From: fostma@saturn.wwc.edu (Mark Gregory Foster) Subject: Re: Sabbath Admissions 5of5 Organization: Walla Walla College Lines: 60 In article dlecoint@garnet.acns.fsu.edu (Darius_Lecointe) writes: [FAQ and Darius' response deleted] >Darius >[It's not clear how much more needs to be said other than the FAQ. I >think Paul's comments on esteeming one day over another (Rom 14) is >probably all that needs to be said. I accept that Darius is doing >what he does in honor of the Lord. I just wish he might equally >accept that those who "esteem all days alike" are similarly doing >their best to honor the Lord. I am myself an SDA and I am in total agreement with what Darius has to say. I also worship on Saturday to honor the Lord. Your mention of "[esteeming] all days alike" IMO has to do with the fast days observed by the Jews. But no matter how you interpret that passage, I do accept your worship on Sunday as being done in honor of the Lord, in contrast with what many of my fellow SDA believers may believe. To me, though, the bible overwhelmingly points to Saturday as the day to be kept in honor of creation and of God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. To those who would attempt to point out that my observance of Saturday is being legalistic, this is simply not the case. Rather, keeping Saturday allows me a full day to rest and contemplate God's goodness and grace. > >However I'd like to be clear that I do not think there's unambiguous >proof that regular Christian worship was on the first day. As I >indicated, there are responses on both of the passages cited. >Similarly with 1 Cor 16:2. It says >that on the first day they should set aside money for Paul's >collection. Now if you want to believe that they gathered specially >to do this, or that they did it in their homes, I can't disprove it, >but the obvious time for a congregation to take an offering would be >when they normally gather for worship, and if they were expected to do >it in their homes there would be no reason to mention a specific day. The idea was introduced to me once that the reason Paul wanted the Corinthians to lay aside money for the collection on the first day of the week was because that was when they received their weekly wages. Paul wanted them to lay aside money for the collection as first priority, before spending their money on other things. I do not have any proof in front of me for this though, although it would explain why they would lay aside money in their homes instead of a meeting. >So I think the most obvious reading of this is that "on the first day >of every week" simply means every time they gather for worship. > >I think the reason we have only implications and not clear statements >is that the NT authors assumed that their readers knew when Christian >worship was. It would seem to me that you assume that the christians in the NT regularly worshipped on the first day. I assume that the christians in the NT regularly worshipped on the seventh day. But I agree with you that we only have implications because the authors did assume the reader knew when worhip was. --Mark