TRADITION - F - continued

So, if God himself consecrated the seventh day to be set-apart from all of the other days as a 'holy' block of 24 hours, why is the majority of the Christian church declaring Sunday as the day of rest and the day of corporate worship? Some even go so far as to call it the Sabbath.

To be sure, you cannot find a Bible verse where God declares that He has changed His consecrated day from the last day of the week to the first.

You cannot find a Bible verse where Jesus changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.

You cannot find any statement made by Paul or Peter or John that the church had been instructed to change the sabbath to Sunday.

Instead, the tactic has been to interpret New Testament verses in such a way as to insinuate that the early church used Sunday as their day for communal worship.

One beloved pastor, concerned for my beliefs on this issue, took me into his home, fed me Sunday dinner, and then spent about two hours going over the scriptures with me. He wanted me to see that the early church practice is the basis of our modern-day use of Sunday. I'm certain that he was convinced that the verses he used made that point clear.

I don't know how many of those passages I can remember now, but I know at least one, and I'll begin with it. Acts 20:7 is always used in this way by proponents of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.

"And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together
to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the
morrow; and continued his speech until midnight." (Acts 20:7 kjv)

Two elements in this declaration are the focus of the claim for the Sunday sabbath; the phrase: "upon the first day of the week", and the phrase "break bread".

Does "break bread" mean communion? If it does, then we can move to a discussion of the other phrase, but if it does not, then perhaps the entire subject is moot. So, do these two words speak of the table of the Lord, the communion table, the bread and wine? There are verses that seem to support this interpretation of Acts 20:7.

"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of
Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of
Christ?" (1st Corinthians 10:16)

Certainly, in the above verse, Paul is speaking of the communion table element, bread. In addition, we can find many verses in the gospels that speak of Jesus breaking the bread as he instituted the remembrance of his body being broken. Several other passages also speak about the believers breaking bread when they got together.

I think that to use Acts 20:7 as a 'proof' that the early church leaders (the apostles) instigated Sunday as the Christian sabbath, is to falsely accuse them of violating God's consecrated day. If we're going to give someone the credit/blame for making this change in the day, let's give that credit/blame to those who claim that they had the authority to make the change and did so; The Catholic Church. There is a plethora of articles on the net, both pro and con on that subject, and you can do that search for yourself, but I offer one link to get you started.

Let's look now at the other phrase; "And upon the first day of the week". Can we agree that the word 'day' is added here in this KJV rendering of the phrase? The translators have admitted doing just that, and have indicated the location of added words by putting them in italics. [It's unfortunate that those who have prepared the other versions haven't chosen to be this honest.]

Since we can concede the KJV admittal that 'day' is not part of the original Greek version, we can read that phrase leaving that word out. That's exactly what Young's Literal Version has done.

"And on the first of the week, the disciples having been gathered together
to break bread, Paul was discoursing to them, about to depart on the
morrow, he was also continuing the discourse till midnight" (YLV)

This verse doesn't record all that much going on, but this sentence sure has a lot going on.

In other words, it's a long sentence with many commas.

It was the first of the week.
Paul was teaching through the night.
In the morning, Paul was going to leave, and
it was still going to be the first of the week.
All of this uses one verb; was.

But, the verse mentions something else. The disciples had been gathered together to break bread. When was that?

It does NOT say that; "the disciples WERE gathered together to break bread".

It says that they had been.

This is an extremely important distinction.

They had gathered together to break bread. That had happened prior to the rest of the described events. It was over and done.

Now, all the lamps had been lighted.
Sunset was the beginning of a new day; the first of the week.
While Paul was waiting to depart until morning, he taught.
On the morrow Paul would begin his journey.
He would begin his travels in the daylight hours of Sunday.
It would be the same Sunday during which Eutychus had fallen.
It would be the same Sunday that began at sunset on Saturday night.
Sunset Saturday night had seen the conclusion of the sabbath
The 7th-day sabbath was when the disciples had broken bread together.

Now read the literal version once more and see if you can see it that way.

"And on the first of the week, the disciples having been gathered together

to break bread, Paul was discoursing to them, about to depart on the
morrow, he was also continuing the discourse till midnight"

Is it possible that verse seven might mean that the disciples got together to take communion on the first day of the week? Many people have understood it that way. It has been taught that way for centuries in the Catholic Church. The reformers failed to correct the tradition. It has come down to us as though it were fact.

It isn't.

[Quick note: In verse eleven, we read that Paul breaks bread, and eats. Is that communion? Hardly. Look at the Greek word in verse eleven from which we get our word 'eaten'. You will find that this word speaks of nourishment and of the tasting of food for flavor. Verse eleven is not talking about communion.]

Paul openly taught that we are not under the law, but he worshiped at synagogue on the seventh day of the week. Why?

You have been told that it was because the Jews would be there on Saturday. But remember, Paul's ministry was to the gentiles, not to the Jews. He didn't go to the synagogue on Saturday to convert Jews. He wasn't out to convert Jews to Christianity. His mission was to establish the faith among the gentiles.

So, I ask again. Why did Paul continue to go to synagogue on the seventh day sabbath?

Because Paul knew that the seventh-day sabbath was ABOVE THE LAW OF MOSES. The seventh-day sabbath had been established on the final day of the creation week.

Did Paul teach Jews while at the synagogue? Oh, yeah. I'm sure he never passed up an opportunity to teach anyone who would listen. We should examine an new passage in this context.

"And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles
besought that these words might be preached to them the next
sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of
the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas:
who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace
of God. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole
city together to hear the word of God." ( Acts 13:42-44)

The Gentiles asked Paul to return the following SABBATH in order that he preach to THEM. And the next SABBATH came, and Paul DID SO.

Acts 13:14 tells us where Paul was preaching. It was in modern day Turkey. This was gentile territory.

Can we get the picture here? Paul was preaching on a seventh-day Sabbath, and the Gentiles approached him after the service and asked him to come back the next week to preach to THEM.

This would have been a perfect opportunity for Paul to say; "Come back tomorrow. That's the new day of worship for Christians. I'll preach to YOU GENTILES then."

He didn't say that. Quite the contrary.

Seven days later, on the following seventh-day Sabbath, most of the town showed up to hear Paul preach. They would have been predominantly GENTILES, and Paul preached to them that day; that Saturday.

Paul had his entire week free. He could have preached to Gentiles any day of the week. Some people tell me that the day we worship doesn't matter, as long as we have one day during the week. This passage tells me that those people are wrong. Paul had the people wait an entire week. They came to hear him preach on the day that he said should be the day; the seventh day of the week.

There is one day in each week set apart by our creator God.

It isn't Sunday. It is the SEVENTH DAY. It is HIS SABBATH DAY.

It is mine. Is it yours?