Should Christians observe the Sabbath? Some Christians adhere to first-day Sabbatarianism, viewing Sunday as the Christian Sabbath, while others maintain the traditional view that Saturday is the Sabbath, known as seventh-day Sabbatarians. Meanwhile, others view both days as equally valuable because Saturday is the true Sabbath and Sunday is Resurrection Day. This is why we have a two-day weekend. In fact, in Latin, Saturday is called “Sabat,” which is based on the Hebrew word for rest (Sabbath), and Sunday is called “Dominus,” which means “Lord,” so it represents the Lord’s Day. This even carries over to modern Latin-based languages, such as Spanish. In Spanish, Saturday is called Sabadó, and Sunday is called Él Domingo. This implies that for the early church, both days were valuable.
First-day Sabbatarians are wrong because the Sabbath does not change to Sunday at all. It’s still the seventh day because it’s based on the seventh day of creation (Gen 2:1-3, Ex 20:10-11 & 23:12). However, Seventh-Day Sabbatarians can take things out of context and apply these laws to Gentiles (non-Jews) even though these laws did not initially apply to them in the first place. The Sabbath is a holy day, but there is no Sabbath observance for Gentiles in Genesis. That means this law was explicitly given to the Israelites by Moses in the Sinai covenant. Gentiles only observed the Sabbath if they lived in Israel (Ex 20:10). This is one of those rules that can only be enforced in the land of Israel. In addition, it is the only nation that observes a Sabbath day of rest as a command from God. Gentile nations were never given this command since it is not found in Genesis. One could argue that this day of rest, which applies to Gentiles and slaves, could have drawn foreigners to live in Israel, where they would have liked the idea of a mandatory day of rest. In the New Covenant, Christians (which includes Gentiles who live outside of Israel) are not required to observe the Sabbath or any other Jewish holidays, for that matter.
I think one issue in this Saturday vs Sunday debate is that there is a misunderstanding about what the Sabbath is. Some people say it is a sin to worship on any day other than the Sabbath, but the Sabbath day was never about an exclusive day of worship; it was about rest. The Sabbath is only ever defined as a day of rest, and the Israelites were told to keep it holy by resting instead of doing their regular daily jobs, and it applied to slaves and animals. Worship is not exclusive to the Sabbath. When David danced before the ark, was that only allowed on the Sabbath? Is attending any church that has gatherings during the weekdays for Bible study a sin because it is not on Saturday or Sunday?
The definition of the Sabbath:
The Sabbath wasn’t about worshipping God. Instead, it was about rest. In the Old Testament, there were daily sacrifices, and offerings were doubled on the Sabbath. So worship for God wasn’t exclusive to the Sabbath. The meeting of Jews in a Synagogue on the Sabbath was something they began after the rebuilding of the Temple, following the Babylonian exile. This practice of exclusively meeting on the Sabbath would have made the most sense, as no Jews were working on the Sabbath. There is no scripture that says to worship God only on the Sabbath. The scriptures instruct us to rest on the Sabbath, but they do not specify that worship is exclusive to the Sabbath.
Ex 20:8 (NLT) “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
In Numbers 28:1-10, instructions are given to the Jews on how to provide daily offerings, and they were to give double on the Sabbath. There was no single day set apart for giving offerings or prayer; yet, the Sabbath was distinguished by the ordinance to rest, and this distinction applied to other holidays, such as the first day of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, as well as the seventh year and the 50th year, which were also referred to as Sabbaths.
Another observation that Shabbat can only be observed regionally is that it is observed only once a week. If the Christian community is global, then it cannot be observed simultaneously for everyone, because people live in different time zones. If global believers were to have an online Sabbath Bible study meeting, believers in Kiribati and believers in Hawaii would miss the Sabbath. If the Sabbat meeting is at 6:00 p.m. EST on Friday (Sabbath starts at 6:00 p.m. on Friday), then it would be 1:00 p.m. on Saturday in Kiribati, but it will be 1:00 p.m. on Friday in Hawaii (5 hours before Sabbath). If it were 6:00 p.m. in Hawaii (11:00 p.m. EST), then it would be 6:00 p.m. on Saturday in Kiribati (the Sabbath would have ended). Would God create a law for everyone that would be impossible to follow simultaneously for everyone worldwide? This means God must allow people to worship and gather outside of the Sabbath because the Sabbath is defined locally. Again, the Sabbath is about rest in scripture, not an exclusive day for worship. For those who want to worship on a specific day, it must be within the same time zone or among time zones that can accommodate the time frame. However, there must still be a place available for those who are not available to meet at the designated time.
New Testament teachings on the Sabbath:
This is why Paul said there is no one-day exclusivity when he wrote what is written in Colossians 2 and Romans 14. There is nothing wrong with worshiping God every single day, nor is there a mandate to gather only on Sundays or Saturdays, because the early church itself met on both Sundays and Saturdays. That is why we have a two-day weekend in Western countries, one day is for rest and the other is for a fellowship meal.
Colossians 2:16-17 So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17 For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
Romans 14:5 In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. 6 Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God. 7 For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. 8 If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.
In the Jerusalem council of Acts 15, it’s made clear by James, Peter, and Paul that Gentiles (non-Jews) don’t have to follow ritual purity laws like only eating kosher food laws and circumcision, or national ordinances like releasing debtors or slaves every seven years. Instead, Gentiles have to obey moral laws like abstaining from sexual immorality, blood-drinking, and idol worship. The Sabbath laws extended to a seven-year Sabbath and the 50-year Jubilee, so it would logically fall under the national laws that can only be applied locally in the nation of Israel.
The Old Testament has different categories of laws like the sacrificial rules (Lev 1-7), priest rules (Lev 8-10 and 21-22), ritual purity laws (Lev 11-15), ceremonial rules for holidays (Lev 23-25), and the Moral Purity laws (Lev 18-20). Ritual purity laws never applied to Gentiles, and Jesus’s sacrifice made all believers pure. This is demonstrated by the fact that believers, regardless of their ethnic background, receive the Holy Spirit. The difference between moral and ritual purity lies in the physical states of a person’s body and their contact with unclean things, such as bodily fluids and certain animals. However, moral purity is about behavior, so we must choose righteous actions to be considered morally pure.
Additionally, there are other laws throughout the Torah, including civil laws governing dress, agricultural and economic practices, and ceremonial laws, as well as the rules regarding sacrifices. It is essential to acknowledge the difference between the types of laws in the Old Covenant. Therefore, any law governing something like land ownership, Sabbath years, or slavery wouldn’t apply to Gentiles living outside of Israel. These kinds of laws were specifically for the nation of Israel and couldn’t be enforced outside of Israel’s borders.
New Covenant Teachings on Torah Observance:
The Jerusalem council of Acts 15 said that Gentiles do have to follow the moral laws about blood-drinking, sexual immorality, and idolatry. No mention of the Sabbath at all in Acts 15, so this leaves it up for interpretation. One could argue that the Sabbath was intended for the Israelites only, to set them apart from other nations; however, on the other hand, the Sabbath is also mentioned in the Ten Commandments. Whether weekly Sabbath observance is merely a national law, which only applies to those living in the land of Israel, or more akin to the prohibition on idolatry, which also applies to Christians, is debated among different groups of Christians. This one is tricky because laws from the time of Moses, which were not inherited from the Genesis era, such as the Sabbath laws, were only applied to the land of Israel. However, those laws applied to Gentiles living in that land, allowing for an interpretation to be viewed from either perspective. Some believe this law is fulfilled in Christ and that Sabbath observance is optional. Meanwhile, others believe Christians should continue this because it is in the Ten Commandments and, therefore, is applicable, like the commands not to worship false gods, make idols, or take God’s name in vain.
Christ Himself observed the Sabbath, but he was a Jew living in the Holy Land. A Christian could argue that since Christians are “grafted into the olive tree of the covenant” (Romans 11:13-24), they are a part of a “new Israel”, which is why they have to abandon idolatry and polytheism, and likewise must observe the Sabbath day for rest. A Christian theologian from the 2nd century named Justin Martyr pointed out that there was no mention of Sabbath observance before Moses (not even for Abraham), even though there were moral laws like those against murder, adultery, etc. Therefore, the argument that the Sabbath was a moral law may not hold up, since other commandments, such as the prohibition of murder and adultery, weren’t new at the time of Moses, and they are assigned to all people.
Christians are not banned from celebrating the Sabbath in the Bible; therefore, in the early church, they observed both rest on Saturday and worship on Sunday. Unfortunately, at one point, the Europeans in the late 3rd and early 4th century did ban all Jewish holidays, including the Sabbath, from Christianity. They had a new theological framework that said Gentile Christians replaced the Jews, and this is where a lot of the “Christian” anti-semitism throughout European history comes from. This construct is Antichrist in itself because the Jews wrote the whole Bible, including the New Testament, plus Jesus and the apostles were all Jewish, so hating Jews is Antichrist. They would take Bible verses like John 8:44 out of context and say Jesus said all Jews were “children of the devil”. Also, they used what Paul said in Romans 11:13-18 about Gentiles being wild branches that are grafted into the olive tree (covenant) and replacing original branches (Jews) that wouldn’t produce fruit (by believing in Jesus). However, if you continue reading verses 19-20, Paul warns the Gentiles not to boast because they can easily be removed, and can be replaced with Messianic (Jesus believing) Jews at any time. So he never said this to denounce all Jews; he simply wanted to point out that Jews and Gentiles are now made equal, yet European Christians took this way out of context and used it to persecute Jews for hundreds of years.
The tradition of worshipping on Sunday comes from Jesus’ resurrection being on the first day of the week which is Sunday (John 20:1 & John 20:19). However the New Testament never refers to Sunday as the Sabbath or calls any day other than the 7th day the Sabbath, nor is there ever a declaration that Sunday is the new Sabbath. We see evidence of the early church meeting on the first day of the week in Acts 20:7.
Additionally, Paul instructed the Corinthians to collect money for Jerusalem, just as the Galatians did, by bringing the gifts to their meetings on the first day of each week (1 Cor 16:1-3). In context, this wasn’t a specific command of all churches for all time, but a system that Paul implemented to collect funds from churches at that time to help other churches. He told them to do this instead of waiting until the day he got there to collect it all at once. This scripture is about efficient fundraising at that specific moment in a particular offering, not about Sabbath rules. However, when pairing this with their fellowship meal at Troas in Acts 20:7, one could deduce that the early church already had a tradition of meeting on Sundays. Paul could have simply told them to give every time they had services, rather than waiting until the last moment to give; that way, they could guarantee the church would have more funds. The Bible doesn’t specifically state that they meet on Sunday every week, but the church developed a tradition around it over time.
Jesus’ view of the Sabbath:
Jesus was often criticized for healing on the Sabbath. He responded that God didn’t make man for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man, and that he was Lord of even the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). Sabbath is about rest from the toils of life, and shouldn’t be used to restrict good deeds like healing people, because those are God’s good works being done on earth. Jesus himself, a Jew, observed the Sabbath, but in his era, the leaders were abusing the laws regarding the Sabbath, and Jesus corrected them. Similar to Luke 13:10-17, when he healed the woman who had a spinal infirmity caused by a demon. The leader of the synagogue objected to her being healed on the Sabbath. Still, Jesus pointed out that the religious leaders let their animals out of the stalls for water on the Sabbath, and that it would be wrong to have this covenant woman wait for deliverance any longer simply because it was on the Sabbath. She had been afflicted for 18 years. He is saying that God didn’t forbid showing mercy and helping others on the Sabbath. In other words, “loving your neighbor” (Lev 19:18) is a higher law than the Sabbath. Another Sabbath healing scenario is found in Mark 3:1-6 (and Luke 6:6-11), where Jesus rhetorically asks if it is “lawful to do good deeds on the Sabbath” before healing a man. The Sanhedrin didn’t respond because they knew he was right, but they still hated him for it. A similar discussion occurs in Luke 14:1-6, where Jesus heals a man and asks the Sanhedrin rhetorically if it is “okay to heal on the Sabbath?” They didn’t answer, and he pointed out that they would “work” on the Sabbath if it meant rescuing their children or animals from a pit or feeding their animals.
In another “healing on the Sabbath” conflict with the religious leaders (John 7:21-24), Jesus pointed out that circumcision has to happen on the Sabbath if it is eight days after a male child’s birth because circumcision is a higher law. Jesus taught that higher, more essential commandments can negate some laws. This idea is also explained in Matthew 15:3-6, where Jesus says that it is wrong to violate one commandment to fulfill another, such as disrespecting your parents to keep a vow. The two greatest commands are to love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). This means that Jewish emergency phone operators, firefighters, police officers, and EMTs are not guilty of sin if working on the Sabbath, because they are out there saving lives in emergencies. Only ordinary work from the sweat of our brow (Gen 3:17-19) was to be stopped on the Sabbath, not loving and helping people. The Sabbath was rest from working the cursed ground, not rest from being a blessing. In the Good Samaritan parable, the Jews who ignored the man could have possibly argued, “It’s the Sabbath, I can’t help you,” if the setting were on the Sabbath. Jesus’ point of that parable implies that, hypothetically, even if the setting were the Sabbath, they would still be wrong for failing to love their neighbor. Just like the circumcision example, the Sabbath law is not higher than the command to love your neighbor as yourself (Lev 19:18). This is what James calls the “royal law” in James 2:8.
One of Jesus’ responses to his critique of healing on the Sabbath was that his father (God) is working on the Sabbath, so he is simply imitating the Father (John 5:17). In addition, in Matthew 12:7, Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6, which says “God wants us to walk in love more than He wants sacrifices.” Ultimately, Jesus is saying that placing restrictions on God’s good works and power because it was the Sabbath was contrary to the purpose of the Sabbath. Psalms 50 makes a similar note about people who give sacrifices in vain, because God wants their hearts, and that thankfulness is a greater sacrifice than any animal, since God owns all the animals on earth. Essentially, he said they were hypocrites for criticizing him for doing good works on the Sabbath when they did specific works on the Sabbath.
Details of Jesus’ Sabbath teachings are found in Matthew 12:1-14, Mark 2:23-28 and 3:1-6, Luke 6:1-11, 13:10-17, and 14:1-6, and John 5:1-18 and 7:21-24.
To each their own. We shouldn’t deny that Saturday is the Sabbath (Gen 2:1-3, Ex 20:10-11 & 23:12), nor are Christians in sin for not worshipping on it, and Gentiles who did not live in Israel were never required to rest on it. Paul himself confirms this in Romans 14:5-9 and Colossians 2:16-17. Paul, a former Pharisee, had three visionary encounters (Acts 9:1-19, Acts 22:17-21, Acts 23:11) with Jesus, so if anyone knows how to apply the law correctly in the New Covenant, it is him. Likewise, people are free to observe the Sabbath if they want, and no one should stop them; there is no ban on the Sabbath (Saturday) in the New Testament. Paul is simply saying it is not required for Gentiles. Again, we can examine linguistics from Latin to Spanish for Saturday (Sábado) and Sunday (Domingo) and see that at some point in early Christianity, both were valid days of reverence and worship. The Sabbath was an exclusive day for rest for the nation of Israel, but worship was observed on any day, since even sacrifices were offered daily. There were multiple Sabbaths, not just the weekly one, and the tradition of meeting on the weekly Sabbath in a Synagogue was a tradition born from the Jews being in exile for 70 years, a temporary substitute for now being able to worship at the Temple. Meeting on the Sabbath is a byproduct of unique circumstances, and is not found in scripture in the Old Testament as a command.
Resources:
Got Questions article on the subject
TBP: Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?
TBP Podcast: Seventh-Day Rest
Notes from Wiki:
According to Socrates Scholasticus Book V, Sozoman Ecclesiastical Book VII, Sunday services were going on since the 1st century (the time of the apostles), and at the same time, the Sabbath was kept. Sunday was for worship, while the Sabbath was for rest, most churches did this because most of the church body was mostly made up of Messianic Jews. This is according to R.J. Bauckham’s “The Lord’s Day”, and Don A. Carson’s “From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation”, as well as early church writers like Bardaisan, Cyprian, and Victorinus of Pettau.
The 2nd-century Christian leader Justin Martyr argued that since the Sabbath wasn’t kept before the Sinaitic covenant (Moses law), it’s not a rule that can be applied to non-Israelites. In addition, he drew on a reference to Sunday being the first day of the week (when God created light) to the light of Jesus in the dark world. He along with 3rd-century church father, Cyprian also paralleled the first day of the week (Sunday) which is after the 7th day (Saturday), with the 8th day when baby boys are circumcised, saying that gentiles don’t require circumcision because Jesus circumcised our hearts with his sacrifice and Cyprian takes it further to imply that Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath requirement through circumcision because like circumcision the Sabbath was a shadow of things to come. This is consistent with Paul’s teachings and the Jerusalem council’s conclusion on the issue of Christian ritual purity in Acts 15, though the new testament author didn’t explicitly state any connection with the Sabbath.
Constantine declared Sunday a Roman day of rest in 321 AD, and while at that time Constantine himself wasn’t a Christian, he made the edict of tolerance for Christianity in 313 AD. One could argue that it’s likely he did it for pagans, who worshiped the sun on Sunday, but it would have benefited Christians who had a tradition of worshipping on that day. By 361 AD worship on Sundays had become a mandatory tradition, so here it seems the Sabbath debate was forced to the side of first day Sabbatarians in the 4th century. In the middle ages, Sunday worship had become associated with sabbatical rest.
In Rev 1:10 John says he was in the spirit on the Lord’s day. The first day Sabbatarians argue this was Sunday, 7th day Sabbatarians argue this was on Saturday. First-day Sabbatarians often site scriptures where Jesus said he was the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:1-14, Luke13:11-17), as a reason for a new Sabbath day to be on Sunday the day the Lord rose from the dead. However, since some Christians believe the 10 commandments still apply no matter what, changing the day of rest could be seen as contradictory to the command about keeping the Lord’s Sabbath (Ex 20:8-11).
Other church doctrines like the Didache (between 70 and 120 AD) and letters from Ignatius of Antioch (110AD) all make reference to the Lord’s day for communion and fellowship but different interpretations and translations have led to disputes over whether or not they are referring to Saturday or Sunday, but most commentaries say the Sabbath was forsaken as a Jewish thing and to replaced with Sunday observance as the Lord’s day. Various Deuterocanon books written post new testament like the Acts of Peter and the Acts of Paul declare Sunday the Lord’s day while another Deuterocanon book, the Acts of John, maintains that Saturday is the Lord’s day.”
Read More