Discovering the New Covenant by Greg Taylor - exAdventist Outreach

WHAT ABOUT SUNDAY?
Sunday keeping. Even then the connection was loose. The
day-ness of Sabbath was considered ceremonial. This view
was made more prominent by Thomas Aquinas in later
centuries. The reformers, Calvin and Luther, were careful to
state that the Sabbath was not binding on Christians, but they
saw merit in taking a day for rest and worship. It was not
until the English Reformation that the Decalogue Sabbath
began being promoted. The chief proponents of this were the
Puritans. They began to teach that the Sabbath (although
they called Sunday the Sabbath) was not abolished, and they
instituted strict rules according to the Old Testament
regulations. This, of course, affected the other religious
English groups, such as the Methodists and the Baptists.
Many of these groups came to America, and New England
became known for strict Sabbath (Sunday) observance. It
was there that one group, the Seventh-day Baptists, took it a
step further and started keeping Saturday as the Sabbath. If
the Old Testament Sabbath is binding on Christians, they
reasoned, we should also keep the right day. It was the
Seventh-day Baptists who influenced Joseph Bates, who in
turn influenced Ellen G. White, and Seventh-day Adventism
was born. Adventists are still primarily arguing with the
"Puritans" over which day is the real Sabbath, rather than
whether or not this is an issue in the New Testament for
Christians. In arguing about which day is the Sabbath, the
message of Scripture and the message the early church
clearly had in mind, has been missed altogether. 5
Is it wrong to keep a Saturday Sabbath? No, it is not.
Romans 14:5-6 makes it clear that observing days or not
5 D.A. Carson, From Sabbath to the Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical,
and Theological Investigation (Eugene OR, 1999) pp 221-341. This
book, edited by Carson, details the history of Sunday observance and the
theological understanding of the church from the time of the apostles to
the present day. The SDA view of Sabbath and history does not stand up
to the historical evidence.
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