Your Sabbath Questions Answered
What day is the Bible Sabbath, and who made it?
The Bible says: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Genesis 2:2, 3).
“The seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God” (Exodus 20:10).
“And when the sabbath was past, ... very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre” (Mark 16:1, 2).
The Sabbath is not the first day of the week (Sunday), as many believe, but the seventh day (Saturday). Notice from the Scriptures above that the Sabbath is the day that comes just before the first day of the week. It was God who made the Sabbath at the time of Creation. After He made the world, God rested on the Sabbath (the seventh day) and blessed and sanctified it for man to keep.
Sunday keeping is a man-made tradition commanded nowhere in the Scripture. Only God can make a day holy, and the Lord has never revoked His blessing on the seventh day. God blessed the Sabbath, and when God blesses something, it is blessed forever (1 Chronicles 17:27) and no man can “reverse it” (Numbers 23:20). Some keep Sunday in honor of the resurrection, as Jesus did rise on the first day of the week. But nowhere are Christians commanded to substitute Sunday as a new Sabbath because of this important event. Nor should Christians keep Friday in honor of the crucifixion or Thursday for the Lord’s Supper.
We honor Christ by obeying Him (John 14:15)—not by substituting man-made requirements, no matter how popular they might be, in place of His laws. No wonder Jesus said, “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? … In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:3, 9).