Editing Sabbath in Christianity (section)

==History==

===Sabbath timing===
The Hebrew [[Shabbat]], the seventh day of the week, is "Saturday" but in the [[Hebrew calendar]] a new day begins at sunset (or, by custom, about 20 minutes earlier) and not at midnight. The Shabbat therefore coincides with what is now commonly identified as Friday sunset to Saturday night when three stars are first visible in the night sky. The Sabbath continued to be observed on the seventh day in the early Christian church.{{NoteTag|The civil calendar of the ancient Roman Empire, the [[Julian calendar]] (founded in 45 BC), marked days loosely in general practice, since the timing of midnight was difficult to determine widely at that time. Thus, the early church easily adopted for its own use the Hebrew calendar's sunset-to-sunset formula for marking the days, even after it began to calculate Easter according to the Julian calendar. Its daily cycle of church services began with Vespers, which was often celebrated just after sunset, in the early evening. This pattern made its way into both Roman and Eastern liturgical practice, and continues in use in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] to this day.}} To this day, the liturgical day continues to be observed in line with the Hebrew reckoning in the church calendars in [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]] and [[Oriental Orthodoxy]].<ref>Canon of Holy Saturday (Orthodox), Kontakion: "Exceeding blessed is this Sabbath, on which Christ has slumbered, to rise on the third day."</ref> In the [[Latin Church]], "the liturgical day runs from midnight to midnight. However, the celebration of Sundays and of Solemnities begins already on the evening of the previous day".<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Info/GNLY.pdf| title = Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, 3}}</ref>

In non-liturgical matters, the canon law of the Latin Church defines a day as beginning at midnight.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__PS.HTM |title = Code of Canon Law, canon 202 §1 |website = www.vatican.va }}</ref>

===Early Christianity===
[[Jewish Christians]] continued to observe Shabbat but met together at the end of the day, on a Saturday evening.  In the gospels, the women are described as coming to the empty tomb {{langx|el|εις μια των σαββατων||toward the first [day] of the Sabbath}},<ref>Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2</ref> although it is often translated "on the first day of the week". This is made clear in Acts 20:7 when Paul continued his message "until midnight" and a young man went to sleep and fell out of the window.  Christians celebrate on Sunday because it is the day on which Jesus had risen from the dead and on which the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]] had come to the apostles.<ref name="Sabbath">"Sabbath." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, p. 1443</ref><ref>"Sunday." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, p. 1569]</ref> Although Christians meeting for worship on the first day of the week (Sunday for Gentiles) dates back to [[Acts]] and is historically mentioned around 115 AD, Constantine's edict was the start of many more Christians observing only Sunday and not the Sabbath.<ref name = "Sabbath"/> [[Patristics|Patristic writings]] attest that by the second century, it had become commonplace to celebrate the [[Eucharist]] in a corporate day of worship on the first day.<ref name=Bauckham2>{{cite book|chapter=The Lord's Day|first=R.J.|last=Bauckham|title=From Sabbath to Lord's Day|editor1-first=D. A.|editor1-last=Carson|year=1982|pages=221–50|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers/Zondervan|editor-link=D. A. Carson|isbn=978-1-57910-307-1}}</ref> A [[Church Fathers|Church Father]], [[Eusebius]], who became the bishop of [[Caesarea Maritima]] about AD 314, stated that for Christians, "the sabbath had been transferred to Sunday".<ref name="Guy2004">{{cite book|last=Guy|first=Laurie|title=Introducing Early Christianity: A Topical Survey of Its Life, Beliefs and Practices|date=4 November 2004|publisher=InterVarsity Press|language=en |isbn=978-0-8308-2698-8|page=213|quote=Significantly, the first Christian writer to suggest that the Sabbath had been transferred to Sunday is Eusebius of Caesarea (post 330).}}</ref>

According to [[Socrates of Constantinople]] and [[Sozomen]], most of the early Church (excluding [[Rome]] and [[Alexandria]]) observed the seventh day Sabbath in Easter.{{Church History Citation|Socrates|book=5|chapter=22}}{{Church History Citation|Sozomen|book=7|chapter=19}}

===Corporate worship===
While the [[Lord's Day]] observance of the [[Eucharist]] was established separately from the Jewish Shabbat, the centrality of the Eucharist itself made it the commonest early observance whenever Christians gathered for worship. In many places and times as late as the 4th century, they did continue to gather weekly on the Sabbath, often in addition to the Lord's Day, celebrating the Eucharist on both days.<ref name=socrates>{{citation |last1=Socrates Scholasticus |author-link1=Socrates Scholasticus |title=Ecclesiastical History, Book V, Chapter 22 |work=[[Philip Schaff]] et al., [[Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers]] |series=Second Series (NPNF2, Vol 2) |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.viii.xxiii.html |ref=none }}</ref><ref name=sozomen>{{citation |last1=Sozomen |author-link1=Sozomen |title=Ecclesiastical History, Book VII, Chapter 19 |work=[[Philip Schaff]] et al., [[Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers]] |series=Second Series (NPNF2, Vol 2)|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.iii.xii.xix.html |ref=none }}</ref><ref name=Laodicea16>{{citation |editor1-last=Schaff |editor1-first=Philip |editor-link1=Philip Schaff |editor2-last=Wace |editor2-first=Henry |title=Synod of Laodicea, Canon 16 |work=[[Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers]] |series=Second Series (NPNF2, Vol 14) |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.viii.vii.iii.xvii.html |ref=none |quote=[Editorial notes of Van Espen]: Among the Greeks the Sabbath was kept exactly as the Lord's day except so far as the cessation of work was concerned}}</ref> No disapproval of Sabbath observance of the Christian festival was expressed at the early church councils that dealt with [[Judaizers|Judaizing]]. The [[Council of Laodicea]] (363–364), for example, mandated only that Sabbath Eucharists must be observed in the same manner as those on the first day.<ref name=Laodicea16/> Neander has suggested that Sabbath Eucharists in many places were kept "as a feast in commemoration of the Creation."<ref name=Laodicea16/>

The issues about Hebrew practices that continued into the 2nd century tended to relate mostly to the Sabbath. [[Justin Martyr]], who attended worship on the first day,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Justin Martyr|title=First Apology|volume=67|author-link=Justin Martyr}}</ref> wrote about the cessation of Hebrew Sabbath observance and stated that the Sabbath was enjoined as a temporary sign to Israel to teach it of human sinfulness,<ref>{{bibleverse|Gal.|3:24-25|NKJV}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Dialogue with Trypho|author=[[Justin Martyr]]|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.xxi.html|volume=21}}</ref> no longer needed after Christ came without sin.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Dialogue with Trypho|author=[[Justin Martyr]]|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.xxiii.html|volume=23}}</ref> He rejected the need to keep a literal seventh-day Sabbath, arguing instead that "the new law requires you to keep the sabbath constantly."<ref>{{citation|author=Justin Martyr|title=Dialogue with Trypho 12:3|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.xii.html}}</ref> However, Justin Martyr believe the Sabbath has only attributed to Moses and the Israelites. According to J.N Andrews, a historian, and theologian, he mentions, "In his (Justin) estimation, the Sabbath was a Jewish institution, absolutely unknown to good men before the time of Moses, and of no authority whatever since the death of Christ." He identifies this through Justin's writings: "Do you see that the elements are not idle, and keep no Sabbaths? Remain as you were born. For if there was no need of circumcision before Abraham, or of the observance of Sabbaths, of feasts and sacrifices, before Moses; no more need of them is there now, after that, according to the will of God, Jesus Christ the Son of God has been born without sin, of a virgin sprung from the stock of Abraham."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01282.htm|title=Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (Chapter 23)}}</ref> With more clarification, Andrews also states: "Not only does he (Justin) declare that the Jews were commanded to keep the sabbath because of their wickedness, but in chapter nineteen he denies that any Sabbath existed before Moses. Thus, after naming Adam, Abel, Enoch, Lot, and Melchizedek, he says: "Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned, though they kept no Sabbaths were pleasing to God." But though he thus denies the Sabbatic institution before the time of Moses he presently makes this statement concerning the Jews: "And you were commanded to keep Sabbaths, that you might retain the memorial of God. For his word makes this announcement, saying. 'That ye may know that I am God who redeemed you.'"[Eze.20:12.].<ref name="Missionary, Historian, Theologian">{{cite web |last1=Andrew |first1=John |title=Missionary, Historian, Theologian |url=https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/1122.2 |website=Ellen G. White Writings |publisher=Steam Press Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Assoc. 1873 |access-date=28 April 2021}}</ref><ref name="newadvent.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01282.htm|title=Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (Chapter 19)}}</ref> On these statements from Justin Martyr, J.N Andrews concludes "The Sabbath is indeed the memorial of the God that made the heavens and the earth. And what an absurdity to deny that that memorial was set up when the creative work was done, and to affirm that twenty-five hundred years intervened between the work and the memorial!"<ref name="Missionary, Historian, Theologian"/><ref name="newadvent.org"/>

===Day of rest===
A common theme in criticism Hebrew Shabbat rest was idleness, found not to be in the Christian spirit of rest.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} [[Irenaeus]] (late 2nd century), also citing continuous Sabbath observance, wrote that the Christian "will not be commanded to leave idle one day of rest, who is constantly keeping sabbath",<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Irenaeus |author-link=Irenaeus |title=Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching|volume=96}}</ref> and [[Tertullian]] (early 3rd century) argued "that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all servile work always, and not only every seventh-day, but through all time".<ref>{{citation |last1=Tertullian |author-link1=Tertullian |title=Adv. Jud. 4:2 |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.iv.ix.iv.html}}</ref> This early metaphorical interpretation of Sabbath applied it to the entire Christian life.<ref name=Bauckham>{{cite book|chapter=Sabbath and Sunday in the Post-Apostolic Church|first=R.J.|last=Bauckham|title=From Sabbath to Lord's Day|editor1-first=Don A|editor1-last=Carson|year=1982|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers/Zondervan|pages=252–98|editor-link=D. A. Carson|isbn=978-1-57910-307-1}}</ref>

[[Ignatius of Antioch|Ignatius]], cautioning against "[[Judaizers|Judaizing]]" in the [[Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians]],<ref>{{citation |last1=Ignatius of Antioch |author-link1=Ignatius of Antioch |title=The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, chapters 8,10 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0105.htm |publisher=New Advent }}</ref> contrasts the Jewish Shabbat practices with the Christian life which includes the Lord's Day:
{{blockquote|Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness. [...] But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's [Day, ''Dominicam''] as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Ignatius|title=Epistle to the Magnesians|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.v.iii.ix.html|volume=9|author-link=Ignatius of Antioch|publisher=Christian Classics Ethereal Library}}</ref>}}

The 2nd and 3rd centuries solidified the early church's emphasis upon Sunday worship and its rejection of a Jewish (Mosaic Law-based) observation of the Sabbath and manner of rest. Christian practice of following Sabbath after the manner of the Hebrews declined, prompting Tertullian to note "to [us] Sabbaths are strange" and unobserved.<ref>{{citation |last1=Tertullian |author-link1=Tertullian |title=On Idolatry |volume=14 |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.iv.iv.xiv.html }}</ref> Even as late as the 4th century, Judaizing was still sometimes a problem within the Church, but by this time it was repudiated strongly as heresy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26027.htm|title=Ecclesiastical History, Book VII, Chapter 18|author=[[Sozomen]]}}</ref><ref>{{citation |editor1-last=Schaff |editor1-first=Philip |editor-link1=Philip Schaff |editor2-last=Wace |editor2-first=Henry |title=The Synodal Letter (of the First Council of Nicea) |work=[[Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers]] |series=Second Series (NPNF2, Vol 14) |publisher= Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.vii.x.html |ref=none }}</ref><ref name=Laodicea29>{{citation |editor1-last=Schaff |editor1-first=Philip |editor-link1=Philip Schaff |editor2-last=Wace |editor2-first=Henry |title=Synod of Laodicea, Canon 29 |work=[[Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers]] |series=Second Series (NPNF2, Vol 14) |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.viii.vii.iii.xxxiv.html |access-date=25 Jun 2015 |ref=none }}</ref>

Sunday was another work day in the Roman Empire. On March 7, 321, however, [[Constantine the Great|Roman Emperor Constantine I]] issued a civil decree making Sunday a day of rest from labor, stating:<ref>{{cite book|first=Joseph Cullen|last=Ayer|title=A Source Book for Ancient Church History|location=[[New York City]]|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1913|volume=2.1.1.59g|pages=284–5}}</ref> {{blockquote|All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable day of the sun. Country people, however, may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently happens that no other days are better adapted for planting the grain in the furrows or the vines in trenches. So that the advantage given by heavenly providence may not for the occasion of a short time perish.}}

While established only in civil law rather than religious principle,{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} the Church welcomed the development as a means by which Christians could the more easily attend Sunday worship and observe Christian rest. At Laodicea also, the Church encouraged Christians to make use of the day for Christian rest where possible,<ref name=Laodicea29/> without ascribing to it any of the regulation of Mosaic Law, and indeed [[anathema]]tizing Hebrew observance on the Sabbath. The civil law and its effects made possible a pattern in Church life that has been imitated throughout the centuries in many places and cultures, wherever possible.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

===From ancient times to Middle Ages===
[[Augustine of Hippo]] followed the early patristic writers in spiritualizing the meaning of the [[Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy|Sabbath commandment]], referring it to eschatological rest rather than observance of a literal day. Such writing, however, did serve to deepen the idea of Christian rest on Sunday, and its practice increased in prominence throughout the early [[Middle Ages]].<ref name=Bauckham3/>

[[Thomas Aquinas]] taught that the [[Ten Commandments|Decalogue]] is an expression of [[natural law]] which binds all men, and therefore the Sabbath commandment is a moral requirement along with the other nine. Thus in the West, Sunday rest became more closely associated with a Christian application of the Sabbath, a development towards the idea of a "Christian Sabbath" rather than a Hebrew one.<ref name=Bauckham3>{{cite book|chapter=Sabbath and Sunday in the Medieval Church in the West|first=R.J.|last=Bauckham|title=From Sabbath to Lord's Day|editor1-first=Don A|editor1-last=Carson|year=1982|pages=299–310|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers/Zondervan|editor-link=D. A. Carson|isbn=978-1-57910-307-1}}</ref> Sunday worship and Sunday rest combined powerfully to relate to Sabbath commandment precepts.

====Continuations of Hebrew practices====
{{cleanup rewrite|section=yes|date=November 2020}}
{{primary sources|section|date=September 2018}}
Seventh-day Sabbath was observed at least sporadically by a minority of groups during the Middle Ages.<ref>{{Cite book |last=González |first=Justo L. |title=A brief history of Sunday: from the New Testament to the new creation |date=2017 |isbn=978-1-4674-4693-8 |location=Grand Rapids |publisher=William. B. Eerdmans |pages=5, 23 |oclc=987791206}}</ref>

In the early church in Ireland, there is evidence that a sabbath-rest on Saturday may have been kept along with Mass on Sunday as the Lord's Day. It appears that many of the canon laws in Ireland from that period were derived from parts of the laws of Moses. In Adomnan of Iona's biography of [[St Columba]] it describes Columba's death by having Columba say on a Saturday, "Today is truly my sabbath, for it is my last day in this wearisome life, when I shall keep the Sabbath after my troublesome labours. At midnight this Sunday, as Scripture saith, 'I shall go the way of my fathers'" and he then dies that night. The identification of this Sabbath day as a Saturday in the narrative is clear in the context, because Columba is recorded as seeing an angel at the Mass on the previous Sunday and the narrative claims he dies in the same week, on the Sabbath day at the end of the week, during the 'Lord's night' (referring to Saturday night-Sunday morning).<ref>Adomnan of Iona. Life of St Columba. Penguin books, 1995</ref>

An Eastern body of Christian Sabbath-keepers mentioned from the 8th century to the 12th is called Athenians ("touch-not") because they abstained from uncleanness and intoxicating drinks, called Athinginians in Neander: "This sect, which had its principal seat in the city of Armorion, in upper Phrygia, where many Jews resided, sprung out of a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. They united baptism with the observance of all the rites of Judaism, circumcision excepted. We may perhaps recognize a branch of the older Judaizing sects."<ref>Neander, fourth period, 6, 428.</ref>

Cardinal Hergenrother says that they stood in intimate relation with Emperor Michael II (AD 821–829), and testifies that they observed Sabbath.<ref>Kirchengeschichte, I, 527</ref> As late as the 11th century Cardinal Humbert still referred to the Nazarenes as a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time. But in the 10th and 11th centuries, there was a great extension of sects from the East to the West. Neander states that the corruption of the clergy furnished a most important vantage-ground on which to attack the dominant church. The abstemious life of these Christians, the simplicity and earnestness of their preaching and teaching, had their effect. "Thus we find them emerging at once in the 11th century, in countries the most diverse, and the most remote from each other, in Italy, France, and even in the Harz districts in Germany." Likewise, also, "traces of Sabbath-keepers are found in the times of Gregory I, Gregory VII, and in the 12th century in Lombardy."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dedication.www3.50megs.com/historyofsabbath/hos_twentyone_b.html#027|title=SABBATH DURING THE DARK AGES|website=dedication.www3.50megs.com}}</ref>

=== Oriental Orthodoxy ===
The Sabbath is considered holy in the [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox]] churches,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://suscopts.org/resources/literature/1137/the-sabbath-a-hallowed-and-holy-day/|title=The Sabbath: A Hallowed and Holy Day}}</ref> both Sunday (the "Christian Sabbath") and Saturday (the "Old Sabbath"). The [[Orthodox Tewahedo]] churches are known for celebrating the Sabbath, a practice defended in the [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox]] church in Ethiopia in the 1300s by [[Ewostatewos]] ({{lang|gez|ዮስጣቴዎስ}}, {{transl-grc|Ευστάθιος}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Marcus|first=Harold G.|title=A History of Ethiopia|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofethiopi00marc|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofethiopi00marc/page/24 24]|year=1994|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-08121-5}}</ref>) but deriving from the [[Apostolic Constitutions]] and the [[Canons of the Apostles]], an early Christian text invoking the authority of the [[Apostles]] and practiced in the [[Coptic Orthodox Church]] much earlier.<ref name="Tamrat 1972">{{cite book | last=Tamrat | first=Taddesse |author-link=Taddesse Tamrat | year=1972 | title=Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527 | publication-place=Oxford  | publisher=Clarendon Press | isbn=978-0-19-821671-1 | oclc=653228}}</ref> In response to colonial pressure by missionaries of the [[Catholic Church]] in the 1500s, the emperor [[Gelawdewos|Saint Gelawdewos]] wrote his ''Confession'', an [[apologia]] of traditional beliefs and practices including observation of the Sabbath and a theological defense of the [[Miaphysitism]] of [[Oriental Orthodoxy]]. In it, he cites the Didascalia and distances the Christian observance of the seventh-day Sabbath from the Jewish observance, explicitly stating "we do not honour it as the Jews do... but we so honour it that we celebrate thereon the Eucharist and have love-feasts, even as our Fathers the Apostles have taught us in the Didascalia".<ref>{{cite book|last=Abir|first=Mordechai|title=Ethiopia and the Red Sea: The Rise and Decline of the Solomonic Dynasty and Muslim European Rivalry in the Region|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7fArBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA105|date=28 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-28090-0}}</ref>

===Protestant Reformation===
{{main|Puritan Sabbatarianism}}
[[File:Recreation ground on the Isle of Raasay - geograph.org.uk - 1476596.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A recreation ground on [[Raasay]] displaying a sign "Please do not use this playing field on Sundays"]]
Protestant reformers, beginning in the 16th century, brought new interpretations of Christian law to the West. The [[Heidelberg Catechism]] of the [[Reformed Church]]es founded by [[John Calvin]] teaches that the moral law as contained in the [[Ten Commandments]] is binding for Christians and that it instructs Christians how to live in service to God in gratitude for His grace shown in redeeming mankind.<ref name="OPC2018">{{cite web|url=https://www.opc.org/qa.html?question_id=165|title=God's Law in Old and New Covenants|year=2018|publisher=[[Orthodox Presbyterian Church]]|language=en|access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref> Likewise, [[Martin Luther]], in his work against the [[Antinomianism|Antinomians]], rejected the idea of the abolition of the Ten Commandments.<ref>Martin Luther, "Wider die Antinomer" [Against the Antinomians], secs. 6, 8, in his ''Sämmtliche Schriften'', ed. by Joh[ann] Georg Walch, Vol. 20 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1890), cols. 1613, 1614. German.</ref> They also viewed Sunday rest as a civic institution established by human authority, which provided an occasion for bodily rest and public worship.<ref name=Bauckham4>{{cite book |chapter=Sabbath and Sunday in the Protestant Tradition |first=R. J. |last=Bauckham |title=From Sabbath to Lord's Day |editor1-first=D. A. |editor1-last=Carson |year=1982 |pages=311–342 |publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers/Zondervan |editor-link=D. A. Carson |isbn=978-1-57910-307-1}}</ref> Another Protestant, [[John Wesley]], stated "This 'handwriting of ordinances' our Lord did blot out, take away, and nail to His cross.<ref>{{bibleverse|Col.|2:14|KJV}}</ref> But the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away. ... The moral law stands on an entirely different foundation from the ceremonial or ritual law. ... Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages."<ref>John Wesley, "Sermons on Several Occasions" (2-volume ed.), Vol. I, pp. 221, 222.</ref>

[[Sabbatarianism]] arose and spread among both the continental and English Protestants during the 17th and 18th centuries. The [[Puritans]] of England and Scotland brought a new rigorism into the observance of the Christian Lord's Day in reaction to the customary Sunday observance of the time, which they regarded as lax. They appealed to Sabbath ordinances with the idea that only the Bible can bind men's consciences on whether or how they will take a break from work, or to impose an obligation to meet at a particular time. Their influential reasoning spread to other denominations also, and it is primarily through their influence that "Sabbath" has become the colloquial equivalent of "Lord's Day" or "Sunday". Sunday Sabbatarianism is enshrined in its most mature expression, the ''[[Westminster Confession of Faith]]'' (1646), in the [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] theological tradition. Paragraphs 7 and 8 of Chapter 21 (''Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day'') read:

{{Blockquote|{{ordered list|start=7| As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord's day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.

| This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe a holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.<ref name="Assembly">{{Cite book|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Confession_of_Faith_of_the_Assembly_of_Divines_at_Westminster#Chapter_21|title=The Confession of Faith of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster|last=Assembly|first=Westminster}}</ref>}}}}

The confession holds that not only is work forbidden on Sunday, but also "works, words, and thoughts" about "worldly employments and recreations". Instead, the whole day should be taken up with "public and private exercises of [one's] worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy".<ref name="Assembly"/>

Strict Sunday Sabbatarianism is sometimes called "Puritan Sabbath", which may be contrasted with "Continental Sabbath".<ref>{{cite book|last=Marsden|first=George|author-link=George Marsden|title=Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism|year=1991|publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|William B. Eerdmans]]|page=25|isbn=978-0-8028-0539-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3NBLzpLP4NgC&pg=PA25}}</ref> The latter follows the [[reformed confessions of faith]] of [[Continental Europe]] such as the ''[[Heidelberg Catechism]]'', which emphasize rest and worship on the Lord's Day, but do not explicitly forbid recreational activities.<ref>[[Heidelberg Catechism]], Q & A 103.</ref>  However, in practice, many continental Reformed Christians also abstain from recreation on the Sabbath, following the admonition by the Heidelberg Catechism's author Zacharaias Ursinus that "To keep holy the Sabbath, is not to spend the day in slothfulness and idleness".<ref>{{cite book|last=Ursinus|first=Zacharias|author-link=Zacharias Ursinus|title=Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism|year=1956|publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|William B. Eerdmans]]|page=558|url=http://www.seeking4truth.com/ursinus/zuquestion103.htm|access-date=2015-03-27|archive-date=2017-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128072657/http://www.seeking4truth.com/ursinus/zuquestion103.htm}}</ref>

Though first-day Sabbatarian practice declined in the 18th century, the [[First Great Awakening]] in the 19th century led to a greater concern for strict Sunday observance. The founding of the [[Day One Christian Ministries]] in 1831 was influenced by the teaching of Daniel Wilson.<ref name=Bauckham4/>