26/11/2016
AN EXPOSITORY ANSWER ON:
Should we worship on Saturday or Sunday?
The day of worship is not Saturday, and it is not Sunday either. Read along and find out why.
The Ancient Jews and Babylonians always had a seven-day-week. However; the ancient Romans had an 8-day-week. Yes, actually, they had 8 days per week. It was seven days of work, and one day which was set aside for shopping, grocery, and buying the required supplies for the week ahead.
In the Ancient Rome; there was no 'Thursday', 'Monday', 'Saturday', 'Wednesday', 'Sunday', 'Tuesday', and 'Friday'; no. There was Day-A, Day-B, Day-C, Day-D, Day-E, Day-F, Day-G and Day-H. Did you realize the there are 8 days? 'H' is alphabet number 8. This was the system in Rome for a long time.
In around 46 AD, in the prime of a Roman Empirical rule, Julius Caesar introduced a more preferred (for his time) calendar 'system', the system of 365 days and 366 days on the leap year, to stay on track. This was the introduction of the 7-day week, instead of the Ancient Rome's 8-day week in Rome. I am focussing on Rome, because we are still to interrogate the issue of Saturday or Sunday as the day of worship.
Trevor, did you know that right now; we use the Gregorian calendar which says we are in the year 2015, the Julian calendar, however, is 13 days behind, yes. Let me pass this informations to you: in a Korean calendar as a dating system, they are in a year: 4348.
Wait; let me tell you as well: if you use the Islamic calendar, you are now in a year 1437. It is (right now) year 5776 if you are using a Hebrew calendar, as a dating system. If you use an Ethiopian dating system; this year is the year 2008, yes, 2008, right now. If you are using a Buddhist calendar as your dating system; then you are now in a year 2559. Interesting right? It is actually true.
Around 1793, for about 9 years; France was having a 10-day week: however, this was abandoned after the Roman Catholic Church re-established itself to the French domains again. In 1929, for 11 years; Russia (or USSR at the time) had a 5-day week, but the Roman Catholic Church's Gregorian dating system was introduced again. Interesting right?
I am driving to a particular point, a very important point.
Romans, were the ones which introduced the naming of the days of the week. They actually named the days with the names of 7 planets closest to our earth: check this out...
Sunday is Solis, meaning: sun
Monday is Lunae, meaning: moon
Tuesday is Martis, meaning: mars
Wednesday is Mercuree, meaning: mercury
Thursday is Jovis, meaning; Jupiter
Friday is Veneris, meaning; Venus
Saturday is Saturni, meaning; Saturn.
I know that they might have told you that the Romans named the days by the gods they worship, because they were mostly a polytheistic Empire, but actually; it is not entirely accurate to simply put it like that. There is no denying that Romans were great astrologers, no wonder they named the days using planets. We can also admit that each planet actually, represents particular gods which were worshipped in the Ancient Rome, most of the planets mentioned. Emphasis; Romans were great astrologers, even the Greeks.
The earlier (Jewish) dating system actually had 10 months, not 12 months as we know it now. Here is another interesting thing to note: the difference between the Julian calendar and the widely used Gregorian calendar (even in SA) is 0.002%. What does that mean: it means that the Julian calendar has 365.25 days whilst the Gregorian calendar has 365.2425 days; this is the reason why the Julian calendar is now 13 days behind. Yes behind, not ahead.
Now; with this information, let us talk about Saturday and Sunday as the day of worship.
Through the translations of this new dating system which was introduced no later than 60 AD, there were a lots of confusion. Confusion because other nations had their days starting with Sunday, and others starting with a Monday. So; if we use the system where the day starts on a Sunday, then, the seventh day or day-7 is a Saturday, it becomes the day of rest.
It is very important to notice that this was the day of rest, not the day of worship! It is tradition which fused together into the day of worship, not a God-ordained-command. This is very important to note this as we allow this to unfold further. If your system starts with a Monday, then, your day of rest of your day-7 is a Sunday.
Going deeper
Sabbath was not for going to church/synagogue, for the ancient Jews, it was the day of 'rest'. The Jews were commanded by God to keep it holy (Exodus 31:16–17 & Deuteronomy 5:15). If you are a Jew, not a Christian, then you have a full right to keep the sabbath (day of rest). God rested on the seventh day, Genesis (2:2).
Colossians 2:16).
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days"
God has never ever given people a specific day of worship, no ways. He gave people Jews a specific 'day of rest'. To us, the Christians: He said; "do not neglect the habit of meeting together", (Hebrews 10:25).
The term 'meeting together' here is indicative of the fellowship of the saints, for the sole sake of encouraging each other.
So; the 'meeting together' is encouraged by not given a special day of the week. So; assuming it is a Sunday or a Saturday is a grave error. Theological assumption is still assumption. This may be an equivalent of our 'having church' in our century.
According to God, we should worship him everyday, with a habit of meeting together (often) for the sake of encouraging each other. Hebrews (3:13) says "but encourage one another daily, as long as it is called "Today," so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."
Two closing scenarios.
1) a man who was in a coma in an island somewhere because his small-aeroplane crushed down, would not know what day it is. He also would not know how long he has been comatose. If the island has no one; he would start his new life there; without knowing whether it is Wednesday, Monday or Saturday. God would be pleased if the man would worship Him daily. The term 'worship' is best described by its sister term 'devotion'.
•If we are only Christian on a particular day, then we are no Christians at all, we are hypocrites.•
If that man is a Jew, he would still be required to worship God daily, but how would he keep the sabbath day holy? He would count from the day he wakes up from the coma, then seven days from that day would be a day of 'rest', not the day of worship/church or the day of fellowship.
Then, seven days from that day of rest would be another day of rest, in that order. God rested on the seventh day or day-7, not on Saturday. Can you see the difference?
Remember; a day of rest is not the same as the day-of-church. That is a world system, it is not of God. We use it because of convenience, so we meet as often as we could, as an acceptable habit of fellowship.
2) If you are incarcerated (imprisoned) in a dark jail-cell, without any sunlight, you would not know what time it is; whether it is 02 PM, 04 AM or 09:32 AM. Soon enough; you would not know what day it is; whether a Sunday, Wednesday or a Saturday. So, how would you know it is a Sabbath? God wants us to worship Him everyday, and to fellowship with others as often as we possibly can.
It can be every Saturday, every Sunday, every Monday, three days a week, 4 days a week, or even fellowshipping daily if we can. God has never ever asked people to worship Him only 1-per-7 days. The 1-per-7 days is a Jewish standard of 'rest', not of fellowship.
Sunday in the bible
"On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight," Acts 20:7
They fellowshipped on the first day. Remember the dating reference now is that of a Jewish calendar. If there is no other reference of the meeting taking place on a Sunday, we may conclude that this was just an isolated incident. The day-1 (first day) was Sunday, because day-7 was the Sabbath.
"On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made," 1 Cor 16:2.
Here is another one; the Sunday was used by the Corinthian Christians to meet and also for issuing or giving their offerings which would be collected by Apostle Paul when he would come to Corinth for taking the offerings (amongst other things) to the saints which were suffering in Jerusalem. This gives us an addition to the thoughts that the early church was used a Sunday (first day, day-1) for fellowship.
In Colossians (2:16-17) Apostle Paul says "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
Would you keep looking at the shadow when the real thing has come and shown itself? Keeping the specific day was a shadow, the real King of the Sabbath did come. “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27).
If your employer expects you to have a Sabbath (a day of rest) after every seven days of work, did you know that those 'sabbaths' would not all fall on the same day of the week? How? If you start working on Tuesday, your 'rest' day will be a Monday, right? If you start working on Sunday, your 'rest' day would be on Saturday, seven days after.
So; with the same frame of mInd, the Jews resorted into having a system where days end on the day of rest, meaning: there would be seven days a week. To centralize this and to avoid confusion; everyone (Jews) needed to be synchronized into one day dedicated to God as the seventh day; which was traditionally a Saturday.
If we could change our system and have our week to start on Friday, then; the seventh's day or the 'rest' day for the Jews would be in a Thursday. You see this? The emphasis is on the 'seventh day', 'day of rest' or the 'sabbath'. Remember;the term 'rest' does not mean 'fellowship', no ways.
•Did you know that; whilst it is 04:00 AM in Johannesburg (a Sunday morning), it is 09:00 PM in Chicago (a Saturday night).•
•Whilst is it 04:00 AM in Johannesburg (a Monday morning), it is 11:00 PM in Islamabad (a Sunday night), this is happening simultaneously right now, as you read this text.•
This shows us; that whilst others are busy worshipping because it is a 'Sunday' to them, to others; it is a Monday morning, and to others, may still be a Saturday. Do you get this?
Is there any extra biblical of a Sunday gathering/fellowship reference?
"We keep the eighth day [Sunday] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead" (Letter of Barnabas 15:6–8 [A.D. 74]).
"But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead" (First Apology 67 [A.D. 155]).
"[T]hose who were brought up in the ancient order of things [i.e. Jews] have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s day, on which also our life has sprung up again by him and by his death" (Letter to the Magnesians 8 [A.D. 110]).
We already know that in Rome, around the 3rd century, many religions and many gods were worshipped, and some were worshipped on a Saturday; and some were worshipped on a Sunday. This played a negative role in both the legislative as well as the economic climate, since two days had to be 'sacrificed' for the religious observations, to loosely put it.
So; in a Counsil of Laodicea; a decision by most of the Roman religious leaders and authorities was reached; a decision to merge (or/and compromisingly mix) all the religions or the gods to be worshipped on the same day; which was set to be the first day of the week, a Sunday. This decision was made in the year 336 C.E.
This happened when (most) Christians were ALREADY using the Sunday as the day of worship. We have already been scripturally told that the early church broke bread on a Sunday, and they (the Corinthian Church) did their offerings collection on that same Sunday when they would most obviously meet.
Christians with a very deep and almost radical Jewish roots remained captivated by the keeping of the Sabbath as holy, perpetually. The Jewish-Christians did this the most, and others also did it, so there was a confusion as to which day should actually be used for the gathering of the saints for worship.
Jewish-Christians are said to be the Christians which are Jews by birth. In the reality and the accuracy of scripture; there is no such a thing as a Jewish-Christian. It is either one is a Christian or not, lest I be a Zulu-Christian.
Those Christians which met on a Saturday; they followed the Jewish traditions, those who worship/ped on Sunday; they mostly had their reason as the fact that Jesus Christ resurrected on the first day of the week, which is a Sunday. Both there standpoints are more traditional than religious.
Conclusion
There is no day more special than the other, we should meet for fellowship as often as we can. If you can only go to church on Wednesday because you are at work every weekend, you are going to church as often as you possibly can. God will not say 'go to hell because you go to church on Wednesday' or something close to that.
We worship God daily, but we fellowship with the saints as often as we can. So; according to the body of knowledge presented above; the argument of whether we should worship on Saturday or Sunday looses both legs, and it cannot even stand.
•If you found this information valuable and beneficial; would you share with others or keep it to yourself?•
I will allow questions for more clarity on the subject at hand. Also; I would appreciate your thoughts as well.
Warm regard
