BEYOND PITCAIRN 

Vance Ferrell

APPENDIX A

No Time Lost

The little town of Nazareth is located on the most southerly of the mountain ranges of southern Galilee. Quietly it lies nestled on the side of a shallow ridge that runs in a semicircle, somewhat like a horseshoe. Here among the dwellings and groves of this small town, Jesus grew to manhood.

But, just now, come back with me in imagination to that village, where so many years ago the Master walked among men. Another day is quietly dawning, as the early rising sun chases away the bright mists that hang over the slope of Nazareth. From the home of the carpenter, Jesus steps forth and walks to the little church in the center of town. It is Sabbath morning in Nazareth.

Oh, how much you and I would like to go to church with Jesus! And, perhaps more important, how much we would like to go to church on the same weekly Sabbath that He kept. What peace of heart this would bring to us! to be able to keep the Sabbath of Jesus.

And, my friend, you and I can. For we know enough from Biblical, historical and other records, that we today can know of a certainty the Sabbath of Jesus.

For, you see, in order to trace back to the Sabbath of Jesus, we must know the truth about the weekly cycle itself.

And here are the facts: The seven-day week, as well as the Bible Sabbath that terminates it, had a common origin in history. Both originated at the Creation of our world. We learn this from Genesis 2:1-3. There is no other way of accounting for the existence of the week. It is a towering monument to the fact that the true God made the earth and all things therein in six days, and rested on the Seventh day, just as He tells us in Genesis 2:1.3. It is because of the seven-day Creation Week, and the Seventh-day Sabbath that concluded it, that mankind all over the world today keeps this weekly cycle of seven days.

The Weekly Cycle, as we know it, has been maintained from Creation without confusion or loss of days. God gave the Seventh-day Sabbath to mankind when He made all things in the beginning. "The Sabbath was made for man," Jesus said (Mark 2:27), and so it shall stand as true-for Jesus said it, and He is our Creator (John 1:1-3,10, Eph 3:9, CoI 1:13-17, Heb 1:1-3) , the One who made the Sabbath.

From time to time you will hear someone say, "The Weekly Cycle has been lost and so we cannot know the true Sabbath." But when pressed for the facts about this, his words are vague and confused.

The truth is that from the Bible and from the lives of men and races, scientists have an excellent understanding of the preservation of the Weekly Cycle throughout history. Even the records of the astronomers tell us that time has never been lost, and if somehow that were to happen, now or earlier in history, they could account exactly for any errors or losses of time in human history: they could restore the missing links in the Weekly Cycle. These are convincing facts, and they are true.

The unbroken continuation of the Weekly Cycle down through history can be established from Scripture, from history, and from science. First, let us consider the Biblical evidence:

If the Weekly Cycle had been lost between Adam's time (when the Sabbath was made) and Moses' day (when God put the Ten Commandments into written form), this situation would at that time have been corrected by the Divine Lawgiver.

A striking illustration of the importance that our God attaches to Sabbath keeping, is to be found in the miracle of the manna. For forty years, or 2,080 weeks, the Lord worked a number of miracles every week, thereby identifying the true Sabbath 2,080 times. We are told about this in Exodus 16.

God sent manna for the first five days of each week. That was a miracle. Then on the sixth day, He sent twice as much. Another miracle. And only that which fell on the sixth day could be kept over through the next day. Still another miracle. And then on the Seventh day, He sent none. It is very obvious that God wanted His people who knew about Him to keep the Bible Sabbath. And He worked miracles to help safe-guard it. When, after all this evidence, some of them went ahead and broke the Sabbath, He clearly showed His will in the matter. Carefully read Exodus 16.

The great Moral Law of Ten Commandments had governed mankind since the days of Adam. But after the experience of the manna in Exodus 16, God wrote the Ten Commandments on solid rock, the most enduring thing there is. It was written on the most lasting substance in the world, something that would not pass away, in order to show us the enduring nature of that Law. And it is Heaven's plan that it also be written on our hearts, that every day we may obey these ten precious promises of happiness.

If the Sabbath had been lost between Moses' time and Jesus' time (which it was not), we would have the example of the Saviour Himself to guide us as to the correctness of the weekly cycle and the Seventh day.

Scripture tells us: "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John 2:6. Throughout His earthly life, Jesus gave "us an example, that ye should follow His steps." 1 Peter 2:21.

We want to follow the steps of Jesus. We want to do as He did, with all our hearts! More than anything else in the whole wide world, this is what we want. I want it. And I know you want it also.

Jesus, ''as His custom was," kept the Seventh-day Sabbath according to the commandment. (Luke 4:16,31; compare John 15:10.) If time or the Sabbath had been lost, Jesus would have found it for His followers.

Jesus was crucified on the sixth day of the week, which was the day before the Sabbath (Luke 23:54-56). On this same sixth day, which was also called the "preparation day" (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54), His followers prepared "spices and ointments" to anoint His body for burial, and then "rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:56.

And then came the Seventh-day Sabbath, and Jesus rested in the tomb (Matt 28:1-7). The next day He arose. It was the first working day of the week, and Jesus had a lot of work to do. That morning, after speaking with Mary, He traveled all the way to heaven, and then that evening appeared to many of His disciples (John 20:17,19; Luke 24: 13-36).

So it was that throughout the life and death of Jesus, He faithfully set us an example of obedience to the Sabbath commandment. And He taught His followers to do the same (Matt 24:20), for after His death, they kept the Sabbath also (Luke 23:56), and later in their missionary work (Acts 13:14-16,40. 46; 16:12-15; 17:1-4). They declared that we ought to obey God rather than men (Ac 5:29), and Paul could sincerely say of himself and his fellow believers: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31. The Word of God was being fulfilled, that Gentiles would one day faithfully keep the Sabbath which the Jews were desecrating (Isa 56:3-7).

There is such a wealth of historical and other information available regarding the unchanged nature of the weekly cycle, that we may know without a doubt that there has been no alteration in it down through the ages.

We can know it from the writings of historians. It is given us in the records of chronographers, who trace it in their study of the calendars of yesteryear. It is revealed in the existence of ancient races and their witness today. It is proven by the languages of earth. It is testified to by the stars of heaven, and verified by the leading astronomers of our own time. It is written in the encyclopedias and other standard reference works that deal with the subject.

Has the Sabbath been lost since Jesus' day? Here are some of the ways that we can know for a certainty that the Seventh day of the week-right now-is the same Seventh day of the week as when Jesus was on earth and kept it holy as an example for us:

1: THE CALENDAR

The Julian calendar was in use when Jesus Christ was upon the earth. Its originator, Julius Caesar, died 44 years before Christ was born. This calendar which continued in use for fifteen centuries was not accurate in the length of its year, for it was 11 minutes, 14 seconds too long. What was needed was our method of "leap years." By 1582 the vernal equinox of March 21 had receded to March 11, making it ten days off schedule.

A change was recommended by astronomers and made at the time that Gregory XIII was the pope, and so the corrected calendar with its "leap year" was called the Gregorian calendar. It began to function on Friday, the 5th of October, 1582. Friday the 5th was changed to Friday the 15th. So that particular month was ten days shorter, but the length of its weeks was not affected. This is due to the simple fact that the number of days in the month or in the year has nothing to do with the number of days in the week. Thus the weekly cycle was not affected in any way.

On a diagram on the next page we will give the calendar change that took place in October, 1582. (see book)

The inhabitants of Spain who retired to sleep on Thursday, October 4, awoke the next morning on Friday the 15th. Some nations began the use of the new calendar at once. This included Spain, Portugal and Italy. Part of Germany made the changeover in 1583 and the rest of the nation waited until 1700. About that time the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark also accepted it. And then, finally, in 1752, England and the American colonies made the changeover. But all during those years with mixed-up calendars, everyone was on the same weekly cycle. For, as you will see from the calendars we have included, the weekly cycle was not changed.

By the time England made the changeover to the new calendar, eleven days had to be changed instead of ten. Wednesday, September 2 was followed by Thursday, September 14. Russia and Greece continued to use the old-style calendar, the Julian Calendar, for over a hundred and fifty  more years! Finally, in 1917 (Turkey), 1918 (Russia), 1919 (Serbia), and 1923 (Greece)the last modern nations had adopted it! 341 years had elapsed since the changeover began.

For 337 years the calendars of Europe were all mixed up, and the dates of the months varied from country to country. But all during that time the days of the week were alike, for they had not changed. When it was Monday in Russia it was Monday in Germany, England and Italy, although they were all living under different calendars. When the 20th Century began, Sabbath in Russia was the same as Sabbath in England, although the dates were fourteen days apart.

The Encyclopedia Britannica calls it the "unalterable uniformity of the week," for the Weekly Cycle has never been affected by calendar changes.

And because of this, the seven-day week, given by God to mankind at the Creation of the world, has never been touched by the calendar changes down through the centuries.

How many ways may we know that the Weekly Cycle, and with it, the Sabbath cycle, has never been changed? Let us count some more ways:

2: THE JEWISH RACE

Our heavenly Father has given us more than written proof of the permanence of the Weekly Cycle and the Seventh-day Sabbath, He has given us living proof: The Jewish race.

Every other Near-eastern ethnic group has disappeared: the Hittites, the Sumarians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Moabites, the Philistines, all are gone. But the Jews remain and with them the Seventh-day Sabbath.

It has been 3400 years since the time that God gave them manna in the wilderness and told them to carefully keep each Seventh-day Sabbath when no manna fell. But all during those long centuries since then, they have observed God's Sabbath, week after week, month after month, year after year, century after century.

Ask any Jewish acquaintance what day is the Sabbath. He will tell you that it is Saturday the Seventh day.

Orthodox Jews scattered throughout the world have kept strict record of time. They have carefully observed the Seventh-day Sabbath throughout the ages. The existence and testimony of the Jewish race is alone enough to settle the matter. The present writer considers it the most amazing and conclusive means of knowing the ancient Sabbath of Jesus and earlier times. There is no doubt that the God of heaven has carefully guarded the day that He sanctified and blessed at Creation. We have no excuse for not keeping it how as He commanded.

But, since the time when Christ walked on earth and kept the correct Bible Sabbath, there have been others who have provided living proof also.

3: PROTEST ANTS AND CATHOLICS

 Several years ago a young man was puzzled. What he read in his Bible did not agree with what the churches were doing. After the worship service one Sunday; he asked if he could speak with his pastor for a moment.

Going aside, he said, Dr. ---, the Bible says to worship God on the seventh day of the week; why do we not do this?"

Quickly the answer came back, "Oh, it doesn't matter, for time has been lost and we cannot know which day was the seventh day of the week in the time of Christ."

"But why, then," said the young man, "do we keep the first day of the week holy today?'

"Oh, you see, we keep the first day of the week holy because Jesus rose on that day, and we know what day of the week He rose on."

The young man walked away and began keeping the Bible Sabbath commanded by God. It was obvious to him that the pastor was only giving excuses for disobedience.

The learned minister had told him that we cannot keep the Seventh-day Sabbath because we do not know what day of the week is the seventh day on which Christ kept the Sabbath 2,000 years ago. And then he added that we must keep the first day of the week holy today, because we know what day was the first day in the time of Christ!

From Christ's time down to our own, there have been faithful Sabbath-keepers who have kept the Seventh-day Sabbath. And there were also worldly Christians who at an early time adopted the holy day of Mithra, the Sun-god, to worship Christ.

The fact is that not only have Jews and Christians kept the Seventh-day Sabbath for the past two thousand years, but Sunday-keepers have also preserved the knowledge of which day is which, all during that same time.

Two facts are indisputable: 1-We KNOW that Jesus Christ kept the right day of the week as the holy Bible Sabbath, and He is our example in all things. 2-We KNOW that the Seventh day of the week now is the same day that Christ observed while here on earth.

4: HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC RECORDS

The Roman Catholic Church has kept an accurate record of time, as down through the centuries they kept the rest day their leaders invented Sunday.

The majority of Protestants also keep Sunday, not having understood at the time of the Great Reformation that this was but a Catholic institution.

Historians have amassed an immense record of human events going back thousands of years. Those records tell us of people keeping the seventh day holy far back in recorded history.

Astronomers have kept an accurate record of time. And theirs is one of the most accurate that you will find anywhere. They tell us that if all records of time should suddenly be lost, the astronomers could rediscover time from the mathematics of the stars in their motions. God put the stars in the heavens "for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years." Genesis 1:14.

And then we have the calendars themselves. All calendars agree. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the false claim that "time has been lost." And lastly, the standard reference works all tell us the same thing: No time has been lost in the weekly cycle. An example of this conclusive agreement is to be found in all of the major encyclopedias.

5: THE LANGUAGES OF MAN

 A young Yugoslav immigrant had recently entered the United States. One evening he found himself in front of a church. Quietly sitting down he listened attentively, and afterward went up to the minister and in broken English said:

"Sir, please to answer my question. This a question I have already to asked my bishop in Yugoslavia. But he laugh. And I need for you to answer.

"In my country, Saturday is called 'Subota.' In Exodus 20th in Yugoslav Bible, the commandment says, 'The seventh day is Subota.' Then at calendar I look. It says Subota is the last day of week your Saturday.

"Now, Sir, why my bishop tell me attend church on the first day of the week instead of on Subota?"

Fortunately, this young man was speaking to an unusual pastor, one that had earlier discovered this wonderful Biblical truth for himself. In reply, the pastor told him:

"This is an important question, but I will not laugh, I will answer your question with what God says about this. Listen carefully, for it is always dark if you close your eyes. Light is good from the lamp, but God's Word is the brightest lamp in all the world. Let us see what the Bible says."

All through this book you have been reading the kind of things that young man learned that evening.

Few of us realize that not only in the Yugoslav language, but in more than 160 of the languages of mankind, the name for the seventh day of the week (the day we call Saturday) is "Sabbath."

In Polish it is "Sobota," in Arabic it is " As'sabt," in Russian "Subbata," in Spanish "Sabbado," in Persian "Shambin," in Bulgarian "Shubbuta," in Greek "Sabbaton," in Portuguese "Sabbado," in Hindustani "Shamba," in French "Sabbat," in Hebrew "Shabbath," in Italian "Sabbato," in Latin "Sabbatum." And on and on it goes through more than one hundred and sixty of the major languages of the earth.

This is because in ancient times, men knew that the true Sabbath fell on the Seventh day of the week. As an example of this, look in a Spanish dictionary and you will find that the word "Sabbado" comes through the Latin word "Sabbatum" from the ancient Hebrew word for "Sabbath." All over the world men can know what day is the true Sabbath of ancient times. For the day has never changed, just as God has not changed.

Dr. William Mead Jones was a noted London research scholar. He was also something of a linguist. One of his many unusual accomplishments was his "Chart of the Week." From the information given on this chart, it is obvious that the Seventh-day Sabbath was known from the most ancient times.

On this chart are listed the names of the days of the week in 160 ancient and modern languages and in 108 of these 160 languages the Seventh day is called "the Sabbath."

In every case, the Sabbath is the word used in each of those languages for the seventh day of the week. And the root meaning of the word in each language is "the Sabbath," or "rest day." In a paragraph just before this, we quoted from more than ten of these languages, showing how in each instance the Seventh day is "the Sabbath."

All over the Arab world of the Near East, it is the same, also:

"The only time reckoning on which Christians, Moslems, and Jews agree in the Orient is that of the days of the week. These are numbered and called by their numbers, save [except for] Friday and Saturday, which are known [in Arabic] as 'the day of assembling,' and the 'day of the Sabbath.'" Samuel M. Zwemer, D.D., "An Egyptian Government Almanac, " quoted in The United Presbyterian, September 26, 1929. [Dr. Zwemer, long known as an authority on Mohammedanism, was for some years a professor at Princeton University.]

Whether it be called "Sab" in Maba (a central African dialect), or "Subota" in Russian (an eastern European sublanguage)the Sabbath is the day of rest in a large number of the languages of mankind allover the globe.

What an overwhelming array of evidence has been provided for us in these last days that there may be no question that the Seventh-day Sabbath IS the Sabbath, for God never changed it.

6: SCIENTISTS AND HISTORIANS SPEAK

 "Seven has been the ancient and honored number among the nations of the earth. They have measured their time by weeks from the beginning. The origin of this was the Sabbath of God, as Moses has given the reasons for it in his writings."  Dr. Lyman Coleman, Statement.

"One of the most striking collateral confirmations of the Mosaic history of the creation is the general adoption of the division of time into weeks, which extends from the Christian states of Europe to the remote shores of Hindustan, and has equally prevailed among the Hebrews, Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, and northern Barbarians, nations some of whom had little or no communication with others, and were not even known by name to the Hebrews." Horne's Introduction, Volume 1, page 69.

In the official League of Nations "Report on the Reform of the Calendar," published at Geneva, August 17, 1926, are the following representative statements by noted astronomers:

"The week has been followed for thousands of years and therefore has been hallowed by immemorial use." Anders Donner, "The Report, " p. 51. [Donner had been a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Helsingfors.] "I have always hesitated to suggest breaking the continuity of the week, which without a doubt is the most ancient scientific institution bequeathed to us by antiquity." Edouard Baillaud, "The Report, p. 52. [Baillaud was Director of the Paris Observatory.]

Here are a number of other statements by eminent scientists and historians:

"The week is a period of seven days. .It has been employed from time immemorial in almost all Eastern countries." The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, Volume 4, p. 988, article, "Calendar. "

"As to Question (1) I can only state that in connection with the proposed simplification of the calendar, we have had occasion to investigate the results of the works of specialists in chronology and we have never found one of them that has ever had the slightest doubt about the continuity of the weekly cycle since long before the Christian era.

"As to Question (2) There has been no change in our calendar in past centuries that has affected in any way the cycle of the week.  James Robertson: personal letter, dated  March 12,1932. [Dr. Robertson was Director of the American Ephemeris, Navy Department, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.]

 "As far as I know, in the various changes of the Calendar there has been no change in the seven day rotation of the week, which has come down from very early times." F. W. Dyson, Personal letter, dated March 4, 1932. [Dr. Dyson was Astronomer Royal, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London.]

"Some of these (the Jews and also many Christians) accept the week as of divine institution, with which it is unlawful to tamper; others, without these scruples, still feel that it is useful to maintain a time-unit that, unlike all others, has proceeded In an absolutely Invariable manner since what may be called the dawn of history ."  "Our Astronomical Column, " Nature, London, number 127, June 6, 1931, p. 869.

"The week of seven days has been in use ever since the days of the Mosaic dispensation, and we have no reason for suppose that any irregularities have existed in the succession of weeks and their days from that time to the present." Dr. W.W. Campbell, Statement. [Dr. Campbell was Director of Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, California.]

"For more than 3,000 years science has gone backward, and with profound research, reveals the fact that in that vast period the length of the day has not changed by the hundredth part of a single second of time." General O.M. Mitchell, Astronomy of the Bible, p. 235.

"By calculating the eclipses, it can be proven that no time has been lost and that the creation days were seven, divided into twenty-four hours each." Dr. Hinckley, The Watchman, July, 1926. [Dr. Hinckley was a well-known astronomer of half a century ago.]

In spite of all of our dickerings with the calendar, it is patent that the human race never lost the septenary [seven-day] sequence of week days and that the Sabbath of these latter times comes down to us from Adam, through the ages, without a single lapse." Dr. Totten, Statement. lDr. Totten of New Haven, Connecticut, was Professor of Astronomy at Yale University when this statement was made.]

"The continuity of the week has crossed the centuries and all known calendars, still intact," Professor D. Eginitis, Statement. [Dr. Eginitis was Director of the Observatory of Athens, Greece.]

"It is a strange fact that even today there is a great deal of confusion concerning the question of so called 'lost time.' Alterations that have been made to the calendar in the past have left the impression that time has actually been lost. In point of fact, of course, these adjustments were made to bring the calendar into closer agreement with the natural [solar] year. Now, unfortunately, this supposed 'lost time' is still being used to throw doubt upon the unbroken cycle of the Seventh-day Sabbath that God inaugurated at the Creation. I am glad I can add the witness of my scientific training to the irrevocable nature of the weekly cycle.

"Having been time computer at Greenwich [England observatory] for many years, I can testify that all our days are in God's absolute control-relentlessly measured by the daily rotation of the earth on its axis. This daily period of rotation does not vary one-thousandth part of a second in thousands of years. Also..the year is a very definite number of days. Consequently, it can be said that not a day has been lost since Creation, and all the calendar changes notwithstanding, there has been no break in the weekly cycle." Frank Jeftries, Statement. {Dr. Jeftries was Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Research Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England.]

We will conclude this chapter with an interesting historical analysis published by the Presbyterian Church:

"The division of time into weeks. .[is a] singular measure of time by periods of seven days [that] may be traced not only through the sacred history before the era of Moses, but in all ancient civilizations of every era, many of which could not possibly have derived their notion from Moses. . Among the learned of Egypt, the Brahmans of India, by Arabs, by Assyrians, as may be gathered from their astronomers and priests, this division was recognized. Hesiod (900 B.C.) declares the seventh day is holy. And so also Homer and Callimachus. Even in the Saxon mythology, the division by weeks is prominent. Nay, even among the tribes of primitive worshipers in Africa, we are told that a peculiar feature of their religion is a weekly sacred day, the violation of which by labor will incur the wrath of their god. Traces of a similar division of time have been noticed among the Indians of the American continent.

"Now, on what other theory are these facts explicable than upon the supposition of a divinely ordained Sabbath at the origin of the race?" "The Christian Sabbath, " tract number 271, released by the Presbyterian Board of Publication.  

 BEYOND PITCAIRN

APPENDIX B

IT IS WRITTEN:

 Facts, facts, and more facts. The Bible is full of facts about the true Sabbath, and here they are:

1. Here are 60 FACTS about Sunday and the Bible Sabbath.

2. Here are 157 BIBLE PASSAGES, every important verse in the Bible.

Here is the information you have always wanted. Here are the Scriptural facts about the Bible Sabbath and Sunday.

1: The first rest in the Bible was on the Seventh day of the week, the Bible Sabbath (Gen. 2 :1-3). The first work done in the Bible was done by our Creator on the first day of the week (Gen. 1:3.5).

2: The first birthday in the Bible was that of the world, and in commemoration of it, God gave us the Sabbath (Gen. 2:1.3). In order to change this to some other day, it would be necessary to recreate the world. / Nowhere in Scripture did God ever tell us that the first day was in honor of anything.

3: The Seventh-day Sabbath is the only rest day God ever gave to man. / The Bible never tells us that the first day is to be regarded as a rest day or that it was ever set apart for this purpose.

4: The Creator blessed the Seventh day (Gen. 2:3). / There is not one occurrence where He ever pronounced a blessing on the first day of the week.

5: The Seventh-day Sabbath was made for 'man' that is, for mankind (Mark 2 :27). It was not made for one race, the Hebrews. / Sunday, the first day, was never set aside in Scripture as a special day for any race, nor for mankind as a whole.

6: The Bible Sabbath was given to Adam, as the head of the human race. Through him it was to be passed on to all nations that dwell on the face of the earth. The Sabbath is not "Jewish" it is of universal obligation in our world. / Sunday, the first day was never given by our Creator to Adam our fore-father, to be kept sacred nor to anyone else later on.

7: The Seventh-day Sabbath was given as a sacred legacy to mankind 2,300 years before the first Jew existed. It is not a Jewish institution. / The first day of the week was never given as a sacred legacy to the world, at any time in history.

8: The Bible never calls the Scriptural Sabbath "Jewish," but always "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Those who ridicule the Sabbath had better be careful how they treat the holy things of God. / The Bible always calls the first day of the week just that, the "first day" and nothing else.

9: After God blessed the Bible Sabbath, He sanctified it and set it apart for a holy use (Gen. 2:1-3) .The Seventh-day Sabbath is dedicated time that God gave to mankind to worship Him upon. / Nowhere in Scripture did our Creator ever tell us that He had sanctified or dedicated the first day of the week to any purpose other than common work.

10: God specifically commanded us to keep the Seventh day holy unto Him in the Fourth of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:8-11). / God specifically commanded us to work upon the first day of the week ( Ex. 20 :8-11 ). Is it wrong to obey God?

11: At the express command of God (Ex. 20:10) , His followers have kept the Seventh-day Sabbath for thousands of years, until men as predicted in Scripture tried to erase it from their minds. / And at the express command of God (Ex. 20:9), His followers have worked on the first day of the week for thousands of years-until men attempted to change it in their thinking by enforcing by law the sacred observance of the first day, and labor on the Seventh.

12: God Himself calls the Seventh-day "holy" (Ex. 20:8). / God Himself calls the first day a "working" day (Eze. 46:1). When God says something, should we obey Him, or should we obey the opinions that men received centuries ago from paganism?

13: Evident reference is made to the Sabbath and to the seven-day week all through the patriarchial age (Gen. 2:1-3; 8:10,12 ,29:27-28, etc.). / None of the patriarchs ever kept the first day of the week, nor did they even mention it.

14: The Bible Sabbath, the Seventh-day Sabbath, was part of God's Law before it was written down at Mount Sinai (Ex. 16:4, 27-29). / The first day of the week, Sunday, has never been part of God's Law, at any time in history.

15: When God gave manna to His people-and for forty years thereafter, several miracles occurred each week in order point out the holiness of His Seventh-day Sabbath: (1) A regular portion of manna was given Sunday through Thursday. (2) Twice as much was given on Friday. (3) No manna was given on Sabbath. (Read Exodus 16). / God worked no miracle at that time to prove Sunday holiness, nor at any other time in Scripture.

16: When God wrote His Moral Ten Commandment Law for mankind, He placed the Sabbath Commandment in the center of it (Ex. 20:3-17). / When God wrote down this Law to guide the conduct of all men, He did not place first-day sacredness in the center of the Law, nor on the edge of the Law, nor anywhere else.

17: Obedience to the Seventh-day Sabbath is one of the unchangeable Ten Commandments. Obedience to a first-day rest is not in any of the commandments. The Seventh-day Sabbath Commandment is equal to each of the other nine. Why would God place it there if it were not of equal importance with all the rest? To say that it is of lesser importance is but the talk of men. In the great Day of Judgment I would rather stand on the words of God than on the words of men.

18: Seventh-day sacredness is the Fourth Commandment / First-day or first-day sanctity has never gone forth from His lips.

20: The requirement that we must keep the Seventh day Sabbath was written on rock with His own finger (Ex. 31:18). It must be very important if God wrote it with His own finger. How many things in the Bible did God write with His finger? And He wrote it on rock (Deut. 5:22). No other natural, unprocessed substance that could be written upon is as enduring as rock. How dare men stand in the pulpit and say it has been done away with, when God Himself never said so? I God never wrote first-day sacredness on rock, nor did His prophets ever write it on paper.

21: The Ark was beneath the Shekinah Presence of God, within the Most Holy Place of the Sanctuary (Ex. 40, etc.). And within that Ark were the Ten Commandments, which included the Sabbath Commandment (Deut. 10:1-5). The Sanctuary was located in the center of the dwellings of the people of God, and in its heart was the Most Holy Place. In the center of this room was the Ark of the Covenant, and within it, in the heart of the Moral Law, was the Sabbath Commandment. / First-day sacredness was not to be found in the Ark of the Covenant, nor even in the tents of God's people. None were to be found keeping Sunday holy.

22: The Ark is called "the Ark of the Covenant" because it was a chest that contained and safeguarded the Covenant- the Ten Commandments. God called this moral Law His "Covenant" with His people (Deut. 5:2-21). A covenant is an agreement. God agrees to save us if we will let Him give us enabling grace to keep His Law. Both sides agree to do something -that is what a covenant is. I God never made any covenant with us in regard to the first day of the week.

23: The "old covenant" experience is the attempt of God's people to keep His requirements in their own strength. In the old covenant, the fault was with the people (Heb. 8:8). The "New Covenant" is based on better promises than this. It is based on God's promise to enable us to do as He asks (Heb. 8). His enduring Law, written with His own finger on rock, He offers to write upon our hearts, by the enabling power of His Spirit (Heb. 8:10). If we are willing to submit to His rules, we shall in His strength be empowered to obey everything He asks of us. We shall no longer break His law, but keep it. It will be heart-work (Jer. 31:31-34). / God has never promised to write Sunday-keeping upon our hearts, and He has never agreed to help us sacredly observe it.

24: After God finished giving the Ten Commandments to the people, "He added no more" (Deut. 5:22). We are only to keep one day holy unto God, and it must be the day that He selected for us. It cannot be some other day. / God never added the first day as a second holy day, and He never made it the original one.

25: God forbade work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times (Ex.34:21). / But He has never forbidden work on the first day, even when we have the least to do.

26: The Bible Sabbath, the Seventh-day Sabbath, is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know Him from all false gods (Eze. 20:20). It is the Creator who made the world. And only our Creator is to be our God. We are to have no other gods. We are to worship no other gods. And we are to worship Him only in the way He tells us to. Are you and I greater than our God, that we can set aside His worship rules and make our own? To do this is to worship our own ideas. The Seventh day was given us at the Creation of the world that we might ever know which was the true God. / Because our Creator did not give us Sunday as the day to worship Him, those who observe it, while knowing that it is unscriptural, are not doing as He asked. The first day is the sign of allegiance to ancient pagan Sun-worship. Many Catholic and Protestant church leaders tell us so, and history proves it. It takes a daring man to knowingly reject the laws of God for the commandments of men (Matt.15:9, Mark 7:7).

27: The Seventh-day Sabbath is a memorial of Creation (Ex. 20:11; 31:17). Every time we rest upon the Seventh day, we commemorate that amazing event, and honor Him by whose hand we were made -our Creator. I Sunday, the first day of the week, was never given us as a memorial of anything. Christians will say they keep it "in honor" of the resurrection of Christ, when the truth is that Christ never told them to do so, and they only do it simply because everyone else does. It is a known fact that the crucifixion is more important in the salvation of man than is the resurrection, and yet if you discovered that I were regularly keeping Friday holy, you would consider me odd, for you would recognize I am just following my own ideas. God SPOKE the Seventh day into your and my Sabbath. Let's follow what He said rather than what men speculate. God has, indeed, given us in Scripture a Biblical Memorial of Christ's death and resurrection, it is the Lord's Supper, distinctly commanded three times by Jesus in John 13:3-17. Baptism is the second Memorial of His death and resurrection given us, as well as a reminder of our covenant to obey Him by faith in Christ's enabling grace (Read Romans 6:1-13). / But we were never told in the Bible that we were to honor Sunday as a memorial of anything.

28: God promised that Jerusalem would stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath (Jer.17:24-25). He sent them into captivity to ancient Babylon for breaking it (Neh.13:18; Jer. 52). And for the same reason, He destroyed Jerusalem (Jer.17:27). Those who, in our day, knowingly reject His Sabbath for a man-made one, are actually submitting to the authority of a power predicted in Scripture (Dan. 7:25) that would seek to change it. They obey man instead of God.

29: God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep the Bible Sabbath (Isaiah 56:6-7). / He has never pronounced any blessing on anyone who decides to keep the first day of the week as a holy day.

30: God not only blesses the Sabbath day, -He blesses those who will faithfully observe it (Isaiah 56:2) . / God has promised the opposite of a blessing on those who choose the sayings of men in place of the commandments of God (Jer. 17:5 and the entire chapter, Matt. 15:9, etc.).

31: God requires that we keep His Sabbath and that we call it honorable (Isa. 58:12-13). Let those beware who would dare to ridicule that holy day. It is not "the old Jewish Sabbath," and it is not a "yoke of bondage." / On the other hand, there is no commandment to give honor to Sunday in any way.

32: Isaiah prophesied that after the holy Sabbath had been trodden down for "many generations," it would be restored again (Isaiah 58:12-13). Daniel prophesied that men would seek to change it (Dan. 7:8, 21-22,25). This is a very important prophecy and links closely with the parallel prophecies of Paul and John. The Little Horn power of Daniel 7:25; 1 John 2:22; 4:3, and 2 John 7; .and Mystery,. Babylon the Great of Revelation 13 through 17 is an important Biblical study. Men and women today must return to the plain words of Scripture and refuse to bow to this pagan error of Sunday sacredness. We must return to the keeping of the Ten Commandments just as God gave them (Ex. 20:1-17). Jesus died on Calvary to enable us by grace to obey the Bible.

33: Down to the end of the Old Testament, prophets and men of God faithfully kept the holy Sabbath of God. I But never in one instance, did they observe the first day as sacred.

34: When the Son of God came; He faithfully kept the Seventh-day Sabbath all His life (Luke 4:16; John 15:10), as an example to us, for Scripture says that His earthly life is an Example for us that we are to copy (1 Pet. 2:21; 1 Jn. 2:6). Jesus Christ has not changed (Heb.13:8), neither has His Father (Mal. 3:6), and neither has His Law (Ps.111:7-8, Matt. 5:17; Rom. 3:31, etc.). God made the world in six days and then rested on the Seventh-day Sabbath. Jesus faithfully kept that Sabbath while on earth. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son? I Neither of them ever gave us even one instance in which they kept the first day as a rest day.

35: As with every other week that preceded it, Jesus worked through the final work-week of His life before His Crucifixion. After His death on Friday, "the preparation day" (the day God's people prepared for the Sabbath-Luke 23:54, Matt. 28: 1-2), Jesus rested in the tomb during the hours of the Sabbath, and on the first day of the week He began another work-week again-by rising from the tomb (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1) and traveling all the way to heaven and back again on that day. Repeatedly, Jesus had said, "Mine hour is not come." Every act of His life was guided by the Father. We can clearly see this in His Last Week -working up to Friday afternoon, resting on the Sabbath, and then resuming His work again on Sunday. / But no such example or pattern of Sunday-sacredness was ever given us by our Lord.

36: The Seventh day is the Lord's Day, according to the Bible. We are told about the "Lord's day" in Revelation 1:10, but we are not there told what day it is. Instead, very frequently throughout Scripture, the Seventh-day Sabbath is called the day of the Lord (Ex. 20:10; Lev. 23:3; Deut. 5:4; etc.), the day unto the Lord (Ex. 16:23,25; 31 :15; 35:2; etc.) and His own day (Isa. 58:13). And while on earth, Jesus told us the day He was Lord of the Bible Sabbath (Mk. 2:28). / Nowhere in Scripture is the first day ever called the "Lord's day" or any similar designation. At no time in the sacred Word did God by word of mouth ever honor the first day of the week. Be honest with yourself: Do you feel safer going by what God says to do or by what the people around you tell you to do?

37: Jesus called Himself the "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt.12 :8) because it was His work to love and protect it, as the husband is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her (1 Pet. 3:6). Should you not love and cherish it also? / But never did He call Himself the lord of the first day.

38: Repeatedly, Jesus vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man's good (Mk.2:23-28). / But He never had anything to say about the first day of the week.

39: Far from abolishing the Sabbath, Jesus carefully taught men how to observe it (Matt.12:1-13). / But we were never taught in Scripture how we might keep Sunday holy.

40: Just before His death, He instructed His disciples that the Sabbath should be carefully observed after His death at the time of the predicted destruction of Jerusalem, thirty-nine years later, and also at the end of the world (Matt. 24 :2-3 and 20). / But He was totally silent in regard to any sanctity of Sunday after His death.

41: Christ's followers carefully kept the Sabbath because of the Bible commandment after He died (Luke 23: 53-56). They loved Him and this was the day He had always taught them to keep. / But we are never once told that they kept the first day as sacred-because of a Bible commandment or for any other reason.

42: Thirty years after Christ's resurrection, the Holy Spirit specifically calls it "the Sabbath day" (Acts 13:14). / But at no time did men under the moving of the Spirit of God tell us that Sunday was to be regarded as anything other than a common day.

43: Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and he called it the "Sabbath day" in A.D. 45 (Acts 13:27). Is Paul to be regarded as less intelligent than our modern theologians who tell us that the Sabbath ceased at the Resurrection of Christ?  I Paul never recommended Sunday to the Gentile believers.

44: The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath (Acts 13:42). / But we have no record in Scripture that they ever observed the first day as sacred unto God.

45: ln the great Christian council of c. 49 A.D., in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the "Sabbath day" (Acts 15:21). / At this important council, Sunday should have been mentioned if it had been decided upon as the new day for worship. But this did not happen.

46: lt was customary to hold prayer meetings on the Sabbath (Acts 16:13). 1 But neither God nor His prophets ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy day.

47: Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on the Sabbath (Acts 17:2-3). / But if you will read those same scriptures you will find only nine times in all the Bible that the first day is even mentioned (Gen. 1:5; Matt. 28:1; Mk. 16:2,9; Lk. 24:1; Jn. 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2).

48: It was Paul's custom to preach upon the Sabbath day (Acts 17:2-3). Acts mentions stop-over meetings, that Paul held on several different days of the week as He was traveling through an area. But within the book of Acts alone is given the record of his having held eighty-four meetings upon the Sabbath (Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4,11 ). / In all the Bible we have a record of only one religious meeting held on Sunday, and that was a night meeting (Acts 20 :5-12). There is no intimation that another such Sunday meeting was ever held before or after it. Nothing was said about Sunday sacredness at that meeting. A meeting does not make a day sacred-Paul held a lengthy gathering a few days later (Acts 20:17-38). And "breaking bread" does not make a day sacred. This was their term for a meal. Jesus did it on Thursday night (Lk. 22) and His disciples later did it every day of the week (Acts 2 :42-46).., [The gathering of the disciples in the upper room on the Sunday of Christ's resurrection was not for a religious meeting, but "for fear of the Jews" (Jn. 20:19). They were not gathered in honor of the resurrection of Christ, for they did not yet believe in it (Mk 16:11 and 12-13).]

49: There never was any dispute or question between the Christians and the Jews, who opposed them, over the Sabbath day. This IS additional proof that the Christians still observed the same day that the Jews did. / And in Scripture, there never was any argument between them over Sunday-sacredness, for neither of them believed in it. At the time of Christ, in the First Century of our era, only the pagans were keeping Sunday sacred. They had been doing this for at least a hundred years. In later centuries, Christians were to adopt this pagan custom and begin keeping the first day as though it were holy.

50: ln all their accusations against him, the Jews never charged Paul with disregarding the Sabbath. Why did they not, if he did not keep it? / On the other hand, Paul taught the Christians that they should do their secular business at home on the first day (1 Cor. 16 :2). Why would he do this if it were to be sacredly observed? This is the only time in all his writings that Paul ever mentions the first day of the week.

51: It was Paul himself, who 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? / But never once did he tell us that he kept Sunday holy.

52: The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine times, -and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament: "the Sabbath day." / Sunday is mentioned in the New Testament only eight times, and not in one instance does it bear the title of sanctity, or is it spoken as a sacred day.

53: God has never given any man permission to work upon the Bible Sabbath. Reader, by what authority do you use the Seventh day for common labor? I God has never given any man permission to regard Sunday, the first day, as anything other than a common day.

54: In not one instance did New Testament Christians- either before or after the resurrection, ever do ordinary work on the Seventh day. Why should modem Christians do differently than Bible Christians? This is a very Important Question. The apostles never rested on the first day and they never said it was sacred. .

55: There is no record that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the Seventh day. I There IS no record that He spoke it about Sunday.

56: The Seventh-day Sabbath was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai {Ex. 20, etc.) When Jesus began His work, He expressly declared that He had not come to destroy the law. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets" (Matt. 5:17). / Never at any time did He speak about establishing the sanctity of the first day of the week.

57: Jesus, the One who redeemed us is the One who created us (Isa. 43:1; Jn.1:1-3, 14; Col. 1:16-18; Eph. 2:10; Heb. 1:2) .He is the One who gave us the Sabbath In the beginning (Gen. 2:1-3). I He was the first One to use the first day as a common working day (Gen. 1:3-5).

58: Jesus existed before Abraham (Jn. 8:58), even from old and from everlasting (Micah 5:2). He who was with the children of Israel all through their wilderness experience (1 Cor. 10:1-12) was the One who as our Creator. spoke the Law on Mount Sinai (Ex. 20), and who wrote it and the Sabbath on rock, that we might ever observe it (Ex. 31:18 and Deut 5:22). On earth, Jesus severely condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God, while at the same time they made void--set aside--one of the Ten Commandments by their traditions (Matt 23, etc.). / It was Jesus who commanded that we work on the first day of the week. (Ex. 20:8) and It is Jesus Who would today tell men that they should keep His Commandments instead of setting them aside by their traditions (the sayings of men).

59: Not one word is said anywhere in the Old or New Testament about the Sabbath being abolished, done away, of changed. / And there is not a text anywhere in Scripture that tells us that the sacredness God gave to the Seventh day of the week has been transferred to Sunday, the first day of the week. I have repeatedly in print and over the radio offered large sums of money to the one who would discover and present to me such a text, but to this day no such text has ever been sent to me. The reason for this is simple: There is no such text. It does not exist. The first day was made into a counterfeit sabbath many centuries ago, by men who at that time wanted to control men's religious worship. And men today are ignorantly keeping that day in honor of these ancient pagan practices.

60: Not only was the great apostasy and the effort to change the Law of God, and the Bible Sabbath, predicted in Scripture (Dan. 7:25), and its eventual restoration in the last days, as well (Isa. 58:12-14),-but the comforting promise has been given us that it will be kept in the New Earth through all eternity by the people of God (Isa. 66: 22-23), We hardly need mention that no such promise concerning Sunday was ever made. Thank God for the clear teachings of His Word and for the precious Bible Sabbath, the Seventh-day Sabbath, the only Sabbath God ever gave to mankind.