Dear Editor,

The early Christians’ eventual commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not intended to supplant the Sabbath. There are records of how the early Christians observed Sabbath, but there are no records of how they observed the first day of the week.

Contrary to popular belief, they were not Sunday worshipers. However, pagan Rome had a god for every day of the week, so, for example, the Romans would worship the sun on Sunday.

The early Christians took it upon themselves to pay homage to the resurrection without authorisation from Jesus and the Apostles. Early Christians should be defined as second-century Christians in order to distinguish them from the primitive Christian church. Commemoration of the resurrection on the first day of the week is redundant, since the resurrection was already commemorated with baptism by immersion.

There is a correlation between Sunday worship and baptism. When the first day of the week was observed without authorisation, it eventually ‘replaced’ the Sabbath. When ‘sprinkling’ was introduced centuries later, it eventually replaced baptism by immersion. The first and second centuries were dominated by Sabbath keepers and not Christian Sunday worshippers.

EA Spence

easp02@gmail.com