A member of the Encounter Community was recently told that it was unbiblical to gather for worship on Saturday night (using Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2; and Rev 1:10 as the prooftexts), and she asked how I would respond. Here’s what I shared with her:
Thanks for sharing this question with me. While I understand where this other person is coming from (if the Bible says to meet on Sundays, then we should do what it says, right?), I think they are not being fair with Scripture concerning their stance that Sunday is the only appropriate day to gather for worship.
All three of the references do mention Sunday (implicitly), but none of these are commands. The fact that the church happened to land on meeting on Sunday makes sense, as it commemorates the Lord’s resurrection. But, again, there is no command to meet on that day.
In fact, the earliest Christians met every day (Acts 2:46), although that pace was probably impractical, and so ending up in a weekly rhythm made perfect sense, and they seem to have eventually landed on Sundays, referred to as “the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7).
Interestingly, Paul refers to the idea of considering one day more sacred than another as a “disputable matter” upon which we shouldn’t pass judgment (see Romans 14:1-8), and even suggests that it is the person with the weaker faith that makes a big deal about the day (although don’t say this to your friend, as it would be unkind! I simply wanted to note where this text lands on the matter).
The bottom line is that any and every day is a good day to gather to worship the Lord Jesus Christ together. And every day we should remember that Jesus is risen – not just on Sunday! Make sense?
And just for fun, I can add this historical note: Sunday was not a day off for first century people in the Roman world, and therefore Christians met either very early in the morning, before work, or after work, at night, and they did so in people’s homes. So, if we truly want to follow the pattern of the earliest Christians, we would have a lot of adjustments to make, right?!
Hope this helps,
Dave
Another point is that since Encounter usually starts after sundown, according to the tradition of our Jewish brethren it already is the next day. As a Jew, Jesus would have agreed that Sunday has already started at sundown.
We are so excited about coming together we just can’t wait until Sunday morning =)
I always scratch my head at these kinds of arguments.What is the chance that sometime in the dark ages that somebody skipped a day in the calendar? How do we know that any given Sunday is an exact multiple of 7 days from the resurrection? Even if dates were well-tracked, how do we know the day-of-week to date relationship was preserved? For all we know, we’re off by a few days anyway.
as a jew, jesus probably gathered for corporate worship on friday night and saturday morning anyway
What’s kinda funny too is that Biblically the Sabbath is supposed to be the last day of the week. Ever notice that our calendars show Saturday being the last day of the week?I believe the point is that we don’t work 7 days a week and we take a day off to rest. Spend time with loved ones and have time to think about God’s plan for the up coming week of our lives. God showed us an example of that in the creation story. He, as God, probably didn’t need a day off but He did it to set an example.
I think what this person should have said is that Saturday night is not doctrinal to the modern christian church. It’s against the man-made church rules.