Seventh-day Adventists, almost from their inception, have tried to associate the Sabbath with the Lord's day. Their principal underlying method for proving their case is to try to establish a relationship between the Gospel of Mark 2:28 and the Revelation of St. John 1:10 in order to cut off one of the main arguments against their position, i.e. the Lord's day (Sunday) as opposed to the observance of the Old Testament Sabbath.

Their position is based on the conclusion that if "the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28) and the Apostle John says that he "was in the Spirit on the Sunday day (a day for the Lord [note 2:27-28]). translator])" (Rev. 1:10), therefore, the Sabbath and the day are one and the same day for the Lord! The weakness of this position is that they draw their conclusion based on the English translation instead of the original Greek. If you read the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark and the first chapter of Revelation in the New Testament in Greek, you can see a completely different meaning of these passages, based on their grammatical structures. In the Greek version of Mark 2:28 it is clear that Christ did not mean that the Sabbath was something He possessed (which the Adventists are trying to establish), He simply said that as Lord of all things, He could do whatever He saw fit on the Sabbath as well. The Greek version of Scripture is very definite at this point.

Nothing could be clearer and more understandable in contextual and grammatical terms. The Greek version of Revelation 1:10 does not establish the concept of "possession," which required the use of the word te-kuriake (the Lord's) in conjunction with the word hemea (day). John does not mean that the Lord's day is the "property" of the Lord, but that this day is consecrated to Him by the earthly church, not according to the law of Moses, but in accordance with the observance of God's commandment of love.

We can draw the definite conclusion that if the Sabbath had meant so much to the New Testament writers, and if, as the Adventists insist, it had been widely considered in the early centuries of the Christian church, then John and the other evangelists would have equated it with the Lord's day, the first day of the week. Scripture and subsequent history testify that the New Testament writers did not have such an effect, and therefore the Adventists received little justification in their "Sabbath" from Scripture.

A. The Doctrine of the Holy Fathers

The Church Fathers have shown the world many proofs that Sunday, the day of the Lord, is the first, and not the seventh day of the week. We will offer some of these proofs for consideration by readers. Together with the overwhelming majority of Christian historians and scholars, we believe that not only the New Testament texts, but also the following quotations, reject the Sabbath. We will see examples of systematic answers that will show us the basics of the Christian faith.

1. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, wrote in the year 110: "If, then, those who, through the study of ancient practices, come to find new hopes, no longer considering the Sabbath, but basing the order of their lives in relation to Sunday, the Day of the Lord, on which our lives are resurrected through Him, and we can become His disciples, disciples of our only Master."

2. Justin Martyr (100-165) "And on the day called Sunday, all the inhabitants of cities and villages gather together, in remembrance of the tradition of the apostles, or read prophecies as far as time permits... Sunday is the day on which we all gather together, for it is the first day that God produced the world by turning darkness into light, and on this very day Jesus Christ, our Savior, rose from the dead.

3. The Epistle of Barnabas (120-150 AD): "New Moons and Saturdays, festive gatherings I cannot endure..." (Isaiah 1:13). You feel Him saying: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but what I have created by giving rest to all creatures, I must make the beginning of the eighth day, which is the beginning of another world. Another reason for us to honor the eighth day and spend it in joy is that it was on this day that Jesus rose from the dead."

4. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (circa 178): "The mystery of the Resurrection of Christ cannot be celebrated on any day except on Sunday, the Day of the Lord."

5. Bardaisan (b. 178): "Wherever we are, each of us is called by the name of our Messiah, a Christian, and only on one day, which is the first day of the week, we gather together and abstain from food on certain days."