Life has been interesting of late, sorry to miss posting the Armchair Theology post last month. In the meantime I’ve had a few fascinating questions, one of which I will deal with today and I plan on posting again later this month with another one.
This is a thorny issue, not so much in and of itself as it’s a “hot button” issue for a very vocal segment of the church population today. Alongside simple questions like this one are statements that claim that when the emperor Constantine converted and made Christianity the official religion of Rome, that he also mandated a new day of worship also. The Sabbatarians (that is, those who advocate keeping Sabbath today) who make these claims seem to have pure motives - to undo a lot of the perceived “rot” that has crept into the organization of the church over the years and return to something that “the early church did”. However this is based on a false assumption: historical writings going back as far as Justin Martyr (A.D. 140) indicate that the early church met on a Sunday in recognition of the resurrection of Jesus. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 194) wrote that the one who “keeps the Lord’s day” is “glorifying the Lord’s resurrection in himself”. Eusebius (A.D. 324) wrote that believers should “celebrate the Lord’s days … in commemoration of his resurrection”. Since we know that Jesus was crucified on the eve of the Sabbath, this could only mean that the “the Lord’s day” is not the Sabbath.
So, history and tradition of the church seem to be against it, but what does the bible say? Sabbath was a holy day for the Jewish people and was firmly tied to the covenant that God made with them. The places where the bible is specific about keeping Sabbath it’s linked clearly to the Mosaic Law - to the covenant - about which God Himself said:
“The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.”— Jeremiah 31:31
They knew that the clock was ticking and that the Mosaic covenant was only a temporary thing. When the new covenant was inaugurated then the requirements of the old covenant would be done away with. The Apostle Paul (in his own words, “a Pharisee of Pharisees” and therefore someone with a great knowledge of the Law) wrote:
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)- remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
— Ephesians 2:11-18
The requirement to keep the Sabbath holy was part of the law, and therefore has been abolished. Those who impose the requirement today would be repeating the same mistake that believers in the 1st century made. Paul wrote to them saying,
Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God - or rather are known by God - how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.— Galatians 4:8-11
So Christians today arent “failing” to keep Sabbath, since there’s no requirement to actually “fail” at. Today we worship on a Sunday as believers have done since earliest times - Acts 2:1 says, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”. Pentecost is a Jewish festival that comes 50 days after Passover, that is 49+1 (or, 7×7 + 1) - the day after Sabbath. Pentecost falls seven weeks and one day after Passover. Far from being a day of judgement on the early church which would have been meeting “on the wrong day”, God blessed their assembly by sending His Holy Spirit.