Lesson 6:
 
Written in Stone!

Thought Questions

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1. But isn’t the Sabbath for the Jews only?

No. Jesus said, The Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). It is not for the Jews only, but for mankindall men and women everywhere. The Jewish nation did not even exist until 2,500 years after the Sabbath was made.

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2. Isn’t Acts 20:7–12 proof that the disciples kept Sunday as a holy day?

According to the Bible, each day begins at sundown and ends at the next sundown (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; Leviticus 23:32) and the dark part of the day comes first. So Sabbath begins Friday night at sundown and ends Saturday night at sundown. This meeting discussed in Acts 20 was held on the dark part of Sunday, or on what we now call Saturday night. It was a Saturday night meeting, and it lasted until midnight. Paul was on a farewell tour and knew he would not see these people again (verse 25). No wonder he preached so long! (No regular weekly service would have lasted all night.) Paul was ready to depart the next day (verse 7). The breaking of bread has no particular significance here, because they broke bread daily (Acts 2:46). There is no indication in this passage that the first day is holy, nor that these early Christians considered it so. Nor is there any evidence that the Sabbath had been changed. (Incidentally, this meeting is probably mentioned only because of the miracle of raising Eutychus back to life after he fell to his death.) In Ezekiel 46:1, God refers to Sunday as one of the six working days.

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3. Doesn’t 1 Corinthians 16:1,2 speak of Sunday school offerings?

No. There is no reference here to a public worship meeting. The money was to be laid aside privately at home. Paul was writing to ask the churches in Asia Minor to assist their poverty-stricken brethren in Jerusalem (Romans 15:26–28). These Christians all kept Sabbath holy, so Paul suggested that on Sunday morning, after the Sabbath was over, they put aside something for their needy brethren so it would be on hand when he came. It was to be done privatelyin other words, at home. There is no reference here to Sunday as a holy day.

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4. But hasn’t time been lost and the days of the week changed since the time of Christ?

No. Scholars and historians agree that although the calendar has changed, the weekly seven-day cycle never has. Therefore, you can be certain that our seventh day is the same seventh day Jesus kept holy!

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5. Isn’t John 20:19 the record of the disciples instituting Sunday keeping in honor of the resurrection?

No. The disciples at this time did not believe that the resurrection had taken place. They had met there for fear of the Jews. When Jesus appeared in their midst, He rebuked them because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen (Mark 16:14). There is no implication that they counted Sunday as a holy day. Only eight texts in the New Testament mention the first day of the week, and none of them implies that it is holy.

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6. Doesn’t Colossians 2:14–17 do away with the seventh-day Sabbath?

Not at all. It refers only to the annual, ceremonial sabbaths that were a shadow of things to come and not to the seventh-day Sabbath. There were seven yearly holy days, or festivals, in ancient Israel that were also called sabbaths (see Leviticus 23). These were in addition to, or besides the Sabbaths of the Lord (Leviticus 23:38), or seventh-day Sabbath. Their main significance was in foreshadowing, or pointing to, the cross and ended at the cross. God’s seventh-day Sabbath was made before Adam’s sin, and therefore could foreshadow nothing about deliverance from sin. That’s why Colossians 2 differentiates and specifically mentions the sabbaths that were a shadow.

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7. According to Romans 14:5, isn’t the day we keep a matter of personal opinion?

Notice that the whole chapter is on judging one another (verses 4, 10, 13) over doubtful things (verse 1). The issue here is not over the seventh-day Sabbath, which is a part of the moral law, but over other religious days. Jewish Christians were judging Gentile Christians for not observing them. Paul is simply saying, Don’t judge each other. That ceremonial law is no longer binding.