Objection 26: The Sabbath was not a day of special religious worship until it was connected with the annual feasts. Hence, the seventh-day Sabbath was simply one of the ceremonial Sabbaths, and all those Sabbaths, in common with every other ceremonial statute, were abolished at the cross.
According to Scripture, the seventh-day Sabbath by God during the creation week; hence, it possesses an inherent holiness given to it by God in Eden. There were no annual feast days with which seventh-day Sabbath could have been connected until twenty-five hundred years after God established the Sabbath in Eden. (Gen. 2:2-3)
When the manna was first given, Moses described the seventh day as “the holy Sabbath,” though no annual feasts, with which it might be connected had yet been given to the Israelites.
When God announced the Sabbath as a part of the Decalogue, it could be described as His “holy Sabbath.” But the giving of the Ten Commandments preceded the setting forth of the laws that created the annual feast days. The weekly Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment was not connected with any of these feast days.
Let us study the annual feast sabbaths to see how they are essentially different from the seventh-day Sabbath. From Leviticus 23, we learn that there were seven of these festival sabbaths:
1) The 15th day of the first month was the first day of Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:6-7);
2) The 21st day of the first month was the seventh day of Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:8);
3) The 50th day after “the sabbath” of Unleavened Bread was First Fruits, later known as the Pentecost (Lev 23:16-21);
4) The 1st day of the seventh month was the Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:24-25);
5) The 10th day of the seventh month was the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur (Lev 23:28-32);
6) The 15th day of the seventh month was the first day of the feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:34-35);
7) The 22nd day of the seventh month was the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:36).
These annual convocations were properly called sabbaths, because the Hebrew word shabat, from which our English word is translated, simply means “rest,” and the people were commanded to do no “sevile work” or work for hire on these annual feast day sabbaths.
But the mere fact that these ceremonial days of rest are called sabbaths does not warrant placing them in the same class with the seventh-day Sabbath. They are rest days, to be sure, but that does not mean that they are of the same character or standing as the weekly Sabbath.
We could describe a Christian Era holiday as a “sabbath” because such holidays are a day of rest for most people. But it would be foolish to try to elevate our annual round of religious and civic holidays—New Years’ Day, MLK day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans’ Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas—to the same stature as the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment. Though they have one point in common, namely, rest, their dissimilarities are many.
Thus also it was with the annual Sabbaths of the feast days and the seventh-day Sabbath. Their dissimilarities are many and great. Let us note them:
Above, the Fourth Commandment Sabbath,
Below, the ceremonial Sabbaths connected with feast days:
1. Made at the creation of the world. Gen. 2:2-3
1. Made at Sinai, about twenty-five hundred years after creation. Leviticus 23
2. Memorialized an event at the beginning of time, the creation, long before there ever was a Jewish people.
2. Memorialized events of the Jewish calendar, for example, Feast of Tabernacles. Lev. 23:43
3. Intended ever to turn men's minds back to creation. Ex. 20:8-11
3. Intended to turn men's minds ever forward to cross, as “a shadow of things to come.” Col. 2:16-17. For example, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Cor. 5:7
4. God rested on the seventh day Sabbath and specifically blessed and sanctified it. Gen. 2:2-3
4. God did not rest on these ceremonial sabbaths, nor set them apart with distinctive blessing or sanctification.
5. Commemorates a world that had come forth perfect from Creator's hand.
5. Commemorates and Foreshadows events in a world plagued with sin.
6. Tied to the weekly cycle and hence always the same day of the week.
6. Tied to the Jewish calendar, and thus a different day of week each time celebrated.
7. Could be kept anywhere in world, because weekly cycle is universal.
7. Could be known and kept only where the Jewish calendar is known and kept.
8. Kept every week.
8. Each ceremonial sabbath kept only once a year.
9. “Made for man.” Mark 2:27
9. A part of the ceremonial law “which was against us.” Col. 2:14
10. Will continue beyond this world. Isa. 66:23
10. Abolished, taken “out of the way,” at Christ's crucifixion. Col. 2:14
Although it is true that all things that pertain to the service of God at any time have a holy quality, and although these annual Sabbaths had some features in common with the seventh day Sabbath, the dissimilarities are so marked and substantial that the former cannot and must not be confused with the latter.
When the Lord instructed Moses concerning the annual feasts which revolved around the seven annual Sabbaths, He declared in conclusion, “These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations . . .beside the Sabbaths of the Lord.” Lev. 23:37-38. Thus are we instructed by God Himself that the annual Sabbaths are apart from, and in addition to, “the Sabbaths of the Lord,” i.e., the weekly Sabbath. As the Bible commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown well observes:
"Leviticus 23:38 expressly distinguishes ‘the Sabbath of the Lord’ from the other Sabbaths." - Comment on Col. 2:16.
Ed. note: Ron du Preez has written an excellent article for the SDA Encyclopedia on this topic of the ceremonial sabbaths versus the weekly Sabbath. He notes:
“Each of these annual times fell on specifically identified days within the first, third and seventh lunar months of the yearly religious calendar of ancient Israel. Of these, only the Day of Atonement is directly labelled a “sabbath” in the original Hebrew language (e.g., Lev 23:32), as it is the exclusive annual ceremonial day on which all work was prohibited (v. 28). The other six sacred occasions were days when only “servile” or “regular” or “laborious” or “occupational” work was prohibited (vv. 7, 8, 21, etc.), thus permitting the cooking of food (e.g., Ex. 12:16).”