Sabbath Sunday Controversies

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Does anyone know of any good books that deal with the moving of the day of Worship from the Saterday Sabbath to Sunday Lords Day? And comments on what to say to Christian Sabbatarians on the issue? Thanks and God bless.
 
Even some Catholic writers have said there is nothing in Scripture about changing the day of worship from the Sabbath to the first day of the week, but there are some hints:

Acts 20:7 “On the first day of the week when we gathered to break bread…”

The ‘breaking of the bread’ refers to the Lord’s Supper (See Acts 2:42). If they were worshipping on the Sabbath, why hold the Lord’s Supper the day after?

1st Cor 16: 1-2 “Now, in regard to the collection for the holy ones, you should also do as I ordered the churches of Galatia. On the first day of the week each of you should set aside and save whatever one can afford, so that collections will not be going on when I come.”

If they were worshipping on the Sabbath, why get together on the first day of the week? I’m sure in SDA churches, if they are taking up a collection of some kind, they do it on the Sabbath when they are in church, not the next day. Another thing, if the first day of the week is not the day of worship, why bother mentioning it? Nowhere do the Scriptures mention the 2nd day of the week, 3rd day, etc. There must be a specific reason.

Here’s another: In Revelation 1:10, John tells us he was in the Spirit on the ‘Lord’s Day.’ If it was the Sabbath, why didn’t he say so? (I’ve heard that the SDA is coming out with their own translation which replaces ‘Lord’s Day’ with ‘Sabbath’ in order to fit their interpretation).
 
Late that evening on the first day of the week when the disciples were together behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them’ Jn 20:19

St Paul tells us in Colossians 2: 16 ‘Allow no one to take you to task …over the observances of festival or sabbath’
 
Sixtus said:
St Paul tells us in Colossians 2: 16 ‘Allow no one to take you to task …over the observances of festival or sabbath’
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The SDAs claim this verse actually *supports *worshipping on the Sabbath.:confused: However, as far as I know, they do not observe festivals or new moons. Selectively following Scripture, I guess.
 
As far as I’m concerned, the power of the Church to bind and loose covers the situation admirably. Why would it not?
 
power of the Church to bind and loose covers the situation admirably. Why would it not?
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Amen

No where so far as I am aware does our Blessed Lord command His disciples or followers to keep to the Saturday Sabbath or teach that Saturday Sabbath is binding on His followers, on the contrary, He turned a blind eye when some of the disciples were picking ears of corn and in fact used that as the basis for one of His teachings.

The Old Testamant gives an allegory of how God created. [In fact it gives two accounts of creation in Genisis].But focussing on the one, God started on the first day and rested on the 7th day. It does not say He started promptly at 8.00 on Sunday morning and finished at the close of business on Friday at 5 pm. No it does not say that.

He may have started on Monday and finished on Saturday 👍
 
Nothing against the Sabbath in the early Church; the very early Church still kept it and went to synagogues. But the Lord’s Day was the day of the week when the Lord rose from the dead, creating the world and humanity anew – just as God originally created the world, in Genesis, on the first day of the week.

The more it became obvious that Jews and Christians were going to live apart, the less Christians bothered to observe the now-minor holiday of the Sabbath. Only the great holy day, the Lord’s Day, remained. This must have been wrenching for Christians of Jewish heritage, since Sabbath is the heart of the family and the Jewish religion. Jews even personify the Sabbath poetically as a sort of Bride. But the early Christians could not do without the Lord’s Day and the clandestine celebration of the Mass to which they crept early in the morning before it got light – for Sunday was a workday for the Roman Empire back then.

Later on, the Sabbath got important again as a preparation day for the Lord’s Day, much as Friday has always been important to Jews as a preparation day for the Sabbath.

The importance of the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day is a lot clearer in languages which use the post-Christianity names for days of the week (unlike English). In Spanish, Saturday is sabado, Sabbath, and Sunday is domingo, the Lord’s (from the Latin dominica). In Russian, Saturday is subbota, Sabbath, and Sunday is voskresenie, Resurrection.

Today, most of America observes both the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day with a custom known as “the weekend”. 🙂
 
Montie_Claunch said:
Does anyone know of any good books that deal with the moving of the day of Worship from the Saterday Sabbath to Sunday Lords Day? And comments on what to say to Christian Sabbatarians on the issue? Thanks and God bless.
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I have read lots of books on the issue. One I like is Dr. Samuel Bacchiochi’s “From Sabbath to Sunday”. Complete with imprimatur for Catholics, it is a very good treatment of the Sabbath/ Sunday issue. The only objections to the book I have heard are personal attacks against Bacchiochi, and although it has Imprimatur from Vatican officials, because it establishes the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday (circa) AD 130-180, the Imprimatur of the Vatican officials has been over ruler by the Magisterum of CAF patrons.👍

Also, there are many early Church Fathers who talk aout the Sabbath. Finding unity of beleif among the Fathers is like trying to find a married Catholic priest, many speak of Sunday, many speak of Sabbath, many speak of both. In the Encyclical Epistle of the Church at Smyrna concerning the martyrdom of the holy Polycarp, the Sabbath is called, “the Great Sabbath”. In Ignatius’ epistle to the magnesians, the regular version (the CCC quotes the condensed version), Igantius tells us to observe both Sabbath and Sunday “let every friend of Christ, after he has kept the Sabbath, keep also the Lords Day…”. Athanasius says “we keep the Sabbath not because we are infected with Judaisim, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of Sabbath”. Church historian Augustus Neander says in his Church History, Vol. II, p. 346"far be it form the Apostles to establish a divine commandmnet in this respect (referring to Sunday sacredness).

Other Historians like Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen speak of the Sabbath as a universal festival (in the 5th century). However Sunday eventually won. Tradition seemed more importatnt than God’s commadnment.

With all this Im not trying to disagree with Catholics, I just want to present that BOTH days were important to early Chrisitans, even to Catholics.

peace
 
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