D. Michael Battle, B.A., M.A., M.A.

Most Christians believe that Sunday is the Lord’s Day, but Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). According to the Holy Bible, the seventh day Sabbath is the only day that God called holy during Creation week. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God… For in six days the LORD made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: Wherefore the LORD blessed the seventh day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).

God blessed the seventh day Sabbath, and called it holy. When Jesus Christ, our Creator, made the Sabbath, there was no sin in the world, and there were no Jews on earth until 2,300 years later. After Christ’s agonizing crucifixion, His disciples “rested the sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). Christ created and made all things. “For by him were all things created...and he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col 1:16-17). “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (Read John 1:1-14).

The Prince of Peace declared, “For the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Mt 12:8 NASB). God’s Infallible Word says, “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Gen 2:2-3 NWV). Sunday was never called the Lord’s Day by Christ, or His Apostles in apostolic times. If Jesus Christ could have abolished or changed the fourth commandment of the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), He would have changed it before His horrible crucifixion on that first Good Friday. Christ validated and ratified the new covenant at His death with His own blood, and no one can change it (See Hebrews 9:16-17). The Lord of the Sabbath said, “If you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15 NLT). It was Christ customary practice to worship, and observe the seventh day Sabbath (Luke 4:15-16). The Bible writers were all seventh day Sabbath worshipers. Many years after Christ’s resurrection, John said, “The one who practices sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8 NASB). What is sin? John says, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin Is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Who enacted the first Sunday-keeping law? “Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the Sabbatical observance of Sunday is known to have been ordained, is the Sabbatical edict of Constantine, AD 321.” Chambers Encyclopedia, Article “Sunday”.

The Lord’s Holy Day of Worship

In every century since Creation week, our Lord God, has had faithful Believers who have worshiped Him on His seventh day Sabbath by attending worship services, reading the Scriptures with joyful singing, prayers, and with praises of thanksgiving.

The Word of God says, “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable… then you will find joy in the LORD” (Isaiah 58:13-14 NIV). Dr. Lucas from the Disciples of Christ Church wrote this insightful statement of truth: “There is no direct scriptural authority for designating the first day the Lord’s day.” Dr. D.H. Lucas, Christian Oracle, Jan. 23, 1890.

The only Lord’s Day that the Disciples of Christ celebrated and observed was the seventh day Sabbath. When John the Revelator was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day”, he was having a prophetic vision on the seventh day Sabbath. (Rev 1:10). God calls His seventh day Sabbath “My Holy Day” in Isaiah 58:13. The first day of the week is called a “working” day in Eze 46:1. The Book of Acts records eighty-four Sabbath worship meetings decades after Christ’s resurrection by both Gentile and Jewish Christians. (Read Acts 13:14, 15, 27, 42-44; 16:13; 17:2,3; 18:4, 11.) God Almighty says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God” (Exodus 20:10 NKJV). Many religious leaders have admitted that the their church attempted to change the day of worship to Sunday with no authority from the Scriptures or Christ. This is not a secret or a cover-up to most Bible scholars. “The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.” –The Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1893. In1886, Franklin E. Belden penned these lyrics:

First His six days work was done,
Then the Sabbath was begun;
Thus He blessed the seventh day,
Thus in resting we obey.
Thousands have His plan reversed,
Resting now upon the first,
Search the Book and you shall know,
There’s no Scripture tells them so . . .
Glad we hail its presence blest,
‘Tis the great Jehovah’s rest.

D.B. Ray wrote this powerful statement in 1892: “From this same Catholic Church you accept your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord’s day, she handed down as a tradition, and the entire Protestant world has accepted it as tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish it.” – The Papal Controversy, page 179.

The Sabbath Matters to God

The Lord’s Holy Sabbath Day matters to God. It is more than just a petty quibble over days. Your day of worship determines and decides who you will worship. Only the Truth will set us free from sin. “All thy commandments are truth” (Ps119:151). The Sabbath is a sign of sanctification. “Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (Ezekiel 20:12 NKJV).

Here are a few crystal clear confessions by church leaders:

• “We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday,” — Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, Second Edition. 1910, page 50.
• Many God-fearing Catholic and Protestant Christians that I meet are just finding out that there is no scriptural authority for keeping Sunday holy. Father Enright stated, “I have repeatedly offered $1,000.00 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone.” — T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, February 18, 1884.
• Sunday is not the Lord’s Day according to the Holy Bible. “Nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed by the Church outside the Bible.” — “To Tell You the Truth” The Catholic Virginian, 22 (October 3, 1947).
• Where can Bible proof or support for the change be found? “Sunday is founded, not on Scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no Scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday and thus leave Catholics in full possession of Sunday.” — Catholic Record, Sept. 17, 1893.
• As late as A.D. 62, the apostle to the Gentiles calls the seven day of the week the “Sabbath day” (Acts 13:44; Heb 4:4-9).