The Question: “Where in the New Testament are Christians commanded to keep Sunday? What is your Scriptural authority for keeping Sunday?”
Where in the new testament are christians commanded to keep sunday? I have searched and there is no place in the scriptures where we are commanded to keep sunday. Why do we keep sunday when according to Acts 16:13 \”On the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was made\”
\” Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures\” Acts 17:2. \”and he(Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks…..And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God.\” Acts18:4-11. Now it would seem to me that sometime in that year and six months he would tell them to come on sunday since its the \”new day of worship\”. Whats your scriptural authority for keeping sunday? – from Shawn
The Answer: “Scriptural authority” for worshiping on Sunday is found in several passages showing the practice of the New Testament church.
In Acts 20:7, it says that church came together on the first day of the week to break bread. The text clearly indicates that it was the practice of the church at that time to assemble every first day of the week for the purpose of observing the Lord’s Supper. The “first day of the week” is Sunday. It was then and it is now. So the passage clearly describes the New Testament church as worshiping on the first day of the week.
The Lord’s Supper is also the subject of 1 Corinthians 11:17-26. Paul refers to “when you come together as a church” in verse 18. He rebukes them for the divisions that existed among them and their abuse of the Lord’s Supper and gives them the proper meaning of its observance. Acts 20:7 said that the “when” of their assembly was Sunday. Paul refers to the “when” in Corinthians at the end of the letter (1 Cor. 16:1, 2). There, he is giving instructions for another aspect of New Testament worship, the collection. So, when does he say that the church was together for the collection to be taken up? The first day of the week, Sunday!
The church was established on Sunday with 3,000 being baptized into Christ and worshiping according to the apostles doctrine (Acts 2:41, 42). “That day,” the Day of Pentecost (i.e. Feast Of Weeks), was always on Sunday (cf. Lev. 23:15, 16).
In the examples where the worship of the church is described (Lord’s Supper, Prayer, Teaching, Collection, Singing) and the day of assembly is specified, the day is Sunday.
The verses presented in the above question refer to the Sabbath day, i.e. Saturday, but they do not refer to the worship of the New Testament church. Not one of them! In all of those verses Paul was going to where Jews, not Christians, were worshiping. Without a doubt, Jews worshiped on the Sabbath. But we’re not talking about the worship of the Jews, we’re talking about the day of worship for the New Testament church. Acts 17:2 and Acts 18:4 explicitly state what Paul’s purpose was for going to the Synagogue on the Sabbath. It was to reason and dispute with the Jews concerning the things of Christ and the Kingdom (Acts 19:8). It was not to worship! Paul was going where he knew the Jews were gathered, for the purpose of converting them to Christ. He was not going to the Synagogue on the seventh day of the week to engage in New Testament Christian worship with Jews!
There are two aspects of Christian worship that are restricted to a certain place and time. They are the Lord’s Supper and the collection. These acts of New Testament worship are only authorized on the first day of the week when the church assembles. If the Sabbath, i.e. Saturday, is the Scriptural day of worship for the New Testament church then where do we read of these expressions of New Testament worship being observed on that day? There is no Scriptural authority whatsoever to do these things on any other day in any other setting than on Sunday in the assembly of the saints!
Thank you for your question. Feel free to continue the discussion below in the comments.
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