Why keep the Sabbath day? What is the object of the Sabbath? When was it made, who made it, and for whom? Which day is the true Sabbath? Many keep the first day of the week, or Sunday. What Bible authority have they for this? Some keep the seventh day, or Saturday. What Scripture have they for that?
Here are the facts about both days, as plainly stated in the word of God:

Bible Facts Concerning the Seventh Day

• After working the first six days of the week in creating this earth, the great God rested on the seventh day. Genesis 2:1-3.

• This stamped that day as God's rest day, or Sabbath day, as Sabbath day means rest day. To illustrate: When a person is born on a certain day, that day thus becomes his birthday. So when God rested upon the seventh day, that day became His rest, or Sabbath day.

• Therefore the seventh day must always be God's Sabbath day. Can you change your birthday from the day on which you were born to one on which you were not born? No. Neither can you change God's rest day to a day on which He did not rest. Hence the seventh day is still God's Sabbath day.

• The Creator blessed the seventh day. Genesis 2:3.

• He made it the Sabbath day in the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:1-3

• He sanctified the seventh day as one of His Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:11.

• It was made before the fall; hence it is not a type, for types were not introduced till after the fall of man.

• Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27), that is, for the race, as the word man is here unlimited; hence, for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews.

• It is a memorial of creation. Exodus 20:11; 31:17. Every time we rest upon the seventh day, as God did at creation, we commemorate the grand event.

• It was given to Adam, the head of the human race. Genesis 2:1-3 (Mark 2:27); hence through Adam, as our representative, to all nations. Acts 17:26.

• It is not a Jewish institution, for it was made approximately 2,300 years before there ever was a Jew.

• The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath but always "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Men should be cautious how they call God's holy rest day.

• It was a part of God's law before Sinai. Exodus 16:4, 27-30.

• God placed the Sabbath command in the heart of His moral law. Exodus 20:1-17. Why did He place it there if it was not like the other nine precepts which all admit to be immutable?

• The seventh-day Sabbath was a command by the voice of the living God. Deuteronomy 4:12, 13.

• God wrote the commandment with His own finger. Exodus 31:18.

• He engraved it in the enduring stone indicating its imperishable nature. Deuteronomy 5:22.

• It was sacredly kept inside the ark in the most holy place in the tabernacle. Deuteronomy 10:1-5.

• God forbade work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying circumstances. Exodus 34:21.

• God destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness because they profaned the Sabbath. Ezekiel 20:12, 13.

• It is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know Him from false gods. Ezekiel 20:20.

• God promised that Jerusalem will stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath. Jeremiah 17:24, 25.

• He sent the Jewish nation into captivity in Babylon for breaking the Sabbath. Nehemiah 13:18.

• He destroyed Jerusalem for its violation. Jeremiah 17:27.

• God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who keep it. Isaiah 56:6, 7.

• This is recorded in the prophecy which refers wholly to the Christian dispensation. See Isaiah chapter 56.

• The Lord requires us to call it "honourable." Isaiah 58:13. Beware, ye who take delight in calling it the "old Jewish Sabbath," "a yoke of bondage," etc.

• After the holy Sabbath has been trodden down for "many generations," it is to be restored in the last days. Isaiah 58:12, 13.

• All the holy prophets kept the seventh day.

• When the Son of God came, He kept the seventh day all His life. Luke 4:16; John 15:10. Thus He followed His Father's example at creation. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son?

• Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28); that is, to love and protect it, as in the example of the husband who is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her. 1 Peter 3:6.

• Jesus vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man's good. Mark 2:23-28.

• Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, Jesus carefully taught how it should be observed. Matthew 12:1-13.

• He taught His disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but that which was "lawful." Matthew 12:12.

• Jesus instructed His followers that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded even when fleeing persecution. Matthew 24:20.

• The pious women who had been with Jesus, carefully kept the seventh day after His death. Luke 23:56.

• Thirty years after Christ's resurrection, the Holy Spirit expressly calls it "the Sabbath day." Acts 13:14.

• Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it "the Sabbath day" in A.D. 45. Acts 13:27.

• Luke, the inspired Christian historian, writing as late as A.D. 62, calls it "the Sabbath day." Acts 13:44.

• The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath. Acts 13:42.

• In the great Christian council, A.D. 52, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the "Sabbath day." Acts 15:21.

• It was customary to hold prayer meetings upon that day. Acts 16:13.

• Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on that day. Acts 17:2, 3.

• There was never any dispute between the Christians and the Jews about the Sabbath day. This is proof that the Christians still observed the same day that the Jews did.

• In all their accusations against Paul, they never charged him with disregarding the Sabbath day.

• Paul expressly declared that he had kept the law. "Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all." Acts 25:8. How could this be true if he had not kept the Sabbath?

• The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament 59 times, and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament, "the Sabbath day."

• Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath being abolished, done away, changed, or any such thing.

• God has never given permission to any man to work upon it. Friend, by what authority do you use the seventh day for common labor?

• No Christian of the New Testament, either before or after the resurrection, ever did ordinary work upon the seventh day. Should modern Christians do differently from Bible Christians?

• There is no record that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the seventh day.

• As the Sabbath was kept in Eden before the fall, so it will be observed eternally in the new earth after the restitution. Isaiah 66:22, 23.

• The seventh-day Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from His own mouth, and was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai. See Exodus chapter 20. When Jesus began His work, He expressly declared that He had not come to destroy the law. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets." Matthew 5:17.

• Jesus severely condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God, while at the same time they made void one of the Ten Commandments by their tradition. The keeping of Sunday is only a tradition of men.

Bible Facts Concerning the First Day of the Week

• The very first thing recorded in the Bible is work done on Sunday, the first day of the week. Genesis 1:1-5. This was done by the Creator Himself. If God made the earth on Sunday, can we then work on Sunday?

• God commands men to work upon the first day of the week. Exodus 20:8-11. Should we obey God?

• None of the patriarchs ever kept Sunday.

• None of the holy prophets ever kept Sunday.

• By the express command of God, His holy people used the first day of the week as a common working day for 4,000 years, at least.

• God Himself calls it a "working" day. Ezekiel 46:1.

• God did not rest upon it.

• He never blessed it.

• Christ did not rest upon it.

• Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3) and worked at His trade until He was 30 years old. He kept the Sabbath and worked six days in the week.

• The apostles worked on Sunday during the same time.

• The apostles never rested upon it.

• Christ never blessed it.

• It has never been blessed by any divine authority.

• It has never been sanctified.

• The New Testament nowhere forbids work to be done on the first day.

• No penalty is provided for its violation.

• No blessing is promised for its observance.

• No regulation is given as to how it ought to be observed. Would this be so if the Lord wished us to keep it?

• It is never called the Christian Sabbath in Scripture.

• It is never called the Sabbath day at all.

• It is never called the Lord's day.

• It is never called even a rest day.

• No sacred title whatever is applied to it. Then why should we call it holy?

• It is simply called "first day of the week."

• Jesus never mentioned it in any way, never took its name upon His lips, as far as the record shows.

• The word Sunday never occurs in the Bible at all.

• The first day of the week is mentioned only eight times in all the New Testament. Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.

• Six of these texts refer to the same first day of the week.

• In all the New Testament we have a record of only one religious meeting held upon that day, and even this was a night meeting. Acts 20:5-12.

• There is not an intimation that they ever held a meeting upon it before or after that.

• It was not their custom to meet on that day.

• There was no requirement to break bread on that day.

• We have account of only one instance in which it was done, and that after midnight. Acts 20:7-11.

• Jesus celebrated it on Thursday evening (Luke 22), and the disciples sometimes did it every day. Acts 2:42-46.

• The Bible nowhere says that the first day of the week commemorates the resurrection of Christ. This is a tradition of men, which makes void the law of God. Matthew 15:1-9. Baptism commemorates the burial and resurrection of Jesus. Romans 6:3-5.