Posted on 05/04/2015 6:23:01 AM PDT by Gamecock
Why do Christian churches meet and worship on Sunday? After all, doesn’t the fourth commandment clearly say “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God?” So is Sunday worship just a Christian tradition? Did we not want to get mistaken for Jews? Or perhaps there was a church council that met to decide the day should be moved?
Well no, none of those is the reason that Sunday became the day upon which Christians worship. Sunday worship was not fixed by a church council and as William Perkins points out, “The church, has no power to ordain a Sabbath.” The only authority who can tell us when to worship is the true head of the church, Jesus Christ, and He has done that in His word.
So together let’s take a look at the example of worship in the Apostolic church that we read about in Acts 20:
“But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days. Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted” (NKJV Acts 20:6-12).
Here Paul sails with Luke, the author of Acts, to Troas, a church which he had planted, and stays for 7 days. Now Paul was there on Saturday, but that is not when Luke tells us the church worshiped. Saturday was not their customary day for worship. When was the day when the disciples came together to worship? We read the answer in verse 7, it was first day of the week, and the first day of the week is NOT Monday, the first day of the week is Sunday. That is when they had their corporate worship including the Lord’s Supper (hence the reference to the breaking of bread) and preaching, and a very long sermon. But why had they made that change?
They had made the change because it was on the first day of the week that Jesus Christ forever set that day apart from all the others by rising from the dead. From that point onwards Sunday became a memorial to the turning point in the history of redemption. The Sabbath day from the beginning was the Seventh Day, and hearkened back to the Creation. The original Sabbath pointed to God’s creating work, but the Christian Sabbath points us to God’s redeeming work. It marks the great transition in the bible from redemption promised to redemption accomplished.
As RC Sproul put it: “In Christian history the sacred time of the Sabbath has three distinct orientations. The first is the commemoration of God’s work of creation. The second is the celebration of God’s work of redemption. The third is the celebration of the future promise of the consummation of redemption when we enter our Sabbath rest in heaven. Thus the whole scope of redemptive history, from start to finish, is made sacred in the observance of the Sabbath.”
Jesus also marked that day by appearing to his disciples after his resurrection on successive Sundays in John 20:19 and John 20:26 and it was why they called that day the Lord’s Day as John did in Revelation 1:10 – “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet”
All the references in early Christian writings also make reference to Christian worship being held on the Lord’s Day, for instance the Didache – which dates back to either the late 1st or early 2nd century states, “Chapter 14. Christian Assembly on the Lord’s Day. But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.”
Ignatius, the celebrated martyred bishop of Antioch, says, in his epistle to the Magnesians, written somewhere between 107-116 AD, that this is “the Lord’s day, the day consecrated to the resurrection the queen and chief of all the days.”
Justin Martyr, who died about A. D. 160 says that the Christians “neither celebrated the Jewish festivals, nor observed their Sabbaths, nor practiced circumcision.” And in another place, wrote that “they, both those who lived in the city and those who lived in the country, were all accustomed to meet on the day which is denominated Sunday, for the reading of the Scriptures, prayer, exhortation and communion. The assembly met on Sunday, because this is the first day on which God, having changed the darkness and the elements, created the world; and because Jesus our Lord on this day rose from the dead.”
Any day is a good day to worship. That does not remove the commandment, which is not for worship (though not without), but for rest.
You may already know I keep Shabbat - One of the few things YHWH promises specific blessings for keeping - And in my life, I have found that to be very true. That time, is the time I look forward to the most. And it isn’t hard to do. Rather, for me, it is a joy. A time I have grown to be very jealous for.
Yeshua cannot have changed the Sabbath day and be sinless... He would be a false prophet.
And no, Paul could not have changed the Sabbath, or he is a false prophet.
It is Rome that changed the times and laws (the moedim and Torah)... There is no getting around that. So, serve YHWH or serve Rome... Which?
Pentacost is not on a Sunday, except by accident
“Yeshua cannot have changed the Sabbath day and be sinless”
But why do you believe Saturday is the day?
Then why was YHWH so very specific?
The Sabbath day seems very clear to me. The bible says the Sabbath is the 7th day of the week, Saturday.
While I agree with you, I would point out that YHWH did not command you to count your steps upon the Sabbath. YHWH simply said 'don't travel on the Sabbath'. One of my favorite places to go on Shabbat is to a little ridge overlooking my property up on the mountain. I often will walk up there and sit on the bench there to commune and to read the Bible. There is nothing wrong with taking a walk on the Sabbath.
When you keep the speed limit once, does that mean you never have to keep it again?
The Bible says that God created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh. He commands us to remember the Sabbath day, the day of rest.
Now I don’t know about you, but my work week starts on Monday. I work in my business 5 and a half days a week. The last half of Saturday is for doing house stuff. Sunday is the day after the six days of labor, so I rest and worship on that day.
Do you remember how Jesus felt about those who were more concerned with the “rules” than loving their fellow man? Think hard before you post again.
Amen Sister/ brother. This is actually my ministry on Earth to get off this Old Testament legalism.
What comes to mind is the Sabbath.
Is it legalism to claim the Sabbath
is the Sabbath or is it legalism for
Preachers to claim the Sabbath was
changed to Sunday?
Most of the tithe collecting sheep shearers
that I have known do believe the Sabbath
was changed to Sunday.
While any one who is honest can see that
the Sabbath can not be changed any more
than the day of our lords resurrection.
It’s Saturday for me for sure as a Noachide.
Though by Deuteronomy 4:19 and Malachi 1:11, I believe that God is understanding to one’s true intentions...so long as they’re indeed true.
Oh, and are we really arguing this when the days of the week are named after Norse gods?
“The bible says the Sabbath is the 7th day of the week, Saturday.”
When did Saturday become the 7th day of the week?
But why Saturday? How do you know that Saturday was the Sabbath when Deuteronomy and Malachi were written?
'Destroy' and 'Fulfill' Are rabbinic terms - you should know what they mean... Then you might better understand the midrash that follows his statement.
There are records among the Jews to defend their 7th day as the Sabbath - And as the day that Yeshua recognized (having made no correction), and the day that HE attended Synagogue, I have naught to do but follow him.
Virtually everyone knows WHEN the Sabbath is, even though they don't keep it.
While not exactly defined as such, as a 'Christian Messianic', me too.
Though by Deuteronomy 4:19 and Malachi 1:11, I believe that God is understanding to one’s true intentions...so long as they’re indeed true.
I am less concerned with one's personal understandings... It is the corrupting of the original images that lead people to false understandings - These are what I stand to correct = It isn't a personal attack on anyone.
Because the Jews say that’s when it is, and I follow that Jewish custom.
I do occasionally find myself conflicted with some elements of Torah, such as Urim and Thummim, which I view as soothsaying. Or certain elements of animal sacrifice during the Old Temple period, and its possible restoration in The Temple to come. I try to keep kosher, though limiting it to poultry and fish for similar reasons.
In other words, I sometimes argue with God, which is the original meaning of Israel...as opposed to islam, which is to submit.
It took a long time in many Christian settings to realize that I was much happier with an Old Testament outlook.
Though I realize too that the United States could never have been founded without Christianity, so I recognize that for a great deal of people there is happiness therein too.
What I do lament however, is how many Christians seems to give The Law short shrift believing that the New Testament outlook somehow abrogates The Law. I obviously do not adhere to such a view.
In other languages they aren't like that -- Montag Dienstag Mittwoch Donnerstag Freitag Samstag Sonntag or Lunes, Martes, Miércoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sábado, Domingo or poniedziałek wtorek środa czwartek piątek sobota niedziela
Raven, with study ‘Pentecost’, the birthday of the church actually falls on one of His weekly Sabbaths.
But it would mean rejecting Rome’s calendar and Rome’s count.
And it would allow Moses coming down the mount after 100 days from the first Passover with the tablets of the covenant and 3000 people killed to mesh with the gift of the Holy irit and 3000 souls saved in Acts.
And that day, with study, would be the 29th day of our Father’s 4th month. A natural ‘weekly’ Sabbath when one studies the calendar template Ezekiel received from our Soveriegn..
His Sabbath isn’t Saturday or Sunday every week.. and it certainly is a way Satan steals worship..
I don’t have a problem with the 7th day. But how do you know that Saturday is the 7th day that they reference?
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