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While it is true there is no New Testament record of a voice from heaven instructing the infant Church, “Thou shalt change the day of thy worship and rest from Saturday to Sunday,” Seventh-day Adventists are mistaken in arguing that there is no New Testament evidence that supports such a change by the Catholic Church. Besides the biblical proof of the apostolic Church’s authority to teach in God’s name (Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 10:16), and of the Lord’s guarantee that his Church would never fall into error (Matt. 16:18–19; Lk 22:31-32; John 16:13), there is strong evidence from Scripture that the apostles, based on the divine leadership of Jesus, changed their day of corporate worship from Saturday to Sunday.
The Old Testament Sabbath commandment contains two elements. The primary element, and the one that binds Christians as it does Jews, is the moral obligation to set aside adequate time for the purpose of divine worship. This could never be abrogated, as it is rooted in the natural law.
The secondary element was ceremonial and therefore could be abolished—and was abolished by Jesus’ death on the cross (Col. 2:12–17). This secondary, ceremonial element was that the particular day chosen to meet the moral obligation of the law was Saturday, so that the Jews would remember and memorialize the creation of the earth.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus began to prepare the way for changing the worship of God from “the letter of the law” to “the spirit of the law.” Remember that one of his greatest arguments with the Pharisees concerned Sabbath worship. He consistently rebuked them for placing rigid observance of mere details above setting aside a day to rest from unnecessary servile work and to worship God. Jesus made clear that the Sabbath could be changed to meet the needs of man. By effecting these changes as “the Son of Man,” Jesus exercised his authority to show us that he is “Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28).
As Frs. Rumble and Carty point out in Radio Replies, special honor is shown to Sunday throughout the New Testament. Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, and he first appeared to his disciples that Easter Sunday evening (Jn 20:19). One week later—and from the context we can see that this meant the following Sunday—Jesus appeared to them again when Thomas was present (John 20:26). Luke records that Sunday was religiously observed by the Christian community from the very beginning: “On the first day of the week when we gathered to break bread” (Acts 20:7). To “break bread” refers to the offering and celebration of the Holy Eucharist (Matt. 26:26, Mark 14:22), and Jesus celebrated the “breaking of the bread” on that first Easter Sunday (Luke 24:13-35).
In addition, St. Paul ordered the Corinthians to gather their offertory collections on Sunday (1 Cor. 16:2); that set the scriptural precedent we follow today of gathering our offerings on Sunday during the holy sacrifice of the Mass. In Revelation 1:10, St. John the Apostle records that he was granted a vision of heaven’s own worship while he was at worship (“caught up in spirit”) on “the Lord’s day.” In his Letter to the Magnesians, St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of St. John, tells us that “the Lord’s day” is not the ancient Sabbath; therefore, “the Lord’s day” must refer to Sunday. As Paul affirms, it was the first day of the week: Sunday (Acts 20:7-12). (See This Rock, September 1994, “The Fathers Know Best.”)
Pose this question to your Seventh-day Adventist friends: Jesus, being God, knew whether or not his Church would apostatize by changing the day of worship from the Old Covenant Sabbath Saturday to the New Covenant Lord’s Day (Sunday). If Adventists are correct that Christians are still obliged to keep Saturday as their day of corporate worship, isn’t it strange that Jesus underscored exactly the opposite by appearing to his disciples—beginning on the day of his Resurrection—nearly exclusively on Sunday, and also in instituting the post-Resurrection breaking of the bread on Sunday, which his apostles then emulated (Acts 20:7-12)?