I read some of the doctrine information on your sabbath pages & find it interesting it says the word Sunday is not in the Bible, neither is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday.  Since they didn't have names for the days of the week in those times, who really knows what day the Sabbath actually fell on according to our system of time keeping.

P.J.T.

Answer

It is true that the actual word "Sunday" is not in the Bible. It has been the common practice of all civilizations to name the days of the week after their deities. The English names that we use now for the days of the week are drawn from our Teutonic heritage.  Wednesday is taken from Woden's day and Thursday from Thor's day. The Seventh Day Baptist scholar and linguist W.M Jones in 1887 published an interesting study into the names of the days of the week in some 160 languages.  See http://www.seventh-day-baptist.org.au/library/books/wmjones.htm   He found allusions to the seventh-day or Saturday as the Sabbath in over one hundred languages, some quite ancient and no longer used.

However, it is not true that "they didn't have names for the days of the week in those times". 

The seven-day week came into being because,

(Gen 2:2-3 NKJV)  And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. {3} Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

God confirmed the Sabbath as being the seventh day by a series of miracles and by his own declaration as recorded in Exodus 16 when God provided manna for the Children of Israel.

(Exo 16:19-20 NKJV)  And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it till morning." {20} Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.

(Exo 16:22-25 NKJV)  And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. {23} Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD has said: 'Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.'" {24} So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. {25} Then Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.

(Exo 16:27-30 NKJV)  Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. {28} And the LORD said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? {29} "See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." {30} So the people rested on the seventh day.

From that point on the nation of Israel acknowledged every seventh day as God's holy Sabbath - the Biblical name for the memorial of the seventh day of the seven-day creation week.

The New Testament confirms that Jesus Christ observed the Sabbath commandment and worshipped God on that day.

"... as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day ..." (Luke 4:16 NKJV) 

Perhaps the strongest evidence supporting the fixing the seventh day as the Sabbath is found in the tenacity of the Jewish nation whose cultural and religious association with Sabbath has without doubt preserved it intact for millennia. In Jewish literature we discover that the days of the week were referred to by their relation to the Sabbath. Hence in New Testament Greek we have the Jewish phrase "the one of the sabbaths" which scholars interpret as being a reference to the first day of the week.

Additionally we have the testimony of the Catholic Church which allocated special significance to the day in which the risen Christ first appeared to his followers.

To assume that the days were not named and that every day blended into the next without distinction is a falsehood. There is adequate testimony in the preserved writings to see that this was not so. For instance, we have the writings of Justin Martyr (c. 100 -165) confirming the existence of days dedicated to Saturn and the Sun:

And on the day called Sunday,[1] all … gather together in one place, … But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, ...[2]

And similarly that of Tertullian (c.160 - 220) in his Apology who in defends Christians against the accusation of sun-worship.

Others, again, certainly with more information and greater verisimilitude, believe that the sun is our God.... In the same way, if we devote Sun-day to rejoicing, from a far different reason than Sun-worship, we have some resemblance to those of you who devote the day of Saturn to ease and luxury, though they too go far away from Jewish ways, of which indeed they are ignorant.[3] 

Even though there have been several calendar changes over the centuries we can be sure that the sequence of days has been preserved and that our Saturday, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday is the seventh day of the week. From the booklet "Has Time Been Lost?",[4] I quote:

"Calendar Changes

The calendar now in use, a Roman calendar, has been changed, but that change did not break the weekly cycle.

Prior to its change, it was called the Julian calendar, because it originated at the time of Julius Caesar, 45 B.C.-- several years before the birth of Christ. The one change was ordered by Pope Gregory, and since then it has been called the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar was imperfect-- it inserted leap years too frequently. Back in 45 BC they supposed the year was exactly 365 1/4 days long, and to take care of the extra one-fourth day each year, added a day to the month of February every four years. But it was found later the year was 12 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than this. Consequently, by the time of Pope Gregory, the calendar had drifted TEN DAYS away from the seasons. The Spring equinox, consequently, fell on March 11th, instead of March 21st.

To correct this, ten days were dropped from the calendar. But they were dropped only from the number of days in the MONTH, not from the number of days in the WEEK. A man named Lilius proposed the method which was adopted in making the change. In the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, p. 251, under article "Lilius," explaining this change, we read: "Thus, every imaginable proposition was made, only one idea was never mentioned, viz., the abandonment of the seven-day week."

In the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 740, article "Chronology," we read: "It is to be noted that in the Christian period, the order of days in the week has never been interrupted. Thus, when Gregory XIII reformed the calendar in 1582, Thursday, 4 October was followed by Friday, 15 October. So in England, in 1752, Wednesday, 2 September, was followed by Thursday, 14 September."

Since the Catholics changed the calendar, the Catholic Encyclopedia is the best historical authority there is on the question, and is proof positive.

So that the reader may clearly understand it, and SEE how it was worked out on the Calendar, we reproduce below the actual calendar. The change was made in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, in 1582. Here is the calendar for October, 1582!

OCTOBER 1582

You will notice how ten days were dropped out. One day was the 4th, and the very next day was the 15th of October. But the 4th was Thursday, and the next day was FRIDAY.

To make it still plainer, the 29th of September that year was a Sabbath, or Saturday. The 30th was Sunday. The 1st of October was Monday, the 2nd was Tuesday, the 3rd was Wednesday, the 4th was Thursday, and the next day was Friday, but it was not the 5th: it was the 15th. And the following day was Saturday, the 16th. Actually Saturday, the 16th, was just one week of seven days after the preceding Saturday, the 29th of September. There had been exactly seven days, seven sunsets, from one Sabbath to the next. The change in the calendar DID NOT IN ANY WAY CHANGE THE SABBATH, or the succession of the DAYS OF THE WEEK.

Now the British countries refused to change the calendar when the pope ordered it. They continued with the old Julian calendar until 1752. And while their days of the month were different, yet their days of the week were JUST THE SAME AS IN ROME. Those who kept the Sabbath in England kept the same SATURDAY that was called Saturday in Rome. Those who observed Sunday observed the same day, both in Rome where the calendar had been changed, and in London where it had not.

The English countries changed the calendar in 1752. By that time it was necessary to drop out 11 days. The change was made in September as follows:

SEPTEMBER 1752

Now in Russia, the calendar was never changed until just recently, IN OUR OWN LIFETIME. Consequently, in the year 1907, the day that we called the 14th of August, the Russians called the 1st of August. Our calendars were 13 days apart. Yet in BOTH countries, we both called that same day SATURDAY. In BOTH countries, SATURDAY fell on the same day of the week. The calendar has since been changed in Russia. And still their Sunday is our Sunday-- their Saturday is our Saturday. For reference, see above article, "Chronology," Catholic Encyclopedia.

And so we see that the calendar that has been IN EFFECT SINCE 45 BC prior to the birth of Christ, proves that there has never been any change in the weekly cycle from the time of Christ until now. The SATURDAY of today is the same seventh day of the week as it was in CHRIST'S time. We can, therefore, be sure we keep the same Sabbath day that Christ kept, setting us an example-- the same day He said He was LORD of (Mark 2:28). …
  

The Testimony of Astronomers

Finally, we have the scientific testimony of astronomers. We quote from the official government statements to the League of Nations, as published August 17, 1926, in an official League document.

The government of Finland presented this observation from one of its astronomers: "The reform [calendar reform before the League] would break the division of the week, which has been followed for thousands of years, and therefore has been hallowed by immemorial use."

The government of France presented the following statements from two of its leading astronomers: "One essential point is that of the continuity of the week ... a continuity which has existed for so many centuries." "The continuity of the week ... is without doubt the most ancient scientific institution bequeathed to us by antiquity." Stated Prof. D. Eginitis, director of the Observatory of Athens, a member of the League Committee, "The continuity of the week ... has crossed the centuries, and all known calendars, still intact."