This question is probably the one which we hear the most and although the topic was covered in some detail in the third chapter, I felt it was important enough of a topic to go into in greater detail here. We have previously looked at some of the reasons why the keeping of the Sabbath day is important, though we only briefly touched on why the particular day on which it is kept is important and so this chapter will be dedicated in part to that point.

Exodus 20: 8-11 tells us, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.” It is important to note that the reason given herein for the keeping of the Sabbath is that it commemorates the work which YHWH did in creation.

Herein we find the evidence which cannot be refuted, that despite what the majority of the modern, professing “Church” teaches, the Sabbath commandment is not “a social law for the Israelites.” It is not in fact a law for the Israelite, but a law for YHWH’s Children.

Therefore, if it is YHWH’s Law and a commemoration of YHWH’s work, which is to be kept by YHWH’s Children, then it follows logically that it should be kept YHWH’s way. According to both the commandment and the detailed history of creation given in Genesis, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week.

A quick look at a standard calendar will show that the commonly practiced “Sabbath” of Sunday is not the seventh day of the week, but the first. The universally recognized seventh day of the week is Saturday.

While many have said that it is impossible to know on which day YHWH rested and thus any day we choose to make Sabbath is fine, most of those same people have no actual understanding of what it is to keep the Sabbath day holy. On any given “Sunday Sabbath,” most of these individuals can be found mowing their yards, shopping for groceries and other items and any number of other activities which are in direct violation of the Sabbath commandment.

It stands to reason then that the cause of these individuals’ confusion over that matter is that they do not care enough to even learn what the commandment entails and thus they have no reason to know on which day it is supposed to be kept. In fact, most modern “Christians” consider the attendance of Sunday morning worship services to be a fulfillment of the commandment in question, though nowhere in Scripture is the Sabbath commanded to be a day of worship, only a day of rest.

Nehemiah 13: 17-18 says, “Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day? Didn’t your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this evil on us, and on this city? yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” In comparison, when prophesying of what is commonly called the “Church Age,” Isaiah 56: 2 says, “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

Isaiah 5: 20 warns, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, And light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, And sweet for bitter!” Sadly, most professing Christians today believe that what the Bible calls good is evil and what it calls evil is good.

Many ask us if we really believe that YHWH cares if we keep the Sabbath specifically according to the commandment. In Jeremiah 17: 21-27 we read, “Thus says Yahweh, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they didn't listen, neither turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction. It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me, says Yahweh, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein; then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, to the house of Yahweh. But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates of it, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.”

While some have said that this is one of YHWH’s laws and that Yeshua did away with it, we must remember that Yeshua said He came not to destroy the law, but to make it perfect. We also need to remember that in John 1: 1 we read that Yeshua is the Word and thus is YHWH and in Colossians 2: 8-9 we are told “Be careful that you don't let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ. For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.”

This means that when Moses heard the Word of YHWH spoken to him, giving him the commandments, he was hearing Yeshua speak. If Yeshua is YHWH and Yeshua gave the commandments and neither Yeshua nor YHWH change, then the commandments stand as they were written and without alteration.

Some note the absence of a specific Sabbath commandment being reiterated in the New Testament and claim it is evidence that this aspect of the Law is done away with. However, the reason why this point was not being continually taught over and over again to those converting to the faith is obvious to one who has conducted a thorough study of history.

Nearly every historian of the first and second centuries after Yeshua’s birth record that the whole known world made a regular practice of resting on the seventh day of the week, Saturday. For instance, Flavius Josephus, of the first century wrote of the practices throughout the Roman Empire and stated, “the multitude of mankind itself have had a great inclination of a long time to follow our religious observances; for there is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come.”

Josephus had a contemporary in Alexandria, Egypt, by the name of Philo. He recorded, “And in short, it is very nearly an universal rule, from the rising of the sun to its extreme west, that every country, and nation, and city, is alienated from the laws and customs of foreign nations and states, and that they think that they are adding to the estimation in which they hold their own laws by despising those in use among other nations. But this is not the case with our laws which Moses has given to us; for they lead after them the inhabitants of continents, and islands, the eastern nations and the western, Europe and Asia, in short, the whole inhabited world from one extremity to the other. For what man is there who does not honor that sacred seventh day, ranting in consequence a relief and relaxation from labor, for himself and for all those who are near to him, and that not to free men only, but also to slaves, and even to beast of burden.”

So we can easily see that the first converts from the Gentile peoples did not need to learn to keep the seventh day Sabbath. All they had to learn was of whom it was in honor.

Many claim that because the calendars have changed through the centuries, it is impossible to know which day is the true Sabbath. However, a close study of the various calendars shows that this is not the case.

First off, we read in Exodus 16: 23, that “He said to them, This is that which Yahweh has spoken, Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.” From that time on, the Sabbath day has been kept by Torah observant individuals every seven days without a break.

Some have said this is not possible, but we have to remember how many Israelites were there to hear the commandment. While it would certainly be feasible that one individual or some group might have gotten off track in the counting of the days, the others would have caught the mistake and corrected it.

Further, Scripture tells us that when Yeshua walked the earth He kept the Sabbath faithfully. Considering all of the times he chastised the Pharisees and the Sadducees for their incorrect teachings, even telling them that they had complicated the Sabbath commandment, He would have certainly told them if they were doing it on the wrong day.

While a few, obscure chronologists question whether the Hebrew calendar has remained unchanged, none can be found who question whether the day which was kept as Sabbath in Yeshua’s time was what is today considered Saturday. So it is that we can know without a doubt which day is the true Sabbath.

So how, we must ask, did the majority of the professing Church come to claim Sunday, the first day of the week, as their “Sabbath?” The answer goes back to the last chapter and the Emperor Constantine.

History records that he issued a law in 321 A.D. which prohibited any manual labor on Dei Solis, or Sunday, and mandated a civil observance of the day. Shop keepers could not do business, judges could not hold court and so forth.

In the book “The History of the Church,” by Schaff, we read that “He enjoined the observance, or rather forbade the public desecration of Sunday, not under the name of Sabbatum, but under its old astrological and heathen title, Dies Solis, familiar to all his subjects, so that the law was as applicable to the worshippers of Hercules, Apollo, and Mithras, as to the Christians. There is no reference whatsoever in his law either to the fourth commandment or to the resurrection of Christ.”

Another important point to make is that most people who profess to keep the “Sunday Sabbath” in fact do so according to Constantine’s time table. His law mandated that the pagan practice of marking the beginning of the day at dawn and the ending of the day at sunset be continued, and thus we have many churches around the world which partake of sunrise services, especially on Easter.

YHWH’s Word tells us in Genesis 1 that the days begin not at sunrise but at sunset. For instance, in verse 8 we read “There was evening and there was morning, a second day.”

In like manner, YHWH commanded the exact time frame within which the Sabbath is to be kept. In Leviticus 23: 32, we read, “from evening to evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.”

Thus, those individuals who elect to mark their “Sabbath” from sunrise on Sunday to sunset on Sunday are in absolute violation of the commandment. The biblical Sabbath is from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, as it was kept by Moses and Yeshua and YHWH’s faithful Children down through the ages until today.

It is a well documented historical fact that Constantine was a worshiper of a myriad of gods and goddesses. His particular favorite seems to have been Apollo, which was the current face of Baal in his time and culture.

Eventually he commissioned the sculpting of a statue of himself, dubbed it “Apollo” and had it set on top of a column for his subjects to worship. When his wife and oldest son expressed concern over the matter, he had them murdered and yet continued to label himself as the “first Christian emperor.”

Throughout history, the worship of the sun has been the number one choice of Satan as a form of false religion. Today, many “Christians” continue this practice instituted be Constantine and in so doing give reverence, homage and exaltation to Satan himself.

So it is that each of us must examine the Scriptures and determine for ourselves, how we shall answer the Apostle Paul when he wrote in Romans 6: 16, “Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?”

The choice is yours …