In English the phrase "jot and tittle" indicates that every small detail has received attention. In this new series we will look at frequently ignored or dismissed evidence from the Bible to counter-challenge popular rebuttals to Bible truths lost or ignored.
In this study we will look at common arguments given by many Christians against keeping the seventh day Sabbath as commanded in the Bible. (You can click here to check out our first part on an ongoing series on the Sabbath.)
We will start this study with a quick refresher on principles for studying scripture to determine Truth. First, the Bible alone is the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. God authored scripture through His Holy Spirit and through prayerful study we are to let the Bible interpret itself by comparing scripture with scripture. Check out our full study here on how to study the Bible.
The Sabbath was established by God in the beginning on the seventh day when He finished His creative work and rested, (Genesis 2:1-3). Some will say that the Sabbath, or more specifically, the seventh day Sabbath, was for the Jew. However, when the first Sabbath was celebrated there was no Jew; Adam and Eve were the first humans to keep the Sabbath with their Creator. The Sabbath was set aside and made holy by God for all of mankind, (Mark 2:27-28).
Some argue that the Ten Commandments, or again more specifically the Sabbath, was instituted as a response to Adam and Eve's sin and that Christ's death on the cross did away with the law. However, the Bible tells us in 1 John 3:4 that sin is the transgression of the law, therefore there had to be a law for Adam and Eve to break in order for their act to be considered sin. The law of God preexisted Adam and Eve's sin.
There were indeed ceremonial laws that were done away with, or "nailed to the cross", according to Colossians 2:14, but notice that these laws are referred to as "handwritten ordinances". The Ten Commandments were written by God's own finger on tablets of stone and placed inside the ark of the covenant signifying their permanence. In fact, the Sabbath is described in Exodus 31:13 and Ezekiel 20:11-12 as the sign, or seal, of God's law. (Click here for our study on the seal of God.)
The ceremonial laws were given by God but written down by Moses's own hand, on parchment, and placed outside of the ark, signifying far less permanence. It is these ceremonial laws regarding the service and sacrifices concerning the tabernacle that were ultimately "nailed to the cross" as they were all pointing to and fulfilled in Jesus by his life and his ministry and death on the cross.
We've already established that in order for Adam and Eve to have sinned there had to have already been a law. We know that Abraham, who lived centuries before Moses, kept God's commandments and taught them to his children and household, (Genesis 18:19; 26:5). Sadly, by the time of their delivery from captivity, and after 400 years in Egypt, the children of Israel had become so immersed in Egyptian custom that their worship of God was blended with pagan practices, (Leviticus 17:7; Joshua 24:14; Ezekiel 20:6-9). It is during their time in the wilderness that God tested His people to purge them from all defiling influences of Egypt and her idols, (see also Romans 5:1-5 and James 1:3-4).
Notice in Exodus 16, before Moses is given the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, how God promises to rain bread from heaven daily with a double portion on the sixth day as there would be no new bread given on the seventh day on account of the Sabbath. The Bible states in verse four that this is a test to see whether or not the children of Israel will keep His commandments. God could not test His people regarding the law and His Sabbath, commandments not written down until four chapters later, unless His people, like their forefathers, already had knowledge of these laws.
The prophet Isaiah tells us that we will continue to keep the Sabbath in heaven and the earth made new, (Isaiah 66:23). There is no indication that this is any other Sabbath but the seventh day Sabbath.
We also know that the Sabbath will still be binding in the last days just before Jesus returns, as Christ himself warns concerning a time of great tribulation and persecution at that time, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day", (Matthew 24:20).
People will claim that examples of the disciples meeting on the first day of the week after Christ's crucifixion is proof the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day of the week to the first, but what does the Bible actually say?
First, a reminder that the Bible measures a day from evening to evening so that a new day begins, according to scripture, at the setting of the sun, (Genesis 1:5; Leviticus 23:32). In 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 Paul instructs the church to set aside their offerings for collection on the first day of the week eliminating the need to collect the offering throughout the week. Keeping in mind a new day begins at dusk, the first day of the week begins at sundown Sabbath. The church would already be together because of the Sabbath so this passage is merely instructing church members to not forget to give their offering before going home after sundown.
John 20:19 tells us that Christ's disciples were assembled on the first day, not as keeping a sabbath, but for fear of the Jews. The disciples did meet on the first day of the week in Acts 20:7 to hear Paul preach one more time before he sailed unto Assos, this passage in no way suggests that the first day of the week was now seen or kept as the Sabbath. In fact, throughout the book of Acts the disciples are described as meeting daily: in the temple, in houses, in the markets, to preach and to exhort one another, (Acts 5:42; 16:5; 17:17). Paul encourages believers in Hebrews 3:13 to encourage one another daily.
Many
will use Colossians 2:16 as evidence that the Sabbath has somehow been abolished or that it doesn't matter which day we keep. However, they fail to consider a few
things besides failing to continue with the rest of this passage. This
passage is referring to sabbath days plural. The ceremonial feast days
(Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles etc.) are also referred to as
sabbaths, but they are part of the ceremonial ordinances that are
fulfilled in Christ and do not not refer to the seventh day Sabbath of the
Ten Commandments. The purpose of this verse was to remind believers not
to judge those believers who were still struggling with accepting that
the ceremonial sabbaths and ordinances had been fulfilled in Christ and
no longer needed to be kept and for those who did still keep these ceremonial feast
sabbaths not to judge those who did not. This passage in no way even
implies that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment originally given to man in the garden of Eden had been done away
with.
Jesus is ultimately our example and we should do as he has done, (John 13:15), and Christ's example was that he kept the Sabbath according to the law, (Luke 4:16). While often falsely accused of breaking the Sabbath Jesus made it clear that he did not come to do away with the law, (Matthew 5:17-18). In fact, Jesus himself kept the ultimate Sabbath rest by resting in the tomb during the Sabbath, a tomb that was sealed (see Matthew 27:66 and compare with Exodus 31:13 and Ezekiel 20:11-12). Christ arose the first day to resume his work as our mediator before God and enter the holy place in the heavenly sanctuary to begin his work as our high priest! (Hebrews 9) So much for claims that Christ's resurrection on the first day makes a new Sabbath.
In 2019 I took this photo of a transit shelter with an ad from the city of Toronto informing citizens that the city was lowering speed limits. The plan is to implement the changes in three phases over five years starting in 2020 with completion planned for 2025. The city of Toronto launched an entire ad campaign along with detailed reports accessible from the city's website just to inform the people of Toronto of a change in speed limits, yet no one can produce even one scripture proclaiming a change to even one "jot or tittle" of God's law! There is no scripture justifying the keeping of any day other than the seventh day as the Sabbath. The keeping of the first day of the week, Sunday, is a custom gradually introduced into the church during the first four centuries. In fact, the Catholic Church itself admits to the change:
"It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church."Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, NJ 'News' on March 18, 1903.
There is no scripture authorizing the change of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week. The keeping of Sunday as "the Lord's day" is strictly a man made institution, a tradition with pagan roots.
God winks on (sincere) ignorance but also warns against breaking even the least of His commandments, let alone teach others to do likewise, (Matthew 5:19, James 2:10). God's Word also warns us that the antichrist would one day purpose to change God's laws, including the Sabbath, the only commandment that deals specifically with time (see Daniel 7:25).
God has used the Sabbath to test his people before, (Exodus 16), and we are told the Sabbath will be used as a test of loyalty again when an apostate church uses the civil authorities to compel the world to keep a false sabbath, the first day of the week (Revelation 13).
Click here to learn more about the Sabbath and here to learn about how the Sabbath was changed.