Acts 13:14-15,27 14but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it”… 27“For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.”
Eight times in the ‘Acts of the Apostles’, starting with the verse listed above, Paul is seen to gather on the Sabbath day for the reading of the Law & Prophets.
What does the text say?
Acts 13:27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him
Acts 13:42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.
Acts 13:44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord
Acts 15:21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Acts 16:13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
Acts 17:2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
What did the text say?
It said, “every Sabbath”, “on the Sabbath day”, “on the next Sabbath”, “on three Sabbath days”.
What is critical to this dogma, that the 4th Commandment (7th day Sabbath observance) was done away with and is no longer a valid command of God, is the fact that Paul, James, and the Spirit of GOD through Luke’s inspired writing acknowledge that there “is” a Sabbath day by calling it the “Sabbath“, years after the resurrection of Christ!
Why in the world would they call it “the Sabbath Day” if it wasn’t the Sabbath Day???
They didn’t call it ‘the former-sabbath day’, or ‘day seven’, or ‘Saturday’ or the ‘last day of the week’, or ‘the old Sabbath day’… they called it “the Sabbath Day“!
The apostle Paul gave his testimony in ‘Acts 13’, where he stated in the Present Tense that ‘the prophets are read every Sabbath‘. Why would Paul still call it the “Sabbath” in ‘his present tense’ if the Sabbath was abolished? If he supposedly knew that the 4th Commandment had been abolished, why don’t we see him claiming that there’s no need to gather/worship on Saturday anymore? If the 7th day Sabbath was supposedly replaced by Sunday, why doesn’t any disciple or apostle state this? Where is that documented in the Scriptures? Answer: nowhere.
There’s no denying the truth of it; the apostle Paul admits and confirms that post-resurrection there still is a Sabbath day, by calling it the “Sabbath” in his dialogue in Acts 13:27 above.
Use logic and critical thinking, not emotion.
James, the head of the Christian Council in Jerusalem, called it the “Sabbath day” in Acts 15:21, years if not decades, after the ascension of Christ. Acts 15:21 has the “Christian” leadership declaring that they expected new converts from the ‘nations/gentiles’ to go to synagogue every Sabbath; and to hear Moses taught no less!
How in the world could the Christian Council expect new converts to hear “Moses” preached “every Sabbath“, if both “Moses” and the “Sabbath day” were abolished???
Again, logic not emotion.
Luke calls it the Sabbath day in numerous verses! If the Sabbath day observance had been done away with, ended, and abolished, why would the Spirit of God inspire Luke to mention it as such a normal current event? Why would He mention it at all? Wouldn’t you think “God” would know if the “Sabbath day” was abolished or changed?
If you believe that the letter, ‘Acts of the Apostles’ is Divinely-Inspired, then God Himself still calls it the Sabbath day, years, decades, after the cross of Christ. The Sabbath day is documented in every New Testament as being acknowledged, current, and observed; not abolished, not done away with, not replaced!
Nowhere in the entire Bible does Paul, or even God for that matter, ever command, decree or even suggest that the commandment to observe the 7th day Sabbath is to be disobeyed or abolished, much less replaced by a Sunday observance; nowhere! If you were about to say, “what about Romans 14:5”, please click this link and read, ‘Did Paul Really Say “Any Day” Can Be the Sabbath?‘.
A Scriptural fact that is little known, and “never“ taught to the mainstream Christian community, is the fact that ‘the Sabbaths’ are not “the Jew’s”. The Sabbaths are God’s; they are His Sabbaths.
What does the text say?
Exodus 31:13 13“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Surely, you shall keep MY Sabbaths
Exodus 20:8-11 ‘Remember’ the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
His Sabbath day is ‘set apart‘ or ‘Holy’.
He has chosen to meet with His set-apart people Israel on these days; are you grafted into Israel? Please click these links and read, ‘Are You Grafted Into Israel? Part 1: Not My People‘ and ‘Are You Grafted Into Israel? Part 4: No Longer Gentile‘).
The 7th day Sabbath was ‘blessed’ and made ‘set-apart‘ or ‘Holy’ by God “at creation“, not at Mt. Sinai!
What does the text say?
Genesis 2:2-3 2on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3So, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
The 7th day Sabbath was ‘set-apart‘ (Holy) by God before there was sin in the Garden, before Moses, before Mount Sinai, before there was a kingdom of Israel and before there was a “Jewish” nation! It was set aside and blessed as Holy by God for all man-kind at creation!
In the next two verses you are about to read, the Sabbath Day was observed by God’s chosen people before they even arrived at Mt. Sinai, and before they received ‘the Law’ ~
What does the text say?
Exodus 16:22-23 22Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23then he said to them, “This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the LORD.”
God-the-Son reaffirms that it is for all man-kind ~
Mark 2:27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
God-in-the-flesh did not say it was made for the Jews nor did he say it was made for Israel.
Words mean things.
What did the text say?
It says “The Sabbath was made for man”. It doesn’t say ‘Jews’ or ‘Israel’ or even ‘Hebrews’, it says “man”. The Greek word for man is Strong’s G444 ἄνθρωπος/anthropos which means: a human being, whether male or female, mankind.
‘Never’, at any time, did Jesus claim that he had abrogated or overthrown the Sabbath day. He embellishes it as a day specifically made ‘set-apart‘ (Holy) on man’s account. The religious leaders of Christ’s day had so many un-Scriptural “fences and restrictions” assigned to the Sabbath day observance, that keeping it had become a burden. The Messiah’s positive affirmation in Mark 2:27 was a rebuke and reminder to the leadership in Judea that the Sabbath Day was designed by God to be a day of blessing, not hardship.
In ‘Matthew’, God-in-the-flesh prophesies regarding the Sabbath Day observance in the End-Times (in our future), warning “us” about the coming tribulation ~
Matthew 24:20-21 20And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
♦♦♦ How could the future tribulation happen on “the Sabbath” if “the Sabbath” was abolished and is no longer observed as an authoritative Command? ♦♦♦
Was the Son of God confused? Is he a liar? Is Jesus a false prophet???
Then there are the prophecies regarding the Sabbath Day being observed after the return of Jesus in His Triumphant Glory.
What does the text say?
Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.
So, am I to believe that the Sabbath Day was instituted as Holy by God at Creation, observed before the Law was given at Sinai, observed after the Law was given at Sinai and throughout the time of the Kings and Prophets. It was observed at the time of our Messiah and His ministry, observed by his disciples, the apostles (including Paul) and gentile converts, but has ‘somehow’, without biblical proof, been abolished for the past 2,000 years.?.?
But wait, that’s not all; the Sabbath Day will ‘magically‘ be re-established right before the tribulation and observed during the 1,000 year Reign of Christ???
What a whopper of a tale!
Think logically, not emotionally.
As I mentioned above, it is never taught to the mainstream Christian community that God’s inerrant Word says that they are His Sabbath’s, and that His Word proclaims it is a sign forever.
What does the text say?
Exodus 31:12-17 12And the LORD said to Moses, 13“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Surely, you shall keep MY Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. 14You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
Leviticus 19:3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 19:30 You shall keep my Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the LORD.
His inerrant-Word says that they are His Sabbaths, and the inerrant-Word of God says that observing the 7th day Sabbath is a covenant forever, a sign forever, between Him and His chosen people Israel!
What part of “forever“ was abolished or done away with?
The English word “forever” in the above verses is Strong’s H5769 עוֹלָֽם/olam, which means: forever.
♦♦♦ It does not say, ‘until I send my Son‘ or ‘until Paul comes, and then it will change to Sunday‘ ♦♦♦
The text says the 7th day Sabbath is a sign, forever.
Is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob a liar?
Is the God of Jesus and Paul a different God?
The inerrant-Word of God above in Exodus 31 states that “Surely” His Sabbaths should be observed and kept. It doesn’t say ‘it’s kind of important’ or ‘keep it if you can’ or ‘change it if you want to’; God Almighty, The Creator of Heaven and Earth states ‘His Sabbaths’ are to be kept “Surely”.
The English word “surely'”is Strong’s H389, אַךְ/aḵ, which is the adverb that is used to emphasize what comes next. Brown-Driver-Briggs states this to mean: “surely” – with a restrictive force, emphasizing what follows; in contrast with other ideas generally – “only“; Assertive, often introducing with emphasis the expression of a truth.
Once again, nowhere in the Old or New Covenant Scriptures will you ever find a verse that says ‘do not obey the “4th” Commandment anymore’, or to ‘stop observing the 7th day Sabbath and/or start observing Sunday instead’; it says this nowhere! Again, if you were thinking of Romans 14:5, please read, ‘Did Paul Really Say “Any Day” Can Be the Sabbath?‘.
The replacement of the 7th day observance for the 1st day observance is a “man-made doctrine”, not God’s. The decision to ignore the 4th Commandment is man’s, not God’s.
If we claim that He is our God and our Sovereign, should we not keep the day that He says to observe, and not the day that man says???
Who is the Potter and who is the clay?
Final thought: The 7th day Sabbath is “Covenantal-sign“.
Just as the ‘rainbow’ is the “Covenantal-sign” of God’s promise to never flood the earth again, and ‘circumcision‘ is the “Covenantal-sign” for Abraham and his seed with God, ‘the Sabbath Day‘ is the “Covenantal-sign” between God and His chosen people to set them apart as His chosen people. “Keeping it, Guarding it” as a set-apart day is a covenant unto itself, besides the covenant made at Sinai. And the “7th Day Sabbath” is a “sign” forever for the children of Israel | Exodus 31:17
Is Israel grafted into the gentiles/nations or are the gentiles grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel? | Romans 11:17-24; Ephesians 2:11-12; Jeremiah 11:16
- For further study of Paul’s teachings, as well as the original Greek, see the ‘Links’ at the top of this page or blog posts at the bottom. Be like the Bereans, and test Paul’s doctrines to the “Scriptures”; look up for yourself more than 60 of the “forever verses” listed directly below. Please ‘share’ this study. Thank you for your time!
A Paulogetic 
Thank you very, VERY MUCH!
Excellent exposition about the SABBATH observance. For more than a year I was searching for more study about this topic, while in my mind and heart this word was hammering me: “forever” and how ftom Génesis G-D stablished this observance…
Thank you again, now I have no more doubts. Blessings!
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Hallelu Yah! You’re very welcome. If you are interested, here are two other “Sabbath” posts from my Facebook page ~ https://www.facebook.com/apaulogetic/posts/2744676782437166
and ~ https://www.facebook.com/apaulogetic/posts/2780799825491528
Let me know what you think and please share… Shabbat shalom!
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