Why Very Few Christians Today Go to Church on the Same Day the Earliest Church Did

 We're Christians, not Jews. That should seem obvious, but for some people they want to constantly go back to the lesser covenant of the old covenant. The old covenant is the covenant that redeems some amoral things in creation but not others. The new covenant, however, redeems the whole world, i.e., every day, not just some days, every food, not just some foods, every drink, not just some drinks, etc. But some just don't get it, so they want to create a new covenant version of the old covenant that is just as restricted as the old covenant even though the new covenant is an expansion rather than limited to the restrictions.

One of the ways they do this is by arguing that Sunday must be attended by all Christians or they somehow are not faithful Christians. Now, let me be clear. The new covenant requires people to serve one another in love by getting together, to be discipled by elders who call meetings, and those meetings and fellowships need to be attended if you are able to do so. If one is able but simply chooses to not come and be discipled on a regular basis then I would say that he is not only a Christian in sin but maybe not a Christian at all.

But the new covenant expands the redemption that is in Christ to all created things, so that no specific day is required by anyone to meet upon simply because the day is somehow holier than any other day. In fact, the New Testament never gives a command to attend church on Sunday. Instead, it tells us that they met on Sundays and it tells us that they met every single day. But description must subject itself to prescription when Paul states in Romans 14:

One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. (Rom 14:1-14)

Again, in Colossians 2:

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival celebration or a monthly holiday or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Col 2:13-17)

In both of these passages we see that Christians are free to celebrate or not celebrate whatever days they see fit. This is because the Christian is redeemed. Everything a Christian does as a Christian is redeemed because he is redeemed. He doesn’t need to force himself under a law of specific practices to redeem anything. He will simply be redeemed and therefore redeem everything he does by virtue of gratefully partaking in creation. Like a man with chalk on his hands, he gets his redemption on everything by virtue of just touching it in worship of God. That means there is no day, food, way of doing this or that or the other thing that must be partaken of specifically because all amoral things can be redeemed, thus giving Christians a world of options to practice in their customs.

But what of Sunday? Again, it is the day we often call people to come be discipled and fellowship because we commemorate the Lord rising from the dead that day, as the early church did. So the elders call an assembly on that day, but they also call assemblies on other days to do the same thing and all should come because of that, not because the day in and of itself is more redeemed than other days, as though those who partake in this day will be more sanctified and blessed than those who do not.

Furthermore, those who would argue that this day should be observed because what we see in the New Testament as descriptive should also be prescriptive fail to understand what day the church is meeting. It is Sunday for them, but not Sunday for us. Let me explain.

It becomes clear as one reads the New Testament, especially in Acts, that the earliest church was meeting on Sunday to celebrate the communion and fellowship Christ had with the disciples on the night of Passover as well as the time he rose from the dead on Sunday morning, which is early in the morning before the sun rises. It is at night that the supper takes place. It is at night that they go from the upper room of that fellowship and communion to sing songs as they walk to the garden and it is at night when they arrest the Lord. It is still dark (i.e., at night) when the Lord rises in the morning. This means that the earliest church was meeting on early Sunday, which in the Jewish understanding of a day is at 6pm on Saturday night. This is why the communion is a supper and not a breakfast. They would often meet on what is to us Saturday evening and go into the early morning on Sunday after which the day often proceeded like any other day.

For instance, in Acts 20, Luke relates the following scene.

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. (Acts 20:7–9).

The first day of the week is Sunday, but notice that Paul is talking to them and goes to midnight. They had already many lamps lit because the night we are referring to here is Saturday night in our configuration of the days. Paul didn't start talking in the morning and not finish until midnight. He started in the night and finished during the night of the first day of the week. But notice, Paul was going to depart the next day. Verse 11 states:

And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed.

So Paul talks even longer and then he departs in the morning at the next daybreak after that evening as the text states also in v. 7. But also notice that they break the bread of the communion after midnight in the early hours of the morning before daybreak, which means that the day Paul departs on, the morning he leaves and travels because it's no longer "Sunday meeting time" is Sunday morning. If one does not take it this way but suggests that the evening in which they are meeting is on our Sunday evening (which in the Jewish configuration would end at 6pm, the service would actually have been held on Monday, the second day of the week (and this would be true in any configuration because he doesn't break bread with them until after midnight). Hence, communion would have been given on Monday.

This isn't consistent with the text that says he gathered with them on the first day of the week to break bread. This means that they are meeting on Saturday night, which is their early Sunday, not Sunday morning.

If one is to see the description as prescriptive and follow a regulative principle then most modern Christians have never actually attended a Sunday assembly in their lives unless they showed up to some Saturday night service.

By their own words they will be condemned if they have condemned others for doing the same. These who judge others over special days but who feel fine to dismiss meetings called by elders will incur a greater condemnation.

However, this is not prescriptive because any time can be redeemed and made holy to the Lord whenever the elders call the assembly, so one can meet on Sunday morning, i.e., our Sunday morning, or Sunday evening, or Saturday evening, or Tuesday evening, or Thursday morning or afternoon, etc. because Christians are not under the old covenant which restricts the times that can be made holy. They are under the new covenant which redeems the entirety of time, food, amoral customs, etc. Only under this understanding can one continue to meet on our Sunday mornings without violating any prescriptions in the New Testament.

This is why one can observe all days or one day or no days. He can eat all foods, some foods, or fast. He can wear clothing of any one fabric, all fabrics, or any mixture therein. Any holiday can be redeemed or left uncelebrated.

But whenever the elders call a meeting, if the Christian is able bodied, he needs to be there. That is not because the day is special but because the calling of the assembly, upon whatever day that may be, is. 

Unfortunately, a Pharisaical hypocrisy rules our day where ritual replaces true devotion, man-made traditions trump genuine obedience. For instance, I had people mad at me for not being able to attend Sunday morning as a sick person, but they themselves did not attend the Tuesday evening Bible studies they were called to attend by the majority of elders. Ironically, they were the ones who were actually in sin. Again, by their standard of measure they shall be measured. But have no doubt, all things a Christian touches are redeemed because he is redeemed, not because they are holy in and of themselves.