The Apostle Paul wrote "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" (ROMANS 14:5), but as so many in Christendom these days are so enamored by this Sunday idea, it seemed necessary for us to look at its beginnings.
Throughout the Bible the Sabbath was always observed on the seventh day (known today as Saturday), that day upon which GOD rested after HIS six days of creation. Yet, today's Church for the most part celebrate Sunday as the day of rest, or as some like to call it, the Day of the Lord. The thoughtful student will be drawn to ask why? Why did the seventh day cease from being the special sanctified day of the LORD (GENESIS 2:3), the day of rest observed by believers throughout the Bible, and where did this Sun-day come from? In this study we will scrutinize these three terms, Sunday, Sabbath and the Lord's Day, so as to discover their origins and current usage.
Sun-day means exactly that, the Sun's day. Sunday was the day set apart by ancient peoples for worship of the sun. Not only does the American Heritage Dictionary define it as the "day of the sun" but even the Catholic Encyclopedia gives a similar definition.
Sunday (Day of the Sun), as the name of the first day of the week, is derived from Egyptian astrology. The seven planets, known to us as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them, and the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day. During the first and second century the week of seven days was introduced into Rome from Egypt, and the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day. The Teutonic nations seem to have adopted the week as a division of time from the Romans, but they changed the Roman names into those of corresponding Teutonic deities. Hence the dies Solis became Sunday (German, Sonntag).
This is rather unsettling. How in the world did a day with such a pagan history, become the most important day of the week for Christendom? In the Bible the days are never named (except for the seventh, the Sabbath). They are always referred to as the first day of the week, or the second or third and so on. Thus we find recorded in the Bible the following references to this concerning the day of the resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus).
MATTHEW 28:1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week...
LUKE 24:1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning...
Yeshua's resurrection was witnessed to on the first day of the week, which we today call Sunday. Many believers think that this is the reason why we celebrate Sunday as something special, because it represents the resurrection of Yeshua. But if that is the case, why is it called Sun-day, the day of the Sun, rather than perhaps Son-day, or Resurrection Day, or even New Day or First Day? The answer is well documented.
Yeshua was crucified and ascended to heaven around 33 to 35 A.D. The Twelve Apostles as well as the apostle Paul were dead by around 100 A.D. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. followed by the nation of Israel being all but erased by 135 A.D. This was followed by a tremendous persecution against the believers by the civil authorities. Those not tortured and crucified were scattered throughout the world. Seeking relief from the persecutions the Christian Church accepted all kinds of un-Biblical and non-Biblical doctrines, which have become the Traditions of the Church today.
A short time later the Roman Empire, which had brought stability to the world, was beginning to unravel. Corruption from within and enemies from without gradually began to weaken Rome's iron grip on the nations. Seeking to regain control of the mess, on March 7th of 321 A.D., Emperor Constantine issued the following decree in hopes of unifying his pagan and Christian subjects.
On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.
Weary of the years of persecutions and hoping for some gain, the Christian Bishops threw their support behind Rome and thus became "The Church of Rome". Constantine himself even claimed to be converted to the Christian faith. Howbeit, even a casual perusal of his murderous rule unmasks his true intentions, which were simply to regain his stranglehold over the nations of the world.
To sell this Sunday idea to their followers, the Bishops found in the ancient writings occasional references to the first day of the week (ACTS 20:7 1CORINTHIANS 16:2). Howbeit, no where in the Bible is Sunday, or the first day of the week, ever established as the Sabbath, or the Day of Rest, or the Lord's Day. Only Church Tradition has made it so.
Of course the Church of Rome became the "Holy Roman Catholic Church" adopting and instituting many of the pagan holidays and customs into the routines of the believers, which have prevailed throughout the ages unto the present times. So today, without giving it a second thought, Christians from around the world gather on Sun-days to worship a god of their choosing. That is how Sunday became the day of worship for the Christian Church. But, whatever became of Saturday, the true Sabbath?
Yeshua was Jewish. All of His Apostles were Jewish. All of His first disciples were Jewish, or proselytes to the Jewish faith. They all celebrated Saturday as the weekly Sabbath. But as is recorded in the Book of ACTS, when the other nations of the world began to believe in Yeshua as the Messiah and Savior of the world, the Jews disregarded them and then persecuted them. Gradually, three camps emerged. Those Jews who rejected Yeshua, those Jews who accepted Yeshua and those non-Jews (Gentiles) who believed in Yeshua.
The first group, the Jews who rejected Yeshua, continued observing only Saturday as the weekly Sabbath. The second group, those Jews believing Yeshua to be the Messiah, also continued observing Saturday as the weekly Sabbath, but they also regarded the first day (Sunday) as the resurrection day. They would rest on Saturday according to the Law, but then they would celebrate Yeshua's resurrection on Sunday. The third group, the Gentiles who accepted Yeshua as the Christ (the Messiah) had no history of observing Saturday as the Sabbath so for the most part they only observed Sunday. After Jerusalem and the nation of Israel were destroyed by the Romans, these three camps began a drastic transformation.
The Jews, believers as well as non-believers, eventually disappeared into the shadows. The non-Jewish believers gained the ascendancy and the hunted became the hunter as the Gentile Church ruthlessly persecuted any Jews they could find (believer as well as non-believer). Not wanting to remember that Yeshua and His first apostles were all Jews, these new Christians rejected all that was Jewish; the language, the customs and the feasts, including the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday. This trend continued for nearly two millennium. Few today realize that Saturday and not Sunday was the day of rest observed by Yeshua and His followers.
The confusion has so prevailed that many think that the Day of the Lord, so referred to in the Bible, is actually Sunday, a day of the week. The truth is all the other way. The Day of the Lord is not a day at all but a time, an age. Every occasion of the phrase "Day of the Lord" found in the New Testament is given below.
ACTS 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
1 CORINTHIANS 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
2 CORINTHIANS 1:14 As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
2 PETER 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
You have to have a pretty wild imagination to see in any of these verses a reference to any day of the week. They all refer to a coming age when the Lord returns. Many also err in calling Sunday the "Lord's Day" thinking they see in REVELATION 1:10 a reference to a particular day of the week. But again this verse refers to the Lord's return.
Saturday Sunday or Monday, whatever day we observe or don't observe makes no real difference to GOD. It is the truth that matters, and that truth is written in the Bible, not handed down by Church Tradition.
GALATIANS 4:9-10 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
