Question: The Roman Catholic Church changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Jesus could not have died on Friday and risen on Sunday. He died Wednesday afternoon and rose before sunset Saturday. Could you comment on this?
Response: The Roman Catholic Church didn’t start “Sunday worship.” The early church met for communion and worship on Sunday from the very beginning. Acts:20:7And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
See All... tells us that it was “on the first day of the week” that the disciples came together to “break bread.” That this was communion, or the Lord’s table, is clear. They met to remember the Lord in the bread and cup as they had been commanded to do once a week—and it was on Sunday. First Corinthians 16:2 confirms this, for it tells us that they took a collection, or offering, on the “first of the week.”
Why did they meet on Sunday? It could only have been because that was the day that Christ, firstborn from the dead and progenitor of a new creation, resurrected. This is clear from Matthew:28:1In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
See All...; Mark:16:2And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
See All...,9; Luke:24:1Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
See All...; John:20:1The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
See All..., 19. It was “early in the morning…on the first day of the week” that Christ rose from the dead. Those who state that Christ “rose before sunset Saturday” are contradicted by Scripture, which not only says He rose on the “first day of the week” (which technically began Saturday evening), but that it was “very early in the morning.”
He couldn’t have been crucified on Friday afternoon and still have spent three days and nights in the grave, and then resurrected Sunday morning. He was crucified on Thursday and died several hours before sundown (the beginning of the next day), so He spent Thursday (part of it), Friday, and Saturday, three days and nights, in the grave and rose first thing Sunday morning. Why did the evening of His crucifixion begin a Sabbath? The first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread were special sabbaths. So the first day of unleavened bread fell on Friday (“that sabbath day was an high day”), which was then followed by Saturday, the regular Sabbath. Two sabbaths intervened from the time of the crucifixion until Sunday morning, thus preventing the women from coming to the grave until that time.