Yahweh's Sabbath

What Day Should I Worship?

Every week on Sunday, billions of people flock to churches around the world to worship our Creator. Many make a habit of going out for a late lunch or early dinner after church on Sundays. At the end of the day, maybe they’ll go shopping or to see a matinee. This Sunday worship, known as the Lord’s Day to many, ignores several important commands by Yahweh our God on how and when to worship. Particularly, Sunday worship ignores the Sabbath command.

Today, not every Christians knows about Yahweh’s Sabbath. Many more don’t believe the Sabbath rest applies to Christians today. Yet the Sabbath wasn’t just a suggestion, it was a command, and its importance is so strong it applied even to Yahweh God Himself. So, when and what is the Sabbath? And how can we honor such an important day?

Misconceptions About the Sabbath

So long forgotten is the Sabbath tradition that many Christians don’t know about it. Many misconceptions float around Christians communities about this day. It’s important that we clarify these misconceptions using God’s Word so that we know what Yahweh expects of us on the Sabbath.

Here are some common Sabbath misconceptions:

MYTH: The Sabbath does not apply to Christians today.

FACT: “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Read: Hebrews 4:9). Christians today are required to keep the Sabbath just as before. Many believe that the Sabbath was only for those under the Mosaic Law. However, the Sabbath was established well before the Covenant of Moses (Genesis 2:3). Yahweh Himself kept the Sabbath and required Adam and Eve to do the same. Later biblical characters were bound the Sabbath, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Later, when Yahweh created the Law of Moses, He placed the Sabbath day of such importance He made it one of the 10 Commandments (Leviticus 23:3).

When Jesus walked the earth, he kept the Sabbath every week (Luke 4:16). After his death and resurrection, the apostles continued the practice of keeping the Sabbath (Acts 16:13). It wasn’t until 115AD, over a hundred years after Christ and the apostles died that Sabbath-keeping was switched to Sunday worship as an effort to appear “less Jewish” (Cross, 2005). All indications in scripture indicate that the apostles kept the Sabbath well after Christ had died and been resurrected.

MYTH: Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is our Sabbath.

FACT: The Sabbath has always been, historically, the 7th day of the week. According to the Jewish tradition, this lies from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday (Leiman, 1998). This tradition of keeping the seventh day Sabbath is an ancient practice going back longer than written language.

Nowhere in scripture does the bible say we change from Sabbath to Sunday. This change occurred much later, well after bible events took place. So important was this day to ancient Israel that many documents at the time reflect that the way to destroy Israel was to first attack its Sabbath (Leiman, 1998). We can see that reflected now, as the Satan influenced the church to turn away from the Sabbath after the apostles had passed away.

MYTH: We can keep the Sabbath any day.

FACT: Never in any part of the bible does Yahweh indicate that it is okay to move the Sabbath to another day. Many who keep the Law of Christ claim that if we must work on a Saturday, that it’s okay to move the Sabbath rest to another day. Yet the bible makes it clear that the Sabbath is the seventh day and no other. Christians must make an effort to maintain the Sabbath on the seventh day, and repent when they fail to do so.

If the day of the Sabbath did not matter, the bible would indicate such. However, the bible indicates the opposite to be true. When directing his followers about how to flee during the Great Tribulation, Jesus the Christ instructed us to “Pray that your flight…may not be on a Sabbath.” (Read: Matthew 24:20). If the Sabbath had changed from the seventh day to any day, Jesus would not have to give this warning to his followers, because it wouldn’t matter if it fell on the Sabbath day. We could simply flee that day and take our Sabbath rest the next. Yet it evidently does matter what day it falls on, indicating that the Sabbath day is always on the seventh day – Saturday.

The Sabbath and the New Moon

Unlike our modern, Gregorian calendar, the Jewish calendar was not based on the movement of the sun or the earth around it. Instead, the calendar used in ancient Israel – and provided by Yahweh in the Mosaic Law – followed the moon cycle. This lunar based calendar decided months on the state of the moon. Every new moon, there was a new month.

Yahweh instructed His followers to make note of every new moon, because it indicated a new month (Isaiah 66:23). It is clear that the Israelites took this instruction seriously (1 Samuel 20:5). Some today suggest that the new moon played a crucial role in the design of the Sabbath. Some mistakenly believe that the new moon “reset” the week, so that the Sabbath always fell on the 8th, 15th, and 23rd of each month. They’d take the new moon as its own Sabbath day.

This schedule might make sense on a cursory level but does not align with scripture. If we believe that the new moon resets the week, then we must accept that some weeks are not seven days. Some weeks will be eight or even nine days long (Leicht et al., 2014). This is in direct opposition to what we find in the scriptures of the Sabbath always being on the seventh day.

Rather than keep a Sabbath on the new moon, Christians are instead instructed to acknowledge the new moon with a blasting of the horn, or even just a simple acknowledgement of the passage of time. There is no need to halt all work on the new moon as one would for the Sabbath.

If we are going to acknowledge the new moon, Christians need to know what the new moon is in scriptural terms. While we know, scientifically, that the new moon is the phase in which the moon is shadowed by the sun, meaning we can’t see it at night, that is not what the new moon was in ancient Israel. Yes, the new moon is invisible. But we are instructed to look for it. Israelites counted the new moon as the smallest sliver able to be seen on the day after its disappearance. That is to say, Christians should look for the moon sliver on the day after the astronomical new moon.

Why do we acknowledge new moons? The new moon represents the passage of time. Yahweh appointed this task to the moon because it was a clear way for people the world over to see. More to the point, the new moon signals to us Jesus’ impending return, and every new month brings us closer to that special, appointed time. Although we do not pray for the end times, as they will be horrific, we do look forward to the promises of the future paradise. Each new moon we pray for that paradise, and all of the remaining time until then.

How to Keep the Sabbath

Now that we’ve established what the Sabbath is, we need to examine how one should keep the Sabbath. First and foremost, the Sabbath is a day of rest. That means that we are to abstain from all “busy work”. How can we define this in our modern age? Busy work entails any work that is standard, or specifically, any work that calls for the exchange of money. This is a day to stay home from our careers or jobs. Yahweh even calls for us to let our “servants” rest. Back in ancient times, wealthier families had household staff that completed certain tasks for them. Today we might employ landscapers, nannies, cooks, or household cleaning staff. The Sabbath is a day of rest for them just as much as for us. Furthermore, anybody who serves us at a restaurant or grocery store would count as staff towards us, and thus we are called to give them a day of rest as well.

Does that mean we can’t do any work on the Sabbath? When posed a similar question during his time, Jesus the Great Teacher indicated that work on the Sabbath can be completed during emergencies (Read: Matthew 12:11). We are allowed to make food on the Sabbath, as Jesus and his disciples did when they were hungry.

Namely, the Sabbath is a day to honor Yahweh. In addition to abstaining from ordinary work, we are encouraged to come together as an assembly and worship our Creator. The first century congregations assembled on the Sabbath, eating together, and studying the scriptures. They also invited new members to join their weekly Sabbath worship and followed the Great Commission, of preaching the good news to the public.

Christians can volunteer to feed the homeless, help in hospitals or animal shelters, and clean the earth on Sabbath days. These volunteer activities can bring us closer to our community and our God. Although we should avoid laborious physical activity, there is no reason we can’t go on nature walks or enjoy the outdoors on the Sabbath. Between worship and rest, we can find the weekly Sabbath to be a much-needed reprieve from our normally busy lives.

The Prophetic Sabbath

The Sabbath, being such an important part of truthful worship, also plays a key role in bible prophecy. Specifically, the Sabbath plays an important role in end-time prophecies. As we grow closer and closer to this time, we must come to understand the significance of the Sabbath in the last days, so that we can know we are made righteous with God.

Most of bible end-time prophecy is recorded in the book of Revelation, a book that can be difficult to decipher. Yet many have attempted to do so. Scholars have studied the book of Revelation extensively, and many important links have been brought to light.

Particularly, the theme of works culminating in rest has a spectacular conclusion in Revelation. We see this theme throughout the bible, starting in the creation account in Genesis. It flows throughout the Old Testament, where people like Noah and Abraham were counted as righteous by their faith and by their “walk with God” (Genesis 6:9). Bible scholarship understands this phrase, “walk with God”, to mean that these men kept the commands that God gave them (Hooser, 2013). Likewise, Moses was a righteous man who “walked with God”. He kept the commands that Yahweh gave him. These commands always included a Sabbath rest (Bacchiocchi, 2000).

In Revelation, those walking the way of God are given a mark that identifies them as one of Yahweh’s. This mark is a stamp on our foreheads and or our wrists. This seal offers us protection against the demonic forces coming in the apocalypse (Revelation 9:4). How do we know who receives the mark or who doesn’t? We don’t, but Yahweh does (2 Timothy 2:19). And Yahweh makes it clear to us the Holy Spirit of baptism is the seal of God (Read: Ephesians 4:30).

What does this seal of Holy Spirit do for us? The Holy Spirit is our guide and our helper: The Holy Spirit helps us walk with God (Acts 1:8). In other words, the Holy Spirit helps us keep His commands. Christians today live under the Law of Christ, which is a reflection of the Law of Moses. When we obey God’s commands, we are aided by the Holy Spirit, which is our seal of protection.

This Sabbath plays a crucial role in this obedience. The Sabbath is tied closely with obedience to God (Fischer, 2019). In fact, we can identify those with God’s seal as those who keep His commands, particularly the Sabbath (Fischer, 2019). Yet remember, Satan is cunning and devious; he will seek to pervert God’s law into one that honors himself. He does this by creating his own laws, dark reflections of the Yahweh’s commands that may seem righteous to many – even believers will fall for it (2 Corinthians 11:3) (Fischer, 2019)! These laws of Satan will honor him rather than bring glory to God.

This includes the deviation from the Sabbath rest. Satan knows the Sabbath is important to Yahweh and knows that true followers will strive to keep that rest. So, he created a new one, a fake one, that misleads people away from God. That day is none other than the Lord’s Day, Sunday worship (Fischer, 2019).

Bible prophecy says that many will fall for this false worship of the beast, and that those who do will receive their own mark (Revelation 13:16-18). This mark comes with a dark spirit reflecting that of the Holy Spirit, which will be powerful in its own right. The mark of the beast will seal those who receive it to destruction (Revelation 14:9-11). Sunday worship is a part of that demonic mark.

That is not to say that we cannot worship at all on Sundays. Of course we can! In fact, the disciples made it a point to gather every day of the week, including Sundays. However, Sundays cannot take the place of Sabbath rest. If we decide to have worship on Sunday, that is fine, as long as we are doing so in addition to our seventh-day Sabbath.

Yet that is not the end of Sabbath prophecy.

At the end of it all, after all the work has been completed, there will be a final rest. This will be the final age, the age of paradise on earth for the rest of eternity. That will the Sabbath age, where all are called into God’s rest (Fischer, 2019). This age will be marked by peace, abundance, and everlasting joy (Isaiah 2:4, Psalm 72:16, Revelation 21:4). While the bible does not explicitly call this age a “sabbath”, the theme of sabbatical rest sits with this age, and can easily be interpreted that way (Fischer, 2019).

The Sabbath and You

It may seem odd that after centuries of Christians following Sunday worship to switch to Sabbath rest. However, you are called to do so lightly. Yahweh values His Sabbath, so much so that He Himself kept it. Dispelling the many myths surrounding this topic and delving into the nature of the Sabbath, Christians today not only can, but should make this switch.

Others may find reason to judge, but do not let them get to you. The scripture says that we are not to let anyone judge us for our choice to worship on the Sabbath (Read: Colossians 2:16-17). This scripture shows that those who keep the Sabbath should not let the words of those who do not affect them, or especially to move them away from keeping the Sabbath.

When we honor God by keeping His commands, including that of the Sabbath, we show God that we are moved by His Holy Spirit. We receive His seal of everlasting life on our heads and wrists. And we can look forward to the eternal Sabbath to come.

Works Cited

Bacchiocchi, S. (2000). The sabbath in the new testament: Answers to questions (Vol. 1). Biblical Perspectives.

Cross, F. L. (2005). “Sabbath.” In The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (p. 1443). essay, Oxford University Press.

Fischer, G. (2019). The Lord’s Day, Everyday: The Culmination of Sabbath Rest in Revelation (thesis). Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte.

Hooser, D. (2013, July 31). Prophecies of end-time sabbath observance. United Church of God. https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/prophecies-of-end-time-sabbath-observance

Hor-Kwong, C. (1996). The eschatological nature of the promise of rest with special reference to Hebrews 4:10 and Revelation 14:13 (dissertation). Moore Theological College, Newton, Australia.

Leicht, R. (2014). Observing the Moon: Astronomical and Cosmological Aspects in the Rabbinic New Moon Procedure. In C. Burnett & S. Stern (Eds.), Time, Astronomy, and Calendars in the Jewish Tradition (Vol. 3, pp. 27–39). essay, Koninklijke Brill nV.

Leiman, Sid. Z. (1998, July 20). The sabbath. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jewish-religious-year/The-Sabbath