1. A Puzzling Question
This brings us to a subject that many find perplexing. The Christian world has for some time observed two different days. On one hand, most Christians sincerely observe Sunday, the first day of the week, which they believe to be a memorial of Christ's resurrection. On the other hand, a large group of Christians, equally sincere, believe that the Bible honors only the seventh-day as the Sabbath and nowhere affirms the sanctity of Sunday.
Does it really make any difference which day we observe as the Sabbath? As sincere and earnest people who want to know the truth, we must always ask ourselves: "What matters to Jesus? What does Jesus desire me to do?" After all, we want the assurance of following Bible truth and obeying God's instruction, "This is the way, walk in it" (Isaiah 30:21).
In coming to a decision about this, several important facts need to be made clear: Who changed the Sabbath from Saturday, the seventh day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week? Does the Bible authorize such a shift? If so, did God, Christ, or perhaps the apostles make the change?
We'll proceed by looking at all the possibilities.
2. Did God Change the Day?
Is there any pronouncement from God that changes the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week?
Most Christians accept the Ten Commandments as a valid guide to live by. God gave them to Moses and His people, Israel, at Sinai. Moses reminded Israel:
"These are THE COMMANDMENTS THE LORD PROCLAIMED IN A LOUD VOICE to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. THEN HE WROTE THEM ON TWO STONE TABLETS AND GAVE THEM TO ME."-Deuteronomy 5:22.
The Ten Commandments are the only message God has ever personally written out for the human race. They are so important, He wrote them on stone with His own finger (Exodus 31:18).
In the fourth commandment God instructs us:
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 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. . . . For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he RESTED on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD BLESSED the Sabbath day and MADE IT HOLY."-Exodus 20:8-11.
When God created our world, He set apart "the seventh day" as "the Sabbath of the Lord" by three divine acts: (1) "On the seventh day he rested from all his work," (2) He "blessed the Sabbath day," and (3) He "made it holy" (Genesis 2:1-3). Again at Sinai when He gave the Ten Commandments, God reiterated these same truths.
When God gave the Ten Commandments to His people, He also made it clear that no human being should revise or edit the instruction from His holy lips.
"DO NOT ADD to what I command you and DO NOT SUBTRACT from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you."-Deuteronomy 4:2.
God Himself pledges not to alter His commands:
"I WILL NOT violate my covenant or ALTER WHAT MY LIPS HAVE UTTERED."-Psalm 89:34.
The Bible is clear that God did not change the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week.
3. Did Jesus Change the Sabbath?
According to Jesus, the Ten Commandments and all the principles in the Old Testament Scriptures are not subject to change, and they are to guide His followers:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."-Matthew 5:17-19.
Jesus faithfully honored and observed the Sabbath. He is our example in Sabbath-keeping.
"He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom."-Luke 4:16.
Looking to the future, Jesus wanted His disciples to continue experiencing the joys of true Sabbath-keeping. He instructed them to pray that they would not have to flee from Jerusalem during its siege on the Sabbath.
"Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath."-Matthew 24:20.
Jesus was here speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem-an event that took place in A.D. 70, nearly forty years after His resurrection. Jesus did not change the Sabbath commandment, or any other of the commandments. In fact, He instructed the rich young ruler to obey the Ten Commandments (Matthew 19:16-22). It is clear from Jesus' teaching and example that we still need the Sabbath for rest, relaxation, and spending time with God.
4. Did the Apostles Change the Sabbath?
James, the first leader of the early Christian church, wrote concerning the Ten Commandments:
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker."-James 2:10, 11.
Luke, a physician and evangelist in the early church, reports:
"On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there."-Acts 16:13.
Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, who wrote much of the New Testament, affirms:
"For somewhere he [God] has spoken about the seventh day in these words: 'And on the seventh day God rested from all his work' [see Genesis 2:2]. . . . There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God."-Hebrews 4:4, 9.
The New Testament book of Acts mentions 84 different Sabbaths observed by the apostles, all of them more than 14 years after the resurrection of Jesus.
Acts 13:14, 42, 44: 2 Sabbaths at Antioch
Acts 16:13: 1 Sabbath at Philippi
Acts 17:2: 3 Sabbaths at Thessalonica
Acts 18:4, 11 78 Sabbaths at Corinth
Total 84 Sabbaths celebrated by Christ's followers.
John, the last of the twelve apostles to die, wrote five books of the Bible-one gospel, three epistles, and the prophetic book of Revelation. He died about A.D. 100, some 70 years after the resurrection of Jesus. Interestingly enough, nowhere in all of his writings does he speak of a change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. In fact, John himself kept the Sabbath. He wrote:
"On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit."-Revelation 1:10.
According to Jesus, the Lord's Day is the Sabbath:
"The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."-Matthew 12:8.
A search of the Scriptural evidence reveals that the apostles made no attempt to change God's day of rest from the seventh to the first day of the week. The New Testament mentions the first day of the week only eight times. None of them speak of it as a holy day, or even hint that we should set it aside as a day of worship.
A critical examination of the eight texts referring to the first day of the week points out these Sunday events:
- The women came to the tomb on the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1).
- "When the Sabbath was over" the women resumed their work or secular tasks on the first day of the week (Mark 16:1, 2).
- Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene early the first day of the week (Mark 16:9).
- Jesus' followers resumed their secular activities (Luke 24:1).
- Mary went to the grave of Jesus and found the tomb empty on the first day of the week (John 20:1).
- The disciples gathered together "for fear of the Jews" (not for worship) on the first day of the week (John 20:19).
- Paul asked church members to take account of their funds on the first day of the week, and "set aside a sum of money" for the poor at Jerusalem (1 Corinthians 16:1, 2). The passage does not mention any religious meeting.
- In Acts 20:7 Luke speaks of Paul's preaching on the first day of the week at an incidental farewell meeting. Of course Paul preached every day, and the apostles broke bread daily (Acts 2:46).
None of these scriptures suggest that the apostles intended to stop observing the seventh-day Sabbath. These men mentioned no change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. There is clearly no New Testament evidence for a change of the Sabbath from Saturday, the seventh day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week. The change came after the days of Jesus and the Apostles, so we must turn to history to see when and how the change came about.
5. Where Did Sunday Come From?
The apostles clearly warn us that some Christians would drift away from the doctrines of New Testament Christianity. Paul said:
"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!"-Acts 20:29-31.
And that is exactly what happened. Credible historians clearly record how Christians began to stray from apostolic purity. Traditions and doctrines which Paul, Peter, and the other founders of the Christian church had never endorsed gradually crept into the church.
"From simple beginnings the Church developed a distinct priesthood and an elaborate service. In this way, Christianity and the higher forms of paganism tended to come nearer and nearer to each other as time went on, . . . they tended to merge into one another like streams which had been following converging courses."-J. H. Robinson, An Introduction to the History of Western Europe, page 31 (italics supplied).
The change from Sabbath observance to Sunday observance took place after the New Testament was completed and the apostles had all died. History records that Christians eventually shifted from worshiping and resting on the seventh day to the first day of the week.
"A history of the problem shows that in some places, it was really only after some centuries that the Sabbath rest really was entirely abolished, and by that time the practice of observing a bodily rest on Sunday had taken place."-Vincent J. Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1943), p. 15.
But of course believers didn't stop observing the seventh-day Sabbath on a given weekend and then suddenly begin keeping Sunday as the Lord's day. The earliest authentic instance of Sunday observance by Christians occurred in Italy, in the middle of the second century after Christ. For a long time after that many Christians observed both days, while still others kept the Sabbath only.
On March 7, A.D. 321, Constantine the Great issued the first civil Sunday law, compelling all the people, except farmers, in the Roman Empire to rest on Sunday. This, with five other civil laws decreed by Constantine concerning Sunday, set the legal precedent for all civil Sunday legislation from that time to the present. In the fourth century the Council of Laodicea prohibited Christians from abstaining from work on the Sabbath. It urged them if at all possible to honor Sunday as the Lord's day.
History shows that Sunday worship and observance is a man-made convention. The Bible gives no authority for doing away with the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment. In the Old Testament, the prophet Daniel predicted that during the Christian era a deceptive power would attempt to change God's law. The God Cares Daniel course, which you can request from us and study after you finish the Discover course, presents a detailed explanation of that prophecy.
6. Who Made the Change?
Who officially moved the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week? The Catholic Church claims to have done so. In an attempt to save the crumbling Roman Empire, well-meaning church leaders compromised and attempted to change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday . A representative catechism of the Roman Catholic Church reads:
"Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
"A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
"Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
"A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church . . . transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."-Peter Geiermann, The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957 edition), page 50.
The Catholic Mirror of September 23, 1893, reported:
"The Catholic Church for over 1,000 years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."
Here are two additional statements by Roman Catholic leaders:
"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."-James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, p. 89.
"It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of JESUS CHRIST, has transferred this rest to Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church."-Msgr. Louis Gaston de Segur, Plain Talk About Protestantism of Today, p. 225.
Nothing could be plainer. The Catholic Church proudly announces that human church leaders made the change.
7. What Do the Protestant Churches Say?
Official documents outlining the beliefs of several Protestant denominations agree that the Bible provides no authority for Sunday observance.
Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran Church, wrote in the Augsburg Confession, Article 28, paragraph 9:
"They [the Roman Catholics] allege the Sabbath changed into Sunday, the Lord's Day, contrary to the decalogue [the Ten Commandments], . . . neither is there any example more boasted of than the changing of the Sabbath day. Great, say they, is the power and authority of the church, since it dispensed with one of the ten commandments."
Methodist theologians Amos Binney and Daniel Steele observed:
"It is true, there is no positive command for infant baptism . . . nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week."-Theological Compend (New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1902), pp. 180, 181.
Dr. N. Summerbell, historian of the Disciples of Christ or Christian Church, wrote:
"The Roman Church had totally apostatized . . . . It reversed the Fourth Commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God's word, and instituting Sunday as a holy day."-A True History of the Christian and the Christian Church, pages 417, 418.
A leading Protestant church historian wrote:
"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. Perhaps at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin."- Dr. Augustus Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church During the Three First Centuries (Rose translation), p. 186.
8. What is the Real Issue?
This brings us face to face with the questions: Why do so many Christians observe Sunday without Bible authority? Even more important, Which day shall I keep? Shall I follow those who say, "I don't think it makes any difference which day I observe as long as I keep one day in seven"? Or, shall I count as important what God pointed out in the Ten Commandments: "the seventh day is the Sabbath"?
Here we are dealing with more than just an outward observance-which day happens to be biblically correct. The essential issue is that of obedience to Jesus. It involves our fundamental allegiance: Whom shall I obey? Shall I obey Christ, the Son of God, or human tradition in the matter of the day I keep holy?
God is not arbitrary. At creation and in His Ten Commandments, He had a reason for asking us to observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 20:8-11). He Himself "rested" on the Sabbath and established it as a memorial to His creative power. Our Creator set aside the Sabbath as a "holy" day, as a time for us and our families to come closer to Him for strength and refreshment.
Some believers respond to this information by saying, "I keep every day holy." It's certainly true that we can and should worship God in our hearts on every day of the week. But the fact is, God has still made one day for a special purpose; He made the seventh day of the week "holy." On the Sabbath He comes near to us in a unique way; He "blessed" the day with His special presence and asks us to devote the whole day to Him.
Let us be completely open with you. There is no support for Sunday observance in the Bible. The issues are plain. Which day we worship on does make a difference . The choice is clear: the teachings of men or the commands of God. The word of men or the Word of God. A human substitute or a divine command.
The prophet Daniel sounds an urgent warning against the medieval church which would "try to change the set times and the laws" (Daniel 7:25). God is calling His people back to obedience. He invites them to keep the Sabbath as a symbol of loyalty and love to Him.
Jesus promises fullness of joy to those who love Him enough to obey His commands.
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."-John 15:9-11.
We have a wonderful Saviour. He is eager for us to experience His love in all its fullness. A heart of willing obedience opens the door wide to that love. In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ submitted completely to the Father's will-even though He faced the cross and the sins of the world were crushing out His life. As He cried out to God, "Take this cup from me," He remained surrendered in His pleading, and added, "Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36).
Christ longs for us to experience the fulfillment that a truly surrendered life brings. And He also wants us to experience the joy of Sabbath rest. He wants us to trust Him enough to obey Him in all the details of life. If you answer God's call and begin observing the seventh day as the Sabbath, Christ's joy will be "in you" and "your joy" will "be complete" (John 15:11).
Many Sabbath-keepers agree with the person who said: "Since keeping the Sabbath, such a joy has taken possession of my life, such peace has flooded my inner self, such a satisfying presence has filled my heart; that the joy of obeying Jesus has transformed my life." Have you discovered the beauty of Sabbath rest?
When people obey God and begin to keep the Sabbath, some face work or family difficulties. Remember that Jesus can and will give you grace and power to solve these problems. The way may not be easy, but Jesus will give you sustaining power, and a richer Christian life. He will fulfill His promises. His unseen presence will be with you, and your joy will be complete.
Dear Father in heaven: Thank You for dying to give me eternal life. Thank You for Your Word which guides my life as a Christian. Thank You for revealing to me the truth about the Sabbath. Help me always to be honest with You and with my own heart. Help me to stand on Your side always. In all the problems that I may face, please send Jesus to be by my side and help me live always for Him. In His wonderful name. Amen.
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