Which Day is for You Part 1?

By

Thom Milnor

You have a choice, Saturday, Sunday, lunar based seventh day Sabbath, solar based seventh day Sabbath, Which do you choose as your Sabbath?  If you believe you are observing the right day, chances are, you are not! Because of Satan'e deceptions, it is very possible you are observing the wrong day. Not only is it possible, it's more likely than not that you are. That being the case, perhaps it would behoove you to continue reading this article. After all, except for your very salvation, what else do you have to lose other than a few minutes of your time? If I do not prove the case for remembering the correct seventh day Sabbath as revealed by El, then by all means, continue on with whatever day you choose. If on the other hand, ample proof is provided here as to which day is the true Sabbath, than perhaps you may wish to reconsider your original choice.

So let’s begin with a few basic scriptures inspired by Elohim and not the deceptive traditions perpetuated by Satan and his false teachers.

Genesis 2:1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. [2] And on the seventh day Elohim finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. [3] And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it (made it holy); because that in it He rested from all his work which Elohim had created and made. Our first fact is that Elohim created the Sabbath at creation long before there was a man devised calendar or tradition.

Sabbath means: to rest. So Elohim from the very beginning of the re-creation, ordained the seventh day a Sabbath day, a day of rest. He blessed that twenty-four hour period of time and proclaimed it holy. Notice, Elohim finished all his work in six days but He did not finish creating at the end of that sixth day. He was still to create yet one more day, His holy Sabbath. A Sabbath rest based on His reckoning of time, not on man's tradition.

Now let us look at Exodus 20 when Moses was given the Ten Commandments and the specific wording of the Fourth Commandment:

Exodus 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days shall you labor, and do all your work (we are to do exactly as Elohim did back in Genesis 2:1-3. We are to rest from all of our work, rest from that which we do to gain our sustenance.); [10] but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yahua your Elohim: 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 stranger that is within your gates [11] for in six days Elohim made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: Therefore Yahua blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

This commandment DOES NOT SAY THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH OF THE JEWS! For there were no Jews as we know them at that time. There was only the entire nation of Israel, all of the tribes of Israel including Judah for whom the Jews are named. What the command does say is, “Remember the Sabbath day”. Remember it for what? Remember it as a reminder of the creation week. Remember it as the day that Elohim set apart as holy time. This rememberance allows us to routinely keep Elohim's greatness continuously in our thoughts and hearts.

The Sabbath is a perpetual ordinance between Yahua and His people. Let’s prove this with scripture:

Exodus 31:12 And Yahua spoke to Moses, saying, [13] Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, You must keep my Sabbaths: (Now please understand this, emphasis mine) FOR IT IS A SIGN BETWEEN ME AND YOU THROUGHOUT YOUR GENERATIONS; (In other words, it is a sign between Yahua and His people forever! Why?) that you may know that I am Yahua who sanctifies you. (sets us apart for a sacred purpose).

Let's first look at Sunday as a Sabbath day. The only claimed authority for Sunday keeping is that of the Roman Catholic Church. This was brought about in the second and third centuries after the time of Yahushua the Messiah. It’s somewhat puzzling that if Protestants are so accepting of Papal authority, then why don’t they just convert to Catholicism? After all, that is the “True Church”, isn’t it? On the other hand, if they claim not to accept the authority of the Catholic Church as their authority, then what do they accept? Do they accept the Bible as the true word of Elohim, Do they believe that every word of the Tanakh (Old Testament) is divinely inspired? If so then perhaps they should rethink their position on many things, not just the Sabbath issue. For instance, Yahua’s appointed Feasts, Passover; The first and last day of the Days of Unleavened Bread; Pentecost; The Feast of Trumpets; The Day of Atonement; The Feast of Tabernacles; and the Last Great Day. These Feasts illustrate the entire plan of Elohim and are to be remembered year after year and yet, professing Christians have not the vaguest idea of their meaning or their significance. What a tragedy! Instead of honoring and glorifying Elohim, they use pagan names for their creator and Savior, they celebrate Pagan traditions such as New Year’s; Valentine’s day; Lent; Easter; Halloween; and Christmas; including the totally false notion that they are going to heaven when they die as well as the doctrine of the trinity. All of these traditions and teachings are abominations to the Great Sovereign Yahua. But the worst sin of all is the one that Yahua said was "a sign between me and you throughout your generations". in other words, FOREVER! His appointed Sabbath.

Do you know why Chrstians don’t keep the true Sabbath? Is it perhaps because they fear being branded Jewish? Not to say that the Jews are keeping it correctly either, and not to mention the money they would give up by not working on the Sabbaths! Few Christians have a problem with working on the sabbath if need be. And they completely fail to understand that the Sabbath isn’t Jewish. It was never exclusive to the nation of Judah. It was ordained at the recreation thousands of years before Jacob, the father of Judah (Jacob’s son for whom the Jews are named) was even born. It was a commandment for all of the tribes of Israel to “remember and to keep holy“.

You will not find the words “Saturday or Sunday” anywhere in the Holy Scriptures. They are of a complete pagan origin. Yahua did not name days, He numbered them. The only names relative to time in scripture are Abib and Adar. We will get to them later in the next section "Which Day is for You Part 2?"..

Though Sunday is never mentioned by name in scripture, “the first day of the week” is mentioned in eight specific places. All of them are in the New Testament which was written many years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Yahushua. Nor does it hold that this is referring to the first day of the week as we know it today based on the Gregorian calendar. Certainly any established Sunday keeping practice of the early church would have been thoroughly entrenched after so long a time. But it wasn’t. Incidentally, history records that in 321 AD Emperor Constantine abolished the previous eight day Roman week and established the modern Roman seven day week that is continued to be observed today. This week was based on the then seven known "planets": Sun, Mercury, Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.So let’s look at those eight scriptures for they are what Protestants use to rationalize their belief for Sunday keeping which they call “The Lord’s Day” (This differs from "The Day of the Lord") even though it did not exist until 321 AD.

The Jews incidentally started keeping the cyclical seventh day after their return from Babylonian captivity. But again, is that the true appointed time that ordained by Elohim? But we are getting ahead of ourselves, let's first look at those verses that refer to the first day of the week, Sunday!. 

Matthew 28:1 "Now late on the Sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Miriam Magdalene and the other Miriam to see the sepulcher". This scripture says nothing about a church meeting, a day of worship, a special assembly, or anything special about the first day of the week. What it does say is "late on the Sabbath day, as it was at the dawn toward the first day of the week". A sunrise start of the new day? This was based on Elohim's reckoning of time, not the Roman's eight day week which was in existance at that time. There is no authority here for Sunday observance because one, there was no Sunday, and two, with an eight day week in use by the Romans, who would know what day it was other than the first day of Yahua's week. This same reasoning applies to all of the following scriptures as well.

Before getting into the rest of the eight scriptures, let us first clarify which day Yahushua observed as the weekly Sabbath by a question poised to Dr. Timothy Sakach on his Innertech.com website.

The Question was: “If Yahshua was the creator of the calendar revealed to Enoch by the messenger Uriel, why during His three and a half year ministry did He Himself keep the Sabbaths and holy days of the Jews, nor why did He at anytime not make mention that they were keeping unclean days?”

Dr Sakach's  Answer: "First, did Yahushua really keep the Jewish feasts? At one time (John 7) he was asked by His brothers why he didn’t go up to the feast and make Himself known to the disciples (people who listened to him.) His reply was that His time had not come, but their time was “anytime.” Then after a few days He did go. This is consistent with the difference between the Babylonian lunar calendar and the Enoch Calendar. When constructing the Enoch Calendar, I decided to add “new moons” to show how they aligned with the Enoch Calendar. They appeared to be random (“anytime”), but there was an occasional time when there was an alignment with either the first day of the first month or the first day of the seventh month — but never in the same year. These alignments were rare and often many years before they happened again. During Yahushua time only one alignment was needed, and that was in one year on the first day of the first month. This would put both the Jewish Passover and the Passover on Enoch’s calendar on the 14th day followed, of course, by the Feast of Unleavened Bread starting on the 15th days.

As far as mentioning to them about clean days, he did make mention of their uncleanness in Matthew 23 and in other places. They were always unclean, but they were also blind. Besides they had the prophets, like Malachi who had spoken to them about this. Nothing more needed to be said."

Continuing now with the remaining scriptures:

Mark 16:9 Now when he (Yahushua) had been raised, early on the first day of the week he appeared first to Miriam Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. This scripture does not say that Yahushua was raised early on the first day of the week. It says, “Now when He had been raised, (comma) early on the first day of the week (no comma) he appeared first to Miriam Magdalene”. Don’t be fooled on this one. It is very clear from all scriptures on the subject of the resurrection that Yahushua had already risen as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week. But He appeared to Miriam Magdalene early on the first day. Placing the comma after the word raised completely clarifies the thought.You can be certain that Yahushua had risen at some time near the end of the Sabbath day. But again, nothing in this scripture sets apart the first day of the week as a day for a holy purpose or a command for Chrstians to observe it. And it most certainly does not say the first day of the week back then was "Sunday".

Luke 24:1 Before reading Luke 24:1, let’s back up one verse to the preceding chapter and verse: Luke 23:56 “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment”. Now let’s look at Luke 24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. Luke probably wrote the book of Acts between 59 and 61 A.D., almost 30 years after the resurrection. In all likelihood he would have written his gospel account at about the same time. Why did Luke casually mention these women preparing their spices and resting on the Sabbath day and say absolutely nothing about something so important as the changing of the seventh day Sabbath to a first day of the week observance? Surely after nearly 30 years, this would have been in play!

John 20:1 Now on the first day of the week comes Miriam Magdalene early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and sees the stone taken away from the tomb.  

So far, there is no religious element to the events of the first day, but what about this one?

John 20:19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, (no sunset start of the day here. It was already evening and it was still the first day of the week.) and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Yahushua came and stood In the middle, and says to them, Peace be upon you. The disciples were assembled, true! But does this make it a religious assembly? Absolutely not! A careful and honest study of the gospel accounts proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they all forsook Yahushua and fled. None of the disciples really expected to see him again. Peter even cursed and denied his name. The purpose of this assembly was “for fear of the Jews”, not for that of a religious assembly. And why would they be afraid? Because the Jews had already murdered their mentor and leader! They feared their own deaths would surely follow! When Yahushua appeared to them, it was a shocking and unexpected event.

Now we move to another first day of the week having nothing to do with the day following the resurrection:

Acts 20:7 And upon the first day of the week, when we had gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed (preached) with them, intending to depart on the next day; and prolonged his speech until midnight. To break bread merely means to sit down for a meal which may consist of one or any number of courses. So than, was this a  Sunday “Sabbath worship service”? Absolutely not! It certainly was a meeting in which Paul was speaking concerning Yahushua, for it plainly says, "Paul discoursed with them.” And it factually was on the first day of the week. But notice the rest of the verse: “intending to depart the next day”. In other words, Paul was probably going to depart the next morning, the daylight part of the next day, the second day of the week. The point being, this meeting was not a worship service on the first day of the week.

1 Corinthians 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collection be made when I come. Now this should be self-evident that Paul is instructing these believers to go out and work the fields on the “first day of the week” to gather up what Elohim had prospered them. In other words, WORK! LABOR! Something absolutely forbidden to do on the Sabbath and something Paul would never ask or allow them to do! This had nothing to do with tithing on the Sabbath as you might have been led to believe. Nor does it have anything to do with a holy assembly. The context of Paul’s request is found in this entire 16^th chapter as well as the 15^th chapter of Romans. It had to do solely with a drought that had afflicted many of the brethren in the Judaean region and to the saints to whom Paul would deliver those life saving provisions in Jerusalem.

The preceding are the eight places in scripture where the “first day of the week” is mentioned. There is not one hint or indication that the first day of the week was viewed by the early believers as anything other than a common workday. And furthermore, The first day of the week is nowhere in scripture set apart as holy or designated as “The Lord’s Day”. And there is no where to be found that it was on the day known today as "Sunday".

So then, what day is “The Lord’s Day” if not today's Sunday?

Revelation 1:10 I was in the Spirit on Yahweh’s day (Lord’s Day in the King James and other versions) and I heard behind me a great voice, Version after version of the Bible proves that what John was referring to was the transporting of himself forward into time so that what he saw in his Apocalyptic vision was the entire panorama of events from the beginning of the Great Tribulation until the end of the day of Yahua (this day spoken about in Rev 1:10, is not the Sabbath and should not be confused with the Sabbath. This is talking about the time of the coming wrath Yahua will inflict on sinning mankind). This reference had nothing whatsoever to do with a church meeting or religious occasion. Other versions of the Bible show the verse should be paraphrased, “I found myself projected forward into the great and terrible day of the Lord by the spirit”. It is a total distortion of scripture to imply that John was referring to anything other than that time yet future of Yahua’s wrath upon this sinning world. Furthermore, there is no mention of “the first day of the week,” or of “Sunday” in that verse.

So what day is Yahushua Master?

Mark 2:27-28 And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: [28] so that the Son of man is Master even of the Sabbath. Do you see it written anywhere in scripture that Yahushua is Master of “the first day of the week”? The scripture says “the Sabbath was made”. It was made by Yahua at the recreation and therefore, no church, and certainly no man, has now, or ever will have, the authority to change the commandments, including the Sabbath day. Also notice it says here, "the Sabbath was made for man”. It does not say that the Sabbath was made for the Jews. Therefore, reject those false teachings that claim the Sabbath is Jewish. It’s not! Forget also those false teachings that the Sabbath is either a weekly cycle of Saturday or Sunday, it's not! The Sabbath as we will discuss in the next part. "Which Day is for You Part 2?". is either lunar based or solar based.

How did the world come to accept this false doctrine of Sunday as the Lord’s Day? To get the answer we will look at some excerpts from the “APOSTOLIC LETTER DIES DOMINI” written by Pope John Paul II:

Excerpts From the Introduction   “To the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Catholic Church on Keeping the L-rd’s Day Holy”

“The Lord’s Day as Sunday was called from APOSTOLIC TIMES" (That's an outright lie with the Emphasis here mine. We have already proven from scripture that that is not true. Sunday worship did not come about until the second or third century)

Here is a quote from the Pope: “Rightly, then, the Psalmist’s cry is applied to Sunday": This is what the Psalm actually says: ‘This is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it’ (PS 118:24). This Psalm says nothing about this being the first day of the week or a day named Sunday. The Pope explains this reasoning based on the false doctrine that Yahshuah was resurrected at sunrise, which again, was proven not to be the case for we know it was still dark and Yahshuah had already risen. But this gets into the whole Easter thing which is a paper for a later date discrediting that false doctrine.

Excerpts From Chapter 1

In this chapter, the Pope goes to great length to accurately explain how Yahweh created the seventh day Sabbath and then every here and there casually makes statements like this: “In the first place, therefore, SUNDAY is the day of rest because it is the DAY BLESSED BY GOD AND MADE HOLY (emphasis mine) by him, set apart from the other days to be, among all of them, ‘the Lord’s Day”. Do you see something very wrong with that papal statement? If by some far outside chance you missed it, let me clarify it for you. Yahweh blessed the seventh day and made it holy, not the first day, Sunday. Just a few lines before making that statement, the Pope accurately quoted Genesis 2:3 “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy”. Who is deceiving who here?

Just two paragraphs later, he says, “Therefore, if God ‘sanctifies’ the seventh day with a special blessing and makes it ‘his day’ par excellence, this must be understood within the deep dynamics of the dialogue of the covenant, indeed the dialogue of ‘marriage”.

This letter goes on and on for 26 pages of rationalizing as to why the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day to the first (Sunday) of the Gregorian calendar. And it all hangs on the false premise that Yahushua was resurrected at sunrise on the first day of the week which is not supported by one single scripture.

There is much more that can be said on this subject and will be on: "Which Day is for You Part 2?".