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From the earliest times, Sunday was always an hour of worship. The focus was on the obligation to attend church and hear the mass. There was never a strong focus on Sunday as a time to spend with God. The main reason for Sunday and thus the focus has always been to establish the authority of the church over the body of believers. It was and remains an exercise of the privilege of the clergy to determine who will receive the graces of God through the church sacraments. It is the manifestation of the belief that the clergy hold the keys to heaven and hell. Because men cannot read hearts nor know the inner thoughts, this institution of man is used to measure the quality of a believers faithfulness.
In contrast, the 7th Day has created by God and pronounced holy at the end of creation week. God rested on that day from all his work. It was not merely an hour for worship as Sunday, but an entire day, a 24 hour period of our time devoted to God. No work is to be done on that holy day. Even the animals are to rest on the Sabbath day. It has lasted from creation until now. God has never renounced the Sabbath, the day of rest instituted by him at the end of creation, but rather incorporated it into the Ten Commandments given to Israel at Mt Sinai. When Jesus lived on earth he revealed the true Sabbath keeping and overturned the burdensome laws the Jews had come to believe were part of Sabbath keeping. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath day is to be a time of rejoicing. A time to cease all our work and to rest in the promise of Jesus as our Savior. And, on this day, for 24 hours, we can stop our labor without being disobedient to our Lord who commanded us also to work 6 days. But anything not done in faith is sin. So not everyone will enter into this rest. But those who do believe enter in. (Hebrews 3&4). "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." {rest: or, keeping of a sabbath} Hebrews 4:9.
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