Why Do Christians Not Honor The Sabbath?

[Trumpeter]

The Jewish people have observed this date for many millennia without interruption. When the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1582 CE, ten days were deleted in order to bring the calendar in synchronism with the seasons. But the sequence of the days remained the same. Thus, 1582-OCT-4 (a Thursday) was followed by 1582-OCT-15 (a Friday), and the Sabbath of 1582-OCT-16 happened exactly 7 days after the previous Sabbath of OCT-9.

 

[Wormwood]

This has NOTHING to do with a calendar. Mark says Jesus was crucified on the day of Preparation, the day before the Sabbath. I don't care what calendar you use or why that even matters at all. Mark says, "It was the day before the Sabbath." This has nothing to do with dates or years. It has to do with what day precedes the Sabbath according to Marks very plain statement. I don't know how it could be more clear.

 

[Trumpeter]

There are several reasons why and when the Sabbath was Moved to Sunday, the First Day of the Week.

.. The Roman emperor Constantine affection for sun worship led him to endorse Sunday, the first day of the week, a day dedicated to honoring the sun, as a weekly day of rest in the Roman empire . This created considerable hardship on those Jews and true Christians who continued to keep the biblical Sabbath on the seventh day of the week. (A century later the Council of Laodicea would essentially outlaw Sabbath-keeping and Christian observance of the biblical Holy Days.)

.. The Pagan Roman religion and Mithraism, a religious competitor of Christianity, reserved Sunday as their day of religious observance. Many Christians did not make a clear distinction between this sun-cult [Mithraism] and their own. They held their services on Sunday, knelt towards the
East and had their nativity-feast on 25 December, the birthday of the sun at the winter solstice.

.. The Government intermittently persecuted the Jews at this time; it was safer for Christianity to
be considered as a separate religion rather than as a sect of Judaism.

.. Relations between the Jews and Christians were hostile at that time. The early Christian church
had suffered much persecution from the Jews.

.. The Roman Catholic church took it upon themselves to change the Sabbath day from Saturday
to Sunday. They felt it was their ..divine.. right to make this change as they also felt it was their
right to add ..holy.. days (holidays) and such things as purgatory and indulgences, which have no basis in the Bible. Many Protestant churches, who have ties to the Catholic church, still hold to this error today.

This has NOTHING to do with a calendar. Mark says Jesus was crucified on the day of Preparation, the day before the Sabbath. I don't care what calendar you use or why that even matters at all. Mark says, "It was the day before the Sabbath." This has nothing to do with dates or years. It has to do with what day precedes the Sabbath according to Marks very plain statement. I don't know how it could be more clear.

Here is an excellent study on the timing of the crucifixion:
http://trumpetcallofgod.com/pdfs/THELAMBOFGODstudy.pdf

 

[KCKID]

I don't see anyone arguing that the Sabbath is not Saturday. The early church also understood this. The reason worship was switched to Sunday had nothing to do with a confusion about what the Sabbath means or what day it was observed. So I don't see your point here.

To be honest, many Christians DO believe that Sunday is the Sabbath. If asked which day is the Sabbath they would respond without hesitation ..."Sunday." Even most if not all English dictionaries give their #2 definition of Sabbath to be: Sunday, observed by Christians as the day of worship and rest from work. So, there IS confusion and ignorance within Christendom about what the Sabbath means and on which day of the week that it falls. People are creatures of habit. They do many things robotically, no thought required. Toddling off to church on Sunday is one such weekly habit. The same might be said, of course, for those who toddle off to church every Saturday.

There DOES appear to be a defensive mentality comes into play by many Christians whenever this topic is raised. The 'Sunday Sabbath' has become so entrenched within Christianity that those who might suggest that Sunday is NOT the Sabbath might also be seen as 'the enemy' or, at best, 'confused about their Christianity'. This is yet another of the many quirks involved in belief systems and how, when combined with the human mind, may well result in suspicion, even hostility, toward those whose interpretation of the same scriptures differ from their own.

There are several reasons why and when the Sabbath was Moved to Sunday, the First Day of the Week.

.. The Roman emperor Constantine affection for sun worship led him to endorse Sunday, the first day of the week, a day dedicated to honoring the sun, as a weekly day of rest in the Roman empire . This created considerable hardship on those Jews and true Christians who continued to keep the biblical Sabbath on the seventh day of the week. (A century later the Council of Laodicea would essentially outlaw Sabbath-keeping and Christian observance of the biblical Holy Days.)

.. The Pagan Roman religion and Mithraism, a religious competitor of Christianity, reserved Sunday as their day of religious observance. Many Christians did not make a clear distinction between this sun-cult [Mithraism] and their own. They held their services on Sunday, knelt towards the
East and had their nativity-feast on 25 December, the birthday of the sun at the winter solstice.

.. The Government intermittently persecuted the Jews at this time; it was safer for Christianity to
be considered as a separate religion rather than as a sect of Judaism.

.. Relations between the Jews and Christians were hostile at that time. The early Christian church
had suffered much persecution from the Jews.

.. The Roman Catholic church took it upon themselves to change the Sabbath day from Saturday
to Sunday. They felt it was their ..divine.. right to make this change as they also felt it was their
right to add ..holy.. days (holidays) and such things as purgatory and indulgences, which have no basis in the Bible. Many Protestant churches, who have ties to the Catholic church, still hold to this error today.

Here is an excellent study on the timing of the crucifixion:
http://trumpetcallofgod.com/pdfs/THELAMBOFGODstudy.pdf

Strange, Protestants who would prefer to distance themselves from Catholicism are the same ones who have embraced without question Catholicism's 'holy day' ...Sunday.

 

[Trumpeter]

Confessions From Catholic Clergyman

James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers, 88th ed., pp. 89.
..But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify...

Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed., p. 174.
..Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
..Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority...

John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies (1 936), vol. 1, P. 51.
..Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the New Law, that He Himself has explicitly substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days...

Daniel Ferres, ed., Manual of Christian Doctrine (1916), p.67.
..Question: How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
..Answer. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of, and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church...

James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore (1877-1921), in a signed letter.
..Is Saturday the seventh day according to the Bible and the Ten Commandments? I answer yes. Is Sunday the first day of the week and did the Church change the seventh day -Saturday - for Sunday, the first day? I answer yes . Did Christ change the day..? I answer no!
..Faithfully yours, J. Card. Gibbons..

The Catholic Mirror, official publication of James Cardinal Gibbons, Sept. 23, 1893
..The Catholic Church, . . . by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday...

Catholic Virginian Oct. 3, 1947, p. 9, art. ..To Tell You the Truth...
..For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the[Roman Catholic] church outside the Bible...

Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R., The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957), p. 50.
..Question: Which is the Sabbath day?
..Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.
..Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
..Answer. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday...

Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About (1927),p. 136.
..Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday .... Now the Church ... instituted, by God..s authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday...

Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975),Chicago, Illinois.
..Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts: (1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man. (2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws. It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible...


T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18,1884.
..I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, ..Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy... The Catholic Church says: ..No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week... And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church...

 

[Wormwood]

True. Many Christians also view their local church building as the same thing as the Temple. However, my point is that no "Christian" scholars are arguing for the Sabbath being on Sunday. Either way, the issue is really irrelevant. Unless you can refute my earlier points on the NT teaching on Sabbath observance and its fulfillment in Christ, I think the whole argument really amounts to nothing.

 

[Trumpeter]

Confessions from Protestant Clergyman

Anglican/Episcopal

Isaac Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism , vol. 1, pp.334, 336.
..And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day .... The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it...


Canon Eyton, The Ten Commandments , pp. 52, 63, 65.
..There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday .... into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters.... The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday...


Bishop Seymour, Why We Keep Sunday .
We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy Catholic Church...

 

[KCKID]

True. Many Christians also view their local church building as the same thing as the Temple. However, my point is that no "Christian" scholars are arguing for the Sabbath being on Sunday. Either way, the issue is really irrelevant. Unless you can refute my earlier points on the NT teaching on Sabbath observance and its fulfillment in Christ, I think the whole argument really amounts to nothing.

I'm not sure if the issue is irrelevant or really amounts to nothing as you say. I guess, when it all comes down to truths, it hardly matters what you or I think. Trumpeter certainly disagrees with you. So do the many Sabbath-keepers throughout the world. They also use the scriptures to support their belief that the Sabbath is a day to be honored for all eternity. I think one might run into problems when they use Paul's writings as a means to abrogate the Sabbath and substitute Sunday which many do when pressed for answers. Or they might otherwise apply (ambiguous) scriptures in a subjective sense such as "Jesus is our Sabbath rest" that I would wager no one really knows what that actually means. It just sounds meaningful. The Sabbath day was an actual 24-hour period (nothing subjective about it) that was blessed and sanctified at Creation ...LONG before the first Jew came along. Sure, it was later given to the Jews to observe because they were God's chosen people. And, they were to physically honor this day ...again, nothing subjective about it. But, does this really mean that once 'the chosen people' became/included the Gentiles that the blessed and sanctified day of Creation was no longer important?

 

[excubitor]

There are several reasons why and when the Sabbath was Moved to Sunday, the First Day of the Week.

.. The Roman emperor Constantine affection for sun worship led him to endorse Sunday, the first day of the week, a day dedicated to honoring the sun, as a weekly day of rest in the Roman empire . This created considerable hardship on those Jews and true Christians who continued to keep the biblical Sabbath on the seventh day of the week. (A century later the Council of Laodicea would essentially outlaw Sabbath-keeping and Christian observance of the biblical Holy Days.)

.. The Pagan Roman religion and Mithraism, a religious competitor of Christianity, reserved Sunday as their day of religious observance. Many Christians did not make a clear distinction between this sun-cult [Mithraism] and their own. They held their services on Sunday, knelt towards the
East and had their nativity-feast on 25 December, the birthday of the sun at the winter solstice.

.. The Government intermittently persecuted the Jews at this time; it was safer for Christianity to
be considered as a separate religion rather than as a sect of Judaism.

.. Relations between the Jews and Christians were hostile at that time. The early Christian church
had suffered much persecution from the Jews.

.. The Roman Catholic church took it upon themselves to change the Sabbath day from Saturday
to Sunday. They felt it was their ..divine.. right to make this change as they also felt it was their
right to add ..holy.. days (holidays) and such things as purgatory and indulgences, which have no basis in the Bible. Many Protestant churches, who have ties to the Catholic church, still hold to this error today.

Here is an excellent study on the timing of the crucifixion:
http://trumpetcallofgod.com/pdfs/THELAMBOFGODstudy.pdf

The problem with this conspiracy theory is that Christians were keeping the Lord's day "Sunday" while they were being slaughtered by the pagan Romans. All through the early centuries the Christians were hiding in the catacombs keeping the "Lord's day". Long before Constantine was a twinkle in his father's eye the Christians were keeping the Lord's day.

Unfortunately however people would rather believe the rantings of pseudo-christians sects and cults than the writings of the ante-Nicene fathers. You would think that the church had never written on the subject before the Council of Laeodica the way these crackpots rave.
Canon 29 correctly reflects Christian teaching of centuries prior by saying


On the Lord's own day, assemble in common to break bread and offer thanks, but first confess your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure."Didache, 14 (A.D. 90).

"If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death--whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master." Ignatius, To the Magnesians, 9:1 (A.D. 110).

"The seventh day, therefore, is proclaimed a rest--abstraction from ills--preparing for the Primal Day,[The Lord's Day] our true rest; which, in truth, is the first creation of light, in which all things are viewed and possessed. From this day the first wisdom and knowledge illuminate us. For the light of truth--a light true, casting no shadow, is the Spirit of God indivisibly divided to all, who are sanctified by faith, holding the place of a luminary, in order to the knowledge of real existences. By following Him, therefore, through our whole life, we become impossible; and this is to rest." Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 6:16 (A.D. 202).

"The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and the oblation: because on the first day of the week our Lord rose from the lace of the dead and on the first day of the week He arose upon the world, and on the first day of the week He ascended up to heaven, and on the first day of the week He will appear at last with the angels of heaven."Teaching of the Apostles, 2 (A.D. 225).

"Hence it is not possible that the rest after the Sabbath should have come into existence from the seventh of our God; on the contrary, it is our Saviour who, after the pattern of His own rest, caused us to be made in the likeness of His death, and hence also of His resurrection." Origen, Commentary on John, 2:27 (A.D. 229).

"On the seventh day He rested from all His works, and blessed it, and sanctified it. On the former day we are accustomed to fast rigorously, that on the Lord's day we may go forth to our bread with giving of thanks. And let the parasceve become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews, which Christ Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, says by His prophets that 'His soul hateth;' which Sabbath He in His body abolished." Victorinus, On the Creation of the World (A.D. 300).

"They did not care about circumcision of the body, neither do we. They did not care about observing Sabbaths, nor do we." Eusebius, Church History, 1:4,8 (A.D. 312).

"Also that day which is holy and blessed in everything, which possesses the name of Christ, namely the Lord's day, having risen upon us on the fourth of Pharmuthi (Mar. 30), let us afterwards keep the holy feast of Pentecost." Athanasius, Epistle 9:11 (A.D. 335).

"Fall not away either into the sect of the Samaritans, or into Judaism: for Jesus Christ henceforth hath ransomed thee. Stand aloof from all observance of Sabbaths, and from calling any indifferent meats common or unclean." Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 4:37 (A.D. 350).
"

So you see the Council of Laodecia correctly reflects the practice and teachings of Christians for the preceeding centuries.


Canon 29
Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, ratherhonouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.

Sadly however the Judaisers are still with us to their great shame.
Let them be anathema from Christ.

 

[Trumpeter]

Baptist

Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, a paper read before a New York ministers.. conference, Nov. 13, 1893, reported in New York Examiner , Nov.16, 1893.
..There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week .... Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament absolutely not.
..To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years.. intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question . . . never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated.
..Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history . . . . But what a pity it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!..

William Owen Carver, The Lord..s Day in Our Day , p. 49.
..There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath to the Christian first-day observance...

 

[KCKID]

The problem with this conspiracy theory is that Christians were keeping the Lord's day "Sunday" while they were being slaughtered by the pagan Romans. All through the early centuries the Christians were hiding in the catacombs keeping the "Lord's day". Long before Constantine was a twinkle in his father's eye the Christians were keeping the Lord's day.

Unfortunately however people would rather believe the rantings of pseudo-christians sects and cults than the writings of the ante-Nicene fathers. You would think that the church had never written on the subject before the Council of Laeodica the way these crackpots rave.
Canon 29 correctly reflects Christian teaching of centuries prior by saying


On the Lord's own day, assemble in common to break bread and offer thanks, but first confess your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure."Didache, 14 (A.D. 90).

"If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death--whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master." Ignatius, To the Magnesians, 9:1 (A.D. 110).

"The seventh day, therefore, is proclaimed a rest--abstraction from ills--preparing for the Primal Day,[The Lord's Day] our true rest; which, in truth, is the first creation of light, in which all things are viewed and possessed. From this day the first wisdom and knowledge illuminate us. For the light of truth--a light true, casting no shadow, is the Spirit of God indivisibly divided to all, who are sanctified by faith, holding the place of a luminary, in order to the knowledge of real existences. By following Him, therefore, through our whole life, we become impossible; and this is to rest." Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 6:16 (A.D. 202).

"The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and the oblation: because on the first day of the week our Lord rose from the lace of the dead and on the first day of the week He arose upon the world, and on the first day of the week He ascended up to heaven, and on the first day of the week He will appear at last with the angels of heaven."Teaching of the Apostles, 2 (A.D. 225).

"Hence it is not possible that the rest after the Sabbath should have come into existence from the seventh of our God; on the contrary, it is our Saviour who, after the pattern of His own rest, caused us to be made in the likeness of His death, and hence also of His resurrection." Origen, Commentary on John, 2:27 (A.D. 229).

"On the seventh day He rested from all His works, and blessed it, and sanctified it. On the former day we are accustomed to fast rigorously, that on the Lord's day we may go forth to our bread with giving of thanks. And let the parasceve become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews, which Christ Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, says by His prophets that 'His soul hateth;' which Sabbath He in His body abolished." Victorinus, On the Creation of the World (A.D. 300).

"They did not care about circumcision of the body, neither do we. They did not care about observing Sabbaths, nor do we." Eusebius, Church History, 1:4,8 (A.D. 312).

"Also that day which is holy and blessed in everything, which possesses the name of Christ, namely the Lord's day, having risen upon us on the fourth of Pharmuthi (Mar. 30), let us afterwards keep the holy feast of Pentecost." Athanasius, Epistle 9:11 (A.D. 335).

"Fall not away either into the sect of the Samaritans, or into Judaism: for Jesus Christ henceforth hath ransomed thee. Stand aloof from all observance of Sabbaths, and from calling any indifferent meats common or unclean." Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 4:37 (A.D. 350).
"

So you see the Council of Laodecia correctly reflects the practice and teachings of Christians for the preceeding centuries.


Canon 29
Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, ratherhonouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.

Sadly however the Judaisers are still with us to their great shame.
Let them be anathema from Christ.

From scripture ...where did 'the Lord's day' become Sunday or the 1st-day? It's not there. It seems quite obvious that equating 'the Lord's day' with Sunday is a man-made construct. It's certainly not scriptural. Biblical references to 'the Lord's day' quite clearly regard that term as being synonymous with the 7th-day Sabbath. These references were already covered in a previous post (#49).

 

[Trumpeter]

Congregationalist

Dr. R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments (New York: Eaton &Mains), p. 127-129.
.. . . . it is quite clear that however rigidly or devotedly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath - . . ..Me Sabbath was founded on a specific Divine command. We can plead no such command for the obligation to observe Sunday .... There is not a single sentence in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanctity of Sunday...

Timothy Dwight, Theology: Explained and Defended (1823), Ser. 107, vol. 3, p. 258.
.. . . . the Christian Sabbath [Sunday] is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the primitive Church called the Sabbath...

Disciples of Christ

Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824,vol. 1. no. 7, p. 164.
....But,.. say some, ..it was changed from the seventh to the first day... Where? when? and by whom? No man can tell. No; it never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation was to be gone through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed! It is all old wives.. fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio - I think his name is Doctor Antichrist...


First Day Observance , pp. 17, 19.
..The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change...

 

[Wormwood]

I'm not sure if the issue is irrelevant or really amounts to nothing as you say. I guess, when it all comes down to truths, it hardly matters what you or I think. Trumpeter certainly disagrees with you. So do the many Sabbath-keepers throughout the world. They also use the scriptures to support their belief that the Sabbath is a day to be honored for all eternity. I think one might run into problems when they use Paul's writings as a means to abrogate the Sabbath and substitute Sunday which many do when pressed for answers. Or they might otherwise apply (ambiguous) scriptures in a subjective sense such as "Jesus is our Sabbath rest" that I would wager no one really knows what that actually means. It just sounds meaningful. The Sabbath day was an actual 24-hour period (nothing subjective about it) that was blessed and sanctified at Creation ...LONG before the first Jew came along. Sure, it was later given to the Jews to observe because they were God's chosen people. And, they were to physically honor this day ...again, nothing subjective about it. But, does this really mean that once 'the chosen people' became/included the Gentiles that the blessed and sanctified day of Creation was no longer important?

KC,

Well, in my study of Scripture it seems to be very clear in my mind. Could I be wrong? Certainly. But I do not, as you suggest, think Hebrews comments are ambiguous. They may appear so to one who has made up their mind that the Sabbath rest is a command of God required to be kept under the New Covenant, but I see no hint of that. So for me, the issue is pretty plain. I have no problem with those who want to keep the Sabbath day, but I simply see no Scriptures that point to this being a requirement for New Covenant believers. Acts 15 is silent on the issue and many other teachings in the Epistles suggest that these things pointed to Christ (such as circumcision, the feasts, Passover, Day of Atonement, sacrifice, the Levitical priesthood etc.). Again, show me one command in the NT Epistles that say Christians should keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on that day. One would think that Paul would make this an emphasis among the Gentiles in his evangelistic and teaching efforts if the issue is as significant as you suggest.

 

[Trumpeter]

Lutheran

The Sunday Problem , a study book of the United Lutheran Church (1923), p. 36.
..We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both...

Augsburg Confession of Faith art. 28; written by Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, 1530; as published in The Book of Concord of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Henry Jacobs, ed. (1 91 1), p. 63.
..They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day, a shaving been changed into the Lord..s Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!..

Dr. Augustus Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church Henry John Rose, tr. (1843), p. 186.
..The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday...

John Theodore Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday , pp. 15, 16.
..But they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the seventh day had to be kept by the children of Israel .... These churches err in their teaching, for Scripture has in no way ordained the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect...

Methodist

Harris Franklin Rall, Christian Advocate, July 2, 1942, p.26.
..Take the matter of Sunday. There are indications in the New Testament as to how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day of worship, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or to transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day...

John Wesley, The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., John Emory, ed. (New York: Eaton & Mains), Sermon 25,vol. 1, p. 221.
..But, the moral law contained in the ten commandments, and enforced by the prophets, he [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of his coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken .... Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other...

Dwight L. Moody
D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting (Fleming H. Revell Co.: New York), pp. 47, 48.
The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word ..remember,.. showing that the Sabbath already existed when God Wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?..


Presbyterian

T. C. Blake, D.D., Theology Condensed, pp.474, 475.
..The Sabbath is a part of the decalogue - the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution . . . . Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand . . . . The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath...

Sources:
www.biblesabbath.org/confessions.html - Confessions from Clergyman
http://www.religioustolerance.org/sabbath.htm - Jewish and Calendar facts
www.gnmagazine.org/ - Chronology of Christ..s Crucifixion and Resurrection
www.dictionaries.travlang.com/otherdicts.html - Translations of the word ..Saturday.. in other languages

 

[Harry3142]

KCKID-

Here is the Sabbath commandment:

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15,NIV)

The word 'holy' means 'set apart'. So what this commandment is saying is that all the work which needed to be done was either to be completed before sunset on Friday, or postponed until after sunset on Saturday. This included worship, which at that time mainly involved the sacrificing of animals. Since it was illegal to even herd those animals to the site of the temple on the Sabbath, those sacrifices had to be performed on one of the other six days.

Once sunset arrived on Friday the people were only to rest. This in-and-of itself was a major departure from what they had endured while in Egypt. At this time there was no such thing as a 'weekend' in Egypt (which is what the Sabbath was originally designated to be). Instead, their citizenry worked seven days a week, with their only days off being the festival days when they worshiped one of their pantheon of gods and goddesses.

As well, this commandment was specifically intended for the Jews (I've had SDA's claim that it was their ancestors who came out of Egypt rather than just the descendants of Abraham, so they are to be seen as 'the chosen people', but I reject that claim altogether). My ancestors were in northern Europe at the time. So what is forbidden by the New Testament gospels and epistles I accept as binding to me, but not what was forbidden in the Old Testament.

 

[KCKID]

KCKID-

Here is the Sabbath commandment:

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15,NIV)

The word 'holy' means 'set apart'. So what this commandment is saying is that all the work which needed to be done was either to be completed before sunset on Friday, or postponed until after sunset on Saturday. This included worship, which at that time mainly involved the sacrificing of animals. Since it was illegal to even herd those animals to the site of the temple on the Sabbath, those sacrifices had to be performed on one of the other six days.

Once sunset arrived on Friday the people were only to rest. This in-and-of itself was a major departure from what they had endured while in Egypt. At this time there was no such thing as a 'weekend' in Egypt (which is what the Sabbath was originally designated to be). Instead, their citizenry worked seven days a week, with their only days off being the festival days when they worshiped one of their pantheon of gods and goddesses.

As well, this commandment was specifically intended for the Jews (I've had SDA's claim that it was their ancestors who came out of Egypt rather than just the descendants of Abraham, so they are to be seen as 'the chosen people', but I reject that claim altogether). My ancestors were in northern Europe at the time. So what is forbidden by the New Testament gospels and epistles I accept as binding to me, but not what was forbidden in the Old Testament.

It seems far easier - though perhaps inconvenient for most Christian sports enthusiasts - to actually honor the 7th-day Sabbath rather than to try and continually offer up rather vague explanations as to why it was abrogated and replaced with the 1st-day or Sunday . . .

Then again, the "Sunday Sabbath" has become so ingrained in the minds of most Christians that for mainstream Christianity to suddenly announce: "Whoops, sorry ...we've been wrong all this time so we're now going to worship on Saturday" would cause a similar exodus from the Church as the Jews from Egypt. Mainstream Christianity would - could - NEVER allow that to happen. Consequently, they continually have to offer up reasons as to how the Sabbath was abolished whenever the subject is raised. AND, they do so quite convincingly . . .

 

[JB_Reformed Baptist]

A CRITICAL HISTORY
OF
THE SABBATH AND THE SUNDAY
IN THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
(SECOND EDITION, REVISED)
BY A. H. LEWIS D. D., LL.D.,

I've read and studied this and other scholarly material on the sabbath over a few years. So find a link and download it. Until then not one of you know what you're talking about. One needs more than one's own opinion to do justice to this subject.

This should sort the geniune to the fake.

 

[KCKID]

A CRITICAL HISTORY
OF
THE SABBATH AND THE SUNDAY
IN THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
(SECOND EDITION, REVISED)
BY A. H. LEWIS D. D., LL.D.,

I've read and studied this and other scholarly material on the sabbath over a few years. So find a link and download it. Until then not one of you know what you're talking about. One needs more than one's own opinion to do justice to this subject.

This should sort the geniune to the fake.

Well, I typed in The Sabbath and the Sunday in the Christian Church by A.H.Lewis and came up with ...nothing. You do imply - actually you more than imply - ignorance when it comes to this topic. I had years of study with the SDA Church and I can assure you that they have done their homework re the Sabbath and Sunday. I really don't know what A.H.Lewis can add to what the SDAs (and I) already know. The thing is ...what do we really NEED to know other than THE FACT that the huge majority of Christians only adhere to NINE of the TEN commandments ...? Case pretty well closed, don't you think? And yet, if asked, they would claim that there are indeed TEN commandments! So, what gives here ...? Are there ten or are there nine?

 

[bytheway]

Heb.4 speaks of God's rest, He didn't lay down and do nothing. His example to us and those before us is STOP trying to make things happen, rest from "your" vain attempts (work).It's false labor,it gets harder and harder to do what we want done and then wonder why the seats were not filled at the latest revival. We prayed that He would perform for us. God didn't show up. Why! He's no Sugar Daddy.
He will not do our will! The book says that ALL things were completed before the foundation of the world. What He wants is for us to get on board with what He has done and then pray for manifestion of those things done in His timing. The rest of God does not set aside any day,but every day for us to follow Him.

 

[KCKID]

Heb.4 speaks of God's rest, He didn't lay down and do nothing. His example to us and those before us is STOP trying to make things happen, rest from "your" vain attempts (work).It's false labor,it gets harder and harder to do what we want done and then wonder why the seats were not filled at the latest revival. We prayed that He would perform for us. God didn't show up. Why! He's no Sugar Daddy.
He will not do our will! The book says that ALL things were completed before the foundation of the world. What He wants is for us to get on board with what He has done and then pray for manifestion of those things done in His timing. The rest of God does not set aside any day,but every day for us to follow Him.

What does the above have to do with the abrogation of the 7th-day Sabbath and the 'replacement Sabbath' of Sunday? Are there ten commandments or are there nine?