Untitled

BearTrax Fellowship

THE LORD'S DAY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Which day did Yahshua and His Disciples Keep?

As in all other Christian duties the Founder of Christianity, Yahshua the Messiah (Jesus), set an example in Sabbath-keeping. He faithfully observed 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." "And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee; and taught them on the Sabbath days." (Luke 4:16,31)

The Sabbath that He observed, and which He established an example, was not Sunday; Sunday is the first day of the week. Our Lord kept the seventh-day in accordance with Gods' commandment.

His disciples, following His example, kept the same day. They knew nothing of Sunday or its observance. Not one of them kept Sunday as a day of worship. When Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramethia laid His body in the tomb on that Wednesday afternoon of His crucifixion,

"they returned and prepared spices and ointments: and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." (Luke 23:56).

The Sabbath day referred to by Luke was the Feast of Matzah, a high Holy Shabbat beginning the day after Passover.

There is no instance in all the New Testament of any person keeping Sunday as the Sabbath. The early Christians kept the seventh-day Sabbath. (Luke 23:56, Acts 13:14, 42, 44; Acts 16:12,13, Acts 17:1-4, Acts 18:1-4,11; Hebrews 4:4, 9, 10; Revelation 1:10).

Indeed, Sunday is not mentioned from the beginning to the end of the New Testament. It has no place in the Sacred Scriptures, except as one of "the six working days." Ezekiel 46:1

In His teaching and in His example, Yahshua made no alteration in the seventh-day Sabbath, or in the obligation of men to serve it. He emphatically declared "the Sabbath was made for man." (Mark 2:27) In their teaching and in their example the first disciples of Yahshua, the writers of the New Testament scriptures also made no alteration on the seventh-day Sabbath, or in the obligation to serve it.

It is a fact pregnant with deep significance that in the whole New Testament the first day of the week is mentioned only eight times. There is no record of any command to keep it, no record of it's being appointed as a Sabbath, no account of any blessing being placed upon it, no statement that it was ever made holy, no intimation of any sacredness being attached to it, no promise of blessing for observing it, no threat of punishment for its nonobservance, no record that it was ever called the Sabbath or given any sacred name or title, no record that the apostles ever kept it or commanded anyone else to keep it, no record that any Christian, or anyone else for that matter, ever kept it or should keep it.

The change which has taken place in Sabbath observance since the New Testament times, the substitution of the first day of the week in place of the seventh day, is wholly without scriptural sanction, and altogether without divine authority. Christian believers, who have a desire to follow the commandments of Yahweh, follow Yahshua and His apostles, should instantly discard this anti-scriptural practice and keep the only true Sabbath.

Yahshua did not change the Sabbath. As creator He brought it into existence. (John 1:1-3, 10, 14; Colossians 1:13-17.) He designed it to be a memorial to His power in the work of both creation and redemption. When Yahshua came into the world to carry out the eternal purpose of human salvation, He did not set aside the memorial that He Himself established to commemorate His finished work of creation and redemption. Hence "the Son of man is the Lord even of the Sabbath day." (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5).

Neither the disciples of Yahshua nor the early Christian churches ever heard of the divine change in Sabbath observance. Hence the observance of any other day than the seventh as the Sabbath is totally unknown in the New Testament.

The New Testament mentions the first day of the week eight times. The passages in the New Testament that mention the first day of the week are: Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1,2,9; Luke 23:56; Luke 24:1; John 20; John 21:19; Acts20:7-8: 1 Cor 16:1-2. In these texts those who observe the first day must find their warrant for such observance.

These texts speak of the "first day of the week." They unite in declaring that the resurrection of our Lord took place on that day. Sunday observers claim that the occurrence of this event on that day brought about a change of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day.

In speaking of Yahshua's resurrection, Mark says: "When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdeline, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun:" Mark 16:1-2. This clearly shows that "the Sabbath was past" when the first day of the week came. Thus the New Testament makes it plain that the Sabbath of the Bible is the day before the first day of the week.

John, speaking of the day Yahshua rose from the dead, makes this statement: "Then the same day evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples "were assembled for fear of the Jews" came Yahshua and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." John 20:19. In this case the Lord's disciples were not gathered together for a worship service, but they "were assembled for fear of the Jews." The door was locked. It was not a public gathering. The disciples could not have been gathered there to honor the first day of the week because Yahshua rose upon it, for Mark explicitly says that the disciples were eating the evening meals and were so hardened in their disbelief of the reports that He had risen, that Yeshua had to upbraid them for it. (Mark 16:14). And Luke not only says that the disciples were eating their supper when Yahshua appeared to them on this occasion, but he adds that because they did not believe that it was Yahshua risen from the dead, He showed them His hands and His feet, and even ate broiled fish with a honeycomb to prove that it was Him. (Luke 24:33-43).

The New Testament writers speak of the Sabbath, it is true, but they carefully discriminate between the Sabbath and the first day of the week making it plain that the Sabbath of the New Testament is the day before the first day of the week. (See Mark 16:1-2; Luke 23:54, 56, 24:1.) They give no sacred title to the first day of the week. They do give such a title to the seventh day of the week. They do not say Yahshua rested on the first day, which would have been essential to its becoming a Sabbath. They say nothing about any blessing being placed by Him upon the first day. They do not tell us Yahshua ever said anything about the first day, either as a holy day or otherwise. He did not even mention it. The writers gave no precept or command regarding the first day observance. There is nothing in these passages declaring that the first day was to be regarded by the followers of Yahshua as anything more than the ordinary work day that it is called, just "the first day of the week."

Instead of it's being true that Yahshua blessed and hallowed the first day, the fact is that He never once mentioned it. He did not even take the name upon His lips, so far as we have record.

It is plain, therefore, after careful examination of the New Testament, that it contains no evidence of a change, and no support for Sunday observance.

A careful examination of the Bible, of history, both civil and ecclesiastical; of theological writings, commentaries, church manuals, catechisms, and the candid admissions of Sunday observers themselves, compel us to conclude that there is no authority in the Holy Scriptures for the observance of Sunday. There is no authority given to man to make a change from the seventh-day to the first day, and no divine sanction given the change now that man has made it; but that this substitution of a false Sabbath for the true Sabbath of the Lord was entirely the work of an anti-Christian movement which adopted a purely pagan observance and wickedly brought it into the Christian church. This observance has no binding obligation upon Christian believers.

The observance of this false Sabbath should be instantly discarded as a matter of practice, and the true Sabbath of Yahweh restored to its rightful place, both in the hearts of His people and the practice of His church.

The only Sabbath the Bible commands to be observed is the seventh-day of the week. (Exodus 20:8-11) The seventh day is Yahweh's day. (Isaiah 58:13-14; Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5.) It is the only day He ever claimed as His own, the only day He ever blessed (Gen 2:2-3), the only day he ever commanded to be observed.

The New Testament does not change in the smallest degree the obligation to observe the seventh day. Our Lord observed it during the entire period of His earthly life, setting the example for His followers. (1 Peter 2:21). The disciples observed the seventh day uniformly during the period of their lives while establishing the first Christian churches.

There is no occasion on record in the New Testament where any human being endeavored to keep the first day as a Sabbath. The first day is mentioned in the New Testament, as we have seen, never once given a sacred title or name, never once called the Sabbath, or Lord's day, never once commanded to be kept,