THE SEVENTH-DAY

SABBATH:
GOD’S CREATIVE FINGERPRINT AND
BADGE OF HONOR SINCE EDEN!!
Bible-based Signals that God’s Weekly Sabbath Was
Known and Kept Before Sinai; from the Beginning!!

By Derrick Gillespie

May 2018 Edition

This e-book (PDF) is FREE and is best read with a live Internet connection!

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 GOD’S SABBATH KNOWN AS A SACRED FESTIVAL BEFORE SINAI
“Exodus 5:1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD
God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast [a “chag chag” or sacred assembly]
unto me in the wilderness… Exodus 5:4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye,
Moses and Aaron, let the people [rest] from their works [labor]? get you unto your burdens.
Exodus 5:5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them
rest [Hebrew, “shabbath” or keep Sabbath] from their burdens [labor].”
----KJV (Bible).

“Exodus 10:7 And Pharaoh's servants said unto him [after several of the plagues had already
fallen on Egypt], How long shall this man [Moses] be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they
may serve [worship] the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
Exodus 10:8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them,
Go, serve the LORD your God….
Exodus 10:9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and
with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast [or
sacred assembly] unto the LORD.”
----KJV (Bible).

The above Scriptures about God’s people IN EGYPT (or long before Sinai, or before their Sinaitic
covenant/agreement with God in Exodus 19) are often read and the key issue inherent in the verses is
often missed by most people who read them. It was not just freedom from slavery that was the issue
but notice carefully, God wanted his people to be free to “rest” from labor and “serve” or worship him,
or, better yet, to observe “a feast” or “chag chag” (or solemn or sacred assembly or set time), but
they were being prevented from doing so. This was long BEFORE their departure from Egypt, and long
before their very first annual feast of Passover or Unleavened bread originated at their departure from
Egypt.

The word "feast" (from either Hebrew "chag chag" or "moed") does not just mean eating much food
(the modern and western meaning), but rather it biblically means a solemn or sacred assembly time.
The Hebrew word “chag chag”, just like the Hebrew word “moed”, is what is used to designate all
the holy times or sacred festivals of Israel, and yet here we see that long BEFORE the people left
Egypt and their Mosaic system was codified in written form, Moses was seeking to return the people
to a knowledge of the only sacred time set up from the very beginning….the Sabbath or “rest” from
labor to worship or “serve” God. This was what the main issue for God was (“Sabbath” worship), and
he had Moses state it and clearly record it, and yet many people miss it when they read it. God
obviously wanted his enslaved people to return to “serving” him by “resting” from their labor and
keep the only “feast” or sacred time in existence since Genesis 2:1-3…but the people were being
prevented and were being robbed of the knowledge of this sacred time because of over 400 hundred
years of bondage in Egypt. Keep in mind that the people in Egypt had nightly rest from their daily
labor in Egypt, but Moses was wanting to have them “rest” or “shabbath” and keep a “feast” or
sacred assembly which they needed time off for…to be observed a certain distance away from all
distractions in Egypt (see Exodus 5:3)!

In Egypt God’s people in bondage were allowed to go to bed each night, which afforded normal rest, of
course. But the "rest" being demanded by Moses in Exodus 5:1-7 (Exodus 10:7-9) was connected to
the only "feast" or 'solemn assembly' in existence while they were in Egypt---i.e. the weekly
Sabbath--- since all other "feasts" of Israel begun after their Exodus or "Departure" (or “Exodus”)
from Egypt; with the first annual/yearly "feast" being the Passover originating as they came out of
Egypt (and all the others, Tabernacles, Day of Atonement, etc., all originating after that). In Leviticus
23:1-3, the weekly Sabbath was called one of the "feasts" for "holy convocation" or for solemn
assembly of the people of Israel to worship God. Thus with the other "feasts" not yet in existence in
Egypt, the only one Moses could have been seeking "rest" to observe out in the wilderness at the
time (and away from all the distractions in Egypt) was THE WEEKLY SABBATH, but slavery prevented
them from doing so (Pharaoh doubled their labor just for them asking for the time to keep that “feast”
or sacred assembly). Thus the clear evidence of a knowledge of the weekly Sabbath even then.

Now read carefully Genesis 2:1-3, and compare it with

the foregoing quoted verses from Exodus 5 and 10.

“Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were

finished, and all the host of them.

Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work

which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day

from all his work which he had made.

Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and

sanctified it [or made it a sacred time or “chag chag”, as

it were]: because that in it he had rested from all his work

which God created and made.” ----KJV (Bible).

Do you see, dear reader, the direct connection with a previous knowledge of this sacred time or
“feast” long before Sinai, long before even Exodus 16 when the now freed Israelites were
tested on God’s “laws” and the Sabbath first and foremost, even before God “gave” (or codified
in writing for the first time) the Ten Commandments on Sinai in Exodus 20, and even before
there was a covenant with Israel (as seen instituted in Exodus 19)? God would NOT have
created in Genesis 2:1-3 an institution related to “rest” from labor in order for his people to
commune with and worship him, “sanctified” it or ‘set it apart’ from the beginning for holy
use by his people serving and worshipping him (see Exodus 20:8-11), have it actually result in
the creation week (and all weekly cycles thereafter) ultimately having seven days, and not
six, and yet did not make Adam and Eve (whom he directly communed with) or his true
worshippers know of it for thousands of years until Sinai (as opposers of the Sabbath often
claim). It just does not make any sense.

But the Bible does indicate all over the first two books (Genesis and Exodus) that God’s true
worshippers knew from the very beginning about the week of seven days, about his laws and
commandments and basic institutions of worship (e.g. sacrifices and offerings, tithes, clean
and unclean animals, etc.), despite we don’t see where there is a record in the Bible of God
telling his people before Sinai. So how did they get to know them? The clues are all right
there in the Bible, and its full time the world know of these Biblical signals and clues, so that
no longer will people question the Biblical notion that the Sabbath is a foundational worship
institution given from Genesis; just like the home and family, heterosexual marriage and
heterosexual sex were all established from Eden as loving gifts from a Creator God...all given
for the benefit of all mankind; not just Jews!

This will all get very interesting and revealing before I am done!! But let me not get ahead of
myself, since I intent to approach this issue slowly and in a systematic way.
Now I started out my presentation on the issue of “The Seventh-day Sabbath: God’s Creative
Fingerprint and Badge of Honor Since Eden”, by diving right into the Bible to show what is in
store in this booklet…the often missed and much ignored SIGNALS (!!!) in God’s Word (the
Bible) that God’s weekly Sabbath was known and kept before Sinai; from the beginning!!
Strong Biblical evidence will be given which signals that Adam, Noah, Abraham, and all God's
people BEFORE Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments knew of and kept the
Sabbath!! Some people assume there is no such evidence in the Bible, and yet it’s there in the
Bible staring them in the face all along. And, YES, the various "chapters and verses" of the bible
yielding such strong evidence (despite all the protest that none exist) will be presented,
exegeted and analyzed for the world to see.

Despite previous knowledge of many of the other commandments in Decalogue show up in

Genesis among God's people even though we don’t see when they were told of them before
Sinai (as will be shown clearly from Scripture), many today wrongfully assume no knowledge
of the Sabbath existed before the giving of the Ten Commandments on Sinai. The Bible itself
totally debunk this fallacious notion in no uncertain terms, and in ways many people don't
realize it has been doing all along. What I showed before is just a sample of what’s to come
later in this presentation. Of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath is the only one God himself
SPECIALLY describes its origin from Genesis 2 (as we saw earlier), the only institution God said
"remember" when he finally gave the Ten Commandments in a formal written code at Sinai
(see Exodus 20:8-11), and despite all that people today either say "forget" the Sabbath, or
they deny knowledge of it before Sinai. This FREE booklet will shock many people when they
discover how blind they have been all along!! So let’s continue the journey of discovery we
have embarked on, dear reader.

LET’S START FROM THE VERY BEGINNING

From as early as Genesis 4:7, we have the first signal that early humans (including Cain)
already knew of God’s laws against “sin” (including having the knowledge that contemplating
murder and committing murder is actually a “sin”), even though we are never shown the
record of when they were told of them. Keep in mind the Bible makes plain that “where there
is no law there is no sin” (Romans 5:13) and “by the law is a knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20),
and so by Cain being found guilty of the “sin” of murder by God, it is plain he knew of the law
against murder, even before it was codified or formally written down. It is therefore plain that
they knew by oral tradition, or being taught within the family what “sin” is, and how to worship
God. Nowhere are we shown when Adam and his family were told about altars and offering
sacrifices (animal and food offerings) as part of worship, for instance, yet Cain and Abel knew of
them quite early, and hence it was plain God told our first parents how to worship him, and it
was passed down by oral tradition. This same principle would apply to their apparent
knowledge of what “sin” is, and this same principle we see in other instances right there in
Genesis.

By Genesis 6 we see God “imputing” or charging “sin” against the people in Noah’s day, and we
must emember that “where there is no law there is no sin” (Romans 5:13) and sin is not
“imputed” or charged against the sinner unless he has a knowledge of it. Thus because “sin”
was punished by the Flood of Noah, it stands to reason that there was full knowledge of it
even before the law was CODIFIED or “given” in written form!!

Noah even knew long before Israel originated (centuries later) of the laws of “clean” and
“unclean” animals for sacrifice and later to govern his diet, yet we never see when he was told
of these distinctions before the Flood. In Genesis 7:1-8, Noah clearly already knew what
animals were "clean" and what animals were deemed "unclean", so that he could
intelligently follow God's directives in Genesis 7:1-9, and save on the Ark over three times the
number of "clean" animals compared to the "unclean" (both for nutrition as well as sacrificial
purposes, since “unclean” animals couldn’t be sacrificed to represent the coming Saviour).

Since the reality of the revelation of all “clean” animals made for consumption after the
Flood, and the prohibition to not eat blood (Gen. 7:1-8; Gen. 9:3-4) both predated the Jews
and the Old Covenant, then it is clear God himself (not man) made this principle a universal
principle for all people, since all the descendants of Noah would actually form the population
of the entire earth after the Flood (remember everyone else died in the Flood because of
disobedience and sinfulness). Thus God gave this knowledge to his ancient people long before
Sinai and it was passed down by oral tradition to be later codified in writing among the
Israelites several centuries after.

The Bible also point blank made plain that Abraham, coming from the land of pagans KNEW of
God’s laws and kept them, hence indicating his PREVIOUS knowledge of them. Hear the Bible:

“Genesis 26:4 And I [God] will make thy [Abraham’s] seed [or descendants] to multiply as the
stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed;
Genesis 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my
commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” ----KJV (Bible).

Notice AGAIN, nowhere were we shown in Genesis where Abraham was taught God’s
“commandments”, “statutes” and “law”, yet he “kept” or obeyed them, since they obviously
were passed down to him. He obeyed God’s voice and instructions (for instance, to leave his
pagan land and travel to another place, and also to attempt sacrifice his son to show his love
for God), but he ALSO kept what are separately called God’s “laws” and “statutes”, which are
clearly things which point out “sin” and guides true worship of God (see 1 John 3:4 telling us
that “sin” is “transgressing God’s laws”). He even knew of what it means to tithe his property
to support God’s priest (Melchizedek) as a worship expression directed towards God long
before it was written down among the laws of Moses in Israel several centuries after (see
Genesis 14;17-20). Yet we never see when God’s people were told about priests and tithes, but
they had knowledge of both long before the Jews originated. Thus Abraham is again another
proof that God’s laws were well known before codified or “given” in written form on Sinai.

Joseph later on showed that he too knew long before Sinai that adultery was a “sin” against
God, as seen plainly in Genesis (when as a slave he refused to sleep with Potiphar’s wife):

“Genesis 39:9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he [Potiphar] kept back
anything from me but thee [his wife], because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God?” ----KJV (Bible).

And I could keep going to show case after case before Sinai of God’s people in all ages (not just the
later nation of Israelites) knowing of God’s laws and institutions of true worship and right living long
before Sinai and the “giving” of the written codification of the Ten Commandments. That lays the
foundation for me to now reveal some rather startling truths about the Sabbath; an institution whose
origin was described in detail from Genesis 2:1-3.

WHY IS THE SABBATH THE TRUE GOD’S CREATIVE FINGERPRINT AND

BADGE OF HONOR?

Now, before I move on to deal with why the Sabbath is God’s own special identifying
“fingerprint” as Creator and badge of honor, let me ask this probing question of you dear
reader. Why would God especially reveal how the Sabbath originated from Genesis 2:1-3,
describing how he “blessed it” and “sanctified it” or made it holy time, and yet would keep
back that knowledge from Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc.? Despite God never specially described
the origin of altars, or sacrifices, or tithes, or clean and unclean foods, for instance, or how and
when he told his people about his laws against sin, yet they just happen to have previous
knowledge of all these other things (shared by oral tradition), so why not the Sabbath? Why
would all God’s people before Israel know of the week of seven days since creation, but, as
some lamely argue, have no knowledge of the Sabbath that actually made the week to have
seven days in the first place? Why would God put his presence in and blessing on the
Sabbath, and “sanctify” or set it apart as a sacred time when people should rest from a week
of hard work, and as sacred time in which God especially communed with his people, and
keep it back from all of his true worshippers for thousands of years, until just a small group of
people called the Jews came on the scene? Wasn’t it the same Creator God who came on
earth in the person of Jesus and made plain “the Sabbath was made for Man” (see Mark 2:27;
John 1:1-3, 14). Were Adam, Noah, Enoch, Abraham, etc., not “men”, were they not in need
of rest from labor, were they not in need of special time to commune with God and especially
worship him after a week of labor and toil? What really can be the justification for thinking
that God deprived all these people who worshipped him of the blessing of the Sabbath?

Truth be told? I see absolutely no reasonable answer to the above questions, except some
people are so bent on erasing the validity of the Sabbath from the very beginning of man’s
life on the planet that they would reason in the most extreme and illogical ways in order to
attempt to so do. But God has left his own “fingerprint” on Creation in the form of the
Sabbath, and in order to get rid of it from Genesis 2 we would have to get rid of the Creator
himself from Genesis 2. Let’s now see why that is so.

GOD’S OWN DECLARATION ABOUT THE WEEKLY SABBATH…

The Bible is consistent and clear from beginning to the end, beginning in Genesis 2:1-3, that the
Sabbath was created to point back to creation and God as the Creator. And when God
officially codified (or put in writing) the Sabbath command (just like all his other laws known
before Sinai), he first spoke it himself and then wrote it himself (he actually wrote it TWICE
with his own “finger” on the two separate sets or tables of stone; Exodus 31:18), and he himself
gave the reason for the Sabbath:

“Exodus 20:11 For [because] 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.” ---KJV (Bible)
“Exodus 20:11 That is because the LORD worked six days and made the sky, the earth, the
sea, and everything in them. And on the seventh day, he rested. In this way the LORD blessed
the Sabbath—the day of rest. He made that a very special day.”
–ERV (Easy to Read Version)

I see anti-Sabbatarians desperately trying to make the Sabbath the “independence day” for the
founding of the nation of Israel, and saying this was the reason for Israel to observe it (based on
God saying in Deuteronomy 5:15 that they were slaves in Egypt so, they argue, that’s the
primary reason they should have observed the Sabbath). But that’s plain denial and corruption
of Scripture. Before God gave the entire list of Ten Commandments he reminded Israel that
they were in Egypt and in bondage and that he God emancipated them (see Exodus 20:1-2
compared with Deuteronomy 5:6), thus they were to have no other God before him. Thus he
being their Emancipator from bondage (not only that he was their Creator, et al) was given as
 an additional reason to obey all his Ten Commandments; it was not just related to the Sabbath
commandment. This not only takes the wind out of the sails of that faulty argument described
above, but it also shows plainly, that we cannot use the popular liberal argument that because
Gentile Christians were not slaves in Egypt they shouldn’t keep the Sabbath today to honor God
as Creator. It just doesn’t fly! That argument, if true, would have applied to ALL of the
commands in the Decalogue, since God prefaced them ALL with a reminder that Israel was in
Egypt and God delivered them. And yet in the New Testament we see all those laws re-stated
and being obeyed by Gentiles. So that argument flounders and fails significantly!!

God himself REPEATEDLY tells us the reason for the Sabbath being in existence in the first
place; it was in existence loooong before Israel, and was simply created, made holy, set apart
for holy use, and blessed AT CREATION, because it pointed back to the creation event as a
memorial of the Creator; NOT to the origin of Israel as nation!!!
Thus the Sabbath is Jehovah’s badge of honor as Creator of everything and everyone,
including those false Christians who want to erase the Sabbath-creation “sign” as his badge of
honor, as if he is only the Creator of the Jews alone. Jehovah God, every single time, points to
the Creation as the proof that he is the true God, above all false gods or divine pretenders in
false religions, and the Sabbath is his ultimate “fingerprint” stamped (as it were) on creation.

THE WEEK OF SEVEN DAYS FROM THE BEGINNING SILENTLY TESTIFIES…

I have been a Geography teacher for nearly 30 years, and I have been simply fascinated by the
fact that the week having seven days globally (and ending with the Sabbath) CANNOT BE
SCIENTIFICALLY EXPLAINED BY ANY NATURAL PHENOMENON IN NATURE!! Scientists are at a
loss to explain it, and simply accept that the only explanation is what we see in the Hebrew and
Christian Bible in Genesis and Exodus. Imagine that!! They boil it down to simply the
Christian/Hebrew ‘tradition’ seen in Genesis and Exodus (despite the world is NOT just a world
made up of Jews and Christians)!! Think long and hard about that one for a while, dear reader!!
The 24-hour day is caused by the sun’s rotation in 24 hours, the month is caused by the
revolution of the moon in 28 days around the earth, and the year is caused by the earths’
revolution around the sun in 365 days. BUT the week of seven days and ending with the
Sabbath (Saturday) is only explained by the arbitrary act of God himself to add a seventh day
to the creation week of six days in order to remind us that he is Creator…and he had that
knowledge passed down by oral tradition resident among his true worshippers!!

All of God’s people from Adam to Moses knew that the week has seven days, and they could only have
known, NOT by natural movements of heavenly bodies, but ONLY by God telling them from the very
beginning…naturally meaning that he told them of the Sabbath being the reason for it all!! The week with
the Sabbath to end it in each cycle silently testifies of God as Creator, and the only way to get rid of it is to
get rid of the true God who made it, and clearly that cannot be done, despite many are trying desperately!!

Now, what is even more mind-blowing than what I just revealed above is that God seemed to have known that
humans would try to tamper with the weekly cycle of the days as correctly ending with the Sabbath, and put
Sunday as the seventh-day (on the calendar), but interestingly that is hard to do since the very languages of
many nations of the earth has the very seventh day of every week, or the day we call Saturday, being
labeled by words similar in sound to the word “Sabbath”, and they all mean “rest”. Take note of this brief
chart below:

Imagine that!! The Sabbath is the only day in the week that’s NAMED in the Bible, and the first six days can
be called anything in any language, but the last day of the week was meant to be the “rest” day, and in many
cases it’s called something similar in sound and meaning to “the Sabbath” in many languages of the world, just
as God had it in the very beginning. No wonder we now know from scientific evidence (DNA analysis and
comparison globally) that all humans have one common biological ancestor, because we also see the evidence
passed down through cultural or oral tradition globally, in, for instance, the week universally having seven
days, and the last day in that ‘universal week’ being called the “sabbath” or the “rest” day; despite these
languages are not influenced only by Christian teaching. Think long and hard on that one as well, dear reader.
This is another level of proof that all mankind at one time in ancient history knew of and observed the
seventh day as the “rest” day or “the Sabbath” even before Sinai, or before the Jews had it codified or
written down as a Law…explaining why various ancient languages have it embedded in their language cultures
across the globe! God has unmistakably left his personal “fingerprint” on creation via the week of seven days
with its Sabbath at the end (all around the globe), because the Sabbath will forever be his creative badge of
honor (especially in these days of evolution theories); considering that God has predicted that a Roman
power would have tried to CHANGE his sacred time and laws and dishonor him (see Daniel 7:25). If you wish
to see why the Bible teaches that the Sabbath is forever binding on all of God’s true worshippers, and how the
Roman Catholic Church or Papacy has fulfilled Daniel 7:25 in Christianity or Church history, IN MIND-BLOWING
FULFILMENT of Bible prophecy, see these links giving much more detail:

Link 1 (click) and Link 2 (click) and Link 3 (click)

CLOSING APPEAL
It is the case that the “crowd” in Christendom is united in preaching that the Sabbath was only
created for the Jews (despite Isaiah 56:1-8 and Acts 13:42-44 says otherwise), that it was
unknown by God’s people before Sinai, and that today it is abolished (despite Biblical evidences
proves otherwise). Never follow the crowd (since Jesus prophesied that most Christians will be
lost for disobedience; Matthew 7:21-23; Psalm 40:8), and never forget that often the most
hated, and vilified of God’s messengers may just have something more vital and destiny-related
to offer than many realize (just like the prophets of ancient Israel were mocked hated,
persecuted and killed by their own fellow Israelites). SDAs as Reformers (in these days when
“reformation” is more and more not deemed as an attractive option by many in Christendom)
we do have something to offer that’s either vehemently hated and opposed, or it appeals to
millions and many are waking up to accepting it. Love us or hate us, but we do have a message
no one can ignore. We continue to say to the world:

“Revelation 14:7 Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and
worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
---KJV (Bible)
“Exodus 20:8-11 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… 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.” ---KJV (Bible)
Genesis 2:1-3 coupled with Exodus 20:8-11 makes it forever
plain!! Jehovah God is our Creator and by virtue of the fact
that we owe him our very existence, that's the fundamental
reason to honor him as Creator always, BUT ESPECIALLY ON
HIS OWN "HOLY DAY" (see Isaiah 58:13-14); THE DAY HE
HALLOWED OR SANCTIFIED AND BLESSED FROM THE VERY
BEGINNING, AND WHICH WILL ALWAYS BE HIS MEMORIAL OF
CREATION!!

HE THAT HATH AN EAR LET HIM HEAR!!

______________________________________

Derrick Gillespie is a trained teacher in the Social Sciences, History, and Geography, and remains a
member of the SDA Church in Jamaica and a lay evangelist for SDAs.

(Email: ddgillespie@live.com; Webpage: https://www.facebook.com/derrick.gillespie)