Sabbath and the cultural relativity of days of the week

[Confessor]

I think I can sum up my inquiry with this brief question:

How does the fact that the Spanish calendar begins with Monday (i.e., Sunday is the seventh day) comport with making the Sabbath the first day of the week? Does that simply mean that in cultures with those calendars, Monday is the Sabbath?

 

[py3ak]

It means that their calendar needs to be reformed according to the word of God.

 

[Confessor]

The following question is not a rebuttal as much as a call for explanation: How does the Bible say that Sunday is the first day of the week?

 

[py3ak]

The Resurrection narratives in the Gospels make that point pretty clearly. Combine that with God's constitutive authority over times and seasons, as seen in Exodus 12:2, and you have all you need.

 

[Scott1]

This may be helpful in understanding this.

GI Williamson, The Westminster Confession of Faith for Study Classes does a good, clear job in explaining Westminster Confession, Chapter XXI. on this point (both the substance of the day, the proportionality of the day, the day itself).

 

[Confessor]

I apologize for being blunt, but I just don't see the argument very clearly. Is this what you're saying?

(1) The Sabbath has been changed to the first day of the week as recorded in the Gospel narratives.
(2) We know, historically, that the first day of the week in the Gospel narratives is Sunday.
(3) Therefore the Sabbath has been changed to Sunday, and given God's authority over times and seasons, it is not proper to change it to Monday.

Premise (2), I think, is necessary to connect the argument, for I do not know from Scripture where the "first day of the week" mentioned is Sunday -- hence my question to you.

Thank you both for your assistance.

 

[TimV]

After a while your head starts spinning around with this subject. Our Sunday as the first day is almost totally arbitrary, but since the Sabbath was largely a public holiday then there is some sort of agreement necessary as to when all God's people celebrate it.

So, just like the date of Passover, Day of Unleavened Bread, the First Fruits etc... were determined by the nation of Israel's leadership (the Sanhedrin in Christ's time), and every one in Israel was expected to fall into line even though it CHANGED every couple years, it's the same nowadays for calling Sunday the first day of the week. It's not some sort of hard and fast rule that you can point to using astronomy or history or tree rings.

Anyway, that's at least one way of making an argument for it. It's not like Chinese New Year, or the naming day of the Swedish princess. Naphtali didn't hold the Feast of Tabernacles at a different time than Benjamin. They didn't have the right to regionally pick the day. The leadership of the Old Testament Church picked the day, and IT WAS ALMOST TOTALLY ARBITRARY, dealing with aligning the High Holy Days with the weather, harvest, etc...One year in every three, or two, or four depending they'd hold all the High Holy Days a month later than the previous year.

So the principle for setting the date is that (among other things) that holding our Sabbath at a different day than the rest of Christendom (sorry about using that word for those who don't like it) is schismatic.

 

[py3ak]

That's close enough. The first day of the week is Sunday, the day that light was commanded to shine out of darkness because the Sabbath was originally the 7th, or last day of the week. So on the 8th day the cycle restarts. God hallowed the seventh day until the resurrection of Christ, when that positive moral commandment to set aside one day in seven for God was applied to the first day.

As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in His Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, He has particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week: and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord's Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.

(WCF XXI.7)

We have as much right to modify the day that is hallowed as to rewrite the history that sets out the events which hallowed it.

 

[Scott1]

GI Williamson, The Westminster Confession of Faith for Study Classes, p. 223 [2nd ed]

.... the Fourth Commandment does not say, "Remember the last day," but "remember the Sabbath day." There is a difference. The difference is the distinction between proportion and order....

It is sometimes argued that, in any case, we cannot be sure that our Sabbath is the same as that observed by the Apostolic Church. It is said that the cycle may have been broken at some time...

To this we reply that Jesus is the Lord of both his Church and the Sabbath. And he declares that the Sabbath is a perpetual sign of the people of God (citations omitted). Christ promised that there would be an unbroken continuance of his true Church till the end of the world, and this guarantees that the Sabbath has not been and will not be, lost to men.

....

.

 

[Confessor]

That is an extremely helpful quotation, Scott, especially in fending off any historically-argued skepticism. Thank you.

 

[Scott1]

Quite welcome, Ben.

Good questions.

 

[nnatew24]

As I consider your question, a few things come to mind:

-The pattern in scriptures is 6 days labor and then 1 day of rest.

-Saturday is not mentioned in the creation account nor the Decalogue, but rather the '7th day'.

-Likewise, I would argue that 'Sunday' isn't mentioned either, but rather 'the first day of the week', which happens to be Sunday to us. So it is by inference according to the calendar that we are on. And I'm not sure we can say with certainty that the world has always been on a 7 day calendar as we are now.

-There isn't a magic 24 hour period where we can tell from the stars that it's the Sabbath. Case in point: My Sabbath is going to be much different in time and space than the Sabbath for the Christian in Australia. It is according to our calendar and the 1st day of the week in scripture.

-Though the actual day in time/space isn't important, it is very important in regards to how we keep the Sabbath. For the proper keeping of the Sabbath, the church must all keep the same day. Thus, it was fitting by the Holy Spirit to reveal the Lord's Day as the first day of the week.

So I'm not exactly sure how I would answer your original question. On one hand, as long as the pattern of 6 days labor and then the 1 day of rest on the first day of the week, they would be keeping the commandment. But on the other hand, if their Sabbath isn't really the first day of the week in that culture, they could be confusing the people and actually undermining the commandment (same as if they practice on a day other than Sunday, which has been the tradition of the present age).

The essence, I believe, is in the pattern of 6/1, and the unity of the church in all recognizing the same day.