Which day is the Sabbath, and does it still matter today?

The Bible is very clear that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. Many spiritual people worship Jesus on the first day of the week (Sunday), believing that the Sabbath was meant for the Jews only. But is this true? Genesis 2:1, 2, shows us that God established the Sabbath as a memorial of creation. No Jews existed at the beginning of the world! God chose a day to remind not only the Jews, but all of humanity, that He is both our sustainer and our Creator.

How do we know that the seventh day is what we call “Saturday”? First of all, Jews today still worship on Saturday. For a whole nation to forget which day is the Sabbath would be hard to believe! Second, astronomers who have studied changes in the calendar affirm that while many changes to the calendar have been made, they in no way affected the weekly cycle.

Third, the Bible tells us that even in His death, Jesus rested on the Sabbath. He was crucified on a Friday, the preparation day; He rested in the tomb on the Sabbath; and He rose the first day of the week. Fourth, dictionaries define “Sunday” as the first day of the week and “Saturday” as the seventh day. Indeed, if one looks at a calendar, the weeks begin with Sunday and end with Saturday. Fifth, in 145 languages of the world, the word for the seventh day of the week means “Sabbath day”!

God knew we needed a special day on which to nurture our relationship with Him. The devil wants us to forget about that time of rest so that our relationship with God will be destroyed. However, God still calls us to “Remember the Sabbath day” (Exodus 20:8) and honor Him as Creator by setting it apart for Him each week.

Key Bible Texts

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: (Exodus 20:10 KJV)