Dawnscroll
All traditions

Sunday Worship

Christians have gathered on the first day of the week since the New Testament era. In 321 Constantine made Sunday a civil day of rest; who changed what, and when, is still argued.

Should Christians keep the Sabbath?

The Sabbath is the seventh day. God blessed it at creation (Genesis 2:3) and wrote it into the Ten Commandments: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8), for “the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God” (Exodus 20:10). Jesus kept it, going into the synagogue on the sabbath day “as his custom was” (Luke 4:16), and called himself “Lord also of the sabbath” (Mark 2:28).

The apostles kept it too. Paul went into the synagogue on the sabbath “as his manner was” (Acts 17:2), and at Antioch the Gentiles asked to hear him again “the next sabbath” (Acts 13:42). Hebrews says, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). No verse moves the Sabbath to the first day of the week. The believers at Troas met on the first day to break bread (Acts 20:7), and Christians may gladly meet on any day, but meeting on Sunday does not make Sunday the Sabbath.

The change came from men. Within a generation or two of the apostles, Christian writers were setting the Lord’s day against the Sabbath[source 3][source 5]. In 321 Constantine made Sunday a civil day of rest[source 6], and around 363 the Synod of Laodicea told Christians not to “judaize” by resting on the Sabbath, but to honor the Lord’s day instead[source 7]. Catholic teaching still says Sunday’s observance replaces the Sabbath’s[source 10].

So we keep the seventh-day Sabbath, as Sabbath-keeping Christians have for centuries[source 9]. Paul also tells believers not to judge one another over days (Romans 14:5–6), so we offer this as a conviction to weigh, not a test of anyone’s faith.

Historical origin

The Jewish Sabbath is the seventh day, Saturday, set apart in the Ten Commandments as a day of rest (Exodus 20:8–11). The New Testament records believers meeting on the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection, to break bread at Troas (Acts 20:7), and Paul told the Corinthians to set money aside on that day (1 Corinthians 16:2). Revelation 1:10 mentions “the Lord’s day.”

Writings from the next generations speak of the Sunday gathering more directly. The Didache, probably from the late first century, tells believers to gather “every Lord’s day” to break bread[source 2]. Around 110, Ignatius of Antioch described believers “no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day”; the Greek says literally “living according to the Lord’s,” and one manuscript reads “the Lord’s life”[source 3]. Around 112 the Roman governor Pliny reported that Christians met “on a fixed day” before dawn, without naming the day[source 4], and around 155 Justin Martyr wrote that “on the day called Sunday” Christians in town and country gathered for readings, prayer and the Eucharist, because it was the day God began creation and Christ rose[source 1]. The Epistle of Barnabas called it “the eighth day,” the day after the seventh[source 5].

In 321 the emperor Constantine ordered that courts and city workers rest on “the venerable day of the Sun,” while allowing farm work to go on[source 6]. Around 363 the Synod of Laodicea told Christians not to “judaize” (follow Jewish practice) by resting on the Sabbath, but to honor the Lord’s day[source 7]. Catholic teaching describes Sunday observance as replacing the Sabbath’s[source 10]. Some Christians, notably Seventh Day Baptists from the seventeenth century and Seventh-day Adventists from the nineteenth, hold that the seventh-day Sabbath remains binding[source 9].

Timeline

  1. c. 54Paul tells the Corinthians to set money aside “upon the first day of the week.”
  2. c. 95Revelation refers to “the Lord’s day.”
  3. late 1st c.The Didache tells believers to gather every Lord’s day to break bread.
  4. c. 110Ignatius of Antioch contrasts keeping the Sabbath with living by the Lord’s Day.
  5. c. 112Pliny reports that Christians meet before dawn on a fixed day.
  6. c. 155Justin Martyr describes Christian worship “on the day called Sunday.”
  7. 321Constantine makes Sunday a civil day of rest.
  8. c. 363The Synod of Laodicea tells Christians to work on the Sabbath and honor the Lord’s day.

In scripture

  • Exodus 20:8–11

    The fourth commandment: rest on the seventh day, because God rested after creating.

  • Acts 20:7

    Believers at Troas gather “upon the first day of the week” to break bread.

  • 1 Corinthians 16:2

    Paul tells the Corinthians to lay money aside “upon the first day of the week.”

  • Revelation 1:10

    John is “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”

  • Colossians 2:16–17

    “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.”

  • Mark 2:27–28

    “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

The early church, AD 30–100

Within the New Testament period, believers met on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), and Revelation, usually dated to the 90s, names “the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10). Acts also shows Paul in synagogues on the Sabbath “as his manner was,” with Gentiles present (Acts 17:2; 13:42–44). How long and how widely Sabbath and Sunday were kept side by side is debated[source 8][source 9].

Popular claims

Each claim is rated against the evidence. About the ratings

  • “Constantine changed the Christian day of worship from Saturday to Sunday in 321.”

    Contradicted

    Christian sources from well before 321 describe Sunday gatherings: the Didache, Ignatius around 110 and Justin around 155[source 1][source 2][source 3]. Constantine’s law made Sunday a civil day of rest; it did not create Christian Sunday worship[source 6].

  • “A pope or church council began Sunday worship.”

    Contradicted

    Sunday gatherings are documented in the first and early second centuries[source 1][source 2][source 3], before any church council met and before any bishop of Rome is recorded ruling on the question. Fourth-century councils such as Laodicea later regulated Sabbath and Sunday practice[source 7].

  • “The Catholic Church changed the Sabbath to Sunday.”

    Debated

    Catholic teaching says Sunday’s observance replaces the Sabbath’s, and older Catholic catechisms say the Church “transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday”; Sabbatarians cite these statements[source 10][source 11]. Historically, Sunday gatherings are documented in the first and early second centuries[source 1][source 2][source 3]. The disagreement turns largely on what “the Church” and “changed” mean.

  • “Early Christians chose Sunday because of the resurrection.”

    Established

    Justin Martyr gives this reason explicitly, alongside the first day of creation[source 1], and the Epistle of Barnabas calls Sunday “the eighth day … in which also Jesus rose again from the dead”[source 5].

  • “Sunday worship began in second-century Rome, to set Christians apart from Jews.”

    Contradicted

    Samuele Bacchiocchi argued this in From Sabbath to Sunday (1977)[source 8]. The earliest witnesses to Sunday gatherings are not Roman: Troas (Acts 20:7), the Didache (probably Syria), Ignatius of Antioch and Pliny in Bithynia[source 2][source 3][source 4]. His thesis is answered in detail in Carson’s volume[source 9], though what “the Lord’s day” means in Revelation 1:10 remains debated.

Sources

  1. Justin Martyr. First Apology 67. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, via New Advent. Link to this source
  2. The Didache 14. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, via New Advent. Link to this source
  3. Ignatius of Antioch. Letter to the Magnesians 9. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, via New Advent. Link to this source
  4. Pliny the Younger. Letters 10.96 (Latin text). The Latin Library. Link to this source
  5. The Epistle of Barnabas 15. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, via New Advent. Link to this source
  6. Codex Justinianus 3.12.2 (Constantine, AD 321). Latin text, The Latin Library. Link to this source
  7. Synod of Laodicea, canon 29. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 14, via New Advent. Link to this source
  8. Bacchiocchi, Samuele. From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity. Rome: Pontifical Gregorian University Press, 1977.
  9. Carson, D. A., ed. From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Investigation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982.
  10. Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2175. 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997.
  11. Geiermann, Peter. The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine. St. Louis: B. Herder, 1910.

Last reviewed October 25, 2026.