What Day is the Sabbath Day?

The Bible informs us a minimum of ten times that the Sabbath is the Seventh day of the week (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:8-11; Scriptures), which can be proven to be what we call Saturday. There is also no scripture that specifically says that the Sabbath is Sunday for either Jew or Gentile. God does not have double standards for different people and is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) And why would God have different days for different people? God is also “not the author of confusion…” 1 Corinthians 14:33. And note that Romans 9:6-8, Galatians 3:28-29 and Isaiah 41:8 state that those who are in Christ are Israel today and Abraham's seed. That is both Jew and Gentile. In Christ we are all the same. See also is the Sabbath only for Israel for more detail on this very important and misunderstood point.

One very obvious proof for which day is the Sabbath is that in more than one hundred languages, Saturday is still called the Sabbath in that particular language to this very day. This dates back to Babel where God confused the languages (Genesis 11) when Saturday was known as the Sabbath day and was incorporated into the very name of the day. The names of the days in English are pagan names but the majority of languages around the world identify the Sabbath as Saturday.

So from the language table above we know that the Sabbath is Saturday. But there are many who are unaware of this information and most importantly, say that the Bible does not identify which day is the Seventh day Sabbath. This is incorrect. God would never command us to keep a specific day and then never have us know what day to keep. It is insulting to our Creator to say otherwise.

The Bible shows that Christ died on Friday and rose from the grave on Sunday. Almost the entire Christian world acknowledges this fact by observing Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Luke 23:52-54 says that Jesus died on “the preparation day” which is so called because it is the day to prepare for the Sabbath which is on the following day as this verse also shows. “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.”

Luke 23:55-56 goes on to say, “And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the Commandment.” Did you note that the woman rested on the Sabbath according to the Commandment and this was AFTER the New Covenant had begun and that this proves the Sabbath belongs to the New Covenant and that Sunday cannot.

Now the next two verses being Luke 24:1-2 say, “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared… And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.” So here are three consecutive days described. Thus we know that Jesus died on Good Friday and rose on Easter Sunday and that the day in between was the day when they rested on the Sabbath according to the Commandment. The fourth Commandment says “The seventh day is the Sabbath.” So whatever day is between Friday and Sunday is the Seventh day and the Lord's Sabbath. Anyone who can locate Good Friday or Easter Sunday will have no trouble realizing that Saturday is the Seventh day Sabbath, which is consistent with the language table above. See also was the day of Crucifixion Wednesday or Friday.

The Jews have also been counting off every seven days since before Christ and there is also no mention from Jesus that they had the wrong day. So the day which the Jews still observe today also confirms Saturday is the Sabbath. The only way they could have lost the Seventh day is if the millions of Jews around the world slept through an entire day and no one ever told any of them. So the day Christ kept could never have been lost even if the Calendar had been changed at any time.

The only Calendar change since Christ's time on Earth was done by Pope Gregory XIII (Gregorian Calendar) in 1582. Before this date we had the Julian calendar from Julius Caesar but it was 11 minutes out each year. So Pope Gregory corrected the error by dropping 10 days from the Calendar. In 1582, the Calendar went from Thursday, October 4 to Friday, October 15. So while ten days were dropped, Friday still followed Thursday and the weekly cycle remained unchanged. And again this is confirmed by the fact that in over one hundred nations around the world Saturday is still called the Sabbath today dating back to Genesis 11. The day named Sabbath in each particular language still coincides with the Seventh day being our Saturday, which also coincides with the Seventh day which the Jews could never have lost count of.

But then there are some who argue that the Apostles changed the Sabbath to Sunday but only God can change His Ten Commandment law and no such instruction exists in scripture to say God told them to change the day. If God had told them to, the Bible would be SCREAMING the change at us. Something as important as God's law does not change on assumptions such as, “That looks like a Sunday meeting so the Sabbath must have changed.” Neither is there any scripture that says the Sabbath is Sunday in honour of the resurrection. If scripture does not say so, then it is not so!

Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2 and occasionally John 20:19 are the verses used to argue that the Sabbath is Sunday and this can easily be revealed to be nothing more than dishonest attempts to prove a lie. None of these instances are even taking place in the Church (Synagogue) where in fact every single scripture showing anyone in the Church are all on the Sabbath day only (more than a dozen passages) unlike these three abused scriptures which are not. If the Sabbath really was changed to Sunday, then there would be no shortage of scriptures showing someone in the Church on Sunday but there is not one single scripture. Why? Because it never was changed! And not forgetting that we are also told there would be no change to the law and the fourth Commandment is the biggest of all Commandments. (Matthew 5:18, Luke 16:17) And why did God write so much on this one Commandment that is a required physical day of rest which Christ alone cannot give and special one on one time with our Creator? See also is Jesus our Sabbath rest?

Since a new day began at sunset in Biblical times, Acts 20:7 was actually a Saturday meeting which ran very late and through the night because Paul was departing the next day. And 1 Corinthians 16:2 was an instruction to lay goods aside at home, which would be inappropriate to do on the Sabbath, so it would be done the following day being the first day of the week which is Sunday. And John 20:19 shows the disciples hiding in fear of the Jews as they did not even believe that Christ had risen. Hence this is the most obvious abuse of scripture that should make the wise realize that the misuse of these scriptures is a deliberate attempt at hiding the truth. See who changed the Sabbath to Sunday for detailed information and a larger language table.

So some may say that Sunday is the Sabbath, but scripture shows it is impossible for Sunday to even be part of the New Covenant. See Sabbath in the New Covenant for the scriptural evidence which many have missed. And see who moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday for the full story on why so many think the Sabbath is Sunday.