At creation the seventh day of the week was set apart and consecrated as the Sabbath. Today, many churches observe the first day of the week as the day of worship. Has God authorized this change?

Most of us would agree there is an obvious distinction between the Sabbath as an institution and the particular day being set apart for its observance. The question, therefore, as to the change of the day in no way affects the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath as an institution. Change of the day or no change, the Sabbath remains as a sacred institution the same. The institution of Sabbath as set forth by God cannot be changed. But can the day upon which the Sabbath is observed be changed?

As a matter of clarity before we go further, the Hebrew word used most in the Old Testament that is translated “Sabbath” literally means “intermission.”  It does not mean “holy day” and it does not mean “seventh day” even though many people tend to interpret it this way.

There are those who claim church history shows the seventh-day Sabbath was observed by the early church, and no other day was observed as a Sabbath during the first two or three centuries. They usually claim Sunday did not become the Christian day to worship until Constantine enacted a law in 321 A.D. Their accusation continues that church councils during the 4^th and 5^th centuries further established Sunday as the Christian day of worship, and see this as a great apostasy.

Those who hold this view will also tend to state the Ten Commandments were not destroyed by Christ, only fulfilled. As such, the seventh day Sabbath observance is still a requirement for God’s people.

One Scripture reference given to support this view is taken from the Book of Acts. They claim in the brief history of the work of the disciples in proclaiming the gospel of a risen Savior, no other Sabbath is recognized than the seventh day, and this is mentioned in the most natural way as the proper designation of a well-known institution (Acts 13:14,27,42; 16:13; 18:4).

These texts are all clearly speaking of efforts to share the gospel with the Jews. Not one of these refers to Christians meeting together. This evidence clearly does not support this position.

Another familiar Scriptural reference given is in our Lord’s great prophecy, in which He foretold the experience of the church between the first and the second advent. He recognized the seventh-day Sabbath as an existing institution at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem (70 AD), and He instructed His disciples, “Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20). Such instruction given in these words, and at that time, would have been confusing in the extreme, had there been any such thing contemplated as the overthrow of the Sabbath law at the crucifixion, and the substitution of another day upon an entirely different basis.

This instruction for them to pray that their flight not have to occur on a Sabbath was a word of caution and warning. There were so many restrictions on Sabbath day activities that would make flight from danger next to impossible. One excellent example was the restriction on travel for a Sabbath day was only 2000 paces. Telling someone to flee for their life and then telling them they can only flee 2000 paces would certainly intensify their anxiety. This instruction to pray had nothing to do with the day on which Believers are to gather to worship. This evidence does not support this view.

This leaves us with the issues of the Commandment to observe the Sabbath Day, and what does church history really reveal. First let’s examine what the Scripture tells us about the Sabbath day.

The fact that God created the world in six days and entered into a Sabbath rest on the seventh (Exodus 20:10-11) is given as the reason for the fourth commandment. The Israelites were given a second reason in Deuteronomy 5:14-15; they were to observe the Sabbath rest to remember their deliverance from Egyptian slavery.  Exodus 16:23 tells us of the concept of Sabbath day for rest and Exodus 31:15 spells out six days are for work and the seventh is to be a Sabbath of rest. Violators are to be put to death. Obviously, this is an important concept to God. God’s judgment on the Jews for violating the Sabbath was sure (2 Chronicles 36:21). The Babylonians carried them captive to fulfill the Word of God until the land had enjoyed its Sabbath rest (Leviticus 26:34-36). These accounts should serve to warn us to be careful and not take the Sabbath lightly whatever it is that we believe about the Sabbath day.

There are those who argue that the patriarchs did not observe the seventh day Sabbath since there is no mention of it in the scriptures concerning the patriarchs prior to the giving of the law in Sinai. Those who take this position usually say that Genesis 2:3 is anticipatory and not historical.  This verse is part of the history of creation. The history of the patriarchs over some 2,500 years would not need to mention every detail, especially if such a detail is commonly accepted and practiced. Noah’s waiting seven days on two occasions indicates he may well have been observing a seven day week (Genesis 8:10, 8:12). Further indication of the patriarchs observing a seven day week might be Jacob’s history in Genesis 29:27-28). It seems most accurate and fair to Scriptures to understand the patriarchs as observing the weekly Sabbath probably from Adam handed down to each successive generation.

What kind of Sabbath day was intended for the patriarchs to observe?  In the creation account, the seventh day is described differently from the previous six. The first six days are described as, “it was evening, it was morning.” The seventh day has no such designation because the Lord’s Sabbath extends over the whole present order of things, giving us a picture of the Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). Yet God’s Sabbath is not an idle one. John 9:4 says we are to do the work of God as long as it is day; and John 5:17 says the Heavenly Father is always at his work, even to this very day.

Man’s present short day Sabbath is a type of God’s Sabbath. The proportion of the seventh day to the previous six, of whatever length it and they have been, is the grounds of our seventh-day Sabbath for man. God entered into a Sabbath in which His work is preservation and redemption, no longer creation. He ordained man for labor, yet He graciously appointed one seventh of man’s time for bodily and mental rest, and for spiritual refreshment in worship of his creator.

Philo and Josephus are historians from the first century A.D. Both of them state the earliest Jewish traditions declare the object of the Sabbath to be for means of spiritual edification (Philo (De Orac. c. 20; Vit. Mos. 3:27); Josephus (Ant. 16:2,3; Apion, 1:20, 2:18); Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10).  The Sabbath reminds man he is made in the image of God. Philo calls it “the imaging forth of the first beginning.” It was to the Israelite the center of religious observances, and essentially connected with the warning against idolatry (Leviticus 19:3,4; Ezekiel 20:16,20).

Isaiah (1:13) condemns hypocritical keeping of the Sabbath. Christ condemns the burdensome Sabbath restrictions applied by the Pharisees, violating the law of mercy and man’s good for which the Sabbath was instituted (Matthew 12:2,10,11; Luke 13:14; 14:1,5; John 7:22; Mark 2:23-28). It seems that Isaiah had insight into the very attitude of God – Jesus – had concerning the Sabbath day.

The Old Testament Sabbath was a sign of the seal on the first creation. The New Testament Lord’s Day is a sign of the seal on the new creation. The Creator’s rest set the  precedent for Christ’s rest after redemption was complete. The Sabbath was latter to serve as a sign of the sacramental pledge between Jehovah and His people, with master and servant resting alike and each remembering the rest from Egyptian slavery.

“This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will be glad and rejoice in it” (Psalm 118:22-24). If a seventh day Sabbath marked Israel’s emancipation from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15), much more should the first day Sabbath mark ushering in of the world’s redemption from Satan by Jesus.

All of mankind is included in the privilege of the seventh day rest, however the Jews alone are commanded to keep it on Saturday. The spirit of the command to take a Sabbath of rest remains, but the implementation of this day of rest has been modified by Rom 13:8-10. Whatever commandment there may be, which includes the observing of a Sabbath of rest, is fulfilled when we Love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Understanding the Scriptures as declaring the Sabbath as an “intermission” from man’s work and thus a day of rest; it is conceivable that the actual day on which it is observed may be less important that the continuing to observe a Sabbath day. Let’s examine the Biblical evidence concerning the apostles on this issue.

The early Christians commonly referred to the First Day of the week as “the Lord’s Day.”

The Apostle John’s use of this phrase in Revelation 1:10 offers at least an indication that it had come to be a widely accepted phrase in the earliest days of the Church. In Acts 20 we find the story of Eutychus falling out of a window to his death and being restored to life by Paul. Many people are so intrigued by this story that they miss the fact that the Christians in Troas meet on the first day of the week for a service. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (16:1-2) he gives instruction regarding the collection for God’s people on the first day of every week. It is reasonable to conclude that in Troas, Corinth, and in Jerusalem, Christians met together on the first day of the week.

The early church met to break bread on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7); it was the day for laying by of alms for the poor (1 Corinthians 16:2). No formal decree changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day; this would only have offended the Jews and weak Christians. The first day of the week was chosen for the weekly meetings and feasts by those who “preached Jesus and the Resurrection.” The appearance to the disciples, apostles, and others, were all on the Lord’s day, and the custom of assembling on that day was adopted without a recorded exception in all the Churches. The believers shifting their day of worship and gatherings to the first day would indicate their belief in the resurrection. If nothing definite had happened, they would have continued in their old ways.

There are those who argue that this is a misinterpretation of the Scriptures concerning the apostles and the First Day of the week. But Sunday was believed by many of the early church fathers to be the appropriate day for Christians to worship. And these church leaders in the first century A.D. church were much closer to the apostles than we are today. What they believed the apostles did is likely to be more accurate than what we think the apostles did. Ignatius, who lived from 35 A.D. to 107 A.D., put this in writing in his “ad Magnes ix.”  Irenaeus, who lived from 120 A.D to 202 A.D., confirmed this in his “Quaest ad Orthod.”

The writings of Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) leave no doubt of the church worshipping on Sunday in the second century A.D.; “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succors the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. 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. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.”

We know the early church recognized the first day of the week as a “holy day” as evidenced by the Epistle of Barnabas, Dionysius of Corinth writing to Rome A.D. 170 (“we spent the Lord’s day as a holy day in which we read your letter”), and Clemens Alex., A.D. 194, mention the Lord’s day Sabbath. So the first day of the week was not simply a fellowship meal, it was a holy day meeting. Clemens Alex. (Strom.) and Tertullian (Orat. 25) state the same in the church of the second century. Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday were the devotional days of the synagogue as of the church. The custom of ending the Saturday Sabbath with a feast formed the connecting link between the seventh day Jewish Sabbath and the first day, Christian Lord’s day and Lord’s supper (1 Corinthians 11:20; Revelation 1:10). 

Besides the evidence of the early fathers there is that of Pliny in his letter to Trajan (circa 100-109 A.D.), from Pontus, “The Christians were accustomed to meet together on a stated day., before it was light, and sing hymns to Christ or God, and to bind themselves by a sacrament, and after separating they met again to take a general meal. Justin Martyr calls it Sunday, saying the exercises were prayer, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and the collection of alms, because it was the first day on which God dispelled the darkness, and because Jesus Christ rose from the dead on it.” This is not the SAMBAS, for that was the seventh day, and was a day of rest and a “Holy day” to Jehovah (Isaiah 58:13), and the two are carefully separated in character and intention.

The only reasonable explanation for the Sunday observance in the second century is that it was rooted in apostolic practice. It may help us appreciate this observance to realize that it had no support from civil law before the time of Constantine which didn’t occur until another 100 years. The Sunday observance must have been connected with many inconveniences, considering the lowly social condition of the majority of Christians and their dependence upon their heathen masters and employers.

Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, and Luke 24:1 tell us Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome came to the tomb very early, on the first day of the week. Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week.

It is clear in the four Gospels that the Jews had preserved the knowledge of the Sabbath institution and of a definite day. It appears equally clear in the Gospels that the Jews had managed to make the Sabbath a burdensome experience. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, brushed aside the traditions of men in order to reveal the Sabbath as God gave it; a blessing and not a burden. The Scriptures reveal Christ taught the observance of the commandments of God; but not the traditions of men. Jesus was charged with Sabbath breaking because he did not allow the requirements of man to change the Sabbath from the blessing He knew it was intended to be. The human institution of the Sabbath at that time had become grievous as many troublesome restrictions had been placed upon the people.

Before the crucifixion, Christ and His disciples observed the seventh-day Sabbath. There is no record of Him giving the disciples any indication that a change in the day was coming in relation to his death. Luke 23:56 informs us the disciples rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. After his resurrection there is no indication in the Scripture that Christ ever met with His disciples on the seventh day.

 Jesus is the one who has a right to make such a change (Mark 2:23-28). He was the original Lord of the Sabbath (John 1:3; Hebrews 1:10).

John 20:19 tells us Jesus appeared to his disciples, after the resurrection, on the evening of the first day of the week. John 20:26 tells us Jesus appeared to them again in the same house a week later. Many Bible scholars believe this “week later” also took place on the first day of the week. Some have calculated that Christ’s ascension took place on the first day of the week. And there can be no doubt that the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost was on that day (Acts 2:1). 

The Lord singled out the first day of the week as the day of His repeated appearances after His resurrection, and the evangelists’ special mention of this day as the day of those reappearances implies their recognition of its sanctity.

So, what about those charges that Constantine changed the day and corrupted the church?

The first legal act affecting the day that is recorded is that of Constantine, A.D. 321, “Let all judges and city people, and the business of all arts, rest on the venerable Day of the Sun. Yet let those in the country freely and without restraint attend to the cultivation of the fields, since it frequently happens that not more fitly on any day may grain be planted in furrows, or vines in the trenches, lest through the moment’s opportunity the benefit granted by heavenly foresight be lost.”

Constantine had a nation of many kinds of people with many kinds of religion, and he so framed the laws in favor of his new faith as to do as little violence as possible to the old institutions. This law was acceptable to the Christians who could keep it with joy, and not burdensome to the Pagans, who could feel no interest in it. He certainly did not honor the day, but rather accepted the honor that it brought to him as a convert to the new faith.

The church Council of Nice, A.D. 325, notices the day incidentally as already an old institution, and makes some rules concerning the posture of worshipers. The main point is that by this time, the practice of observing Sunday as the day of worship is an old practice. Neither Constantine nor a church council in the 3^rd or 4^th centuries changed the day. It was already being observed regularly by Christians throughout the world by this time.

In the first century church, there is further evidence to indicate the Christians had found liberty from the seventh day Sabbath. Uncircumcised Gentiles were free from any obligation of Sabbath observance, and it is quite certain that in apostolic times no renewal of any Sabbath rules or transfer of them to Sunday was made for Gentile converts. No observance of a particular “day of rest” is contained among the “necessary things” of Acts 15:28,29, nor is any such precept found among all the varied moral directions given in the New Testament. Quite on the contrary, the observance of a given day as a matter of Divine obligation is denounced by Paul as a forsaking of Christ (Galatians 4:10), and Sabbath-keeping is condemned explicitly in Colossians 2:16. As a matter of individual devotion, to be sure, a man might do as he pleased (Romans 14:5,6), but no general rule as necessary for salvation could be compatible with the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Evidently, then, the fact that the Christian worship was held on Sunday did not sanctify Sunday any more than a regular Wednesday service among us sanctifies Wednesday, noting especially that the apostolic service was held in the evening. For it was felt that Christian enthusiasm would raise every day to the highest religious plane, the decay of that enthusiasm through the long delay of the Parousia not being contemplated.

It is true, we can give no Biblical text specifically authorizing the change in so many words. We have no express law declaring the change. But we can be sure the apostles would have never changed the day without permission or the authority of their Lord.

They had seen their Master die, and through that death they lost all hope. Yet hope returned three days after. On the day of the crucifixion they were filled with sadness; on the first day of the week with gladness. At the crucifixion they were hopeless; on the first day of the week their hearts glowed with certainty. When the message of the resurrection first came they were incredulous and hard to be convinced, but when once they became assured they never doubted again. The consecration of one day in seven rests on the Old Testament law from the beginning; the transference from the last day of the week to the first was gradual, the apostolical usage resting on the Lord’s hallowing it in act by His resurrection and reappearances on it.

 The resurrection of our Lord Jesus, the Christ, occurred on the FIRST day of the week (John 20), and several of his appearances to his friends and disciples happening on that day also, the day of Pentecost in that year fell on that day, when the miraculous gift of tongues prepared the apostles for their peculiar work among all nations; therefore it was adopted as the day for stated meetings of the believers, and called the Lord’s day. (the Sabbath) It was originally a memorial of creation. A work vastly greater than that of creation has now been accomplished by him, the work of redemption. We would naturally expect just such a change as would make the Sabbath a memorial of that greater work.

 The day was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, not on the grounds of a particular command, but by the free spirit of the gospel and by the power of certain great facts which he at the foundation of the Christian church. It was on that day that Christ rose from the dead; that he appeared to Mary, the disciples of Emmaus, and the assembled apostles; that he poured out his Spirit and founded the church;  and that he revealed to his beloved disciple the mysteries of the future. Hence, the first day was already in the apostolic age honorably designated as “the Lord’s Day.” On that day Paul met with the disciples at Troas and preached till midnight. On that day he ordered the Galatian and Corinthian Christians to make, no doubt in connection with divine service, their weekly contributions to charitable objects according to their ability. 

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