How Many Sunday Meetings Are Mentioned in the Bible?
By T. S.
In the Review of June 2, 1874, it was stated that our brethren who were holding a tent-meeting in Oakland, Cal., had offered a reward of $500 for one text to prove any one of five propositions respecting the first day of the week, among which were the following:— “4. That the disciples of Christ ever had a religious meeting in the day time of that day.
“5. That the disciples ever had more than one meeting even in the evening of the first day.” A correspondent in New Jersey thinks she finds texts to prove more than one evening meeting on the first day of the week, and in addition to Acts 20:7, refers to 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 for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” Was this a religious meeting? Had the disciples assembled on this occasion for religious worship? This is the point to be decided. What was the occasion of the disciples assembling at this time? Was it for fear of the Jews? Then certainly it could not have been a meeting for religious worship. The Lord had a little before been crucified and the disciples were in fear for their own lives. This was natural. But it is incredible to suppose that that fear would lead them to do the very things which had so excited the malice of the Jews. They might perhaps hold a religious meeting in spite of fear of persecution, but hardly because of it. They would very probably shut their doors on account of their fear, as John records. We then come back to the question. What was the occasion of their assembling? Mark and Luke tell us plainly. In Mark 16:14 we have a record of the same meeting, and he says that it was as they sat at meat, or were partaking of their evening meal. And Luke (Acts 1:13) further explains by telling us that they had one common abode, and so would of course be together at the time of meals. The facts then are simply these: The disciples had lost their Master by the fearful scenes of the crucifixion a short time before. They felt their own lives to be in peril. And they had shut themselves up in the upper room where they had one common abode, having bolted the doors for fear their enemies would seek them out to slay them. And they were there together partaking of their evening meal when the Lord appeared in their midst. It was not a religious meeting at all. Acts 20:7 still stands as the only record we have of a religious meeting on the first day of the week, and that only an evening meeting.