How Do You Know You Are Right?

Most people adopt their parents' religion, at least nominally. They just "know" that their beliefs are right, but have never proved those beliefs for themselves. Is that good enough for you? A deceived man does not know that he is deceived. How, then, do you know that you are not deceived?

For example: On what day of the week do you go to church? If you are like the vast majority in the Western world, you will answer "Sunday." If someone asks you "why," you will likely say: "Well, everyone knows that Sunday is when you are supposed to go to church. That's when everyone goes."

But what does the Bible say? In fact, the Bible nowhere says that Sunday is the day of Christian worship—and you can prove this, both from the Bible and from history. The Bible speaks of another day—and only that day—as the Christian day of weekly rest.

Note this quote from a highly respected mainstream source, Eerdmans' Handbook to the History of Christianity: "When in 321 [the Roman Emperor] Constantine made the first day of the week a holiday, he called it 'the venerable day of the sun' (Sunday). When the pagan symbols eventually disappeared, the Unconquered Sun was the last to go" (p. 131).

Sun-worship and other unbiblical practices found their way into "Christian" worship, as Eerdmans' observes: "The Christian church took over many pagan ideas and images. From sun-worship, for example, came the celebration of Christ's birth on the twenty-fifth of December, the birthday of the Sun. Saturnalia, the Roman winter festival of 17–21 of December, provided the merriment, gift-giving and candles typical of later Christmas holidays. Sun-worship hung on in Roman Christianity and Pope Leo I, in the middle of the fifth century, rebuked worshippers who turned round to bow to the sun before entering St. Peter's basilica. Some pagan customs which were later Christianized, for example the use of candles, incense and garlands, were at first avoided by the church because they symbolized paganism" (pp. 131–132).

Quotes like this are legion throughout church history. Students of biblical history know that much that today is called "Christian" was once called pagan. While some sects have attempted to connect Sunday observance with the Bible, the truth is that Sunday observance started outside the Bible, as a human replacement for the day of rest and worship that God set aside in the Bible.

Many in the United States and elsewhere are trying to have the Ten Commandments posted in schools and other public buildings. But how many of those who promote posting the Ten Commandments actually know what the Ten Commandments contain?

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:8–11).

No biblical authority has changed this command of God. Jesus Christ and the Apostles all kept the seventh-day Sabbath, as recorded in the New Testament. Do you know the Bible, or do you believe that men have the authority to revoke or "reinterpret" a commandment given by God?

The Bible teaches us to "test all things, hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Read your Bible. Prove it for yourself, from its own pages, and then you will truly know that you are right.