For those who sincerely wish to please the Lord by doing His will, determining which day is the proper day on which God’s people should come together to offer worship is quite crucial. Scriptural and historical evidences provide a firm foundation for concluding that the Lord’s Church should worship God on Sunday, the first day of the week.
THE SABBATH
From the Creation account, we understand that Jehovah God created the world in six days and sanctified (set apart) the seventh day as a day of rest for Himself (Genesis 2:1-3).
It may be natural to assume that God instructed Adam and Eve and their descendants about the significance of the seventh day and commanded them to observe it. However, such an assumption is a dangerous presumption. For, the Scriptures indicate that the Sabbath was first revealed to the children of Israel after their exodus from Egypt (Nehemiah 9:13-14).
The Sabbath observance was meant to be a reminder of how that God brought rest to the Israelites from their hard labors of slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). The Scriptures are clear that the Sabbath was an integral part of the Covenant God established with the Israelites (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; 5:1-5, 12). The Israelites were to observe the Sabbath as “a sign” or token of the special and exclusive relationship they had with God. It was a demonstration that God “sanctified” (set apart to Himself) the Israelites from all other nations (Exodus 31:12-18; Ezekiel 20:10-12).
The Israelites were told to expect a new covenant to be established that would be unlike that which was established in the desert of Sinai (Jeremiah 31:31-32). We find that this new covenant was established by and through Christ Jesus (Hebrews 8:6-12). With the arrival of the new covenant, the old covenant is made obsolete (Hebrews 8:13; 10:9). The covenant written on stone (Exodus 31:18; 32:16) has been done away with (2 Corinthians 3:7-11). With the coming of the new covenant of Christ Jesus, the old covenant with its law has ended (Exodus 24:12; Romans 10:4).
The old covenant with its laws and ordinances was a spiritual tutor for the Israelites to prepare them for the coming of Christ (Galatians 3:24). The Mosaic Law with its ordinances and observances was only “a shadow of the good things to come” with the better covenant and law of Christ (Hebrews 10:1). This, says the apostle Paul, includes the Sabbath (Colossians 2:16-17).
SUNDAY, THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK
That Christians were expected to assemble and worship is quite clear (Hebrews 10:24-25).
The establishment of the Christian day of worship is based primarily upon two Supernatural events. First, the Lord Jesus rose from the grave on the first day of the week (Luke 24:1-7). Secondly, the Lord established His Church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1), which always fell on “the morrow after the Sabbath” (Lev. 23:15-16), hence, on the first day of the week. So, the Church started out meeting for worship on the first day of the week (cf. Acts 2:42).
It is not surprising, then, to find the local church at Troas assembling upon “the first day of the week” to break bread, i.e., to worship, (Acts 20:7). Furthermore, the apostle Paul instructed the brethren of the Corinthian congregation what they are to do when they assemble for worship (1 Corinthians 11:17-34; 14:1-40). In addition to teaching them how they are to partake of the Lord’s Supper, sing, pray and receive instruction, Paul tells them to be contributing into the church treasury “every first day of the week” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2 – Greek text; cf. NASB).
One will search in vain for New Testament evidence that the church came together to worship God on the Sabbath day. Yes, it certainly was the case that the apostles frequented the synagogues on the Sabbath for the purpose of preaching the gospel. For, that is where the largest concentration of Jews would have been (cf. Acts 13:14; 17:1-2, etc.), and the message regarding Jesus was to be spoken first to them (Romans 1:16).
It is highly significant that the earliest writings of various leaders of the primitive Church state that it is the historic practice of Christians to assemble for worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, rather than on the Sabbath. Consider the following:
The Didache
"But every Lord’s day . . . gather yourselves together and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned" (Didache 14 [A.D. 95]).
Ignatius of Antioch
"If therefore those who lived according to the old practices [i.e. Jews] 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….Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, …let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s day as a festival, the resurrection day, the queen and chief of all days of the week." (Epistle of Ignatius to Magnesians, [AD 110]).
Barnabas
"Moreover God says to the Jews, ‘Incense is a vain abomination unto me, and your new moons and Sabbaths I cannot endure.’ He has, therefore, abolished these things….Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day [Sunday] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead." (Letter of Barnabas [A.D. 125]).
Justin Martyr
"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….But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead" (First Apology [A.D. 140]).
“I again addressed them [Jews] thus: ’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, [AD 140]).
Tertullian
"Others…suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians because it is a well-known fact that we… make Sunday a day of joy." (To the Nations, 1:13, [AD 200]).
"The Lord’s Day is the holy day of the Christian Church. Though we share with the sun -worshippers the observance of Sunday, we are not apprehensive lest we seem to be heathen. We celebrate the day after Saturday in distinction of those who call that day their Sabbath." (Answer to the Jews, [AD 200]).
“ To us Sabbaths are foreign.” (On Idolatry, 14:6, [AD 200]).
Clement of Alexandria
"The old seventh day has become nothing more than a working day. The enlightened Christian, when he has fully observed that which is the Lord’s Day according to the Gospel, … lays hold of that which is spiritual and enlightened, glorifying in this the Resurrection of the Lord." (Miscellanies, Book VII:12, [AD 200]).
Bardesanes
“Wherever we are, we are all called after the one name of Christ - Christians. On one day, the first of the week, we assemble ourselves together.” (On Fate, [AD 210]).
Eusebius of Caesarea
"They [the Jewish patriarchs] did not care about observing Sabbaths, nor do we. They did not avoid certain kinds of food, neither did they regard the other distinctions which Moses first delivered to their posterity to be observed as symbols; nor do Christians of the present day do such things" (Church History 1:4:8, [AD 312]).
OBJECTION:
God stated that the Sabbath was to be observed forever as a perpetual covenant (Exodus 31:16-17).
REPLY:
It was a perpetual covenant with the Israelites and as such they were to observe it forever. However, such Hebrew terms such as "perpetual" and "forever" usually meant as ’long as the covenant would be valid’. That is, until such time as God would enact a new covenant that supercedes the first.
For example, the same terms are used of :
Circumcision (Genesis 17:9-10, 13). Yet, physical circumcision ended with Christ (Galatians 5:1-8).
The Passover (Exodus 12:17, 24). Yet, the old Passover was superceded by the new and true Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Aaronic Priesthood (Exodus 28:40-43; 29:9; 40:13-15). Yet, Christ has superceded high priesthood of Aaron (Hebrews 6:20; 7:11-28).
Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-34). Yet, the sacrifice of Christ abolished the need for such (Hebrews 10:1-10, 12, 18).
Temple rituals (Exodus 27:20-21; Leviticus 24:1-9).
But, such were shadows of spiritual realities in the Church Age (Hebrews 10:1).
