Chapter VII: The Christian’s Day of Worship

Christians are taught to worship on the first day of the week. “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gathering when I come” (1 Cor. 16:1, 2). The last phrase in this quotation shows that Paul did not refer to merely laying aside some money at home but rather to putting money into a common treasury. This definitely implies that the church was accustomed to meeting on the first day of the week. The purpose of this weekly assembling was to eat the Lord’s supper. They were rebuked for allowing something to interfere with this holy purpose (1 Cor. 11:20-26).

The importance of this assembling on the first day of the week to eat the Lord’s supper is clearly revealed. “... and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as ye see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:24, 25). Under the guidance of the inspired apostle the church at Troas also met to eat the Lord’s supper on the first day of the week. “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7).

Seventh Day Adventists teach that the Catholic Church changed the sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and challenge the public to cite the Scripture which says that the first day of the week is the sabbath. _There is no such scripture. The first day of the week is not the sabbath! It is the day on which Christians ought to eat the Lord’s supper._ It is a day of _worship_, not necessarily a day of _rest_. Neither _rest_ nor _work_ should be allowed to interfere with a Christian’s _worship_ on the first day of the week. We have met today to eat the Lord’s supper by the authority of the Scriptures cited above and not by the authority of any church. Christians were eating the Lord’s supper on the first day of the week several hundred years before the Roman Catholic Church came into existence. I hereby challenge the Sabbatarians to furnish even one word of Bible authority for eating the Lord’s supper on Saturday.