Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site aecom.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!aecom!diaz
From: diaz@aecom.UUCP (Daniel Diaz)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Re: why Sunday and not Saturday?
Message-ID: <1987@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 22:57:55 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.1987
Posted: Mon Oct 28 22:57:55 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 31-Oct-85 22:31:14 EST
References: <1228@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <418@cylixd.UUCP> <419@cylixd.UUCP>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 41

> [PETER]
> >>A friend of mine insists that it is not right for Christians
> >>to go to churches on Sunday instead of Saturday. . . . 
> 
> [CHARLI]
> >I believe that the early Christians began holding worship services on
> >Sunday because that was the day of the Resurrection, although I can't
> >quote any authorities on the subject at the moment.
> 
> WELL, I KEEP A THEOLOGICAL TEXT! THE *BIBLE* (thump, thump)! :-)
> 
> Seriously, Acts 20:7 says, "And upon the first day of the week, when
> the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them..."
> 
> The early Christians chose a day other than the traditional Jewish
> sabbath day (Saturday) because those who were Jews spent the Sabbath
> worshipping in the synagogues with their Jewish friends and relatives.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Dave Kirby    ( ...!ihnp4!akgub!cylixd!dave)

It appears that the consensus seems to be that the New Testament allows
for communal worship on any day, but that the early Christians chose
Sunday for various sociological and theological reasons.

This is fine, but I feel that one point all Sabbath-Sunday debaters forget
or misunderstand is that the Sabbath was not a day of worship to begin with
in the Mosaic covenant. Rather the writings on the Law indicate the need
to observe the Sabbath as a day of rest, i.e. ceasing from work. Use of the
Sabbath as worship (as in the synagogue) appears to have arisen much later.
(If any Pentateuchal scholars are out there, correct me if I need be).

Given this observation, I see the contention that Sunday is the Christian
Sabbath to be unfounded Biblically and historically. The reformed tradition
originally confirmed this, although I perceive that ultra-Covenantists
have succumed to the pressure to find an analogy in the New Testament to
every practice in the Old. 

-- 
          Dan Diaz, Department of Biochemistry
                    Albert Einstein College of Medicine
                    Bronx, New York [..!philabs!aecom!diaz ]