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Why do Christians assemble for worship on a Sunday
when the Old Testament clearly endorses observation of the seventh day
(Saturday)?
Many modern Christians have almost lost touch with the theology of their
predecessors and therefore can easily fall prey to various seventh day
theologies and lines of attack. They are sometimes susceptible when
they are accused of ignoring the clear command of several Old Testament
statements including the Fourth commandment,
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy…"
(Exodus 20:8)
Many seventh day groups darkly associate Sunday worship with receiving
'the Mark of the Beast' and believe that Christians who attend church
on a Sunday have been duped by Satan into actually worshipping him!
These groups are often characterised by an astonishingly selective approach
to early Christian history in which they diligently search for "historical
evidence" which suits their approach, whilst being quite prepared to
ignore other evidence which does not fit in with their schema. They
then proceed to marry this flawed historical approach to various fanciful
and mystical theories about ''The Mark of the Beast''- the approach
is usually authoritative and dogmatic with an air of moral indignation
which tends to mask the fact that there is a singular lack of evidence
to back up their theories. They impose their theories upon the evidence
rather than allowing the evidence to speak for itself.
The fourth century Roman Emperor Constantine usually plays a major role
within their idiosyncratic approach. He is seen as the arch-villain
who imposed Sunday worship upon the Empire and persecuted Sabbath-keepers
and his fourth century Edict which upheld Sunday as a day of rest is
gleefully pointed out as evidence of this; but this reveals their highly
selective approach to history, for they never go back even further -
to the second century - in order to consult the writings of Justin Martyr.
He wrote,
"Sunday is the day upon which we all hold our communion
and assembly" (Justin Martyr, First Christian Apology)
Justin's testimony is important, for their exists a direct link from
him, through Polycarp, right back to the Apostle John. During his life,
Polycarp was personally acquainted with, first of all, John - then later
with Justin Martyr, with no evidence of doctrinal dispute existing between
them. Other very early documents such as the non-canonical Epistle of
Barnabbas and the Didache appear to show that Christians were very soon
assembling on Sundays. Indeed, the evidence is present within the New
Testament itself (see Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:1-2 and Revelation 1:10, for
instance).
But why, then, the change from Saturday to Sunday as preferred days
of worship?
First of all it should always be borne in mind that the original Sabbath
was given in a national scenario to a people who had no access to God's
Holy Spirit nor explicit promise of salvation at that time. In effect,
God was saying to them, 'One day in every seven I want you all to sit
down, do no work and think on the things of God for the whole day' In
fact, circumcision and the Sabbath became the two identifiers of God's
Old Covenant people. The Sabbath (Saturday) identifies those who, in
turn, identify themselves with the Old Covenant and wish to claim its
promises. The New Covenant, however, which commenced with the sacrifice
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, marked a distinct change in approach.
Jesus is now our Lord and Master (Hebrews 1:1-2). Christians are no
longer subject to legalistic law codes but, rather, the Spirit of Christ
leads those who become regenerated in Christ. The Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew 5-7) clearly reveals this insufficiency of Old Covenant law
as a guide for the disciples of Christ. Christians are not required
to 'sit down and think of God' one day in seven in the old, legalistic
sense because, as Spirit-led believers, we should enjoy regular communion
with Him through the Spirit, all the time! (2 Corinthians 3:6).
Interestingly, the Sabbath command is never repeated in the New Testament,
not even once. Furthermore, Jesus is often critical of the Jewish authorities
who took a 'picky' and literal approach to the Sabbath day. The New
Testament teaches that the Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ (Matthew 11:
28-30). The Book of Hebrews specifically shows how not only the weekly
Sabbath, but the 'Promised Land' itself are vague foreshadowings of
the 'eternal rest' which Christians are to enjoy in the 'New Heavens
and New Earth' of the future. The faithful finally inherit this - but
only in and through Christ. (Carefully study Hebrews 4)
But it is important to realise that Christians now understand themselves
to be part of a New Creation, in comparison to the earth's original
creation. (2 Corinthians 5 : 16-19) This exciting New Testament teaching
is often strangely lacking from modern preaching. God created the world
on the First Day but an estrangement occurred, of course, when Adam
and Eve fell into sin. In due course, however, God sent Jesus - the
Second Adam - and, as Paul says, Christians are really part of Gods
New Creation. After all, in Genesis 1, on the First Day of creation
week, God separated the light from the darkness. In his Gospel, John
uses that concept, going back to creation (in his first chapter) and
saying, "The true light which illuminates all
men was coming into the world" (John 1:9)
This, of course, clearly refers to Christ and lends itself to the conception
that those who accept Christ become part of a new First Day - this is
why a few started referring to Sunday as 'the eighth day' - the idea
is that it is a 'new First Day'. Furthermore, Christ rose from the dead
on the first day of the week. (Of course, some 'seventh day people'
have performed major contortions here by saying, 'Yes, but that only
proves that He was already risen then'; but, wait a moment, if the Bible
wanted to tell us that He actually rose on the Sabbath why did it not
do so? What the text actually says is that He rose on the first day
of the week!) Pentecost too occurred upon the first day of the week
(Pentecost, with new meaning, is the continuation of the old 'Feast
of Weeks' and it is interesting that the Jews were commanded to observe
very precise regulations in order to ensure that this day always fell
on a Sunday - Leviticus 23: 15-16).
Moreover, if we return to Christ's resurrection day, we can find several
other points worthy of note;
First, Christ entered His own rest from His earthly labours on a Sunday
- not a Sabbath.
Second, we find in the account what can justly be referred to as the
first Sunday evening worship service! (John 20: 19-22). And as if to
underline the desirability of seeking after the Lord on this day, the
disciples can again be found assembling on this day one week later (John
20:26). (The King James says here; "after eight
days…" and this is true to the original Greek, but misleading
since it appears that the inclusive method of counting is being used
here; one Sunday to another being eight days. Almost every modern translation
says here, "one week later") Again, Jesus appears as if to bless this
assembly. Quite obviously, Jesus did not appear in order to rebuke His
disciples for 'keeping' the wrong day!
While Paul can certainly be found going into synagogues on the Sabbath
in order to maintain his practise of approaching Jews first upon entering
a town for the first time, he - quite obviously - chose to preach on
a Sunday - see Acts 20:7. Sunday rejecting groups either ignore such
New Testament verses or produce some woefully inadequate explanations
for them.
Some though will still say, 'Yes, but the Bible clearly upholds the
seventh day throughout the Old Testament, can those verses simply be
ignored?' The answer is, absolutely not - but we have to understand
that the Old Testament should now be considered in the greater light
of the New Testament, since therein lies the greater revelation! Revelation
is progressive. But, sadly, this is precisely where many go astray!
They attempt an Ebionite approach of trying to "keep" and live within
the two major Bible Covenants - but it simply cannot be done, and this
shows a lamentable understanding of the doctrine of Grace. The Old Testament
is eternally valid for teaching, we don't attempt to get rid of it like
the heretic Marcion (some Adventists have claimed that Luther tried
to get rid of it, which he did not). But it represents a Covenant which
- for those in Christ - is now obsolete, as it plainly says in Hebrews
8: 13:
"In that He says, ' a new covenant', he has
made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old
is ready to vanish away".
The 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem did indeed cause it to finally 'vanish
away'!
Christians are not to attempt to put 'new wine into old wineskins'!
What we must hold on to from the Sabbath command amounts to 3 points;
1. That - as Christians - we need to continue to meet regularly for
worship (Hebrews 10:25)
2. That we should never lose sight of the glorious principle that we
now find true rest, repose, and joy, in Christ alone (whom we can worship
at any time but should take into account New Testament precedent) (Matthew
11: 28-30). And finally,
3. Knowing that as we continue to cleave to Christ, we will eventually
enter the ultimate 'rest' from all of our labours, in the New Heavens
and the New Earth. Eternal Life in unspeakable joy in the very company
of God (Hebrews 4: 9-11).
The truth is, Holy Spirit led Christianity is not about keeping days!
We can be sure about this (if we otherwise doubted) from comments which
the Apostle Paul makes. In fact, he seems to give the impression that
believers who are too concerned about keeping days are immature,
"Let no one pass judgement on you in questions
of food and drink or with regard to a new moon or Sabbath, these things
are only a shadow of what is to come. But the real substance belongs
to Christ" (Colossians 2: 16-17)
In Galatians 4, Paul takes a legalistic element at Galatia to talk about
their immature desire to keep,
"…days, and months, and times,
and years" He tells them, "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed
upon you labour in vain" (verse 11)
He goes on to give his famous allegory about Hagar and Sarah. Hagar,
says Paul, typified the Old Covenant while Sarah typified the New. He
concludes the chapter by saying,
"What says the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman
and her son : for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the
son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the
bondwoman, but of the free" (verses 30-31)
This really should be crystal clear to all: Christians now stand under
the New Covenant! These two verses also clearly show us the error of
trying to live within two covenants.
Will we accept the straightforward teaching that the Old Covenant (or,
the 'bondwoman') has to be cast out in order for us to serve Christ?
So we find within the New Testament no specific command to assemble
for worship on any particular day nor should we expect to find such
an instruction since there is a certain freedom in Christ, His blood
having released us from Old Covenant penalties/prohibitions. Nevertheless,
we do find a strong precedent for assembling for worship on what soon
became known as 'The Lord's Day' - Sunday; the day of the resurrection;
the day of the disciples meeting and seeking after Christ; the day the
risen Christ revealed Himself to them; the day of Pentecost; the day
on which Paul can be found preaching to other Christians (rather than
to Jews); the day on which Paul requested the Corinthians to make a
collection for Christians affected by the famine in Judea (1 Corinthians
16: 1-3); the day on which John wrote that he found himself,
'In the Spirit' (Rev 1:10); and the day of which Justin Martyr
wrote, 'We all hold our communion and assembly'.
Seventh day adherents might just ponder that they resolutely hold to
the day which was a main mark of the Old Covenant, identifying God's
Old Covenant people who placed their trust in the sufficiency of that
particular covenant to save them. The Christian, on the other hand,
prefers to be associated with the Day of the Lord which identifies them
as followers of Jesus Christ whom they look to as Saviour, Lord and
Master - and who is fully sufficient for salvation.
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