Tuesday: From Sabbath to Sunday

As Seventh-day Adventists we often hear fellow Christian brothers and sisters in other denominations argue that the law has been done away with, or that we are not under law but under grace. What they are really saying, however, is that only the fourth commandment has been done away with. Many, though, are not saying even that.

Breaking the Law

Image © Pacific Press Publishing Assn. Goodsalt.com

They are saying instead that the seventh-day Sabbath has been replaced by the first day, Sunday, in honor of the resurrection of Jesus.

And they believe they have the texts to prove it, too.

Below are some of the common texts in the New Testament that many Christians believe indicate the Sabbath was changed from the seventh-day in the Old Testament to the first day in the New Testament. As we read them, we need to ask ourselves if they truly talk about a change of the day, or are they merely describing events that happened on the day, but without rising to the level of prescribing a change?

Read John 20:19-23. What reason does it give for the disciples’ being assembled in that room? What do these verses say about whether it was a worship service in honor of the resurrection of Jesus, as some claim?

Read Acts 20:6-7. What, if anything, in these verses indicated that the Sabbath was changed to Sunday, the first day of the week? See also Acts 2:46.

Read 1 Corinthians 16:1-4. Outside of the fact that they were to store up offerings at home on the first day of the week, what does it teach about any change of the Sabbath to Sunday?

Here is the essence of the textual “evidence” used to promote the doctrine that the first day of the week superseded the seventh-day Sabbath. Outside of describing a few times when, for various reasons, believers were gathered, not one text indicates that these gatherings were worship services held on the first day as a replacement for the Seventh-day Sabbath. This argument is merely reading back into the texts the centuries-long Christian tradition of Sunday keeping. It is putting something into these verses that was never there to begin with.


Leave a comment

Source: Daily Sabbath School Lessons