winsome
English, not British
No, we base our doctrine on all that Jesus and the apostles passed on both in writing and orally.
Bible alone is a false doctrine, so you are already into false teaching.
Secondly documents, such as I quoted are historical records of what actually was practiced. It is clear from the quotations I gave, and I could give more, that the early Church worshipped on the first day of the week.
You cannot just ignore history – and of course you don’t yourself when it suits you. To claim that I cannot use historical documents to show what happened when you yourself tried to use historical documents when claiming that the Pope changed the Sabbath to Sunday at the Council of Laodicia is hypocrisy.
No, breaking bread is not just for fellowship. It is the Mass, the Eucharist, Communion. When Acts and Paul refer to this they are referring to what Jesus did at the Last Supper. Yes, we can do this any day of the week but the only specific day quoted for this is the first day of the week, which shows the importance of this day to the early Christians.
Under the Old Covenant
It is clear from the quotations I gave you that the early Christians understood Sunday as the Lord’s Day. It was the day the Lord rose from the dead.
No, they were gathered to celebrate the Eucharist (Communion). And they celebrated it on the first day of the week. Nowhere else is the Eucharist mentioned as being celebrated on a specific day other than the first day of the week.
On the first day of the week when we gathered to break bread, Paul spoke to them because he was going to leave on the next day, and he kept on speaking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were gathered, and a young man named Eutychus who was sitting on the window sill was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. Once overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and when he was picked up, he was dead. Paul went down, threw himself upon him, and said as he embraced him, “Don’t be alarmed; there is life in him.” Then he returned upstairs, broke the bread, and ate; after a long conversation that lasted until daybreak, he departed. And they took the boy away alive and were immeasurably comforted.
It doesn’t say Paul stopped talking to them at midnight. He talked until midnight.
Then it reports that Eutychus fell asleep and fell.
Then it says Paul returned upstairs and broke bread – after midnight on Sunday, by your own admission.
Then Paul carried on until daybreak.
Then he left. It all happened on the first day of the week.
Paul went to evangelise not to observe the Sabbath. Paul went to preach Christ to the Jews. If you want to preach to the Jews you will find them in the Synagogue on Saturday. If you want to preach to most Christians you will find them in Church on Sunday. You will find this is Paul’s pattern of evangelising. He went first to the Jews in the synagogue and then when they rejected him he went to the Gentiles. He went where he could find them.
This is nonsense. Paul wasn’t collecting chickens, goats and sacks of grain etc to ship with him. He was collecting money. If you look at Acts 4 you will see that is how it was done. People brought money to the apostles for distribution.
Moreover Paul talks about their gift in the singular. You don’t say that about a collection of chickens and bags of grain or whatever. Gift implies one unit that was handed over - a bag of money.
Paul asked them to collect this in advance so they he wouldn’t be delayed collecting the money from each of them when he arrived, It would all be ready for him. He says (verse 5) Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia. Macedonia is a long way from Corinth. Do you seriously think the church had a big storehouse for livestock, food and water to be kept until Paul arrived, which could be weeks or months?
I note you have to dig out obscure translations to make this “clear”.
Barns? Corinth is a busy seaport not the countryside.
He doesn’t specifically tell them to do this on the first day rather than the Sabbath. He never mentions the Sabbath. He just tells them to do it on the first day of the week, which is when he knows they will be gathering for worship.
(contd)
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