The Truth About Sabbath and Sunday

Most Christians now believe that Sunday is the real day of worship as ordained by the Creator of the universe. They are ignorant of what the Holy Bible teaches regarding the Sabbath and what the leaders who observe Sunday declare about it. The priests and pastors have not revealed to them the difference between the Sabbath, the seventh day, and Sunday, the first day of the week. Consider what the Holy Scriptures say:

"Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them," (Ezekiel 22:26, Holy Name Bible).

In this article I have tried to show the difference between these two days. It is arranged to show in one column what the Holy Scriptures teach about the Sabbath and in another column what prominent leaders of Sunday keepers define and pronounce about Sunday so that readers can judge for themselves which day is holy, and which is unholy, or profane; which day is the true Sabbath and day of worship, and which is the false Sabbath and not the real day of worship.

Sabbath

1. Sabbath is the seventh day of the Creation week (Genesis 2:2).

2. It is the day of Sabbath rest (Genesis 2:2; Exodus 34:21).

3. "Elohim blessed the seventh day and sanctified it" (Genesis 2:3).

4. "Yahweh blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:11). He called it "my holy day" (Isaiah 58:13).

5. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh, thy Elohim" (Exodus 20:10).

Sunday

1. Sunday is the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1).

2. It is the first day of six working days (Exodus 20:9; 34:21). Sunday is a man-made day of rest. "Constantine the Great made a law for the whole empire (A.D. 321) that Sunday should be kept as a day of rest" (Encyclopedia Americana, article "Sabbath").

3. Sunday is a working day, a secular day (Exodus 20:9). "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" (Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, page 111).

4. Sunday is not a holy day. "The Catholic Church of its own infallible authority created Sunday a holy day to take the place of the Sabbath of the old law" (Kansas City Catholic, February 9, 1893).

5. Sunday was originally kept in honor of the sun god. "Let all judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the Sun" (Constantine's Law).Sabbath

6. Sabbath was instituted by Yahweh in the beginning of Creation (Genesis 2:3).

7. Sabbath stands as a memorial of the great creation work of the first week of time and pays homage to the Creator (Exodus 20:11).

8. "And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am Yahweh your Elohim" (Ezekiel 20:20; see also Exodus 31:17).

9. "The Son of Man [Messiah] is Master also of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28).

10. Yahweh declared that the Sabbath is "my holy day" (Isaiah 58:13), and John the Revelator said the Sabbath is Yahweh's day (Revelation 1:10).

11. "The Sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27) and not for Jews only. It is given for heathen too (Isaiah 56:2-8). It is the Sabbath rest for man and beast (Exodus 20:10).

12. "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8).

13. Sabbath was kept by Yahowah (Genesis 2:3, Hebrews 4:4); by Yahshua (Luke 4:16); women believers (Luke 23:55-56); apostles and early believers (Acts 15:21): the apostle Paul for the gentiles (Acts 17:2, Romans 11:13).

Sunday

6. The first Sunday law was passed by Emperor Constantine on March 7, A.D. 321.

7. "The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church" (Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, by Mgr. Segur, page 213).

8. Observing Sunday as the day of worship, acknowledges papal authority instead of the authority of Yahweh.

9. Sunday observance indicates the authority of the pope, who thought "to change times and laws" (Daniel 7:25, KJV) and "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called Elohim . . . so that he as the Almighty sitteth in the temple of Yahweh showing himself that he is the Mighty One" (II Thessalonians 2:3-4).

10. Sunday is a Catholic institution and so the Roman Church and Protestants claim it as their own day of worship.

11. Sunday observance is meant only for the Catholic Church and her daughters, the Protestants, according to their claim.

12. Sunday is kept not as a holy day but as a holiday. Catholics are restricted only to attend mass on Sunday, after which they may spend the rest of the day as they wish. "Constantine the Great made a law for the whole empire (A.D. 321) that Sunday should be kept as a rest day in all cities and towns; but he allowed the country people to follow their work" (Encyclopedia Americana, article "Sabbath").

13. "Is there no express commandment for observing the first day of the week as Sabbath, instead of the seventh day? None whatever. Neither [Messiah] nor the apostles nor the first Christians celebrated the first day of the week" (New York Weekly Tribune, May 24, 1900).Sabbath

14. When Jerusalem and the temple had to be destroyed by the Romans as prophesied by the Messiah, and the believers had to flee from there, He said, "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath" (Matthew 24:20). Why?

15. "There remaineth therefore the keeping of the Sabbath to the people of Elohim" (Hebrews 4:9).

16. "Two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of Elohim" contain the Decalogue, of which the fourth commandment pertains to the keeping of the Sabbath (Exodus 31:18).

17. On the new earth "from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith Yahweh" (Isaiah 66:22-23). "There remaineth therefore the keeping of the Sabbath to the people of Elohim" (Hebrews 4:9).

Sunday

14. The temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by General Titus in A.D. 70, almost 40 years after Messiah's resurrection and ascension. So the disciples were praying and keeping the Sabbath for these 40 years after the Messiah's resurrection and ascension.

Messiah did not ask the believers to pray that their flight would not be on Sunday, neither did the disciples pray or keep Sunday all the 40 years after His resurrection.

15. Sunday is meant for the exclusive observance of the Roman Catholic Church and her daughters, whereas the Sabbath remains for the keeping of the people of Elohim only.

16. "The observance of the first, instead of the seventh, day rests on the testimony of the [Roman] Church and the Church alone" (Hobart Church News [Episcopalian] July 2, 1894).

17. What will be the fate of the followers of Sunday keeping in the new earth? What will happen to the observance of Sunday then? Let the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestants answer for themselves.

-- written by Pastor Alex D. Ratnam

This article was originally published as Study No. 44.

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