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POSTED 28 JULY, 2002
Is
Sunday "the Lord's Day"?
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
It appears on countless church bulletins,
newsletters, and is frequently referred to by
many Christians, both Protestants and Catholics.
It is “the Lord’s Day,” believed to be Sunday
when most Christians believe that Yeshua the
Messiah (Jesus Christ) was resurrected from the
dead.[1]
Because of Yeshua resurrecting from the dead on
this day, Christians assemble in worship, some
to obey the Forth Commandment: “Remember the
sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11;
Deuteronomy 5:12). Other Christians believe that
the Fourth Commandment has been annulled and are
of the position that they should observe Sunday,
as was the pattern of the Second and Third
Century Church.
We as Messianic Believers come into direct contrast with many
Christians because we do not observe this “Lord’s Day,” as they
call it. We keep the Biblical seventh-day Sabbath or
Shabbat
(tBv),
the day of rest that God established for His people going back
to the start of human history (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:11).
Some uninformed Christians may accuse us of being legalistic
about Shabbat, perhaps implying that because we do not
assemble on Sunday, as they do, that we cannot be true
Believers. (Many others simply do not understand what
Shabbat
is all about.) Various claims issued against us can be very
serious because we do believe in the shed blood of the
Messiah as being our sin covering, and that salvation comes by
grace through faith. However, obeying God should come as fruit
of a true conversion experience. Christians who accuse
Messianics who keep God’s Sabbath as not being “saved” are on
extremely dangerous ground—coming against things that He, not
man, has established. Messianics today keep the Sabbath because
Yeshua Himself did!
It has never been my position to criticize Christians unfairly
or “attack back,” as do some Messianics when Christians tell
them that they are “trying to earn their salvation” or somehow
committing sacrilege, often relating to Shabbat.
However,
we do have a very definite position on why we should keep
the Biblical Sabbath, and not “the Lord’s Day” as instituted by
those who came after our Lord. This needs to be discussed
in a fair and reasonable manner, where Messianics are given a
hearing.
Let us detail what the Creator God has established for humanity,
and answer some of the major claims given by Christians as to
why we should not keep the Biblical Sabbath. We will examine the
fact that Messiah Yeshua’s atoning work does not annul the
Sabbath, and why He did not break it during His ministry on
Earth. We will also discuss why Sunday, or the first day, is not
really “the Lord’s Day.”
End of sample excerpt.
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J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
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