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Ask almost any christian today what day the Sabbath is and they will almost always reply “Sunday”. This includes most LDS members that I have met. When I follow up that question with, Why do you keep Sunday? The common response is: “Because the people in the Bible began worshiping on the first day after the death and resurrection of Jesus.”

Elder Brigham H. Roberts attempts to support this view is his tract “The Lord’s Day,” citing “evidence” from the New Testament and from studying the practices of the Early Christian Church. His conclusion: There is “at least a strong probability that the change from the seventh to the first day of the week was made by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, after his resurrection; that is perpetuated by His apostles and the early Christian Church; and then, in conclusion, shall cite the revelation referred to which, to the Latter-day Saints, changes this ‘probability’ into fact and confirms with divine sanction our custom of worshiping on the first day of the week. By pursuing this course we shall draw the strong probability to be derived from the scriptures and the practice of the early Church to the support of the revelation referred to, while the revelation, as already indicated, will transform the ‘probability’ of the New Testament scriptures into positive fact.”

Some of you may be wondering what this “revelation” is. I will cover that in a future post, but first……

WHAT DOES THE Bible SAY?
The Bible mentions the first day 8 times in the New Testament: John 20:19, 20; verse 26; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2; Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2, 9; Luke 24:1

Let’s examine each of these passages to see if we can find the evidence for “strong probability” of the switch to first day of week.

KJV: John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.

In this passage we find that the Disciples are gathered together on the first day of the week. Because they are gathered together on the first day, this is given reason to believe that they are worshiping on the first day. But we are also told why they are there. The disciple are hiding because they are fearful of the Jews who had just killed Jesus. Thus, they are not there to worship, but rather to hide for fear of their lives.

That said, they are together on the first day so perhaps they are among the first to be keeping the first day sabbath to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection! But wait…..that cannot be, as they do not yet know that Jesus has risen from the dead. It is not until Jesus appears before them and proves that it is indeed really him that they become aware of the miracle.

KJV: Acts 20:7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

The Apostle Paul, in his writings, gives us an abundance of information on how we are to worship as he is setting up Christ’s church on earth. In Acts 20, Paul is preaching in many places and after many long journeys arrives in Troas. We read that the disciples are gathered together, breaking bread, and that Paul is preaching to them on the first day. At a glance, this sounds like a worship service on the first day of the week, furthering the evidence to follow such a practice.

However, more examination is needed. First, it is necessary to understand the time of the day. (Yes, but isn’t that clear from the verse?) Yes it is, but not to us as it was to them back then. We need to remember that in those days they recorded the days as starting on the dark part of the previous. In other words, the beginning of our Monday night was the beginning of their Tuesday and likewise, the beginning of the first day was in those days our Saturday night.

Why does this matter? Because it says that Paul is preparing to depart in the morning (morrow) of the first day. If this was truly the new sabbath day, Paul would not be undertaking such a long treacherous journey on the day of rest. Instead, it would make sense for him to wait until Monday (or our Sunday night). Thus, Paul preaches unto them on the first day until midnight and departs in the morning making this day not indicative of a sabbath.

We should also note that gathering together, the breaking of bread and someone preaching is not exclusive to the sabbath. This is done on other days as well. Act 2:46

KJV: 1 Corinthians 16 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

Again we find Paul spreading the gospel. Paul is counseling them on their book keeping. Notice that there is no implied meeting time as they are told to lay aside a share of their prosperity so that Paul can send someone back to make a collection to bring back to the saints in Jerusalem. This verse is often used in support of keeping Sunday the sabbath. But is it not revealing that Paul is telling them to do their book keeping on Sunday? After all, why would you do it on the Sabbath when “thou shalt not do any work”?

Three of the final four passages (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2, 9.) explicitly state the first came after the sabbath day. The fourth (Luke 24:1) is telling the same story. The folks in these passages are returning on the first day to anoint Jesus’ body. Returning because they had gone to see the sepulchre where Jesus lay to anoint his body but ran out of time after preparing the the spices and ointments on the preparation day. They then obeyed the commandment and rested on the sabbath day. Then, Mary Magdalene and Mary returned on the first day to anoint Jesus’ body only to find that it was gone!

And that’s it! Every mention of the first day in the New Testament. Now I would ask where is the “strong probability” for the change to the first day in the Bible? Do not all these verses actually support the sabbath being on the seventh day?

“Yet after all this is admitted, and the strength of argument is very great in my judgement, it must still be confessed that it fall somewhat short of being absolutely conclusive. It cannot be made out clearly and positively that Jesus or the apostles by direct, official action authorized the observation of the first day of the week as a day of public worship, dedicated to the service of God, and designed to take the place of the Jewish Sabbath. The most that can be claimed for the evidence her adduced - and it is the strongest if not all that can marshalled in support of the proposition- is that it is probable that such a change was instituted.” - Elder Roberts

The Jewish observance was something like sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

Emperor Constantine ordered the concatenation of Roman holidays to increase productivity. So the Sabbath was shifted to Mithra's Sunday. That worked out okay because the later early Christians had already begun celebrating the Lord's Day following the Sabbath. I doubt Mithra minded sharing his day.

The yearly birthday party for Jesus was also moved to Mithra's B-Day as well. It was called Sol Invictus, but we now call it Christmas.

The Sabbath is a man made construct. Nothing else in the world - tides, sunrise, nature, animals, etc differentiate between any given full rotation of the sun. It’s the same on a day that man has designated Monday as it is on a day that man has designated Saturday or Sunday. So if you want your designated period of religious worship (your Sabbath) to be a Wednesday afternoon, I’m sure your God(s) will be cool with that.

Hi Moksha, your are right that Constantine was responsible for appropriating Mithra's traditions after becoming the first christian emperor of Rome. This included shifting the Sabbath to Sunday. This was to bring the people together. Also, christians still accused the Jews of killing Jesus and so not worshipping on the jewish Sabbath was just another way to be separate from them.
Perhaps the key point though, is that it was a man and not God who decided to change the day of the Sabbath.

I have a question, I agree that the Sabbath today is a man made construct. Nearly all protestant/christian denominations worship on Sunday. And if you asked any of them why, they likely could not tell you other than that’s just the way it has always been. But the Seventh Day Sabbath was a day appointed by God (not man). He made the day holy and sanctified it. And claims the day to be his, “I also gave them MY Sabbath as a sign between us,” Ezekiel 20:12

Hi sass.
Do you eat shrimp?
Do you mix fabrics?
Do you cut your hair at the corners of your head?

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.


But at the end of the day, God of the Bible is as man made as Thor, so who cares.

Hey Sass, I think Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity was after he had his In Hoc Signo Vinces moment. Prior to his realization that Christianity had reached critical mass in the empire, he wanted to have less religious holidays to disrupt work in the empire. Combining celebrations seemed the way to go. Choosing the Mithra day probably stemmed from his thinking there were more followers of Mithra than Jesus at that time.

Once the Christians had gained enough dominance in the 5th Century they eliminated their rivals. No more Mithraleans and Antipastoians.

But what if Christianity faltered somehow back in the 3rd Century? Perhaps Joseph Smith would have met the Angel Eusebius or even Mithra and Sol in the sacred Palmyra grove. Pretty powerful speculative sacred allegory, eh?

Wikipedia can present even in its brief form more information about the Sunday worship. There are a variety of references to worship on Sunday by Christians going back to late first century. It would appear that there may not have been a unified policy. It is also likely Sunday was not considered Sabbath but was considered first day of the week

Constantine unified the practice and it matched up the Mithric practice as well as the Christian one as Moksha has observed.

The Wikipedia article makes the interesting observation that in the first centuries after Constantine Christians did not consider Sunday the Sabbath. They just did not observe Sabbath. The idea of doing Sabbath observation on Sunday arose in the middle ages.

I don't understand why God wants people to take a day off for the purpose of worshipping Him. Seems a little self indulgent don't you think?

In the Jewish tradition the Sabbath is a day of rest, not necessarily a day of worship. Worhip happens on all kinds of days of the week.

SteelHead wrote:In the Jewish tradition the Sabbath is a day of rest, not necessarily a day of worship. Worhip happens on all kinds of days of the week.

It is interesting that, for Mormons, the Sabbath isn’t a day of rest.