The debate over which day of the week should be treated as the Sabbath Day rages on.
Various arguments have been advanced to support the varying inclinations in thinking. In some of my previous articles, I also joined the fray by expressing my own opinions on the matter.
What has now prompted me to revisit this topic is my coming across some articles written by individuals aligned to a particular Christian denomination that advocates for Saturday worship and their declarations thereof.
This particular group of Christian worshippers has gone to the extent of linking the mark of the beast and the number 666 mentioned in the last book of our Bible, Revelation, with Sunday worshippers.
May I say that I find their arguments to link the mark of that beast to the Sunday worshippers very unconvincing.
They categorically state that the correct Sabbath is Saturday and sensationally claim that very soon the governments of the world will force everyone to observe Sunday as the Sabbath.
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They proceed in their opinions to imply that people who obey the Sunday law will get the mark of the beast and will go through the seven last plagues. In addition, they will forfeit eternal life.
Conversely their claim that the people who will not obey the Sunday law and observe Saturday as the Sabbath will get the seal of God and they will also get eternal life.
That they will automatically be taken to heaven when Jesus comes again.
Rightly so, they quote verses of the fourth commandment which tell us to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy.
Although this is not written anywhere in the scriptures, they shout, “Saturday is the Sabbath”.
Our scriptures again don’t mention the Sabbath name of the day of the week. They also proclaim, “We should not work on Saturday.”
They write to the world, “We should observe the Sabbath from Friday sunset until Saturday sunset.” Yet again this wording is nowhere in our Bible.
My personal opinion on the Sabbath day is purely based on the very actual contents and wordings of the Bible. The Sabbath was proclaimed by the Lord our God after His six days of the works of creations of the Heavens and the Earth and what is thereon. He clearly named the days by their numbers and our scriptures are very clear on that.
In God’s example, the Sabbath is arrived at after working six days nonstop. The seventh day after the six working days is the Sabbath, the day of rest.
The naming of the days of the weeks, months and the years are all acts of human creations meant to suit a particular calendar of choice. Different parts of our world use different calendars with different names, days, months and years. God’s way of namings these by the numbers unites everything to a common denominator.
For the sake of those not privy to the actual wordings of the pinpointing of the Sabbath day, our Bible reads (Exodus 20:8-11): “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, 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 the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it”.
It is clearly the numbering of working days that gets us to arrive at the Sabbath, thus giving the world a uniform measurement devoid of human allocated names.
A very common added misconception is that many of our religious folks mistakenly think that the Sabbath should be the day of worship to the Lord our God.
The actual words contained in this fourth commandment have no word ‘worship’ anywhere within them. The element of worship is of a totally different dimension, added by us in our religious circles. While we are free to include worship to the Lord on the Sabbath, it should not be treated as the compulsory day for worship.
In fact, worship to the Lord should be a daily factor in our lives, not a one-day event of the week.
Resting and worship are entirely two different aspects which can, however, be combined together at will.
To then make a link between Sunday worshippers with the beast numbered 666 is a gross misrepresentation of our scriptures and a dishonor to the daily worshippers of God who also include Sunday as a day of worship.
The proponents of this misplaced belief quote the book of Daniel 7:25 which says that a power will come and change times and laws.
They then say that this prophecy was fulfilled in 321AD when Emperor Constantine in Rome changed the day of worship to Sunday.
While I also subscribe to the notion that Emperor Constantine incorporated a lot of pagan things into our Christianity, the day of worship should not be equated to the Sabbath, and that there is no link to it with the 666 Beast.
They put fear in people’s hearts by claiming that a “Sunday Law” will be passed by the governments of the world forcing people to observe Sunday as the Sabbath.
They say this Law will state that if people do not worship on Sunday, they will be killed. They also claim those who refuse to abide by that Sunday Law will not be able to buy and sell, quoting Revelation 13:15-17.
- Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly — God’s messengers. Contact details: Mobile and whatsapp: 0771 260 195. Email address: ptingini@gmail.com