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<small>''This article is about the [[Christian]] day of rest. For the Sabbath in [[Judaism]] see [[Shabbat]].''</small><br>The '''Sabbath''' ([[Hebrew]]: שַׁבָּת‎ ''shabbat'' "the day to cease/rest"), is the seventh day of the week, the day being counted from sunset to sunset, that is, from Friday evening to Saturday evening.  It is a weekly religious day of rest as ordained by God in the [[Ten Commandments]]: <blockquote>''Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 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, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.'' ([[Exodus]] 20:8-11)<ref>[[King James Version]] [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2020:8-11&version=9; BibleGateway]</ref></blockquote>

<small>''This article is about the [[Christian]] day of rest. For the Sabbath in [[Judaism]] see [[Shabbat]].''</small><br>The '''Sabbath''' ([[Hebrew]]: שַׁבָּת‎ ''shabbat'' "the day to cease/rest"), is the seventh day of the week, the day being counted from sunset to sunset, that is, from Friday evening to Saturday evening.  It is a weekly religious day of rest as ordained by God in the [[Ten Commandments]]: <blockquote>''Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 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, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.'' ([[Exodus]] 20:8-11)<ref>[[King James Version]] [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2020:8-11&version=9; BibleGateway]</ref></blockquote>

Christians in the second century stopped using the seventh day (Saturday) and switched their services to the first day of the week, Sunday, in honor of the Resurrection, in accord with the then-common interpretation of various New Testament passages regarding on what day of the week Christ died and on what day of the week he rose from the dead. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a Protestant denomination, founded in America in the 1860s during the [[Second Great Awakening]], which interprets those passages differently, and which believes that God always intended for the day of the week on which rest and celebration was taken to be the seventh, or final, day of the week ("[[Saturday]]"). So, the Seventh Day Adventist Church opposes laws that make Sunday the Sabbath.  

Christians in the second century stopped using the seventh day ("[[Saturday]]") and switched their services to the first day of the week, Sunday, in honor of the Resurrection, in accord with the then-common interpretation of various New Testament passages regarding on what day of the week Christ died and on what day of the week he rose from the dead. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a Protestant denomination, founded in America in the 1860s during the [[Second Great Awakening]], which interprets those passages differently, and which believes that God always intended for the day of the week on which rest and celebration was taken to be the seventh, or final, day of the week ("[[Saturday]]"). So, the Seventh Day Adventist Church opposes laws that make Sunday the Sabbath.  

==Bible==

==Bible==

"Seventh-day" means that the observance of the original Sabbath, on "Saturday", still is a sacred obligation. Adventists argue that just as the other nine of the original [[Ten Commandments]] had not been revised, so also the injunction to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" remained in full force. This theological point in the late 19th century turned the young group into a powerful force for religious liberty. Growing into its full stature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these Adventists opposed Sunday laws on every side. Many were arrested for working on Sunday. In fighting against the real threat of a legally established National Day of worship, these Sabbatarians had to fight for their liberty on a daily basis. Soon, they were fighting for religious liberty on a broader, less parochial basis. The fear that other Protestants would establish a Christian Sunday expanded into opposition to the establishment of a "Christian" identity for the otherwise pluralistic secular nation, and, thus, opposition to state-sanctioned school prayer. This led, naturally, to certain alliances with secularists in the American political spectrum who opposed state enforcement of any form of theistic religion.<ref> Douglas Morgan, ''Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Involvement of a Major Apocalyptic Movement.'' (2001)</ref>

"Seventh-day" means that the observance of the original Sabbath, on "Saturday", still is a sacred obligation. Adventists argue that just as the other nine of the original [[Ten Commandments]] had not been revised, so also the injunction to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" remained in full force. This theological point in the late 19th century turned the young group into a powerful force for religious liberty. Growing into its full stature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these Adventists opposed Sunday laws on every side. Many were arrested for working on Sunday. In fighting against the real threat of a legally established National Day of worship, these Sabbatarians had to fight for their liberty on a daily basis. Soon, they were fighting for religious liberty on a broader, less parochial basis. The fear that other Protestants would establish a Christian Sunday expanded into opposition to the establishment of a "Christian" identity for the otherwise pluralistic secular nation, and, thus, opposition to state-sanctioned school prayer. This led, naturally, to certain alliances with secularists in the American political spectrum who opposed state enforcement of any form of theistic religion.<ref> Douglas Morgan, ''Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Involvement of a Major Apocalyptic Movement.'' (2001)</ref>

In holding to a perpetuation of the literal seventh day for rest and celebration, Seventh Day Adventists, as such, do not equate its observance with [[legalism]]. They argue, rather, that, though legalism is possible in regard to any law, God was not being a legalist for having given, commanded, and enforced the seventh-day rest upon His own nation any more than for having given, commanded, and enforced the primary law (to have no other Gods but God). They further argue that the seventh day, in being the first thing which God called sacred, is comparable to Adam’s own first words toward woman, such that the focus of the human creature’s life is not toward law at all, but toward what human life was made to be at its most joyous times; and, that, only by such extended and deep violations of the truths of these joys is even God Himself (like his wisely initiatived, humble representatives) finally induced to impose commands and enforcements concerning keeping them. <ref>’’Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Daniel 3:16’’ [http://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/comm_view.cfm?AuthorID=4&contentID=1506&commInfo=5&topic=Daniel&ar=Dan_3_16]</ref>

In holding to a perpetuation of the literal seventh day for rest and celebration, Seventh Day Adventists, as such, do not equate its observance with [[legalism]]. They argue, rather, that, though legalism is possible in regard to any law, God was not being a legalist for having given, commanded, and enforced the seventh-day rest upon His own nation any more than for having given, commanded, and enforced the primary law (to have no other Gods but God). They further argue that the seventh day, in being the first thing which God called sacred in the human realm, is comparable to Adam’s own first words toward woman, such that the focus of the human creature’s life is not toward law at all, but toward what human life was made to be at its most joyous times; and, that, only by such extended and deep violations of the truths of these joys is even God Himself (like his wisely initiatived, humble representatives) finally induced to impose commands and enforcements concerning keeping them. <ref>’’Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Daniel 3:16’’ [http://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/comm_view.cfm?AuthorID=4&contentID=1506&commInfo=5&topic=Daniel&ar=Dan_3_16]</ref>

==Further reading==

==Further reading==