The Truth Found

ORIGIN OF THE SABBATH

The fourth commandment points to the Sabbath as a memorial. It says, “The Lord blessed the Sabbath day.” The act of blessing is recorded in Genesis 2:3, and it was bestowed because that in it he had rested from all his work. Then the Sabbath was, from the foundation of the world, a holy day, and to be observed because God rested on it, and blessed it. Thus it is commemorative of what God has done. In order to observe a day as a memorial, we must keep in view the object of the memorial, and the day on which the event occurred which we celebrate. The fourth commandment enjoins the observance of the memorial of God’s work and rest. A rest implies a work performed; therefore, to remember to keep God’s rest-day, is the divinely-appointed means of keeping in mind his great work. TFNOS 7.1

You cannot find in God’s law any duty to remember, or keep, the day of Adam’s fall, or the day of the flood, or the day of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, or the day they entered the promised land, or the day of the Saviour’s birth, or the day of his death, or the day of his resurrection, or the day of his ascension. You may remember all these days, but the fourth commandment does not tell you to do so, neither did the Lord bless and hallow any of these days. But it requires the observance of the day on which the TFNOS 7.2

Lord rested, which he also sanctified which was the seventh day of the week; for he made the world in the first six days of the first week of time, and then rested. TFNOS 8.1

That the original Sabbath day was the seventh day, and that the Jews did keep the very day enjoined in the law, all well know; and they admit it also, since they denominate the seventh day of the week the Jewish Sabbath. Therefore, in this they admit that the very day which the Jews observe is the true original Sabbath of the Lord. TFNOS 8.2