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Biblical Sabbath

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exodus 20:8-11, ESV).

Nearly every Christian has heard or read the ten commandments, and recognizes the above fourth commandment. What it means to them varies. Here are just a few of the answers:

  • Christians should go to Church on Sunday—they always have.
  • Christians should go to Church on Sunday because it is the “Lord's Day”—the day Jesus rose from the dead.
  • Christians should go to Church on Sunday and avoid working: Don't run their businesses, spend time with their families or serve in Christian ministries.
  • It would be great if Christians could rest a day every week, but that is not possible in today's world.
  • This commandment is now a general principle that ended when the death of Christ and the end of the Old Covenant.

Some Christians believe the seventh-day Sabbath commandment is still in effect. They rest and have church services on Saturday. Some of those add manyt of their own regulations to the Sabbath—much like the Jewish leaders did in the New Testament. Others adhere largely to biblical teaching. Unfortunately, most Sabbath-observing Christian groups tend to use the Sabbath as a point of doctrinal exclusivism: they regard Sabbath keepers as unbelievers or lesser-believers. This writer believes this is a major point of hypocrisy as the Sabbath-keeping Christians use Bible translations, Bible helps, Christian songs, Christian living literature and numerous other things that were produced by Sunday-meeting Christians. Any casual observer would note that almost everything that the world would recognize as good Christian work has not been done by Saturday-meeting Christians.

As with many other articles on this site, this writer encourages people to learn, be patient with others, and seek God in determining what He would have you do.

(We do plan to include more introductory literature here.)

Read Related CBTM Articles On-Line
Scriptures About the Sabbath
4-fold pamphlet containing nearly all the Scriptures about the Sabbath(pdf)
 Sabbath in the World's Languages
by William Meade Jones
(5 pages, pdf)
 Assembling on the Sabbath
Norman Edwards' first major theological article originally written in 1995.
(18 pages, pdf)
 Why Can't We Unify the Church?
Letter answer to minister hoping to unify some of the hundreds of Sabbath-keeping churches.
It explains in detail the greater error of disregarding Sunday-meeting Christians
(16 pages, pdf)
Articles written by others
Bible Sabbath Association website
A non-denominational, Sabbath encouraging organization

About the Author

Picture of Norman Edwards, about 2009

Norman Edwards is the author of all these pages and articles--unless otherwise noted. He has been a life-long Bible student, teacher and author and is now in his 60s. His career, in round numbers is:

The purpose of this site is to encourage everyone everywhere to study and better understand the Bible. Norman has not been a member of any religious denomination or sect since 1995. He does not study to confirm what he or a church group already believes. He reads the Bible, does research and writes what he understands through prayer and the Holy Spirit. Research usually consists of looking for other related scriptures, but also includes the meaning of Hebrew and Greek words and the historical context in which the Scriptures were written.

Yet he also believes that "iron sharpens iron" (Proverbs 27:17) and welcomes corrections and comments about his writing. The peer review of fellow believers has caused him to change his teaching on some subjects.

While Norman has written many hundreds of articles and it will be some years before they are all added to this site. He realizes he will not be able to study every subject of interest before he dies. He realizes this website needs improved organization and new software for a more modern look.

But the purpose of life has never been about doctrinal or technical perfection. It is about learning to love God with all are hearts and to love our neighbor as ourself (Matthew 22:36-40). God gives knowledge and many other spiritual gifts which we should use to His glory (1 Corinthians 12 - 14). But the greatest of these is love! (1 Corinthians 13:13).

This writer encourages Christians everywhere to:

God is very interested in answering prayers about these subjects. He will show you what to do. Be peaceful and gentle with others who are not as gifted or able as you—even with Christians who are clearly in error. God gave us time to bring us to where we are now, and we all still have more to learn!

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