A look from Church History: No Sabbaths
Yes. No “Sabbaths” were observed by the ancient Christian churches for you’re either led by the Spirit or by the Law but not both (Galatians 3:2 – 5) for hence it’s written that the “law has been abolished/made obsolete” and in another, “he who keeps the Law but stumbles in one is guilty of all of it”.
Ignatius of Antioch, A.D. 110 writes:
“Live Apart from Him”
Take note that Ignatius equates observing the Sabbath with living apart from Christ. You can either be led by the Spirit or the Law, not both (Gal. 3:2-5).
If those who have been brought up in the ancient order of things [i.e., converted Jews] have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath but living in observance of the Lord’s day, on which also our life has sprung up again by him and his death … how shall we [i.e., Gentile converts] be able to live apart from him, when even the prophets themselves—also his disciples— waited for him in the Spirit as their Teacher? (Letter to the Magnesians 9)
It is absurd to profess Christ and to Judaize. For Christianity did not believe into Judaism, but Judaism into Christianity. ( Letter to the Magnesians 10)
Justin Martyr, c. A.D. 150 writes:
And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place … Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world. On the same day, Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. (First Apology 67)
Is there any other matter, my friends, in which we [Christians] are blamed [by the Jews] than this: that we do not live according to the Law, are not circumcised in the flesh as your forefathers were, and do not observe Sabbaths as you do? ( Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 10)
[Trypho, the Jew, speaking] This is what are most at a loss about. You [Christians], professing yourselves to be godly and supposing yourselves better than others, are not separated from them. You do not alter your way of living from that of the nations in that you observe no festivals or Sabbaths and do not have the right of circumcision. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 10)
The new law requires you to keep perpetual Sabbath, and you [Jews], because you are idle for one day, suppose you are godly, not understanding why this command was given to you. If you eat unleavened bread, you say the will of God has been fulfilled. The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances. If there is any perjured person or thief among you, let him cease to be so. If any adulterer, let him repent. Then he has kept the sweet and true Sabbaths of God. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 12)
Theophilus, c. A.D. 170 writes:
The philosophers, writers, and poets … [spoke] concerning the seventh day, which all men acknowledge , but most do not know that what among the Hebrews is called the Sabbath is translated into Greek the “seventh.” It is a name adopted by every nation, although they do not know the reason for the name. (To Autolycus III:12)
Irenaeus, A.D. 183 – 186 writes:
We learn from Scripture itself that God gave circumcision … as a sign. … Ezekiel the prophet says the same concerning the Sabbaths: “I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them … ” … These things, then, were given as a sign, but the signs were not lacking symbolism … since they were given by a wise Artist; the circumcision of the flesh typified that which was of the Spirit. … But the Sabbaths taught that we should continue day by day in God’s service. … In addition, the Sabbath of God—that is, the kingdom—was indicated by created things. In this kingdom the man who has persevered in serving God shall, in a state of rest, partake of God’s table. (Against Heresies IV:16:1)
Clement of Alexandria, c. A.D. 190 writes:
Plato prophetically speaks of the Lord’s day in the tenth book of the Republic, in these words: “And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they are to set out and arrive in four days.” ( Miscellanies V:14; I include this quote because it implies the Lord’s day is the eighth day, or Sunday, rather than Saturday or the Sabbath.)
He … according to the Gospel, keeps the Lord’s day when he abandons an evil disposition and assumes that of the Gnostic [Clement believed that Christians were the true gnostics], glorifying the Lord’s resurrection in himself. (Miscellanies VII:12)
Note that none of them kept the Sabbath but gathered on Sundays “willingly” and not as a result of observing the Sabbath (reason/intention makes a huge difference in truth).
All the above agrees with apostle Paul himself who wrote that these “ritualistic” rites such as the Sabbaths and all that have ended (served its purposes under the Old Testament Covenant) and thus “let no man judge you concerning Sabbaths”:
“Let no one, then, judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a feast, or of a new moon, or of Sabbaths,” (Colossians 2:16)
Yes. Let “let no man judge you concerning Sabbaths” means you cannot be judged by any man for not keeping the Sabbaths.
Indeed, “ye have erred greatly” and it has come to pass repeatedly that:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6)