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Two Sunday services required?

Martin Marprelate

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Uh, huh...how about church discipline even for absence from the midweek services, check out this pronouncement from the famous 1689 London Baptist Assembly:

"The Questions Proposed from the Several Churches, Debated, and Resolved
....
Q. Whether when the church have agreed upon the keeping of one day, weekly, or monthly, besides the first day of the week to worship God, and perform the necessary services of the church, they may not charge such persons with evil that neglect such meetings, and lay them under reproof, unless such members can shew good cause for such their absence?
A. Concluded in the affirmative, Heb. x. 25."
Ah! Those were the days!
 

Reynolds

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
My pastor preaches entirely-different sermons Sunday AM & PM, and in Wednesday "prayer meetings". While many of our members attend "every time the doors are open", many of us cannot.

And, the pastor sometimes alters the starting times from 9 AM & 7 PM to allow for certain events such as the Super Bowl, to allow people to not miss a minute of church nor a minute of a special event.
By all means lets make football more important than God.
 

rlvaughn

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
And, the pastor sometimes alters the starting times from 9 AM & 7 PM to allow for certain events such as the Super Bowl, to allow people to not miss a minute of church nor a minute of a special event.
Is this a case of an IFB church observing the completely man-made shuffle-service-for-the-Super-Bowl myth? I'd say it has no scriptural support! :Sneaky
 

Reformed

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
When I lived in Maryland there was a period of time when our church would meet for a fellowship meal after the morning worship service. After the meal, there was a time of teaching in a Q & A format. This carried us until the evening worship service. It was a practice that viewed the Lord's day as more than just a physical rest but an actual sabbath rest.

1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith 22.8 The sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering their common affairs aforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all day, from their own works, words and thoughts, about their worldly employment and recreations, but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.
( Isaiah 58:13; Nehemiah 13:15-22; Matthew 12:1-13 )
 

Squire Robertsson

Administrator
Administrator
As I understand it, Sunday Evening Services came about:
  • after the spread of electric lighting allowed for gatherings after dusk.
  • as a means to "evangelize" those who would be in other churches in the AM (primarily RCC).
  • to serve those who worked second and third shifts Saturday night.
 

Revmitchell

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
The article begins very poorly written as it was filled with statements that show the author's bias. When you get to the second paragraph it is like someone else is now writing. I believe the author makes a good case for why we should but he does not make a case that we must.
 

Jerome

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith

[from the Proceedings of the 1689 London Baptist Assembly]

"...charge such persons with evil that neglect such meetings, and lay them under reproof, unless such members can shew good cause for such their absence..."
Ah! Those were the days!

Nostalgia wasn't Charles Spurgeon's reaction to the last book he reviewed before his death. From his Autobiography:

"The Sabbath in Puritan New England, by Alice Morse Earle, probably contains the last inscription written by the Pastor, and a very expressive one it is :— "An amusing but saddening book. The seamy side of New England religion exposed. . .— C. H. Spurgeon, Dec, 1891.",
 

Martin Marprelate

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Nostalgia wasn't Charles Spurgeon's reaction to the last book he reviewed before his death. From his Autobiography:

"The Sabbath in Puritan New England, by Alice Morse Earle, probably contains the last inscription written by the Pastor, and a very expressive one it is :— "An amusing but saddening book. The seamy side of New England religion exposed. . .— C. H. Spurgeon, Dec, 1891.",
:Rolleyes Your irony sensor seems to be malfunctioning. I suggest you get it serviced.
 

Jerome

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
As I understand it, Sunday Evening Services came about:
  • after the spread of electric lighting allowed for gatherings after dusk.
  • as a means to "evangelize" those who would be in other churches in the AM (primarily RCC).
  • to serve those who worked second and third shifts Saturday night.

It goes back further than that!

John 20:19
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled...

Acts of the Apostles 20:7
And 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.
 

Tom Bryant

Well-Known Member
So they only had the evening services?

Maybe the better answer is that Jews started their day in the evening. Shabat starts at sundown Friday.

I don't think these verses really have anything to do with a Sunday night service.

With that said, I loved doing Sunday night. It was a great time to teach more deeply and allow for questions and, hopefully, answers.
 

The Biblicist

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I believe the first day of the week is set apart unto worship (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2; Rev. 1:7) and it seems the entire day was set apart as a day of worship and fellowship (Acts 2:43-47; 20:7-10; 1 Cor. 14).

Everything else as far as specific time for one aspect of worship is provided in the principle "Let all things be done decently and in order."
 
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