The Berean Blogs

Lately I have had a lot of questions regarding the Sabbath. Should we as Christians participate in the Sabbath? What day of the week is the Sabbath? What should I do and not do on the Sabbath?

In researching this topic I have come across arguments both for and against the Sabbath. Those who participate in it are doing so because it is literally one of the ten commandments. Those who do not concern themselves with the Sabbath are not doing so because Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath therefore He has done away with that particular commandment.

The Sabbath in Jewish tradition has always been on the last day of the week (Saturday). This is because God created the universe and everything in it in six days and then rested on the seventh day. Christian’s have always considered it to be the first day of the week (Sunday) because that is the day that Jesus raised from the dead and we find our rest in Him. Unfortunately the reason it was changed to a Sunday may have more nefarious motives behind it. Constantine, who is called the first “Christian” roman emperor, in an effort to make Rome a “Christian” nation blended a lot of Roman Pagan practices into this new state religion. I put Christian in parenthesis because this new religious state would eventually morph into what we call today the Roman Catholic Church. I will do another blog or perhaps many on the Catholic church and many of the pagan influences that they have brought into their religion that we as Christians have adopted.

Sunday in Roman pagan beliefs was the day they worshipped the sun god. Instead of doing away with those pagan practices they just decided to make it the sabbath instead. No where in the bible does it state the sabbath should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. Like I said earlier as time went on Christians just decided that Jesus rose on that day so that is why it is now the Sabbath. What if God never intended it to be moved?

Of course here in America we don’t even consider Sunday the Sabbath anymore. I remember when there was hardly anything open on Sundays. You couldn’t by alcohol on Sundays before noon, at least in my state. Of course there has been football every Sunday as long as I have been alive and that might as well be the new religion of America since more people plan their time around that (or other distractions) instead of going to church. Long gone are the days when people got up as families and went to church and ate lunch and discussed the things of God but I digress.

We have decided, Alex and I, that we are going to honor the Sabbath as God intended. We will celebrate it starting at sundown on Friday evening to Sundown on Saturday evening. We will not plan any work and will try not to make others work. We do this by not shopping or going out to eat. We don’t require our kids to do any chores during this time. We do minor cleaning just to keep the house in order and sometimes things just have to be done that day but we try very hard to avoid it if at all possible. We set aside time to spend with the Lord. We do this every day but on Sabbath we do more so then other days of the week. We also try to stay off our phones as much as possible.

What would America look like if we got back to a Sabbath mindset. If we all took one day to not work, to stay away from the hustle and bustle of our fast paced world and spent time reflecting on God and what he wants for our lives. We need rest. We need to slow down and let our minds relax occasionally. That is why God commanded it and no, I don’t believe He ever replaced it or moved it. I believe that is one more sleight of hand from Satan to draw us away from God and all He has for us.