Who Changed THE Sabbath?

Where's THE Evidence?

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The Seventh Day with Hal Holbrook

The Seventh Day

Part one is broken into 10 sections. 1. Origins - Views of human beginnings from Babylonian and Aztec myths as well as from the Bible and the Koran. 2. The Evolution Explanation - Darwin's theory of evolution challenges traditional view of origins. 3. Beyond Chance - A case against blind chance as a logical explanation of human origins. 4. Intelligent Designer - The Bible's portrayal of Creation and the Creator. 5. The Architecture of Time - The week and the Sabbath in the structure of human life. 6. Point of Contact - The weekly Sabbath in man's relationship with God. 7. A Day for All Mankind - The universal and perpetual purpose for the weekly day of rest. 8. Unholy Sabbath - National disaster strikes the "chosen people" due, in part, to their neglect of the Sabbath. 9. Sabbath Around the World - Somehow the concept of Sabbath extended into the culture and language of many peoples. 10. Reform - Revival of Sabbath observance among the Jews who returned from exile results in heroism and tragedy.

The Seventh Day

Part two is broken into 10 sections. 1. Religion in Rome - A summary view of Roman religions during the time of Jesus. 2. The Jewish Sabbath - Strict Sabbathkeeping marked the Jews as unique. 3. The Sabbath Reformer - The Bible protrays Jesus as a revolutionary Sabbathkeeper. 4. Prophecy - Jesus predicted that His followers would be still be keeping the Sabbath at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. 5. Christians and Jews - The two groups shared a view of a personal God and of the weekly Sabbath, but Christians found new meaning in the holy day. 6. The Christian Sabbath - Clear evidence for Christian observance of the seventh-day Sabbath in the first century AD. 7. Sundaykeepers - Second-century Christians in Alexandria and Rome begin observing the first day of the week instead of the Sabbath. 8. The Day of the Sun - Roman sun worship and its link to Christian Sunday observance. 9. Sunday Law - Emperor Constantine legalizes Sunday as the weekly day of rest in the Roman Empire. 10. The Sabbath Survives - Proof of seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath observance into the middle of the fourth century.

The Seventh Day

Part three is broken into 11 sections. 1. Celtic Christianity - The religious background to the story of St. Patrick. 2. The Real Patrick - Once a slave in Ireland, Patrick responds to a divine call and returns to the Emerald Isle as a missionary. 3. Celtic Sabbath - Saturday observed as the Sabbath by Celtic Christians. 4. Margaret of Scotland - Margaret comes from England, marries King Malcolm, and attempts to reform Sunday observance in Scotland. 5. Assault on the Sabbath - The Church of Rome promotes the Sabbath (Saturday) fast as an expression of anti-Jewish sentiments. 6. Power Struggle - The "Sabbath fast" becomes a key issue in the rivalry between church leaders in Rome and Constantinople. 7. Deceptions - The "letter from heaven" threatens Sunday-breakers. 8. Fight for Truth - Resistance to church/state authority brings tragedy. 9. John Wycliffe: Champion of Conscience - An Oxford professor focuses new attention on the Bible as the supreme authority for Christian faith and practice. 10. The Lollards - Wycliffe's followers take his views throughout England and beyond. 11. The Church vs. the Bible - The church-state establishment opposes the spread of the Bible and the ideas of Wycliffe and the Lollards.

The Seventh Day

Part four is broken into 8 sections. 1. Russian Reformation - This Sabbathkeeping movement reached the highest levels of Russian society and led to fiery executions in Moscow's Red Square. 2. Sabbath vs. Sunday in Ethiopia - Jesuit missionaries succeeded in converting the Emperor to Roman Catholicism, but attempts to quash Sabbath observance resulted in civil war. 3. Inquisition - Civil and religious authorities united to root out "heresy." 4. Purging the Church in Spain - Ferdinand and Isabella, the "Catholic Monarchs," used the Spanish Inquisition to rid their church of Jewish heresies. 5. Portugal Exports the Inquisition - Inquisitors carried their campaign of religious persecution into the new territories of Portugal's expanding empire. 6. Authority: Sola Scriptura? - Protestant Reformers insisted on the authority of the sacred Scriptures, while Catholic leaders defended their church's stand on Tradition. 7. Anabaptists - Persecuted by Protestants and Catholics alike, these radical reformers stood for strict adherence to biblical teachings. Among them were new champions of the Sabbath. 8. The Seventh-day Men - While many Puritan preachers insisted on strict observance of Sunday, other prominent Englishmen called for a return to the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments.

The Seventh Day

Part five is broken into 14 sections.

Roger Williams and Religious Liberty - This nonconformist preacher established the Rhode Island colony on the foundation of freedom of conscience for everybody.
To the New World - A Sabbathkeeping Baptist couple emigrate from England to Rhode Island and help establish the first Seventh Day Baptist congregation in America.
A Song in the Wilderness - Conrad Beisel and his followers establish a Sabbathkeeping community on Pennsylvania's Cocalico Creek — the Ephrata Coister.
A Voice from Germany - Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf directs the Moravian mission to the North American Indians and inspires his community to keep the seventh-day Sabbath.
Advent Movement - A Seventh Day Baptist lady shares her Sabbath beliefs with her pastor, and this leads to the establishment of the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Kingdom of Heavenly Peace - 19th-century China is shaken by the Taiping Revolution, a huge peasant revolt that is shaped, in part, by bibical principles including observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.
Eskimo Prophet - In Alaska's Kobuk River valley a man named Maniilaq learns about "seventh-day resting" from one he calls "the Grandfather."
The Shining One - Deep in the South American rain forest Chief Owkwa learns about the Sabbath from a bright celestial visitor.
Africa - The Sabbath's deep cultural roots in various parts of this continent.
Saving Sunday - The secularization of Sunday in 19th-century America leads some political and religious leaders to promote laws that would protect Sunday as the national day of rest and worship.
Sabbath on Trial - People who observe Saturday rather than Sunday as their weekly day of worship sometimes face financial hardship and legal trouble because of their beliefs.
People of the Sabbath - Although still a small minority, seventh-day Sabbathkeepers are increasing in number around the world.
Challenges - Sabbathkeeping theologians respond to critics who contend that observing the seventh-day Sabbath is legalistic or irrelevant for Christians today.
Eternal Sabbath - Bible prophecy points to the Sabbath as part of God's plan for a perfect world in the eternal future.

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Your Sabbath Questions Answered

What day is the Sabbath day?

'Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made' (Genesis 2:1-3).

According to this Scripture
1. The time when God made the Sabbath was at the end of Creation week.

2. The way in which God made the Sabbath was by taking a day - the seventh day - and resting on it, blessing it, and sanctifying it.

3. The material out of which He made the Sabbath was ...

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Isn't obedience legalism?

Some teach that after the law has accomplished its purpose of pointing a sinner to Christ for forgiveness and cleansing, the commandments are no longer needed in the experience of a believer. Is that true?

A Christian will continue to depend upon the "watchdog" of the law to reveal any deviations from the true path of righteousness and to point him or her back to the cleansing cross of Jesus. This mirror of correction will most certainly be needed in the progressive growth experience of the Christian.

Law and grace do not work in competition with one another, but rather they work in perfect cooperation. The law points out our sin, and grace saves from sin. The law ...

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Is it necessary to go to church on the Sabbath?

It's true that when God first instituted the Sabbath in Eden, He made no mention of going to church on that day; He just set it aside for a holy purpose, which He would expand upon at a later time. (See Genesis 2:1-3.) And in Exodus, He did indeed give us more details about the specifics of that holy day in the Ten Commandments. Still, the Ten Commandments give no instruction that we are to gather together for worship on that day. They just give guidelines on what it means to keep it holy. (See Exodus 20:8-11.)

But as we move forward in Scripture, we come across an enlightening verse in Leviticus: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no ...

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FAQ

Can’t we keep holy any day of the week?

Though the Jews were indeed entrusted with God's memorial of Creation, the Sabbath was not made for the Jews alone...

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Christ, in fulfilling the moral law, abolished it.

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FAQ

Isn't obedience legalism?

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Denominational Statements on the Sabbath

CONGREGATIONAL

It must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day.

Buck's Theological Dictionary page 403.

CATHOLIC

If we consulted the Bible only, we should still have to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday, with the Jews, instead of Sunday; ...

A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies, by Rev. John Laux M.A., Benzinger Brothers, 1936 edition, Part 1.

CONGREGATIONAL

The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament.

DR. LYMAN ABBOTT, Christian Union, Jan. 18, 1882.