Several friends have
been talking recently with devout religious folks who believe that the
seventh-day Sabbath is the day of Christian worship. Without questioning
anyone's sincerity, this post attempts to address various points offered by
various "Seventh-Day" proponents. These points are highlighted in gray below.
“God does not change.”
It
is true that God's character is forever the same. However, God has in fact
changed the practices in which we are to engage. Jesus declared all foods clean
(Mark 7:19). Gentiles can become “children of Abraham” without being
circumcised (Acts 10; Gal 2-3). Though Mosaic Law called for stoning adulterers
(Dt 22:22), Jesus set an adulteress free and told her to sin no more (Jn
8:1-11). Gentile Christians were not required to observe the Passover and
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, though these were "forever" items
under the Law (Ex 12:14-17).
Principles
do not change; practices do. Grace, faith, obedience, worship, sexual purity,
etc. are as important as they have ever been. But the administration of these
principles has changed.
“Acts 13, 15, 16, 17 and 18 refer to Christian observances
of the Sabbath.”
Paul
and Barnabas went to the synagogues to proclaim the gospel. None of these
Sabbath gatherings was an assembly of Christians, but of Jews and God-fearing
Gentiles.
The
early church met on the first day of the week to break bread.
Ac 20:7 On
the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul
talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his
speech until midnight.
It was during the
first-day assembly that Christians gave.
1 Co 16:2 On
the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it
up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
“The New Testament does not say that the Sabbath has been
changed.”
Yes
it does, actually. The New Testament declares that the Sabbath was part of the
shadow of the reality that is found in Christ.
The
New Testament fulfillment of the Sabbath is described in Hebrews 4. As God
entered His rest after His six days of work in creation, Christians will enter
our “Sabbath rest” in heaven after we finish our “six days” here on earth. The
earthly Sabbath was a shadow or facsimile of the true Sabbath rest in heaven.
Heb 4:8 For
if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later
on. 9 So
then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God
did from his. 11 Let
us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same
sort of disobedience.
So
the New Testament teaches that heaven is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. That’s
why the church in the New Testament was never commanded to meet for worship on
the Sabbath.
“The Catholic Church (not the apostles) changed the day in
the fourth century.”
Actually,
the significance of the first day of the week is evident in the first century.
In fact, the term
“Lord’s Day” (see Rev 1:10) renders the Greek word kyriake. This is the word that
the Greeks use still today for the first day of the week. The fact that, in the
first century (in Revelation), the word “Lord’s Day” was already used,
indicates that the first day of the week was the first-century day of worship for
the church.
If
the Catholics changed it in the fourth century, how could we find the following
statements from the second century?
DIDACHE (AD 90-110): Having earlier confessed your sins so that your sacrifice
may be pure, come together each Lord’s day, break bread, and give thanks. (14:1)
IGNATIUS (d. AD 110): If therefore those who lived according to the old practices
came to the new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath but living according to
the Lord’s day, in which also our life arose through him and his death (which
some deny), through which mystery we received faith, and on account of which we
suffer in order that we may be found disciples of Jesus Christ our only
teacher, how shall we be able to live apart from him for whom even the prophets
were looking as their teacher since they were his disciples in the spirit? (Magnesians 9)
PLINY (c. AD 112): [The Christians]
affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they
were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when
they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound
themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, hut never to commit any
fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when
they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to
separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and
innocent kind … (Letters Book X.xcvi, addressed to the Emperor Trajan)
BARNABAS (AD 130): Moreover God says to
the Jews, “Your new moons and Sabbaths I cannot endure.” You see how he says,
“The present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but the Sabbath which I have
made in which , when I have rested from all things, I will make the beginning
of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world.” Wherefore, we
Christians keep the eighth day for joy, on which also Jesus arose from the dead
and when he appeared ascended into heaven. (15:8f.)
JUSTIN (AD 150): We are always together
with one another. And for all the things with which we are supplied we bless
the Maker of all through his Son Jesus Christ and through his Holy Spirit. And
on the day called Sunday there is a gathering together in the same place of all
who live in a city or a rural district. …We all make our assembly in common on
the day of the Sun, since it is the first day, on which God changed the
darkness and matter and made the world, and Jesus Christ our Savior arose from
the dead on the same day. For they crucified him on the day before Saturn’s day, and on
the day after (which is the day of the Sun) he appeared to his apostles and
taught his disciples these things. (Apology I, 67:1-3, 7)
JUSTIN (AD 150): There is no other thing
for which you blame us, my friends, is there than this’ That we do not live
according to the Law, nor are we circumcised in the flesh as your forefathers,
nor do we observe the Sabbath as you do. (Dialogue
with Trypho 10:1. In verse 3
the Jew Trypho acknowledges that Christians “do not keep the Sabbath.”)
The
commandment of circumcision, requiring them always to circumcise the children
on the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision by which we are
circumcised from error and evil through the resurrection from the dead on the
first day of the week of Jesus Christ our Lord. For the first day of the week,
although it is the first of all days, yet according to the number of the days
in a cycle is called the eighth (while still remaining the first). (Dialogue 41:4)
JUSTIN (AD 150):
And
on the day called Sunday there is a gathering together in the same place of all
who live in a city or a rural district. The memoirs of the apostles or the
writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then when the
reader ceases, the president in a discourse admonishes and urges the imitation
of these good things. Next we all rise together and send up prayers. And, as I
said before, when we cease from our prayer, bread is presented and wine and
water. The president in the same manner sends up prayers and thanksgivings
according to his ability, and the people sing out their assent saying the
“Amen.” A distribution and participation of the elements for which thanks have
been given is made to each person, and to those who are not present it is sent
by the deacons.
Those
who have means and are willing, each according to his own choice, gives what he
wills, and what is collected is deposited with the president. He provides for
the orphans and widows, those who are in want on account of sickness or some
other cause, those who are in bonds and strangers who are sojourning, and in a
word he becomes the protector of all who are in need. (Apology I, 67)
The Catholics also take
credit for producing the Bible! We should not be surprised to see that they
claim to have originated other beliefs and practices. As noted earlier,
observance of the Lord’s Day is noted frequently by second-century writers.
Therefore, the Catholics could not have actually made this change in the fourth
century, regardless of their claims.
For
further information:
Research
the “vision” of Ellen G. White, the Seventh-Day Adventist “prophet,” in which
she reportedly saw the central significance of the Sabbath command. Note the
following from this website: http://www.bible.ca/7-White-halo.htm.
Ellen G. White wrote
under "inspiration" the following:
·
In "Life Sketches of Ellen G. White," as published by
the Adventists, we have this language relating Mrs. White's "vision"
of the Sabbath day. "Elder Bates was resting upon Saturday, the seventh
day of the week, and he urged it upon our attention as the true Sabbath. I did
not feel its importance, and thought that he erred in dwelling upon the fourth
commandment more than upon the other nine. But the Lord gave me a view of
the heavenly sanctuary. The temple of God
·
Ellen G. White recorded under "inspiration", "In
the ark was the golden pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of
stone, which folded together like a book. Jesus opened them, and I saw the Ten
Commandments written on them with the finger of God. On one table were Four and
on the other six. The four on the first table shone brighter than the other
six. But
the fourth, the Sabbath commandment, shone above them all; for the Sabbath was
set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name. The holy Sabbath looked
glorious a halo of glory was all around it. I SAW THAT THE SABBATH
COMMANDMENT WAS NOT NAILED TO THE CROSS. If it was, the other nine commandments
were; and we are at liberty to break them all as well as to break the fourth. I
saw that God had not changed the Sabbath, for he never changes. But the pope
had changed it from the seventh day to the first day of the week; for he was to
change times and laws." ("Early Writings of Ellen G. White,"
page 33.) Again on page 65 of the same book Mrs. White says, "The pope has
changed the day of rest from the seventh to the first day."
Research
further the early references to the first day of the week as the day of
Christian worship. http://www.bible.ca/H-sunday.htm
It
was the resurrection of Jesus, not the Catholic Church, that changed the day of
worship. Many of His appearances took place on the first day of the week, the
church began on the first day of the week, and the disciples gathered to break
bread on the first day of the week. No wonder it, and not the Sabbath, is
"the Lord's Day."
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