Just out of curiosity, are posters on this forum aware of (and understand) the arguements for keeting Sunday rather than Saturday? (And its not sufficient to simply say "Its not in the Bible.")

Just a question. Not a challenge or judgement.

Sunday observance began virtually simultainiously with the start of the Christian church.

Constantine's edict had nothing to do with it.

It's more accurate to say Christians generally were worshiping on Sunday.

In the NT there is almost no discussion of the Sabbath/Sunday "issue"

Justin was one of the main apologists of the first century

Just out of curiosity, are posters on this forum aware of (and understand) the arguements for keeting Sunday rather than Saturday?

When teachers in the past have wanted to prove the validity of a change from Sabbath-keeping to Sunday-keeping, the “Epistle of Barnabas” has often been brought forward. The practice continues to this day.

This “Epistle (or letter) of Barnabas” is an old work. It is generally dated to between about 70 and 130AD. The ‘significant’ text with regards to Sunday is this:

Barnabas 15:8-9
“Finally He saith to them; ‘Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot away with.’ You see what is His meaning ; it is not your present Sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the Sabbath which I have made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world. Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested [He] ascended into the heavens.”

This statement is the earliest, and for many, it is the regarded as the best, “historical evidence” that Sunday (here called “the eighth day”,) was observed by the Christians in the early days [even in the apostolic days,] of the Christian church.

However, it seems amazing, that except for this thought, the “Epistle of Barnabas” is generally regarded by scholars as a “Pretender”, vying for a place of honor, or at least respectability. But while Providence has, without a doubt, denied it a place in the Biblical Canon, many Protestants continue to give it a decided “air of authority”, because of this reference to the “eighth day”. In the closing work we are likely, I think, to see this “false witness” brought forward more frequently. (Even though it is manifestly clear that God set a ‘bar and a stop’ to the week when He rested the seventh day.)

There is an importance to the eighth day work as demonstrated by the prophecy of the Law. There are a number of such works to be found in the law, most notably In the feast of Tabernacles which prophetically points to the Adoption of the Sons of God. There are other rites that are closely related to this feast in prophetic terms and they either are 7 or 8 day rites or they occur on the 8th day. The marriage feast is very closely related to the feast of Tabernacles which also foreshadows the marriage feast of the Lamb to his church. However the marriage rites are not something expressed in the law and I know of no 8th day rite to this festival. There are rites to be performed on the 8th day of Tabernacles but I have not studied their prophetic signficance and thus can't really explain them.

The other rite that most closely parallels the feast of Tabernacles is the consecration of the priests. This is a seven day ceremony for cleansing and dedicating the priests and on the 8th day they emerge from the temple and begin serving the people. The priests are symbolic of the first fruits of the sons of man, and are thus dedicated completely to the service of God and their fellow man. All the work they do for the rest of their lives is to be seen and understood to be God's work. Their dedication and consecration ceremony is to be seen as the Adoption ceremony that grants them the full rights as fully mature sons of God, just as happened with Jesus at his baptism. Then on the 8th day they emerge and begin doing the father's work.

The other major 8th day ceremonies are the circumcision, and the presentation of the first fruits of the womb. The first born of every womb belongs to God (Ex 13, Ex 34, Nu 18). This is true whether the womb belongs to a woman or an animal. The firstborn of Israel were redeemed with the tribe of Levi (Nu 3). The firstborn of the unclean animals could be redeemed with a lamb without blemish and the firstborn of the clean animals of the flocks and herds had to be brought to the temple as a sacrifice. This must be done on the 8th day, even if it was a Sabbath. So we see that in symbolic terms the priesthood, other judges and government officials who were supposed to be Levites were all symbolic of the first born sons of God.

The 8th day ceremonies, even the ones surrounding Jesus resurrection were all of this type and have nothing to do with replacing the Sabbath. These are about Sonship, and are about the sons of God beginning their work in service to God and fellow man. To use them as an excuse for changing the day of worship is a very bad twisting of their purpose and meaning. They are not about worship; they are about service. If the early church was keeping an eighth day ceremony it should never have been about worship, although there is historical evidence many people cite showing it was. And it should also have been in addition to keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath, and much of that same historical evidence does indicate both were kept well into the second or third century by most Christians.

Even so, a single verse of scripture, especially a suspect scripture, is not enough to establish any doctrine as fact. This is a very weak basis for the current doctrine as Stewart has pointed out, but is even weaker than he thought as a study of the law shows.

So we say. Actually in the Law of Moses there are several 8th day(Sunday) ritual pointing to the sonship of God.

1)Ex 22:29 Present the firstborn of thy sons to the Lord. Typically done at circumcision. Jesus was presented to the Lord on the 8th Day according to the Law(Lk 2:21).

2)Ex 22:30 Present the firstborn of thy oxen and thy sheep on the 8th Day

3)Lev 23:11 Wave Sheaf (symbolizing ressurection and presentation of Jesus who was the firstfruit to God)

4)Lev 23:15 Pentecost -- it always fell on the 8th day which was counting 7 sabbaths by which Pentecost was on Sunday on the 50th day.

5)Lev 23:36; Num 35-40 Feast of Tabernalces -- on the 8th Day

6)Lev 8:35-9:23; Rom 12:1 Consecreation of Priests. ON the 8th day.

So it is clear from the responses of Rosangela and Harold that they, at least, have no idea what the rational is for keeping Sunday.

This is a shame, because until you know how Sunday-keepers view the world and how they justify keeping the first day of the week, no progress will be made in convincing them to keep the seventh.