Expert: Sal - 11/16/2010

Question
when i read your answer about the sabbath you used many quotations not much scripture references. my question is the catholic church issued a challenge in 2003 to the protestant churches, which they said from cover to cover there is no scripture reference which support sunday, should we listen to the voice of God or a man?

Answer
Dear Gillmour:

Your question is rather vague. You didn’t give information as to which answer you were referring to. From your statement, “you used many quotations not much scripture references”, I believe it probably was one concerning the Early Church Fathers. The question may have been one where the questioner stated that the Catholic Church changed the day of common worship from the Jewish Sabbath day to Sunday during the 4th century AD. Such a charge is common among Seven-day Adventists. I probably quoted early Christians in order to prove that the common day of worship was Sunday well before the supposed 4th century change.

I’m not familiar with a “challenge” issued in 2003 by the Catholic Church. I doubt that it was an official challenge since the Church is rather ecumenical these days.

There is no command in the New Testament for Christians to worship on any particular day be it Sabbath or Sunday. There is, however, support for observing Sunday rather than the Jewish Sabbath for example, Jesus’ Resurrection and his subsequent appearances to his disciples being on Sunday.

I believe that all Christians would agree that we should listen to the voice of God over any man. As I said before, your question is rather vague. Are you implying that God said Christians should worship Him only on the 7th day Sabbath? If so, notice that the voice of God only told the Israelites and those under their authority to observe the Sabbath He never commanded free Gentiles to observe it (see Ex. 16:21-30; 20:8-11; 31:12-18; Deut. 5:12-15; Ez. 10:12, 20). The “voice of God” in the Old Testament was His prophets and they never condemned the free Gentiles for not observing the 7th day Sabbath. The “voice of God” in the New Testament was the apostles and they never commanded or enforced Sabbath observance on Christians. Jesus, God Himself, stated very plainly that he and not a day is the true Sabbath (see Mt. 11:28-30).

Thanks for the question.

Best Wishes,
Sal