Five
Essential Bible Truths – Part 4
page 3
What
Happened to the Lord’s Day?
page : 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 :
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!
