Question:  Dear Greg,

            My husband and I have been Christians for 6-7 years.  My husband has many “theological” discussions with his father that can go for hours (one trying to convince the other of his views).  One issue that keeps coming up is “which day do we celebrate Sabbath?”  I do not believe we need to change to Saturday at all, but every time my husband gets into a discussion with his father, he comes away with more questions and confusion.

            I believe there is mostly legalism involved with this belief, but my husband is more of a logical person.  So is his father.  Therefore, my first question: where is it found in the Bible that we have to go on Saturday or Sunday, and if it was originally on Saturday am I not obeying his commandment by going on Sunday?  My father-in-law says pagans changed the original Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, therefore if we go on Sunday we are simply saying that we don’t follow God’s Commandments if they don’t suit our lifestyle.

            Question #2: How can we (my husband and I) handle these discussions with my father-in-law without the arguments?  He also talks a lot about how the Catholic Church is believed to be anti-Christ (he raised his family Catholic).  I could go on and on, but I feel like he is very knowledgeable of the Bible, so I have to study immensely before I can ever carry on a conversation with him. 

            Thanks for any ideas and information you may have.

            Vicki

Answer:  Hello Vicki,

            I am happy to help you with some of these concerns.  First of all, regarding the Sabbath: the argument here starts with the 10 Commandments of the old covenant and assuming that Christians are required to keep them in order to be saved.  This argument is flawed.  The 10 Commandments are part of the old covenant, not the new.

            No New Testament passage tells us that the old covenant, or the 10 Commandments, per se, as written and codified under the old covenant are part of the new covenant.  The new covenant started when Christ died, when the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom.  The new covenant was then what Christians were given and were then “under”.

            To the Saturday Sabbath: it’s true that the Sabbath was never changed to Sunday.  Some Christians who “keep” Sunday don’t understand that.  There is only one Sabbath—and it’s Saturday.  That day is the day of worship for those who are under the old covenant.  Who is under the old covenant?  The Jews.  No one else.  That’s the clear teaching of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments.

            Why do Christians worship on Sunday?  Several reasons.  1) In the early church, Saturday was being insisted upon by Jewish Christians for the wrong reasons.  Their insistence that Christianity was all about the old covenant, all about the laws of the Mosaic Covenant, was a major problem in the early church.  For some background read Romans, Colossians, Galatians and Hebrews.  So, the first reason Christians chose Sunday: it wasn’t Saturday!  They felt they needed to get away from the implied baggage of Saturday.  They knew, as Jesus said and all the writers of the New Testament continued to stress, that the Sabbath rest that Jesus fulfilled was the new life that he gives us by God’s grace.  New life in Christ is not a day—it is him!  He is the Lord, even of the Sabbath, as Mark 2 tells us.  We are free to worship God on any day.  We do not “keep” a day—we cannot “break” a day (see Galatians and Colossians), but instead we worship God at any time and at all times.  Christians are not required to worship God according to the Jewish calendar!

            A second reason Christians chose to worship on Sunday: it was the day Jesus was resurrected.  The sign of the old covenant was the Sabbath.  The sign of the new covenant is the resurrection.  Which event should Christians commemorate and focus upon?  The new Christians, and Christians ever since, know!

            So, yes, you are being disobedient to the old covenant if you do not keep the Sabbath from sundown Friday until sundown on Saturday, doing no “servile” work (as the old covenant insists), etc.  But that has nothing to do with you being a Christian.  If you are a Jew you will keep the Sabbath unless you convert to Christianity.

            Saturday changed to Sunday by pagans?  Oh yes, I know this argument.  But it is hot air.  Nothing in history whatsoever about pagans “changing” Saturday to Sunday.  When one speaks of God’s children, Christians, in history as pagans, then this statement might appear (to the person who knows nothing of Christian history) to be true.  But I would suggest that condemning people whom God has accepted as his children is a risky business.  Fact is, God has never given any incorporated group, and certainly no one human being, the exclusive franchise to represent him here on this earth.

            Can you discuss this with your father-in-law without arguments?  I doubt it, apart from a miracle of God.  What can you and your husband do?  Start a careful study of the Bible.  Forget about what people have told you it means and start reading it for what it says.  Get a new Bible—no notes in the margin—and simply start studying it.  We have a great course (I am not trying to sell it to you, but I will send you a bonus booklet we include with the course, and the first volume) on the book of Matthew.  The strength of this course is that it is written and edited by people across the denominational spectrum—it does not grind any denominational axe.  Let me know and I will send you those two free booklets.

            If I can be of further help to you and your husband, don’t hesitate to let me know.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht