The Sabbath day was established at creation when God blessed the day and made it holy.
In nine passages in the Bible, it clearly states that the seventh day is Sabbath.
In Genesis chapter two verses one through three alone,
the seventh day is mentioned three times.
Therefore, it is clear that Sabbath is on the seventh day,
But which day of the week is the seventh day?
Besides looking at the calendar,
there are various ways we can tell that the seventh day is Saturday.
In more than 21 languages, such as Russian, Spanish, Italian, Indonesian, and Greek,
the word for Saturday is equivalent to Sabbath.
For example, the word for Saturday in Spanish is "sábado."
When these languages originated long, long ago,
Saturday was understood to be the same as Sabbath.
The Jews have kept the Sabbath as a cherished day since the time they received the commandment.
They know the correct day Sabbath falls on because God pointed out the specific day to them in the wilderness.
Then he said to them, "This is what the Lord has said:
'Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.
Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil;
and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.'"
So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded.
Exodus 16:23-24A
It was clear that the children of Israel knew the exact day of Sabbath because God directly told them that tomorrow is the Sabbath.
The people did what God commanded and kept that day accordingly.
To this day, the Jews are careful in all aspects of keeping the Sabbath,
which they observe from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.
The day of the week that Sabbath falls on is also confirmed by Jesus,
who observed it on the day that the Jews kept.
In history, we can see that the original day of worship on Saturday was gradually changed to Sunday.
At the time of the writing of the New Testament books,
the Sabbath was observed by Jesus and His followers.
Then, some Christian leaders advocated worshipping on Sunday to commemorate the fact that Jesus resurrected on Sunday,
which they referred to as the Lord's Day.
We can see this in Ignatius' writings:
And after the observance of the Sabbath,
let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as a festival,
the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days.
Epistle to the Magnesians, Chapter 9
From this we can see,
even though the practice of observing the Sabbath still remained,
Christians were encouraged to worship on Sunday as well.
It is clear that Christians kept the Sabbath until the fourth century.
From that time,
people gradually stopped keeping the Sabbath completely.
Christians were encouraged to worship on Sunday instead,
a command that has no Biblical basis.
The change of the day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday
was decreed by Pope Sylvester I in the fourth century AD.
According to Archbishop Rabanus Maurus,
Moreover, the same pope decreed that the rest of the Sabbath should be transferred rather to the Lord's day,
in order that on that day we should rest from worldly works for the praise of God.
Rabanus Maurus, Book 2, Chapter 46
Around the same time, in 321 AD,
Constantine legislated Sunday as a civil day of rest for the Roman Empire.
On the venerable day of the sun
let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest,
and let all workshops be closed.
Codex Justinianus, Book 3, Title 12 comma 3
Then, from the Council of Laodicea 364 AD,
resolutions actually prohibited Christians from resting on Sabbath.
Sabbath was acknowledged,
but the church clergy pronounced that any who kept it would be cursed.
The fact that they felt the need for this proclamation
shows that some Christians still kept the Sabbath at that time.
Few would disagree that Sabbath is on Saturday.
History shows that the day of Sabbath is not in question
but that man changed Sabbath observance to Sunday worship.
However, God never commanded commemorating the resurrection on Sunday in place of Sabbath.
In the next video, we will address whether we still need to keep the Sabbath
or if the Sabbath no longer applies to us.