The Sabbath: Saturday or Sunday?

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When is the Sabbath? My friend believes it should firmly be held on Saturday still because it’s one of the Ten Commandments and he says its well backed up in Scripture and Sunday’s Sabbath is not. What’s the Truth?
 
Sunday is the day which Christ rose from the dead so we celebrate that day with a special reverence. For Christians it is Sunday, however, I think the Jewish have Saturday as their sabbath for the very reasons you believe this. Correct me if I’m wrong anyone because I’m not all that sure of myself on this last point.

God Bless,
Matt
 
My friend says that we can celebrate Sunday for Christ resurection but it’s NOT the Sabbath, that’s still Saturday.
 
Saturday IS still the sabbath. We are not bound to follow Old Testament law except when it is restated as part of Christ’s law and the new covenant. All of the ten commandments are, in some way, reinforced by Christ’s teachings EXCEPT the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day. This commandment wasn’t tossed, however, but made more perfect as we now worship - not on the Sabbath - but on the day celebrating our Lord’s resurrection (or on the vigil of that day, Saturday evening).
 
As I once heard a rabbi point out, the day of the week is not mentioned in the commandment. The choice of Saturday for the Jewish Sabbath may have been completely arbitrary, or for ancient cultural reasons that are now lost to us. His point was it is the community that decided this.

As was pointed out above, Christians chose Sunday because the defining event of Christian hope occured on that day–the Resurrection of Our Lord.
 
I wish we had a Jew to help us out with this. Where is Adventistnomore and SDA2RC?They should be able to help.
 
The Catholic:
My friend believes it should firmly be held on Saturday still because it’s one of the Ten Commandments and he says its well backed up in Scripture and Sunday’s Sabbath is not.
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Is your friend a Seventh Day Adventist?

They are really big on that, in fact, I saw a sign on a highway, one of those BIG signs like you see all along the interstate, that said “Worship on Sunday is the Image of the Beast”

I don’t know if that was funded by SDA, but that kind of fits their attitude.

They can really slam Protestants for following the RCC’s tradition of worship service on Sunday.

However, a couple Bible verses that help support the “Case for Sunday” are:

** Acts 20:7** - And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.

** I Corinthians 16:2 **- On the first day of the week let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.

Also, the Reformed authors of the 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith utilized an allegory of sorts, like a link between the Sabbath as a day of rest, where God rested from all the work He’d done, in Genesis 2:2,3, and the resting of Christians from their earthly labors, and in Christ, ultimately from the idea of works salvation, like in Hebrews 4. I guess Hebrews 4:10 would be the best single verse for such an analogy. "For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His."

Hebrews 4 is complicated, SDA’s probably have their own take on that issue about the Resurrection and resting from works as analagous to eachother, but nonetheless, that’s maybe some help from a Reformed view, which is probably very similar to a Catholic view on the issue.
 
The Catholic:
When is the Sabbath? My friend believes it should firmly be held on Saturday still because it’s one of the Ten Commandments and he says its well backed up in Scripture and Sunday’s Sabbath is not. What’s the Truth?
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The Jewish Sabbath is reckoned from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. It commemorates God’s liberation of the Jews under Moses from their slavery in Egypt:
You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15)
The prophet Hosea foretold the end of the Jewish Sabbath:
I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. (Hosea 2:13)
When Jesus told his disciples which of the Ten Commandments they must continue to keep in Matthew 19:16-19, he said nothing of keeping the Jewish Sabbath.

St. Paul makes it pretty clear that Christians do not keep the Jewish Sabbath:
16Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. 17These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)
Christians celebrate Sunday, the Lord’s Day, the day our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead and liberated us from our slavery to sin and death.
 
please keep in mind that the observance of Sabbath on “saturday” (from sundown friday to sundown saturday) rests on a very regional Jewish tradition. In the northern most reaches of the earth (for example in Alaska) the sun never sets below the horizon for months during the summer and never rises above the horizon for months during the winter. How are sabbath keepers who live in these regions suppose to know when “the saturday sabbath” begins or ends?

For the sake of argument, let’s allow that the Jews in Israel have faithfully observed “every seventh day” since the time of Exodus, such that, when sundown Friday evening occurs in Israel the “true” seventh day begins.

Depending on where the date line is established, “Sundown Friday evening in Israel” can either be “sunrise Friday morning in North America” (if the seventh day occurs first in Israel) or “sunrise Saturday morning in North America” (if the seventh day occurs first in North America).

Assuming that Israel observes the “true” seventh day - how does mankind on the opposite side of the earth know whether their observance of the seventh day follows or precedes that of Israel?

To understand the problem see: A History of the Internantional Date Line at phys.uu.nl/~vgent/idl/idl.htm.

If “Saturday” is “written in stone” - as Seventh Day Adventists argue - then how do they propose these difficulties are solved “with Biblical Authority” and not with “Ecclesiastical Authority”?

Keep the Faith
jmt
 
Romans 14 and “first day of the week” in the gospels demonstrates that christians worshipped on both saturday and sunday. Some, by conscience did it on saturday and others due to the ressurrection did it on sunday aka Lord’s day. Thus we have the freedom in christ to worship him on all days if we choose to do so.
 
The New Testament plainly shows that the church met on “the first day of the week”, which is Sunday. I see the fact that the apostles often went to the temples and synagogues as fullfilling the commission to go first to the Jews and then the Gentiles.

As for the 3rd commandment…Here’s the CCC on it..

Pax tecum,
 
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SDA2RC:
Hi Montie,
WE just had a fun discussion of this at forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=89155

but would love to talk about it more…

Brandon
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Per my earlier quote, Saturday is STILL the sabbath, but we are not bound by that Jewish commandment in the New Covenant, which choses Sunday as its day of worship. Since nobody seemed to respond to that idea one way or the other, here it is in the words of the church, from the catechism:

“Because it is the “eighth day” following the sabbath,105 it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day .”
 
A Jewish christian Scholar did give us a cannon ruling on the issue of the sabbath:

Romans 14

1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Hebrews 4
A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God

1Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
"So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ " And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 5And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
6It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.” 8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,[e] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

The sabbath rest is no longer one day, but is the day that one enters into the new covenant, thus it is permissivible to worship God everyday!!! Historically speaking, it is known that the earily christians during times of persucution meant for worship and edification every mourning of every day.
 
concerning the law of moses a council ruled,

Acts 15

5Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” …

28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

If one is insisting on keeping saturday sabbath, are you going to bound yourself to all 613 Laws of Moses in the Torah?

jewfaq.org/613.htm
 
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all.
 
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awfulthings9:
Per my earlier quote, Saturday is STILL the sabbath, but we are not bound by that Jewish commandment in the New Covenant, which choses Sunday as its day of worship. Since nobody seemed to respond to that idea one way or the other, here it is in the words of the church, from the catechism:

“Because it is the “eighth day” following the sabbath,105 it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day .”
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I agree, scripture clearly releases us from the Old Covenant and binds us to the NEw Covenant, which is defined by Scripture and the Church. Hence, as Christians we worship on the Lords Day keep is in SOME of the same ways the Jewish Sabbath was kept… it is not a replacement for the Sabbath, it is an entirely seperate institution.

Brandon
 
Fr. Pacwa had a great talk about this subject one night on EWTN. I took notes. I’d get them out, but I’m too anxious for the big game today to get too deep. Scripturally, early Christians began using Sunday.
 
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imroc:
Fr. Pacwa had a great talk about this subject one night on EWTN. I took notes. I’d get them out, but I’m too anxious for the big game today to get too deep. Scripturally, early Christians began using Sunday.
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IMRoc,

I just got finished watching the ND game, and am going into my deep depression. They were just off tonight… 😦

As far as the Sabbath vs. Sunday in scripture, the only evidence is implicit for Sunday worship, there is nothing explicit in scripture. However, Church Tradition and non-scriptural sources definitely clarify the practices of the early Church. Thats not to say there were not some Christians who kept the Jewish Sabbath for some time, but that was not the practice of the universal church as I am sure you will agree.

Brandon
 
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