When Did They Worship? by E. J. W.

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 31, 1883

When Did They Worship?

By E. J. W.

MUCH stress is laid by the advocates of Sunday observance, upon the statement made by some modern historians that the early Christians met for worship on the first day of the week. This argument is their stronghold; in fact, it is the only hold they have, for, as many of them will admit, the Bible does not command or authorize the observance of that day.

Now we do not regard it as of the slightest consequence, as far as our duty is concerned, whether some of the early Christians met on Sunday or on Monday, or whether they refrained from meeting at all. We do not remember that the Bible sets up any man or set of men as patterns for the rest of mankind. In short, we depend for the knowledge of our duty upon what the Bible says, and not upon what some one did. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” says the prophet; and another inspired writer says that “there is none that doeth good; no, not one;” but we know that “the words of the Lord are pure words,” and that man is to live by “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” There is no man who is not liable to err; the Bible alone is infallible. In regard to the Scriptures, we hold to the faith of the primitive Methodists, and the published belief of the later Methodists, that “whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.” This is why we do not keep Sunday on the authority of tradition.

But this does not answer the question at the head of this article. If, therefore, we were asked to give a definite answer to the question, “Upon what day did the earliest Christians meet to worship?” we would say without hesitation that the Bible Christians worshiped on, and kept holy, the seventh day of the week, commonly known as Saturday—the day which the Jews have observed since they existed as a nation. That there were some who did not keep the Bible Sabbath but yielded to the custom of the heathen around them, and partially observed Sunday, we have not the slightest doubt. There are always those who want to have religion popular; those who are glad to make themselves believe that what the majority does is right. It was in this way that Sunday observance was instituted; it is largely in this way that it is maintained.

We say that it would make no difference as far as our duty is concerned, whether some of the early Christians met on Sunday or not. So long as the Bible says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work,” we are under obligations to keep the seventh day. The fact that others do wrong will not justify us in a wrong course.

But we are far from believing that the apostles taught their converts, either Jewish or Gentile, to observe any other than the seventh day of the week. We derive this opinion from the Bible; but a little incidental testimony has lately come under our notice, that may be of interest to some. We were reading in Conybeare and Howson’s “Life and Epistles of Paul,” the account of his labors at Corinth, as told in Acts 16:1–18. It will be remembered that when the Jews rejected Paul’s teaching, he left them, and went to the Gentiles. Being driven out of the synagogue, “he entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.” Of this act the book above mentioned says:—

“Whatever we may surmise concerning the motive of this choice, certain consequences must have followed from the contiguity of the house and the synagogue, and some incident resulting from it may have suggested the mention of the fact. The Jewish and Christian congregations would often meet face to face in the street, and all the success of the gospel would become more palpable and conspicuous.”

Mark well this sentence: “The Jewish and Christian congregations would often meet face to face in the street.” When did the Jews congregate for worship? On the seventh day, as everybody knows. So well settled is this fact that the seventh day is very commonly spoken of as the “Jewish Sabbath,” or, to indicate the contempt felt for it, “The Old Jewish Sabbath.” Then on what day must the Corinthian Christians have met for worship, in order to meet the Jewish congregations face to face in the street? On the seventh day, of course. Here we have the opinion of these historians, themselves first-day men, as to the day on which Christians were accustomed to worship. To be sure the testimony is incidental, but it is all the more forcible on that account.

Our opponents usually say, when confronted with such texts as Acts 13:42, 44; 16:13; 17:2, and 18:4, that the apostles preached on the Sabbath in order that they might reach the Jews, who assembled on that day. But in this case Paul had ceased to labor for the Jews, and was preaching only to the Gentiles, in the house of a Gentile.

“But,” some one will now say, “this testimony that you have quoted is not Bible; it is only the opinion of fallible men.” And is it the case, then, that testimony of men is good when it favors Sunday observance, and worthless when it is unfavorable to that custom? When men come to such a conclusion, testimony or argument is useless. We admit that the paragraph which we quote is only the opinion of a man, but it is the testimony of a man who is not a believer in the seventh-day Sabbath, and as such is entitled to far more credence than are the mere opinions of first-day men in favor of Sunday observance.

In conclusion we will briefly state a point from the Bible, which will prove that this opinion is correct; that Paul did worship on the seventh-day Sabbath. Sometime after Paul’s labors in Corinth, he returned to Jerusalem, where he was seized by the Jews, and put on trial for his life. He was accused of sedition, and of seeking to overthrow the customs of the Jews. In his reply he expressly stated (Acts 24:14), that he believed “all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.” Then certainly he believed that the seventh day is the Sabbath, for that is a very prominent part of the law and the prophets. And Paul was not a man to act contrary to his belief. In a later discourse he said: “I have committed nothing against the people, or the customs of our fathers.” One custom of the “fathers” among the Jews, was to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Now when Paul says that he had done nothing contrary to those customs, who dare dispute his word, and say that he violated the Sabbath? We never lay any stress on “apostolic practice;” nevertheless we are content to follow their practice in regard to Sabbath observance.

E. J. W.