Question from another Facebook group on the Sabbath day:

"God created heaven and earth and He rested on the seventh day of the week and made it a day of worship so why do people go to church on sunday?"

McCann reply:

If only questions asked in this group were asked from a sincere place of curiosity. But oh, well.

Yes, God made the 7th day (Saturday) the Sabbath day from the beginning of the creation all the way until Christ rose from the dead early Sunday (1st day) morning.

In the original Greek text, Matthew 28:1 speaks of this change in Sabbaths. I'll give the literal rendering from the Greek: "In the end of the Sabbaths, as it began to dawn towards the first of the Sabbaths".

In this verse we see that the series of 7th day Sabbaths ended. And a new series of Sabbaths began – at the point of Jesus' resurrection on Sunday morning.

Why the change? Because the 7th day Sabbath rest (do no work) pointed to the fact that those who become saved are not saved by their own works, but are saved by the atoning work of Christ performed on their behalf.

Therefore, once Christ completed that work of demonstration by dying and rising from the dead – the spiritual meaning of the 7th day Sabbath was fulfilled and God ended it.

He then instituted the 1st day (Sunday) Sabbath for the N.T. era. The character of the 1st day/Sunday Sabbath is different than the O.T. 7th day Sabbath.

For the N.T. Sunday Sabbath the emphasis is placed upon Christ's finished work and the carrying of the message (bringing the Gospel) of that finished work to the nations. The Jews of the O.T. were never commissioned with a task to send out the Gospel to the nations of that time. But the Christians of the N.T. were. And as a result, the N.T. Sunday Sabbath is one wherein intense spiritual work is performed.

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