How many times do you think that the Bible makes reference to
Sunday??? It must be in the hundreds, right? Wrong. The Bible
doesn’t actually use the word Sunday. In the New Testament, the
phrase, “the first day of the week” is used ONLY eight times. In the
Old Testament, we find two references to the “morrow after the
Sabbath,” which was the first day of the Feast of Weeks.
ONCE A YEAR, THIS SUNDAY WAS KEPT...Most people are unaware that the first day of an
important Old Testament annual festival called the "Feast of Weeks," (Leviticus 23:15,) was mistakenly used to
"prove" observance of a weekly Sunday.
The first day
of the Feast of Weeks (or Sabbaths) always began on the “morrow
after the Sabbath” during the Days of Unleavened Bread. From that
once a year Sunday, they were commanded to count off seven consecutive Sabbaths
(this is why this festival is called "the Feast of Weeks") and on the fiftieth
and final day of the Feast of Weeks (or Sabbaths) they kept Pentecost.
All of God’s festival days were religiously observed by the Jews of
Christ’s time and you will soon see how the whole world misused the
first day of the the Feast of Weeks to “prove” a false weekly Sunday observance.
In reality, the Bible actually destroys the Sunday argument. If you
literally read Matthew 28:1, it says “In the end of the Sabbath, as
it began to dawn toward the first
of Sabbaths (Sabbaton is plural,
4521) came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the
sepulcher...” HERE IS WHERE THE MISUNDERSTANDING IS... What does it mean by
“the first of Sabbaths---plural???”
Let’s examine the real reason why the word “Sabbaths” was used in the
original and not "Sabbath" in the singular. The Jews were fully
familiar with this annual particular Sunday in question.
The "first of Sabbaths." Or better put, "The first day of the
Feast of Sabbaths" had been kept by them for thousands of
years! But, the rest of the world was ignorant of God's
system of Holy Days...so they made a mistake. The Bible
translators didn't understand why the original word used in this
scripture was SABBATON or WEEKS (or Sabbaths)! Read the scripture
now, with the understanding that this Sunday is the first day of the
FEAST OF WEEKS.
“As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week” is translated
incorrectly. Literally, “mian sabbaton” can only mean The “first (day) of Weeks” or the “First (day) of Sabbaths.” Do you remember how the “morrow after
the Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread” was the first day
of the Feast of Weeks or "Feast of Sabbaths!!!" God was not trying to establish a new weekly Sunday
observance. The Sunday in question here was the morrow after the
Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread! Was it not???
Yes God had always begun this prescribed Festival with a Sunday. An
annual Sunday observance, does not justify a weekly observance. We
don't have the right to make those kinds of changes. To start
keeping Sunday based on this “proof” is like keeping your birthday
every week or keeping the fourth of July every week! NO, we don’t do that because annual holidays only fall
once a year...
In fact, all the places where the New Testament uses “mian sabbaton“
or “the first (day) of Sabbaths,” align exactly time wise to the annual
Jewish observance of the first day of the Feast of Weeks. It is no coincidence!
For example, 1 Corinthians 16:2-8 says, “On the First of
Weeks, let each of you put by himself, storing up whatever he is
prospered, that there not be then collections when I come....But I
will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost.” In context, it is obvious that Paul had
kept the Feast of Weeks and he was would wait till the festival was
over at Pentecost before he left Ephesus. Pentecost was last day of the
Feast of Sabbaths. The context proves the
case.
CHANGING THE SET TIMES AND LAWS...
Daniel 7:25 says,
“He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try
to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over
to him for a time, times and half a time.”
What are the set times and laws???
If we look at the Bible, the only
set times authorized by God are the Saturday Sabbath, and the Holy
Days. (Leviticus 23) But surely the Sabbath must be long done away
with by now...since we are under the New Covenant and are no longer
required to keep the commandments...right??? NO! Wrong.
The futuristic book of Revelation describes the people of God in
the end time, as
those who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” The fact that God’s people are commandment keepers in the future is
repeated three times in the book of Revelation. (Revelation 12:17,
Revelation 14:12 and Revelation 22:14)
The Commandments, contrary to popular opinion, are not done away
with. The Saturday Sabbath, contrary to popular opinion, is
not done away with. Many long years after Christ’s death the apostle John wrote,
“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a
liar, and the truth is not in him.” John 2:4 If you don’t keep the
commandments, you don’t know Christ. And Christ proclaims in
Matthew 7:22-23 that He does not know anyone who transgresses the
law!
Christ relates that EVEN IN THE FUTURE the law
will still be in effect. Read what Christ will say to all who come
up to Him and claim to do Christian works “in his name, but work
iniquity. (anomia....transgress the law)
“Many will say to me in that day, (the future) Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?
and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:22-23 Christ does not have a relationship with
those that “work iniquity,” so it would be wise to know what iniquity
literally means!
The word iniquity is used 15 times in the New Testament. The Bible gives us a definition in l John 3:4. “Whosoever committeth
sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the
law.”
“ANOMIA” IS TRANSLATED
BOTH INTO THE WORD "INIQUITY" IN MATTHEW
7 AND THE PHRASE "TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW" IN 1 JOHN 3:4!
But, they are both from "Anomia."
Now if
we apply the translation to "anomia" in Matthew
7:23, we see what Christ was saying, “I never knew you: depart from
me, ye that transgress the law.”
This word “iniquity” doesn’t sound as serious as “transgression of
the law” BUT IT IS FROM THE SAME WORD. Iniquity means “violation of law,
wickedness, transgression of the law, unrighteousness.” So is Sunday
O.K. with Christ? Is breaking the Sabbath O.K. with Christ? No.
because breaking the fourth commandment is transgression of the law...."iniquity."
If God didn’t change the Day from Saturday to Sunday, who did?
The true reason the day of worship was changed is that the Catholic
church so decreed it. Here is where the effort to change the set
times and laws came from... Read the Catholic quotes in yellow
below. These are their own words explaining why
they changed the day of worship to Sunday.
"Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
"A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic
Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."
Peter Guierman, The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957 ed.),
p. 50. Copyright 1930 by B. Herder Book Co., St. Louis.
(If the Catholic church on it’s own authority, changed the day of
worship from Saturday to Sunday without God’s sanction, it would be
a sin to observe the first day of the week rather than the commanded
seventh day of the week....)
“Catholic Confessions about Sunday.”
They say,
"You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will
not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The
Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which
we never sanctify." Cardinal Gibbons (for many years head of the
Catholic Church in America), The Faith of Our Fathers (92d ed.,
rev.; Baltimore: John Murphy Company), p. 89.
"Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed
from Saturday to Sunday." Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are
Asked About (New York: P. J. Kennedy & Sons) p. 136.
"If you follow the Bible alone there can be no question that you are
obliged to keep Saturday holy, since that is the day especially
prescribed by Almighty God to be kept holy to the Lord."
F. G. Lentz, The Question Box (New York: Christian Press
Association, 1900), p. 98.
Let’s be blunt, the Catholic Church is very open about the fact that
they changed Saturday worship to Sunday. The Catholics claim
responsibility for Sunday keeping, and they laugh at Protestants who
say they take their teaching from the Bible, yet they keep Sunday,
which is neither taught nor commanded in the Bible.
PROTESTANTS TAKE SUNDAY WORSHIP FROM THE
CATHOLICS...
Catholics have never
denied that the Bible teaches Saturday observance. Protestants may
not want to admit it, but unarguably, all protestants keep Sunday
based solely on the authority of the Catholic Church....but they
don’t go around saying “We just blindly followed the tradition of
the Catholic church on the Sunday issue.” Instead they say, “Christ
was resurrected on a Sunday and that is why I observe Sunday.”
But
what if Christ was not resurrected on a Sunday???
What if the Bible
proves that Christ was resurrected late on Saturday afternoon,
before Sunday even began? The Sunday argument would simply and
completely fall flat on it’s face, wouldn’t it? Let's see if
the proof is there...
The Simple Proof that the Resurrection was not on a Sunday.
What did Jesus say was the sign of His Messiahship? “...An evil and
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign
be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was
three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son
of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Matthew 12:39-40
The Wycliffe Bible Commentary says that Jesus was placed upon the
stake at the third hour or 9 A.M. our time. He died six hours later,
which would make his death fall at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Can
we get three days and three nights out of Friday afternoon to early
Sunday morning? Let’s see...
THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS…
Friday, 3:00 p.m. to Saturday, 3:00 p.m. = one day and one night.
Saturday, 3:00 p.m. to Sunday, 3:00 p.m. = two days and two nights.
Sunday, 3:00 p.m. to Monday, 3:00 p.m. = three days and three
nights.
Three days and three nights is Monday afternoon! What happened
here??? Most people have been taught that Christ died on Good Friday
in the afternoon and resurrected on Sunday morning, but astoundingly, it is not
possible for that configuration to add up to three days and three
nights. What is the explanation of this mystery? The Bible
will
resolve this for us!
Remember that Christ had to be in the grave for three whole days and
three whole nights or He is not the Messiah! We know that He was the
Messiah. We know that He did not get this wrong! It was the only
SIGN of His Messiahship that He gave.
The first misunderstanding comes when individuals assume that Christ
died on a Friday. Why do they think it was a Friday? Because the
Bible
says He died on the “preparation” day, before the
Sabbath...but look a little closer! John 19:30-31 says,
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is
finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. The Jews
therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should
not remain upon the stake on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day
was an high day)”.
UNDERSTANDING HIGH DAYS…(HOLY DAYS)
A most important point is missed here! He died on the preparation day of
a High Day. A High Day is an annual HOLY DAY, not the weekly
Sabbath! Read it again for yourself, “for that Sabbath day was an
high day” A “high day” or “Holy Day” can fall on any day of the
week, not just on a Saturday. The Holy Day spoken of in this place
is the “first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread” which fell on a
Thursday the year that Christ died.
The preparation day for the first day of Unleavened Bread that year
was on a Wednesday. They were in a hurry to get Him down off the
stake and buried before the Holy Day arrived at Sundown. (Just as
the Jews begin to observe the weekly Sabbath starting Friday evening
at Sundown, all days, including Holy Days begin the evening before.)
If Christ died late on a Wednesday afternoon, three days and three
nights later would be late on Saturday afternoon. This would explain
why the two Marys got down to the tomb “in the end of the Sabbath”
and He was already gone.. (Matthew 28:6) He is not here: for he is
risen...” This explains all. At the end of the Sabbath, Christ was
already risen. This fulfils the three full days and three full
nights required for the sign of His Messiahship.
Christ was resurrected late on a Saturday afternoon, not on a
Sunday...the Sunday argument has fallen flat on it’s face!
Some say, “What difference does it make which day I keep, as long as
I keep one day holy?” What does Jesus Christ say? “For the Son of
man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." Matthew 12:8 Who should you obey, God or man?
“Jesus answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you
hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their
lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ For laying aside the
commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men...." Mark 7:6-8
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