Victor R, Claveau, MJ
The Bible records the abrogation of the law of Moses by the will of God. This is seen in the “vision” of St. Peter (Acts 10); in the Epistles of St. Paul to the Colossians (2:16) and to the Galatians (4:10-11) as well as in the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), which took place twenty years after the Sabbath of the New Law was changed.
It should be noted that the change from the last day of the week does not change the vital and unchangable principle of the commandment, namely, that one day in seven shall be given to the worship of God. The only thing that was changed was the ceremonial day, which is not fixed and is therefore alterable.
While it is a perversion of historic truth to declare that Emperor Constantine was the first to command Sunday observance, to him is due the credit for having made Sunday a legal day of rest. By this civic act all christians gained the free opportunity to practice public worship on the first day of the week. Indeed, it was Constantine who removed obstacles to the attendance of Sunday worship; but he did not institute the public worshop of God by Christians on the first day of the week, for the reason that it was already the established practice of the Church, which had persevered under extraordinary difficulties.
Seventh-Day Adventists, Seventh-Day Baptists, and certain others claim that Christians must not worship on Sunday, but on Saturday-the Jewish Passover-instead. Passages such as Colossians 2:16: “Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath”. Acts 20:7: “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them intending to depart on the morrow; and he prolonged his speech until midnight”. 1 Corinthians 16:2: “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come”., and Revelation 1:10: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day I was caught up in ecstacy, and I heard behind me a piercing voice like the sound of a trumpet,…”, indicate that the sabbath is no longer in force and that Christians are to worship on the Lord’s day (Sunday) instead. The quotations below show that the early Church Fathers understood and practiced this principle from the very beginning.
Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) [AD 70] “But every Lord’s day…gather yourselves together and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned” (14).
Pseudo-Barnabas [AD 80] “We keep the eighth day (Sunday) with joyfulness, the day also which Jesus rose again from the dead” (Epistle of Barnabas 15:6-8).
Justin Martyr [AD 152]”Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead. For he was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn…having appeared to his apostles and disciples, he taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also” (First Apology 67).
Teaching of the Apostles [AD 225] “The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and the oblation, because on the first day of the week our Lord rose from the place of the dead, and on the first day of the week he rose upon the world, and on the first day of the week he ascended up to heaven, and on the first day of the week he will appear at last with the angels of heaven” (2).