A question about what Scripture actually says There is a question that keeps coming up whenever Christians discuss the Sabbath. It usually goes something like this: “The Sabbath was part of the Old Covenant. We are under the New Covenant now.” Fair enough. But that statement raises another question. Where does the New Testament actually say that the seventh-day Sabbath was abolished? Or transferred to Sunday? Or replaced by another day? That is a different question from wheth

There is a Hebrew word in Scripture that we have become so familiar with that we may have stopped asking what it actually means. The word is Shabbat. We usually hear “Sabbath” and immediately think of rest. We think of relaxation, sleep, taking a break, or recovering from exhaustion. But the Hebrew verb behind the word, shābat, carries the more precise idea of ceasing, stopping, or desisting from an activity. That does not eliminate the idea of rest. Rather, it helps us under

The Sabbath, sanctification, righteousness by faith, and the question of worship We've followed the Sabbath question a long way. From Creation to Christ. From Jesus to the apostles. From Paul to Hebrews. And along the way, we've discovered that the Sabbath is much bigger than a question about which day appears on a calendar. It touches Creation. It touches rest. It touches sanctification. It touches righteousness by faith. And ultimately, it touches worship and authority. Now

The Sabbath was never merely about a day. We began this series with what seemed like a simple question: Why the seventh day? At first, it looked like a debate about Saturday and Sunday. But the further we followed Scripture, the more we discovered that something much deeper was happening. The Sabbath takes us back to Creation. Creation takes us to God's authority. God's authority takes us to sanctification. Sanctification takes us to the Gospel. The Gospel takes us to Christ'

What was Paul actually discussing? There is a verse in Romans that is often presented as if it settles the Sabbath question: “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”— Romans 14:5 The argument usually goes something like this: Paul says one day is optional. The Sabbath is a day. Therefore the Sabbath is optional. It sounds simple. But before we make Romans 14 carry that conclu

Jesus did not merely fulfill Israel’s prophecy. He fulfilled Israel’s story. We've spent this series following the Sabbath question back to Creation. We've seen that God created the seventh day, blessed it, and sanctified it. We've seen that the Sabbath points toward God's finished work and that Hebrews connects God's Sabbath rest with the Gospel and faith in Christ. But there is another piece of the biblical story that we need to understand before we can see the whole pictur

What does it mean to enter God's rest? We've spent the first part of this series asking a question that initially sounded very simple: Why the seventh day? But the further we've gone, the more we've discovered that the Sabbath question is actually connected to something much bigger. Creation. Authority. The law. Justification. Sanctification. Christ's finished work. Faith. And now Hebrews 4 has brought us to the heart of it: “There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the peo

If the Sabbath was finished, why does Hebrews say that a Sabbath rest remains? We've followed this question from Creation to Christ, from the apostles to Paul, and now we arrive at one of the most fascinating passages in the New Testament. Hebrews 4:9 says: “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” And some translations make the Sabbath connection even more obvious: “There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” The Greek word is sabbatismos—Sab

What was Paul actually talking about? This is a critical post because Colossians 2:16–17 is probably one of the strongest passages people use to argue that the Sabbath was abolished. So we're not going to dodge it. We're going to slow down and let Paul's entire argument speak. And we already did the research on this, so we don't need to start from scratch. The central text: “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which

Romans and Galatians in context—and what actually died at the cross In our first post, we asked: Who has the authority to sanctify? We went back to Creation and saw that God creates, God rests, God blesses, and God sanctifies. Then we asked whether human authority ever claimed the right to change what God had sanctified. We examined the New Testament and asked whether the apostles ever taught Christians to keep Sunday instead. We listened to Jesus and asked whether He abolish

Does “fulfilled” mean abolished—or does the Gospel reveal something much deeper? In our first four posts, we've been following one question at a time. We began at Creation: Who has the authority to sanctify? We discovered that God created, rested, blessed, and sanctified the seventh day. Then we asked whether human religious authority ever claimed the right to change what God had sanctified. We examined the New Testament and asked whether the apostles ever taught Christians t

Before we decide what the apostles changed, let's listen to Jesus. In the first three posts, we've been asking a very simple question: What does the Bible actually say? We started at Creation. God created. God rested. God blessed the seventh day. God sanctified it. Then we asked whether human authority ever claimed the right to change what God had sanctified. Finally, we examined the New Testament evidence and asked: Did the apostles ever teach Christians to keep Sunday inste

Before we accept a change in God's day of rest, let's look carefully at the evidence. In our first post, we asked: Who has the authority to sanctify? We went back to Creation and found that the Sabbath began with God Himself. God created. God rested. God blessed. God sanctified. The seventh day was made holy by the Creator, not by a human institution. In our second post, we then asked: Did human religious authority ever claim the right to change the Sabbath? History gave us r

Before we ask whether the Sabbath was changed, we should ask a more fundamental question: Did human religious authority ever claim the right to change it? That question matters because there is a significant difference between these two claims: “God changed the Sabbath.” and “The Church had authority to change the day.” Those are not the same argument. And when we begin examining the historical record, something very interesting emerges. First, what does Scripture actually re

The Sabbath, Creation, and the Question of Human Authority Most discussions about the Sabbath begin with a familiar question: Saturday or Sunday? But perhaps that isn't the first question we should ask. Perhaps the more fundamental question is: Who has the authority to make something holy? Go back to the beginning. Before there was Israel. Before there was Moses. Before there was Sinai. Before there was a Jewish nation. Before there was a Christian church. There was Creation.