Why do most Christians not worship on the 7th day?

Question

The fourth commandment seems clear - Remember the SABBATH day and keep it holy. There is no real question that the Sabbath is Saturday.

Answer 1

I struggled with this as well. Bottom line seems to be that there is no Biblical justification for not literally keeping the seventh day as a holy day. It is just tradition developed since the early years of the Church that changed the day.

Answer 2

Technically the Jewish sabbath is still on Saturday (dusk of Friday to dusk of Sat). However, the New Testament Church (as explained in ACTS, I believe) talks about how they worship on the Lord's day; the day of resurrection.

Therefore, although the sabbath day hasn't changed, the worship day was moved to Sunday (the day of resurrection).

Answer 3

Eastern Orthodox churches distinguish between "the sabbath" (Saturday) and "the Lord's Day" (Sunday), and both continue to play a special role for the believers, such as the church allowing some leniency during fasts on both of them, and having special Bible readings different from those allotted to weekdays; though the Lord's day with the weekly Liturgy is clearly given more emphasis. Catholics also distinguish between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day (Sunday), which they see as a fulfillment and replacement of the Sabbath. (The Catechism of the Holy Catholic Church on the Sabbath: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c1a3.htm). Many Protestants have historically regarded Lord's Day, Sabbath, and Sunday as synonymous terms for the Christian day of worship (except in those languages in which the name of the seventh day is literally equivalent to "Sabbath" — such as Spanish, Italian, Russian, Modern Greek, and of course Hebrew). For most Christians the Lord's Day is distinct from the Sabbath, and some Protestants consider it non-binding for Christians. Relatively few Christians regard the first day observance as entailing all of the ordinances of Jewish Shabbat. A minority of Protestants keep Saturday, the seventh day, as the Lord's Day and the Christian Sabbath. The Ethiopian Orthodox observe a Saturday Sabbath.

Acts 20:7 says that, "On the first day of the week we came together to break bread", where Paul preached until midnight. One must remember, however, that according to Jewish tradition (and as described in Leviticus 23:32), a day begins when the sun goes down and this meeting apparently gathered in the evening, at dinner time. So, those who have believed that the Christians kept the Sabbath on the seventh day argue that this meeting (Acts 20:7) would have begun on Saturday night. Paul would have been preaching on Saturday night until midnight and then walked eighteen miles from Traos to Assos on Sunday. He would not have done so, if he had regarded Sunday as the Sabbath, much less boarded a boat and continued to travel to Mitylene and finally on to Chios. Sabbatarians often claim that Biblical evidence suggests that Paul was a lifelong Sabbath keeper for the sake of the Jews, and if Sunday was now the Sabbath, then this journey would have been contrary to his character. Those opposed to a Sabbath claim that the practice had been abolished by this time, and thus would have no impact on Paul's actions.

Some doubt that this is an instance of Paul keeping the Sabbath, although it may be if it shows him waiting until the morning of the first day to continue his work. The focus of the story is about Eutychus, his accident, and his resurrection, not the changing of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week.

Also in Acts 2:45, they went to the Temple in Jerusalem and broke bread from house to house "daily". There is no mention of the Sabbath, and it is debatable whether this is a reference to Communion. There are many instances of the Gospel being taught and preached on non-specific days as well as daily. One example is in Mark 2:1-2 another is Luke 19:47-20:1, where it clearly indicates that Jesus himself taught and preached daily.

Christians who reject the religious observance of the first day argue, based on the reasons given above, that there is no significance given to the first day, the breaking of bread, nor the preaching; they are merely mentioned as events that might take place on any day of the week. The majority of Christians, who accept the practice of Sunday worship, suggest these actions are indicative of a new reverence for Sunday in connection with strictly Christian ceremonies; and the majority of these believe that Sunday is a Sabbatical day, a resting day set aside for worship of God through Jesus Christ, and see no continuing obligation to keep the Saturday ordinances in their Jewish form. However, while there is a commandment in the Old Testament to observe the seventh day Sabbath, there is no commandment in the New Testament to observe Sunday as the Sabbath.

Answer 4

Who is to say that Saturday is the Sabbath? On many calendars (I'm thinking of Spanish language calendars in particular), Sunday is the seventh day of the week. I don't think God cares which day you worship on.

Answer 5

It's yet another soft-shoe routine.

To "cucumberlarry" and others.

The Spanish calendar and dictionary call the Sabbath by it's name, "Sabado," and it is DEFINITELY what English speakers call Saturday - not Sunday. Put another way: In Spanish, the word for Sabbath & Saturday are one and the same word.

Answer 6

They worship on the first day, Sunday, because after Christ was resurrected on that day, Sunday was the third day when God resurrected Jesus, his disciples started to worship on Sunday morning in a happier, less restrictive way to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. Then it just caught on. Some Catholics and other religions worship on Saturday the 7th day of the week still to this day.

Answer 7

I am neither an SDA nor a Jew, but I follow all the 10 commandments, including and especially the Sabbath....God bless...

Answer 8

If I remember right somewhere during the Dark Ages, the calender jumped a number of days(I think it was in the teens) because they hadn't had leap years. So who knows what day it actually is. The important thing is to worship every seven days.

Answer 9

1. Our calendar now is pretty arbitrary. So, really there IS question as to what the real day is.
2. Christians claim that Christ rose on a Sunday.
3. Most Christians don't believe that the day is important at all, as long as you set apart one day to devote to God.

Answer 10

Even though most Christians might not be aware of this, they are not required to follow the Ten Commandments. Their Savior left them with new ones. Why they try to follow the law given to Jews is beyond me.

Answer 11

"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Christ is Lord even of the Sabbath." Christians enter into Christ's rest. "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." Everyday can be looked upon as a Sabbath day. "Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to... Sabbath day."

"....knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." " You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."