I’m not an expert in theology or biblical study, but not an ignorant person either. I’m not in anyway affiliated with a specific religious group or Christian denomination. I found several interesting common facts with the majority of Christian denominations in their regards to the fourth commandments:

“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; 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 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 the seventh day; therefore The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11 RSV)

Most Christian denominations believed that the Sabbath day that is referred on the ten commandments is Sunday. In most cases because they don’t know, in other cases, they ignore it. Christians should not deviate from the truth that the Sabbath is on Saturday.

Why is this such a big deal?

In order to answer this question, it is important to fully understand that salvation is all of grace, not of works, but its fruitage is the obedience to the commandments. With that mindset, asking such a question is the same as asking whether we have to produce the fruits of our faith? Of course! Otherwise, then what does it mean by faith without producing the fruits? Most Christians agree that faith without works is nothing:

Faith and Deeds

14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? (James 2:14-25)

In computer terms, we call this NullPointerException.

Does it matter when do we worship?

Of course it doesn’t. For every day is made good by God. In fact, shouldn’t Christians worship everyday? Of course. However, notice that answering these questions doesn’t change the truth that the Sabbath is on Saturday [1][2]. In other words, this question should be reworded. “Does the Sabbath matters?” Or in another words, “Does one of the ten commandments matters?” That’s right, just one of them, not the other nine, is less significant and needs to be changed. Throughout the history, there had been some people who tried very hard to justify the change in the fourth commandment. I found it interesting that only one of the ten, not all.

If we see the ten commandments as the whole commandment however, then we can see that we’re going back to the loop “Does the ten commandment matters?” Noticed that the word “commandment” sometimes scared some people, including myself. Which is the reason why the faith-grace-work mindset we previously discussed is important.

Does it mean we have to go to church on Saturday?

I found it interesting that many people correlates the Sabbath and “going to church”. I don’t see that there is any correlation between when do we have to go to church and the Sabbath. This question should be reworded as “Does it matter when do we worship?”, which makes us going back to the loop, again. At the same time however, I also don’t agree that the reason of Christians going to church on Sunday is because it’s the Sabbath day either, because Sunday is not the Sabbath day. I mentioned several reasons why do Christians go to church on Sunday in [1]. There are other reasons which I haven’t discussed in [1] that I found to makes sense, but I’m not going to discuss it here.

I also had written related posts regarding this issue:
[1] Seventh-day of the Week: The Sabbath
[2] The Forgotten Commandment

Conclusion

The Sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday. I’m tired seeing pastors who understand the truth that the Sabbath is Saturday, but taught that the Sabbath is Sunday. Why do we have to deviate from the truth? Is there something that we’re trying to hide? Or may be it’s because the rule of the church? It is up to us to decide to follow the truth or deviates them, but nevertheless we may need to learn something from Buddhism:

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” – Gautama Buddha (563 – 483 B.C.)

There have been about 500 Sabbath-keeping churches world-wide (and growing). Hopefully this post is constructive and helpful. Read the following post if you would like to learn more from the historical context:

With that said, I’ll leave the discussion with Romans 14. Comments are welcome. :)

The Weak and the Strong

1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11It is written:
” ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’ ” 12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. 14As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. 15If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. 16Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

22So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14)