Why Keep the Seventh Day of the Week
as the Sabbath of the Lord?
By D. H. Kress, M. D.
WE keep the seventh day because it is the day upon which the Creator rested after completing His creative works; the day which He afterward blessed and set apart for man to observe as a memorial of creation. The Scripture record is, "And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. 2: 2, 3. The reason why this special day and no other has been blessed and set apart for man to keep is "because that in it He had rested from all His work." The Sabbath is needed to keep man from idolatry; to keep him from worshiping any other being aside from the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Since the fall the Sabbath stands not merely as a memorial of creation, but also of redemption. This is why the Lord spake unto Moses saying, "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you thruout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Ex. 31: 13. It is for this reason that a knowledge of the true Sabbath was given to Israel when they were redeemed from the house of bondage. The Sabbath has always been, and will always remain, God's holy day, not man's. "Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, . . . and madest known unto them Thy holy Sabbath." Neh. 9: 13, 14. It is not, then, a Jewish Sabbath. It was God's holy Sabbath that was made known to the children of Israel when they were redeemed from the house of bondage—and it was this holy day, the only holy day of the seven, they were commanded to keep holy. At Sinai, to the people who had witnessed His power in redeeming them from bondage, the words were spoken, "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." These words were addressed not only to that people; but to every one that is brought out of the house of bondage and receives the knowledge of the true God, are the words spoken, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." "Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you, . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." The Sabbath of the Lord was not made for the Jew, as some affirm. "The Sabbath was made for man." It was made known to the Jews when they were, and because they were, redeemed from the house of bondage, and needed to constantly remember their Creator and have faith in Him and in His5power to create in them clean hearts. From the foregoing scriptures we see that to the Jews was made known the true Sabbath of the Lord, the day upon which God rested, the day which He blessed and sanctified at the beginning. Not a Long, Indefinite Period.
The Sabbath of the Lord is not a long period of time, it was the seventh day of the creative week, and has continued to be the seventh day of every week since creation. No other day can ever take the place of God's rest day or become the Sabbath of the Lord. To every one for all time the command is, "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work." Without doing violence to this scripture, we may read it as follows: Six days shalt thou labor, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest. The seventh day completes the weekly cycle of time and is therefore of equal length with each of the six days preceding it. The Sabbath of the Lord should be kept, not because we are tired and in need of rest, for God needed no rest because of weariness when He had labored six days in creation and was refreshed on that day, but we are to keep the day because "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." Ex. 20: 8-11. A Connected Line of Observance.
Ever since the Sabbath of the Lord was made known to the Jews at Sinai, they have kept the seventh day of the week, in form, at least. When Christ came, He also kept it. Luke 4: 16. All of Christ's followers kept it, not only while He was with them, but after His crucifixion. The women rested after Christ was crucified and was resting in the tomb. Joseph begged His body and took it down from the cross and laid it in a new sepulcher. Luke 23: 50 to 24: 1. "And that day was the preparation [day, or Friday], and the Sabbath drew on. And the women . . . prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." "Now upon the first day of the week," we are told, "they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared." From this scripture, which was written under divine inspiration many years after the crucifixion of Christ, we see that the Sabbath which Christ's followers kept "according to the commandment" in Ex. 20: 8-11, is placed between Friday, the sixth day of the week, and Sunday, the first day of the week. The Sabbath which was kept by the followers of Christ after His crucifixion must therefore have been Saturday, the seventh day of the week. But the fact that they rested the seventh day of the week did not make this day the Sabbath. They rested on this day because it was the Sabbath according to the commandment. Should they, or all of the Christian world at that time and ever since, have rested on Friday, the sixth day of the week, or Sunday, the first day of the week, the seventh day would still have remained the Sabbath according to the commandment, the day upon which God rested, the day which He blessed and hallowed at the beginning. It is true the majority of the Christian churches are to-day keeping the first day of the week, supposing that they are keeping the Sabbath of the Lord. But this does not make the first day of the week the seventh day of the week or the Sabbath of the Lord. How has the change from the seventh to the first day been brought about?—It was brought about gradually, and in this way: The first day of the week has been a heathen festival for ages, dedicated to the worship of the sun—it is known therefore as "the venerable day of the sun." Thru Constantine, who was a devoted worshiper of the sun, this day, with other relics of idolatry, was brought into the Christian church. This brought about the great apostasy which resulted in the Dark Ages. The Reformation was successful in gradually stripping the church of her heathen images, etc., but the venerable day of the sun is still left in these churches, and we believe God is now calling upon all to fear and worship Him. Those who fear and worship God will have the same sign to distinguish them from the world that the children of Israel had to distinguish them from the nations about them. The completed reformation will develop a people who "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14: 12. In speaking of the remnant, or the last church, the prophetic declaration is, "The dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [the church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. 12: 17. The fact that the remnant church keeps the commandments of God is one of the two features which distinguish her as God's remnant church.