Even the writings of the Gospel writer Luke testify that the Sabbath was being kept by Christians after the resurrection of Jesus. Let’s take a look at the following excerpt dealing with the burial of Jesus.
“Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day,and the Sabbath was about to begin.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” -Luke 23:50-56
Notice the last sentence which I bolded and underlined.
According to this passage, the women who began to embalm and prepare the body of Jesus on the preparation day stopped what they were doing midway.
They did NOT complete their work.
There are two important points that can be gleaned from this.
First, they were still keeping the Sabbath after Jesus died.
Jesus’s death did not do away with the Sabbath.
Second, and this is the main point I want to make.
The earliest that the Book of Luke could have been written was about 62AD or about 30 plus years after the events that are being described here.
Now if Luke wanted to make the point that the Sabbath had been changed, it would have been easy to do.
He could have said that they kept the Sabbath “according to the traditions of the Jews“.
However, he didn’t say that.
Instead, Luke records that they kept the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
I believe that this is as clear evidence as there can be that at least 30 to 40 years after the time of Jesus, the Christians were not only keeping the Sabbath but doing it in obedience to God.
These women were Jews the day before Jesus died and they were Jews the day after Jesus died. Of course the kept the Sabbath! Why would you make that an issue? The fact that they believed that Jesus was the Messiah does not make them any less a Jew. I am under the impression that all Jews believe in a Messiah. Some (as these women) realize that it was/is Jesus.
Everyone has their pet issues and your website seems to have chosen to make the Saturday Sabbath issue quite prominent. Remember Genesis 50:20; what some cult headquartered in Europe did to Sunday, God meant it for good.
I think that there is no question that sundown Friday to sundown Saturday is the Sabbath. Christians congregate to worship on Sunday, not because they claim it is the Sabbath, but because it is the Lord’s Day; the day He arose. Jesus was dead on the Sabbath; He conquered death and arose on Sunday.
This is why we call Sunday the Lord’s Day. We (Christians) worship on Sunday, not because we erroneously think it is the Sabbath, but because it is the day the our rising King gave us glorious hope in life after death. A great reason to celebrate together.
The Word of God commands us to “Be (ye) holy for I am holy…” Leviticus 11:44 and I Peter 1:16. This command was not limited to Friday night and Saturday morning. Christians are commanded to keep every day holy…..including Sabbath.
Hey Epiphany, Great comment and great points. I would have to say I agree with you and the way you presented the points. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with worshipping on a Sunday or any other day of the week. You have made the proper distinction between not confusing the Sunday as some sort of new Sabbath day. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. Hence the reason for this post. Thanks again for your comment. Be blessed and Shalom.
Epiphany, I too claimed Christianity a few years ago, but have since come to know the Creator through His Torah.
You are correct in saying that we can worship on the Lord’s Day (Sunday), but that is not the issue.
The issue is obediance to our Father. God said to keep the 7th day (Saturday) as a day of rest (Sabbath).
Keeping Sabbath is the 4th commandment.
God also also commanded it at creation prior to the fall of Adam and Eve. In fact, all Torah laws were in effect from Adam to Moses,not just Sabbath.
At Mt Sinai, God and Moses simply reiterated what was already established and it recorded so there could be no misunderstanding or excuse.
The 10 commandments were even written in stone! That fact alone should have us pondering their importants and significance! Written is stone?
What could God possibly trying to convey?
But as always, man’s traditions typically out way God’s commands.
Sad, but true.
PS
I would say NO GOOD came from the Catholic Church switching the 7th day Sabbath to the 1st day (Lord’s Day) . If they had simply made it an additional day of worship or rest, then yes, it could possible be said that it was GOOD. But they didn’t, they swapped it, causing countless multitudes to disobey the Heavenly Father in total defiance of His commands.
Again, sad, but true.
God commanded us to keep the seventh day Sabbath for one reason and one reason only, it points to God (the Father) as Creator, a perpetual reminder that God is Creator, once every seven days. Nothing is more important than to worship God first and foremost as Creator because otherwise we would not exist, in fact nothing would exist. Yes God has many attributes but as far as His created beings are concerned nothing can take precedence over God being Creator. This was so important that God made it a once every seven day observance, because He knew we would quickly forget without such a regular and perpetual commandment. Especially today in our modern hectic world it is easy to forget that God is our Creator, so it must be drilled into our forgetful minds on a regular basis. If you are not keeping the Sabbath holy, you are not worshipping or even acknowledging God as Creator and you will go astray on many points of belief and doctrine, guaranteed. That does not mean that Sabbath keeping will necessarily keep you from going astray on everything but without Sabbath keeping you will be simply out to lunch as far as God is concerned.
The original apostles all knew that God the Father was Creator and they all kept the Sabbath. But Christianity gradually came to believe that Jesus, not the Father, was the actual Creator which disposed of God the Father and made Jesus God instead. This led to worshipping Jesus, not as Creator, but for his Sunday resurrection as Lord and Savior. So God was essentially pushed out of the picture and it became all about Sunday worship, which was the pagan day of the sun. The Bible nowhere commands Sunday worship and actually forbids it has a pagan practice. The Catholic Church officially made this switch and freely admits doing so. They aren’t shy about admitting what they’ve done.
Totally agree.