why sunday is christian

8/9/2019 Why Sunday is Christian

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WHY SUNDAY is CHRISTIAN

Almost150 reasons from the Bible why Sunday is Christian -- a Super-Quick Summary

Every pastor needs a copy.Every Christian needs to know.Every Sunday should be a joy.

This is the Overview script for a topic in the free commentary available athttp://sites.google.com/site/freecommentaryIt is a mere summary of many ideas, and needs the full S&S commentary tosupply the back-up details.Before saying 'That point is not correct; this statement is in error', read the back-up details to each point in the full commentary.------------------

Summary: Many fallacies surround Sunday. Some people think that the Catholicchurch simply 'chose' Sunday, and that there is no Biblical evidence for Sundaygatherings of Christians. I give over a 100 reasons why that is false. Others regardSunday as a mere second-best imitation of Saturday Sabbath and so think ofSunday as a 'Christian Sabbath' and as somehow illegitimate. This overviewmerely touches on those lies, but the full commentary explores legalism,cultishness and doctrinal error in detail. If Christians understood the Biblicalbasis for Sunday as the true holy day, the divinely chosen day of the everlastingcovenant, the day more holy than Saturday, church attendance might re-becomeimporant and for better reasons.

Download a copy for your pastor!

15 Happy Birthdays on Sunday!

You go to bed on Saturday night, and you can say to yourself "tonight,the Lightof the World will be born".

Then you wake up Sunday morning and you can say "Happy birthday,God'sfirstborn son, the Light of the World, born on the first day of the week ofcreation!"

You can then look around, in the new-born light, and say "Happy birthdaycreation! You were brought to light on the first Sunday!"

You can look up and say "Happy birthday Christ, you were the Alpha at dayone,

and you will be the Omega on day eight, a Sunday".

"Happy birthday, new creation, you'll be born on day eight, a Sunday".

And then you can also say "Happy birthday church!" -- The spirit-filledchurch was thrice born on a Sunday -- first when the disciples received thespirit breathed on them,


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and when the Great commission was given on a Sunday, with authority andsigns to go with it.

and then when the spirit was poured out on Pentecost Sunday,

"Happy birthday, all you in the first resurrection, going to be born into thenew life on a Sunday".

"Happy birthday, all who are to be in the second resurrection, also born intoglory on a Sunday!"

"Happy Birthday Jesus" "Today I havebegotten thee as My Son in whom Iam well pleased.

"Happy birthdayJesus, raised on a Sunday to new earthly life",

"Happy birthdayJesus, ascended to the throne, reborn into glory into newheavenly life, on a Sunday".

"Sunday was yourVictory Day" -- not just raised from death to die again, butexalted as Conqueror over Death, never again subject to Death.

What a glorious feeling of newness, new life, happiness and celebration!

Yes, Sunday is a birthday celebration, a dozen birthday celebrations rolled intoone; a time for rejoicing in creation, in re-creation, in new birth, and in victory; inspirit and in resurrection.

Resurrection

More than one Christian resurrection happened on a Sunday, apart from Jesus

Eutychus

and John.

Baptism

More than onebaptism occurred on a Sunday

Lydia

and the Philippian jailer

Ascension

More than one ascension occurred on a Sunday

Jesus' ascension

Our ascension

Sunday, the Day of the Spirit

The Christians were there ready-gathered for Pentecost day-- that was aSunday, because the Old Testament makes it clear that Pentecost was 'the dayafter the sabbath'.

Sunday soon gets tied up with Pentecost Day spiritual gifts, and Christian


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gathering Day

Then there are several references where Pentecost and church meetingoccurred on the same page

Acts 20

1 Cor. 16

or where the practice of the spiritual gifts and (Sunday) church meetingsare treated together

1 Cor 14

Revelation 1 -- 'Revelation' is a gift at work-- It is as if Sunday was set aside as a day to practice the spiritual gifts, toremember the first passover Sunday, to keep the gifts alive.

Sunday has had multi-facetted significance from the earliest times.

Counting

I have tried to count each reason separately, since one incident might illustrateseveral reasons.

Counting to 1, 8, 15, 22, 43, 50, 500, 1000. These are all multiples of Sunday,and important in the Bible.

Day 1 is all about a New Beginning

Day 8 is all about a new beginning, after one whole old week.

Day 15 is the beginning of the third week of the month, and this is marked by theFull Moon.

The New Domestic Year on day 22

Day 22 was a High Sabbath at Atonement

Day 43 after 6 weeks of uncleanness

Month 43

Year 43

50 days and 50 years are alike

Day 50 is the day after 7 sevens

Year 500 is 'Seventy Sevens'

The Millennium is 20 Jubilees

Logic

Here are a few logical arguments to show that Sunday is the Christian Day...

We hear a great deal in the Bible about the first dayof the week

No Christian significance is given to the seventh day,

The majority of gospel references to sabbath are of Jesus breaking it

and no other day of the weekgets any airplay.

Early church history, as early as the first century, is full of references to theChristian Sunday,


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but not ofSaturday-keeping.

Sunday was called 'the Lord's day' in very early church history,

like in Revelation 1,

probably because it was the day on which the Christians gathered to eat 'theLord's supper'.

The only two times the New Testament uses that adjective 'Lord's', are thosetwo names -- the Lord's Day, and the Lord's Supper.

Passover

Passover required a Lamb or kid separated from the flock

The Sunday after Passover, was Christ's Salvation from Death just as theIsraelites were saved from Death at Passover.

Harvest Festivals and Imagery

Sunday is also a day offirst-crops &first-fruits, and thenfullharvest ingathering.

That's like day 1 and then day 8 of creation.

Firstfruits is a harvest festival, marking the early first-fruits.

Passover Sunday was Christ's Salvation from Death

Passover was Peter's Salvation Sunday, too

The Old Testament, says to present 'the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest...on the morrow after the sabbath'

The term 'first fruits' in theNew Testament is tied-in to the 'first-day' through

resurrection.1Co 15:20 But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits

of them that are asleep.

Rev 14:1-4 And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the mount Zion,and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand...the firstfruitsunto God and unto the Lamb.

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part inthe first resurrection

Christ was the First-born from the dead

Pentecost Firstfruits

Pentecost followed Passover (the first of the grain harvest), after 50 days, andrepresented the first of the fruit harvest

It was always a Sunday in the time of Christ, and the disciples were 'gatheredtogether' on Pentecost Sunday.

It marks the first mass evangelism by the apostles. Three thousand souls were'reaped' that first day of the Christian Church.


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Tabernacles Full Harvest Ingathering

The Old Testament Feast ofIngathering at Tabernacles has an eighth day, ahigh Sabbath, the most holy day after a lesser sabbath.

The gift ofthe Holy Spirit was announced on the great day of the feast oftabernacles, the eighth day.

It is like a full harvest to follow the firstfruitsRev 20:5-6 The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should befinished.

Ingathering reminds us of our resurrection day when 'we will be gatheredtogether unto him'. 'Harvest', prophesies resurrection.

Angels gather us togetherA Fellowship Meal Gathering Later

Cleansing Days

Sunday is also the time of literally 'clean' new starts. By comparison, it makesSaturday look 'unclean'.

In the Old Testament, it was quite common to set aside a full seven-days, a weekof uncleanness, before being declared clean for day 8 -- a whole new start.

The temple had a seven-day cleansing period;

so did houses with mildew;

people with leprosy

or fromblood

or with sores;

Nazirites under vow;

and even Miriam,

as if God had spat in her face.

It's even in the New Testament, where the fulfilment of a vowfollowed a weekof purification.

There are similar cleansing periods after the birth of a child,

and this theme is taken up in the New Testament, when Luke mentions a 40 dayperiod after the resurrection of Christ,before his ascension. Luke drawsattention to that Old Testament cleansing period after the birth of a son.

In Revelation the birth of the son who is to rule is described in terms of hisbeing raised to the throne of God. It therefore describes the resurrection and

ascension of Christ (after a 40 day period) rather than the birth of the babyJesus.

Circumcision

The eighth Daycircumcision, a cleansing ceremony after 7 days of beinguncircumcised,

is replaced by a heart circumcision, the spirit-cleansing.


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You can also argue that the circumcisions of Isaac,

John the Baptist

and Jesus fell on the eigth day of important feasts. These are pivotal figures inthe New Covenant of righteousness by heart circumcision.

The seven days of unleavened bread, cleansing the old yeast from the

household, gives way to the eighth day of a 'brand-new lump'-- the Christian life.

Transfiguration

The day oftransfiguration was an eighth day.

Our transfiguration will take place on our ascension day, presented clean andspotless as a bride.

Since the New Testament refers to and fulfils the Old Testament rituals ofcleansing in such ways, and just as we know that all important events are

timetabled according to the feasts of Israel, so we can deduce that Sunday ismeant to be a clean start for everyone, a great high day of ceremonial importance,of cleansing and newness.

High Sabbath

Sunday was alreadyhighly honouredin the Old Testament. Indeed, a feastSunday which followed an ordinary sabbath was called a high sabbath, anespecially holy day,

like the 8th day of tabernacles, which had started with a sabbath, and was aSabbath to follow a sabbath, a 'great' Sabbath.

like the Pentecost Sunday, the 50th day after 7 counted off weeks. You get ahigh Sunday sabbath, immediately after an ordinary sabbath.

You get the same Old Testament theme with the Jubilee announcement, thegospel good news of 'the year of God's favour'. It was the yearaftertheprevious 49 years. The so-called seven 'weeks (or sabbaths) of years' werebuilding up to the one most important year in most people' s lifetime -- it is byanalogy, the Sunday following the seventh Saturday, and was a furthersabbath year to follow an ordinary sabbath year.

In fact the Christian era itself, began when Christ said 'the Jubileeannouncement is being fulfilled as I speak',

ASecond-Advent Jubilee is hinted at in prophecy.

'Today'

The first advent Jubilee is described under the term 'Today' -- "today, if youhear his voice do not harden your hearts",

"my beloved son, today I have begotten you",

"this is the day which the Lord has made",


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"This is the dayof salvation",

with "today" called "another day", appointed after the seventh day of creation-- that is, a Sunday.

There were seven days of creation, and then the Scriptures speaks of another daycalled "today", an eighth day, a Sunday, the Christian Sunday.

Healing Meetings

Sunday is also a day of healing.

Christians began healing meetings as soon as the sabbath ended, very earlyon in the Gospels. In the synagogue, the Jews were liable to forbid healing onthe sabbath, but the crowds crowded at Jesus' door immediately the sabbathended and he healed them all.

This seems to be mentioned more than once in the Gospels -- about 6 extratimes.

=Mar 1:32-33=Mat 12:15

=Luk 13:10-14, 17

=Joh 9:14, Joh 9:35

=Mat 4:23

=Mar 3:4-7, 10

There was also a gathering 'on a one day' when Jesus healed a cripple.

Meeting on a Sunday

Sunday therefore became a day of meeting. It is quite simply untrue that Sunday

gathering was invented after the New Testament era.

You can't believe arguments that put the 'change' from Saturday to Sundayat alate date, as if to lessen Sunday worship,when you have many witnesses in theNew Testament to Christian assembly on the first day of the week.

There was an official church declaration concerning Sunday much later in churchhistory, but that can't be relevant, and it concerned the question of whether ornot to reston the Sunday. People who bring up that non-Biblical heresy, aredistracting us from the Bible, and from the relevant Biblical fact, that Christiansgathered on Sunday.

There are far more references to Christians gathering on a Sunday than yourealise.

You probably know about the gathering on resurrection Sunday,

but there is also another one a week later,

and there was also the previous Sundaywhen according to law, the Passoverlamb must be separated, when his enemies decided he should certainly bekilled.


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Anointing Sunday, when Mary anointed Jesus' body for burial

The Christians were there ready-gathered for Pentecost day-- that was aSunday, because the Old Testament makes it clear that it was 'the day afterthe sabbath'.

And there was a gathering onAscension Sunday

And don't forget the day we will be gathered unto him in the air -- A secondBiblical Christian Sunday gathering on an Ascension Sunday!

There was the prayer meeting during a later passover, for instance,

which was answered when Peter was released from prison, in a replay ofJesus beating death and emerging from its dungeon, on a Sunday.

They gathered on the first day, in Corinth.

They gathered on the first day in Troas.

The Lord's Day

Revelation 1

The day of the Lord -- Our salvation

Contrast: We have already covered 4 contrasts

Cleanness on the eighth day, after Uncleanness on a Sabbath

High Holiness on Sunday, after lesser holiness on a Sabbath

Health on Sunday, after Sickness on a Sabbath

Resurrection on Sunday, after Death on a Sabbath

..but there are 3 more...

Contrast: Celebration on Sunday with Tribulation on a Sabbath

tribulation on the sabbath.Again you can look to the Old Testament to see trouble predicted for aSabbath Day -- Because Israel had violated the sabbaths, God wouldviolate them on a sabbath, yet restore them as the dawn, the next day, aSunday.

You can say on a Sunday, "Come, Lord Jesus, come!", because when onresurrection day, Jesus returns to raise the dead, it is figuratively aSunday, the day following the tribulation on the sabbath.

This is our salvation day, as earlier it was his.

Contrast: Restoration and Rebuilding on Sunday with Destruction and Exileon a Sabbath

Contrast: Rest on Sunday with Labour on a Sabbath

We look forward to the High Sabbath Rest yet to comeTribulation and labour followed by resurrection new-life, is all birth-imagery, an


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image of sudden change and maximal contrast.

So Sunday is birthday, is clean, is high, is holy, is Biblical and prophetic, is spirit,is resurrection and is Christian.

The Distinct Day

The Sunday was most especiallydistinctlynon-Jewish -- like other non-Jewish Christian practices, such as notusing a Jewish head-veil, notmourning the dead in Christ, notcircumcising, notkeeping the Law of Moses,notcondemning by the letter of the Law, notgiving alms in public, notpraying in public, notsacrificing, not requiring the temple, notclinging toJerusalem, notexcluding the Gentiles, notrejecting Jesus, notrejecting thespirit.

The Sunday was distinctly Christian,God seemed to want a cleardistinction, a new wine skin, a new piece of clothing,

including a distinctlyChristian day.Sunday-keeping will again be an issue in the End-Times.

Now that was a super-quick overview of some (140) of the Biblical reasons forwhy Christians meet on Sunday.

You don't have to celebrate Sundayas if it were a Jewish legal sabbath. It is not.I am not wanting you to replace one legalism with a second legalism; but I wantto let you know why Sundayis special, and why it is Christian. I would be happyto see you in church or out of church on a Sunday, or taking a day off, or nottaking a day off. But I do want you to enjoy Sundays. And, very importantly, I dowant to warn you against any cultish propaganda that Saturday was a proper'Christian' day or that you 'certainly' 'must have' a day of rest, or that you 'mustattend church on Sundays'. The seventh day is certainly not the full story, eitherin the Old Testament or in the New; and legalism is certainly not the Way ofChrist.

Of course you can expect some people always to be a killjoy -- they will argue,they will quibble, they will say 'no that wasn't a Sunday' or 'it was actually aSaturday' -- so I have given over 66 times the legal witnesses required to establishthe Biblical precedent for the Christian Sunday. By the time you quibble thatsome appear to be double counted, and some depend upon others, and thisexpert or that comes to a different conclusion, you will still be left with far morethan two or three completely reliable Biblical witnesses. And my question is 'Whyhaven't these so-called experts told you this much already?' There are modernJews who have a vested interest in interpreting their feast days in an anti-Christian manner; there are cults with a vested interest in interpreting Saturdayworship and commandment keeping into even the New Testament Scriptures;and not even the church itself has a great record of specifying the religiouscalendar (like Easter or Christmas) on the correct dates; so I want to give younew arguments, which could at least stand alongside any other Biblical


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interpretations.

For the full details, get hold of a copy of Smith and Smith Comparative ScriptureCommentaries. Download a copy for your pastor!

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