Why is the Sabbath so important in last-day events?
January 31, 2025 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ángel Manuel Rodríguez for Adventist Review
Q: Why is the Sabbath so important in last-day events?
Let me share with you a few thoughts about the high significance of the Sabbath at the end of the cosmic conflict.
Sabbath and God’s Love
The Sabbath is the only commandment that identifies God on the basis two of His activities: Creation (Ex. 20:8, 11) and redemption (Deut. 5:15). They are both, like the gospel, the result of the work of the Son of God (John 1:1-3, 14; Rom. 3:23, 24). Creation and redemption constitute the two most powerful manifestations of divine love known to us. Creation was an expression of divine love and wisdom (e.g., Gen. 1:31; Ps. 19:1; 8:3-6; 1 John 4:8, 16), and redemption is the most glorious expression of divine self-sacrificing love (John 3:16; 10:17, 18). God also gave us the Sabbath to remind us that He is a loving Creator. The fallen cherub will attempt to silence the testimony of the Sabbath to Creation as the first act of divine love and of the gospel of salvation through Christ’s sacrificial love.
Sabbath and God’s Character
Since the Decalogue is a verbal expression of God’s character and the Sabbath is part of it, a change in the moral law is in fact an attack against the integrity and perfection of God’s character. Any modification of the moral law of God would clearly imply that the law, and more specifically the Lawgiver, is imperfect. Consequently it would be legally and morally justifiable to disobey such an imperfect law. By changing the seventh-day Sabbath to Sunday, the fallen cherub hoped to discredit God’s character and to manifest his authority over the law. When humans acknowledge his authority by accepting the change and by obeying the new commandment, they submit to him as the true legislator.
Sabbath and Worship
A change in the fourth commandment would result in the worship of a false God. The Sabbath day is a holy day during which humans have communion with and worship the Creator and Redeemer (e.g., Isa. 66:23). The fallen cherub modified the law by changing the commandment in which law and worship are deeply interconnected. With one change (in the fourth commandment) the fallen cherub sought to discredit the character of God and become the object of worship. The human race should be reminded that the Sabbath is a sign of God’s creative power and that as such He is the only and exclusive object of true worship. Humans should hear again a proclamation of the gospel of salvation by faith in Christ that is not opposed to the law of God. The perpetuity of the law is to be proclaimed as evidence of salvation through faith in Christ that moves us to bow down before the Creator and Redeemer in heartful adoration.
Sabbath as a Sign of Loyalty
The uniqueness of the Sabbath transforms it into a sign of loyalty to God. In the Hebrew language, the Decalogue consists of 152 words (Ex. 20:3-17). At its very center we find the statement “But the seventh day is a Sabbath of/to/belonging Yahweh.” This sentence became a matter of debate in the history of Sabbathkeeping. The specificity of “the seventh day” disturbed the Christian world, and it was finally removed, arguing that “the seventh day” is a ritual component in the fourth commandment without any value for Christians. In the biblical text the specificity of the commandment amounts to a sign of loyalty to God (Ex. 16:23-30). The fallen cherub opposes the end-time sign of loyalty to God, but paradoxically offers to all a specific false Sabbath as a sign of a loyalty to him (Rev. 13:16).
Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, Th.D., is retired after a career serving as pastor, professor, and theologian.