Hello!
I'll try to answer your question. I don't have anything against catholics. One of my best girlfriends is catholic actually. I may not totally agree with them, but there are good and honest catholics who really love the Lord and want to obey Him. So it is not my inention by no means to criticize or offend anyone.
Catholic teachings are based on the Scriptures and tradition, while protestants claim their teachings are based on the Scripture only. According to tradition, sunday is the Lord's day since Jesus raised from the dead. It has been the tradition to keep sunday since the I or the III century A.C. (officially, it was Constantine who changed the day of worship on the III A.D., but some Christians already kept sunday since the first century by their own).
Even most protestant churches have accepted sunday as a day of worship.
But, being honest, there's not Scripture that supports sunday as a day of worship, or that the Lord changed the day. Tradition changed it, but not the Lord: His Word, where we find His will, doesn't say anything about it.
We know that the day of worship is very important for God, because He created the Sabbath on the Creation week --when everything was perfect-- (Gen. 2:1-3); wrote it on the Ten Commandments, written on stone by the finger of God Himself (there are only three times in the Bible when God wrote something with His own finger), kept by Jesus Christ, the apostles, and will be kept in Heaven according to Isaiah 66.
If the Sabbath day is so important for God, don't we think He would have made it clear when He changed it if He did so? However, there's not evidence that the Seventh day Sabbath is not biding anymore, or was changed, or anything like that. The Bible says that "Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." Amos 3:7.
The following are some popular questions regarding the Sabbath day --and the answers--, taken from the Amazing Facts Study Guide: The Lost Day of History...
1. On what day did Jesus customarily worship?
When Jesus was here on earth, He worshiped on the Sabbath.
"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4:16.
Answer: Jesus' custom was to worship on the Sabbath.
2. But which day of the week is the Sabbath?
The seventh day of the week (Saturday) is the Sabbath.
"The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God." Exodus 20:10. "And when the sabbath was past, ...very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre." Mark 16:1, 2.
Answer: The Sabbath is not the first day of the week (Sunday), as many believe, but the seventh day (Saturday). Notice from the above Scripture that the Sabbath is the day that comes just before the first day of the week.
3. Who made the Sabbath and when?
God made the Sabbath at the time of Creation.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." Genesis 1:1; 2:2, 3.
Answer: God made the Sabbath at the time of Creation, when He made the world. He rested on the Sabbath and blessed and sanctified it (set it apart for a holy use).
4. What does God say about Sabbathkeeping in the Ten Commandments, which He wrote with His own finger?
God wrote the Sabbath commandment with His own finger.
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8-11. "And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God." Deuteronomy 9:10.
Answer: In the fourth commandment of the 10, God commands us to observe the seventh-day Sabbath as His holy day. God knew people would forget His Sabbath, so He began this commandment with the word "remember." He has never commanded anyone anywhere to keep any other day as a weekly holy day.
5. But haven't the Ten Commandments been changed?
Jesus says it is easier for heaven to pass away than for God's law to change.
Jesus says: "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17. God says: "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." Psalms 89:34. Notice, the Ten Commandments came from His lips. Exodus 20:1 says, "And God spake all these words, saying ... [the Ten Commandments follow in verses 2-17]."
Answer: No, indeed! It is utterly impossible for any of God's moral law ever to change. All Ten Commandments are binding today.
6. Did the apostles keep the Sabbath?
Paul and the other apostles kept God's seventh-day Sabbath holy.
"And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures." Acts 17:2. "Paul and his company ... went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down." Acts 13:13, 14. "And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither." Acts 16:13. "And he [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Acts 18:4.
Answer: Yes, the book of Acts makes it clear that Paul and the early church kept the Sabbath.
7. Did the Gentiles also worship on Sabbath?
God commanded it:
"Blessed is the man ... that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it." "Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, ... every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer ... for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." Isaiah 56:2, 6, 7, emphasis added.
Apostles taught it:
"And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath." "And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." Acts 13:42, 44, emphasis added. "And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Acts 18:4.
The apostles taught the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath holy.
Answer: The apostles in the early New Testament church not only obeyed God's Sabbath command, but they also taught the converted Gentiles to worship on Sabbath. Never once do they refer to Sunday as a holy day.
8. But wasn't the Sabbath changed to Sunday at Christ's death or resurrection?
The Sabbath was not changed to Sunday at the time of Jesus' resurrection.
Answer: No, there is not the remotest hint that the Sabbath was changed at Christ's death or resurrection. The Bible teaches just the opposite. Please carefully review the following evidence:
A. God blessed the Sabbath.
"The Lord blessed the sabbath day and hollowed it." Exodus 20:11. "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." Genesis 2:3.
B. Christ expected His people to be still keeping the Sabbath in A.D. 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed.
Knowing full well that Jerusalem would be destroyed by Rome in A.D. 70, Jesus warned His followers of that time, saying, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day." Matthew 24:20, emphasis added. Jesus made it clear that He intended for the Sabbath to be kept even 40 years after His resurrection. In fact, there is no intimation anywhere in the Scriptures that Jesus, His Father, or the apostles ever (at any time, under any circumstances) changed the holy seventh-day Sabbath to any other day.
C. The women who came to anoint Christ's dead body kept the Sabbath. Jesus died on "the day before the sabbath" (Mark 15:37, 42), which is now called Good Friday.
The women prepared spices and ointments to anoint His body, then "rested the sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:56. Only "when the sabbath was past" (Mark 16:1) did the women come "the first day of the week" (Mark 16:2) to continue their sad work. They found "Jesus was risen early the first day of the week" (verse 9), commonly called Easter Sunday. Please note that the Sabbath "according to the commandment" was the day preceding Easter Sunday, which we now call Saturday.
D. Christ's follower, Luke, wrote two books of the Bible--Luke and Acts. He says that in the book of Luke he wrote about "all" of Jesus' teachings (Acts 1:1-3). But he never wrote about Sundaykeeping or a change of the Sabbath.
9. Some people say the Sabbath will be kept in God's new earth. Is this correct?
Everybody in God's eternal kingdom will keep the Sabbath holy.
"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 66:22, 23.
Answer: Yes, the Bible says the saved people of all ages will keep the Sabbath in the new earth.
10. But isn't Sunday the Lord's day?
The Lord's day is Sabbath, not Sunday.
"Call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord." Isaiah 58:13. "For the son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." Matthew 12:8.
Answer: The Bible speaks of the "Lord's day" in Revelation 1:10, so the Lord does have a special day. But no verse of Scripture refers to Sunday as the Lord's day. Rather, the Bible plainly identifies Sabbath as the Lord's day. The only day ever blessed by the Lord or claimed by Him as His holy day is the seventh-day Sabbath.
14. Why did God make the Sabbath anyway?
The Sabbath is a sign of God's power to create and redeem.
A. Sign of Creation.
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8, 11.
B. Sign of redemption and sanctification.
"Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezekiel 20:12.
Answer: God gave the Sabbath as a twofold sign: (1) It is a sign that He created the world in six literal 24-hour days, and (2) it is also a sign of God's mighty power to redeem and sanctify men. Surely every Christian will love the Sabbath as God's precious sign of Creation and redemption (Exodus 31:13, 17; Ezekiel 20:12, 20). It is a great insult to God for people to trample upon His Sabbath. In Isaiah 58:13, 14, God says all who would be blessed must first get their feet off His Sabbath.
15. How important is Sabbathkeeping?
Breaking any commandment of God's law is sin.
"Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. "The wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23. "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10. "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps." 1 Peter 2:21. "He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." Hebrews 5:9.
Answer: It is a matter of life and death. Sabbathkeeping is enjoined in the fourth commandment of God's law. The deliberate breaking of any one of the Ten Commandments is a sin. Christians will gladly follow Christ's example of Sabbathkeeping. Our only safety is to diligently study the Bible, "rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15. We must have positive Scripture support for every Christian practice we follow
1. But isn't the Sabbath for the Jews only?
Mark 2:27
No. Jesus said, "The sabbath was made for man." Mark 2:27. It is not for the Jews only, but for mankind--all men and women everywhere. The Jewish nation did not even exist until 2,500 years after the Sabbath was made.
2. Isn't Acts 20:7-12 proof that the disciples kept Sunday as a holy day?
Acts 20:7
According to the Bible, each day begins at sundown and ends at the next sundown (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; Leviticus 23:32) and the dark part of the day comes first. So Sabbath begins Friday night at sundown and ends Saturday night at sundown. This meeting of Acts 20 was held on the dark part of Sunday, or on what we now call Saturday night. The New English Bible* begins Acts 20:7 like this: "On the Saturday night in our assembly ..." It was a Saturday-night meeting, and it lasted until midnight. Paul was on a farewell tour and knew he would not see these people again before his death (verse 25). No wonder he preached so long! (No regular weekly service would have lasted all night.) Paul was "ready to depart on the morrow." The "breaking of bread" has no "holy day" significance whatever, because they broke bread daily (Acts 2:46). There is not the slightest indication in this Scripture passage that the first day is holy, nor that these early Christians considered it so. Nor is there the remotest evidence that the Sabbath had been changed. Incidentally, this meeting is probably mentioned in the Scripture only because of the miracle of raising Eutychus back to life after he fell to his death from a third-floor window. In Ezekiel 46:1, God refers to Sunday as one of the six "working days."
*(C) The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1961, 1970. Used by permission.
3. Doesn't 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2 speak of Sunday school offerings?
1 Corinthians 16:2
No, there is no reference here to a public meeting. The money was to be laid aside privately at home. A famine was raging in Judea (Romans 15:26; Acts 11:26-30), and Paul was writing to ask the churches in Asia Minor to assist their famine-stricken brethren. These Christians all kept Sabbath holy, so Paul suggested that on Sunday morning (which was the time they paid bills and settled accounts), after the Sabbath was over, they put aside something for their needy brethren so it would be on hand when he came. It was to be done privately or, as La Santa Biblia (a Spanish translation) says, "at home." Notice also that there is no reference here to Sunday as a holy day. In fact, the Bible nowhere commands or even suggests Sundaykeeping.
4. But hasn't time been lost and the days of the week changed since the time of Christ?
Luke 4:16
No! Reliable encyclopedias and reference books make it clear that our seventh day is the same one that Jesus kept holy. It is a simple matter of research.
5. But isn't John 20:19 the record of the disciples instituting Sundaykeeping in honor of the resurrection?
John 20:19
On the contrary, the disciples at this time did not believe that the resurrection had taken place (Mark 16:14). They had met there "for fear of the Jews" and had the doors bolted. When Jesus appeared in their midst, He rebuked them "because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen." There is no implication that they counted Sunday as a holy day. Only eight texts in the New Testament mention the first day of the week; none of them imply that it is holy.
6. Doesn't Colossians 2:14-17 do away with the seventh-day Sabbath?
Colossians 2:14
Not at all. It refers only to the sabbaths which were "a shadow of things to come" and not to the seventh-day Sabbath. There were seven yearly holy days, or holidays, in ancient Israel which were also called sabbaths. These were in addition to, or "beside the sabbaths of the Lord" (Leviticus 23:38), or seventh-day Sabbath. These all foreshadowed, or pointed to, the cross and ended at the cross. God's seventh-day Sabbath was made before sin entered, and therefore could foreshadow nothing about deliverance from sin. That's why Colossians chapter 2 differentiates and specifically mentions the sabbaths that were "a shadow." These seven yearly sabbaths which were abolished are listed in Leviticus chapter 23.
7. According to Romans 14:5, the day we keep is a matter of personal opinion, isn't it?
Romans 14:5
Notice that the whole chapter is on judging one another (Verses 4, 10, 13). The issue here is not over the seventh-day Sabbath, which was a part of the great moral law, but over the yearly feast days of the ceremonial law. Jewish Christians were judging Gentile Christians for not observing them. Paul is simply saying, "Don't judge each other. That ceremonial law is no longer binding."
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The Bible tells us that there are two laws: the Moral Law --the Ten Commandments--, and the ceremonial law --law of Moses. The Ten Commandment Law is not part of the law of Moses. The Mosaic law was nailed to the Cross, but not the Ten Commandment Law. It's Biblical.
For example,
Who proclaimed the Ten Commandments?
"And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone." (Deuteronomy 4:12,13)
How did the ceremonial law come to be knwon?
"And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock." (Leviticus 1:1,2)
"This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings; Which the LORD commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai." (Leviticus 7:37,38)
Who wrote the Ten Commandments?
"And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." (Exodus 31:18)
"And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." (Exodus 32:16)
Whose writing was the one of the law of Moses?
"Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses." (2 Chronicles 33:8)
Where did God write down the Ten Commandments?
"And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone" (Deuteronomy 4:13)
Where was written down the ceremonial law?
"And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen." (2 Chronicles 35:12)
Where were the Ten Commandments placed?
"And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark:" (Exodus 40:20).
Where did Moses commanded his book of the law to be placed?
"Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." (Deuteronomy 31:26)
What's the nature of the Law of God: the Ten Commandments?
"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." (Romans 7:14)
When would the ceremonial law finish?
"Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation." (Hebrews 9:9-10)
When would this change or reform happen?
"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." (Hebrews 9:11-12)
How did Christ's sacrifice affect the ceremonial law?
"Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;" (Ephesians 2:15)
How was the end of the sacrifice system manifested?
"Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;" (Matthew 27:50,51)
Why was the ceremonial law removed?
"For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God." (Hebrews 7:18-19)
Well, these are some differences and texts regarding the two Laws found in the Bible. One wa ablished, but it was not the Ten Commandment Law.
I believe, however, that in Heaven there are going to be people who kept sunday holy. They didn't find Sabbath truth during their life time, so they worshiped God the best they could on the day they thought was the Lord's day. God accepts that. He's loving and just, and He won't judge us for what we didn't know. But now, you know about the Sabbath truth, the Lord's day. Let's remember that sin is also knowing to do good and not doing it. What are you going to do with this Bible truth?
Christ tenderly says, ""If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15)
For more information, you may watch the following videos, "Sabbath, Sunday, & the New Covenant"
http://www.sabbathtruth.com/sabnewcov1.asx (part 1)
http://www.sabbathtruth.com/sabnewcov2.asx (part 2)
You may visit http://www.sabbathtruth.com/
Or visit the following webpage too: http://www.amazingfacts.org/items/study_guides.asp?tTitle=New%20Revelation
May God help us to love Him more and learn more from His Word.
God bless everyone!
2006-11-13 20:38:48
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answer #9
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answered by Cachanilla 3
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