What is the truth behind the 4th Commandment on the Sabbath? If Saturday is the 7th day, and the Sabbath, why do we not worship on Saturday? If we observe Sunday as our "Sabbath," are we going against God's commandment? -- Melanie Callaghan (Washington DC)
Yes, you are right that the seventh day is Saturday, and if we have to follow the Sabbath, Saturday is it. (Actually, the Sabbath is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday -- in the Old Testament and even in Israel today!) But Christians are never commanded to observe the Sabbath. In fact, the opposite is the case (Colossians 2:16-18).
If you would like an excellent book on the subject, let me recommend the thin volume by Anthony A. Hoekema, Seventh Day Adventism. It was many centuries after the start of the church before Christians felt constrained to observe any kind of a Sabbath. In ancient times, Sunday was a work day, and so (in the early 2nd century at least) the disciples met at dawn and again in the evening on Sunday.
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