Why Is Sunday The Day That Most Christians Worship? (Jesus, ritual)

jacquie4000 · #1 12-16-2006, 10:05 PM

I am confussed I have looked a few places and they all seem to have different views.
This is just one of them. Plus who decided which was the first day of the week? And where does it state the actual day anywhere?

Sunday is the first day of the week. The division of time into seven-day weeks is traditional, and having weekly days of rest is specifically a gift of the Jews.

The seven-day week as we understand it was, if not originated, at least definitively justified by the Jews. Genesis 2:3 points out that the seventh day was the day on which God rested from creation, and the Law of Moses mandates that the seventh day is to be a day of rest for all - including slaves and even animals (Deuteronomy 5:13-14). In Jewish tradition, Saturday is the Sabbath, and certain Christian bodies keep this strict seventh-day sabbatarianism (notably the Seventh-Day Adventists).
But (as Christians believe) Christ was raised on the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), after the Sabbath was over. Because of this, Christians traditionally have their primary worship events on Sunday, and the Mosaic sabbatarian regulations were gradually transferred to Sunday among the vast majority of Christians. Nowadays, both Saturday and Sunday are seen as days of rest, and some calendars show Monday as the first day of the week since it's the first day of the "working week" (Monday-Friday only). You may be familiar with "seven to ten working days" which essentially means two weeks.

I am sure I am missing something so some help would be nice.

Jaiket · #2 12-16-2006, 10:11 PM

There's nothin good on telly, and when you're hungover you can always excuse doing the housework by insisting on prayer. It's quiet, easy, and you can fake it (and sleep)

.

Scott1 · #3 12-16-2006, 10:31 PM

Check here: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm

Quote:

Sunday was the first day of the week according to the Jewish method of reckoning, but for Christians it began to take the place of the Jewish Sabbath in Apostolic times as the day set apart for the public and solemn worship of God. The practice of meeting together on the first day of the week for the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is indicated in Acts, xx 7; I Cor., xvi, 2; in Apoc., i, 10, it is called the Lord's day. In the Didache (xiv) the injunction is given: "On the Lord's Day come together and break bread. And give thanks (offer the Eucharist), after confessing your sins that your sacrifice may be pure". St. Ignatius (Ep. ad Magnes. ix) speaks of Christians as "no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also Our Life rose again". In the Epistle of Barnabas (xv) we read: "Wherefore, also, we keep the eight day (i. e. the first of the week) with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead".

jacquie4000 · #4 12-16-2006, 10:34 PM

Thanks for the link.

jacquie4000 · #5 12-16-2006, 10:52 PM

I get this but I guess I did not say enough when you read the beginning of the bible how does one know what day God started on? He created it in six days and rested on the seventh. Who knows what day he started? Again maybe this is a stupid question.

Katzpur · #6 12-16-2006, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacquie4000

I get this but I guess I did not say enough when you read the beginning of the bible how does one know what day God started on? He created it in six days and rested on the seventh. Who knows what day he started? Again maybe this is a stupid question.

I don't think it's a stupid question at all. I've wondered the same thing myself (which is probably why I don't think it's stupid

). I think the reason Sunday became the day of worship for most Christians is that after Christ's resurrection, his disciples began to gather together on the weekly anniversary of the day on which He rose, in commemoration of that event.

Scott1 · #7 12-16-2006, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacquie4000

I get this but I guess I did not say enough when you read the beginning of the bible how does one know what day God started on? He created it in six days and rested on the seventh. Who knows what day he started? Again maybe this is a stupid question.

I think we sorta molded our calendar as a "good guess" around the seven day concept and the Jews (or whatever early people began using this system) decided that Saturday was the seventh day or sabbath.

Scuba Pete · #8 12-16-2006, 11:29 PM

It started in the first century along with a number of traditions:

Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. NIV

Of course, Jesus rose on the first day of the week:

John 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) NIV