Subject: Is the Sabbath on Saturday? |
Bible Note: Hi, Brother Billy Joe; Although I personally think your definition of what it means to "keep the Sabbath" is a little legalistic, I have no interest in debating that with you. I do tend to question folks who come along and announce that most of Christendom is mired in sin and error. So I have a couple of questions about your insistence that the Sabbath must be Saturday. First, where does the Bible say that the Sabbath day is named "Saturday"? The OT definitely refers to the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. If we apply God's example in Genesis to the modern English-language calendar, it seems that Sunday is the Sabbath. By convention, we begin our work on Monday; the seventh day is Sunday. Keeping the Sabbath on Sunday does not violate the Fourth Commandment. It may contradict a point of the Mosaic Law, but that does not greatly concern me. Second, what do you do with Mark 2:23-27? "One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, 'Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?' He answered, 'Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions. Then he said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.'" Apparently, Jesus found it acceptable to feed oneself and one's companions on the Sabbath, which sounds like work to me. In the similar account in Mark 12, he went on to heal a man with a shriveled hand - more work. Jesus made it clear that the focus of the Sabbath is not the Mosaic Law, the focus of the Sabbath is the Lord of the Sabbath himself. What's important is not that we condemn other believers over the day they set aside for the Lord, what's important is that believers set aside a day for worship and reflection. That's "keeping the Sabbath." Peace and grace Steve aka Indiana Jones |