Sabbath Truth - Sunrise over Mountains
Audio Question Library

How do we know which day of the week is the Sabbath?

How do we know which day of the week is the Sabbath?
Caller: I have a question on the Sabbath.

Pastor Doug: All right.

Caller: Where in the Bible would it say that either Saturday or Sunday would be the Sabbath? Where's the information?

Pastor Doug: Well first of all, you're not going to find the term Saturday or Sunday anywhere in the Bible because the Bible never names the days. They're all numbered. Now we could do some very basic investigation to find out what those days were by our standards now. We're using Roman names for the days of the week.

Caller: Ok.

Pastor Doug: Sunday was the day of the sun. Monday was the day of the moon, so forth. Saturday was Saturn. But in the Bible, they had a seven-day week in Rome that matched up with the seven-day weeks of the Jews. Matter of fact, the whole world acknowledges the seven-day week, which I think is a very strong argument for the Bible, because there's nothing in astronomy that gives us the seven-day week. It only can be traced to the Creation Week of Scripture.

Caller: Ok.

Pastor Doug: But in the Bible it tells us that the day that Jesus was crucified was the Preparation Day. Today the Jews call Friday their Preparation Day. We know that Jesus rested in the Tomb on the seventh day, which is what we commonly call Saturday and He rose on what we call Easter Sunday, or, the first day of the week. You can look in a dictionary or in an encyclopedia, and it all tells you what the days of the week are. The first day is called Sunday, the seventh day is called Saturday and the Bible says in the Ten Commandments that He blessed the seventh day and commanded us to keep it holy. So I take that position. I'm a straight shooter when it comes to the Bible. I go by what it says.

Caller: Ok.

Pastor Doug: Did that make sense?

Caller: Yes it answered my question.

Pastor Doug: Ok. Let me give you one more little tidbit of information. There are archeologists that match up main dates in history that can be confirmed using astronomy.

Co-Host: Yes.

Pastor Doug: And they have found out that no changes in the calendar have affected the weekly cycle. So we know that going way back before the Christian era that the same cycle of seven days they enjoyed back then is the same cycle of seven days we use today. The changes in the calendar have not altered that at all.

Caller: Ok. God bless. Good-bye.

Pastor Doug: All right. Thanks a lot. God bless you.

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