seventh day adventists

1. The Sabbath is Saturday

The Bible is very clear on this: Saturday is the Sabbath. God explicitly labels it as such. Exodus 20:8-10, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.”

2. The Sabbath Cannot Be Changed to Sunday or Any Other Day

Some will argue that the Sabbath has now been changed to Sunday. But this is not the case. First, one cannot find a single passage in the Bible that says this. Second, God’s choice of the 7^th day was not arbitrary. It was chosen for a very specific reason. Namely, to commemorate his work in creation. Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

3. Nevertheless, the Sabbath is Not Binding on the Christian

This is where the Seventh Day Adventists go wrong. They are correct in asserting that Saturday is the Sabbath but they are incorrect in claiming that Christians are bound by this law. The New Testament makes it very clear that Christians are not bound by any particular “holy day” and they cannot be judged for keeping it or not keeping it. Colossians 2:16, “Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or a Sabbath day.” Romans 14 makes a similar argument as Paul compares the decision to keep the Sabbath with the decision to eat meat or abstain from meat. Verse 5 and 6 teach that this is simply a matter of conscience,  “Some consider one day more sacred than another; others consider every day alike. Everyone should be convinced in their own mind. Those who regard one day as special do so to the Lord. Those who eat meat do so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and those who abstain do so to the Lord and give thanks to God.” The Apostle Paul concludes his argument in verses 22 and 23, “So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed are those who do not condemn themselves by what they approve. But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

4. The Sabbath is Not Binding Because Jesus Has Set Us Free From the Law

The Sabbath was a part of the Old Testament Law that God gave to the nation of Israel as a sign of their covenant. The New Testament affirms that the Law is good because in it the character of God is revealed. Romans 7:12, “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” However, while the Law is good because it comes from God, the Law also kills (see 2Corinthians 3:6-7 which tells us that the Law kills and that the 10 Commandments – of which the Sabbath is a part – bring death). This, of course, is precisely what God intended. He never intended for the Law to save anyone. Rather, he intended to use the Law to show people how evil they truly are, because they cannot keep the Law no matter how hard they try, and, consequently, to show them how desperately they need a Savior. Here are several Scriptures that drive this important point home:

Romans 5:20, “The law was brought in so that trespasses might increase.”

Romans 3:20, “Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”

Romans 7:7, “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.”

The Law is holy and, as such, the Law condemns every one of us because every one of us falls short of the Law constantly. As a result, we are under God’s wrath, we are estranged from him, and we are spiritually dead (see Romans 4:15, Colossians 1:21, and Colossians 2:13). Our only hope to escape from God’s wrath is to somehow escape from the Law that we cannot keep. God gives us this escape through Jesus Christ.

God sent his son, Jesus, to live the life we could not live and die the death we deserve to die. Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly in our place. Then, as the only truly innocent person in the history of the world, he willfully died in our place, absorbing all of God’s wrath that was due to us.  In doing this Jesus set his people free from the Law. They no longer had to earn righteousness by obeying the Law (which they could not do). Instead, they were simply to trust in Jesus who put an end to the Law by fulfilling its righteous demands and receiving the condemnation it brings the disobedient. This is beautifully explained in Colossians 2:11-15,

“In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your sinful nature was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (emphasis mine)

Similar sentiments are expressed in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…” And the temporary nature of the Law is again affirmed in Galatians 3:23-25, “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was put in charge of us until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” Simply put, Christians cannot be bound by the Sabbath because Christians cannot be bound by the Law. Jesus has fulfilled the Law on our behalf and has set us free from its rule over us.

5. The Sabbath is Not Binding Because Jesus is Its True Fulfillment

There is yet a second reason that the Sabbath is no longer binding: Jesus fulfills what the Sabbath only foreshadowed. After Paul explains that Jesus has freed us from the Law in Colossians 2:14 he offers this application in Colossians 2:16-17, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

The Sabbath is no longer necessary because its meaning has found its true and final fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Our true rest is not found in taking one day to rest from our work. Our true rest is found in Jesus Christ who carries our burdens for us and gives us rest from the demands of the Law. Jesus says as much in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The Sabbath day merely pointed toward the everlasting Sabbath that would come to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The Sabbath is not the only Old Testament shadow that finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfills the entire Law (Matthew 5:17, Hebrews 10:1). Jesus is the true temple where God dwells in his fullness (Colossians 1:19, John 2:19-21). Jesus is the true high priest who takes his people with him into the holy place of God (Hebrews 9). Jesus is the true priest who stands before God praying on behalf of the people and making atonement for their sins (Hebrews 10). Jesus is the true sacrifice who cleanses his people from their sins once and for all (Hebrews 10). Every part of the Old Testament system of worship finds its substance in Jesus. There is now no need for the shadow because we have been given the far greater reality in the person and work of Jesus Christ. To return to the shadows of Sabbath, temple, priest etc… would be to ignore what Jesus has accomplished and to choose ritual over reality, shadows over substance.

6. Thus, We Are Saved By Faith in Jesus and Not By Obedience to the Law

Because Jesus frees us from the Law and is the fulfillment of the Law he is our only source of salvation and our only source of righteousness. We can keep the Sabbath all we want but that will not make us righteous in God’s sight. In fact, we run the risk of the exact opposite. If we think our Sabbath-keeping will make us more acceptable to God then we are not trusting in Jesus’ righteousness and obedience to make us pleasing in God’s sight, we are trusting in our own. And apart from faith in Jesus we have none. The following passages make it plain,

Romans 3:20-28, “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the “law” that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (emphasis mine).

Galatians 2:15-16, “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.” (emphasis mine).

Galatians 2:21, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Jesus came precisely because we cannot meet the demands of the Law. If we are relying on our own obedience to make us acceptable to God we are hopeless and we remain under God’s wrath. But if, instead, we trust in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection we are forgiven of all of our sins and declared by God to be righteous – not because we have performed well, but because Jesus has performed perfectly in our place.

1Corinthians 1:30, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.”

2Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

We have no righteousness other than the righteousness of Christ that is given to us through faith in him. Whether we keep the Old Testament Sabbath or not is irrelevant. It is how we respond to Jesus – and only how we respond to Jesus — that determines whether we are God’s children or God’s enemies.

7.  This is Why Jesus’ Disciples Began to Gather for Worship on Sundays

Over the years, Seventh Day Adventist’s have offered many explanations for why the Universal Church tends to gather for corporate worship on Sundays. Depending on which literature you read you may encounter any of the following explanations:

a) The Pope introduced Sunday worship.

b) Constantine changed the Sabbath from Sunday to Saturday in 325 AD.

c) Christians in 135 AD decided to worship on Sundays to separate themselves from the Jews who were being persecuted.

Each of these claims is historically indefensible. History shows that the Pope could not have introduced Sunday worship because the first pope did not exist until 606 AD. History also shows that Constantine did not create Sunday worship. Rather, as the emperor over what had then become “Christian Rome,” he merely made official what had already been the case for centuries. History also shows that Christians began observing Sunday worship long before 135 AD.

a) Acts 20:7, written around 65 AD, “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.”

b) 1Corinthians 16:1-2, written around 55 AD, “Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”

c) The Didache, an extra-biblical document written by Christians around 90 AD, encourages believers to gather on Sunday for thanksgiving, confession, and the Lord’s Supper.

It is clear that Jesus’ disciples began observing Sunday as a day of public worship almost immediately. This explains why there is not a single mention of Christian Sabbath-keeping in the entire New Testament. The reason for this is far simpler than the explanations historically given by Seventh Day Adventist’s. The reason for this change, quite simply, is that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week. Thus, Christian believers gathered for public worship on Sunday to celebrate this unique event — an event that ushered in a new era and is the firstfruits of a new creation (1Corinthians 15:20).

8. Only the resurrection explains the early Christians gathering on Sunday

Jesus’ disciples were faithful Jewish men. Like their contemporaries they worked diligently to keep the Law. Then, suddenly, these men abandoned the Sabbath, the Temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and other aspects of Jewish worship. Soon after this they began offering salvation to the Gentiles without demanding that they follow the Jewish Law. They simply demanded that they put their faith in Jesus Christ and that they, “abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29).

How can this be explained? Why would all of these men agree to abandon the traditions and rituals of their religion and culture? The only plausible explanation is that they truly saw Jesus risen from the dead and that they knew he had done away with the Law and offered his righteousness freely to any and all who put their faith in him. Even Paul — who was nothing short of zealous for Jewish Law and tradition — would be moved by the Holy Spirit to write, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”