THE CASE AGAINST SUNDAY 

WHY THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK CANNOT BE THE BIBLE SABBATH.

Ask anyone at random which day Christians keep holy and you will probably receive the same answer. Why Sunday, of course! 

In Old Testament times, even before the Jews, God’s people worshipped on the seventh day. So did Jesus, the apostles, and the New Testament church. Yet the vast majority of Christendom worships on Sunday. 

Many arguments are given to justify the change of Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Do they measure up to the Bible? 

Some argue that we should keep Sunday to commemorate our redemption, since Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday. Redemption, they say, is greater than Creation. Is it? 

But suppose redemption is greater than Creation. God has not honored any particular day as a memorial of redemption. Even if He did, would it be the day of His crucifixion or resurrection? Do we have redemption through Christ’s death or resurrection? Or Both? 

The Bible teaches us to commemorate Jesus’ death through the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). His resurrection is commemorated in baptism by immersion (see Romans 6:3-5). Does Baptism or the Lord’s Supper rob the seventh-day Sabbath of its holiness? No. We are to participate in the Lord’s Supper, practice the ordinance of baptism, and keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy. 

Unfortunately, those who claim authority to change the Sabbath to Sunday have also taken the liberty to change the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and ordinance of baptism. 

The word “Sunday” is not found in the Bible, but the term “first day of the week” is found eight times. Six of these references are from the Gospels and are connected with Christ’s resurrection. 

Acts 20 reports a special need night meeting held by the Apostle Paul at Troas (see verse 8😎).As the day begins at sunset, according to the Bible, this meeting was on what we call Saturday night.

On the first day of the week, the Corinthians were encouraged to collect an offering for the poor saints to be “laid by in store” at home and has no reference to any public meeting (1 Corinthians 16:2). 

None of these eight texts attribute sacredness to any day except the seventh-day Sabbath. 

What about John being in the Spirit on “the Lord’s day”? Didn’t that mean Sunday? 

Jesus declared that because He was the Creator, He was also the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27, 28). The fourth commandment contains these words, “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God” (Exodus 20:10). These texts show that the Lord’s day is Saturday. 

Others argue that the Ten Commandments are no longer binding upon Christians, so the seventh-day Sabbath is obsolete. However, Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Isaiah said of the Saviour, “He will magnify the law, and make it honourable” (Isaiah 42:21). Jesus taught, “It was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). Christ defined adultery beyond the physical act. His teachings lifted the law beyond externals into the realm of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It was “magnified and made honourable.” 

Respected Christian leaders have recognised the binding claims of God’s law. D. L. Moody said, “The law that was given at Sinai has lost none of its solemnity. Time cannot wear out it’s authority or the fact of its authorship… I have never met an honest man that found fault with the Ten Commandments…. The commandments of God given to Moses in the mount at Horeb are as binding today as ever they have been since the time they were proclaimed in the hearing of the people” (Weighed and Wanting, pp. 11, 15). 

John Calvin wrote, “We must not imagine that the coming of Christ has freed us from the authority of the law; for it is the eternal rule of a devout and holy life, and must therefore be as unchangeable as the justice of God, which it embraced, is constant and uniform” (Commentary on a Harmony of the Gospel, vol. 1, p. 277). 

God’s law is as eternal and unchanging as God Himself. “All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever” (Psalm 111:7-8). 

There is a historical reason why most Christians worship on the first day of the week, but it isn’t a biblical reason.

FORTY BIBLE FACTS CONCERNING THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK 

1. The very first thing recorded in the Bible is work done on Sunday, the first day of the week. (Genesis 1:1-5.) This was done by the Creator Himself. If God made the earth on Sunday, can it be wicked for us to work on Sunday? 

2. God commands men to work upon the first day of the week. (Exodus 20:8-11.) Is it wrong to obey God?

3. None of the patriarchs ever kept it.

4. None of the holy prophets ever kept it.

5. By the express command of God, His holy people used the first day of the week as a common working day for 4,000 years, at least.

6. God Himself calls it a “working day. (Ezekiel 46:1.)

7. God did not rest upon it.

8. He never blessed it.

9. Christ did not rest upon it.

10. Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3), and worked at His trade until He was thirty years old. He kept the Sabbath and worked six days in the week, as all admit. Hence He did many a hard day’s work on Sunday.

11. The apostles worked upon it during the same time.

12. The apostles never rested upon it.

13. Christ never blessed it.

14. It has never been blessed by any divine authority.

15. It has never been sanctified.

16. No law was ever given to enforce the keeping of it, hence it is no transgression to work upon it. “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” Romans 4:15. (See also 1 Johy3:4.)

17. The New Testament nowhere forbids work to be done on it.

18. No penalty is provided for its violation.

19. No blessing is promised for its observance.

20. No regulation is given as to how it ought to be observed. Would this be so if the Lord wished us to keep it?

21. It is never called the Christian Sabbath.

22. It is never called the Sabbath day at all.

23. It is never called the Lord’s day.

24. It is never called even a rest day.

25. No sacred title whatever is applied to it. Then why should we call it holy?

26. It is simply called “first day of the week.”

27. Jesus never mentioned it in any way, never took its name upon His lips, as far as the record shows.

28. The word Sunday never occurs in the Bible at all.

29. Neither God, Christ, nor inspired men ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy day.

30. The first day of the week is mentioned only eight times in all the New Testament. (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 2:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.)

31. Six of these texts refer to the same first day of the week.

32. Paul directed the saints to look over their secular affairs on that day. (1 Corinthians 16:2.)

33. In all the New Testament we have a record of only one religious meeting held upon that day, and even this was a night meeting. (Acts 20:5-12.)

34. There is not an intimation that they ever held a meeting upon it before or after that.

35. It was not their custom to meet on that day.

36. There was no requirement to break bread on that day.

37. We have an account of only one instance in which it was done. (Acts 20:7.)

38: That was done in the night - after midnight. (Verses 7-11.) Jesus celebrated it on Thursday evening (Luke 22), and the disciples sometimes did it every day (Acts 2:42-46).

39. The Bible nowhere says that the first day of the week commemorates the resurrection of Christ. This is a tradition of men, which contradicts the law of God. (Matthew 15:1-9.) Baptism commemorate the burial and resurrection of Jesus. (Romans 6:3-5.)

40. Finally, the New Testament is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath day or any sacredness for the first day.