When is the Seventh-day? There’s a lot of debates between Christians at this topic. There are a lot of arguments that has been put on the table by many different denominations. In this article, I’m just going through my thinking process of trying to solve them, while also making some points to think about. Of course I won’t be able to cover all of the arguments that people make, but things that I pointed in this article are those that I consider the core gap between Christian denomination. One must be able to reason logically in order to understand this article and the basic knowledge of the Bible.

1. There is the 10 commandments. The first most important thing, if one doesn’t even believe this, then one shouldn’t continue reading this article as it would become meaningless. Again, I’m speaking to the Christian majority who do believes that there is 10 commandments.

2. Over all 10 commandments, the 4th commandment is the core for the Christian to keep the Sabbath day:

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. ~ Exodus 20:8-11 ~

All Christians do believes that there is Sabbath day and are aware about this part of the commandment.

3. How about the importance of that particular commandment? Some people argue that it doesn’t matter on what day we should praise God, because the most important is that we set one day of the week to rest and focus ourselves to God. In fact, we should praise God everyday! This argument brings very good points. First, that is true that it would be really good to praise God everyday. Second, if we are able to put the human ideas into the 4th commandment, can’t we also put our human ideas into other commandments? In other words, we have the ability to interpret the 4th commandment as whatever we’d like, can’t we do the same with the other commandments? If we don’t follow the 4th commandment, why do we have to follow the rest? After all type of arguments, all 10 commandments are equally important.

19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ~ Mathew 5:19 ~

4. Now, after going through all 3 points, you’re ready for the next most controversial points that bring gap between Christian denominations. So, when is the Seventh-day? There are a lot of arguments regarding to this topic, although I personally think that many of them are just going around in the circle, where at the end it always come to the answer that “Since Jesus raised on Sunday, then we worship on Sunday.” with a lot of facts that shows where Jesus always appeared continuously on Sunday after his death, and one would concludes that Sunday is the day when we should worship. As much as I would want to see from their perspective, it still doesn’t make sense.

17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ~ Matthew 5:17 ~

I would say that is not the main problem of when is the Sabbath day and/or the Seventh-day is. The main problem that I see is that when is the Seventh-day itself? Some people believe that Monday is the first day of the week, while others believe that Sunday is the first day of the week. This relativity is what then become controversial among Christians. One would argue that, “Everybody knows that Sunday is the first day of the week.” But in fact, this argument is to generalize for all, because of course in reality, not all people know about it. To those who believes in Chinese calendar for example, Monday is considered as the first day of the week. ISO-8601 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has also decreed that Monday is the first day of the week. Some countries consider Monday is the first day of the week, while others consider Sunday as the first day of the week.

It is impossible to determine on what is really the first day of the week because it’s just the way people interprets on what is really the first day of the week. I’m one of those who believes that Sunday is the first-day of the week, and Saturday as the Seventh-day Sabbath, because I know that what I believe is not merely human invention:

62 The next day, on the Sabbath, the leading priests and Pharisees went to see Pilate. 63 They told him, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise from the dead.’ 64 So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he was raised from the dead! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.” ~ Matthew 27:62-64 ~

And of course that I would say that majority of Christians are aware that Jesus died on Friday. Of course it has also been historically recorded. In fact, about the first-day of the week, while I was looking at the above verse, I’m surprised that I’ve also just found this verse:

1After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. ~ Matthew 28:1 ~

If one is aware that Jesus’ death is on Friday, one must understand that the next day, the Sabbath, is on Saturday, and therefore, after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, is Sunday.

I’m not fanatic, nor ignorant, nor having a Theology degree, nor even having or have had formal religious studies. I’m just a person who loves challenges, curious, and looking for truth. Your comments are always welcome.