Time, like space, belongs to God. Yet while every hour is touched by eternity and all days are his, divine wisdom has ordained sacred rhythms—holy hours and appointed days—to train the soul, gather the Church, and sanctify earthly life. Chief among these is the Lord’s Day, rising from the tomb of the Sabbath with the dawn of the Resurrection, and bearing within it rest, rejoicing, and the promise of eternal communion with the risen Christ.
The Principle of Sacred Time
God, who fills the cosmos, may be worshipped in every moment, just as he may be adored in every place. Yet human nature, bound by body and community, needs fixed times for devotion and rest. Sacred times are born not of divine constraint, but of divine compassion—God meeting the human spirit in patterned mercy. As such, the Church’s calendar is not mere formality, but a discipline of grace.
The apostolic Church, shaped by Jewish heritage but liberated by Christ’s fulfillment of the Law, inherited the structure of sacred time. It retained the spirit of Jewish practice, purged of legalism, and animated it with gospel freedom and joy.
Daily Devotion: The Sacred Hours
The early Christians observed daily hours of prayer, modeled on Jewish custom, especially morning and evening prayers. These set times were supplemented by private devotions, which knew no clock or constraint. The day, thus framed by prayer, became a tapestry woven with sacred threads.
The Weekly Feast: From Sabbath to Sunday
Foremost among sacred times was the weekly day of worship. The Jewish Sabbath, sanctified from creation (Gen. 2:3), was not abolished, but fulfilled and transformed by the Lord of the Sabbath. Its moral core—rest, worship, renewal—remained, while its ceremonial husk fell away.
The sabbath principle is rooted in the very fabric of creation and the moral law. “The Sabbath was made for man,” said Jesus, underscoring its universal and enduring character. Like marriage, it dates from paradise and meets deep physical and spiritual needs. However, in post-exilic Judaism and under Pharisaic rigor, the Sabbath became a burden, weighted with prohibitions that turned blessing into bondage. Even piety descended into absurdity: some rabbis forbade lifting an egg laid on the Sabbath or rescuing an animal from a ditch, lest it profane the day of rest (Gal. 4:10; Col. 2:16).
Jesus exposed this distortion, reclaiming the Sabbath as a divine gift for man’s benefit, not a legal yoke. He healed on the Sabbath, taught on it, and hallowed it not by prohibition, but by acts of mercy and truth. When Pharisaic sabbatarianism crept into early Christian communities, Paul rebuked it as a return to legal slavery.
The Lord’s Day: Resurrection and Renewal
The Church did not so much discard the Sabbath as elevate it. The first day of the week, Sunday, became the new day of sacred assembly—not by direct command, but by the inner force of redemptive history. Christ rose on the first day; he appeared to Mary and the disciples on the first day; he breathed the Spirit upon the Church on the first day; he revealed heavenly visions to John on “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). The early believers gathered, broke bread, heard the Word, and gave offerings—all on this day (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 16:2).
Though no Roman law protected them, and many faced hardship or servitude, Christians in the second century observed Sunday universally and joyfully. This widespread practice confirms its apostolic origin. Sunday thus became the Christian Sabbath—a memorial of the Resurrection, a weekly Pascha, a type of the eternal rest awaiting the people of God (Heb. 4:1–11).
True Sabbath: Rest and Foretaste
Under the gospel, the Sabbath is not abolished but glorified. It is no longer a ceremonial shadow, but a luminous symbol. It points not backward to mere cessation of labor, but forward to heavenly joy. The Lord’s Day is not a dead ritual but a living grace—a gift of repose in the midst of life’s burdens, a school of holiness, a citadel of moral order.
Its observance—especially in the English-speaking world—has proved a blessing beyond measure. It fortifies Church, State, and family. It preserves public virtue and offers spiritual nurture to generations. It is, next to Scripture and the Church itself, one of the chief pillars of Christian civilization.
Friday and the Passion
Alongside Sunday’s joy, Friday gradually emerged as a day of sorrow. By the second century, believers began observing it as a day of repentance and fasting, commemorating the sufferings and death of the Redeemer. In this rhythm of death and resurrection—Friday and Sunday—the Church shaped its weekly remembrance of Christ crucified and risen.
Annual Festivals and Their Genesis
Unlike the weekly Sabbath, annual Christian festivals lack direct apostolic command. Yet their rise was natural. The two great Jewish feasts—Passover and Pentecost—lent themselves to Christian reinterpretation. The death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, so captured the soul of the Church that commemoration became instinctive.
Hints in the Epistles (1 Cor. 5:7–8; Acts 20:6) suggest that the annual remembrance of Easter and Pentecost may have arisen in the apostolic era. Disputes over the date of Easter in the second century (not its existence) confirm its antiquity. Polycarp and Anicet, both venerable churchmen, differed only in custom—not in the conviction that Christ’s resurrection should be celebrated.
The Church Year Expands
Of other annual festivals, the New Testament is silent. Christmas emerged in the fourth century as part of a broader “Church Year”—a chronological confession of faith for the people. Gradually, days were set apart for apostles, saints, martyrs, and events in Christ’s life. The calendar swelled until nearly every day became a feast—first sacred, then secular.
In time, the saints began to eclipse the Lord, and saints’ days encroached upon the Lord’s Day. This drift reminds us that sacred time, like sacred space, must always return to its center: Christ crucified, risen, reigning, and soon to return.
Notable Literature on the Lord’s Day
– George Holden, The Christian Sabbath (London, 1825)
– W. Henstenberg, The Lord’s Day, trans. James Martin (London, 1853)
– John T. Baylee, History of the Sabbath (London, 1857)
– James A. Hessey, Sunday: Its Origin, History, and Present Obligation (London, 1860)
– James Gilfillan, The Sabbath Viewed in the Light of Reason, Revelation, and History (Edinburgh, 1861; reprinted in New York, 1862)
– Robert Cox, Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties (Edinburgh, 1853); and The Literature of the Sabbath Question, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1865)
– Th. Zahn, Geschichte des Sonntags in der alten Kirche (Hannover, 1878)
– Philip Schaff, The Anglo-American Sabbath (New York, 1863)
– Sabbath Essays, ed. W. C. Wood (Boston, 1879)
– A. E. Waffle, The Lord’s Day (Philadelphia, 1886)
These works explore the Lord’s Day from historical, exegetical, theological, and practical perspectives, offering profound insight into one of Christianity’s most formative institutions.
