My husband, John, became a Sabbath keeper before I did. I wasn’t against it, I just didn’t see that it was all that important. I really believed what I was taught all my life that it didn’t really matter what day you set aside to worship as long as you set one day aside. I was also taught that there were Scriptural reasons why we worship on Sunday. However, John became much more serious about his Sabbath keeping than I was comfortable with. I decided that he was taking this too far and he was a little misdirected. Of course I wouldn’t tell him this! My thought was that I would study the Scriptures myself, and then I would prove him wrong.
When you set out on a quest to find answers the first thing you need to do is pray. Ask Yahweh for His Truth. Not the truth of men, because men fail us. But the Truth of His Word. The second thing you have to do is make a commitment that whatever you find, no matter how difficult change may be, you must be obedient to Him and His ways. I take my walk with Yahshua very seriously and I have spent my life doing my best to follow Him. I fall short at times, but I continue to get back up and do my best again.
I use a computer program called E-Sword. It is a pretty awesome reference tool for Strong’s Concordance, different versions of Scripture, and a search engine. I put in a search for any verses that mentioned the word Sabbath. I found approximately 146 verses that talked about the Sabbath. Out of the approx. 146 verses not one said that the Sabbath was no longer to be kept. However, most of the verses stated that the Sabbath was to be kept for all generations.
So just how long is all generations? How long is forever? We believe that He has promised us everlasting life because we believe Him when He says forever. Yet someone, at sometime, decided that He really didn’t mean forever when He told us to keep His Sabbath forever. We know He doesn’t lie, so does forever really mean forever?
There are some of us who are very politically active or at least enough to balk when some atheist or the ACLU suggests taking the 10 commandments out of the courts, schools, and any other public place. But why does that bother the Christian Church so much? Most of the Christian Churches do not keep all of them anyways, including the Sabbath. So why are the 10 commandments so important to us if we ourselves do not keep them? More than that, some argue that it is “done away”, “nailed to the cross”, etc. If this is so, then Yahweh doesn’t know what forever means. And if forever doesn’t really mean forever then how can we be sure of our everlasting life?
There are two main verses that the pastor shared with me to show me why we worship on
Sunday instead of on the Sabbath, 1 Corinthians 16:2 and Acts 20:7. So let’s look at these verses and see what they state. 1Co 16:2 “On the first day of the week let each one of you set aside, storing up whatever he is prospered, so that there are no collections when I come.” Paul (Shaul) was coming to visit. There was a famine in Judea and the body of Messiah was asked to gather what they could for their brothers. He asked them to gather and to have everything ready. The word “day” is not in the original Greek text. It was added by the English translators. The word "week" is "Sabbath". Paul (Shaul) wanted to make the most of his time when he was there and not have to have his teaching time interrupted or delayed. He just wanted everything ready. So how one can use this verse to show that the believers now worshipped on Sunday is unbelievable.
Now let’s look at Acts 20:7 “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.” KJV
This verse has nothing to do with observing Sunday but actually shows that Paul (Shaul) was keeping the Sabbath. How? I’m glad you asked! First, this story was approximately 25 years AFTER the time of Yahshua. Please keep this in mind.
If you have been reading my articles on the Feasts for the last few months you will remember that there is Passover, then Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Counting of the Omer, and then Pentecost or Shavu’ot. So let’s back up to verse 6, Acts 20:6 “And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.”
So this shows you the time of the season they were in, Spring. Back to verse 7, “And upon the first day of the week." If you look at the word “day” it is italicized. That is the way it appears in the King James Version because it shows that the word “day” was an added word, not in the original Greek text. So now the verse would say, “And upon the first of the week.”
Now let’s investigate a little further. The word “week” used here is Strong’s #G4521 means sabbaton, sab'-bat-on, Of Hebrew origin [H7676]; the Sabbath (that is, Shabbath), or day of weekly repose from secular avocations (also the observance or institution itself). This is taken from Strong’s Concordance. So now what the verse states is that “And upon the first of the Sabbath.” Just a little more investigation will also show you that the word first is also the word "one". So now it states "And upon the one of the Sabbaths."
What does this mean, the one of the Sabbath? Remember the season? It is Spring, after Passover, after Unleavened Bread. They are now counting the Omer, the 49 days until Shavu’ot. They are meeting one of the 7 Sabbaths that come before Shavu’ot. Unless you have an understanding of the commands of Yahweh and His Feasts, one can take a verse like this and either misunderstand it or twist it to again, remove anything Hebrew from the faith. Now let’s look just a little deeper for full clarification. In the Greek Interlinear It states “And on the one of the sabbaths…” So it could have been the first or the second Sabbath of the 7.
We can see that the Feasts of Yahweh were on Paul’s mind in Acts 20:16 "For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost." He was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem in order to observe the Feasts.
Paul went to Jerusalem to worship and observe Shavu’ot more than 25 years after the death and resurrection of the Savior! If he truly believed that the Sabbath no longer had to be observed then why was he gathering with the believers on the Sabbath and keeping the Feasts of Yahweh? Yahshua kept the Sabbath, the disciples & Paul kept the Sabbath. Yahweh states in the 10 Commandments, Exo 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart. “Six days you labour, and shall do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of YHVH your Elohim. You do not do any work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. “For in six days
YHVH made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore YHVH blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart.” If you take the time to read the Prophets, you will find numerous verses where Yahweh is angry and hurt with His people because they have profaned His Sabbaths. It seems that it is important to Him. Why isn’t it important to us?
Isaiah 66:22-23 are prophetic verses about when the new heavens and earth are created. “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me,” declares YHVH, “so your seed and your name shall stand. And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” declares YHVH." It sounds as if in the days of the new heaven and earth we will be keeping the Sabbath. Why would we if it is “done away”?
There are more arguments about whether the Sabbath still stands, why it was changed to Sunday worship, and what does it mean to keep the Sabbath. I will save this for Part Two. So how long is Forever?
