Why do so many religions go to church on Sunday when God's day of worship is the Sabbath day?
Emperor Constantine of Rome was the first to write a law of worship on
Sunday. Why do so many religions go to church on Sunday when God’s day of
worship is the Sabbath day?(Isaiah 66. 22-23.)
It may be true that Constantine wrote some sort of Sunday worship law. To
be honest, I am not sure what historical reference you would use to
support this claim. In any case, that would not in any way imply that he
instituted Sunday worship. Historical records from all the early Christian
writers are unanimous on the subject. From the earliest days of the New
Testament church, the believers met on “the first day of the week,”
sometimes also known as “The Lord’s day” or as the eighth day, as it
followed the Sabbath. There is absolutely no evidence that the church ever
had its principle meeting of the week on Saturday. In fact, Paul was often
found on Saturdays preaching to the Jews in their Synagogues, not with the
disciples. However, he did meet with the disciples on the first day of the
week (Acts 20:7). If you are skeptical of my claim that the early church
met on Sundays from the very beginning, you may want to do your own
research. You can read from such early Christian writers as Clement of
Rome, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and dozens of others, going back
as far as about 90 AD. You will find that their testimony is unanimous.
The early church met on Sunday. Those who claim that Constantine created
Sunday worship are either ignorant of the history or they have some sort
of agenda (7th day Adventists or anti-Catholicism or whatever).
You say that God?s day of worship is on the Sabbath, using Isaiah 66:22,23
as a proof text. It is true that under the Old Covenant, as enacted at Mt.
Sinai , the Jews were commanded to abstain from work and to worship on the
Sabbath. However, it says in Colossians that the Old Testament Law was
nailed to the cross along with Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:13 -15). “having
canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us?”
Jesus came, not to overcome the Law of Moses, but to fulfill its
provisions, so that we could live under the Law of Christ. Even if one
could ignore the clear passages of scripture that say the Old Covenant was
replaced by the New Covenant, so that we no longer have to sacrifice bulls
and goats or observe the New Moons and Sabbaths, one is still left with
the historical fact that from the earliest days of the church, the
disciples met on Sunday for the Lord?s Supper.
One can speculate as to why the apostles decided to worship on Sunday. Was
it to remember the resurrection of Jesus? Was it because the earliest
disciples were Jewish, and they would still be involved with the Jewish
Sabbath, requiring them to meet on Sundays? Did God impose Sunday worship
to force them to turn from relying on the Old Testament law? The Bible
does not specify why the apostles chose Sunday worship, leaving us to
speculate at to the reason for the choice, but history does not leave room
for any other conclusion. The early church from the very beginning met on
Sundays.
John Oakes .