Observations concerning the First Day

Several observations are in order in light of our study and the Word of God pertaining to the first day of the week.

1. God did not sanctify or decree the first day of our week as a Sabbath.
2. Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week. We cannot be sure that this day correlates with our Sunday.
3. Jesus’ disciples met on the first day of the week.
4. History records that the early church met on the first day of the week for worship.
5. Constantine decreed Sunday as a national day of rest and worship in _A.D.321. The Roman Catholic Church later adopted this day as a day of rest and worship. Later, Catholics and Protestants transferred many Jewish regulations concerning the seventh-day Sabbath to Sunday.
6. Many Protestants rejected the rules of the seventh-day Jewish Sabbath as applying to the first day of the week, although they met for worship on this day.
7. Most modern employers, the government, and the schools give the people the first day of the week off. This is a matter of custom and tradition, allowing for a time of physical rest.
8. There are no biblical regulations relating to our first day fo the week. Resting or worshiping on the first day of the eek is not indication that we are bound by Roman Catholicism. Whatever our activities may be, they do not exalt this day above the other six days. Many people have Sunday off, school is out, most churches have services, and since we believe in attending church whenever it is announced, we go. (See Hebrews 10:25).
9. Some teach that during the great tribulation the Beast (Antichrist) will declare our Sunday as a national day of worship, and if people refuse to worship on Sunday they will be killed. In Scripture, however, doom is not predicated upon worshiping or not worshiping on a Sunday, but upon receiving the Beast’s mark or refusing to worship the image of the Beast (Revelation 13:15-18; 14:9-11). Worshiping on Sunday or any other day is not going to make someone a follower of the Beast.