Sabbath or Sunday

The Bible verses below will help you learn who changed the Sabbath to Sunday.

You can also find more verses about the Sabbath →Read here – The Sabbath Day

Did Christ Change the Sabbath?

• Matthew 5:17, 18 – Wicked persons in the time of Christ were tempted to accuse Him of changing the law of God; but He read their thoughts and rebuked them for it before the words were spoken
• John 5:10-19 – The Jews sought to kill Jesus because He healed the sick upon the Sabbath day
• John 9:14-16 – They thought He was not of God because He healed on the Sabbath day
• Matthew 12:10-12 – The Savior referred them to the Scripture, stating that it was lawful to do acts of mercy on the Sabbath day, thus recognizing the Sabbath law
• John 15:10 – Jesus repudiated every charge of breaking the Sabbath by declaring that He kept his Father’s commandments
• Mark 7:6-12 – He refused to honor “tradition of men” substituted for God’s law.
• Isaiah 42:21 – The prophet Isaiah, looking down through the ages to the time of Christ, said that He would “magnify the law and make it honorable”
• Luke 4:16 – Jesus kept the Sabbath
• Matthew 24:20 – He taught His disciples to honor it
• Luke 23:54-56 – His followers kept it: Jesus never changed the Sabbath

Did the Disciples Change the Sabbath?

• Genesis 2:2, 3 - It was the seventh day of the week that was first sanctified and set apart as the Sabbath of the Lord.
• Exodus 20:8-11 – It was the same seventh day that the followers of the Savior kept while He lay dead in Joseph’s new tomb (Luke 23:54-56)
• Mark 16:1, 2 – The Sabbath of the New Testament comes on the day before the first day of the week
• Luke 23: 54-56, Luke 24:1 – From these verses we see that the Sabbath of the New Testament was the day between Friday, the preparation day, and Sunday, the first of the week
• Acts 13:14, 15, 42-44 – Paul preached in Ephesus on the Sabbath day
• Acts 16:12, 13 – Worked in Philippi opened with the Sabbath service
• Acts 17:2 – Thessalonica church had Sabbath service
• Acts 18:4, 11 – For one and a half years Paul held Sabbath services in Corinth
• Acts 28:17 – If the apostles had not kept the seventh-day Sabbath, Paul could not have said that they had done nothing against the customs of the Jews
• Acts 15:21 – As late as the year 52 A.D., 21 years this side of the cross, in every city the Scriptures were “read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.” This Sabbath day was the same day that had been kept from the days of Moses
• Acts 13:42, 44 - The Jews and believing Gentiles kept the same day for the Sabbath. There si no mention in the New Testament of any change of the Sabbath to the first day of the week. The disciples did not change the Sabbath

Who Changed the Sabbath to Sunday?

The following is taken from the “Catholic Christian Instructed,” 17th edition revised and corrected. pp. 272, 273:

Question: What warrant have you for keeping Sunday preferably to the ancient Sabbath which was Saturday?

Answer: We have for it the authority of the Catholic Church, and apostolic tradition.

Question: Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?

Answer: The Scripture commands us to hear the church (St. Matthew 18:17; Luke 10:16), and to hold fast the traditions of the apostles. 2 Thessalonians 2:15. But the Scripture does not in particular mention this change of Sabbath.

St. John speaks of the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10); but he does not tell us what day of the week this was, much less does he tell us what day was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandments. St. Luke speaks of the disciples meeting together to break bread on the first day of the week. Acts 20:7. And St. Paul (1 Corinthians 6:2) orders that on the first day of the week the Corinthians should lay by in store what they designed to bestow in charity on the faithful in Judea; but neither the one nor the other tells us that this first day of the week was to be henceforth a day of worship, and the Christian Sabbath; so that truly, the best authority we have for this ancient custom is the testimony of the church. And therefore, those who pretend to be such religious observers of Sunday, whilst they take no notice of other festivals ordained by the same church authority, show that they act more by humor, than by reason and religion; since Sundays and holidays all stand upon the same foundation, namely, the ordinance of the church.”

The “Doctrinal Cathechism,” pp. 174, 352, offers proof that Protestants are not guided by the Scriptures. We present two of the questions and answers:

Question: Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?

Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, —she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority.

Question: When protestants do profane work on Saturday, or the seventh day of the week, do they follow the Scriptures as their only rule of faith—do they find this permission clearly laid down in the Sacred Volume?

Answer: On the contrary, they have only the authority of tradition for this practise. In profaning Saturday, they violate one of God’s commandments, which He has never clearly abrogated,—’Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day’.

Source: S. N. Haskell, Bible Handbook, pp.84, 85.