Transcription
The death of Charlie Kirk left behind more than headlines. It brought out one of the most polarizing questions in Christianity. The Sabbath.
I'm gonna challenge you guys on one thing and uh, I don't Ally, I don't know if you know this. Last July, um, you know, I was traveled all across the country last year. I was getting really stressed and just worn down. Typical stuff that happens on the road. And a pastor friend of mine said, "Charlie, you got to take a Sabbath." And I was like, "Oh, we're not bound by that commandment, whatever." And he really convicted me. So every Friday night, I take a Jewish Sabbath. Turn off my phone. Friday night to Saturday night. The world cannot reach me and I get nothing from the world. It will bless you infinitely. I will say there's debate in some theological circles that we are bound to it because it predated the law. God rested after creation. So I want you to think about that. So Friday night to Saturday night, no one can reach me and I wake up, you know, I I wake up on Saturday night, I open up my phone, 600 text messages, 900, whatever. But it is the best 24 to 25 hours. And if every young person took a legitimate Sabbath from Friday night to Saturday night, I guarantee you anxiety would go down. Depression would go down. You'd actually spend time with people you care about. Meaningful conversations would happen. So I challenge you if you incorporate that in your life, there's no negative.
Many, however, would disagree with these remarks. They say we're not in the Old Testament and point to Sunday as the day of rest and worship. But a crucial question is thus left in the air. What is the truth? What does the Bible say? What did the very first Christians do? If we want to follow the faith of the apostles, we have to look at their actual practice. Let's start with the ultimate example, Jesus Christ himself. The Bible gives us a crystal clear window into his personal life and habits. In the Gospel of Luke 4:16, we read this about Jesus. He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue as was his custom. Let that phrase sink in. As was his custom. This wasn't a one-time event. It wasn't just a day he happened to go to church. It was his routine, his habit, his way of life. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, honored the seventh day Sabbath. He's our perfect example in all things. And that includes his sacred custom of Sabbath worship.
Okay. But what about after his death and resurrection? Didn't everything change? Many people believe the apostles immediately switched to Sunday in honor of the resurrection. It's a popular idea, but is it biblical? Let's look at the evidence. We'll follow the greatest missionary of the early church, the Apostle Paul. If anyone was going to introduce a new day of worship, especially to the non-Jewish believers, it would have been Paul. So, what was his custom? The book of Acts 17:2 tells us plainly, speaking of Paul in the city of Thessalonica, it says, "As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue and on the three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures." There's that phrase again, as was his custom. Decades after Jesus ascended to heaven, we see the apostles following the exact same pattern. This wasn't an isolated incident. In Acts 13, Paul preaches a powerful sermon on the Sabbath. The people, both Jews and Gentiles, were so moved that they begged him to preach the same message to them on the next Sabbath. The Bible doesn't say, "Come back tomorrow on Sunday." It says the entire city came out to hear the word of God on the next 7th day Sabbath.
But here's the most powerful piece of evidence, and it's something you can check for yourself. Nowhere in the entire New Testament does the Bible command a change of the Sabbath. Think about that. God rolled a command to remember the seventh day Sabbath into the heart of the Ten Commandments with his own finger in stone. It's a memorial of his creative power. If God intended for humanity to transfer the solemnity of that day to another, wouldn't he have made it incredibly clear? There isn't a single verse that says, "Honor the first day of the week instead of the seventh." There's no record of Jesus or the disciples ever telling anyone that the Sabbath was changed. The silence is deafening. The biblical record is consistent. Jesus had a custom. The apostles continue that custom. The apostolic church of the New Testament was a Sabbathkeeping church.
So, if the change didn't come from Jesus and it didn't come from the apostles recorded in the Bible, where did it come from? That's the question we need to answer next. Did the early church immediately abandon the Sabbath for Sunday? Many people today assume that's what happened. They believe that as soon as the last apostle died, the entire Christian world started worshiping on Sunday to honor the resurrection. But is that what the historical record actually shows? For the first few centuries after Christ, the Sabbath wasn't a Jewish practice. We have compelling evidence that Christians all across the Roman Empire continued to honor the 7-day Sabbath just as Jesus did. Let's look at the map. In places like Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, where the Apostle Paul and John spent so much time, Sabbathkeeping was widespread among Christians. The same was true in Syria and across much of North Africa. These weren't isolated pockets of believers. These were vibrant, growing centers of early Christianity. And for them, the Sabbath was still a sacred day of rest and worship, a continuation of the faith they had received directly from the apostles.
But you don't have to take my word for it. Let's look at what the historians of that time had to say. Two of the most prominent church historians of the first few centuries were Socrates Scholasticus and Josephus. They weren't writing to prove a point about the Sabbath. They were simply documenting the practice of the Christian world as they saw it. And what did they see? Both historians noted that in their time, many years after Christ, almost all Christian churches throughout the world celebrated on Sabbath. Socrates Scholasticus wrote, "For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome on account of some ancient tradition have ceased to do this." Did you catch that? Almost all churches throughout the world, the exceptions Rome and Alexandria. Josephus also wrote, "There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any other barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, where our custom of resting on the seventh day had not come." This is a stunning admission from mainstream historians of the era. The historical record is clear. For centuries, Sabbathkeeping wasn't the exception. It was the norm for the vast majority of Christians. The shift to Sunday only observance was at that point largely a local custom in Rome and Alexandria, not a universal practice.
So the questions we have to ask is why? Why did the churches in Roman Alexandria abandon the Sabbath? And how did their local custom eventually become the dominant practice for most Christians? To answer that, we have to look at the powerful culture and political forces that were beginning to reshape the Roman Empire. After the devastating Jewish revolts of 66 to 70 AD and again in 132 to 135 AD, Rome cracked down heavily on Jewish practices. Early Christians found themselves in a difficult position. To the Romans, they often looked like just another Jewish sect. To protect themselves and make their faith more accessible to their pagan neighbors, some Christians began to strategically distance themselves from Jewish practices. And the most obvious Jewish practice, the 7-day Sabbath. This didn't happen overnight. There was no memo sent out declaring, "We're switching days." Instead, in major centers like Rome and Alexandria, some Christians began gathering on Sunday, the first day of the week. Why Sunday? They did it to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, which had happened on that day. But at first, for many, this was an additional day of gathering. They still recognized the seven-day Sabbath and then met again on Sunday. It was a both and situation. This is why in history we find statements coming from that region as the one from Justin Martyr who wrote, "And on the day called that of the sun all who live in cities or in the country gathered together to one place and the memoirs of the apostles." And over time, as the pressure to separate from Judaism grew, the focus slowly shifted. The extra meeting day began to take on more importance. It was a gradual drift away from a biblical command and toward a man-made tradition.
This culture shift set the stage for the single most significant political event in the history of this debate. Fast forward to the year 321 AD. The Roman Empire is now under the command of Emperor Constantine. His empire was vast, fractured, and filled with diverse peoples and religions. He needed a way to unify them all. He saw that unity in a new rising force, Christianity. But Constantine himself had long been a devotee of Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun. The most popular pagan cult in the empire worshiped the sun, and their sacred day was, you guessed it, the venerable day of the sun, Sunday. Constantine saw a political opportunity. In 321 AD, he issued a landmark decree. It was the first ever Sunday law. Here's what it said: "On the venerable day of the sun, let the magistrates and people residing in the cities rest and let all workshops be closed." Notice the language. He doesn't call it the Sabbath. He doesn't call it the Lord's day or a Christian day of worship. He uses the pagan title, the venerable day of the sun. This was a brilliant political move. With one decree, he pleased the pagans who already revered Sunday. And he pleased a growing number of Christians in cities like Rome who had already adopted Sunday as a day of fellowship. He created common ground, a shared day of rest for the entire empire. But in doing so, he changed everything. For the first time in history, a human law enforced rest on Sunday. A tradition that began as a way to avoid persecution was now backed by the full power of the Roman state. The preference of some had become the law of the land. The foundation had been laid. The authority of God's unchanging law was being suddenly replaced by the authority of man.
And this political turning point would pave the way for a religious institution to later claim it had the power to change God's own times and laws. But for a custom to become a command, for a tradition of men to formally replace a commandment of God, it requires an official declaration. The growing influence of Sunday worship, born from political convenience and anti-Jewish sentiment, needed the stamp of church authority to become law. That moment of religious legislation would arrive in the 4th century. This brings us to a pivotal and, for Sabbath keepers, a devastating moment in church history. The Council of Laodicea, held around the year 364 AD. This wasn't just a local meeting. This was an influential gathering of church leaders creating rules or canons to govern Christian practice. And one of those canons, Canon 29, dropped a bombshell on centuries of biblical tradition. The language was direct and left no room for interpretation. It stated, "Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but the Lord's day they shall especially honor, and as being Christians shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ."
Let's break that down. First, the council directly forbids Christians from resting on the Sabbath or Saturday. Notice the term they use, Judaize. Keeping the 7-day Sabbath, the day commanded in the Ten Commandments, was now officially labeled as purely a Jewish custom. To rest on Saturday was to Judaize. Second, the decree commands Christians to work on Saturday. The day God had set aside for rest was now legislated as a workday. And finally, it elevates Sunday, calling it the Lord's day and instructs Christians to cease from labor on that day instead, if possible. This was the final piece of the puzzle. What began with subtle prejudice and political maneuvering and was later supported by Constantine's civil sun worship law was now cemented as official church doctrine. It became the law of the land. The original Sabbath was pushed to the margin, forgetting that it was established at creation, long before there was a Jewish nation, and thus it continued for centuries.
This brings us to a powerful and often misunderstood prophecy in the book of Revelation. Chapter 12:17 gives us a snapshot of the very last group of faithful believers on the earth. It says, "And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Let's break that down. In Bible prophecy, a woman represents a church. And the dragon, as we see earlier in the chapter, is Satan. He is at war with the remnant of the woman's seed. A remnant is the last remaining part of something. So, this is a prophecy about the final faithful group of Christians in Earth's last days. And how are they described? The verse gives us two distinct characteristics. They keep the commandments of God and they have the testimony of Jesus Christ. For centuries, the majority of the Christian world has set aside one of the Ten Commandments, the fourth one, the one that says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." But this prophecy in Revelation points to the end of time when God's faithful people will be recognized by their obedience to all of his commandments. Not the first or the second only, but all 10 of them, including the fourth. Not out of legalism, but out of a deep love for their creator.
However, this is often where many common questions and long-held objections arise within Christian circles. These are valid and important questions that deserve clear, biblically grounded answers. So, let's transition now and directly address some of the most frequent objections to Sabbath worship so we can move from uncertainty to a confident understanding.
Many Christians say we don't need a weekly Sabbath anymore because Christ himself is our rest. And yes, in one sense, that is true. Jesus himself said, "Come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Through Christ, we find rest for the soul, peace with God, freedom from guilt, and deliverance from the burden of sin. But the Bible makes a distinction. Christ gives us rest from sin. But he also calls us to honor the weekly 7-day Sabbath as a memorial of creation and redemption. The spiritual does not cancel the literal. In fact, they work together. The Sabbath day becomes a weekly reminder of the deeper rest we have in Christ. In Hebrews chapter 4, Paul speaks about entering God's rest through faith in Christ. But after explaining the spiritual rest, he makes a stunning conclusion in verse 9. "There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God." The specific Greek word used here for Sabbath rest is *sabbatismos*. This is the only place it appears in the New Testament, and it literally means a keeping of the Sabbath. The author is careful to show that even after we find our spiritual rest in Christ, a literal Sabbathkeeping still remains for God's people. Therefore, the claim "Christ is our Sabbath rest" is only half the truth. Yes, he is our rest, but Hebrews 4 shows that this very reality points us all the more to a life of Sabbathkeeping.
Others would object and say that Sunday, the first day of the week, became the Lord's day because Jesus rose from the dead on that day. But what does the Bible actually say? The truth is, the Bible never once calls Sunday the Lord's day. In fact, the only day the Bible calls holy, blessed, and sanctified is the seventh day Sabbath, the day God set apart at creation. When John speaks of being in the Spirit on the Lord's day, he does not identify it as Sunday. Scripture itself identifies the Sabbath as the Lord's day. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Jesus himself declared, "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath," making clear that the Sabbath belongs uniquely to him, not to any other day. But what about the resurrection? Surely something so important must be honored. And indeed it is, but not by a change of the Sabbath. Jesus himself instituted the true memorials of his death and resurrection: baptism and the Lord's Supper. Paul makes this plain in Romans 6:3-4: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Likewise, in 1 Corinthians 11:26, Paul says of the Lord's Supper, "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." So, we do have memorials of the cross and the resurrection, but they are baptism and communion, not Sunday worship. The attempt to honor Christ's resurrection by replacing the Sabbath with Sunday is a human tradition, not a biblical commandment.
Thirdly, many Christians say that we're not under the law anymore, and thus, we do not need to keep the Sabbath holy or the fourth commandment. But what does the Bible actually mean when it says we are not under the law? The Apostle Paul is clear. We are saved by grace, not by works of the law. But does that mean the Ten Commandments no longer apply? Paul answers this directly in Romans 3:31: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." In other words, faith doesn't cancel obedience. It makes it possible. Think of it this way. Grace is the root of salvation, and obedience is the fruit. If the root is alive, the fruit will naturally follow. The Ten Commandments, including the Sabbath, are not ceremonial shadows pointing to Christ's sacrifice. They are God's eternal moral law. They reveal his character and show us what love for God and neighbor looks like in action. When Paul spoke about not being under the law, he meant we're no longer under its condemnation. Through Christ, the penalty of the law, death, has been lifted for all who believe. But that does not give us license to break God's commandments. Instead, grace empowers us to live in harmony with him. So, when someone says, "We're not under the law anymore," the biblical answer is yes. Amen. We're not under its penalty, but the standard of God's righteousness still stands. Grace doesn't free us from obedience. It frees us for obedience.
Objection number four. Colossians 2 and Romans 14 teach that the Sabbath has been cancelled. Many point to these verses as proof that the Sabbath was done away with. But let's slow down and ask, what kind of days is Paul really talking about? In Colossians 2:16, Paul says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Notice the language. Holy days, new moons, Sabbath days. This is the exact three-part formula found in the Old Testament to describe the yearly feasts. Paul is not abolishing the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments, which was instituted at creation and written in stone by God's own hand. He's talking about ceremonial shadows that pointed forward to Christ. Romans 14 is often brought up as well. "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." But here Paul is addressing disputes in the early church about fasting and personal days of devotion, not the Sabbath commandment. The context is about eating and personal practice, not God's eternal law. So Colossians 2 and Romans 14 don't cancel the Sabbath at all. Instead, they highlight the difference between ceremonial laws, which ended at the cross, and God's moral law, the Ten Commandments, which remain as God's unchanging standard. The weekly Sabbath is not a shadow. It points back to creation and forward to eternity.
And lastly, some say, well, maybe the Sabbath was once the seventh day, but the calendar has changed. How can we even know which day is the Sabbath anymore? But here's the truth. While governments have shifted months, days of the month, and even switched from one calendar to another, the weekly cycle of seven days has never been broken. Friday always rode into Saturday, and Saturday into Sunday, just as it does today. Even modern science and history confirms this. Astronomers and historians alike agree that the 7-day week has remained intact across all calendar reforms. In fact, Saturday is universally recognized as the seventh day of the week in nearly every language and culture. So when you rest on the Sabbath today, you can know with confidence it's the same Sabbath sanctified at creation, honored by Christ, and preserved through the centuries.
We've seen the undeniable evidence in the Bible and the clear testimony of history. Jesus, the apostles, and the early church honored the 7th day Sabbath. The shift to Sunday wasn't commanded by God. It was a gradual change born from human tradition and political power. So now the question becomes deeply personal. Who has the final authority in your life? The Word of God or the traditions of men? This is a call from your Creator to accept a gift He designed for you. A weekly sanctuary of rest and connection with Him. It's a sign of your loyalty and love for the One who made you. The evidence is before you. The decision is yours. Open your Bible, ask God for wisdom, and discover the blessing of His Sabbath for yourself. It's more than just a day. It's a blessing and a moral obligation.