Lesson No. 6. Why Do Christians Keep Sunday?
  Jesus commanded, "Search the Scriptures" (John 5:39). And Paul said, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The Bible is God's revealed will to man, and repeatedly we are warned against the many false teachers and doctrines that would come after Jesus ascended to Heaven. Paul warned that after his departure grievous wolves, or false teachers, would arise in the Church and lead many disciples after them (Acts 20:28-31). Peter said that "false teachers" would arise in the Church and teach damnable heresies and that many would follow them and that the way of truth would be evil spoken of (2 Peter 2:1-3).
  Jesus in the Book of Revelation foretold of the time when heathen customs and doctrines would be taught in the Church. "I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants, to commit fornication . . ." (Revelation 2:18-20). Jezebel was the heathen wife of King Ahab in ancient Israel. She brought her 850 false prophets into Israel and tried to kill all the true prophets of God.
  Jesus knew that heathen customs would be taught in the Church during the Dark Ages and He warned us of that period. Today God is calling honest people out of those traditions and back to God's holy Law. God's Law was set aside and heathen substitution made not long after the death of the Apostles. The traditions and heathen customs were whitewashed and called under Christian names. Some of these heathen  customs and substitutions are still being kept by many professing Christians. They are being taught that God sanctified these customs and that Jesus changed His Father's Law!
  The day that most professing Christians keep as the weekly day of worship is of heathen origin. No doubt many are honest in their observance of Sunday and that is why we are answering some questions on why most professing Christians keep Sunday.
  Question: Christ arose from the dead on the first day of the week and that day was set apart as the Christian's day of worship in honor of Christ's Resurrection. What objection do you have to this claim?
  Answer: In the first place, I want you to know that what I am about to say is with love to all honest friends who believe that Sunday was set apart as a memorial in honor of Christ's Resurrection. Get your Bible, my dear friends. If this claim be true, it should be an easy matter to prove it. I want the truth on this matter. Do you?
  I have searched the Scriptures for 50 years in vain for one single text that says that Christ or the Apostles set apart the first day of the week as a day for Christians to meet and worship in honor of the Resurrection, or for any other reason. There is not one single text that proves any such claim. We have no record that Jesus so much as mentioned the first day of the week in His ministry. Paul explains baptism as the means by which we show our faith in Christ's Resurrection (Romans 6:1-4).
  There is no mention in all Paul's Epistles of the first day of the week as a holy day or a memorial of Christ's Resurrection. In fact, he only mentions the first day of the week one time in his epistles, and there he commanded work on that day and called it "the first day of the week" (1 Corinthians 16:1-4).
  If Christ did rise from the dead on the first day of the week, that would not in itself make it a holy day any more than His death on the Cross on a certain day makes that day holy. The seventh day was made holy by the blessing and sanctification of God, and if Sunday is now a memorial day of Christ's Resurrection, to be kept by Christians instead of the Sabbath day, we must have Bible proof that it was sanctified by Jesus Christ or the Apostles. The Bible gives no such proof texts--not even an inference.
  This claim comes to us not from the Bible but a tradition that originated in Rome. For proof look up the word "Easter" in any good encyclopedia. At the Council of Nicea it was the Roman Christians that contended for Sunday as the right day to be celebrated as a yearly/weekly memorial in honor of the Resurrection. The great mass of Eastern Christians opposed this idea, but Constantine, the Emperor, favored the Roman custom and a decree was made accordingly.
  The second objection I have to keeping Sunday in honor of Christ's Resurrection is that the Resurrection did not take place on the first day of the week. This Easter Sunday Resurrection idea is a custom handed down from Rome and borrowed from heathenism. Christ did not rise on Sunday according to the Bible record. Mark, Luke, and John, all three, tell us plainly that the tomb was empty at every visit by the women on the first day of the week.
  Matthew alone tells the time of the earthquake and of the Resurrection of Christ. Read Matthew 28:1-6. It was "in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week." Read it for yourself. The Sabbath according to Bible time, ended at sunset, at even (Leviticus 23:32). "In the end of the Sabbath" would be just before sundown Saturday, or Sabbath day. Jesus said that He would be in the grave "three days and three nights" (Matthew 23:38-40). How could this be true if this "Good Friday" Crucifixion and "Easter Sunday" Resurrection is true?
  Thank God that Roman tradition is not true. Christ's Resurrection was on the Sabbath day and not on Sunday. This shows that even the very reason given for Sunday observance is false. Christ did not rise from the grave on Sunday. Why keep Sunday in honor of the Resurrection of Christ when it is not Christ's Resurrection Day? Write for tract on Resurrection of Christ.
  Even if it were Christ's Resurrection Day, there is not one single text that in any way tells us to observe it as a holy day of worship.
  This shows that the whole theory setting Sunday apart in honor of Christ's Resurrection is false and without any Bible proof. You have been taught tradition and that in place of the command of God to keep His holy day (Isaiah 58:13).
  This is serious, my friends. I want to be fair in this study, and I beg you to be honest with yourself and with God in this matter. Search the Scriptures. Perhaps you are wondering: Where did the idea of calling Sunday "the Lord's Day" originate?
  That is a good question and there is an answer. Jesus and His apostles did not call it the Lord's Day. To them, it was a working day--merely the first day of the week. If Jesus and the Apostles did not call the first day of the week the Lord's Day, who did and where did the idea originate?
  Let history answer from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, art. "Sunday." I quote: "The first writer who mentions the name of Sunday as applicable to the Lord's Day is Justin Martyr. This designation of the first day of the week, which is of heathen origin, came into use in the Roman world shortly before Justin wrote."
  This is plain authentic history. The first ones who called Sunday "the Lord's Day" were heathen people. The custom is of heathen origin. The heathen were not honoring Christ, but were honoring their own gods, heathen gods. The first law for Sunday observance, human not divine, was given by Emperor Constantine in A.D. 321 and he called it "the venerable day of the sun." There was no mention of Christ or of God in this law. He was a heathen sun worshipper and this law was the first step to substitute the Sunday for the Sabbath that Jesus kept.
  The apostate Church of Rome was seeking popularity, and Constantine, for political reasons, helped this so-called Christian Church by granting them the same liberties as the pagans and bestowed rich gifts upon the Church. This Church had lost its original purity before this. Their prejudice against the Jews led to substitution of Sunday for God's holy Sabbath day. In A.D. 363 the Council of Laodicea forbade Christians from keeping the Sabbath. Opposing forces increased.
  Now we come to another question: How many times is the first day of the week mentioned in the New Testament Scriptures? Please give the references so we can study them.
  ANSWER: There are eight places in the New Testament Scriptures where we find the words "the first day of the week." They are as follows--look them up:
  No. 1. Matthew 28:1-6. "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn [draw] toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre." Note that the first day of the week is the day after the Sabbath--with no hint of its being anything but the first day of the week.
  No. 2. Mark 16:1,2. "And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first  day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun." Nothing here about the first day of the week being holy or a day of worship, but the seventh day is still called the Sabbath.
  No. 3. Mark 16:9,10. "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had cast seven devils." We see nothing here to sustain the idea that the first day of the week is now the Christian day of worship.
  No. 4. Luke 24:1-3. "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared . . . And they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus." Here we have the record again of the holy women coming to anoint the body of Jesus on the first day of the week and finding an empty tomb. They had already kept the Sabbath day according to the Commandment.
  Luke 23:56 indicates that the seventh day was still the Sabbath, but the first day of the week was merely a work day.
  No. 5. John 20:1-16. "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre."
  No. 6. Verse 19. "The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst." There is nothing in either of these two texts to indicate that the first day of the week was an holy day at all. In verse 19 the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, not to honor the Resurrection of Christ because they did not yet believe that He was alive until this appearance.
  No. 7. Acts 20:7. "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."
  This is the only record we have that any preaching service was held on the first day of the week in the entire New Testament. This text is used by many to prove that the Christians did meet regularly on the first day of the week to take the Lord's Supper. This text does not prove that Christians kept the first day of the week, neither does it prove that they took the Lord's Supper on the first day of the week. Look at this text again: "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread." Let us look at the facts as given in this part of the verse. The time is stated here as "upon the first day of the week." What time of the day and what was the purpose of coming together?
  "When the disciples came together to break bread . . . ." Please note that they did not come together for worship or a religious meeting, but to break bread. Many claim that they came together to take the Lord's Supper. The text does not say so. The term "break bread" referred to a common meal. For proof read Acts 2:42-46. The disciples had all things common. "And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house." The margin says, "at home." Here they broke bread every day at home. This was a common meal as all can see.
  In Acts 27:34-36 we see that Paul broke a fourteen-day fast at sea. He took bread and gave thanks, and then broke the bread and began to eat. Was this the Lord's Supper? It was not.
  Jesus broke bread and also fish in feeding the multitude (Mark 8:6-9). After His resurrection, Jesus made Himself known to certain disciples in breaking bread. See Luke 24:30,35.
  These texts show that "breaking bread" was a term used to refer to a common meal and never to the Lord's Supper unless there are other qualifying statements to prove that it was the Lord's Supper. There is no evidence that this breaking of bread in Acts 20:7 was anything more than a common meal together. Most of these disciples in Acts 20:7 were from other cities anyway. Read verses 4-6.
  These brethren evidently had rented a room in the third loft. See verse 9. The record says they came together to break bread or to take their evening meal. Paul preached to them and continued until midnight. The first day of the week began at sunset, Bible time. This meeting was on what we call Saturday night.
  There is nothing said of there being a custom or habit for the disciples to meet on the first day of the week. It was Paul's manner to teach on the Sabbath days (Acts 17:2), but there is no such statement in Acts 20:7.
  Read Acts 20:8-13. An accident happened at midnight. A young man fell out of the loft and was taken up dead. Paul brought the young man back to life by his faith, and then he broke bread again. Verse 11, "and talked a long while even until break of day, so he departed."
  Where did he go at daybreak Sunday? He went on foot to Assos, some 18 miles across the peninsula, to meet Luke and other brethren who had left before and sailed at night (see verses 11-13). Paul walked 18 miles across this peninsula on Sunday morning to join Luke and others at Assos.
  Luke and his companions had been sailing--working--all night while Paul was preaching to brethren at Traos. The first day of the week was not holy to Paul nor to those brethren who were sailing that night. It was a work day for them and for Paul who walked 18 miles that Sunday morning after having been up all night.
  This was a farewell meeting. Paul knew he would see their faces no more (verse 25). Paul took this occasion to preach his farewell sermon to the brethren at Troas when they came together to take their evening meal. He stayed up all night talking to them and departed at daybreak to join. Luke and those on the ship at Assos, 18 miles distant. There is not the least inference here that Christians had a custom of meeting on the first day of the week. Please let us not add to God's Word. That is dangerous. Read Proverbs 30:6.
  No. 8. The last mention of the first day of the week is in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4. A special offering was being taken for the poor saints at Jerusalem, and Paul commanded the Corinthian brethren, "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him . . . ." This was not a public gathering, for everyone was to lay by him in store. This was for this one time only and not a regular custom. This gift included fruits, etc. (See Romans 15:26-28). There is no command here for Sunday sacredness. Paul's command was for work--bookkeeping and business on that day.

Why Christians Keep Sunday

  There you have all eight texts in the New Testament Scriptures that mention "the first day of the week" and not one text calls Sunday "Lord's Day" or "Christian Sabbath." All the inspired writers merely speak of it as "the first day of the week" with not even an inference that it was a custom to meet for worship upon that day.

Whom Will You Serve?

  Most of the professing Christian World cease their regular work on Sunday and many make it a day of rest and worship--businesses close, etc. By what authority did it come to us as a rest and worship day for Christians? Not by divine authority of Christ or His Apostles. The Bible gives no such command or example. To what authority are Christians bowing in keeping Sunday--who gets the honor? Tradition is vain worship before God (Mark 7:7-9).
  If we take the Bible alone as authority for Christian faith and morals, Sunday is not a holy day at all. Many leaders deny that Sunday "Sabbath" and "Lord's Day" come to us from the Roman Apostasy, yet history verifies the fact that Sunday "Sabbath" and Sunday "Lord's Day" come to us by a gradual process of church council decrees. The claim that the early Christian Church kept Sunday instead of the Sabbath comes from Roman tradition. As one priest wrote me some 35 years ago, "If you do not believe in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, you should keep the Sabbath." Friends, he stated the truth. That same tradition teaches other things that Protestants deny. Why then accept their tradition for observing Sunday? "Come out of her, my people," is God's message of the hour (Revelation 18:4-8).