Sunday markets

Today we will continue exploring the suggestion that after the Lord's
resurrection Sabbath observance was transfered from Saturday to Sunday.
Yesterday we noted that no such instruction was given either by Jesus
himself or by the New Testament writers. For the sake of argument,
however, let's say that now Sabbath observance falls on Sunday. If that's
the case, Sunday keepers are not following the observance properly as
the fourth commandent prescribed. If we assume that the new Sabbath
is Sunday, we also have to assume that the rest of the instructions
remained the same according to the original text of Exodus 20: 8 -11.
The only change is the word Sunday. Now the text would read something
like this: "the FIRST day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you
shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male
servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who
is within your gates." The same criteria should also apply to the text
found in Isaiah 58: 13-14. Those verses should now read like this:
"If you turn away your foot from SUNDAY, from doing your pleasure
on my holy day, and call SUNDAY a delight, the holy day of the Lord
honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding
your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words."
For those who say Sunday is the new Sabbath, how do they explain
that it is not being observed as the Bible requires. Among Sunday keepers,
Sunday is not really a Holy Day, except for the fact that some may
attend church for one or two hours. The rest of the day is used to
perform mundane tasks as shopping, washing our car, going to a
football game, having a party, etc. That is not really how the Bible
tells us to keep the Sabbath.
Therefore Sunday keepers are really making two assumptions:
(1) They assume that Jesus changed Sabbath observance from
Saturday to Sunday.
(2) They assume that Jesus also did away with the requirements
about abstaining from work and from worldly business.
If Jesus or the early church elders wanted to implement these
changes, I'd have to think they would have encountered some
very strong resistance. If Jesus had proposed this change, the
Pharisees would have higlighted this offense. If the suggestion
came from the church elders, there would have been a great
fight among those who wanted to keep the traditional Sabbath.
We encounter none of this when we read the New Testament.
Which leads me to believe that no such change from Saturday
to Sunday was ever suggested by the early church.

God bless you,


The moderator