On Wed, 17 Jul 2002, Allen Roy wrote:
> What was the Biblical reason for the Sabbath? To point to the fact that God
> is our creator (Ex. 20:10). The Sabbath is a weekly celebration of the
> Creation. There is no evidence in the Bible that the Sabbath was to become
> instead a celebration of the resurrection. It sounds nice, but it has no
> Biblical basis. The story of how "the church" changed the Sabbath from a
> celebration of creation to a celebration of the resurrection is complex.
> The book, "From Sabbath, to Sunday" by Samuel Bacciochi, (his doctoral
> thesis acquired from the university at the Vatican (I can't remember the
> name right now), and holding the imprimatur) tells a very detailed and
> compelling story. But basically it comes down to the fact such a change is
> not authorized by the Bible. It happened out of connivance and pragmatism.
There are a couple of other reasons for the Sabbath, both pertaining
specifically to Israel. (See Exodus 31:13 and Deuteronomy 5:15). The New
Testament does not tell us when to worship, although there are clues that
the early Christians worshipped on the first day of the week. From Romans
14:5,6 we learn that there were some who regarded one day above another
and others who regarded every day alike. Each was supposed to accept the
other. I am pleased that we don't have to be legalistic about this matter.
Otherwise I would be concerned about whether or not the guys who drew the
International Date Line got it right.
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
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