It is acknowledged that “the primitive [early] Christians largely continued to keep the seventh day”{††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††} It is acknowledged furthermore that even today, Christians “such as the Seventh-day Adventists, observe Saturday in literal fulfillment of the Fourth Commandment rather than the Sunday adopted by most Christian bodies” (ibid). One may well question whether this “adoption” of Sunday is preferable to the legitimate child (i.e. Saturday). One might also ask which offspring bore greater resemblance to the loving Father when, “while the major reformers{‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡} were calling for persecution of the Jewish faith, Sabbatarians were seeking positive interaction between Christianity and Judaism.”{§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§}
In response to the claim that the seventh-day should be abandoned to the Jews, “Seventh Day Adventists and other sabbatarian groups argue that God instituted the sabbath at creation for all time and all people (Gen. 2:2-3; Isa. 66:22-23). This position holds that no human person or group has authority to change God’s divine and eternal command. The sabbath was replaced by Sunday as a result of three apostate influences in the second century: anti-Judaism… sun cults… and the church of Rome”{*******************************************************}
“Christ identified himself as the Lord of the sabbath (Mk 2:28). In so speaking he was not depreciating the importance and significance of the sabbath”{†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††} His declaration “does not necessarily imply that the Church had stopped observing the seventh day” {‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡}
“Jesus observed the sabbath. He never broke any regulations found in the Torah [Old Testament]” ibid. “Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry in Galilee, ‘went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day’(Luke 4:16). The phrase ‘as his custom was’ indicates that Jesus continued to worship on the sabbath.”{§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§} “The four Gospels record among eight sabbath incidents six controversies in which Jesus ‘rejected the rabbinic sabbath halakah’ (Jeremias 1973: 201)” ibid. “At times Jesus is interpreted to have abrogated or suspended the sabbath commandment on the basis of the controversies brought about by sabbath healings and other acts. Careful analysis of the respective passages does not seem to give credence to this interpretation. …Jesus reforms the Sabbath and restores it to its rightful place as designed in creation, where the Sabbath is made for all mankind and not specifically for Israel, as claimed by normative Judaism (cf. Jub. 2:19-20, see D.3). The subsequent logion, ‘The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath’ (Mark 2:28; Matt 12:8, Luke 6:5), indicates that man-made sabbath halakhah does not rule the sabbath, but that the Son of Man, not man, is Lord of the sabbath. It was God’s will at creation that the Sabbath have the purpose of serving mankind for rest and bring blessing. The Son of Man as Lord determines the true meaning of the sabbath. The sabbath activities of Jesus are neither hurtful provocations nor mere protests against rabbinic legal restrictions, but are part of Jesus’ essential proclamation of the kingdom of God in which man is taught the original meaning of the sabbath as the recurring weekly proleptic ‘day of the Lord’ in which God manifests his healing and saving rulership over man.”{********************************************************}
“Jesus urged his followers to pray that their flight ‘may not be in winter or on the sabbath’ (Matt 24:20; Mark 13:18 omits ‘on the sabbath’). Jesus anticipated that his followers would continue to regard the sabbath as holy in the future. His request for them was that they be spared from having to flee on the sabbath, but he presupposes that they would flee if they had to.” “In short, Jesus declared himself Lord of the sabbath. He consistently rejected man-made sabbath halakhah. He freed the sabbath from human restrictions and encumbrances and restored it by showing its universal import for all men so that every person can be the beneficiary of the divine intentions and true purposes of sabbath rest and joy. Carson has concluded, ‘There is no hint anywhere in the ministry of Jesus that the first day of the week is to take the character of the Sabbath and replace it’ (1982: 85).”{††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††}
Regarding the book of Acts: “There is silence on the subject of sabbath abolition at the Jerusalem conference (15:1-29). There is also no evidence for the abrogation of the sabbath after the Jerusalem council in the apostolic age or by apostolic authority in the early church (Turner 1982: 135-37). Early Jewish and non-Jewish Christians continued to worship on the seventh day as far as the evidence in the book of Acts is concerned.
The single reference to ‘the first day of the week in Acts 10:7-12, when Christian believers broke bread in a farewell meeting at the imminent departure of Paul is debated in its meaning. Some scholars suggest that Roman reckoning is used so that ‘the first day of the week; means Sunday night (Rordorf 1968: 200-2; Turner 1982: 128-33) and other scholars suggest that Jewish reckoning is used and in that case it means Saturday night (Bacchiocchi 1977: 101-11; Mosna 1969: 14-14).”{‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡} Moreover, bread was broken on many different days of the week.{§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§}
Some Sunday-advocates see a slighting of the Sabbath in Collossians 2:16, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” However, the indefinite article “a” (rather than “the” Sabbath day), points to the variety of ceremonial Sabbaths that occurred on days other than the last of the week, as did the New Moons and religious festivals associated with the sanctuary service. Moreover, “within the context of the Galatian Judaizing heresy, ‘sabbath’ seems to refer to something other than wholesome weekly sabbath-keeping.”{*********************************************************}
In Hebrews 4:4, Paul confirms the sabbath to be the seventh-day. He also sees in the command to physically rest, a message of spiritual rest for the Christian. In so doing, however, he does not “allegorize away” the literal observance of the day. First-day observers who throw this theory at their seventh–day counterparts, would never accept the claim—if the tables were turned—that a specific day of worship is now inconsequential.
Simply because the word “sabbath” receives diverse treatment in the New Testament, we need not assume God’s holy day has been abolished. Apply this logic to the subject of idols: The New Testament seems to indicate that idols are nothing.{†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††} Furthermore, idolatry is given a “spiritual” meaning; not necessarily pertaining to graven images.{‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡} Are we then to conclude that the second commandment has been suspended or superceded?