Five Essential Bible
Truths – Part 4
page 3
What
Happened to the Lord’s Day?
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Principle
4
The seventh day belongs
to God. It is called the Lord’s Day because
He rested on the seventh day and made it holy. A
wonderful experience awaits those individuals who
are willing to take God at His word and honor Him
by keeping the Lord’s Day. Here is how it
works:
To properly observe the
Lord’s Day is a challenge and according to
the prophecies of Revelation, it will become
increasingly difficult as time draws to an end.
For some people, the commitment to keep the
Lord’s Day holy has meant the loss of
income, job or career. Other people have faced
rejection and ridicule by family members and
friends. Keeping the Lord’s Day always puts
a person at odds with the pace or activities of
the world. When you experience this kind of
conflict, it is often difficult to believe that
God has a purpose behind all the struggles you
face regarding His holy day. Yet, from the very
beginning of time, God’s purpose for
creating a day for Himself, included a PLAN that
is far more encompassing than most people
realize. Not only does it bring rest to the
faith-full who are weary from their weekly
labors, but the Lord’s Day will also become
a definitive test of faith to determine who
trusts God implicitly during the Great
Tribulation. The command to rest sounds so easy,
but in fact, it becomes hard because it is a test
of faith. The devil has made sure that the
seventh day, the Lord’s Day, has been
forgotten by most of the world. In its place, he
has developed two spurious days – one for
the East (Friday) and the West (Sunday). However,
there is still no rest on this planet!
Nevertheless, there is a wonderful experience
behind the command to keep the Lord’s
Day holy: If wee rest
according to the commandment of God on His holy
day, He sustains all that we laid down for 24
hours so that when we resume our activities, not
one thing will be lost or hurt. If it is the
charge of every faithful steward to see that the
King suffers no loss when He arrives, what can be
said of the Faithful King who personally sees to
it that every faithful steward is rewarded for
his faithfulness?
The people who honor the
Lord’s Day honor God. Regardless of your
background, when you honor God, you are
considered a descendant of Abraham. (Galatians
3:28,29) This is why He said: “The
Israelites are to observe the Sabbath,
celebrating it for generations to come as a
lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me
and the Israelites forever, for in six days the
Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the
seventh day he abstained from work and
rested.” (Exodus 31:16,17)
Summary
The obligation to observe
the Lord’s Day is both timeless and
universal. Many individuals do not regard the
Lord’s Day, as they should. The race to make
more money and capture market share is a powerful
economic force that pushes God out of the weekly
cycle. Overextended people use what available
free time they have for pleasure and
entertainment. This leaves very little time for
God. A nation without God is a nation in moral
darkness. Further, most people are not aware of
the requirements in the Ten Commandments. They do
not concern themselves with the law of Almighty
God. This point is self-evident each time we hear
the news. We have become a lawless society. Why?
“If I were called upon to identify the
principle trait of the entire 20th
century, I would be unable to find anything more
precise than to reflect once again on how we have
lost touch with our Creator…Men have
forgotten God” (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Readers
Digest, September 1896).
Think about this: If a
man is caught breaking the law, even though he
innocently thinks that he is “within the
law” the arresting officer will tell him
that ignorance of the law is no excuse. If this
is true of man-made laws, what can be said of the
law of God? When the Great Tribulation begins,
billions of people will be surprised at
God’s response to our world’s corporate
ignorance and disobedience. So, why not begin
exercising your faith and honor the Lord on His
holy day. Enter into an experiment with God and
watch what He will do to honor your faith!
What
Happened To The Lord’s Day
Most Christians believe
Sunday is the Lord’s Day. They believe that
Jesus transferred the sacredness of the seventh
day Sabbath to Sunday, the first day of the week,
when He was resurrected. If Jesus did indeed make
this change, there should be sufficient evidence
in the Bible to prove or disprove the claim.
Because the topic of the Lord’s Day is
highly important (as written earlier), is
important that we know which day of the
week is The Lord’s Day.
New
Testament Review
There are only eight
texts in the New Testament that mention the first
day of the week. Biblical support for the
sacredness of Sunday, if it exists, would have to
come exclusively from these verses. Here are the
texts:
- Matthew 28:1
- Mark 16:2
- Mark 16:9
- Luke 24:1
- John 20:1
- John 20:19
- Acts 29:7
- 1 Corinthians
16:2
The first six texts refer
to the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of
the week – a well-known fact. However, none
of these texts says anything about the sacredness
of Sunday. In fact, Luke 23:56 points out that a
group of women did not prepare Jesus’ body
for burial on Friday (the day called
Preparation), but instead, rested on the Sabbath
“according to the commandment.”
Obviously, by the time of His death, Jesus had
not informed His followers that the fourth
commandment was going to be made void because of
His resurrection.
Since the first six texts
simply discuss the resurrection of Jesus, we will
investigate the remaining two verses and note the
absence of any command to observe Sunday as the
Lord’s day.
Acts
20:7
Some Bible students refer
to Acts 20 as evidence that Sunday worship was
practiced by the apostles. Notice, “On
the first day of the week we came together to
break bread. Paul spoke to the people, and
because he intended to leave the next day, kept
on talking until midnight.” (Acts 20:7)
Let us consider the details within this verse.
In Bible times, a day
began at sunset and ended the following evening.
Since creation, the rotation of the earth has
produced this unchanging process. (See Genesis
1.) The Jews in Christ’s time regarded a day
form evening to evening and kept the Sabbath from
Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. (Compare Luke
23:50-56 with Leviticus 23:32) Therefore, the
actual timing described in Acts 20:7 is as
follows: Paul stayed with the believers at Troas
for seven days. (Acts 20:6) At the beginning of
the first day of the week, at suppertime, the
believers came together to eat supper with Paul
and to say goodbye to their friend. Remember, the
first day of the week in Paul’s time began
Sabbath evening at sundown, or what we call
Saturday evening. After supper, Paul preached
until midnight (Saturday midnight). A few hours
later on Sunday morning, the first day of the
week, he left Troas for Assos.
Therefore, Paul met with
believers for supper and preached until midnight,
Saturday night. Does a farewell supper and
Saturday night meeting change or abrogate the
fourth commandment of God? No. Even if Paul chose
to worship on Tuesday night, would this make void
the law of God? No. Only God can void His own
law.
Some students claim that
the term “breaking of bread” indicates
Paul’s visit was a communion or worship
service. Not so. In Luke 24:13-31 Jesus
“broke bread” at supper time with two
companions after He walked more than seven miles
to Emmaus with them. Even to this day, the
breaking of bread remains a custom in the Orient
since bread is baked firm and is literally
“broken” before it can be eaten. We
also know that Jesus broke bread on Thursday
night with His disciples at Passover. If
“breaking bread” means a worship
service was conducted, why would Jesus conduct a
worship service at sundown in Emmaus, just when
the second day of the week was beginning? If
Paul’s meeting was supposed to be a worship
service, Acts 20:7 gives no indication that this
occurred.
I call Acts 20:7 a
mystery text because Paul did not conduct a
Sunday service in Troas. Actually, he held a
meeting on Saturday night – the first part
of the week in Bible times – but today is
considered the last part of the seventh day.
(Jews still reckon a day from sundown to sundown.
Today, we “Gentiles” reckon a day from
midnight to midnight.) So, if early Christians
really followed Paul’s example as authority
for the time of worship, they would worship on
Saturday night (between sundown and midnight).
Again, an honest, objective look at this text
indicates that God gave no authority for Sunday
observance.
1
Corinthians 16: 2
Some Christians use the
following text to demonstrate how Paul insisted
that the first day of the week be used to collect
offerings for the poor. Notice: “Now
about the collection for God’s people: Do
what the Galatian churches to do. On the first
day of the week, each one of you should set aside
a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving
it up, so that when I come no collections will
have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give
letters of introduction to the men you approve
and send them with your gift to Jerusalem.” (1
Corinthians 16:1-3)
In Paul’s day, money
was not a common medium of exchange as it is
today. Most trading was done through bartering.
For example, a person might trade a chicken for
cloth or pottery. Paul instructed the church in
Corinth to begin each week with selling or
trading so they might obtain a sum of currency.
He preferred to take money with him to give to
the persecuted believers in Jerusalem, since
travel with roosters, goats, pottery and other
things of value, was nearly impossible.
Consequently, he asked that they take care of
this matter, “first thing after the
Sabbath.” (Compare with Nehemiah 13:15.)
Again, the appropriate question is, “Does
Paul’s instruction change or make void the
fourth commandment that God gave?” Not at
all.
Thoughts on Romans 6
Currently, the most
common reason Christians use to defend Sunday
worship is Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday
morning, the first day of the week. Yes, the
resurrection is important and the Bible does
provide a celebration of the resurrection! It is
called baptism. Notice what Paul says, “What
shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so
that grace may increase? By no means! We died to
sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or
don’t you know that all of us who were
baptized in to Christ Jesus were baptized into
his death? We were therefore buried with him
through baptism into death in order that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory
of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
(Romans 6:1-4)
However, does baptism
change or abrogate the fourth commandment? Not at
all. In fact, not one of the eight New Testament
texts says that the holiness of the seventh day
was transferred to Sunday!
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