SATURDAY IS THE TRUE SABBATH?
The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew verb Sabbath and means rest or sleep. What rest? The Bible tells us in Genesis 2:1-3: "Thus were finished the heavens and the earth and all its creatures. And God blessed the seventh day the work he did, and rested the seventh day of what he had done in creation. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all his work he had done in creation. " God did not rest on the seventh day because he was tired after his work of creation, but to establish a memorial of Creation for all generations. On the seventh day God rested, sanctified and blessed. It is because the Sabbath a day rest, a holy day and a blessed day.
By observing the Sabbath as a day of rest, the Christian recognizes two important things:
God is our Creator
• At rest the seventh day we claim to recognize God as the creator of the universe. We can not accept a creator God without observing that he himself ordered the watch as a remembrance of creation. "Remember the Sabbath day holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But Saturday is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it, neither you nor your son or thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. "For in six days the LORD made heaven, earth and sea, and all they contain, and rested the seventh day. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy . Exodus 20 :8-11.
God is our Savior
• By observing the seventh day we recognize God as our Savior, deliverer from sin. Our Savior. Egypt was the scenario in which the people of God was held in slavery. God delivered his people with a mighty hand to be free from the Egyptians and to worship Him only Egypt is a symbol of slavery of sin. God has made us free from sin through Christ to worship in spirit and in truth. "Observe the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all thy work: But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. Any work you do, neither you nor your son or thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy ox, nor thine ass, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates, to rest your servant and your maid like you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out thence with mighty hand and outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath . " Deuteronomy 5:12-15.
The Sabbath is a distinctive sign of God's people. God's children are identified through the sign that God himself has established the identity of its people. "Say to the Israelites keep my sabbaths, because the Sabbath is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you." Exodus 31:13. "I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. " "Hallow My Sabbaths, and are a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I the Lord am your God. Ezekiel 20:12, 20.
God worked a miracle in the desert triple compared to manna Saturday to spill over the land, the people of Israel understand the sanctity of their holy day and its observance. (Exodus 16:4-30).
The fourth commandment of the Law of God tells us: "Remember the Sabbath day holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But Saturday is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Do not do any work on it, neither you, nor your son or your daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. "For in six days the LORD made heaven, earth and sea, and all they contain, and rested the seventh day. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy." Exodus 20:8 -11. The apostle James tells us to keep the whole law, and not just some of his commandments "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all" James 2:10.
Our Lord Jesus said when he walked on the earth "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I came not to override, but to comply "Matthew 5:17. Jesus himself observed the Sabbath according to the commandment (Luke 4:16, Mark 6:2, 3; Marco 1:21).
One of the most amazing stories of the Bible shows us the solemnity of the seventh day. Even Christ's death his disciples kept the Sabbath. The Holy Son of God was buried after his death but could not be buried according to custom with spices and perfumes, so they had to return his disciples on the first day of the week: "It was the afternoon of the day of Preparation ( Friday), and was about to start on Saturday. Women who had been with him from Galilee, followed closely, and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on Saturday, according to the Commandment. The first day of the week (Sunday), at early dawn, the women went to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared, and others with them. (Luke 23:54-56, 24:1).
The apostles continued to observe the Sabbath after the death of Christ (Acts 17:2, 13:14, 15, 42, 44, 16:12, 13). In this way we understand the death of Christ did not abolish the Sabbath Day. Jesus left a warning for those who live in the last days of history of this world and suffer persecution for the gospel "Pray that your flight be not in winter or on the Sabbath" (Matthew 24:20).
In the new land of heaven to save the days of eternity "and from month to month , and Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord "(Isaiah 66:23).
change the Sabbath to Sunday
The dictionary of the Royal English Academy gives the following definition of the word Saturday: "Sixth day of the week, seventh week liturgical." The term "week" is defined as "series of seven consecutive calendar days, from Monday to Sunday. The same dictionary says that "Liturgical Week is a period of seven consecutive days beginning on Sunday and concludes on Saturday." Here we find a double definition of the Sabbath day for the same name. But in the beginning it was not. In the book of Genesis we find a seven-day week well-defined "there was evening and morning one day." How is it possible that today we have two definitions for the Sabbath?.
The Prophecy of Daniel 7:25 tells us that Satan instigate the powers of this world to change times and the law. Both time "calendar" as the law of God have been changed. The current Gregorian calendar changed the counting of days, starting each day from midnight to midnight. Today starts week on Monday and ends on Sunday. But the Word of God shows something else: "There was evening and morning one day" this expression we find in the first chapter of Genesis tells us that a day begins at sundown and ends the following sundown. The start of a day is part of the afternoon, and the end of the day is the clarity. Biblically, the week starts on Sunday, (Luke 24:1) and ends on Saturday (Genesis 2:1,2).
God's law was changed by men. The fourth commandment enjoins us to, among other things, worship the Sabbath, and the second commandment enjoins us not to worship other gods besides the One God. At the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the Church decreed the transfer of the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
"On the venerable day of the Sun, that the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and close all its offices ..." (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 3, pg. 1902).
The Church recognizes the change. "The Church ... took the pagan Sunday and made it on Sunday Christian ... and thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder Christian Sunday became devoted to Jesus. "(The Catholic World, vol. 58, No. 338, pg. 809).
The Church acknowledges having made a change contrary to the will of the Apostles. "The festival of Sunday, like other festivals, was always a human ordinance, and there was no intention of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect away from them and the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. "(The History of Christian Religion and Church, pg. 186).
not find in Scripture a verse that commands us to change the Sabbath to Sunday. Jesus Himself said that He came to save the law and not to alter or to abolish it. Therefore, we can state unreservedly that the Sabbath is the true Sabbath which God established forever. The Christian who wishes to identify as such and eager to observe the law of God must keep the seventh day on Saturday.
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