Reprinted from a tract published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association about the year 1885.
In the original: The Eternal appears as ‘God’; Yeshua appears as ‘Jesus’; Messiah appears as ‘Christ’; The Scriptures appears as the ‘Bible’;
The following words have been changed:
God was changed to The Eternal , Jesus to Yeshua; Christ to Messiah, Bible to Scriptures,Christian to Nazarene or Believer
God was changed to The Eternal , Jesus to Yeshua; Christ to Messiah, Bible to Scriptures,Christian to Nazarene or Believer
1. After working the first six days of the week in creating this earth, the great יהוה, the Eternal rested on the seventh day – Genesis 2:1-3.
2. This stamped that day as the rest day of the Eternal, or Sabbath day, as Sabbath day means rest day.
3. Therefore the seventh day must always be the Sabbath day of the Eternal. Can you change your birthday from the day on which you were born to one on which you were not born? Neither can you change the rest of the Eternal to a day on which He did not rest.Hence the seventh day is still Sabbath day of the Eternal.
4. The Creator blessed the seventh day – Genesis 2:3.
5. He sanctified the seventh day – Exodus 20:11)
6. He made it the Sabbath day in the Garden of Eden – Genesis 2:1-3)
7. It was made before man sinned; hence it is not a type; for types were not introduced until after man sinned.
8. Yeshua says it was made for man that is, for mankind, hence for the Gentile as well as for the Jews –Mark 2:27
9. It is a memorial of creation (Exodus 20:11, 31:17). Every time we rest upon the seventh day, as the Eternal did at creation, we commemorate that grand event.
10. It was given to Adam, the head of the human race – Mark 2:27, Genesis 2:1-3.
11. Hence through him, as our representative, to all nations – Acts 17:26.
12. It is not a Jewish institution, for it was made 2,300 years before there was ever a Jew.
13. The Scriptures never calls it the Jewish Sabbath, but always “the Sabbath of יהוה thy Elohim.” Men should be cautious about how they stigmatize the holy rest day of Yahweh.
14. Evident reference is made to all Sabbaths and the seven-day week all through the patriarchal age, (Genesis 2:1-3, 8:10, 12, 29:27, 28), etc.
15. It was a part of the law of the Eternal before Sinai – Exodus 16:4, 27-29.
16. Then the Eternal placed it in the heart of His Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). Why did He place it there if it was not like the other nine precepts, which all admit being immutable?
17. The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living the Eternal [through His Spokes-man Yeshua] – Deuteronomy 4:12, 13.
18. Then He wrote the commandment with His own finger – Exodus 31:18.
19. He engraved it in the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature – Deuteronomy 5:22.
20. It was sacredly preserved in the ark in the holy of holies – Deuteronomy 10:1-5.
21. The Eternal forbade work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times – Exodus 34:21.
22. The Eternaldestroyed the Israelites in the wilderness because they profaned the Sabbath – Ezekiel 20:12, 13.
23. It is the sign of the true יהוה, by which we are to know him from false gods (Ezekiel 20:20).
24. The Eternal promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath – Jeremiah 17:24, 25).
25. He sent them into the Babylonian captivity for breaking it – Nehemiah 13:18.
26. He destroyed Jerusalem for its violation – Jeremiah 17:27.
27. The Eternal has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles – Isaiah 56:6, 7).
28. This is in the prophecy which refers wholly to the New Covenant period – Isaiah 56.
29. The Eternal has promised to bless all who keep the Sabbath – Isaiah 56:2.
30. The Eternal requires us to call it “honourable” (Isaiah 58:13). Beware, ye who take delight in calling it the “old Jewish Sabbath,” or “a yoke of bondage,” etc.
31. After the holy Sabbath has been trodden down “many generations,” it is to be restored in the last days (Isaiah 58:12, 13).
32. All the prophets kept the seventh day.
33. When the Son of יהוה came, He kept the seventh day all His life on earth – Luke 4:16, John 15:10. Thus He followed His Father’s example at creation. Shall we not be safe in
following the example of both the Father and the Son?
34. The seventh day is the the Eternal’s day – Revelation 1:10, Mark 2:28, Isaiah 58:13,
Exodus 20:10.
35. Yeshua was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), that is, to love and protect it, as the husband is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her – I Peter 3:6.
36. He vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man’s good – Mark 2:23-28.
37. Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, He carefully taught how it should be observed – Matthew 12:1-13.
38. He taught His disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was “lawful” – Matthew 12:12.
39. He instructed His apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded – Matthew 24:20.
40. The pious women who had been with Yeshua carefully kept the seventh-day Sabbath when He was in the grave – Luke 23:56.
41. Thirty years after Messiah’s resurrection, the Set-Apart Spirit expressly calls it “the Sabbath day” – Acts 13:14.
42. Shaul (Paul), the apostle to the Gentiles, called it the “Sabbath day” about A.D. 45 – Acts 13:27. Did not Shaul know? Or shall we believe modern teachers, who affirm that it ceased to be the Sabbath at the resurrection of Messiah?
43. Luke, the inspired Nazarene historian, writing as late as A.D. 62, calls it the “Sabbath day” – Acts 13:44.
44. The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath – Acts 13:42.
45. In the great Nazarene council, A.D. 49, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the “Sabbath day” – Acts 15:21.
46. It was customary to hold prayer meetings upon that day – Acts 16:13.
47. Shaul read the Scriptures in public meetings on that day – Acts 17:2, 3.
48. It was his custom to preach upon that day – Acts 17:2, 3.
49. The Book of Acts alone gives a record of his holding eighty-four meetings upon that day – Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2, 3).
50. There was never any dispute between the Nazarenes and the Jews about the Sabbath day. This is proof that the Nazarenes still observed the same day that the Jews did.
51. In all their accusations against Shaul, they never charged him with disregarding the Sabbath day. Why did they not, if he did not keep it?
52. But Shaul himself expressly declared that he had kept the law. “Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all”, (Acts 25:8). How could this be true if he had not kept the Sabbath?
53. The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine or sixty times, and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament, “the Sabbath day.”
54. Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath’s being abolished, done away, changed, or anything of the kind.
55. The Eternal has never given permission to any man to work upon it. By what authority does anyone use the seventh day for common labour?
56. No Nazarene of the New Testament, either before or after the resurrection, ever did ordinary work upon the seventh day. Why should modern Nazarenes do differently from Bible Nazarenes?
57. There is no record that the Eternal has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the seventh day.
58. As the Sabbath was kept in Eden before Adam and Eve sinned, so it will be observed eternally in the new earth after the resurrection – Isaiah 66:22, 23.
59. The seventh-day Sabbath was an important part of the law of Yahweh, as it came from His own mouth, and was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai – Exodus 20. When Yeshua began His work, He expressly declared that He had not come to destroy the law. “Do not think not that I came to destroy the Torah, or the Prophets” – Matthew 5:17.
60. Yeshua severely condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love the Eternal, while at the same time they made void one of the Ten Commandments by their tradition. The keeping of Sunday is only a tradition of men.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is taken from The Scriptures,
Copyright by Institute for Scripture Research.
Used by permission.