Sunday

April 24, 2004

All churches teach one of four positions on the day that Christians worship.

The true position taught in the Bible that the Sabbath was abolished at the cross and Christians have worshipped since the cross, on the first day (Sunday).

The false position taught by Sabbatarians that Saturday is the day Christians worship.

The false position taught by the Catholic Church that the Pope change the day Christians worship from Saturday to Sunday.

The false position taught by most Protestant churches that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath.

Lets start with the first position:

The Truth:

The universal record of history, from the Resurrection of Christ, Christians have always worshipped on the first day of the week (Sunday) and never on the Sabbath (7th day). Sunday is not a Christian Sabbath or a day of rest, or a holy day to be kept.

This quote is used by Sabbatarians, but in fact refutes their position. Campbell, for example, taught that the Sabbath was abolished!

"The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change." (Alexander Campbell, First Day Observance, pp. 17, 19)

The 10 commandment law including the requirement to keep the Sabbath day were abolished at the cross along with all the rest of the law of Moses. God gave a covenant at Mt. Sinai through Moses to the Jews. It is called the first/old covenant/testament. The ten commandments are the foremost visible representation of this first/old covenant was replaced by a new covenant called, among other things "the law of Christ". 100% of the old covenant was abolished. No part of the Old Covenant remains in force. No one prior to Moses (Abraham or Adam) ever heard of the Sabbath law much less kept it. The very first time that anyone was commanded to keep the Sabbath was in Exodus 16.

The word "Sabbath" is not even found in the book of Genesis. Gen 2:2-3 was written by Moses to tell Jews at Sinai the meaning behind WHY they were to keep the Sabbath, NOT WHEN the Sabbath was instituted. The universal meeting day of Christians after the resurrection was Sunday, and so has been to this very day. Sunday is not a Christian Sabbath or a day of rest, or a holy day to be kept. It is the day God requires all Christians to gather together to worship and eat the Lord's Supper (communion, break bread) Acts 20:7. Christians do not keep the ten commandment law of Moses.

This is not to say that Christians are free to steal, murder and commit adultery, just because the 10 commandments have been abolished. No! Christians are under a new law, a better Law, the law of Christ, (Gal 6:2) a better covenant (Heb 8:6-7). Paul stated, "If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment." (1 Corinthians 14:37) Apostle Peter said at the beginning of the establishment of the church, "Moses said, 'THE LORD GOD SHALL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED in everything He says to you. 'And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.'" Thus we listen to Christ in all things and Moses in nothing. This is New Testament Christianity!

April 24, 2004

The 10 commandment law including the requirement to keep the Sabbath day were abolished at the cross along with all the rest of the law of Moses

abolished?

not until heaven and earth pass away.

The Sabbath has not changed. Going to church on Sunday has nothing to do with the Sabbath.

rafter · April 24, 2004

(QUOTE]The Sabbath has not changed. Going to church on Sunday has nothing to do with the Sabbath.

I wish people would get that statement Yod.

wordsower · April 26, 2004

Regarding the day of Atonement Lev. 23:28 And you shall do no work in that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God....and any person who does any work on that same day that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath."

Read it again....................now, read this:

For He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Heb. 4:10

The purpose of the law was to point us to Christ. When the fullness of time had come God sent His Son, born under the law to redeem us from the law--Gal 4

If you believe that the atonement

is finished in Jesus' work on the cross then you rest in Jesus, not Sunday or Saturday.

angels4u · April 26, 2004

Amen Wordsower!!

Shouldn't be everyday a Sabbathday for the born again Christian?

Why argue what day is the right day to worship---worschip Him everyday, that is what Jesus wants us to to.

He bought us free from the Law and brought us into His Kindom and gives us rest!!

His son · April 26, 2004

I see no reason to continually argue this issue when The Bible resolves it for us.

Rom 14:5-6

5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

(KJV)

God's instruction to us is to work 6 days, and the 7th is the sabaath of rest. The above Scripture makes it plain that the day is optional. We are commanded to not the forsaking of assembling ourselves together. This doean't have to be our sabaath of rest it should be a time of corporate worship in my opinion.

Catsmeow · April 26, 2004

Shouldn't be everyday a Sabbathday for the born again Christian?

Angels: You got my vote, Sis!

April 26, 2004

the only reason christians ever get touchy about the Sabbath is because they know it's not Sunday. Big deal?

The Sabbath is not about worship either. EVERYTHING we do is our worship.

Sabbath is about resting from "our" works. Period. You can start doing this anytime on any day. That is what Sabbath is telling you.

But "THE" Sabbath is Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. It is our constant reminder of something much deeper than a rule.

Fact beyond all reproof. End of discussion.

April 26, 2004

The second position:

2. The Seventh-day Adventist position:

False Sabbatarian view:

Christians originally kept the Sabbath right from the time of the apostles, but due to the influence of the devil, Christians went into universal apostasy for over 1600 years until, of course the arrival of Ellen G. White, the Adventist prophet, who saw, contrary to what the Bible says in Col 2:16, that the Sabbath law was not nailed to the cross.

Historically, it was in 1844 the first Adventists (known then as Millerites) started keeping the Sabbath, introduced to them by a Seventh-day Baptist named Joseph Bates, who convinced their Methodist minister that the Bible teaches us to keep the Sabbath. Joseph Bates learned the Sabbath from some articles from a man named Pribie who learned it from Fredrick Wheeler of the church at New Hampshire. Wheeler, a Millerite preacher at the time (early 1844) accepted the Sabbath after a study which was due to a challenge from Rachel Oaks (Preston),a Seventh Day Baptist. Rachel's daughter was attending this church, and so did Rachel when she moved into the area to live with her daughter. Bates was of the Christian Church like James White. He published his findings in three versions. The first version was given in 1846, to James White and Ellen Harmon on their way to get married. They accepted the Sabbath doctrine. Bates also preached to a small group in New York where the Sabbath was accepted (Hiram Edson). This was the nucleus of the Sabbatarian Adventists who would later become Seventh-day Adventists. The Millerites for the most part never accepted the Sabbath or the 1844 experience. Those who remained "Adventists" formed the Church of God (Abrahamic Faith), the Advent Christian (1861) and the Evangelical Adventist who are now defunct. It is the Advent Christian Church (Sunday keepers) who taught 17 year old Charles T. Russell that Christ came spiritually and then with Barbour (another Advent Christian) wrote the book, The Three Worlds. Later forming an independant group which would become the Jehovah's Witnesses

Two active Anabaptist leaders, Andreas Fisher and Oswald Glait, became the pioneer and promoters of the Sabbath in 1527 AD. Both were former priests who had sacrificed the priesthood to become first Lutherans, and then Anabaptists. Glait and Fischer were astonished to read in the Bible that the weekly day God wanted men to keep holy was not Sunday, the first day of the week, but Saturday, the seventh day. When they began to teach this, theologians were sent to persuade them to abandon what they called the "Jewish Sabbath." Both of them suffered a martyr death, largely due to their Sabbatarian views. Sabbatarians owe a debt of gratitude to these Sabbath pioneers whose work later influenced the origin of the Seventh-day Baptist church. The latter (Joseph Bates) has been instrumental in helping the early Adventists promote the Sabbath. But God, they say, chose Ellen White and the modern Seventh-day Adventist movement as the medium through which to reveal and confirm this "truth" through direct inspiration and revelation. Although Adventists believe that a tiny unknown remnant has always kept the Sabbath day, (like the Seventh-day Baptist preacher mentioned above) only in the 19th century did God, through the Seventh-day Adventist church, restore in any measurable way, by direct revelation, the truth that the day Christians worship was Saturday. Adventists openly teach that early Christians borrowed Sunday as the day of worship from the pagan religion of Mithraism in about 140 AD. Gradually Sunday replaced the Sabbath day (Saturday) so that today the worship on Sunday is an almost universal Christian practice of apostasy and totally contrary to the will of God. "Sunday keepers", as Sabbatarians call them, have been deceived by the devil. SDA's interpret "The Seal of God" to be "Saturday Sabbathkeeping" vs "The Mark of the Beast" which they interpret to mean "Sunday Sabbathkeeping" - not now, but AFTER an assumed national Sunday law is passed so all must choose between the two. Of course these interpretations are apostate in themselves.

April 26, 2004

I agree with you that the SDA is weird and based on some funky stuff.

But you are wrong in saying that they began Sabbath keeping in the church.

This was always the practise of the original early church. The jews.

They were ostracized by the gentiles and the sect known as "The Way" finally died out about the 13th Century. By early 1800s (and totally separate from the later SDA movement) Hebrew Christians were popping up in various places and many of them kept the Sabbath because there was no real reason not to.

Going to church has nothing to do with the Sabbath.