From the Former Adventist Discussions
For those of you who discuss the Sabbath with Adventists. I think there is something you might want to make clear. Adventists pull together two different subjects and make them feed off each other unnaturally.
First always be confident.... Christians have always worshipped on Sunday. In fact, Christians worshipped every day of the week. (Acts 2:46) Jesus worshipped at the Temple on some Sundays (high annual Sabbaths.) There is nothing anywhere in scripture that would suggest that worshipping on Sunday would be wrong. There is no biblical nor historical records that anyone has ever found that suggested that worship on Sunday was wrong nor will ever be wrong.
Secondly, when they speak of Sabbath, that is a whole different story all together. Make sure they clearly understand that now the topic has shifted OFF of Sunday and onto the Sabbath. Let them know that from the beginning Christians have differed on if they should REST on the Sabbath. Som
e areas did keep resting on Sabbath. Some didn't. Hence Paul saying that it should be up to one's conscience and don't judge.
But the controversy was never about worshipping, but on resting. Keeping Sabbath as a rest or not. Sunday was always a day to worship on as was Sabbath too! The importance of those two days in early Christianity was what gives us our weekend today. Sabbath was a day of rest for some--AND worship and Sunday was a celebration of Christ's resurrection and they also worshipped. This is supported by ALL Christian historians who are not SDA.
Make sure you differentiate those two subjects. Sunday has since the beginning been a day of worship for Christians. That is historically irrefutable. The controversy was about resting on the Sabbath.
Why is keeping these two topics separate important. Because Adventists do not know Christian history. They ASSUME (because they find documents of the controversy over Sabbath) that somehow it was the ONLY worship day for Christians. That it was the "chosen" day, the correct day. Not so at ALL. All days were chosen and sanctified to worship on. The Sabbath rest was a separate issue and no Christian would ever have pitted worshipping on Sunday with worshipping on Saturday. They did both! In fact every day.
Tell an Adventists that you are simply thrilled they have chosen to rest on Sabbath. Tell them they resemble the eastern church who did indeed keep that tradition going in the New Covenant, even when they understood it was no longer a mandatory part of the New Covenant.
But stress to them that worship on Sunday is also never wrong. There is overwhelming evidence both in the Bible and in history of that.
Teaching that worshipping on Sunday is a last-day test is not biblical. They are confusing two separate issues by combining Sabbath and Sunday.
But the controversy was never about worshipping, but on resting. Keeping Sabbath as a rest or not. Sunday was always a day to worship on as was Sabbath too! The importance of those two days in early Christianity was what gives us our weekend today. Sabbath was a day of rest for some--AND worship and Sunday was a celebration of Christ's resurrection and they also worshipped. This is supported by ALL Christian historians who are not SDA.
Make sure you differentiate those two subjects. Sunday has since the beginning been a day of worship for Christians. That is historically irrefutable. The controversy was about resting on the Sabbath.
Why is keeping these two topics separate important. Because Adventists do not know Christian history. They ASSUME (because they find documents of the controversy over Sabbath) that somehow it was the ONLY worship day for Christians. That it was the "chosen" day, the correct day. Not so at ALL. All days were chosen and sanctified to worship on. The Sabbath rest was a separate issue and no Christian would ever have pitted worshipping on Sunday with worshipping on Saturday. They did both! In fact every day.
Tell an Adventists that you are simply thrilled they have chosen to rest on Sabbath. Tell them they resemble the eastern church who did indeed keep that tradition going in the New Covenant, even when they understood it was no longer a mandatory part of the New Covenant.
But stress to them that worship on Sunday is also never wrong. There is overwhelming evidence both in the Bible and in history of that.
Teaching that worshipping on Sunday is a last-day test is not biblical. They are confusing two separate issues by combining Sabbath and Sunday.
5 comments:
My best friend in High School was a staunch SDA. I got to know him and his family well, what they believed etc. I have known many other SDA's since then, and got to know their Theology (including some of their theologians).
They do not dispute that the early church worshiped on Sunday. For them, the discussion focuses on WHY they worshiped on Sunday. They say (and here I agree with them) that the standard answer that we worship on Sunday to celebrate Christ's resurrection is an excuse. Historically, the real reason for worshiping on Sunday was due to the fact that Sunday was the accepted day of the week in ancient Roman times for worship because that was when everyone was expected to worship Jupitor Optimus Maximus - the chief god in their pantheon - whose day was Sunday. It was commonly accepted that you worshiped on Sunday. If the early church did not want to get into trouble, they had to go along with the culture. No-one could really say (especially slaves or businessmen), 'I'm not going to work today (saturday) because it is my holy day'. A slave would have been beaten to death, and any businessman who did that would have quickly gone out of business. So Paul and the writer of Hebrews tells the church that any day of the week is right to worship God - so long as you worship. So why not worship God on Sunday if the rest of society allows one day to worship your god? It's more about fitting in with the culture around you.
This is where I disagree with the SDA's. The SDA's tend to disagree with Sunday worship more because it gives in to cultural demands, and is the 'thin edge of the wedge' as they would see it of watering down the message etc. Really, I think, Sunday worship shows us how flexible we need to be with our theology etc, and be more culturally aware. It's not about what we wear, or eat, or do etc. that marks us as Christian, but the shed blood of Christ.
Romans and Hebrews I found is the best retort to SDA's.
Yours in Christ,
Graeme Randall - Former Australian East in London
To me the whole "controversy" (for those who enjoy controversing over such things)is silly and a matter of picking at straws.
Daryl Lach
USA Central
"You Must go Home By the Way of the Cross, To Stand with Jesus in the Morning!"
Well, in Norway some of the smaller SA corps in remote areas worship wednesday or thursday night when they have their weekly meeting named "ukens fest" (party of the week) with refreshments and raffles as well as singing, prayer, sermon and invitation to the mercy seat. (Now some of you need to take a deep breath...)
Susanne Ch
I believe that Stephen Dexter's comment on this book is worth a look.
If I might just make a point about the choice of day and the day not mattering as long as you are 'worshipping God' seeing as this is always the bone of contention when attacking the SDA.
The commandment says 'honour the Sabbath DAY, to keep it holy', not the Sabbath 'couple of hours'. How many people are honouring more than a few hours spent at church these days? When I was growing up we spent the whole day in church, doing one thing or another. Granted, that doesn't mean that we were 'worshipping' all day but it seems that these days it is quite alright to go to church for a few hours on Sunday morning and then go to a movie or shopping mall in the afternoon. And who said something about Fitting in with the culture around you?'
Post a Comment