Is The Lord's Day Saturday or Sunday?

• Introduction:

          -The observance of the Sabbath, originally instituted by God in the Old Testament, was intended as a day of rest from physical labor and an opportunity for His people to focus on worshiping Him. The term "Sabbath" originates from the Hebrew word shabbat, meaning "rest" or "cessation." This is first used in Genesis 2:2–3, where God "rested" on the seventh day after the work of creation. The idea of "rest" here conveys more than physical inactivity. It symbolizes completeness and divine satisfaction.

          -This command to abstain from physical labor is later formalized in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:8–11), where the Sabbath is explicitly tied to God's rest following creation. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) translates the term "Sabbath" as sabbaton, which retains the meaning of cessation and rest.
          -Notably, the prohibition of work on the Sabbath did not extend to acts of necessity or mercy. Jesus Himself highlighted this principle in Matthew 12:1–12, where He clarified the spirit of the Sabbath law, showing that compassion supersedes ritual. For Christians, the observance of the Sabbath as a covenantal sign (Exodus 31:13) is no longer binding under the New Covenant. The Apostle Paul, writing in Greek, uses the term sabbata in Colossians 2:16–17, explaining that the Sabbath, along with other ceremonial observances, was a "shadow" of things to come, with the reality being found in Christ.

• Sabbath Worship Nowhere Mentioned In The New Testament:

          -The New Testament restates nine of the Ten Commandments. Worshiping God properly covers the first three. Six deal with proper conduct toward other people. However, the Sabbath is the missing one. Why did the apostles not mention that commandment? The reason is that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8), and He is our rest (Hebrews 4). The Sabbath rest of the Old Testament was only temporary, whereas the rest we have in Christ is of eternal value.

• What Is The Purpose Of Sunday Worship?:

          -Christians have historically gathered on Sunday, referred to as the "Lord's Day" (Kyriake hemera) in Revelation 1:10, to commemorate Jesus' resurrection. In Acts 20:7, we find early Christians meeting on the first day of the week for worship and the breaking of bread, a practice that became a central aspect of Christian tradition. However, Christians do not have a Sabbath to observe like the Jewish people.

• Is Sunday Observance Custom Or Dogma?:

          -The idea of Christians gathering on Sunday can be traced back as early as the Didache (early second century). However, it is still not an inspired document like the writings of the New Testament. It therefore does not carry the same weight or authority in the development of doctrine. Further, it is never appropriate practice to take statements from later sources and treat them as representative of earlier time periods. We should start with the New Testament as our earliest source for doctrine and then move onward to evaluate what later writers believed. 

          -It is totally fair to disagree with assertions made by patristic authors, as we do not have to accept ideas just because they were believed to be true in prior eras. They are subjective opinions without an objective standard (e.g. Scripture) to evaluate them and are not inherently authoritative. The statements of patristic writers ought to be put into their proper place. In all fairness, one disagreeing with such positions should explain why his position is correct or better.

          -Sunday worship is special and important to certain people, but that does not mean it is something that God commanded us to do. The only thing that the New Testament exhorts us to do is to assemble ourselves together. It does not specify which day of the week that is to be done. Custom does not translate into dogma. If the fact that the apostles gathered themselves together on Sunday to honor Christ means that we are allowed to do so only on that day, then does it follow that we can only celebrate communion in the evening, since the New Testament records the apostles doing so at that time?

• How Often Should We Celebrate Communion?:

          -The New Testament does not identify a specific time when Christians are to partake of the communion meal. Notice how the Apostle Paul recorded a statement of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 11:25: "Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." We can infer from those words that we have been given some degree of flexibility. The frequency of participating in the communion meal is not as important as our state of heart when we do it. We should observe the Lord's Supper often enough to make it a vital part of our ongoing worship services. To partake of the meal too frequently would be to reduce it to an empty ritual. To partake of communion in too seldom of a manner would cause people to forget the significance of Jesus Christ's work.