It is a mockery of God by man to attempt to change the unchangeable! Thank you Chris, for posting this great cloud of witnesses. I only ask one favor. Would you please paste this in www.whosoeverwill.ning.com? I have started a group called Sabbath there. If you are busy, just afford me permission and I will paste it myself. Thanks for being such a faithful and faithfilled man of God.

A sabbatarian of great joy,

Lahry

One other thing. First the day was changed from Saturday to Sunday by defiant men. In the last 50 years or so, Satan is accomplishing his ultimate goal. No day of rest and communion with God!
Blue laws have eroded. Man has drifted into going to church only on Sunday, and playing and often sinning the rest of the day, to not even going to church at all.
When man begins to look for a compromise in the things of God, the long road down is but a foot step away. The longer the travel, the steeper the decline. Blind still leads the blind. Let he who has eyes see what the enemy has sewn into the kingdom of God!

I agree that there was no change in the Sabbath, but my question is really onefold:
1. Does the Sabbath still apply in the New Covenant?

The early Christians never kept Sunday as a Sabbath. I think that's a point that's being missed here. It was a day they chose to worship to commemorate Yehoshua's resurrection. That's it.

Likewise, the two Sunday worshiping verses in the New Testament that do exist (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 16:1-3) (as opposed to the one Sabbath worshiping one [Acts 15:21]) are categorically ignored. That isn't fair. All three verses are vague, but there's a history for all three, too. If we're going to look to the historic record for Acts 15:21, we need to look to it for Acts 20:7 and 1 Cor. 16:1-3 as well. The historic record shows not only did Christians go to synagogue on Sabbath, but likewise met on Sunday to break bread, give their money to the poor and have 1 Cor. 12-14-style worship (which I'm sure the synagogue would not have permitted).

Its likewise important we not put biblical writings in an air-tight vacuum, as that leads to "private interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20) and is a sin, because that's precisely what the Gnostics did (the 30 Aeons come from counting up the number of hours each man worked in the Parable of the Workers). I know the mistake of one man who said men and women should be practicing holy kisses with one another (Romans 16:16, 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Thess. 5:26), but when I told him that isn't how it was historically practiced, he said, "Well, it isn't in the Bible!" And, as far as I know, history said it was a light kiss between members of the same sex, not between the sexes.

In fact, there is evidence in the New Testament for Sunday worship, but its as scant as the evidence for Sabbath worship (except for our Savior, who kept Sabbath because He was a Jew and He kept the Torah as long as He lived, and for Paul, because it was his custom, as he went into the synagogues on that day to preach). And if its part of the Colossians 2 shadows and those shadows did pass away (an interpretation of Scripture that has existed from the earliest days of Christianity), then it would seem to follow Sabbath went with it.

I do acknowledge there were ancient churches that gathered on Sabbath, but the question is, did they still regard the day as a Sabbath? I also know this was a major problem for Ignatius, as people in Antioch were still keeping Sabbath and he told them not to. He was closer to John than any of us were.

All I'm saying is let's be careful that this is what the Scriptures actually say instead of trying to read 19th-20th century Messianic Judaism into it. I will try to relocate more sources for the Church of the East situation and see what it says. I'm also studying biblical Hebrew and Greek on the side, so we'll see what that says as well.

Also, it should always be noted that the Catholic Church will always claim it changed the day because they believe Peter to be the first pope.

I'm more interested in 1st or 2nd century (or early 3rd century) sources and not something that came years later, unless that something that came years later can categorically defend it using proper history and Scripture.

The St Thomas Christians of India (also called Nasrani!) kept the 7th day Shabbat until sometime in the later 1500's when the Portuguese coerced them into sunday observance.

Any sources demonstrating why, though? That go far back enough. And what their theology regarding the day was: whether tradition or they actually observed the day.

Yaacov said:

The St Thomas Christians of India (also called Nasrani!) kept the 7th day Shabbat until sometime in the later 1500's when the Portuguese coerced them into sunday observance.