Does it say you shouldn’t
keep the Sabbath days? Does it say GOD doesn’t judge you for all these things? Does it say you
shouldn’t judge yourself? No! It says none of those things!
What it says – ALL it says – is don’t let MEN judge you for it! It commands you not to let MEN’S
opinions sway your obedience to the law of God!
Are you guilty of this? Haven’t you let men sneer “oh, that’s just for the Jews”? Have you let them
judge you in respect of the Sabbath day, and keep you from obeying God’s clear command? Well –
don’t! (Isaiah 51:7)
In this world, you will be reviled, laughed at, insulted, and shunned for keeping the Sabbath; and God
specifically commanded you NOT to let that bother you – not to let people judge you for obeying His
laws!
I ESTEEM EVERY DAY ALIKE
Read Romans 14:5. Remember the first step: what does it say? Does this verse say it doesn’t matter
which day you observe? Does it say God doesn’t care? No! It doesn’t even mention the Sabbath day!
So move on to the second step of Bible study: Get the context!
When you read the whole chapter of Romans 14, you see the association is strong between “eating”
and “days”. Verse 6 for instance. 1 Corinthians 8 is the same exact subject. See, ancient Rome and
Greece had hundreds of holidays a year, each with their special gods, foods, and festivities. It was
rather like the American customs of eating chocolate bunnies on Easter, turkey on Thanksgiving, blackeyed
peas on New Year’s, and so on.
These were pagan customs honoring false gods, and some Christians were pointedly avoiding these
foods – and judging others who ate them; those others said that it was just food, and that it didn’t
matter if it had been offered to an idol to celebrate the day of an imaginary god – and judging those
who refused to eat them.
And throughout these chapters Paul makes a very simple point; that this particular problem was a nonissue
(1 Corinthians 8:8). That the only reason it mattered is if it mattered to us (Romans 14:20). To
give a modern example, I would have no problem eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s. It means
nothing to me, neither good luck nor bad. But then I never cared about that superstitious ritual in
the first place.
But if that pagan custom had been very important to you before you found the Truth, you should avoid
it, or else you might feel you were backsliding! And knowing that, I would never pressure you to eat
black-eyed peas on New Year’s because that might compromise your conscience!
You should not judge me for eating on that day; nor should I judge you for not eating black-eyed peas
on that day. Because this issue doesn’t matter! Eating doesn’t make you worse, not eating doesn’t
make you better!
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And if there were any disagreement about such a trivial problem, I would simply not eat them “while
the world stands” to avoid hurting your conscience! But in all of this, there is nothing about judging
someone for not keeping the Sabbath holy!
MY SABBATH
Some have told me “well, I know Saturday is the Sabbath, and I know God commanded me to keep it;
but I have to work on Saturday, so I set aside Monday as my Sabbath.” And I respond “YES! Monday
IS your Sabbath! It is the day YOU MADE UP, based on YOUR OWN SELFISH REASONING!”
(Proverbs 14:12).
The Bible says the seventh day commemorates the rest God took. The seventh day is the one God made
holy, set apart for us to use, and explicitly commanded us to use. No other day can EVER replace it! So
if you’re not going to obey God like He asked, don’t bother! (Mark 7:6-9).
Monday is a day that you said was “good enough” for God; it is the vegetables you gave God when He
asked for a steak (Genesis 4:3-5). It is the lame, blind sacrifice you offered God instead of the perfect
sacrifice He demanded (Deuteronomy 15:21, Malachi 1:6-8).
God demanded you sacrifice one PARTICULAR day a week, the day He made HOLY! Instead, you give
Him Monday – when it’s convenient! A common day that is not holy, and therefore cannot be offered
to God as a sacrifice!
Monday is not God’s Sabbath! It is YOUR SABBATH! Because you aren’t obeying God, you’re
obeying your OWN IDEAS! God knows the Sabbath can be inconvenient! That’s part of the point – to
test your faith, to see if you will obey Him or your wallet! (Exodus 34:21).
Those are the two most important times for a farmer, times when a single day’s work can make the
difference between feeding your family and going hungry next winter! And so God SPECIFICALLY
commanded this rest EVEN IN THOSE BUSIEST OF TIMES!
And He expects you to TRUST HIM to take care of you even if you should lose money or even your
job over OBEYING HIM! That’s what faith IS – trusting God to keep His promises! (Mark 10:29-30).
JESUS PROMISED! If you lose your house because you obeyed Him and the gospel, HE WILL
MAKE IT RIGHT! Not only that, but make it up to you a HUNDRED TIMES OVER NOW, IN THIS
PRESENT LIFE! Do you, or do you NOT, believe your Savior and take Him at His word??
I’ve had jobs where I had to explain the Sabbath to a new group of customers and employers every
week! And I faced ridicule, threats, and occasionally the loss of a good customer over it. And I didn’t
work Saturdays, which was the day my competitors made over HALF of their money for the week!
And yet I STILL made twice as much money as most of my competitors! Because I TRUSTED God
to supply whatever I lost on Saturday, and HE ALWAYS HAS, and then some!
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THE LORD’S DAY
Another verse people quote to justify their tradition of keeping Sunday is Revelation 1:10. Again – I’ll
say this a hundred times before this course is over, so get used to it – what exactly does that say? I
want that to be your habit, when you look at any verse – to read what it SAYS, not what you’ve
always thought it says!
Does this quote God as saying “The day of worship is no longer the seventh day, the Sabbath, as I
commanded for so long; it is now the first day of the week – which from henceforth shall be called the
Lord’s day”??
Scrutinize this verse carefully. This is the KEY SCRIPTURE people use to prove Sunday observance
replaced Saturday. Please read it slowly, carefully, and then tell me – does it mention the Sabbath?
Does it mention Sunday, or the first day of the week, or ANY day of the week? Does it mention a day
of rest, or worship?
Does it mention a change of ANY kind? No! It says merely that John was “in the spirit on the Lord’s
day”. What is the Lord’s day? Does the Bible tell us? Matthew 12:8. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath; the
Sabbath is the Lord’s day!
But remember the layers you learned in the lesson on prophecy! A day is as a thousand years to God,
and the REAL Sabbath day is the 7th millennium! And that is ALSO Jesus’ day – the day Jesus comes
to inherit His Kingdom! (Revelation 11:15). And that day is unknown to most people (2 Peter 3:10) –
just as most people don’t know about the literal Sabbath day!
The 7th day Sabbath comes and goes quietly, like a thief in the night every single week as nearly the
whole Christian world goes on with their lives, working and playing and not knowing they are defiling
the Sabbath of the Lord – the Sabbath of Jesus!
But the true Christians will have kept the Sabbath holy, so when He comes back to judge we will “be
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8)! Sunday is literally Sun-day, the
day that honors the sun in pagan calendars. But when Jesus returns, what happens to the god of
Sunday? Acts 2:20.
All of these verses are true, in some sense, on all layers of God’s pattern – but they are primarily
talking about the thousand year day of the Lord – the day of judgment! And now that you go back to the
original verse, Revelation 1:10, you see that’s EXACTLY what John saw!
God projected him in vision into that future time, where John saw all the apocalyptic visions of the
judgment of the world! John was in a vision of the spirit on the day when God came back to take
power over all the nations, and rule them for 1,000 years – one millennial day!
This doesn’t say God changed the Sabbath to Sunday! In fact, it says the exact opposite – John saw a
vision of the coming of THE DAY OF THE LORD, the BEGINNING of the 1,000 year Sabbath of the
Lord!
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Can you honestly still claim there is ANY JUSTIFICATION to be found in that verse or in any
other verse in the Bible for CHANGING the Sabbath which God, Jesus, and the apostles ALL
kept holy?
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
That is every single verse that mentions the first day of the week, directly or indirectly, real or alleged.
Surely if the day was changed from Sabbath to Sunday, it would have to be mentioned in one of those!
Where else could you look for proof?
So the conclusion is clear. There is no Bible authority for a change from Sabbath to Sunday. The
Sabbath is as binding on us today as “thou shalt not kill” is, for the Sabbath is a part of the golden rule
just like all the other laws.
Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, AND WITH ALL THY STRENGTH: this is the first commandment.
The Sabbath is the 4th part of “Do Unto God”, the way you honor God with your strength. You do
that by refraining from doing YOUR work on His day, and doing HIS instead. The work of the
gospel, the work of sacrificing your selfish nature, the work of circumcising your heart and
healing the spiritually sick.
God, through the law, has guaranteed that you will always have one day every week to devote to the
work of God – so you can never say “but God, I didn’t have TIME to read the Bible! I didn’t have
TIME to study the lessons!”
Now you know what God will tell you: “24 hours a week was enough. Why didn’t you use it like I
commanded?”
Luke 6:46 And WHY call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
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