Sabbath Sunday

            Discussions with seventh-day Christians include five questions. (1) The first question asks for the scripture basis for “changing” Saturday to Sunday as the day of observance. That question miswords the issue. It “begs the question” by assuming that the issue involves a change from one day to the other. Our approach notes that Sabbath was a memorial of the exodus, a Jewish national holiday; so there is no basis for Sabbath observance outside the context of Jewish national life. There will be no “scripture basis” for “changing” from Sabbath to Sunday, because there was no “change.” The two items are not in series but in parallel. The two days have different meanings relative to different “nations” and different founding events. It is not a matter of one continuing entity changing one of its national holidays from one day to another. Since this matter relates to the change of covenants, consult the essay entitled “Old Testament Covenants and the Messianic Covenant.”

Mosaic Legislation on Sabbath

            Exodus 16:4-5 (manna gathering), 22-30 (manna use); 20:8-11 + Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (The Ten Commandments); Exodus 31:12-17; 35:1-3; Leviticus 19:3, 30; 23:3, 38; 26:2; Numbers 15:32-36 (death penalty)

1. Worship on Saturday after sundown

            In the New Testament we encounter the Jewish custom of reckoning days from sundown to sundown as distinguished from the Roman reckoning from midnight to midnight. The question sometimes comes up whether Christians today could have church on Saturday evening instead of Sunday morning and/or Sunday evening.

  I. Sabbath observance was not a memorial of the creation. If it were, it would have been observed as long as this creation stands: from the beginning, by all nations, till the end of time.

Introduction

            Sabbath observance corresponds with national Israel. God instituted the Sabbath as a memorial of the exodus because Israel became a nation at the exodus. Sabbath observance does not apply to those outside of Israel, before Israel, or after Israel, hence, not to Christians.