And how do we know?
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
Acts 16:13
What Day Is YHWH’s Sabbath?
One of the ten commandments is to rest on the Sabbath day. But, which day is it?
Genesis 2:2-3 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 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.
Deuteronomy 5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
Leviticus 23:3 There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to YHWH.
So, we know that YHWH’s Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. How do we know which day of the week on the Gregorian calendar is the seventh day? We can look to both scripture and historical records for evidence. In Luke 23, we learn that the women rested on the Sabbath and then the next day, the first day of the week, they went to Yeshua’s tomb.
Luke 23:54-24:1 It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
What day do Christians celebrate as the day the women discovered that Yeshua had risen? Resurrection Sunday. Therefore, according to the Christian church, the first day of the week is Sunday, which makes Saturday the seventh day of the week. If you celebrate Yeshua’s resurrection on a Sunday, then you accept that Sunday is the first day of the week and not the seventh day.
So far we have proven, unequivocally, that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, and that the seventh day of the week is Saturday. Therefore, Saturday is YHWH’s weekly Sabbath!
Exodus 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Who Changed the Day of Rest to Sunday?
The Apostolic Church of the first century kept YHWH’s seventh-day Sabbath. We see this in the New Testament scriptures and in the writings of the early church fathers.
Ignatius (AD30-107), who was a contemporary of Peter, Paul, John, and the other apostles, wrote:
Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for “he that does not work, let him not eat.”208
For say the [holy] oracles, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.” 209 But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them.210 And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, “To the end, for the eighth day,”211 on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ, whom the children of perdition, the enemies of the Saviour, deny, “whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things,”212
who are “lovers of pleasure, and not lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
The footnote 210 reads: Reference is here made to well-known Jewish opinions and practices with respect to the Sabbath. The Talmud fixes 2000 cubits as the space lawful to be traversed. Philo (De Therap.) refers to the dancing, etc.
[Roberts, A., & Donaldson, J. (Eds.). (1885). Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1: The Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus (A. Cleveland Coxe, Ed.). Revised and chronologically arranged, with brief prefaces and occasional notes.]
The Jews had traditions of what was lawful to do on the Sabbath that had nothing to do with YHWH’s law. Ignatius says we are not to adhere to Jewish traditions, but to follow YHWH’s law regarding the Sabbath, and also to keep the Lord’s Day as a memorial of Yeshua’s resurrection.
Then, in AD 364, around 30 clerics met at the Council of Laodicea, to determine what would be considered Canon, and what would be included in the Bible and read at church. In total, 60 Canons were published at this council, thus codifying church doctrine.
I wonder, is it a coincidence that the church of Laodicea in Revelation is the end times evil church? Just a thought…
The implications of this new doctrine were pervasive throughout contemporary Christian belief, as in the keeping of the Sabbath: During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Christians were in the habit of keeping Sabbath on both Saturday and Sunday. In fact Ethiopian Christians still do today. During that time, Christians rested on the Sabbath (in the Lord) and had communion or fellowship on Sundays. The Church Fathers at the Council of Laodicea were not opposed to Sunday services but were opposed to Christians Judaizing the Sabbath (see 29th Canon), Judaizing is what they labeled Christians resting on the Sabbath day. At the Council of Laodicea, they published as doctrine that the practice of staying at home and resting on the Sabbath was sinful and anathema to Christ.
CANON XXIX. Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.
[Mostacci, C. The Council of Laodicea in Phrygia Pacatiana 364 AD.]
Somehow, within three hundred years, the church had fallen away from the Word of YHWH.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Under Whose Authority Did They Change The Sabbath to Sunday?
Cardinal James Gibbons (1834-1921), a senior-ranking American prelate of the Catholic Church, wrote:
Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is bound to believe, nor do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to practice. Not to mention other examples, is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.
[Gibbons, J. (1917). The Faith of our fathers (83rd ed.). P.J. Kenedy.]
The Scriptures are the Word of YHWH. The Catholic Church acknowledges that YHWH says to rest on Saturday, but they reject the authority of our Father in Heaven. Whose authority are they under then?
John Joseph Laux (1878-1939), Catholic Church historian, wrote:
Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the New Law, that He Himself has explicitly substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days.
[Laux, J. J. (1934). A course in religion for Catholic high schools and academies. Benziger Brothers.]
They want you to believe that after thousands of years of stressing the importance of keeping His sabbaths and obeying His statutes, after divorcing the northern ten tribes of Israel for disobedience and removing Judah from their marital home, YHWH changed His mind and said, “Oh, do whatever you want.”
Malachi 3:6 For I am YHWH, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Psalm 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.
Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
What evidence do they have that YHWH gave men the authority to change His times and laws, as they claim?
Reverend Stephen Keenan (1804-1862), the Parish priest of Saint Andrews in Dundee, Scotland, wrote:
Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.
[Keenan, S. (1848). A Doctrinal Catechism (1st American ed. Revised). Edward Dunigan & Brother.]
Ohhh! I understand now! The evidence is simply that they did it. “See! We know God gave us the authority to change His times and laws because we changed His times and laws!” It is not against the law, because we did it.
Does that actually make any logical sense to you? How would that work in the real world? We steal from our neighbor and then stand before the judge and say it’s no longer illegal to steal… because we stole. That wouldn’t work standing before the judge in our judicial system, and it will not work when you stand before the Righteous Judge on the Day of Judgment!
From https://www.catholic.org/bible/ten_commandments.php:
Written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, this Divine code was received from the Almighty by Moses amid the thunders of Mount Sinai, and by him made the ground-work of the Mosaic Law. Christ resumed these Commandments in the double precept of charity — love of God and of the neighbour; He proclaimed them as binding under the New Law in Matthew 19 and in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). He also simplified or interpreted them, e.g. by declaring unnecessary oaths equally unlawful with false, by condemning hatred and calumny as well as murder, by enjoining even love of enemies, and by condemning indulgence of evil desires as fraught with the same malice as adultery (Matthew 5).
The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day.
So, with the finger of God, YHWH’s Saturday Sabbath was literally written in stone, and the church says, “Nah! We choose Sunday instead.” Do you understand the level of audacity of that? The presumption, insolence, impudence? The disrespect and lawlessness?
Notice how they call them “Jewish Sabbaths”, in order to make them seem irrelevant to the non-Jewish Christian. This is dishonest, as YHWH gave the Sabbath to EVERYONE at creation. And the Jews did not exist until after the Babylonian captivity, hundreds of years after YHWH gave His Law to Moses at Mount Sinai!
Lucius Ferraris (1687-1763), an Italian Franciscan canonist, wrote:
The Pope is of great authority and power, that he is able to modify, declare, 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 viceregent of God upon earth…
[Article titled Concerning the Extent of Papal Dignity, Authority, or Dominion and Infallibility, by Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica, Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica, VolumeV, Published by J.P. Migne, Petit-Montrouge, Paris, 1858 Edition.]
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
The Catholic Church claims the Pope in Rome has the authority to make up his own traditions, contrary to God’s commandments and appointed times; however, scripture disputes that claim and shows them to be liars.
1 John 2:4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
Matthew 15:3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Matthew 15:7-9 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
What Does YHWH Say About Changing His Commandments?
Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of YHWH your God that I command you.
Deuteronomy 12:32 Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.
Deuteronomy 13:1-4 If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For YHWH your God is testing you, to know whether you love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after YHWH your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
Matthew 5:17-19 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
James 2:10-11 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
YHWH made Himself perfectly clear: Obey ALL of His commandments!
YHWH Commands We Rest on His Sabbath
Exodus 16:29 See! YHWH has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.
Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days YHWH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore YHWH blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Exodus 31:13 You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, YHWH, sanctify you.
“Above all”, we are to keep YHWH’s Sabbaths! That is how important the Sabbath is to our Heavenly Father. It is the sign that marks us as belonging to Him!
Leviticus 23:3 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to YHWH in all your dwelling places.
It is of the utmost importance that we keep Saturday set apart from the rest of the week!
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
Loving YHWH is keeping His commandments. When we obey YHWH’s commandments, we are loving YHWH!
Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Matthew 22:35-38 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
According to Yeshua Messiah, the first and greatest of YHWH’s commandments is to love YHWH, and loving YHWH is obeying His commandments.
1 John 2:3-6 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
YHWH has commanded us to rest on Saturday, His weekly Sabbath. Obeying YHWH’s commandments is how we love Him. Anyone who says they love Him, but disobeys His commandments is a liar.
YHWH’s Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, which is Saturday.
Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days YHWH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore YHWH blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
May you be blessed by this study. Shalom.