What About the Seventh Day?

1. God rested the seventh day after creating all things (Gen 2:1-3), but He did not require the patriarchs to rest or keep this day for any special religious significance. Though there is much worship of God in Genesis, there is no mention of anyone observing the seventh day to the Lord.

2. God gave the seventh day as a special day of rest to Israel only. It was His special sign to them as His covenant nation (Exodus 31:12-18; Deuteronomy 5:15; Nehemiah 9:13-14; Ezekiel 20:12,20).

3. There is no mystery about the seventh day. God could have created in seven hours, seven minutes, seven seconds, or no time at all. He chose seven days, resting the seventh, to give Israel a time for rest after their horrible bondage in the land of Egypt (Exodus 23:12; Deut 5:12-15; Mark 2:27).

4. Moses wrote Genesis 2:1-3, therefore he referred to the seventh day as being blessed and sanctified from the perspective of God’s law to Israel. There is no evidence the seventh day was a creation ordinance for all nations. Not one man prior to Israel under Moses ever saw or read Genesis 2:1-3.

5. There was confusion in Israel about the seventh day and manna gathering in Exodus 16, which shows that the Israelites had not been observing the Sabbath prior to their departure from Egypt.

6. The apostles only mentioned the seventh day three times in all the New Testament epistles, and not once did they recommend it.

7. Paul wrote that the seventh day was a figurative picture of our salvation rest in Christ (Heb 4:3-5).

8. Paul wrote that the seventh day, the Sabbath, was not binding on Christians, for it was only a figurative shadow of the reality of Christ, and true saints rejected such ordinances (Col 2:13-23).

9. Paul wrote that observance of Jewish days was a private matter of personal liberty (Rom 14:1-23).

10. Paul considered keeping of Jewish days made the gospel of Jesus Christ of no value (Gal 4:9-11).

11. Paul thoroughly compared the Old and New Testaments, showing the inferiority and passing away of the Old, which included the Fourth Commandment written in stone (II Cor 3:6-18).

12. Jesus kept the seventh day, the Sabbath, for the same reasons He kept the rest of the Jewish laws, like circumcision. He was born a Jew under the laws of the Jews (Gal 4:4-5; Matt 5:17; Rom 15:8).

13. Paul observed the seventh day, the Sabbath, only to win ignorant Jews and Gentile proselytes that were still keeping the Law of Moses (Acts 9:20; 13:14,42; 15:21; 16:13; 17:1-3; 18:4; I Cor 9:20).

14. Jesus appeared to His disciples on the first day of the week, not the seventh (Matthew 28:8-10; Mark 16:9-14; Luke 24:33-48; John 20:19-25).

15. Jesus blessed His disciples on the first day of the week, not the seventh (John 20:19).

16. Jesus gave His disciples the Holy Spirit on the first day of the week, not the seventh (John 20:23).

17. Many dead saints rose from the dead on the first day of the week, not the seventh (Matt 27:52-53).

18. The first day of the week, not the seventh, was a time of great joy and gladness at the resurrection of Christ the Lord (Luke 24:41; John 20:20).

19. Jesus Christ gave forth the promised Holy Spirit from the Father on the first day of the week, not the seventh, for Pentecost was the 50th day after the Sabbath following the wave offering (Lev 23:15-16 cp Acts 2:1 cp Acts 2:33). Pentecost was always on the first day of the week, Sunday.

20. The early church met on the first day of the week for religious worship and breaking bread in the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:6-7).

21. Paul commanded all the Gentile churches to observe the first day of the week for their religious worship of giving (I Cor 16:1-2).

22. When all the apostles and elders met for the only inspired church council in history, the matter at hand was to identify what parts of Moses’ law applied to converted Gentiles. With this perfect opportunity, the seventh day issue was totally ignored by the Holy Spirit and these men (Acts 15).

23. Jesus appeared to John on the Lord’s Day, which would have to be Sunday, for Jesus Christ, as Lord of the Sabbath, had changed the day for God’s worship to Sunday (Matthew 12:8; Rev 1:10).