Hi B5,
So says the men that you follow that started your teaching about 500 years ago. There is 2,000 years of teaching from other men that you don’t follow that say different. I can provide evidence for my 2,000 year teaching. Can you provide evidence showing that your teaching is 2,000 years old??
Curious Mary
Hi Mary,
How the Christian world came to observe Sunday is simple matter of history. The Roman Church sought to distance itself from Jews, and to encourage the conversion of Pagans (who had been worshipping on Sunday for a long time….this is how it became known as the “sun day”). So it adopted the day. Alexandria joined the city of Rome in this plan. And after Rome gained the ascendancy over other churches, its tradition became general.
First, we agree that our Savior was resurrected on the first day of the week. And we agree that this tremendous event ought to be commemorated. When we attend a baptism we are attending a ritual that reminds us of the resurrection of the Lord.
But when the Bible speaks about the first day of the week, it never mentions any sanctity ever being conferred on that day.
We find that the disciples once met on the first day of the week “for fear of the Jews.” John 20:19. We find that Paul once preached all Sabbath long, then through Saturday evening, with the intent of traveling on what we call Sunday morning. Ac 20.
Some, reading this passage, are confused because they do not understand that the Jewish day begins at sunset. So when they read that it was dark, on the “first day of the week”, they are thinking Sunday night. But Jews understood “Saturday night.”
We find that men in the New Testament times were paid daily. It was a good question to converted ex-pagans whether they ought to wait until Friday to see how much money that had left over for offerings.
But Paul didn’t leave generosity to chance. We are to honor God with the first-fruit of our increase. And so Paul instructed the believers to “lay” up in “store” from the very “first day of the week.” Some reading this have thought that an offering was taken on the first day of the week. But a simple reading of 1Co 16:2 will show that the offering was stored with each individual in view of a future collection.
These three incidents, along with Christ’s resurrection, are the entirety of the New Testament references to the “first day of the week.” It is never called anything more special than that. And this contrasts with the Holy Sabbath which is named 55 times in the New Testament (compare to 61 in the Old--a much larger body of Scripture).
There is no Biblical evidence that the Sabbath has been changed. And in view of the fact that it was given before sin entered the world, in view of the fact that it was written in stone, in view of the fact that it says “remember”, and in view of many other facts, there is no reason to conclude that it has been changed by the Creator.
