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The Christian SABBATH, The Lord's Day

There appears to be some crazy division in Christianity over the weekly day of worship or whether there should be any day of worship at all!!

Most Christians keep Sunday, the first day of the week, and call it the Lord's Day. Some call Sunday the Christian Sabbath and some don't like that label preferring it to have nothing to do with the old Jewish styles of worship.

Some Christians keep Saturday which is the same worship day the Jews kept in the Old Testament and still do.

And some Christians claim they rest in Jesus and so an actual day of rest is no longer required.

Is there any way to sort this muddle out?

It would seem reasonable that if we were even going to consider looking at any of these options that the very first place to start would be with should there be any worship day at all. After all if the last option is correct and we actually don't need a worship day then it would be extremely silly to get all fired up over which day is the right day and how it should be kept when there actually isn't one! Well that sort of makes an awful lot of good common sense!

Does the Bible support a weekly day of worship for Christians?

So, let's start with that question. Does the Bible even suggest that Christians should keep a weekly day of worship?

The only way to do this correctly is to start at the beginning of the Old Testament and see what we find by the end of the New.

Interestingly, the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible does actually start off mentioning a day of rest:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.
And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.
So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
Genesis 2:1-3.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Genesis 2:3 NKJV.

Further, this also introduces the week of seven days and perhaps a weekly day of rest. God rested on this day but was this day also meant to be kept by His people and was it for worship?

God later gave more detailed instructions to His people and we find the following in the book of Leviticus about this day of rest:

Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a sabbath to the LORD throughout your settlements.
Leviticus 23:3.

A convocation is a meeting or assembly. A holy convocation is a sacred assembly. So in other words, this was when God's people would come together and worship.
So from these verses we have definitely established, at least for the Old Testament, that God's people did have a worship day on a weekly basis.
In this same chapter of Leviticus is mention of quite a few other days of worship that God wanted His people to keep. They are referred to as feast days and involved animal sacrifices.

As Christians we don't believe these feast days are necessary any more as Jesus' death brought all the earthly sanctuary sacrifices to a meaningful end. We are told Jesus is our Passover Sacrifice. John told the people that Jesus was the Lamb of God. Our focus in this study is on a weekly day of worship if we can find it. We may find some curious things along the way but will mainly try to stick to an investigation of the weekly day of worship.

The Lord's Day in the Old Testament

Now before moving on to the New Testament era we need to note a few things about this Old Testament day of worship. It was called the sabbath day or the seventh day of the week. Specific instructions were given to the Jews about this day of worship embedded in the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down the mountain from God:

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Exodus 20:8-11.

Further, there is an extremely powerful statement in the book of Isaiah about this being God's special day. He even called it "my holy day" and the term "LORD" occurs three times in this section:

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 58:13, 14.

In fact, to end with the comment "for the mouth of the LORD has spoken" shows just how solemn this statement was. The Lord declared in one of the most strongest and powerful comments in all the Bible that the sabbath was "my holy day." The Lord called the sabbath His holy day.

Nowhere else in the Old Testament did God call any other day His Holy Day. Nowhere. Sure, in Genesis it says God rested on the seventh day, sanctified it and made it holy. And God referred to His Genesis rest in the fourth commandment. But only in Isaiah did God call the day His holy day.

And this is stated twice! He also called it the holy day of the Lord! This must have been extremely important! It was the Lord's Holy Day. It was the Holy Day of the Lord. Could this have been stated any clearer?? For the Old Testament, clearly the seventh-day sabbath was the Lord's Day!

Now some will say the verse in Isaiah refers to "your ancestor Jacob" so this was mainly for the Jews. That's not the point of this discussion. Whoever this day was for, we have clearly identified that in the Old Testament, there was mention of a special day which could clearly be called The Lord's Day!

We have so far found that for the Old Testament there was a weekly day of worship that God's people kept. It was also designated as a sabbath day, a day of rest. It was kept on a weekly basis as falling on the seventh day of each week. It was also defined as the Lord's Day. The Jews were given specific instructions how to keep this day so it is also commonly referred to as the Jewish Sabbath. There are some Christians who keep this same day though the majority keep a different day of worship.

We can summarise our findings for this day of worship as follows:

The Old Testament
A weekly worship day
A sabbath day of rest
The sabbath day
The seventh day of the week
The Lord's Day
The Jewish Sabbath

The Lord's Day in the New Testament

As you can easily guess, there is actually mention of the Lord's Day in the New Testament:

I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet
Revelation 1:10.

So this is curious. We have the Lord's Day in the Old Testament and the Lord's Day in the New Testament. We determined before that the Lord's Day in the Old Testament was a sabbath day God's people used for worship on a weekly basis. Can we determine if this is the same case for the Lord's Day in the New Testament?

Now there is curious mention of a sabbath day in Acts and it was given after Jesus had risen and returned to heaven.

They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away.
Acts 1:11, 12.

So the concept of a sabbath day was clearly still in operation after Jesus had returned to heaven. These verses have not tied the sabbath concept to the Lord's Day but there is a very curious verse in the book of Hebrews that does link a sabbath rest with God's people:

So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God;
Hebrews 4:9.

This suggests that God's people still have a sabbath day of rest. But is this meant to be a weekly day of worship? We get some pointers on this by considering some of the adjoining verses:

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "As in my anger I swore, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.
For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works."
...
So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God;
for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.
Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
Hebrews 4:1-4, 9-11.

From these verses we can see that the sabbath rest for God's people here links straight back to the seventh day of Creation week. At this point we can clearly call this rest day the Christian Sabbath. And the link with the original week strongly suggests that the Christian Sabbath is definitely on a weekly basis. But is it a worship day? The following verses suggest that it is:

Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth— to every nation and tribe and language and people.
He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water."
Revelation 14:6, 7.

This message of the eternal gospel is clearly in the Christian dispensation and here we have mention of a call for people to worship. Worship who? "worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water."

This is a direct reference to the fourth commandment we read before:

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
Exodus 20:11.

So the call for worship in the Christian era links directly in with the weekly rest day of worship in the Old Testament. And of course we can relate the Old Testament weekly worship day directly with the associated weekly worship day for Christians in the New Testament.

There obviously should be some sort of connection. If God wanted His people to worship Him on a weekly basis in the Old Testament, shouldn't we expect there to be some sort of similar arrangement in the New Testament?

So clearly the sabbath rest that God calls his people to enter is indeed a worship day. We have been completely successful in finding a weekly day of worship for the Christian dispensation. It is called the Lord's Day. It is a sabbath rest day. It occurs on a weekly basis. It is the Christian Sabbath.

So let's summarise our findings thus far for this day of worship as follows:

The New Testament
A weekly worship day
A sabbath day of rest
The Lord's Day
The Christian Sabbath

In the Old Testament the Lord's Day was the seventh day of the week. This was the day the Jews kept as a weekly day of worship. It translates to Saturday using our current names for the days of the week. Bible days run from sunset to sunset. Remember that in Genesis it stated "the evening and the morning were the first day", the second day and so on. Jews still keep the sabbath of the Old Testament and they keep it from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

But what about the Christian Sabbath? Though there are still some Christians who keep the old sabbath, the majority of Christians keep a different day of the week. In general most Christians keep Sunday and refer to this as the Lord's Day. Since this is a different day from the Jewish Sabbath it is understood that there have been some pretty important changes from the Old to the New Testament, specifically after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

There was a big debate in the early church about these changes and the apostles eventually advocated a complete break from a lot of the old Jewish customs. Specifically all of the feast days with the animal sacrifices, and circumcision. There was also some discussion about not eating blood or things strangled. This all came to a head at a council held in Jerusalem. And the main conclusion for new converts who in general weren't Jewish was:

Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God,
but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood.
Acts 15:19, 20.

The main things relating here to the Old Testament are fornication, things strangled, and blood. If anything else is gone, it should be clear in the rest of the New Testament writings. The main debate was about circumcision and the conclusion was not to trouble the gentiles with it.

A new day for the Lord's Day in the New Testament?

It is also clear from the New Testament that Christians did originally keep Saturday, the old sabbath day, but somewhere along the way it was replaced by Sunday. And Christians who keep Sunday claim they do this in honour of the resurrection of Christ and that this is the Lord's Day of the New Testament and that in the early Christian church it became the new day of worship replacing the old.

Well, we are looking for a day for the Christian Sabbath and allowing for some changes from the old Jewish period to the new Christian period it does not seem unreasonable. And the majority of Christians do currently worship on a different day of the week. So perhaps the weekly day of worship has changed from the Old to the New Testament and is now on a completely different day of the week from the old seventh day sabbath.

Sunday is the first day of the week, and the old sabbath day was the seventh day of the week. So it looks like the change has been from the last day of the week to the first. Well it does sound interesting but before accepting this conclusively we should just check the Bible to see that a change in the day of worship is indeed acceptable.

Before moving to the Christian Sabbath we need to note some interesting points about the Jewish Sabbath in the Old Testament. The Jewish Sabbath is clearly outlined in the fourth commandment. And when the Ten Commandments were given by God to Israel He spoke them to the people from the top of the mountain, apart from giving Moses a set in tables of stone. And remember we read before that when Isaiah wrote about God's Holy Day he declared that the mouth of the Lord has spoken:

Then God spoke all these words:
...
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; ...
...
When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance,
and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die."
Exodus 20:1, 8-10, 18, 19.

If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; ...
... for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 58:13, 14.

Inbetween Exodus 20 verses 1 and 18 God spoke the Ten Commandments. It is one of the few times in the Bible where God actually spoke to His people as a gathered group. In fact, it may be the only time.

Further, there is a very important verse that talks about the significance of what does come out of the mouth of the Lord:

I will not violate my covenant, or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
Psalm 89:34.

Well this could be a problem. If the Lord does not alter what comes from His mouth then there may be no change allowed in the weekly worship day from Testament to Testament. Are there any other indications in the Bible that the Lord does not change?

For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.
Malachi 3:6.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8.

It doesn't look like God changes and this may mean His Holy Day is still the seventh day of the week. But what about Jesus? Didn't all things change with Jesus? Well we read about His custom as follows:

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,
Luke 4:16.

Sure, but Jesus was here operating as a Jew and this was before His death I can imagine someone saying. What about after His death? Is there any mention of His followers keeping the sabbath day? Well there are some verses in Acts referring to Paul reasoning with the Jews on the sabbath. But again someone will say, well wouldn't that have been the most convenient time to do it? Yes it would so we need to look at some other verses.

If God doesn't change, would His day of worship change?

There are mainly two verses in the New Testament that Christians use to show that Sunday, the first day of the week, is now the Lord's Day and the day that Christians meet on instead of the old seventh day sabbath. The first is Acts 20 verse 7:

On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight.

Well this certainly does look like a verse that supports a Sunday meeting. It mentions Paul talking to the people and they were also gathered together to break bread. And it is on the first day of the week. It sounds pretty conclusive.

However we need to remember before that we recognised the concept of sabbath days in the New Testament era. We noticed this in Acts previously. This means that the construct for a Bible day is still in existence for the Christian period. So we need to recognise that Bible days mentioned in the New Testament era are still from sunset to sunset.

The verse states that Paul's talk was until midnight. That is, this gathering was after sunset. We see this more clearly from the very next verse:

There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting.
Acts 20:8.

Why would they need many lamps in the room where they were meeting? Evidently it was a night time meeting after sunset. So was this meeting on Sunday night? Apparently not, being a Bible day, Sunday night is actually part of the second day of the week, not the first!

So this meeting was actually then on Saturday night! And then we are told that Paul intended to depart on the morrow, which would be Sunday morning.

And how did Paul spend Sunday morning? Verse 11 tells us that he conversed till dawn and then left. His companions went to a ship and set sail for Assos where they met Paul who had travelled there by land. Most likely by walking. So it is very unlikely that we could use these verses to support a Sunday morning worship meeting. We need to look at the next verse.

This again is a very famous verse about gathering a collection that had been set aside for the poor saints in Jerusalem:

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come.
1 Corinthians 16:2 RSV.

The general conclusion from this verse is that this is supporting taking up an offering at church on a Sunday gathering or worship service.

The preceding verse does refer to a collection for the saints so this is definitely an offering situation. But is it really supporting an offering at church on a Sunday? The first day of the week is mentioned as the day for this offering so at first glance it does look like it may.

But on reading a bit closer it is really saying that the offering is to be set aside and stored away until Paul came to collect it. So it does not really support an offering on a Sunday morning.

mia ton sabbaton: the first day to the sabbath

Now before continuing on, we need to be aware that there is another very curious problem with a couple of these verses and this has only come to light quite recently. These verses we just looked at refer to the first day of the week and this of course is Sunday. And there are some Bible translations that actually use "Sunday" in these verses.

However a closer investigation looking at the original Greek in these verses notes that the phrase commonly translated as "the first day of the week" has the word sabbaton or sabbatwn in Greek for the word translated as week. There are a few verses in the New Testament with this phrase and they all have the sabbaton word or similar. Sabbaton is the seventh day sabbath.

It is a phrase that has completely puzzled Bible translators over the years. All of these verses are saying something about the seventh day sabbath but it is difficult to figure out just what is being said so the common translation you find is the first day of the week. The Greek looks like saying in most of these verses "the first sabbath." This is puzzling. But one of the verses gives a clue.

Matthew 28 verse 1 gives a slightly more fuller construct for the Greek phrase as "eis mian sabbatwn." By comparing this with the Hebrew for days of the week and how Jews currently count the days of the week it is possible to reconstruct this to "the first day to or towards the sabbath." This gives a far more accurate translation than just "the first day of the week." All the Gospel writers were saying something about the seventh day sabbath and now we can understand exactly what that was: it was not just the first day of the week, but the first day to the sabbath.

And this is a complete bombshell to these last two verses we looked at.

Even 8 years past the Jerusalem council here were the Bible writers telling us that:

1. Paul preached to the disciples and broke bread on the first day toward the Sabbath

and

2. a special collection for the saints was to be taken up by Paul at Corinth when he came. His admonition was that the people lay up in store as God had prospered them on the first day to the Sabbath.

Well after the Jerusalem council the leaders of the church were still counting the days to the Sabbath. What a wonderful opportunity the Apostle Paul had to tell the new Corinthian converts that the old Jewish Sabbath was no longer important. But this he did not do. Instead he encouraged them that the first day of the week was in fact still the first day to the Sabbath.

These two verses are the main ones used to show support for Sunday, the first day of the week, being the Christian day of worship or the Lord's Day. But what we have found above does not appear to be supporting Sunday at all. In fact, the correctly translated Greek phrase for "the first day of the week" appears to be supporting instead the old Jewish Sabbath. So what do we make of all of this?

The Origin of Sunday, the first day of the week

We have not been able to find any support for Sunday in the New Testament. So just where did Sunday come from? Well this is quite debatable in Christian circles. Some blame the papacy and some blame Emperor Constantine. Though these two had a lot to do with the accession of Sunday one of the most interesting historical quotations about Sunday I have found is as follows:

Aurelian was an Illyrian officer who succeeded the throne upon the death of Emperor Claudius, and has been recorded in history as the Restitutor Orbis, the Restorer of the World. "On another occasion Aurelian is reported to have told his troops that god, not they, made emperors. When he returned victoriously to Rome in 274, he introduced the cult of the unconquered sun, Sol Invictus, as a formal state worship for the Empire. A new temple was built for Sol, and the god's birthday, December 25, became a national festival, while his day, Sunday, headed the week." Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times,1 pp. 689, 690, 693.

Image:"A new temple was built for Sol, and the god's birthday, December 25, became a national festival, while his day, 
Sunday, headed the week." Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, p.  693.

The foundation for Sunday, the first day of the week, as a suitable worship day for Christians, by this quotation certainly puts it on very shaky ground. Just how does this compare with the original worship day in the Old Testament that the Jews kept? The Jewish Sabbath came from the Creation where God Himself rested after creating this world in six days. That's a little bit hard to beat. Could you really even think of comparing the pedigrees of these two worship days?

The observation of current weekly worship days

So if Sunday is not a suitable contender for the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day, then just which days do we have left to choose from? There are mainly two approaches we can take here. Actually there are probably three but we are only going to do two. And that will be sufficient and conclusive. And we will do them one by one. The first is not conclusive but it basically gives us a good hint. Just by looking what do we obviously see?

Image:Dictionary definition for SABBATH The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sabbath


Image:Dictionary definition for SABBATH
Image:Dictionary definition for SABBATH
Image:Dictionary definition for SABBATH
Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sabbath?s=t

From these quotations, what weekly days of worship do we see coming through from a Christian perspective? We ignore here of course any other religious groups such as Muslims or Witches etc.

Well, there are only two: Sunday and Saturday. The majority of Christians keep Sunday and it appears that the rest keep Saturday. Well this doesn't give us too many choices. If Sunday is not a suitable contender for the true Christian weekly worship day then these quotations suggest that the only other option is Saturday, the seventh day of the week. This is what we found before from the Old Testament. The suggestion was that God does not change so His day of worship in the New Testament may very well be the same day.

But again this is still not conclusive. From the Old Testament perspective it does sound conclusive. But we are still allowing for a possible change in the day of worship because of all the other changes that took place. Circumcision to no circumcision etc. So with this thought we now move to our very last approach. This approach will investigate if there indeed has been a change in the day of worship from the Old to the New Testament Christian period.

And the final decision from this point will be 100% conclusive.

Does the Bible support a change in the Lord's Day?

Our earlier investigations showed that the Lord's Day in the Old Testament was the Jewish Sabbath. It was a weekly day of worship. It was a sabbath day of rest. And it was the seventh day of the week which corresponds to our Saturday. Or more correctly, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

So far we have found that there is also the Lord's Day in the New Testament. It is a weekly day of worship. And it is also a sabbath day of rest. It is the Christian Sabbath. We now have a closer look to determine just which day of the week it is. From before, we read that:

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.
For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "As in my anger I swore, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.
For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works."
...
So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God;
for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.
Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
Hebrews 4:1-4, 9-11.

The current general Christian view appears to be that we fulfill our "sabbath" obligation by entering God's rest. It may be by keeping Sunday as a sabbath day of rest, but whichever view is taken, it does not support the keeping of the old Jewish Sabbath. It is believed that resting in God fulfills this obligation.

So some Christians take the view that no sabbath observation is necessary for Sunday as long as you just turn up at church. We have found however that the Christian Sabbath is indeed a sabbath rest. And we do need a day to do that. But can we determine the exact day that would be needed to enter God's rest?

Think of this like a game show on TV where the host shows the contestants seven doors and tells them that some fabulous prize is behind the door representing God's rest. All the contestants have to do is figure out just which one of the seven doors represents the rest that God entered into. From what the Scriptures tell us do you really think this would be hard to do? Look again at the verses:

For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "As in my anger I swore, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.
For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works."
So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God;
for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:3, 4, 9, 10.

When did God rest? On the seventh day of the week. When did God cease from His labours? On the seventh day of the week. Which day was God's rest? The seventh day of the week.

If we want to enter the same rest that God entered we would need to rest on the same day God rested on. Which day did God rest on? The seventh day of the week.

If you were one of the contestants which door would you choose?

The answer is blatantly obvious. It has to be door number 7.

The conclusion of the matter

And this answer is conclusive. But we can still bring forward one more witness. Just to tidy this up completely and hammer a nail in a sure place.

The book of Revelation tells us of a wonderful new world coming. And so does the second book of Peter:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.
But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 Peter 3:10, 13 RSV.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Revelation 21:1.

There is actually a book of the Old Testament that mentions the days of worship in this new world that is coming. And the weekly worship day mentioned completely supports our conclusion above:

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD; so shall your descendants and your name remain.
From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD.
Isaiah 66:22, 23.

The sabbath mentioned here is the seventh day of the week. This is the weekly worship day that God's people will keep for all the ceaseless ages of eternity. And it is the same weekly worship day we have found running through both the Old and the New Testaments.

The weekly day of worship mentioned in these verses completely verifies our conclusion and we can now close our investigation of this matter. And we can now complete our summary for the New Testament Christian day of worship. We then have:

The New Testament
A weekly worship day
A sabbath day of rest
The sabbath day
The seventh day of the week
The Lord's Day
The Christian Sabbath

We can also put our complete findings together in one table as follows:

Image:Table giving Sabbath comparisons between the Testaments

These two days are one and the same.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today

Image:Jesus caring for the world

and forever. Hebrews 13:8.

Image:Isaiah 66:22,23

For I the LORD do not change;... Malachi 3:6.
I will not ... alter the word that went forth from my lips. Psalm 89:34.

Image:the 4th Commandment

... He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Numbers 23:20 NKJV.


Companion pages:

SUNDAY not in the New Testament! SUNDAY not in the New Testament! —an investigation of a common mistranslation in New Testament verses mentioning "the first day of the week." This study gives the correct translation. Also brings to light the correct original Biblical names for the days of the week.

Which DAY Should Christians Keep? Which DAY Should Christians Keep? —This is another study which looks at which day is the correct day for Christians to worship on and looks at some of the other verses mentioning Sunday not covered above. It is part outdated due to the new studies above but there is a wealth of information here about the days of worship to make this still a very good and very important read!


References
Bible texts from:
New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, 1989 unless otherwise referenced.
4th Commandment in pic from RSV.
Carl Roebuck, The World of Ancient Times, 1966, Charles Scribner's Sons.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-27244.

Jesus and world pic from: ChristiansUnite free Christian Clipart
Background image from www.pdclipart.org
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Stephen Buckley
E-mail: chodesh [at] duck.com
Last revised: 8 Oct 2019.
Construction: 30 Mar 2013.

Page design/construction Stephen Buckley 2013.