What’s the deal with Sabbath=Sunday?

Great Debates
1

It seems to be a common (not universal, certainly, but common) belief among Christians that the Sabbath is Sunday. How did they come to this conclusion? Just how common is this belief? Is it mostly confined to the “common folk”, or are do learned Christians hold this belief too? Are there sects which have this as official doctrine?

Apparently the Catholic Encyclopedia follows the Jewish definition, but I would guess that a good percentage of Catholics think of Sunday as being the Sabbath, so the official position and common perception aren’t necessarily the same.

2

It shouldn’t be confusing to any Spanish speaker, who calls Saturday el sabado.

3

The Sabbeth is a day of rest, which Christians observe on Sunday out of respect for their risen Lord, Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead on a Sunday.

4

But how did they come up with that directive? The bible clearly says “remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy” and the Sabbath is clearly Saturday. Nowhere in the New Testament that I recall does it say it’s ok to change the sabbath.

5

First, to correct a slight error of nomenclature – the Sabbath is, properly, from Friday sundown until Saturday sundown. That is why zev and cmkeller will not be posting Friday nights, but you may see posts by them dated 10:00 PM on Saturday.

However, the Fourth Commandment is a part of the Mosaic Law, and Christians are free of the Law – contrary to what some folks who ignore Paul’s teaching on this in favor of the extensive Torah material on what one should and should not do would have you believe.

Instead, Christians are to live a life characterized by love of God and their fellow man, which will often involve the voluntary keeping of much of the Law as a way of living out that relationship. Most of the Ten Commandments, for example, are such that it’s rather difficult to see how one could break one of them while still doing one’s best to live that life of love. And the extreme-hypothetical exceptions, such as the woman who sleeps with her husband’s captor to give him time to escape, are just that – the “exceptions that prove the rule” in that hotly debated phrase.

Now, to honor God the Holy Trinity, Christians gathered on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, to celebrate Eucharist, fellowship with one another, and pray together. Because it was the day on which God began Creation, it was the day on which Jesus rose from the dead, and it was the day on which the Spirit descended on the believers. And so it is kept as the day of rest and worship, in honor of Him, because of those three weekly “anniversaries.”

6

Can you clarify your position on this matter? Looking at your post literally, I agree. Christians do in fact observe the Sabbath on Sunday. But you also thereby imply that the Sabbath is on Sunday. Do you in fact hold that opinion?

John Mace: my understanding is as follows (which could very well be wrong): “sabado” in Spanish is like “Sabat” in English: yes, it means “sabbath”, but it refers to the Jewish one. The Christian one is “dominica” [I’m too lazy to put in the accent marks.], which is rather similar to “domingo”. What a coincidence! :slight_smile:

7

Actually, I’m not familiar with many Christians who observe the traditional Friday sundown to Saturday sundown Sabbath, aside from believers who label themselves seventh-day believers. I’d wager that the vast majority would observe a Sunday Sabbath, following the line of reasoning given above by Polycarp.

Off the top of my head, I can think of Seventh-day Adventist and Seventh-day Baptist Christian groups that observe a Saturday sundown to sundown Sabbath.

8

Not everybody defines the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week. It can also be defined as a day of rest and worship. The commandment states that as God created everything in six days then rested on the seventh day, so shall we rest on the seventh day. It doesn’t specifically say that day must be Saturday. For the Jewish the Sabbath is Saturday; for the Christian, Sunday; for the Muslim, Friday.

9

Among Orthodox Christians (at least in theory), we are to keep both Saturday (still called “Sabbaton” in Greek) and Sunday (Called “Kyriake”–Lord’s Day–in Greek) holy. Unfortunately, we tend to observe the practice in the breach, as it were. In any case, we will give Sunday greater precedence as it is the “New Day” for the “New Covenant”.

10

Cecil Adams on Why do Christians worship on Sunday when the Bible says the Sabbath is on Saturday?

11

I think that Seventh-day Adventists have Saturday as the Sabath. Remember that the seventh-day adventists believe the pope to be the anti-christ, so they believe that sunday is a day of babylonian worship to Satan.

Here is their conspiracy theory: http://www.biblerevelations.org/sundaylaw/

12

Sorry, this was the link that I meant to post above: http://www.biblerevelations.org/sabbath/the_origin_of_sunday_observance.htm

13

during the early days of the Church, when it was predominantly Jewish, it seemed that Christians kept both Sabbath & Sunday. Then as the Gentiles outnumbered the Jews in the Christian Church, gradually Sunday-keeping took precedence over Sabbath-keeping until by the time of Constantine, Sabbath-keeping was regarded as a Judaizing practice (an illegitimate binding of Christians to Jewish law).

I have no problem with Sabbath or Sunday keeping- I think both fulfill the spirit of the Commandment.

14

One more detail: The Orthodox Christian ecclesiastical calendar counts days as beginning from the previous sundown, even though many Orthodox faithful prefer to use the civil reckoning of midnight. Technically speaking, for example, Christmas “begins” just as vesperal services on Christmas Eve end.

Also technically speaking, although this is often altered to midnight for pastoral reasons, if one is to be fasting before Communion, one is to begin from Vespers of the previous sundown, not from midnight of the previous night.

15

Random observations on this interesting subject:

In the NT, Jesus quite often got in trouble with the religious authorities over the Sabbath (eg, Is it right to heal on the Sabbath?) Jesus declared Himself Lord of the Sabbath, and told us that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (or something like that).

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus reiterates each of the Ten Commandments with the notable exception of “remember the Sabbath to keep it holy”.

Some Christians see Jesus Himself as the fulfillment of the Sabbath command; that Jesus is the “rest of God”.

BTW, thanks for the Trinitarian angle, Polycarp!

16

Polycarp:

However, the Fourth Commandment is a part of the Mosaic Law, and Christians are free of the Law – contrary to what some folks who ignore Paul’s teaching on this in favor of the extensive Torah material on what one should and should not do would have you believe.

Just curious Polycarp, why do you take Paul at his word here? Isn’t he just a “well-meaning idjit”? You did recently call him that didn’t you:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=189522&perpage=40&pagenumber=5

More on this, why would you follow the teaching of said “well-meaning idjit” over that of the explicit instructions of Jesus himself, who told you were supposed to follow the law:

Matthew 5:18-20
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
While other Christians might interpret things differently it is you who says that where the bible and the teachings of Jesus contradict that you should go with Jesus, making comments like:

*“So if you ask me to choose between following Jesus and following the Bible, I’d have to choose Him.”

”Don’t put your trust in the Bible. Put it in the God of whom the Bible speaks. And most importantly, put it in Jesus Christ, who was God walking the earth as man, and whose words, whatever else one finds in that volume, can be trusted.”*

Can you spin that another way?

Now, to honor God the Holy Trinity, Christians gathered on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, to celebrate Eucharist, fellowship with one another, and pray together. Because it was the day on which God began Creation, it was the day on which Jesus rose from the dead, and it was the day on which the Spirit descended on the believers. And so it is kept as the day of rest and worship, in honor of Him, because of those three weekly “anniversaries.”

I can think of a lot of places in the bible where god said to do that holy stuff on Saturday. I can’t think of any where he said to do them on Sunday instead. Can you? I mean were not talking about eating shellfish here. Were talking about the 10 commandments. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS! Ten simple rules and you can’t even get em right.

Do you ever get tired of coming up with lame rationalizations for incoherently cherry picking the word of god?

17

Could somebody point out where in Scripture it states that one is only to consult Scripture?

18

It follows the verse where it says it’s ok to unrepentantly break the word of god?:wink:

19

It’s worth reading, and I think it provides a great explanation of the Sabbath question.

20

Shoot guys, it’s your god and his rules. Considering the stakes don’t you think it unwise to try and your way out of them. Aside from convention do you have any good reason to take such a chance?