Letter To the Editor, printed 10/13/05, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Saranac Lake, NY

I'm responding to Anne Fitch's letter printed Sept. 28, wherein she suggests eliminating Sunday organized sports, claiming Sunday as the 7th-day Sabbath. My family also keeps a weekly "date" because of love for our Creator and Savior. However, I ask no law be made to force my beliefs upon others.

Further, if Sunday is the 7th day, then Resurrection Sunday (Easter) falls on the wrong day! The Bible says that Jesus' resurrection was on the 1st day of the week (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:1,2,9; Luke 23:56-24:1; John 20:1). Historically, Sunday was not the day God claimed as His own in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11), was not the day Jesus or the apostles kept holy (Mark 2:27,28; Luke 4:16, Acts 13:42,44; 17:2; 18:4), and was not likely the day the apostle John referred to as "the Lord's Day" in Revelation 1:10, for he was writing about Jesus' Second Advent and Judgment Day, the "Day of the Lord" (Mal 4:5; Acts 2:20; I Cor 1:8; 5:5; Phil 1:6; I Thes 5:2; II Peter 3:10; Rev 6:17; 16:14).

Emperor Constantine the Great led the Roman Church in taking the final step in transition from the 7th day to the 1st day (Sunday) in 321 A.D. Three factors prompted the change: anti-Judaism and the 7th-day Sabbath outlawed after 135 A.D., the influence of Roman sun cults which kept their sun god's "sun day", and a desire to distance the Christian Church from Judaism to gain acceptance in a pagan Roman Empire ("From Saturday to Sunday," Signs of the Times. p14, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Oct 2005).

Christians who base their beliefs upon the Bible alone keep the 7th day from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday (Nehemiah 13:19), as did the Lord Jesus Christ, a Jew. In performing miracles of healing and redemption on the Sabbath, Jesus affirmed it as a day of good news and salvation (Isaiah 58:13; Matt 12:10-12; Mark 3:4; Luke 13:14-17; John 5:8,9; 9:14). Jesus rested on the 7th day as a memorial to His work of Creation (Gen 2:2,3), and then rested in the tomb on the 7th day as a memorial to His work of redemption (John 19:30; Luke 23:54-56).

"Some Christians have erroneously called Sunday the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is, by definition, the 7th day of the week. Furthermore, some Christians suggest that the Bible teaches that Sunday has replaced Saturday and serves as a "Christian Sabbath." But admittedly, this is nowhere clearly taught in the Bible." BAPTIST FAITH AND MESSAGE: Article 8: The Lord's Day. By Hershael York, Baptist Press, Aug 26, 2002.

"[There is] no escape for the conscientious Protestant except the abandonment of Sunday worship and the return to Saturday, commanded by the Bible, or, unwilling to abandon the tradition of the Catholic Church, which enjoins the keeping of Sunday….consistently accept [Catholicism] in all her teachings….Compromise is impossible." Catholic Mirror. Dec 23, 1893.

James Dwyer,
Seventh-day Adventist
Saranac Lake