Freedom From Sabbath-Keeping
by Ray Comfort

We are told by those who insist that we must keep the Sabbath Day, that we are in great error because we worship on the first day of the week. We are informed that Sunday comes from the Pagan belief and worship of the Sun god. We are told that Jesus and Paul kept the Sabbath Day as an example for us to follow, and that the Roman Catholic Church is responsible for the change in the day of worship. If we continue to worship on Sunday, then we will receive the mark of the beast.

Let's briefly look at their arguments. First, nowhere does the Fourth Commandment say that we are to "worship" on the Sabbath Day. It commands that we rest on that day: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:8-11).

Sabbath-keepers worship on the Saturday. Do they know where the word "Saturday" comes from? It's from the Latin word "Saturnus--Saturn + Old English dæg day." Obviously Saturday is from the pagan day of worship of the planet Saturn (astrology).

If a Christian's salvation depends upon his keeping a certain day, surely God would have told us. The Scriptures tell us that at one point, the Apostles especially gathered to discuss the attitude of the Christian to the Law of Moses. Acts 15:10-11, 24-29 was God’s opportunity to make His will clear to His children. All He had to do to save millions from damnation was say, "Remember to keep the Sabbath holy," and millions of Christ-centered, God-loving, Bible-believing Christians would have gladly kept it. The only commands they gave were to refrain "from meat offered to idols, from blood, things strangled and from fornication."

There isn't even one command in the New Testament for Christians to keep the Sabbath holy. New Testament references to Sabbath-keeping instruct us not to listen to those who tell us what day to keep (see Colossian 2:16), and that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man (see Mark 2:27). The Sabbath was given as a sign to Israel (see Exodus 31:13-17). Nowhere is it given as a sign of the Church. Thousands of years after the Commandment was given we can still see the sign that separates Israel from the world--they still keep the Sabbath holy (Ezekiel 20:12-13).

The Apostles came together on the first day of the week. The breaking of bread was on the first day of the week (see Acts 20:7). The collection was taken on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2). When do Sabbath-keepers "gather together?" On what day do they break bread or take up the collection? It's not on the same day as the early Church. They tell us that history informs us that the Roman Catholic church changed their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. What has that got to do with the disciples keeping the first day of the week? That was the Roman Catholic church in the early centuries, not the Church of the Book of Acts.

Romans 14:5-10 tells us that one man esteems one day of the week; another esteems every day. Then Scripture tells us that every man should be fully persuaded in his own mind. We are not to judge each other when it comes to the issue of on what day we should worship.

Jesus did keep the Sabbath. He had to keep the whole Law be the Perfect Sacrifice. The Bible makes it clear that the Law has been satisfied in Christ. The reason Paul went into the Synagogue each Sabbath wasn't to keep the Law. If it was, then it was contrary to everything he taught about being saved by grace and grace alone (Galatians 3:11). It was so that he could preach the Gospel to the Jews. This is clearly evident as one reads the Book of Acts. Paul had an incredible evangelistic zeal for Israel to be saved (Romans 9:1-2). To the Jew he became a Jew, that he might gain the Jews ( see 1 Corinthians 9:20). That meant that he went to where they gathered on the day they gathered.

D. L. Moody said, "The Law can only chase a man to Calvary, no further." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law. We are no longer in bondage to it. If we try and keep one part of the Law (even out of love for God) we are obligated to keep the whole Law (Galatians 3;10). That means that we shouldn't separate it into the Moral, Ceremonial and Civil Law and keep the parts we choose. If we keep part of the Law (even out of love for God), then we are obligated to keep the whole 613 precepts.

If those who insist on keeping the Sabbath were as zealous about the salvation of the lost as they are about other Christians keeping the Sabbath, we would see revival.

Charles Spurgeon said, "I am no preacher of the old legal Sabbath. I am a preacher of the Gospel. The Sabbath of the Jew is to him a task; the Lord's Day of the Christian, the first day of the week, is to him a joy, a day of rest, of peace, and of thanksgiving. And if you Christian men can earnestly drive away all distractions, so that you can really rest today, it will be good for your bodies, good for your souls, good mentally, good spiritually, good temporally, and good eternally."