"And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." -Ezekiel 20:20, KJV
"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 male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do." -Deuteronomy 5:14, NIV
Alt text for the KJV onlyist:
"But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou." - Deuteronomy 4:14, KJV
"How can we account for the observance of the first day of the week by the majority of professed Christians, when the Bible presents no authority for this change either in the precepts or in the example of Christ or His followers? We can account for it in the fact that the world has followed the traditions of human beings instead of a 'Thus saith the Lord.' This has been the work that Satan has always sought to accomplish - lead people away from the commandments of God to the veneration and obedience of the traditions of the world. Through human instrumentalities he has cast contempt upon the Sabbath of Jehovah, and has stigmatized it as 'the old Jewish Sabbath.'
"Thousands have thoughtlessly echoed this reproach, as though it were something to which was attached great weight of argument; but they have lost sight of the fact that the Jewish people were especially chosen of God as the guardians of His truth, the keepers of His law, the depositary of His sacred oracles. They received the lively oracles to give unto us. The Old and New Testaments both came through the Jews to us. Every promise in the Bible, every ray of light which has shone upon us from the Word of God, has come through the Jewish nation.
"Christ was the leader of the Hebrews as they marched from Egypt to Canaan. In union with the Father, Christ proclaimed the law amid the thunders of Sinai to the Jews, and when He appeared on earth as a man, He came as a descendant of Abraham. Shall we use the same argument concerning the Bible and Christ, and reject them as Jewish, as is done in rejecting the Sabbath of the Lord our God? The Sabbath institution is as closely identified with the Jews as is the Bible, and there is the same reason for the rejection of one as of the other. But the Sabbath is not Jewish in its origin. It was instituted in Eden before there were such a people known as the Jews. The Sabbath was made for all humanity, and was instituted in Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve. The Creator called it 'my holy day.' Christ announced Himself as the 'Lord ... of the sabbath.' Beginning with creation, it is as old as the human race, and having been made for human beings it will exist as long as they shall exist." -The Signs of the Times, November 12 (1894)
"The importance of the Sabbath as the memorial of creation is that it keeps ever present the true reason why worship is due to God" - because He is the Creator, and we are His creatures. "The Sabbath therefore lies at the very foundation of divine worship, for it teaches this great truth in the most impressive manner, and no other institution does this. The true ground of divine worship, not of that on the seventh day merely, but of all worship, is found in the distinction between the Creator and His creatures. This great fact can never become obsolete, and must never be forgotten." - J. N. Andrews, History of the Sabbath chap. 27
"Nature must continue its work, or mortals would die. And they also have a work to do on this day. The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be supplied. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour's pain that may be relieved on the Sabbath or any other day.
Heaven's work never ceases, and we should never rest from doing good. Our own work the law forbids us to do on the rest day of the Lord. The toil for a livelihood must cease; no labor for worldly pleasure or profit is lawful upon that day. But the Sabbath is not to be spent in useless inactivity. As God ceased from His labor of creating, and rested upon the Sabbath, so we are to rest. He bids us lay aside our daily occupations, and devote those sacred hours to healthful rest, to worship, and to holy deeds." -Ellen G. White, The Story of Jesus p. 74
"On the Sabbath, parents should give all the time they can to their children, thus making it a delight. I have seen many families where father, mother, and the older members of the household take themselves away from the younger children, and leave them to amuse themselves as best they can. After a while, the children become weary and go out of doors, and engage in play or some kind of mischief. Thus the Sabbath has no sacred significance to them. In pleasant weather the parents can take their children out for a walk in the fields and forest, and talk to them of the lofty trees, the shrubs and flowers, and teach them that God is the Maker of all these things. Then teach them the reasons for the Sabbath, that it is to commemorate God's created works. After working six days, He rested the seventh, and blessed and hallowed the day of His rest. Thus the most profitable instruction can be given." -Ellen G. White, Lake Union Herald, April 14 (1909)
"Those who hold that Christ abolished the law teach that He broke the Sabbath and justified His disciples in doing the same... are really taking the same ground as did the caviling Jews. In this they contradict the testimony of Christ Himself, who declared, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10)." -Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages
(Referring to the first part of Isaiah 58.) "This prophecy reaches down the centuries to the time when the man of sin attempted to make void one of the precepts of God's law, to trample under foot the original Sabbath of Jehovah, and in its stead exalt one of his own creation. And when the Christian world set aside God's holy Sabbath, and in its place accept a common working day, unsanctioned by a single 'Thus saith the Lord,' they are encouraging infidelity, and virtually acknowledging the supremacy of that power by whose authority alone the change has been effected. The rejection of the Sabbath has led to the rejection of the whole law, and thousands of professed Christians now boldly declare it void." -Ellen G. White, The Signs of the Times, February 28, 1884
"Some foreigners will choose to follow the Lord. They should not say, 'The Lord will not really accept me like the rest of his people.' A eunuch should not say, 'I am only a dry piece of wood. I cannot have any children.'
"They should not say that because the Lord says, 'Some eunuchs obey the laws about the Sabbath. They choose to do what I want, and they follow my agreement. So I will put a memorial stone in my Temple for them. Their name will be remembered in my city! Yes, I will give those eunuchs something better than sons and daughters. I will give them a name that will last forever! They will not be cut off from my people.'
"Some foreigners have chosen to follow the Lord. They do this so that they can serve him and love his name and be his servants. They keep the Sabbath as a special day of worship, and they will continue to follow closely my agreement. So I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them happy in my house of prayer. The offerings and sacrifices they give me will please me, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations."
-Isaiah 56:3-7, ESV
"The Sabbath was God's sign between Him and His people, and evidence of His kindness, mercy, and love, a token by which His people are distinguished from all false religionists of the world. And God has pledged Himself that He will bless them in their obedience, showing Himself that He is their God, and has taken them into covenant relation with Himself, and that He will fulfill His promise to all that are obedient." -Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases 5:84.
"A breach has been made in the law of God, and He is calling for a people that will repair this breach. A spurious sabbath has been exalted instead of the Sabbath of Jehovah. Soon laws will be passed compelling all to observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh. We must meet this difficulty, and we shall find trouble enough, without stirring up contention among those who profess to be keeping God's commandments." -Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases 5:82, 83.
"It is the service of love that God values. When this is lacking, the mere round of ceremony is an offense to Him. So with the Sabbath. It was designed to bring men and women into communion with God; but when the mind was absorbed with wearisome rites, the object of the Sabbath was thwarted. Its mere outward observance was a mockery."-Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages
"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that yemay know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." -Exodus 31:13, AKJV
"God desires that the Sabbath will direct our minds to Him as the true and living God, and that through knowing Him we may have life and peace." -Ellen G. White, Counsels to the Church p. 261
"The Sabbath given to the world as the sign of God as the Creator is also the sign of Him as the Sanctifier." -Ellen G. White, Counsels to the Church p. 261
"God has given us six days in which to do our own work and carry on the usual business of life; but He claims one day, which He has set apart and sanctified. He gives it to us as a day in which we may rest from labor and devote ourselves to worship and the improvement of our spiritual condition. What a flagrant outrage it is for us to steal the one sanctified day of Jehovah and appropriate it to our own selfish purposes!" -Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church 4:249
"It is the grossest presumption for mortal beings to venture upon a compromise with the Almighty in order to secure their own petty, temporal interests. It is as ruthless a violation of the law to occasionally use the Sabbath for secular business as to entirely reject it; for it is making the Lord's commandments a matter of convenience." -Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church 4:249
"All through the week we are to have the Sabbath in mind and be making preparation to keep it according to the commandment." -Ellen G. White, Counsels to the Church p. 262
"Had the Sabbath been universally kept, the thoughts and affections of humans would have been led to the Creator as the object of reverence and worship, and there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel." - Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy
"The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God, 'him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.' It follows that the message which commands mortals to worship God and keep His commandments will especially call upon them to keep the fourth commandment." -Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy
"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." -Matthew 5:18, KJV
"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 male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do." -Deuteronomy 5:14, NIV
Alt text for the KJV onlyist:
"But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou." - Deuteronomy 4:14, KJV
"How can we account for the observance of the first day of the week by the majority of professed Christians, when the Bible presents no authority for this change either in the precepts or in the example of Christ or His followers? We can account for it in the fact that the world has followed the traditions of human beings instead of a 'Thus saith the Lord.' This has been the work that Satan has always sought to accomplish - lead people away from the commandments of God to the veneration and obedience of the traditions of the world. Through human instrumentalities he has cast contempt upon the Sabbath of Jehovah, and has stigmatized it as 'the old Jewish Sabbath.'
"Thousands have thoughtlessly echoed this reproach, as though it were something to which was attached great weight of argument; but they have lost sight of the fact that the Jewish people were especially chosen of God as the guardians of His truth, the keepers of His law, the depositary of His sacred oracles. They received the lively oracles to give unto us. The Old and New Testaments both came through the Jews to us. Every promise in the Bible, every ray of light which has shone upon us from the Word of God, has come through the Jewish nation.
"Christ was the leader of the Hebrews as they marched from Egypt to Canaan. In union with the Father, Christ proclaimed the law amid the thunders of Sinai to the Jews, and when He appeared on earth as a man, He came as a descendant of Abraham. Shall we use the same argument concerning the Bible and Christ, and reject them as Jewish, as is done in rejecting the Sabbath of the Lord our God? The Sabbath institution is as closely identified with the Jews as is the Bible, and there is the same reason for the rejection of one as of the other. But the Sabbath is not Jewish in its origin. It was instituted in Eden before there were such a people known as the Jews. The Sabbath was made for all humanity, and was instituted in Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve. The Creator called it 'my holy day.' Christ announced Himself as the 'Lord ... of the sabbath.' Beginning with creation, it is as old as the human race, and having been made for human beings it will exist as long as they shall exist." -The Signs of the Times, November 12 (1894)
"The importance of the Sabbath as the memorial of creation is that it keeps ever present the true reason why worship is due to God" - because He is the Creator, and we are His creatures. "The Sabbath therefore lies at the very foundation of divine worship, for it teaches this great truth in the most impressive manner, and no other institution does this. The true ground of divine worship, not of that on the seventh day merely, but of all worship, is found in the distinction between the Creator and His creatures. This great fact can never become obsolete, and must never be forgotten." - J. N. Andrews, History of the Sabbath chap. 27
"Nature must continue its work, or mortals would die. And they also have a work to do on this day. The necessities of life must be attended to, the sick must be cared for, the wants of the needy must be supplied. God does not desire His creatures to suffer an hour's pain that may be relieved on the Sabbath or any other day.
Heaven's work never ceases, and we should never rest from doing good. Our own work the law forbids us to do on the rest day of the Lord. The toil for a livelihood must cease; no labor for worldly pleasure or profit is lawful upon that day. But the Sabbath is not to be spent in useless inactivity. As God ceased from His labor of creating, and rested upon the Sabbath, so we are to rest. He bids us lay aside our daily occupations, and devote those sacred hours to healthful rest, to worship, and to holy deeds." -Ellen G. White, The Story of Jesus p. 74
"On the Sabbath, parents should give all the time they can to their children, thus making it a delight. I have seen many families where father, mother, and the older members of the household take themselves away from the younger children, and leave them to amuse themselves as best they can. After a while, the children become weary and go out of doors, and engage in play or some kind of mischief. Thus the Sabbath has no sacred significance to them. In pleasant weather the parents can take their children out for a walk in the fields and forest, and talk to them of the lofty trees, the shrubs and flowers, and teach them that God is the Maker of all these things. Then teach them the reasons for the Sabbath, that it is to commemorate God's created works. After working six days, He rested the seventh, and blessed and hallowed the day of His rest. Thus the most profitable instruction can be given." -Ellen G. White, Lake Union Herald, April 14 (1909)
"Those who hold that Christ abolished the law teach that He broke the Sabbath and justified His disciples in doing the same... are really taking the same ground as did the caviling Jews. In this they contradict the testimony of Christ Himself, who declared, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10)." -Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages
(Referring to the first part of Isaiah 58.) "This prophecy reaches down the centuries to the time when the man of sin attempted to make void one of the precepts of God's law, to trample under foot the original Sabbath of Jehovah, and in its stead exalt one of his own creation. And when the Christian world set aside God's holy Sabbath, and in its place accept a common working day, unsanctioned by a single 'Thus saith the Lord,' they are encouraging infidelity, and virtually acknowledging the supremacy of that power by whose authority alone the change has been effected. The rejection of the Sabbath has led to the rejection of the whole law, and thousands of professed Christians now boldly declare it void." -Ellen G. White, The Signs of the Times, February 28, 1884
"Some foreigners will choose to follow the Lord. They should not say, 'The Lord will not really accept me like the rest of his people.' A eunuch should not say, 'I am only a dry piece of wood. I cannot have any children.'
"They should not say that because the Lord says, 'Some eunuchs obey the laws about the Sabbath. They choose to do what I want, and they follow my agreement. So I will put a memorial stone in my Temple for them. Their name will be remembered in my city! Yes, I will give those eunuchs something better than sons and daughters. I will give them a name that will last forever! They will not be cut off from my people.'
"Some foreigners have chosen to follow the Lord. They do this so that they can serve him and love his name and be his servants. They keep the Sabbath as a special day of worship, and they will continue to follow closely my agreement. So I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them happy in my house of prayer. The offerings and sacrifices they give me will please me, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations."
-Isaiah 56:3-7, ESV
"The Sabbath was God's sign between Him and His people, and evidence of His kindness, mercy, and love, a token by which His people are distinguished from all false religionists of the world. And God has pledged Himself that He will bless them in their obedience, showing Himself that He is their God, and has taken them into covenant relation with Himself, and that He will fulfill His promise to all that are obedient." -Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases 5:84.
"A breach has been made in the law of God, and He is calling for a people that will repair this breach. A spurious sabbath has been exalted instead of the Sabbath of Jehovah. Soon laws will be passed compelling all to observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh. We must meet this difficulty, and we shall find trouble enough, without stirring up contention among those who profess to be keeping God's commandments." -Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases 5:82, 83.
"It is the service of love that God values. When this is lacking, the mere round of ceremony is an offense to Him. So with the Sabbath. It was designed to bring men and women into communion with God; but when the mind was absorbed with wearisome rites, the object of the Sabbath was thwarted. Its mere outward observance was a mockery."-Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages
"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that yemay know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." -Exodus 31:13, AKJV
"God desires that the Sabbath will direct our minds to Him as the true and living God, and that through knowing Him we may have life and peace." -Ellen G. White, Counsels to the Church p. 261
"The Sabbath given to the world as the sign of God as the Creator is also the sign of Him as the Sanctifier." -Ellen G. White, Counsels to the Church p. 261
"God has given us six days in which to do our own work and carry on the usual business of life; but He claims one day, which He has set apart and sanctified. He gives it to us as a day in which we may rest from labor and devote ourselves to worship and the improvement of our spiritual condition. What a flagrant outrage it is for us to steal the one sanctified day of Jehovah and appropriate it to our own selfish purposes!" -Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church 4:249
"It is the grossest presumption for mortal beings to venture upon a compromise with the Almighty in order to secure their own petty, temporal interests. It is as ruthless a violation of the law to occasionally use the Sabbath for secular business as to entirely reject it; for it is making the Lord's commandments a matter of convenience." -Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church 4:249
"All through the week we are to have the Sabbath in mind and be making preparation to keep it according to the commandment." -Ellen G. White, Counsels to the Church p. 262
"Had the Sabbath been universally kept, the thoughts and affections of humans would have been led to the Creator as the object of reverence and worship, and there would never have been an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel." - Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy
"The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God, 'him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.' It follows that the message which commands mortals to worship God and keep His commandments will especially call upon them to keep the fourth commandment." -Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy
"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." -Matthew 5:18, KJV