Has the Calendar been Changed?

How can we be absolutely sure our seventh day is still the Sabbath? Could the calendar have been changed? Is the seventh day of the week the same as in the time of Christ and Moses? This is very important. The seven day week, as well as the Bible Sabbath, had a common origin in history. Both originated at the Creation of our world. Scientists, historians, and astronomers affirm that the seven day weekly cycle has continued uninterrupted on down to our own day.

Languages
Both ancient and modern languages support the regular, weekly cycle. And, in at least 108 of them, the name for the seventh day of the week is not Saturday, or Saturn Day, but Sabbath! Let me give just a few examples:

Ancient Syriac: shabatho, Babylonian: sabatu, Arabic: assabt, Etheopic: sanbat, Armenian: shapat, Polynesian: hari sabtu, Swahili: assabt, Latin: Sabbatum, Italian: Sabbato, Spanish: Sabado, Russian: Subbota, Polish: Sobota, Assyrian: Sabata, Tigre: Sanbat, Kurdish: Shamba, Georgian: Shabati, Morduin: Subbota, Portuguese: Sabbado, New Slovenian: Sobota, Prussian: Sabatico.

So you see, the languages of the world also remind us of God's holy Sabbath day. Most languages of the world still call Saturday the Sabbath. All of these names mean "Sabbath" or "rest day" in their various languages. Except for those languages that have adopted the pagan names for the days of the week, the seventh day is still called the Sabbath, as the Lord named it at the time of the creation of the world.

Why the Seven-day weekly cycle?
Actually, the only reason we have a seven-day weekly cycle in the first place is that God created it during the creation week in the beginning. Have you ever wondered why we have the week? We have the yearly cycle because of the seasons, and the monthly cycle because of the moon. But nothing in nature indicates a seven-day weekly cycle. If the theory of evolution were correct, every nationality would, by the law of averages, have come up with a different weekly cycle, some 5 days, some 10 days, etc. But we all have the same seven-day weekly cycle because God established it at the Creation and it has continued to the present day.

The Calendar
Has the calendar been changed? Yes, but the weekly cycle has never been changed. The Julian calendar was in use when Jesus was on earth. The calendar, which continued in use for 15 centuries was not accurate in length of its year, for it was a quarter hour too long. By 1582, it was 10 days off. Pope Gregory initiated a change in the calendar by going to the Gregorian Calendar, and to make up for the error in the Julian calendar, 10 days were added to the calendar. In October, 1582, Thursday the 4th was followed by Friday the 15th in Italy and a few other countries. England and America changed its calendar in 1752 and Russia finally in 1914. Yet the weekly cycle was never affected. During the time that England, Russia, and Italy had different calendars, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were always the same in each country. [As a side note, the beginning of the year began March 1st under the Julian calendar, whereas he beginning of the year begins January 1st under the Gregorian calendar].
We do the same thing today, because every four years we change our calendar; it's called "leap year." At the end of February, we add one day every four years to our calendar. But notice the days of the week never change, it is only the number of the day that changes. For example, when that extra day is added, it might go from Thursday the 28th to Friday the 29th; the days of the week remain the same, only the numbers of the day change. There is no difference when 10 days are added to the calendar as well.

History has exact calendar records going back to Julius Caesar, several decades before Christ, and the weekly cycle has always remained intact. We have exactly the same weekly cycle today as was used in Jesus' day, and Jesus said that the day then called the Sabbath by the Jews, the seventh day of the week, was His day, the true Lord's Day. Yes, the amount of days in a month has changed, the amount of days in a year has changed, the amount of weeks in a month has changed, the amount of weeks in a year has changed, the amount of months in a year has changed. But the amount of days in a week has never changed since man was first created on earth.

Scientific and Historical Evidence
Our heavenly Father has given us more than scientific and historical evidence, though. He has given us the Jews! Every other Near East ethnic group has disappeared - the Hitites, Canaanites, Amorites, Amalekites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Sumarians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Moabites, Philistines - but the Jews remain and, with them, the seventh day Sabbath. They have faithfully kept it since the time of Moses, 3500 years ago, and have continued to keep track of the Sabbath each week. Any Jew will tell you that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and that it falls on the Saturday of each week. It would be absolutely impossible to mix up a whole nationality overnight and have them all wake up unified and worshipping on another day, thinking it was the Sabbath. Moreover, since Jesus has commanded us to worship on that day to show allegiance to Him, don't you think He would preserve its identity?

Conclusion
Christ risked his life and mission to rescue the Sabbath from the legalistic perversions of the Pharisees, and to show what was in harmony with the original law (Matthew 12:1-13, Mark 1:21-34; 2:23-28; 3:1-5; 6:1-6, Luke 4:16-18,31-41; 6:1-10; 13:10-17; 14:1-6, John 5:5-18; 9:13-16). He spoke no word implying the abolition of the Sabbath day. Why should he so carefully define, defend, and clear from superstitious accretions the Sabbath if it was to be abrogated? No one repairs a house as a preliminary to burning it down, or re-etches the letters of a monument prior to its destruction. Now, if the Sabbath day was to cease following Jesus’ death, this exhortation would be totally uncalled for. But such is not the case, because the Sabbath day will continue to be a day of rest, worship, and rejuvenation for God’s people (Isaiah 66:22-23). The Sabbath was intended by God to be a day of freedom, a day of delight, and the highlight of the week (Isaiah 58:13-14).