The Worship Day Dilemma

A cornerstone belief in our Seventh-day Adventist community is the Sabbath. We attend

church and promote worship on the seventh-day Sabbath rather than being like mainstream

Christianity and believing that the day of worship has changed to Sunday. This belief has

historically caused friction with other Christian groups and has even led some Seventh-day

Adventists to assert that Sunday worship is "the mark of the beast." Although these SDA

accusations towards other Christians have become a less prominent feature of our contemporary

church, the controversy over which day should be worshipped on has sporadically provoked

internal strife.

A recent example of this internal strife is shown by the Huntsville First SDA Church

located in Alabama. They have decided to offer a Sunday worship service in addition to their

usual worship service on Saturday.1 This move has caused a mixed reaction from the SDA

community. The Huntsville church has reaffirmed its belief in the seventh-day Sabbath and stated

that the addition of Sunday worship does not invalidate this belief.2 The primary purpose of their

Sunday worship service is outreach to the community.3 A number of Adventists do not think that

this is offensive and will even attend these Sunday services.4 However, other Adventists claim

that offering a Sunday worship service is detestable and forfeits our identity because we have

forsaken the fourth commandment.5

So what is the proper reaction to this Saturday-Sunday predicament from a biblically

responsible Seventh-day Adventist?

1 Jared Wright, “Huntsville First Seventh-day Adventist Church Offers Sunday Services, Starting This Weekend.” Spectrum Magazine. Last modified Feb. 6, 2015. http://spectrummagazine.org/article/2015/02/06/huntsville-first-seventh-day-adventist-church-offers-sunday-services-starting-wee.2 Wright, “Huntsville.”3 Wright, “Huntsville.”4 Wright, “Huntsville.”5 Wright, “Huntsville.”

A good solution to this problem comes from a relatively unheard of branch of

Christianity. They are called Syriac Christians. The language of Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic

and its first attestations are inscriptions from the first century AD.6 This language was adopted

by the Aramaic-speaking Christians in the east of the Roman Empire and further east in the

Persian Empire.7 Jewish Aramaic was also used in these areas and Judaism was influential in the

formative period (2nd-7th century) of Syriac Christianity.8

The Syriac Christians under the Roman Empire were located in Southeast Turkey and

Syria while the ones under the Persia Empire were located in modern day Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf

States.9 Persia and Rome fought throughout the 3rd-7th centuries and the Syriac Christians in

Persia were often persecuted, mainly in the fourth century under Shapur II.10 Due to these

geographical conditions and the two empires warring, many Syriac Christians were somewhat

isolated from the Roman Christian Empire, which started to emerge under Constantine in 312

AD and became the official religion of the empire by the end of the fourth century under

Theodosius. The Jewish influence mentioned above and this estrangement from Roman

Christianity were two features that allowed the Syriac Christians to develop different theological

views from the more well-known "orthodoxy" of Roman Christianity.

These distinct views (as well as similar ones) produced a sizable amount of literature in

Syriac Christianity. One of these works is called the Apostolic Constitutions. The Apostolic

Constitutions were a compilation of various liturgical functions, beliefs, and prayers from

sources written during the second century.11 However, the completion of this compilation has

6 Sebastian P. Brock, Moran Etho: A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010), 1.7 Brock, Moran Etho, 1.8 Brock, Moran Etho, 1, 3. 9 Brock, Moran Etho, 2.10 Brock, Moran Etho, 2.11 David A. Fiensy, Prayers Alleged to Be Jewish: An Examination of the Constitutiones Apostolorum (Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1985), 9, 19.

been set around 380 AD in Syria.12 Scholars have debated whether or not the Apostolic

Constitutions were written/compiled by Jews or by Christians.13 The outcome of these debates is

inconclusive as there are elements of both Judaism and Christianity throughout the Apostolic

Constitutions.14 A compromise in this debate that is generally agreed upon by scholars is that the

Apostolic Constitutions are a compilation and editing of older materials that were both Christian

and Jewish.15

It should be noted that while the Apostolic Constitutions offer unique “blend” of

Christian and Judaic elements this is not a representative of Syriac Christianity as a whole. It is

just one of the distinct views that a particular Syriac community produced. They actually

invested a large amount of literature to separate themselves from the Jewish people. They even

had vicious polemics against the Jewish people that showed why Judaic customs have been

superseded by Christianity through Jesus. The Apostolic Constitutions are still useful to us as

they represent a smaller segment of a larger Christianity and it has Jewish elements in it. This is

exactly how Seventh-day Adventists are perceived today. We are a smaller subset of a larger

Christianity and we have “Jewish” elements in us.

An example of how our “Jewish-Christianity” is perceived from other Christians is easily

seen. Mainstream Christianity often looks at our denomination and finds that while we have

many Christian elements, we also have many Jewish. We affirm Christ and fall in line with many

"mainstream" Christian beliefs but we also affirm the seventh-day Sabbath and foods laws (to

name a few), which are "Jewish" to many Christians. As a "Jewish-Christian" source, the

Apostolic Constitutions offer a way to address this Saturday-Sunday debate and shed light on a

solution that can handle the dilemma of how to observe both days.12 Fiensy, Prayers, 19, 26-27. 13 Fiensy, Prayers, 1-10.14 Fiensy, Prayers, 7-10, 19.15 Fiensy, Prayers, 9-10, 19-27.

The Apostolic Constitutions show that the Syrian author(s) who composed/edited it

thought that the Sabbath was an important day. The Apostolic Constitutions state "Lord,

almighty, you created the world through Christ and set apart the Sabbath to remember this --

because on it you rested from (your) works."16 We also believe that creation is a justification for

the continual observance for the Sabbath and we set aside doing work on it. The Constitutions

continue to state "You gave them [the delivered Israelites] the Law of ten oracles clearly

expressed by your voice and written by your hand. You commanded (them) to keep the Sabbath,

not giving a pretext for idleness but an opportunity for piety, for the knowledge of your power,

for prevention of evil."17 They saw the continual binding of the fourth commandment, just as we

do. The Syrian author/editor believed that both creation and the fourth commandment still

warranted the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.

The ending comment on Sabbath in this section of the Apostolic Confessions deserves

special attention. It says “you [God] entrusted them to keep every Sabbath that no one may

desire to send forth a word from his mouth in anger on the day of the Sabbath. For the Sabbath is

rest from creation, the completion of the world, the seeking of laws, thankful praise to God for

(those things) which were given to men."18 A beautiful expression of Sabbath that states that

although "the seeking of laws" is a reason for the Sabbath, so is sending "thankful praise to God

for (those things) which were given to men."19 The Sabbath was not about legalism for the

authors but it was about being thankful for what we have. This is a good lesson for us as we

should also remember that although the Sabbath is a Law of God, we keep it because we are

thankful to Him for all that we have through His creation and redemption.

16 Fiensy, Prayers, 75.17 Fiensy, Prayers, 77.18 Fiensy, Prayers, 79.19 Fiensy, Prayers, 79.

A significant note is that while these previous quotes show observance of the Sabbath, the

community might not have actually observed the Sabbath. I mentioned above that the Apostolic

Constitutions were compilations of earlier materials so the Sabbath may have only been observed

by these earlier communities that had written the original sources. Whether or not the Syriac

community who compiled the Apostolic Constitutions kept the Sabbath is not important because

through their edits of the original sources they kept the passages that praised the Sabbath, which

shows that they still believed that the Sabbath should be kept.

As nice as the Apostolic Constitutions treated the Sabbath, a Seventh-day Adventist might

find the statement immediately following the previous quote offensive. It states "All of which the

Lord's Day surpasses, pointing to the Mediator himself, the Administrator, the Lawgiver, the

Cause of resurrection, the Firstborn of all creation."20 The Lord's Day refers to Sunday, which the

author/editor believed had surpassed Saturday. This gives evidence that the final author/editor of

this section of the text was Christian as a Jew would never place Sunday above Saturday. The

significance of this is that even though the last editor(s) was likely a Christian, he still preserved

the notion of honoring the Sabbath. The Apostolic Constitutions show that there was room in

Christianity for the observance of both days.

A clear justification for placing the Lord's Day before Saturday comes earlier in the text.

It states that "he suffered on our behalf and died and arose by your power" and continues to say

"we celebrate the resurrection festival on the Lord's Day and rejoice because of the one who not

only conquered death but brought to light life and incorruption."21 The Syriac Christian(s) who

authored this claim of Sunday surpassing Saturday built his reasoning around the resurrection of

20 Fiensy, Prayers, 79.21 Fiensy, Prayers, 75.

Jesus. The resurrection mandated that Sunday was the most important day of the week. This

reason is still the common justification for observing Sunday over Saturday.

The important information is not in the literature's elevation of Sunday over Saturday.

Moreover, I am not suggesting that we should consider doing this too. The importance of this

Syriac literature is that the final Syriac Christian editor(s) understood that honoring one day does

not automatically exclude one from honoring the other. The author understood this principle as

he affirmed that both Saturday and Sunday have significance in a Christian's life. We should use

this literature as a guidance to our lives and realize that although we prioritize Saturday over

Sunday we should not do this by excluding Sunday from any form of worship. After all, it is the

day that Christ resurrected and should be honored for that reason.

In light of all of this, we can turn back to the dilemma of the Huntsville First SDA

church's choice of having a worship service on Sunday in addition to Saturday. They have

affirmed that they still believe in Sabbath and that the service offered on Sunday is a complement

to Saturday's worship, not a replacement. I see no problem in worshipping on Sunday and

celebrating it as Christ did rise on that day. As the Syriac literature has shown us, the observance

of both days can and, as I argue, should be done. Worshipping on Sunday does not invalidate

Sabbath as the reasons used for worship on each day differ. We can honor the Sabbath in light of

creation and the fourth commandment while also worshipping on Sunday to celebrate Christ's

resurrection.

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Bibliography

Brock, Sebastian P. Moran Etho: A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010.

Fiensy, David A. Prayers Alleged to Be Jewish: An Examination of the Constitutiones Apostolorum. Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1985.

Wright, Jared. “Huntsville First Seventh-day Adventist Church Offers Sunday Services, Starting This Weekend.” Spectrum Magazine. Last modified Feb. 6, 2015. http://spectrummagazine.org/article/2015/02/06/huntsville-first-seventh-day-adventist-church-offers-sunday-services-starting-wee.