The Narrow Path Ministries

MMathis wrote:I guess I don't care if they keep Saturday or Catholics keep Sunday. ....
I guess I just didn't see what difference it makes.

That's kind of my view, too. I can't understand why it makes much difference to some people (though I guess I understand that some just believe that God commanded it, so it must be important).

Yeah, I've had similar thoughts. Is our "Saturday" really the 7the day going back for thousands of years? It doesn't seem likely, though I don't know.

I think it COULD be the case—for this reason. Whereas, the "day" is based on a single rotation of the earth, the "month" is based on a single revolution of the moon around the earth, and the "year" is based on a single revolution of the earth around the sun, the "week" is unique in that it has no relation to the movement of heavenly bodies. It is just possible that the "week" has its origin in the first 7 days of creation, the 7th being the day that God "rested," and that the 7-day sequence has continued without interruption since that time.

For some time I have wanted to enquire of a seventh-day enthusiast where it was found in the Bible that the international date-line was declared to be set in the Pacific Ocean. If it had been set down through the Atlantic Ocean, then, without any changes to the observance in Jerusalem, the sabbath in North America would start before Jerusalem and not after it.

My observation is that until the dateline question is determined, then the sabbath observerance outside of Jerusalem has been established by secular governmental decision.

Graeme

Well, perhaps a "seventh-day enthusiast" would consider the seventh day in the Holy Land to be the Sabbath.
But I wouldn't know; I'm not a "seventh-day enthusiast."

The early Christians observed Sunday as "The Lord's Day." Justin Martyr (A.D. 110-165) in his letter to Titus Ælius Adrianus Pius August Cæsar explained why Christians meet on Sunday:

But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday);and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration. (1st Apology Ch 67)

You mean to say that on any given day that we call Saturday (in the time zone where the sabbath command was given), the total number of days since creation must be a factor of 7 (7, 14, 21, 28th day, etc.)? It's possible, but seems unlikely, I would argue.

Good point about time zones. I wonder how our SDA (or other "Sabbath keeper") brothers and sisters address that?

Those early Christian quotes are really interesting.

Well, if the 7-day week (undefined in any other way) was kept track of from the beginning, and continued in that 7-day sequence ever since, it may not be as unlikely as it seems.

That's an interesting thought. How do we know what day is what? Is there a calendar that has been proven to be accurate back to Moses?

No need for a calendar to keep the sequence going! All you do is keep track of seven sequential days.

In early Christian times, it was just 1st day, 2nd day, 3rd day, 4th day, 5th day, 6th day and 7th day.

For the worshippers of the gods and the heavenly bodies, it was:
Sun's day (Sunday)
Moon's day (Monday)
Tiwaz' day (Tuesday)
Woden's day (Wednesday)
Thor's day (Thursday)
Frigg's day (Friday)
Saturn's day (Saturday)

I was reading Hebrews 8 and 9 a couple days ago.

The writer discusses the first covenant and the new covenant, and he makes it clear that the first covenant is obsolete, growing old, and about to disappear (Heb 8:13). Then the writer goes on say that the first had regulations of worship and had the ark of the covenant with its "tables of the covenant [NASB]". Those "tables" would be the 10 commandments, right? So there's a pretty direct connection of worship regulations and the 10 commandments with the first covenant, which is obsolete. I don't know if that specific point came up. I wonder what the sabbath keeper's would say about that. I'll have to check it out. They must have something.