Is the True Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday?

The answer to this important question lies in "which group of people are you asking"? If you were asking a Jew back in Samuel or David's time, or in the era of Jesus, the correct answer is Saturday. If you ask Christians today some insist that Saturday is the Sabbath. Others insist that Sunday is the true "Lord's Day". As with all doctrines that men are ignorant of, the end result is division and confusion because such men have missed God's point entirely.

The weekly Sabbath, even in the Old Testament, was not a day of worship. Worship days, such as the feasts and holy days were made Sabbath by God, but primarily, the Sabbath was to be a time of rest, which is the basic meaning of the Hebrew word. The Sabbath means "rest". Jesus promised a deep, spiritual rest to all who would come to him for it, when he said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I WILL GIVE YOU REST" (Mt.11:28). Using the tongue of the prophet Isaiah, God foretold of this spiritual rest with these remarkable words (28:11-12): For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, THIS IS THE REST, wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear (28:11-12). Approximately 120 men and women were blessed with this heavenly rest when it was first poured out (Acts 2:1-4).

Referring to Isaiah's prophecy of this rest from sin, Paul wrote, "Brethren, be not children in understanding. Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be ye men. In the law it is written, `With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.' Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not..." (1Cor.14:20-22). Yes, speaking in tongues is a sign to those who are seeking to know God. It is a sign to those who are living in sin and tired of it. Tongues are a sign from God, a sign of where to find peace, joy, and forgiveness of sins. My friend, if you want to find God's rest, follow the sign which He gave: tongues.

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt.11:28. These are the words of Jesus, who was telling his followers that a time was coming when the Sabbath "type" would be fulfilled in what he would do for them. So the sincere reader must ask, "what does Jesus do for me that gives me rest"? The answer is obvious: Jesus now "baptizes with the holy Ghost and with fire". "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost" (Rom.14:17). The only real and lasting "peace" (or rest) is when Jesus gives his children the holy Ghost. If you do not have the holy Ghost, you will be doomed to quarreling about which day the Sabbath is on, because you have not received what the Sabbath pointed to! Even God's own children who do have the Spirit, are persuaded to debate such meaningless doctrines. Come out of her my people! Leave the debating over every carnal issue to carnal men - this is not the lot of the baptized saint of God.

In Hebrews the symbols and ceremonies of the Law were called "types" and "figures for the time then present". Paul called the ceremonial holy days and Sabbath of the Law "a shadow of things to come" (Col.2:16-17). And what wonderful things have come! the body of believers. We are blessed beyond expression to be in this covenant with God through Christ Jesus. It is, as Peter said, "joy unspeakable and full of glory." Yet this present life in the Spirit, so rich and so free, is itself another foretaste of the things which "God has prepared for those that love him." This wonderful life in the Spirit, so great as to be prophesied about, is itself just a foretaste of the glory and joy which await those who are faithful to Christ Jesus. The Spirit continuously directs our footsteps toward the great Day of Rest, the thousand-year reign of Christ on this earth, when the redeemed of all the ages will be resurrected with bright, immortal bodies that shine as the stars, and are given authority over the nations to "reign with Christ a thousand years" (Rev.20:4). One can only imagine the joy that will fill the hearts of the children of God as they work not only for Christ but with him on this earth! This thousand-year reign of Christ is that terrifying and glorious "Day of the Lord" spoken of by the prophets.

As the man of God wrote, "Eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man what God hath prepared for those that love him." Who could possibly imagine being raised from the dead and being given a glorified body, "like unto his glorious body", so that we may escape the frighteningly complete devastation of this universe which Peter describes here: "But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy [conduct] and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" .

This eternity of restful joy on a new, undefiled earth is the True Sabbath, to which all other sabbaths point us. The Old Covenant Sabbath of days and years. The gift of the Holy Spirit. The thousand-year reign with Christ. All of them are ever-greater foretastes of life in a new universe which God has created for His people, and He will freely give this life to every soul who loves Him now, in this present, evil world.

In Daniel chapter seven, he prophesied of a "fourth kingdom" which shall devour the whole earth. A horn (or king) arises out of other kingdoms and subdues them. One of the marks of this king is that "And he shall speak great words against the most high, and shall wear out the saints of the most high, and think to change times and law . . . but the judgment shall sit. And they shall take away his dominion, and consume and to destroy it unto the end." (Dan.7:25-26). God told Moses, the Sabbath day was Saturday. But then a kingdom came along which "changed the times [Sabbath days] and the law"; and the Sabbath was made Sunday. This kingdom is Christianity, and it changed a law that God never changed. God never told men that the Sabbath was Sunday. In fact, the discerning reader will note that God did away with it entirely: "let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days" (Col.2:16). This is why God is calling his children in whom his spirit dwells OUT of Christianity. It is a kingdom that "wears out" the saints, and though it has it's eyes set on world dominion - it's dominion "will end". God will destroy it. Come out, unto Jesus where you will find "rest" - that is the only Sabbath there is now, for the true children of God!

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