Why do Christians worship on Sunday?

Oh come on ... it was meant to be funny. Lighten up.

And for your edification there's this:

"Reverend is a style most often used as a prefix to the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. The Reverend is correctly called a style but is often and in some dictionaries called a title, form of address or title of respect. The style is also sometimes used by leaders in non-Christian religions such as Judaism and Buddhism.

The term is an Anglicization of the Latin reverendus, the style originally used in Latin documents by the Roman Catholic Church. It is the gerundive of the verb revereri (to respect) which may be taken as a gerundive or a passive periphrastic, therefore meaning [one who is] to be respected/must be respected. The Reverend is therefore equivalent to The Hono(u)rable or The Venerable.

It is paired with a modifier or noun for some offices in some religious traditions: e.g., Roman Catholic bishops are usually styled The Most Reverend (reverendissimus); Anglican bishops are styled The Right Reverend; some Reformed churches have used The Reverend Mister as a style for their clergy."

Do some research.

It appears you haven’t read the other posts. Read them.

That is your rebuttal? Wow!! Let me guess, you weren't the debate team captain.

No antagonism meant here. Just the facts.

The apostles were Jewish, right?

They went to synagogue on Saturday (in the beginning) right?

Then they would meet in home churches to celebrate the remembrance of the Last Supper on Sunday as Christ had instructed them: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Slowly the Sunday worship took over and the verbiage changed to “The Lord’s Day.”

I will post a thread that explains it much better.

“His studies gave him unique access to Roman Catholic historical archives that shed much light on the transition from Sabbath to Sunday.

The Church of the capital of the empire, whose authority was already felt far and wide in the second century, appears to be the most likely birthplace of Sunday observance,” he concluded.

In one of his last interviews before his death, he told WND: “Anti-Judaism caused the abandonment of the Sabbath, and pagan sun worship influenced the adoption of Sunday.”

He says evidence of anti-Judaism is found in the writings of Christian leaders such as Ignatius, Barnabus and Justin in the second century. He notes these three “witnessed and participated in the process of separation from Judaism which led the majority of the Christians to abandon the Sabbath and adopt Sunday as the new day of worship.” “

Exodus merely says one day out of seven is a day of rest. It nowhere says that one day has to be a specific day of the week. Which day is the first and which is the seventh of the week is a purely arbitrary construct anyway. Nobody was keeping track from the days of creation to Moses that we know of.

So tell me the exact day on the calender that God rested and be able to show that date is the exact date.

I reassert my original point. The 7th day that God rested as described in Genesis is lost to antiquity.

Look guys...while I seriously doubt that the days yet had names at the time, all I said was it was the way I learned it...I'm not a preacher or a Biblical scholar and I am not looking for a theology debate.

I will leave it to you good gentlemen to sort it out.

If Friday, Saturday, and Sunday comprise the "weekend", and the work week begins on Monday, then those who observe the Sabbath on Sunday are keeping the Sabbath.

Astounding!! Now show me in the Bible where it says "Keep the weekend".I want to know that verse. What day did Jesus keep, if you are a true believer of Christ? Did He keep just any day holy? What was His custom in regards to that? Was He pretty lax in His observance of the commandments?

The exact day is the seventh day on your calendar. You can find it easily enough. We call it Saturday here.

Prior to the CAtholic Church, Christians met on Sunday in honor of the Lord’s resurection from the dead which took place on a SUNDAY! Sunday is the first day of the week.

If you must BLAME someone, blame Paul:

1 Corinthians 16:1-2

Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Paul met with believers in Troas to worship and celebrate communion and they gathered on the FIRST day of the week, SUNDAY!

Acts 20:7

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

So the apostles had no problem with SUNDAY worship. I trust them more than some corrupt church that makes rules today.

Dave W - the Sabbath is also a symbol of God's Grace and of Christ himself, as through His work of living perfect obedience to the Father and through His Death and Resurrection, atonement for our sins. This is God's True Rest. Jesus Himself said, "Come to me all ye who are heavy laden and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28. Leading other to Christ is leading them to the Sabbath and vice versa. I didn't write the Fourth Commandment, God's did... Do you know what day will be oberved in the New Heaven's and the New Earth?? Maybe now would be a good time to start, since we are saved the moment we believe in Christ...

Isaiah 66:22-23
"As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me," declares the LORD, "so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD.

Jesus and the Disciples kept the Sabbath and I am a disciple of Christ:

Jesus kept the Sabbath

· Jesus kept the Sabbath throughout His earthly life. Luke 4:16

Jesus disciples kept the Sabbath and no other day

· Jesus disciples kept the Sabbath immediately after His death. Luke 53:54-56

· Twenty years after Jesus’ death Paul was teaching both the Jews and the Gentiles every Sabbath. At one point for a period of eighteen consecutive months. Acts 13:14, 42-44

According to Jesus, the Sabbath is the “Lord’s Day”

· Jesus declares that the Sabbath is the “Lord’s Day.” Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:27-28

Which Day Did Paul Keep?
What about the Apostle Paul? What did he keep? Did he give any hint in the New Testament about what day?

The Apostle Paul kept the seventh-day Sabbath and taught that the Sabbath-rest remained for the people of God.

Notice that the Apostle Paul was inspired to write:

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest." It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience...There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience (Hebrews 4:3-6,9-11, NIV).

This clearly shows that the command to keep the seventh day Sabbath is in the New Testament. It also shows that only those who will not observe it because of their disobedience argue otherwise. And that is why Paul observed it. Even Origen understood some of what Paul wrote above as he wrote:

But what is the feast of the Sabbath except that which the apostle speaks, "There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism," that is, the observance of the Sabbath, by the people of God...let us see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. On the Sabbath-day all worldly labors ought to be abstained from...give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction...this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath (Translated from Origen's Opera 2, Paris, 1733, Andrews J.N. in History of the Sabbath, 3rd editon, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1998, pp. 324-325).

Acts 13:42-44 shows what Paul did,

...the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.

Notice that teaching on the Sabbath was Paul's custom:

1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." 4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. (Acts 17:1-4)

Also Acts 18:4 states,

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

Hence the New Testament is clear that Paul kept the
Sabbath, regularly preached on the Sabbath, he spoke to Jews and Greeks on the Sabbath, and that he wrote that there remains "a Sabbath-rest for the people of God".

Hopefully, that includes you.

Notice also that Paul wrote:

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Since it was Jesus' custom to keep the Sabbath and Paul's as well, true Christians should imitate Paul in this regard. There is never any indication in the Bible that Jesus somehow kept Sunday.

It should be noted that there is additional evidence that many Christians kept attending synagogue services, which were always on Saturday, for decades after the death of Paul. One way this can be demonstrated is that some Jews developed a test in the form of a curse contained within a prayer (called the Shemoneh Esreh) around 80-90 A.D. to detect presence of Christians. James Parkes noted:

The purpose of the malediction is to detect the presence of Minim, for if they were invited to pronounce the Eighteen Benedictions, they would inevitably omit that particular paragraph from them. The fact that the test was a statement made in the synagogue service shows that at the time of making it the Judeo-Christians still frequented the synagogue. There would be no point otherwise in trying to prevent them from leading prayers (Parkes JW. The conflict of the church and the synagogue: a study in the origins of antisemitism. Volume 1 of History of antisemitism. The Soncino press, 1934, p. 78).

So, not only Paul, but many after him (called the Minim above) attended synagogue services on the Sabbath. Part of the reason for that was not that they were trying to be Jews, but that they wished to observe Paul's admonition:

25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some (Hebrews 10:25).

And often, Jewish synagogues were the only local locations that Sabbath services were being held as there were not many professing to be Christians in the early days.

Now some have been misled by what seems to be an intentional mistranslation of one of Paul's writings, Colossians 2:16 to do away with the Sabbath--but when properly translated it endorses, and does not condemn Sabbath observances (this is explained in more detail in the article Is There "An Annual Worship Calendar" In the Bible?).

Gentiles Were Prophesied to Keep the Sabbath Notice what Isaiah 56:1-2 teaches:

1. Thus says the LORD:

"Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil."

Protestant commentators tend to believe that verse 1 is referring to Jesus coming. Notice one below:

I. God here tells us what are his intentions of mercy to us (v. 1): My salvation is near to come-the great salvation wrought out by Jesus Christ (for that was the salvation of which the prophets enquired and searched diligently, 1 Peter 1:10), typified by the salvation of the Jews from Sennacherib or out of Babylon. Observe,

1. The gospel salvation is the salvation of the Lord. It was contrived and brought about by him; he glories in it as his.

2. In that salvation God's righteousness is revealed, which is so much the beauty of the gospel that St. Paul makes this the ground of his glorying in it. (Rom 1:17), because therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. The law revealed that righteousness of God by which all sinners stand condemned, but the gospel reveals that by which all believers stand acquitted (from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.).

But verse 2 is talking about the Sabbath.

Does this include foreigners, like Gentiles? Notice the next several verses in Isaiah:

Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the LORD Speak, saying, "The LORD has utterly separated me from His people"; Nor let the eunuch say, "Here I am, a dry tree." For thus says the LORD: "To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off. "Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him, And to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants-- Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant-- Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer (Isaiah 56:3-7).

And while we in the Churches of God believe that this has a future application, it also shows that foreign converts are also blessed who keep the Sabbath.

Also, in case you missed this point above... notice the following:

23 And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me," says the LORD. (Isaiah 66:23)

What About Sunday in the New Testament?

Most Sunday observers have pointed to John's statement about the day of the Lord, which they call the Lord's Day in Revelation 1:10, as proof that Sunday was the day for Christian worship. Suffice it to say that that is the only place in the Bible where that specific expression is used and it makes to reference to any day of the week (more information can be found in the article Is Revelation 1:10 Referring to the Lord's Day or the Day of the Lord?).

There is, however, one verse that shows a first day of the week convocation (other than Pentecost) in the New Testament. Acts 20:7 states,

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.

While Acts 20:7 does mention the first day of the week, it does not mention the term ‘Lord’ much or the expression ‘Lord’s Day’. And it is talking about a Saturday night, and not a Sunday morning.

Essentially, after a Sabbath dinner, Paul preached to the Christians because he was going to travel on Sunday. Actually, the term ‘Lord’ (Κυριω in the Greek) is not even mentioned until verse 19 of Acts 20, which the context shows occurs several days later (either on Wednesday or Thursday—and no one has claimed that either of these is “the Lord’s Day”).

Of the seven remaining verses in the New Testament that mention the first day of the week, six of them are referring to the time after Jesus was resurrected. And they are Matthew 28:1, Mark16:2,9; Luke 24:1, John 20:1,19. None of them discuss any worship service.

The eighth place were the term "first day of the week" is mentioned in the New Testament is as follows:

On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come (1 Corinthians 16:2).

Essentially, Paul wants people to put together a collection for him, before he comes, so it won't be going on while he is there. Thus, this is not an authorization to take up a collection at a Sunday worship service, instead it is a time Paul felt would be more convenient for people (plus being the day after the Sabbath, they would have been more likely to remember to do it if they were told about in on the Sabbath).

That is it.

That is all the verses in the New Testament about the first day of the week, which we now call Sunday. It should be noted that Sunday occurred because of antisemitism and from Roman changes, as Jesus' resurrection was not on Sunday (this is all documented in the article What Happened in the Crucifixion Week?).

What About Sunday After the New Testament? It may be of interest to note that the first known reference to not observing the seventh day Sabbath by one associated with Christianity was by Marcion in Rome. Nearly all Protestant, Orthodox, or Roman Catholic researchers consider that Marcion was a major Gnostic heretic.

Should any rely on major heretics be the basis of the true Christian faith?

The first true and clear reference to Sun-day worship was around 150 A.D. by Justin Martyr (over a century after Jesus' death and about 1/2 century after John died). Justin used the expression; which literally means "Helios said (called) day" (Helios was a Greek sun god). Most of the Protestant, Orthodox, or Roman Catholic faiths, if they studied Justin, would conclude that Justin made many statements that are heretical and that he admitted he did not care to associate with Christians who he felt retained Jewish practices (for documented proof, please see the article Justin Martyr: Saint, Heretic, or Apostate?).

Some have claimed that the Didache and Ignatius both enjoined Sunday, but this is not true. The original Greek simply does not support this conclusion. This is documented and discussed in the article The Didache, Ignatius, and the Sabbath.

Actually, it appears that Sunday became observed because antisemitic persecution.

Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi noted that the change to Easter-Sunday and to a weekly Sunday was due to persecution (note: the new Gentile hierarchy he is referring to below are Greek bishops in Jerusalem, which took over after the rebellion was crushed):

The actual introduction of Easter-Sunday appears to have occurred earlier in Palestine after Emperor Hadrian ruthlessly crushed the Barkokeba revolt (A.D. 132-135)...

The fact that the Passover controversy arose when Emperor Hadrian adopted new repressive measures against Jewish religious practices suggests that such measures influenced the new Gentile hierarchy to change the date of Passover from Nisan 14 to the following Sunday (Easter-Sunday) in order to show separation and differentiation from the Jews and the Jewish Christians...

A whole body of Against the Jews literature was produced by leading Fathers who defamed the Jews as a people and emptied their religious beliefs and practices of any historical value. Two major causalities of the anti-Jewish campaign were Sabbath and Passover. The Sabbath was changed to Sunday and Passover was transferred to Easter-Sunday.

Scholars usually recognize the anti-Judaic motivation for the repudiation of the Jewish reckoning of Passover and adoption of Easter-Sunday instead. Joachim Jeremias attributes such a development to "the inclination to break away from Judaism." In a similar vein, J.B. Lightfoot explains that Rome and Alexandria adopted Easter-Sunday to avoid "even the semblance of Judaism" (Bacchiocchi S. God's Festival in Scripture and History. Biblical Perspectives. Befriend Springs (MI), 1995, pp. 101,102,103).

There is more information concerning this in the articles Sunday and Christianity and Passover and the Early Church.

John's and His Followers' Practices in Asia Minor--They Kept the Sabbath The 17th century historian William Cave reported that the early Christians, both Jews and those in Asia Minor, kept the Sabbath. Notice his report:

...the Sabbath or Saturday (for so the word sabbatum is constantly used in the writings of the fathers, when speaking of it as it relates to Christians) was held by them in great veneration, and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the public solemnities of religion. For which we are to know, that the gospel in those parts mainly prevailing amongst the Jews, they being generally the first converts to the Christian faith, they still retained a mighty reverence for the Mosaic institutions, and especially for the sabbath, as that which had been appointed by God himself, (as the memorial of his rest from the week of creation,) settled by their great master Moses, and celebrated by their ancestors for so many ages, as the solemn day of their public worship, and were therefore very loth that it should be wholly antiquated and laid aside. For this reason it seemed good to the prudence of those times, (as in others of the Jewish rites, so in this,) to indulge the humour of that people, and to keep the sabbath as a day for religious offices. Hence they usually had most parts of the divine service performed upon that day; they met together for public prayers, for reading the scriptures, celebration of the sacraments, and such like duties. This is plain, not only from some passages in Ignatius and Clemens's Constitutions, but from writers of more unquestionable credit and authority. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, tells us, that they assembled on Saturdays, not that they were infected with Judaism, but only to worship Jesus Christ, the Lord of the sabbath (Cave William, D.D. Primitive Christianity: or the Religion of the Ancient Christians in the First Ages of the Gospel. 1840 edition revised by H. Cary. Oxford, London, pp. 84-85).

While I disagree that Jewish converts were allowed to keep the Sabbath to "humour" them as Dr. Cave wrote (since nearly all the original Christians were Jews, all the original Christians did keep the Sabbath--Sunday was a later development), he at least does realize that early Jewish converts and those in Asia Minor ("Eastern parts") kept the Saturday Sabbath.

Of course, the New Testament shows that Paul kept the Sabbath in Asia Minor:

Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down ... So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath (Acts 13:13-14, 42).

Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed (Acts 14:1).

It should be pointed out that Antioch in Pisidia is in the middle of Asia Minor and that Iconium is also in Asia Minor. Hence Gentiles were keeping the Sabbath in Asia Minor from an early time.

The Apostle John ended up being the leader of the Church in Asia Minor, specifically, Ephesus. John, and a claimed follower of his named Polycarp, kept the Saturday Sabbath. There is no direct, nor indirect, historical evidence that John and other true Christians ever observed Sunday.

According to an old, but probably modified in the 4th century document, Polycarp kept the Sabbath:

I will give the narration in order, thus coming down to the history of the blessed Polycarp...

And on the sabbath, when prayer had been made long time on bended knee, he, as was his custom, got up to read; and every eye was fixed upon him...

And on the following sabbath he said; 'Hear ye my exhortation, beloved children of God. I adjured you when the bishops were present, and now again I exhort you all to walk decorously and worthily in the way of the Lord, knowing that, when I was in the ministry of the presbyters, I applied so great diligence according to my power, and shall do this the more now when the greatest peril awaits me if I am negligent. For after the fear of the judgment, it were shameful to abate and relax anything having regard to men, and not rather to build up higher the zeal which has reached thus far. It pertaineth to you therefore to hold back from all unruliness, both men and women; and let no one imagine that I exact punishment from offenders not from conscientiousness but from human pride. For it has happened that some of those who were put into offices, when they ought all the more, as one might say, to strain every nerve in the race, just then relax their efforts, forgetting that, the greater honour a man appeareth to receive, the greater the loyalty which he ought to pay towards the Master, and to remember the words of the Lord how He himself said, On whom I conferred the more, from him let them demand the more abundantly in return; and the parable of those who had the talents committed to them, and the blessing pronounced upon the servant that watches, and the reproof of those who refused to come to the marriage feast, and the condemnation of him whose garment was not befitting the marriage festivity, and the entering in of the wise virgins, the saying Watch ye, and again Be ye ready, Let not your hearts be weighed down, the new commandment concerning love one towards another, His advent suddenly manifest as of rapid lightning, the great judgment by fire, the eternal life, His immortal kingdom. And all things whatsoever being taught of God ye know, when ye search the inspired Scriptures, engrave with the pen of the Holy Spirit on your hearts, that the commandments may abide in you indelible.'

Thus speaking in this way from time to time, and being persistent in his teaching, he edified and saved both himself and his hearers. (Pionius, Life of Polycarp (1889) from J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 3.2, pp.488-506)

Thus, Polycarp regularly kept the Sabbath and preached on it.

Even the Protestant scholars Roberts and Donaldson admitted that John's practices could be considered supportive of the idea that the Sabbatarians were correct. They mentioned the following in a dispute about Passover which John kept,

...on the fourteenth day of the moon...The long survival of St. John among Jewish Christians led them to prolong this usage, no doubt, as sanctioned by his example...Those who in our own times have revived the observance of the Jewish Sabbath, show us how much may be said on their side, and elucidate the tenacity of the Easterns in resisting the abolition of the Mosaic ordinance as to the Paschal, although they agreed to keep it "not with the old leaven." (Introduction to Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus. By Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Excerpted from The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, editors); American Edition copyright © 1885. Copyright © 2001 Peter Kirby).

Roberts and Donaldson immediately continued with,

Our author belonged to a family in which he was the eighth Christian bishop; and he presided over the church of Ephesus, in which the traditions of St. John were yet fresh in men's minds at the date of his birth. He had doubtless known Polycarp, and Irenaeus also. He seems to have presided over a synod of Asiatic bishops (A.D. 196) which came together to consider this matter of the Paschal feast. It is surely noteworthy that nobody doubted that it was kept by a Christian and Apostolic ordinance. So St. Paul argues from its Christian observance, in his rebuke of the Corinthians. They were keeping it "unleavened" ceremonially, and he urges a spiritual unleavening as more important. The Christian hallowing of Pentecost connects with the Paschal argument. The Christian Sabbath hinges on these points (Ibid).

The "author" they are referring to is Polycrates, who claimed to continue what most Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox would consider to be Jewish practices. The points they are referring to is that if the Passover should be kept on the exact day and John did that as Polycrates wrote, then the Sabbath should also be kept on the exact day, the seventh day.

The Catholic writer Lopes noted this about the Roman bishop who attempted to enforce a Sunday Passover (which Catholics now call Easter):

14. VICTOR I, ST. (189-199) An African...Victor tended not to advise other churches but to impose Rome's ideas on them, thus arousing resentment at times in bishops not inclined to accept such impositions. This was the case of Polycratus, the Bishop of Ephesus, who felt offended at this interference. The question was again that of Easter. Victor reaffirmed the decisions of Soter and Eleutherius both with regard to the date, which had to be a Sunday, and with regard to several customs of Jewish origin which were still practiced in some Christian communities...Polycratus justified himself before the pope with a letter containing the phrase "...it is more important to obey God rather than men" (Lopes A. The Popes: The lives of the pontiffs through 2000 years of history. Futura Edizoni, Roma, 1997, p. 5).

Polycrates wrote this to the Roman Bishop Victor, We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord's coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate. He fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia, who fell asleep in Smyrna. Why need I mention the bishop and martyr Sagaris who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius, or Melito, the Eunuch who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in Sardis, awaiting the episcopate from heaven, when he shall rise from the dead ? All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said ' We ought to obey God rather than man'...I could mention the bishops who were present, whom I summoned at your desire; whose names, should I write them, would constitute a great multitude. And they, beholding my littleness, gave their consent to the letter, knowing that I did not bear my gray hairs in vain, but had always governed my life by the Lord Jesus (Eusebius. Church History. Book V, Chapter 25).

In other words, Polycrates is insisting that he and other leaders always kept such 'Jewish' practices as the Passover on the exact day (the 14th of Nisan) and the days of unleavened bread and that they learned this from Holy Scripture and from John. Those who did not do that, he implies, would be obeying men rather than God. And actually, Protestants and Orthodox like to cite this passage from Polycrates to show that many in the 2nd Century did not accept the authority of the Roman bishops.

But what do they do about keeping Passover or the days of unleavened bread?

Polycrates also mentioned Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp is considered to be a true saint by Catholics, Orthodox, and others. According to the letter The Martyrdom of Polycarp by the Smyrnaeans, "on the day of the preparation, at the hour of dinner, there came out pursuers and horsemen" and the Polycarp was killed "on the day of the great Sabbath" (The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Verses 7.1 & 8.1. Charles H. Hoole's 1885 translation. © 2001 Peter Kirby) . The use of these two expressions ("day of the preparation" and "the day of the great Sabbath" show that those in Smyrna (a Gentile filled area) were still keeping the Sabbath around 156 A.D. (the approximate date of Polycarp's martyrdom) (otherwise other terms would have been more appropriate--non-Sabbath observers do not call the day before Saturday that "day of preparation", nor would they have any reason to do so).

Regarding the second century church in Asia Minor, the German historian W. Bauer wrote:

Asian Jewish Christianity received in turn the knowledge that henceforth the "church" would be open without hesitation to the Jewish influence mediated by Christians, coming not only from the apocalyptic traditions, but also from the synagogue with its practices concerning worship, which led to the appropriation of the Jewish passover observance. Even the observance of the sabbath by Christians appears to have found some favor in Asia (Bauer W. Kraft RA, Krodel G, editors. Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, 2nd edition. Sigler Press, Mifflintown (PA), 1996, pp.87-88).

Although true Christians do not consider the Gospel of Thomas to be scripture, the following passage from it shows that the sabbath was being observed in the 2nd Century, and that the observance of the Sabbath was considered to be of great importance:

...If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath you will not see the Father (Patterson S, Meyer M. The "Scholars' Translation" of the Gospel of Thomas. Verse 27. Scholars Version translation of the Gospel of Thomas taken from *The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version.* Copyright 1992, 1994 by Polebridge Press).

The simple reality is that since John and those truly in the Church were diligent to keep Passover on the 14th of Nisan (more information is in the article on Polycrates), as well as the Sabbath, and non-Jewish professors of Christ also did, it should be obvious that Sunday was not an original practice of the true church. (More information on church history can be found in the article Location of the Early Church: Another Look at Rome, Ephesus & Smyrna.)

Furthermore, even the word for the seventh-day of the week in Greek (the language of the New Testament as well as the language of ancient Asia Minor) is, which would be transliterated as sabbaton in English. The modern Greek word for Saturday is essentially the same word--spelled in Greek with a captial letter at the beginning as; or as transliterated into English as Sabbato.

Some claim Constantine was responsible, and that it was an act of syncretism in order to convert sun-worshipping pagans over, who already worshipped on Sunday.

Others trace the practice to Justin Martyr.

I worship on Sunday because that is when it’s been done all my life in the churches with which I have been familiar. Going back to the words of Paul, I’m not going to get upset and dispute the matter.

Others feel that the Sabbath is Saturday, with some justification, and they worship on that day. More power to them, I say it’s fine.

Copied-and-pasted like a true Pharisee.

Perhaps you did not read my comment. I was not referring to the weekly remembrance called the sabbath. I specifically called out the 7th day on which God rested in Genesis. Show me that date on a calendar and be able to support that date as being the day on which God rested. Until you can do that, my assertion that the 7th day is lost to antiquity still stands.

There are biblical references in this thread too. Please read it.

Early Church Fathers - Worship on Sabbath or Sunday

Isn't it amazing how something so SIMPLE, can put people on the defensive? If they bothered to READ their BIBLE, they'd KNOW WHY they worship on a SUNDAY and it has nothing to do with the Catholic Church or Constantine.

Set aside one day a week for worship and you will be fine, doesn’t matter which days, when you argue this stuff you will find that whole denominations are built on this one premise. I have no problem with a group worshiping on Saturday or Sunday as long as you or obedient to God’s Word.

God has no problem with what day we worship either; He never specified such. However, He did specify a day of rest, and if obedience to the Word is in fact the most important thing, then we should be resting on the 7th day.

You need to read your BIBLE!

If you must BLAME someone, blame Paul:

1 Corinthians 16:1-2

Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Paul met with believers in Troas to worship and celebrate communion and they gathered on the FIRST day of the week, SUNDAY!

Acts 20:7

On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

So the apostles had no problem with SUNDAY worship and neither do I!

Do some research.

As if past self-aggrandizing pompous "leaders" acts in the past makes everything all hunky dory. Do you ever wonder what does God think about all of this? He will humble the proud. Lucifers first sin was "I will be like the Most High". And yet some clergy emulate him. Go by what God wants and desires instead of what man tells you.

You go ahead and Worship on Saturday if that is what God wants you to do, I have no problem with that but don’t set yourself up as a judge of others who don’t because if you go back to far looking at traditions you might not like what you see.