Is there any bibilical evidence to celebrate Sabbath on Sunday?

Answer 1

The Sunday (the first day of the week) became adopted by Christians as the 'Sabbath' because Christ rose from death on a Sunday. As Jesus represented the New Covenant between God and humans, the early Christians replaced their old Jewish custom of keeping Saturday holy and adopting the first day of the week - Sunday - instead. Matthew 28: 1-7: "In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you..." Mark 16: 1-4:"And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great..." Luke 24: 1-3: "Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus..." John 20:1: "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre." We are told in each Gospel that Christ rose on the 'first day of the week'. We know that the crucifixion took place on a Friday as we are also told Christ was not allowed to remain dead on the Cross as preparations were being made for the Sabbath (the seventh Day - 'sabbath' in Hebrew means 'seventh') later that evening, as in Jewish Law the Sabbath began at sunset on the day before. Also, we are told in the gospels that Jesus rose again on 'the Third Day' in Jesus' own prophesies and in the Gospels, and in Paul's letters. By Jewish reckoning, a 'day' was reckoned to include even parts of days - as this was the custom as testified in the Old Testament and in Jesus' parables (eg the workers in the vineyard). So, if the crucifixion took place on the Friday (the day before the sabbath) this counted as day 1. The second day, day 2, was the Saturday - or sabbath. Day 3 would therefore be the first day of the new week - and this was the day on which Jesus rose again as mentioned in all four gospels. We call this day, nowadays, Sunday - but of course the actual name of the day is a modern invention. The Creation story is not the only place in scripture where the seventh day is designated as holy. In the giving of the 10 Commandments, one of the commandments makes it very clear that every Sabbath (ie every seventh day) is to be kept holy as this was the day that God 'rested' after Creation. The Jews DID have a 'seventh year' concept too. This was called Jubilee, when, every seven years, slaves could be freed, debt cancelled and tenanted land returned to its tribal owners. This was reflected more recently in the Jubilee 2000 campaign at the turn of the millemmium to get the rich countries to cancel the debts of the poorest nations. Whilst, therefore, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week (Saturday in modern language), as Christ rose on the first day of the week (a Sunday) THIS was the day adopted by the early Christians as holy rather than a Saturday. They regarded this as perfectly acceptable as they then reflected Jesus' teaching that the sabbath (whether a Saturday or Sunday) was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. In other words, as long as one day a week was regarded as a rest day from labours and devoted to worship, then this was right with God, whatever day that happened to be.