The Christian Sabbath Part 6: The First Day of the Week

THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK

The Sabbath principle given by God at creation and confirmed in the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue is, a sacred day of rest after six days of toil, or "the sanctity of every seventh day, at whatever time the cycle may commence." In previous chapters we have noted that the cycle for the Jewish Sabbath began at the time of their deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 12:1, 2; 13:3, 4; 16:10-31). Also we have noted that this Jewish Sabbath was a memorial (Deut. 5:12-15; Exodus 31:13-17) and a sign of a perpetual covenant between God "and the children of Israel forever" (v. 17). Further we have noted that this Jewish memorial Sabbath, which, with their feasts and ceremonies, was a "shadow of things to come," was fulfilled by Jesus, "nailing them to his cross" (Col. 2:13-17).

Early in the history of the Christian Church they observed some form of worship on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). As has been noted all of the leaders of the Church in New Testament times were Jews, hence they continued meeting in the Jewish synagogues; however it is evident that the purpose of their meeting there was to bring the gospel, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." But even among the Christians of that early day there seemed to be some division concerning the day of worship, as is indicated by Paul's statement to the Roman Christians (Rom. 14:4-6).

The three outstanding church leaders, successors to the apostles, were Clement of Rome who, says Irenaeus, "had seen the blessed apostles and conversed with them, and had the preaching of the blessed apostles still sounding in his ears"; Ignatius of Antioch, said by Eusebius to have been a disciple of Saint John; and Polycarp of Smyrna, of whom Irenaeus says, "I can tell the place where the blessed Polycarp sat and taught and how he related his conversations with John and others who had seen the Lord." Fifty years later Justin Martyr became prominent in the church of Rome. In the latter part of that century (second) the three leading churchmen are, Irenaeus of Lyons in south of France, Clement of Alexandria (Egypt), and Tertullian of Northern Africa. These leaders of the Christian Church in widely separated places, have left testimonies relative to the Christian Sabbath being Sunday, the first day of the week. We will give a few of these quotations:

Barnabas, the companion of the Apostle Paul, is quoted as saying, "We observe the eighth day with gladness, in which Jesus rose from the dead, and having manifested Himself to His disciples, He ascended into heaven."

Ignatius wrote at the beginning of the second century, "Let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's day as a festival, the resurrection day, the queen and chief of all days. . . . No longer sabbatizing, but living in the observance of the Lord's day, on which our life sprang forth."

Justin Martyr, about 145 A.D., wrote a book in the form of a dialog with a Jew, Trypho, telling him of Jesus in order to win him to the Christian faith. In response to Trypho's taunt that the Christians had no festivals or Sabbaths Justin clearly claims that Sunday is a new Sabbath. "On the day called the day of the Sun (Sunday)," Justin says, "a gathering takes place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, so long as the time permits. Then the reader stops and the leader impresses by word of mouth, and urges the imitation of these good things." In writing to Emperor Antonius, Justin is quoted as saying, "On Sunday we all assemble in common, since that is the first day, . . . the same day our Savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead."

Irenaeus in 167 A.D. said, "On the Lord's day every one of us Christians keep the Sabbath meditating on the law, and rejoicing in the works of God."

Clement wrote in 192 A.D., "A Christian according to the command of the gospel observes the Lord's day, thereby glorifying the resurrection of the Lord. The eighth day is the Lord's day." He is quoted also as saying, "The old seventh day has become nothing more than a working day."

Tertullian says in 200 A.D., "Sundays we give to joy, we observe the day of the Lord's resurrection, free from every hindrance of anxiety and duty, laying aside our worldly business lest we give place to the devil." He is further quoted as saying, "The Lord's day is the holy day of the Christian Church. We have nothing to do with the Sabbath. The Lord's day is the Christian's solemnity."

There can be no confusion here. These writers call the Lord's Day the first day of the week and this is a memorial of the resurrection. Also the Lord's Day is called Sunday, which is the seventh day, a day of worship, after six days of toil. Here is the application of the Sabbath principle -- a sacred day of rest after six days of toil -- revealed at Creation and confirmed in the Decalogue, to the Christian cycle.

Constantine, the Roman emperor, became a Christian and in 321 A.D. made Sunday the civil Sabbath of the empire, by issuing the following edict: "Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty attend to the business of agriculture; because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest, the critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities granted by Heaven. Given the seventh day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls, each of them for the second time." It is claimed that by this edict Constantine changed the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday). From the reading of this edict it is evident that such claim is based on a very slim margin. The evidence is conclusive that Constantine merely recognized a prevailing Christian practice of worship on Sunday, the Christian memorial Sabbath, or Lord's day -- a practice observed since the days of the apostles -- he did not originate the first day Sabbath. An illustration of this fact is found in the observance of our national Thanksgiving Day. Since the days of the Pilgrim fathers, the annual Thanksgiving Day has been observed to some degree. Several times by presidential proclamation the entire nation observed national Thanksgiving, more frequently it was observed through proclamation of the governors of the different states. It was President Lincoln in 1864 who started the present custom of the annual presidential proclamation for a national Thanksgiving Day. Did Lincoln start Thanksgiving Day? No, no more than did Constantine change the Sabbath day. They put official sanction upon a custom regularly observed for several centuries prior to their proclamations.

The testimonies of the early church leaders give evidence that through the guidance of the Holy Spirit the Sabbath principle at creation and confirmed in the Decalogue is preserved in a new cycle with a new memorial; the first day of the week, Sunday, a memorial of our Lord's resurrection. The Christian memorial Sabbath, Sunday, is no more of human origin than is the New Testament canon a strictly human arrangement. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit the Christian Sabbath was recognized and accepted on exactly the same basis and by the same outstanding church leaders as the Christian scriptural message, the New Testament, was recognized and accepted. Sunday is the Christian memorial Sabbath.