Reasons Why the Church Is Sunday And Not Saturday Anymore

The vast majority of mainstream Christians go to church on Sunday (some regularly, others occasionally). Many are shocked to hear about some Christians actually going to church on Saturday.......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>

However, the Bible teaches the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. So, how did this come to be? History provides some shocking details.

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus Christ observed the Saturday Sabbath, and His apostles also observed the Sabbath after His death.

Many defenders of mainstream Christianity try to attribute the origin of keeping Sunday to the apostles. Even so, many Sunday-keeping churches have to admit that there is no scriptural basis for switching to Sunday, nor is there any command by the apostles to not keep the Saturday Sabbath.

Who changed the Sabbath day?

Since the Sabbath was not changed in the Bible, who changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday? When did this change occur?

After the death of the original apostles, new ideas began to be introduced into Christianity. During the second century, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria attacked Sabbath observance. Tertullian followed in the third century.

At the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 Roman Emperor Constantine and the Catholic Church established Sunday as a day of rest. And at the Council of Laodicea around 365, the Catholic Church made it illegal to “Judaize” or be idle from work on the seventh-day Sabbath.

These changes were accepted by what had become the majority of Christianity, but scattered and persecuted groups of Christians continued to observe the seventh-day Sabbath and other teachings of the early New Testament Church. (Learn more in our free booklets The Sabbath: A Neglected Gift From God and Where Is the Church Jesus Built?)

How could such a major change come about? What were the underlying reasons for the change from Saturday to Sunday?

Why was the Sabbath changed to Sunday?

So what made the mainstream Christian church change the day of rest and worship from Saturday to Sunday so long ago?

The major causes seem to be a combination of church authority overriding scriptural principles and the influences of sun worship and anti-Semitism.

The Catholic Church claimed authority to change scriptural principles

Around A.D. 400, Augustine, a respected Catholic theologian, proclaimed that “the holy doctors of the Church have decreed, that all glory of the Jewish Sabbath is transferred to it [Sunday]. Let us therefore keep the Lord’s Day as the ancients were commanded to do the Sabbath” (quoted by Robert Cox in Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties, 1853, p. 284).

The Catholic Encyclopedia section on “Sunday” mentions St. Caesarius of Arles reinforcing this teaching in the sixth century as well. These men put the changing of the Sabbath in the hands of the doctors of the church (post-apostolic church officials).

In its section on the “Ten Commandments,” the Catholic Encyclopedia says: “The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment [we count it as the Fourth] refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day.”