The modern church has been pretty consistent and insistent in its view that following the death of Jesus the early believers immediately instituted Sunday as the new day of worship.
For example, here is an excerpt from the popular Christian site www.gotquestions.org.
“Scripture never mentions any Sabbath (Saturday) gatherings by believers for fellowship or worship.”
Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy???!!!!
I’m sorry but this is simply not true and I’m about to demonstrate the falsity of this statement.
When we get to The Book of Acts, which is another way of saying the actions of the church, we find over and over again that God’s people, the disciples, the Apostle Paul, Peter, and others are keeping the Sabbath.
“As they left, the gentiles invited Paul and Barnabas to tell them more about these matters the following Shabbat. When the synagogue meeting broke up, many of the born Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke with them and urged them to keep holding fast to the love and kindness of God. The next Shabbat, nearly the whole city gathered together to hear the message about the Lord.-“Acts 13:42-44
Here, the apostle Paul is preaching the gospel.
Now an interesting thing you need to know is that there were two groups of people in the synagogue right from the start.
There were the “men of Israel” and the “God fearers”.
The term “God fearers” is widely regarded by scholars as a special designation for Gentiles who didn’t convert to become Jews but loved the Jewish scriptures and loved the teachings of Judaism.
During the times of Jesus, these Gentiles were not allowed inside the temple but instead were restricted to an area called “The Court of the Gentiles”.
“So Sha’ul stood, motioned with his hand, and said:
“Men of Isra’el and God-fearers, listen!”-Acts 13:16
So when Paul leaves the synagogue, it is these God-fearers that approach Paul and say, “We heard those powerful words! Would you preach those words to us?”
How does Paul respond?
Keep in mind that this would have been the perfect opportunity for Paul to say to the Gentiles, “Sure. If you want to hear the gospel, why don’t you come back tomorrow (Sunday), which is the new day of worship?”
However, he doesn’t say that.
Instead he says he tells them to come back on the next Sabbath!
As a result, nearly the whole city comes out to listen on the Sabbath.
And remember this is following Jesus’s death and resurrection.
Both Jews and Gentiles together were listening to the Word of God from the Apostle Paul on the Sabbath.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING THE NEW TESTAMENT
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free,
nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.”
Galatians 3:28
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