Is The Current Sabbath the Same As Creation Sabbath? Questions From My Son Part 2

Good Questions From My Son Andy

How do we know that Friday and Saturday are the Sabbath?  Is there something dating back to when the world was created?  How is it that Friday and Saturday became the holy days in the Bible?” – Andy Bibb

Part 1 Questions

Here are the first series of questions we will look into:

  1. How do we know that Friday and Saturday are the days that God made to be the Sabbath?
  2. Is there something dating back to when the world was created?
  3. How is it that Friday and Saturday became the holy days in the Bible?

In continuing the series, we will look at the second question.

Is there something dating back to when the world was created?

Another good question!  Wanting to tie the day back to the original Sabbath is either an escape excuse or wanting to keep the same day holy.  Taking a look at a brief history in the Bible will help to bring some clarity to the current situation.

Pearl Islands

Andy and Linda in small plane to return to Panama City

From Creation to Bondage

Looking back upon history as told in the Book of Genesis we see several events that must be taken into consideration when trying to define the correct Sabbath day to keep as commanded.

I have not been able to find evidence that our Friday evening to Saturday evening is the same Sabbath day from creation week, and I think the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob forgot when the Sabbath was supposed to be observed, since they had to work 7 days per week while enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. – Chris Clark (in conversation on Facebook)

I agree with Chris, there is no evidence is out there.  What we do know is that there was a world-wide flood where all peoples perished except those who were on the ark and saved.  Although it is not written, it could be safely assumed that Noah knew the commands of Yehovah and counted the days and keep the Sabbath, but this is purely speculation NOT scripture.

There is no mention of Sabbath or the Seventh Day Rest again until the book of Exodus.  Looking back from Exodus we see the following taking place:

  • Abram/Abraham coming out of Ur of the Chaldean s and becoming the first Hebrew (means cross over or one who crossed over the Euphrates River)
  • Isaac is the son of the Promise, born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age
  • Jacob, renamed by YHVH to Israel, it he father is the twelve tribes we know today.
  • Joseph, one of the twelve sons, is sold into slavery and taken in Egypt.
  • Joseph becomes second only to Pharaoh in ruling Egypt
  • Severe famine strikes the land of Canaan and Joseph with his family relocates to Egypt
  • Egypt forgets Joseph’s contribution to Egypt’s survival and takes the Hebrews/Israelites into bondage as slaves
  • Israel is in slavery for 400 years

During the 400 years of bondage, Israel was forced to work seven days a week and thus could not keep the Sabbath due to their captivity.  Then along comes this dreamer guy, Moses, who is sent by Yehovah (The first Apostle, meaning sent one), to the Israelites to deliver them out of bondage.

After those 400 years, Israel seeing the mighty hand of Yehovah, they exit Egypt and go into Arabia.  Since the Israelites had forgotten which day was the right day to observe the Sabbath, YHVH gave us Exodus 16:4-35 (See previous note) when He told the Israelites to gather manna for 6 days and rest on the 7th day, which they did for 40 years in the wilderness.

Yehovah trained them by feeding them six days in a row and then no manna on the seventh day.  Think of how you train your child to use the potty or a dog to sit.  For weeks and weeks, the Israelites would learn to count the six days and rest on the seventh day or Sabbath day as the Father named it.  So that means the Israelites knew which day was the correct Sabbath day when they crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land.

Bondage until the Second Temple Period

Fast forwarding we know that Israel went into bondage, this time as a punishment for desecrating the commands of Yehovah.  The northern tribes were carried off to Assyria and a while afterwards the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were taken into Babylon.  There they stayed for 70 year while the land observed the Sabbath rest as was commanded in Leviticus

The LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD. 3 ‘Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, 4 but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 ‘Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. 6 ‘And all of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. 7 ‘Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat. (Lev 25:1-7 NAS)

After the Sabbath rest of the land, mainly the tribe of Judah returned to the land to re-establish the temple after the decree of Cyrus.  This is where the people were named “Jews” after the tribe of Judah.

We read in Nehemiah, chapter 9 that a “National Confession” is taking place where they are repenting for the sins of their fathers which got them booted from the land iof the first place.  Focusing on verses 14 and 15 we can see Nehemiah saying:

14 “So Thou didst make known to them Thy holy sabbath, And didst lay down for them commandments, statutes, and law, Through Thy servant Moses. 15 “Thou didst provide bread from heaven for them for their hunger, Thou didst bring forth water from a rock for them for their thirst, And Thou didst tell them to enter in order to possess The land which Thou didst swear to give them. 16 “But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; They became stubborn and would not listen to Thy commandments. (Neh 9:14-16 NAS)

So now during the second temple period the leaders are attempting to reset the Sabbath day and enforce the law so they will never go back into bondage again.  This is shown in Chapter 10 at verse 31:

As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt. (Neh 10:31 NAS)

At this point we can document also the new laws that started the “Jews” as we know them today, Judaism as a religion and the beginning of their future decline under the Romans several decades after the resurrection of Yeshua.  But that is another story.

Greek and Roman Period and Their Influence

During this time, calendars were brought into use from Babylon to Rome.  Months gained their names and so did the days of the weeks. (See previous article)  Many of the Jewish month names are still used in their calendar today like Nissan.

The Julian Calendar

The Julian calendar was created before Yeshua (Jesus in English, Iesous in Greek) was born, and it was used while He dwelt among us in the land od Israel. The Sabbath day on the Julian calendar was, as previously states, Saturday.

“The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect in 45 BC shortly after the Roman conquest of Egypt. It was the predominant calendar in the Roman world, most of Europe, and in European settlements in the Americas and elsewhere, until it was refined and superseded by the Gregorian calendar, also called the Western calendar and the Christian calendar, which is internationally the most widely used civil calendar and named for Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in 1582.

** source – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar

The Gregorian Calendar

The Gregorian calendar, also called the Western calendar and the Christian calendar, is internationally the most widely used civil calendar.  It is named for Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in 1582.

The calendar was a refinement in 1582 to the Julian calendar amounting to a 0.002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to bring the date for the celebration of Easter to the time of the year in which the First Council of Nicaea had agreed upon in 325. Because the celebration of Easter was tied to the spring equinox, the Roman Catholic Church considered this steady drift in the date of Easter undesirable. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe. Protestants and Eastern Orthodox countries continued to use the traditional Julian calendar and adopted the Gregorian reform after a time, for the sake of convenience in international trade.

The Gregorian reform contained two parts: a reform of the Julian calendar as used prior to Pope Gregory XIII’s time and a reform of the lunar cycle used by the Church, with the Julian calendar, to calculate the date of Easter. The reform was a modification of a proposal made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of leap years in four centuries from 100 to 97, by making 3 out of 4 centurial years common instead of leap years. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the annual date of Easter, solving a long-standing obstacle to calendar reform.

** Source – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

Today we used the Gregorian calendar, and the Sabbath day is the same as that on the Julian calendar.

The Time of Yeshua

We know that Yeshua observed the Sabbath on the correct day of the week during the Second Temple Period.  So from the time the Israelites entered the Promised Land until Yeshua dwelt among us, the Sabbath was observed on the correct day of the week.

Although it is not written in scripture, logic can be used to say that Yeshua had intimate communication with the Father and would have known the proper Sabbath day to keep.  Yeshua came to point out the errors that have crept into the “Law of the Jews” and to return them to the ”Law of Yehovah.”  Considering he called it like he saw it, “you brood of vipers” I could logically say that Yeshua would have corrected the day of the Sabbath while correcting the observance of it.

“Without accepting Yeshua’s perfect example for observing the yearly feasts and the Sabbath according to Scriptural evidence in the Chronological Gospels and historical evidence in the Talmud, I don’t think we can say which calendar is correct or which day is the correct day for the Sabbath.” – Chris Clark

“Yes We Can” Change of the Emperor

Emperor Constantine, by his civil legislation, made Sunday a rest day in his famous Sunday law of March 7, 321 … so he was using the same Julian calendar that was used during the 2nd Temple Period when Yeshua was observing the Sabbath day in Israel.

In Summary to answer the question

The current days of the Sabbath is the same as it was when the Israelites were in the wilderness and trained by the miracle of the manna.  Six days the manna appeared and on the sixth day they gathered double the amount to rest on the Sabbath.

We know that Yeshua came to set things straight and point out the additional commands that the Pharisees and Sadducees placed upon the people.  If the Sabbath day was no on the right day, then Yeshua would have corrected that as well.  We know he did not.

This chain of days from Yehovah training until today has remained unbroken.  Therefore is it thus proven that we are observing the proper Sabbath.  Even with the attempt of the emperor Constantine in 321, which was a man-made change, we still know the true Sabbath.  Yeshua would have been ticked off and I am sure that since He lives today, He is.

Yeshua is calling out to those who will listen to return to the Sabbath of Yehovah and stop observing the Sabbath of the Emperor.

2 Replies to “Is The Current Sabbath the Same As Creation Sabbath? Questions From My Son Part 2”

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