How did Sunday come into the church?

History does not lie. This kind of freaky how Sabbath was changed to Sunday

Chapter 10


Sunday in the Early Church


(88) The word "Sunday" is not found in the Bible, but the "first day" of the week is mentioned just nine times. Let us examine these nine texts.

1. The first day of the week originated as a work day. This world was created on a Sunday, so that, wherever one goes, he is reminded of God's Sunday work. (Gen. 1:1-5.)

2. "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene." Matt. 28:1. Here we notice that Sunday is an ordinary "week" day, not a holy day, and that the New Testament says the Sabbath is over when the first day begins.

3. "When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone." Mark 16:1-3. Here again we see that Sunday is a working day on which work was resumed.

(The fourth text we will examine a little later.)

5. Christ was buried on Friday, "and that day was the preparation" for the Sabbath. After the burial, His followers returned home "and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices." Luke 23:54-56; 24:1. Here three consecutive days are mentioned: They prepared the spices on Friday, rested on the Sabbath, and early Sunday morning they went to finish the work left over from Friday. So we see that Sunday is a working day, which follows immediately after the Sabbath of the New Testament.

(89) 6. "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher." John 20:1. This is simply a repetition of the other texts.

7. "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," Jesus appeared. John 20:19. "Here," says some one, "you see the disciples were gathered to keep the new Sabbath in memory of the resurrection." But the text does not say that they were gathered in honor of the day, but "for fear of the Jews." Let us now examine the fourth text.

4. "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene....She went and told them that [she] had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that He appeared" to the two who went to Emmaus. They returned and told the rest: "neither believed they them. Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen." Mark 16:9-14. This is the same meeting which is recorded in John 20:19. We ask: How could they be gathered to celebrate Sunday in honor of Christ's resurrection, when they did not believe He had risen? No, the disciples were simply in their common living quarters, and were having their evening meal when Jesus came, and they gave Him some fish and honey that was left. (Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36-43.)

8. In Acts 20:7 we have the only place in the New Testament where a religious meeting is said to be held on the "first day of the week," and this was a farewell meeting, when, of course, it was natural to celebrate the Lord's supper in parting. (Vs. 7, 25.) Besides this, the believers gathered "daily," "breaking bread" (Acts 2:46), so there was nothing in the act to indicate that the day was holy. Then too, the meeting at Troas was held on Saturday night. In the Bible reckoning, every day begins and ends at sunset, because God began the work of creation with the dark part and ended the day with the light part. "The evening and the morning were the first day." Genesis 1:1-5. "From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath." Lev. 23:32.

(90) "And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto Him all that were diseased." Mark 1:32. They would not bring them until after the Sabbath; but "at even, when the sun did set," the first working day of the week began. Therefore the Sabbath began at sunset Friday, and ended at sunset Saturday, and the first day of the week began at sunset on our Saturday evening, and ended at sunset on our Sunday evening. The only dark part of the first day, was therefore the night that preceded it, as the night following it was part of the second day. The meeting at Troas was held at night, for "there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together," and Paul "continued his speech until midnight." Being "the first day of the week," it must have been our Saturday night. (Acts 20:7, 8.) Having spent the Sabbath together, they simply had a farewell meeting in the evening. Professor McGarvey says:

"I conclude that the brethren met on the night after the Jewish Sabbath which was still observed as a day of rest by all of them who were Jews or Jewish proselytes; and considering this the beginning of the first day of the week, spent it in the manner above describe. On Sunday morning Paul and his companions resumed their journey." - Commentary on Acts, under Acts 20:7.


Conybeare and Howson write:

"It was the evening which succeeded the Jewish Sabbath....On the Sunday morning the vessel was about to sail. The Christians of Troas were gathered together at this solemn time....The night was dark....Many lamps were burning in the room where the congregation was assembled." - "Life and Epistles of the Apostle Paul," pp. 520, 521. New York.


If Sunday was their holy day, why then would Paul stay with the brethren at Troas seven days, and leave them on Sunday morning to walk eighteen and one-half miles that day, "for so had he appointed." This was planning quite a work for Sunday! (Acts 20:6, 13.)

(91) 9. "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store." 1 Cor. 16:2. This text says that every one should "lay by him in store." The new Swedish and new Norwegian Bibles read, at "home by himself." Weymouth's reads: "Let each of you put on one side and store up at his home." Ballantine's translation reads: "Let each of you lay up at home." And the Syriac has it: "Let every one of you lay aside and preserve at home." So the text proves the opposite of what is often claimed for it.

The apostle Paul was instructing the believers to take time on Sunday to lay aside at home from the wages received during the preceding week, such an amount as they could afford to give for the relief of their poor brethren at Jerusalem. If we always remembered on Sunday to take something from our previous week's earnings and lay it up at home, we would find a larger ready offering at hand, when the call comes, than if we wait, and give what we happen to have on hand. The fact that they should sit down and figure up their accounts to see how "God hath prospered" them, and give accordingly, would indicate that the day was not considered a holy day. Then, too, Sunday is never given a sacred title in the New Testament.


THE LORD'S DAY


Some claim that "the Lord's day" of Revelation 1:10, refers to Sunday, but this text does not say which day is meant, and Sunday is not called the Lord's day in any other place in the New Testament. There is therefore no evidence that Sunday is meant here. It is generally agreed that John wrote his Gospel two years after he wrote Revelation. If the term "Lord's day" had become the designation for Sunday, when John wrote Revelation, then he would have used that name for it two years later when he wrote the Gospel, but he simply calls it "the first day of the week." John 20:1. The only day which the Lord has designated as His day, is the seventh. (Ex. 20:10; Isa. 58:13; Mark 2:28.)

(92) Dr. Summerbell says:

"Many suppose that they must denominate the first day of the week the 'Lord's day,' but we have no certain Scripture for this. The phrase 'Lord's day,' occurs but once in the Bible: 'I was in the spirit on the Lord's day,' and there probably refers to the day of which Christ said: 'The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day,' as the whole book of Revelation has a strong Jewish bearing." - "History of the Christian Church," p. 152. Cincinnati: 1873.


W. B. Taylor says:

"If a current day was intended, the only day bearing this definition, in either the Old or New Testaments, is Saturday, the seventh day of the week." - "Obligation of the Sabbath," p. 296.


Dr. Peter Heylyn remarks:

"Take which you will, either of the Fathers, or the Modernes, and we shall find no Lord's day instituted by an Apostolic Mandate, no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the weeke, as some would have it: much lesse than any such Ordinance should be hence collected, our of the words of the apostle." - "History of the Sabbath," (original spelling), Part 2, p. 27: London: 1636.


THE CONCLUSION


Dr. William Smith, LL. D., after carefully examining all the texts in the New Testament usually adduced in favor of the first day, comes to this conclusion:

"Taken separately, perhaps, and even all together, these passages seem scarcely adequate to prove that the dedication of the first day of the week to the purposes above mentioned was a matter of apostolic institution, or even of apostolic practice." - A Dictionary of the Bible, art. "Lord's Day," p. 356. Hartford: Burr and Hyde, 1871.


(93) The learned Dr. John Kitto sums up those texts in the following words:

"Thus far, then, we cannot say that the evidence for any particular observance of this day amounts to much; still less does it appear what purpose or object was referred to. We find no mention of any commemoration, whether of the resurrection or any other event in the Apostolic records." - Cyclopoedia of Biblical Literature (2-vol. Ed.), Vol. II, art. "Lord's Day," p. 269. New York.


"'But,' say some, 'it was changed from the seventh to the first day.' Where? when? And by whom? No man can tell. No, it never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation was to be gone through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed!! It is all old wives' fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be change, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio - I think his name is DOCTOR ANTICHRIST." - Alexander Campbell, in "The Christian Baptist," revised by D. S. Burnit, from the Second Edition, with Mr. Campbell's last correction, page 44. Cincinnati: D. S. Burnit. 1835.


A tract widely circulated against those who keep the seventh day as the Sabbath has this to say in its fourteenth proposition:

"If Christians are to keep the Sabbath day, how do you account for the fact that the apostles preached the gospel in Jerusalem, Samaria, to Cornelius the Gentile, and to many others, without commanding a single individual to keep it: Did they under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit fail to properly instruct their converts?"


We answer: The Christians everywhere were keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, and there was an acknowledged law enforcing its observance. There was therefore no occasion for giving any commandment on this point. (Luke 23:52-56; 16:17; Matt. 5:17-19; Romans 3:31.) And the apostles by their example and teaching had educated both Jewish and Gentile believers to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. (Acts 13:42-44; 18:1-4; 17:2; 16:12, 13; 1 Cor. 7:19; Romans 7:12; 3:31.) What more could they have done in this direction?

(94) But if a new day (Sunday) was to be instituted among God's people, how can we account for the fact that the apostles preached the gospel in Jerusalem, Samaria, to Cornelius the Gentile, and to many others, without every mentioning the institution of Sunday in place of the Sabbath, or ever commanding any one to keep Sunday, the first day of the week? If the day of rest was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, how can we account for the fact that the New Testament is entirely silent about any such change, and that the apostles wrote four Gospels, and twenty-one letters to instruct the churches, besides the Acts and the Revelation, and never instructed the Christians to keep Sunday, or even mentioned it with any sacred title, but always as a "week" day; that is, a work day? Did the apostles, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, fail to instruct their converts properly? (See Acts 20:26, 27.)

The new Christian institutions of baptism and the Lord's supper are clearly taught in the New Testament. We can point to the chapter and verse where they are commanded. Then why should not so important an institution as a new Christian rest day be mentioned? To this there can be but one answer: The silence of the New Testament as to any change of the weekly rest day is an indisputable evidence that no such change was made till after the New Testament canon was closed.


SUNDAY A WORKING DAY


Dr. Francis White, Lord Bishop of Ely, says:

"In S. Hieromes days [420 A.D.], and in the very place where he was residing, the devoutest Christians did ordinary worke upon the Lord's day (Sunday was called "Lord's Day" in England in the seventeenth century when Bishop White wrote this; he therefore uses this designation of the day. Jerome is here spelled Hierome.), when the service of the Church was ended." - "Treatise of the Sabbath-Day," p. 219. London: 1636.


"The Catholic Church for more than six hundred yeares after Christ, permitted labour, and gave license to many Christian people, to worke upon the Lord's-day [Sunday], at such houres, as they were not commanded to bee present at the publike service, by the precept of the church." - Id., pp. 217, 218. (original spelling.)


(95) Bishop Jeremy Taylor says:

"St. Ignatius expressly affirms:...'The Christian is bound to labor, even upon that day.'...And the primitive Christians did all manner of works upon the Lord's day, even in the times of persecution, when they are the strictest observers of all the divine commandments: but in this they knew there was none." - "Whole Works" of Jeremy Taylor, D. D. (R. Heber, ed.), Vol. XII, Book 2, chap. 2, rule 6, par. 59, p. 426. London: 1822.


Dr. John Kitto, D. D., F. S. A., says:

"Chrysostom (A.D. 360) concludes one of his Homilies by dismissing his audience to their respective ordinary occupations." - Cyclopoedia of Biblical Literature, Vol. 2, art. "Lord's Day," p. 270.


Dr. Peter Heylyn quotes St. Jerome as telling us that, when the services were ended on Sunday morning, the holy women, "after they returne from thence,...set themselves unto their tasks which was the making garments for themselves or others: a thing which questionlesse so good a woman had not done, and much lesse ordered it to be done by others; had it been then accounted an unlawful Act. And finally S. Chrysostome...confesseth,...that after the dismission of the Congregation, every man might apply himselfe to his lawfull business....As for the time appointed to these publicke exercises, it seems not to be very long...an houre, or two at the most." - "History of the Sabbath" (original spelling} Part 2, chap. 3, par. 7, 8, pp. 79, 80. London: 1636.


Dr. Heylyn says further that the people in the country worked freely on Sunday, and that those "in populous cities" "might lawfully apply themselves to their severall businesses, the exercises being ended" in the church. (Id., pp. 80, 81.) And of the Christians of the East he says:

(96) "It was neere 900 yeares from our Saviour's birth, if not quite so much, before restraint of husbandry on this day, had beene first thought of in the East: and probably being thus restrained, did finde no more obedience there, then it had done before in the Westerne parts." - Id., chap. 5, par. 6, p. 140.


"The Sunday in the Easterne Churches had no great prerogative above other days, especially above the Wednesday and the Friday." - Id., chap. 3, par. 4, p. 73. (original spelling.)


Some may wonder why these early morning meetings were held on Sunday, when the Christians considered it only a working day. We shall see that there was a natural cause for it, when we learn that the heathen living around them were sun worshipers, who met at their temples Sunday morning, and prostrated themselves before the rising sun. Christians are a missionary people, and to win their neighbors they held a meeting at the time when their neighbors were used to worshiping their sun-god. And, as it takes a crowd to draw a crowd, the church leaders requested their members to gather at this early morning hour, after which all went to their respective places of business. But this custom became a steppingstone toward eventually adopting the heathen Sunday, as we soon shall see. Other influences also led in the same direction.





Chapter 11


Influences Toward Apostasy


(97) MITHRAISM, an outwardly refined sun worship, invaded the Roman Empire in B.C. 67, and made way for itself by gathering under its wing all the gods of Rome, so that "in the middle of the third century [A.D.] Mithraism seemed on the verge of becoming the universal religion." - Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XVIII, art. "Mithras," p. 624, 11th edition, 1911.

That which made Mithraism so popular was the fact that the Roman Caesars adopted it, and the soldiers planted its banner wherever they went. The higher schools of Greek learning also accepted it, as did also the nobility, or the better classes of society, which gave it great prestige. Its "Mysteries" had a bewitching and fascinating influence on the people. And Sunday, "the venerable day of the sun," was the popular holiday of Mithraism.

On the other hand, the primitive Christian religion appeared to the learned Greek scholastics and their followers of eminent nobility only as "foolishness" (see 1 Cor. 1:18-23), and the Romans looked down upon the Christians with disdain and utter contempt. After the Jews had rebelled against the Roman government (Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by Titus, A.D. 70, and multitudes of the Jews were sold as slaves), hatred and contempt for them had become quite general among the Romans, and everything Jewish was despised. Thus Sunday, in the Roman world, stood for what was eminent and popular, while the Sabbath, kept by the Jews, stood for what was despised and looked down upon. The temptations placed before an aspiring man, therefore, lay all in one direction. Dr. J. L. Mosheim says:

"The profound respect that was paid to the Greek and Roman mysteries, and the extraordinary sanctity that was attributed to them, were additional circumstances that induced the Christians to give their religion a mystic air, in order to put it upon an equal footing, in point of dignity, with that of the Pagans. For this purpose, they gave the name of mysteries to the institutions of the Gospel, and decorated particularly the holy sacrament with that solemn title. They used in that sacred institution, as also in that of baptism, several of the terms employed in the Heathen mysteries, and proceeded so far, at length, as even to adopt some of the ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries consisted....A great part, therefore, of the service of the Church, in this century, had a certain air of the Heathen mysteries, and resembled them considerably in many particulars." - "History of the Church" (2-vol. Ed.) Vol. I, Cent. 2, part 2, chap. 4, par. 5, p. 67. New York: 1871.


(98) Gradually, as the church lowered its standards, many of the Greek scholars accepted Christianity (while they retained their heathen philosophy), and they carried with them into the church more or less of their former viewpoint and teaching. Then, as heathenism assailed the church, and the Roman government persecuted it, these men, such as Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, et al., wrote "apologies" and "treatises" to vindicate Christianity. They, however, sadly mixed heathen sentiments with Christian doctrines, and the church gradually became permeated with the teachings of these men, who now had become the new leaders. Dr. Cummings says:

"The Fathers who were really most fitted to be the luminaries of the age in which they lived were too busy in preparing their flocks for martrydom to commit anything to writing....The most devoted and pious of the Fathers were busy teaching their flocks; the more vain and ambitious occupied their time in preparing treatises. If all the Fathers who signalized the age had committed their sentiments to writing, we might have had a fair representation of the theology of the church." - "Lectures on Romanism," p. 203; quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews, pp. 199, 200.


In a very short time, the customs of Mithraism became incorporated into Christianity. John Dowling, D. D., says:

(99) "There is scarcely anything which strikes the mind of the careful student of ancient ecclesiastical history with greater surprise, than the comparatively early period at which many of the corruptions of Christianity, which are embodied in the Romish system, took their rise." - "History of Romanism," Book II, chap. 1, par. 1, p. 65.


Christianity soon became so much like Mithraism that there was only a step between them. Frantz Cumont (who is probably the best informed man of our age on the subject of Mithraism) says of Christianity and Mithraism:

"The two opposed creeds moved in the same intellectual and moral sphere, and one could actually pass from one to the other without shock or interruption....The religious and mystical spirit of the Orient had slowly overcome the whole social organism and prepared all nations to unite in the bosom of a universal church." - "Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism," pp. 210, 211. Chicago, Ill.: Open Court Pub. Co., 1911.


The Introductory Essay by Grant Showerman says:

"Nor did Christianity stop here. It took from its opponents their own weapons and used them; the better elements of paganism were transferred to the new religion." - Id., pp. xi, xii.


It would be too long a story to trace the doctrines of Mithraism that were brought into the church. We must confine ourselves to our subject, Sunday-keeping. Mr. Cumont says further:

"The ecclesiastical authorities purified in some degree the customs which they could not abolish."

"The pre-eminence assigned to the dies Solis [Sunday] by Mithraism also certainly contributed to the general recognition of Sunday as a holiday [among Christians]." - "Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans," pp. 171, 162, 163. New York: 1912.


"Sunday, over which the Sun presided, was especially holy....

"[The worshipers of Mithra] held Sunday sacred, and celebrated the birth of the Sun on the twenty-fifth of December." - "The Mysteries of Mithra," pp. 167, 191. Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1911.


(100) Professor Gilbert Murray, M.A., D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A., Professor of Greek in Oxford University, says:

"Now, since Mithras was 'The Sun, the Unconquered,' and the Sun was 'The royal Star,' the religion looked for a King whom it could serve as the representative of Mithras upon earth:...The Roman Emperor seemed to be clearly indicated as the true King. In sharp contrast to Christianity, Mithraism recognized Caesar as the bearer of the divine Grace, and its votaries filled the legions and the civil service....

"It had so much acceptance that it was able to impose on the Christian world its own Sun-Day in place of the Sabbath, its Sun's birthday, twenty-fifth December, as the birthday of Jesus." - "History of Christianity in the Light of Modern Knowledge," Chap. III; cited in "Religion and Philosophy," pp. 73, 74. New York: 1929.


Rev. William Frederick likewise states the same historic fact:

"The Gentiles were an idolatrous people who worshiped the sun, and Sunday was their most sacred day. Now, in order to reach the people in this new field, it seems but natural, as well as necessary, to make Sunday the rest day of the church. At this time it was necessary for the church to wither adopt the Gentiles' day or else have the Gentiles change their day. To change the Gentiles' day would have been an offence and stumbling block to them. The church could naturally reach them better by keeping their day. There was no need in causing an unnecessary offence by dishonoring their day." - "Sunday and the Christian Sabbath," pp. 169, 170; quoted in Signs of the Times, Sept. 6, 1927.


Thomas H. Morer makes a similar acknowledgement. He says:

"Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly adored that planet, and called it Sunday,...the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear causelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice than might be otherwise taken against the gospel." - "Dialogues on the Lord's Day," p. 23. London: 1701.


(101) The North British Review gives the following reasons for the Christians' adopting the heathen Sun-day:

"That very day was the Sunday of their heathen neighbors and respective countrymen, and patriotism gladly united with expediency in making it at once their Lord's day and their Sabbath....That primitive church, in fact, was shut up to the adoption of the Sunday, - until it became established and supreme, when it was too late to make another alteration." - Vol. XVIII, p. 409. Edinburgh: Feb., 1853.


Thomas Chafie, a clergyman of the English Church, gives the following reasons why the early Christians could not continue to keep the Bible Sabbath among the heathen, nor change the heathen custom from Sunday to Saturday:

"Christians should not have done well in changing, or in endeavouring to have changed their [the heathen's] standing service-day, from Sunday to any other day of the week; and that for these reasons:

"1. Because of the contempt, scorn and derision they thereby should be had in among all the Gentiles with whom they lived; and toward whom they ought by St. Paul's rule to live inoffensively, 1 Cor. 10:32, in things indifferent. If the Gentiles thought hardly, and spoke evil of them, for that they ran not into the same excess of riot with them: 1 Pet. 4:4, what would they have said of Christians for such an innovation as would have been made by their change of their standing service-day? If long before this, the Jews were had in such disdain among the Gentiles for their Saturday-Sabbath,...how grievous would be their taunts and reproaches against the poor Christians living with them, and under their power, for their new set Sacred day, had the Christians chosen any other than the Sunday?

"2. Most Christians then were either Servants or of the poorer sort of People: and the Gentiles (most probably) would not give their servants liberty to cease from working on any other set day constantly, except on their Sunday....

(102) "5. It would have been but labour in vain for them to have assayed the same, they could never have brought it to pass." - "A Brief Tract on the Fourth Commandment...About the Sabbath-Day," pp. 61, 62. London: St. Paul's Church Yard, 1692.


Richard Verstegen, after much research, writes of the heathen nations:

"And it is also respectable, that the most ancient Germans being Pagans, and having appropriated their first Day of the Week to the peculiar adoration of the Sun, whereof that Day doth yet in our English tongue retain the name of Sunday." - "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities," p. 11. London: 1673.


Speaking of the Saxons, he says:

"First then unto the day dedicated unto the especial adoration of the Idol of the Sun, they gave the name of Sunday, as much as to say the Sun's-day, or the day of the Sun. This Idol was placed in a Temple, and there adored and sacrificed unto, for that they believed that the Sun in the Firmament did with or in this Idol correspond and co-operate. The manner and form whereof was according to this ensuing Picture." - Id., p. 74. (Capitalization as given in this ancient book.)


It is hardly fair to accuse the Roman Catholic Church of exchanging God's holy Sabbath for a heathen festival without giving her the opportunity to deny or acknowledge this accusation; so we will now let her state the fact in her own words, frankly. She says:

"The Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen....She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday....There is, in truth, something royal, kingly about the sun, making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence the Church in these countries would seem to have said, 'Keep that old, pagan name. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.' And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus." - "Catholic World," March, 1894, p. 809.


(103) So willing were church leaders to adopt the popular heathen festivals, that even heathen authors reproached them for it. Faustus accused St. Augustine as follows:

"You celebrate the solemn festivals of the Gentiles, their calends and their solstices; and as to their manners, those you have retained without any alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans except that you hold your assemblies apart from them." - Cited in "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," Dr. J. W. Draper, Vol. I, p. 310. New York: 1876.


Similar reproaches had been made earlier, for Tertullian answers them, making the following admission:

"Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray toward the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this?...It is you, at all events, who have even admitted the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have selected its day, in preference to the preceding day....You who reproach us with the sun and Sunday should consider your proximity to us." - "Ad Nationes," Book I, chap. 13; in "Ante-Nicene Fathers," Vol. III, p. 123, ed. By Drs. Roberts and Donaldson. New York: 1896.


Tertullian had no other excuse for their Sunday-keeping than that they did not do worse than the heathen. Not only did the Church adopt heathen festivals, but Gregory Thaumaturgus allowed their celebration in the degrading manner of the heathen:

"When Gregory perceived that the ignorant multitude persisted in their idolatry, on account of the pleasures and sensual gratifications which they enjoyed at the pagan festivals, he granted them a permission to indulge themselves in the like pleasures, in celebrating the memory of the holy martyrs, hoping that, in process of time, they would return of their own accord, to a more virtuous and regular course of life." - "Ecclesiastical History," J. L. Mosheim, D.D., Vol. I, Second Century, Part II, chap. 4, par. 2, footnote (Dr. A. Maclaine's 2-vol. Ed., p. 66). New York: 1871.


(104) Cardinal Newman says:

"Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon-worship to an evangelical use,...the rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of the educated class....

"The same reason, the need of holy days for the multitude, is assigned by Origen, St. Gregory's master, to explain the establishment of the Lord's Day....

"We are told in various ways by Eusebius, that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own....Incense, lamps, and candles;...holy water; asylums; holy days and seasons,...the ring in marriage, turning to the east, images...are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church." - "Development of Christian Doctrine," pp. 371-373. London: 1878.


"Real superstitions have sometimes obtained in parts of Christendom from its intercourse with the heathen....As philosophy has at times corrupted her divines, so has paganism corrupted her worshipers." - Id., pp. 377, 378.


"The church...can convert heathen appointments into spiritual rites and usages....Hence there has been from the first much variety and change, in the Sacramental acts and instruments which she has used." - Id., p. 379.


Speaking of the immoral pagan feast he says:

"It certainly is possible that the consciousness of the sanctifying power in Christianity may have acted as a temptation to sins, whether of deceit or of violence; as if the habit or state of grace destroyed the sinfulness of certain acts, or as if the end justified the means." - Id., p. 379.


The terrible nature of these sensual gratifications of the pagan festivals, in which the leaders of the Church now allowed its members to indulge, a person can hardly imagine till the sickening facts are spread before one's eyes by Livy. (Hist., lib. xxxix, chap. 9-17.) The learned Englishman, George Smith, F.A.S., in his "Sacred Annals," Vol. III, on the "Gentile Nations," pp. 487-489, says that this "most revolting and abandoned villiany" was so general, that when the Roman Senate had to proceed against its worst features, "Rome was almost deserted, so many persons, feeling themselves implicated in the proceedings, sought safety in flight."

(105) A church that will take in such members, without conversion, and then allow them to continue in the most putrid corruption, must have lost all respect for morality (not to say true Christianity), and cannot be in possession of the divine power of the gospel; which changes the hearts and lives of people. (Romans 1:16; 2 Cor. 5:17.) The Apostle Paul had foretold this "falling away" of the church. (Acts 20:28-30; 2 Thess. 2:1-7.) And it was during this fallen condition that the Church changed its weekly rest day from the Sabbath to the Sunday. Dr. N. Summerbell says:

"The Roman church had totally apostatized....It reversed the Fourth Commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God's word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday." - "The Christian Church," p. 415. Cincinnati: 1873.


Now, long after the Sabbath has been changed, Protestants are at a loss to find authority in the Bible for this change. They have rejected the authority of the Roman church to legislate on Christian faith, and cannot accept tradition, therefore they know not where to turn. Professor George Sverdrup, a leading man in the Lutheran Church, gives expression to this predicament in the following words:

"For, when there could not be produced one solitary place in the Holy Scriptures which testified that either the Lord Himself or the apostles had ordered such a transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday, then it was not easy to answer the question: Who has transferred the Sabbath, and who has had the right to do it?" - "Samled Skrifter I Udvalg," Andreas Helland, Vol. I, pp. 342, 343. Minneapolis, Minn.: 1909.


(106) Walter Farquhar Hook, D.D., Vicar of Leeds, expresses the same thought:

"The question is, whether God has ordered us to keep holy the first day of the week. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are undoubted ordinances of God; we can quote the chapter and verse in which we read of their being ordained by God. But as to the Lord's Day [Sunday], we are not able to refer to a single passage in all the Scriptures of the New Testament in which the observance of it is enjoined by God. If we refer to tradition, tradition would not be of value to us on the point immediately under consideration. The Romanist regards the tradition of the Church as of authority equal to that of Scripture. But we are not Romanists....But on this point there is not even tradition to support us....There is no tradition that God ordained the first day of the week to be a Sabbath....The change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday was never mentioned, or, as far as I can discover, thought of by the early Christians. The Sabbath, that is to say, the observance of Saturday as a day to be devoted to God's service, to rest of body and repose of mind, was an ordinance of God. This ordinance relating to Saturday could be changed by God and by God only. We, as Protestants, must appeal to the Bible, and the Bible only, to ascertain the fact that God has changed the day - that God has Himself substituted Sunday for Saturday....It is no answer to this to say that the apostles seem to have sanctioned the assembly of Christians for public worship on the Lord's Day, or that St. John in the Apocalypse speaks of the Lord's Day and may possibly allude to the Sunday festival. For this is one of those arguments which prove too much. We ourselves keep Easter Day; this is no proof that we do not keep Christmas Day, or that Easter has been substituted for Christmas. And if we have instances of the first day of the week being kept holy by the apostles, we have more instances of their observing the Jewish Sabbath." - "Lord's Day," p. 94. London: 1856; quoted in "The Literature of the Sabbath Question," Robert Cox, Vol. II, pp. 369, 370.


(107) Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of the "Baptist Manual," says:

"There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week.

"I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in this aspect of it, is the gravest and most perplexing question connected with Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people; and the only reason that it is not a more disturbing element in Christian thought and in religious discussions, is because the Christian world has settled down content on the conviction that somehow a transference has taken place at the beginning of Christian history....

"To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus during three years' intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false glosses, never alluded to any transference of the day; also that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated. Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that He had said unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach this subject.

"Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun-god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!" - A paper read before a New York Ministers' Conference, held Nov. 13, 1893. From a copy furnished by Dr. Hiscox for the "Source Book," pp. 513, 514. Wash., D.C.: Review and Herald, 1922.


(108) Bishop Skat Rordam, of Denmark, says:

"As to when and how it became customary to keep the first day of the week the New Testament gives us no information....

"The first law about it was given by Constantine the Great, who in the year 321 ordained that all civil and shop work should cease in the cities, but agriculture labor in the country was permitted....Still no one thought of basing this command to rest from labor on the 3rd [4th] commandment before the latter half of the sixth century. From that time on, little by little, it became the established doctrine of the church during its 'Dark Ages,' that the holy church and its teachers, or the bishops with the Roman Pope at their head, as the Vicar of Christ and His apostles on earth, had transferred the Old Testament Sabbath with its glory and sanctity over onto the first day of the week." - "Report of the Second Ecclesiastical Meeting in Copenhagen, Sept. 13-15, 1887," P. Taaning, pp. 40, 41. Copenhagen: 1887.


Bishop A. Grimelund, of Norway, says:

"Now, summing up what history teaches regarding the origin of Sunday and the development of the doctrine about Sunday, then this is the sum: It is not the apostles, not the early Christians, not the councils of the ancient church which have imprinted the name and stamp of the Sabbath upon the Sunday, but it is the Church of the Middle Ages and its scholastic teachers." - "Sondagens Historie" (The History of Sunday), p. 37. Christiania: 1886.


"What do we learn from this historical review?...That it is a doctrine which originated in the papal church that the sanctification of the Sunday in enjoined in the 3rd [4th] commandment, and that the essential and permanent in this commandment is a command from God to keep holy one day in each week." - Id., pp. 47, 48.


CONSTANTINE


(109) Constantine had been watching, he said, those Caesars who had persecuted the Christians, and found that they usually had a bad end, while his father, who was favorable toward them, had prospered. So, when he and Licinius met at Milan in 313 A.D., they jointly prepared an edict, usually called "The Edict of Milano," which gave equal liberty to Christians and pagans. Had Constantine stopped here, he might have been honored as the originator of religious liberty in the Roman Empire, but he had different aims in view. The Roman Empire had been ruled at times by two, four, or even six Caesars jointly, and in his ambition to become the sole Emperor, Constantine, as a shrewd statesman, soon saw that the Christian church had the vitality to become the strongest factor in the empire. The other Caesars were persecuting the Christians. If he could win them without losing the good will of the pagans, he would win the game. He therefore set himself to the task of blending the two religions into one. As H. G. Heggtveit (Lutheran) says:

"Constantine labored at this time untiringly to unite the worshipers of the old and the new faith in one religion. All his laws and contrivances are aimed at promoting this amalgamation of religions. He would by all lawful and peaceable means melt together a purified heathenism and a moderated Christianity....His injunction that the 'Day of the Sun' should be a general rest day was characteristic of his standpoint....Of all his blending and melting together of Christianity and heathenism none is more easy to see through than this making of his Sunday law. 'The Christians worshiped their Christ, the heathen their sun-god; according to the opinion of the Emperor, the objects for worship in both religions were essentially the same.'" - "Kirkehistorie" (Church History), pp. 233, 234. Chicago: 1898.


Constantine's Sunday law of 321 A.D. reads as follows:

"On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time." - "Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3"; translated in "History of the Christian Church," Philip Schaff, D.D., (7-vol. Ed.) Vol. III, p. 380. New York: 1884.


(110) Dr. A. Chr. Bang (Lutheran bishop, Norway), says:

"This Sunday law constituted no real favoritism towards Christianity....It is evident from all his statutory provisions, that the Emperor during the time 313-323 with full consciousness has sought the realization of his religious aim: the amalgamation of heathenism and Christianity." - "Kirken og Romerstaten" ("The Church and the Roman State"), p. 256. Christiania: 1879.


That Constantine by his Sunday law intended only to enforce the popular heathen festival is acknowledged by Professor Hutton Webster, Ph.D. (University of Nebraska), who says:

"This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity as Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar." - "Rest Days," p. 122. New York: 1916.


A. H. Lewis, D. D., who spent years of study and research on this subject, declares, that "the pagan religion of Rome had many holidays, on which partial or complete cessation of business and labor were demanded," and that Constantine by his Sunday law was "merely adding one more festival to the festi of the empire." - "A Critical History of Sunday Legislation from 321 to 1888 A.D.", pp. 8, 12. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888.


This is clearly seen when we carefully examine all the circumstances presented by Dr. Lewis:

1. Constantine's Sunday edict was given March 7, 321. The very next day he issued an edict commanding purely heathen superstition. We quote:

(111) "The August Emperor Constantine to Maximus:

"If any part of the palace or other public works shall be struck by lightning, let the soothsayers, following old usages, inquire into the meaning of the portent, and let their written words, very carefully collected, be reported to our knowledge." - Id., p. 19.


2. The Caesars for over a century had been worshipers of the sun-god, whose weekly holiday was Sunday. Dr. Lewis says: "The sun-worship cult had grown steadily in the Roman Empire for a long time." - Id., p. 20. He then quotes the following from Schaff in regard to Elagabalus, a Roman Caesar of a century before Constantine's time:

"The abandoned youth, El-Gabal or Heliogabalus (218-222), who polluted the throne by the blackest vices and follies, tolerated all religions in the hope of at last merging them in his favorite Syrian worship of the sun with its abominable excesses. He himself was a priest of the god of the sun, and thence took his name." - Id., pp. 20, 21.


Dean H. H. Milman says:

"It was openly asserted that the worship of the sun, under the name of Elagabalus, was to supersede all other worship. If we may believe the biographies in the Augustan history, a more ambitious scheme of a universal religion had dawned upon the mind of the emperor. The Jewish, the Samaritan, even the Christian, were to be fused and recast into one great system, of which the Sun was to be the central object of adoration." - "History of Christianity," Vol. II, Book 2, chap. 8, par. 22, p. 178, 179. New York: 1881.


Dr. Lewis further says that Aurelian, who reigned from 270-276 A.D., embellished the temple of the Sun with "above fifteen thousand pounds of gold." - "History of Sunday Legislation," p. 23. Diocletian, who reigned from 284 to 305, "appealed in the face of the army to the all-seeing deity of the sun." - Id., p. 24.


(112) "Such were the influences which preceded Constantine and surrounded when he came into power. The following extract shows still plainer the character of Constantine and his attitude toward the sun-worship cults, when the first 'Sunday edict' was issued:

"'But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology....The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine.'" - Id., pp. 26, 27.


"These facts combine to show that Sunday legislation was purely pagan in its origin." - Id., p. 31.


"In this law he only sought to give additional honor to the 'venerable day' of his patron deity, the sun-god." - Id., p. 32.


"His attitude toward Christianity was that of a shrewd politician rather than a devout adherent." - Id., p. 6.


Dr. Lewis quotes from Dr. Schaff a very fitting conclusion to his remarks regarding Constantine:

"'And down to the end of his life he retained the title and dignity of pontifex maximus, or high-priest of the heathen hierarchy. His coins bore on the one side the letters of the name of Christ, on the other the figure of the sun-god, and the inscription 'Sol invictus.'" - Id., p. 10.


That the Christians at this time were still keeping the Sabbath can be seen from the following statement of Hugo Grotius, quoted by Robert Cox, F. S. A. Scot.

"He refers to Eusebius for proof that Constantine, besides issuing his well-known edict that labor should be suspended on Sunday, enacted that the people should not be brought before the law courts on the seventh day of the week, which also, he adds, was long observed by the primitive Christians as a day for religious meetings....And this, says he, 'refutes those who think that the Lord's day was substituted for the Sabbath - a thing nowhere mentioned either by Christ or His apostles.'" - "Opera Omnia Theologica," Hugo Grotius (died 1645), (London: 1679); quoted in "Literature of the Sabbath Question," Cox, Vol. I, p. 233. Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1865.


(113) Pope Sylvester co-operated with Constantine to bring paganism into the Christian church (especially Sunday-keeping). This caused the true Christians to have repugnance for him. The Waldenses believed he was the Antichrist. Dr. Peter Allix quotes the following from a prominent Roman Catholic author regarding the Waldenses:

"'They say that the blessed Pope Sylvester was the Antichrist, of whom mention is made in the Epistles of St. Paul, as being the son of perdition, who extols himself above every thing that is called God; for, from that time, they say, the Church perished...'

"He lays it down also as one of their opinions, 'That the Law of Moses is to be kept according to the letter, and that the keeping of the Sabbath...and other legal observances, ought to take place.'" - "Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont," p. 169. Oxford: 1821. Page 154 in the edition of 1690.


Having obtained a glimpse of the opposition of God's people to this falling away, let us now return to our subject, to get a view of the novel means Constantine employed to make converts in accordance with his amalgamation scheme. Edward Gibbon says:

"The hopes of wealth and honors, the example of an emperor, his exhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among the venal and obsequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of a palace....As the lower ranks of society are governed by imitation, the conversion of those who possessed any eminence of birth, of power, or of riches, was soon followed by dependent multitudes. The salvation of the common people was purchased at an easy rate, if it be true that, in one year, twelve thousand men were baptized at Rome...and that a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, had been promised by the emperor to every convert.""- "Decline and Fall," chap. 20, par. 18.


Constantine gave the following instruction to the bishops at the Council of Nicaea, which shows his constant policy:

(114) "'In all ways unbelievers must be saved. It was not every one who would be converted by learning and reasoning. Some join us from desire of maintenance; some for preferment; some for presents: nothing is so rare as a real lover of truth. We must be like physicians, and accommodate our medicines to the diseases, our teaching to the different minds of all.'" - "Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church," Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Lecture 5, p. 271. New York: 1875.


The bishops were only too willing to follow the emperor's instruction, and the result was disastrous to the church. J. A. W. Neander in the following paragraph gives us some of the results of this policy:

"Such were those who, without any real interest whatever in the concerns of religion, living half in Paganism and half in an outward show of Christianity, composed the crowds that thronged the churches on the festivals of the Christians, and the theaters on the festivals of the pagans." - "History of the Christian Religion and Church," Vol. II, Sec. 3, Part 1, Div. 1, par. 1, p. 223. Boston: 1855.


No wonder Rev. H. H. Milman exclaims:

"Is this Paganism approximating to Christianity, or Christianity degenerating into Paganism?" - "History of Christianity," pp. 341, 342. He answers this question later by saying: "With a large portion of mankind, it must be admitted that the religion itself was Paganism under another form." - Id., p. 412.


Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and an admirer of Constantine, co-operated with him in bringing "the venerable day of the sun" into the Christian church. Speaking of Pope Sylvester, Constantine, and himself, he says:

"All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath these we have transferred to the Lord's day, as more appropriately belonging to it, because it has a precedence and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. For on that day, in making the world, God said, 'Let there be light, and there was light.'" - "Commentary on the Psalms"; quoted in Literature on the Sabbath Question," Robert Cox, Vol. I, p. 361.


(115) Eusebius evidently used the strongest argument he knew as proof for Sunday-keeping; but advocates of this new holiday had probably not yet conceived the idea that Christ's resurrection would be an argument in favor of Sunday-keeping, so he used creation instead.


OLD AND NEW CHURCH MEMBERS


The church at this time consisted of two widely different kinds of church members: 1. The old class, with their devoted leaders, had accepted Christianity in the primitive way, by genuine conversion and separation from the world, suffering for Christ and His unpopular truth. This class lived mostly in the country and in out-of-the-way places. 2. The new converts lived mainly in the large cities, and had come in through a mass movement, following the crowd in what was most popular, attracted by the hopes of temporal gain or honor, or they had been forced in by the secular arm. These were devoid of any personal Christian experience, but constituting the majority, they elected bishops of their own kind.

The elections of bishops were attended with secret corruption and bloody violence, which was only too natural for that kind of "Christians." Edward Gibbon says of these elections:

"While one of the candidates boasted the honors of his family, a second allured his judges by the delicacies of a plentiful table, and a third, more guilty than his rivals, offered to share the plunder of the church among the accomplices of his sacrilegious hopes." - "Decline and Fall," chap. XX, par. 22.


Rev. H. H. Milman says:

"Even within the Church itself, the distribution of the superior dignities became an object of fatal ambition and strife. The streets of Alexandria and of Constantinople were deluged with blood by the partisans of rival bishops." - "History of Christianity," Book 3, chap. 5, par. 2, p. 410. New York: 1881.


Schaff declares that "many are elected on account of their badness, to prevent the mischief they would otherwise do." - "History of the Christian Church," Vol. III, Sec. 49, par. 2, note 5, p. 240. Even the sanctity of the church was not respected by the fighting parties. Milman, speaking of the installation of a bishop at Constantinople, says:

(116) "In the morning, Philip [the prefect of the East] appeared in his car, with Macedonius by his side in the pontifical attire; he drove directly to the church, but the soldiers were obliged to hew their way through the dense and resisting crowd to the altar. Macedonius passed over the murdered bodies (three thousand are said to have fallen) to the throne of Christian prelate." - "History of Christianity," Vol. XI, p. 426. New York: 1870. Socrates ("Ecclesiastical History," Bk. II, chap. 17, p. 96) gives the number slain as 3150.


Can we wonder at the lack of spiritual insight and sound judgment of such bishops when they met at their councils to formulate the creed of Christendom? They decreed in favor of image worship, purgatory, prayers for the dead, veneration of relics, and many other heathen customs, persecuting all who would not fall in line with their mongrel customs. At the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 364, they anathematized Sabbath-keepers in the following way:

"Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be Anathema from Christ." - Canon XXIX, "Index Canonum," John Fulton, D. D., LL. D., p. 259.


That the Christians were then keeping the Sabbath we see from Canon XVI of the same council, in which they decreed:

"The Gospels are to be read on the Sabbath Day, with the other Scriptures." - Id., p. 255.


Dr. Heylyn also declares that the Christians were keeping the Sabbath at that time:

"Nor was this only the particular will of those two and thirty Prelates, there assembled; it was the practice generally of the Easterne Churches: and of some churches of the west....For in the Church of Millaine [Milan];...it seemes the Saturday was held in a farre esteeme....Not that the Easterne Churches, or any of the rest which observed that day, were inclined to Iudaisme [Judaism]; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Iesus [Jesus] Christ the Lord of the Sabbath." - "History of the Sabbath" (original spelling retained), Part 2, par. 5, pp. 73, 74. London: 1636.


(117) The true Christians paid very little attention to the anathema of the bishops, for they continued to keep the true Sabbath, as the following quotations show:

"From the apostles' time until the council of Laodicea, which was about the year 364, the holy observation of the Jews' Sabbath continued, as may be proved out of many authors; yea, notwithstanding the decree of the council against it." - "Sunday a Sabbath," John Ley, p. 163. London: 1640.


That the Sabbath was kept, "notwithstanding the decree of the council against it," is also seen from the fact that Pope Gregory I )A.D. 590-604) wrote against "Roman citizens [who] forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day." - "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," Second Series, Vol. XIII, p. 13, epist. 1.


As late as 791 A.D. Christians kept the Sabbath in Italy. Canon 13 of the council at Friaul states:

"Further, when speaking of that Sabbath which the Jews observe, the last day of the week, and which also our peasants observe, He said only Sabbath, and never added unto it, 'delight,' or 'my.'" - Mansi, 13, 851; Quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews, p. 539. 1912.


Bishop Hefele summarizes the canon in the following words:

"The celebration of Sunday begins with Saturday evening. It is enjoined to keep Sunday and other church festivals. The peasants kept Saturday in many cases." - "Conciliengesch.," 3, 720, sec. 404; Quoted in "History of the Sabbath," Andrews, pp. 539, 540. 1912.

This isn't meant to put you down or anything, but if I were you, I would try to not put so much stuff in a single post because alot of people would not bother to read it all when its clumped like that.

St. Ignatius who lived in the first and second centuries A.D. said this, concerning Jewish converts..

“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 by His death”

this was said in the early 100s A.D.

I got this from a protestant website by the way.

So, he is basically saying that a new day was used for the Sabbath, Sunday...and he goes on to say that that our life was sprung up again on that day. So it seems that St. Ignatius is saying the day of worship was changed to Sunday to commemorate the ressurection of Christ in a sense.

^indeed It was also that on sunday when the pagans would worship the sun and such they would not be tempted because the church had something happening that day aswell.


the sunday thing was used by pagans...

...

and how does that change anything?

From what I've learned, people get confused because the Bible refers to Jews and people of church.

Sabbath day for Jews is Saturday which is the holy day to worship God and do nothing else.
Sabbath day for the rest of us who believe in God is Sunday, same purposes.

... How many more of these threads, solja?

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven

And now this is number 8? And every time is the same pattern; evidence gets bought up that the church have been worshipping on Sunday from a very early day, and every time you ignore it out of hand. Are you really self conscious about your belief? You are allowed to change your mind, you know.

If he has so many why is this one still open? o.O

It's all that horrible Constantine's fault. Yeah yeah he was so evil despite the fact that he legalized Christianity and stopped Christians being thrown to the lions

We get it already! Sheesh... how many of these threads can we have?

If you see the date...2008 in december.

Hey Im not arguing the fact the early church did bring sunday in early, after all Emporer Handrian brought in a lot of anti-Jewishness in.

But I believe one should have the same doctrinal beliefs as Jesus.

Jesus disobeyed the Mosaic law, and yet kept God's commands, which a lot of Christians dont keep. (The sabbath is the fourth one)

I was passionate about it before, but you will have to explain to God why you dont keep His holy day.



Prove it, come on from the Bible. I will give you $100 if you can prove it was changed from the Bible, you cant. Yet you can prove that it was changed by the church.


If this article does say, Constantine brought in the Sabbath, then it shows how stupid the author was. A few fanatical Sabbath keepers, like to show sabbath keeping was every where, at times it was, but mostly it was kept by a minority.

The reason why so many? I had been doing a great deal of research and thought others would of been interested.



Most of these arent even mine. Number one is about keeping A sabbath day, since you sunday keepers say instead of sabbath you have Sunday, yet a minority of you fail to keep a holy day, thats what I was asking there.

Little do we know that pagan originally meant a farmer.

Romans 14:5

5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.
----

Consider one day more Holy and Sacred then another day, or dont. Either way we do it for the Lord.

Since you can make ridiculous long posts that are probably nothing but quotes, here goes mine:

1. Christians always worshipped on the first day (Sunday)
2. They state that they stopped keeping the Sabbath to worship on Sunday started with the apostles. None of say they kept the seventh day Sabbath. The only mention of Sabbath keeping was by Eusebius in 300 AD by a cult-sect known as the Ebionites, who Eusebius says also worshipped on the first day. (Ebionites were a cult of Judaizers who enforced circumcision, rejected Apostle Paul’s teachings, denied Jesus' virgin birth and his deity.)
3. They partook of the Lord’s Supper (communion) every first day.
4. They called the first day (Sunday) the Lord’s day.
5. They called the day Jesus rose from the dead, the Lord’s Day.
6. They said the reason they worshipped on the first day, was because it was a weekly memorial of the day Jesus rose from the dead!
7. They outright state that no one prior to Moses (Adam, Noah, Abraham etc) ever kept the Sabbath because it was Moses who first gave the Sabbath law and the ten commandments to man!
8. Augustine actually stated that Christians are bound to keep 9 of the ten Commandments [because the New Testament repeats and re-introduces them in a different form] but are free to break the Sabbath!
9. The earliest Christians never considered Sunday to be a rest day or the Sabbath. You will observe that the first mention of Sunday being a day of rest was in 220AD by Origen. This is the beginning of the current false doctrine, that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, as taught by most churches today.
10. While Sabbatarians will quote 20th century authors who guess about what happened 1900 years earlier, we quote Christians whose writings are 1900 years old and spoke what they saw!

90AD DIDACHE: "Christian Assembly on the Lord's Day: 1. But every Lord's day do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. 2. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. 3. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, saith the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations." (Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Chapter XIV)
100 AD BARNABAS "We keep the eighth day [Sunday] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead" (The Epistle of Barnabas, 100 AD 15:6-8).
100 AD BARNABAS: Moreover God says to the Jews, 'Your new moons and Sabbaths 1 cannot endure.' You see how he says, 'The present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but the Sabbath which I have made in which, when I have rested [heaven: Heb 4] from all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world.' Wherefore we Christians keep the eighth day for joy, on which also Jesus arose from the dead and when he appeared ascended into heaven. (15:8f, The Epistle of Barnabas, 100 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, pg. 147)
110AD Pliny: they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath not to (do) any wicked deeds, never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of good food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind. (About three years after the death of Ignatius in 250, an important official communication was sent from one Pliny to Trajan the Roman emperor. Pliny, the Roman governor of Bithynia, wrote of the Christians who had been congregating there probably from at least A.D. 62 onwards. In this remarkable it is explicitly stated that these early Christians observed the substance of most of the Ten Commandments, and it is implied that they observed all ten as far as they were able to do so. As far as they were able, for as most of the early Christians were of slave stock or from other lower classes'-, and those who had heathen masters or employers—the vast majority—would be forced to work on their day of rest, which was unfortunately an official working day throughout the empires' until Constantine's "Sabbath" Edict in 321 A.D. gave them some measure of public protection. Hence one reads that after meeting "on a certain fixed day before it was light", the first century Bithynian Christians had "to separate"—many of them having to labour for their masters and/or employers from dawn to dusk—"and then reassemble to partake of . . . food". The "certain fixed day" [stato die"'] on which the Christians met, is regarded by Seventh-day Adventists as Saturday'-. Certainly the expression would seem to indicate a regular day of meeting, probably each week. But Sunday is far more likely to have been the "certain fixed day" than Saturday. For if Pliny had been referring to the old Saturday Sabbath, as a Roman he would doubtless have referred to the "later" meeting first and only then to the morning meeting on the day al ter the "certain fixed day", seeing that the old Saturday Sabbath was demarcated from the evening of one day to the evening of the following day. But Pliny makes no such reference. Instead, he mentions that the pre-dawn meeting took place first—and only afterwards the later meeting; and that both meetings took place on the same "certain fixed day". This rather points to the Roman (and—more importantly!—New Testament) midnight to midnight demarcation of modern Sunday-keepers than to the evening to evening demarcation of the Jews and the Seventh-day Adventists. (The covenantial Sabbath, Francis Nigel Lee, Pg 242)
150AD EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLES.- I [Christ] have come into being on the eighth day which is the day of the Lord. (18)
150AD JUSTIN: "He then speaks of those Gentiles, namely us, who in every place offer sacrifices to Him, i.e., the bread of the Eucharist, and also the cup of the Eucharist, affirming both that we glorify His name, and that you profane [it]. The command of circumcision, again, bidding [them] always circumcise the children on the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision, by which we are circumcised from deceit and iniquity through Him who rose from the dead on the first day after the Sabbath, [namely through] our Lord Jesus Christ. For the first day after the Sabbath, remaining the first of all the days, is called, however, the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and [yet] remains the first.". (Justin, Dialogue 41:4)
150AD JUSTIN: ...those who have persecuted and do persecute Christ, if they do not repent, shall not inherit anything on the holy mountain. But the Gentiles, who have believed on Him, and have repented of the sins which they have committed, they shall receive the inheritance along with the patriarchs and the prophets, and the just men who are descended from Jacob, even although they neither keep the Sabbath, nor are circumcised, nor observe the feasts. Assuredly they shall receive the holy inheritance of God. (Dialogue With Trypho the Jew, 150-165 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, page 207)
150AD JUSTIN: But if we do not admit this, we shall be liable to fall into foolish opinion, as if it were not the same God who existed in the times of Enoch and all the rest, who neither were circumcised after the flesh, nor observed Sabbaths, nor any other rites, seeing that Moses enjoined such observances... For if there was no need of circumcision before Abraham, or of the observance of Sabbaths, of feasts and sacrifices, before Moses; no more need is there of them now, after that, according to the will of God, Jesus Christ the Son of God has been born without sin, of a virgin sprung from the stock of Abraham. (Dialogue With Trypho the Jew, 150-165 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, page 206)
150AD JUSTIN: "And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But 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; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration." (First apology of Justin, Weekly Worship of the Christians, Ch 68)
150AD JUSTIN: Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned [after mentioning Adam. Abel, Enoch, Lot, Noah, Melchizedek, and Abraham], though they kept no Sabbaths, were pleasing to God; and after them Abraham with all his descendants until Moses... And you [fleshly Jews] were commanded to keep Sabbaths, that you might retain the memorial of God. For His word makes this announcement, saying, "That you may know that I am God who redeemed you." (Dialogue With Trypho the Jew, 150-165 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, page 204)
150AD JUSTIN: There is no other thing for which you blame us, my friends, is there than this? That we do not live according to the Law, nor, are we circumcised in the flesh as your forefathers, nor do we observe the Sabbath as you do. (Dialogue with Trypho 10:1. In verse 3 the Jew Trypho acknowledges that Christians 'do not keep the Sabbath.')
150AD JUSTIN: We are always together with one another. And for all the things with which we are supplied we bless the Maker of all through his Son Jesus Christ and through his Holy Spirit. And on the day called Sunday there is a gathering together in the same place of all who live in a city or a rural district. (There follows an account of a Christian worship service, which is quoted in VII.2.) We all make our assembly in common on the day of the Sun, since it is the first day, on which God changed the darkness and matter and made the world, and Jesus Christ our Savior arose from the dead on the same day. For they crucified him on the day before Saturn's day, and on the day after (which is the day of the Sun the appeared to his apostles and taught his disciples these things. (Apology, 1, 67:1-3, 7; First Apology, 145 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , Vol. 1, pg. 186)
155 AD Justin Martyr "[W]e too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined [on] you--namely, on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your heart. . . . [H]ow is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us--I speak of fleshly circumcision and Sabbaths and feasts? . . . God enjoined you [Jews] to keep the Sabbath, and impose on you other precepts for a sign, as I have already said, on account of your unrighteousness and that of your fathers" (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 18, 21).
180AD ACTS OF PETER.- Paul had often contended with the Jewish teachers and had confuted them, saying 'it is Christ on whom your fathers laid hands. He abolished their Sabbath and fasts and festivals and circumcision.' (1: I)-2
180AD GOSPEL OF PETER: Early in the morning when (he Sabbath dawned, a multitude from Jerusalem and the surrounding country came to see the scaled sepulchre. In the night in which the Lord's day dawned, while the soldiers in pairs for each watch were keeping guard, a great voice came from heaven. [There follows an account of the resurrection. Early in the morning of the Lord's day Mary Magdalene, a disciple of the Lord …. came to the sepulchre. (9:34f.; 12:50f.)
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: (in commenting on each of the Ten Commandments and their Christian meaning:) The seventh day is proclaimed a day of rest, preparing by abstention from evil for the Primal day, our true rest. (Ibid. VII. xvi. 138.1)
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: He does the commandment according to the Gospel and keeps the Lord's day, whenever he puts away an evil mind . . . glorifying the Lord's resurrection in himself. (Ibid. Vii.xii.76.4)
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: 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 must go on." (Miscellanies V.xiv.106.2)
200AD BARDESANES: Wherever we are, we are all called after the one name of Christ Christians. On one day, the first of the week, we assemble ourselves together (On Fate)
200AD TERTULLIAN: "We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath" (Tertullian's Apology, Ch 16)
200AD TERTULLIAN: It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary. (An Answer to the Jews 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, page 155)
200AD TERTULLIAN: Let him who contends that the Sabbath is still to be observed a balm of salvation, and circumcision on the eighth day because of threat of death, teach us that in earliest times righteous men kept Sabbath or practiced circumcision, and so were made friends of God. .. ...Therefore, since God originated Adam uncircumcised, and inobservant of the Sabbath, consequently his offspring also, Abel, offering Him sacrifices, uncircumcised and inobservant of the Sabbath, was by Him commended... Noah also, uncircumcised - yes, and inobservant of the Sabbath - God freed from the deluge. For Enoch, too, most righteous man, uncircumcised and inobservant of the Sabbath, He translated from this world... Melchizedek also, "the priest of most high God," uncircumcised and inobservant of the Sabbath, was chosen to the priesthood of God. (An Answer to the Jews 2:10; 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, page 153)
200AD TERTULLIAN: Others . . . suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is well-known that we regard Sunday as a day of joy. (To the Nations 1: 133)
200AD TERTULLIAN: To us Sabbaths are foreign. (On Idolatry, 14:6)4
220AD ORIGEN "On Sunday none of the actions of the world should be done. If then, you abstain from all the works of this world and keep yourselves free for spiritual things, go to church, listen to the readings and divine homilies, meditate on heavenly things. (Homil. 23 in Numeros 4, PG 12:749)
220 AD Origen "Hence it is not possible that the [day of] rest after the Sabbath should have come into existence from the seventh [day] of our God. On the contrary, it is our Savior who, after the pattern of his own rest, caused us to be made in the likeness of his death, and hence also of his resurrection" (Commentary on John 2:28).
225 AD The Didascalia "The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and the oblation, because on the first day of the week our Lord rose from the place of the dead, and on the first day of the week he arose upon the world, and on the first day of the week he ascended up to heaven, and on the first day of the week he will appear at last with the angels of heaven" (Didascalia 2).
250AD CYPRIAN: The eight day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day." (Epistle 58, Sec 4)
250 AD IGNATIUS: "If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death-whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master-how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, being come, raised them from the dead. If, then, those who were conversant with the ancient Scriptures came to newness of hope, expecting the coming of Christ, as the Lord teaches us when He says, "If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me; " and again, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad; for before Abraham was, I am; " how shall we be able to live without Him? The prophets were His servants, and foresaw Him by the Spirit, and waited for Him as their Teacher, and expected Him as their Lord and Saviour, saying, "He will come and save us." Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for "he that does not work, let him not eat." For say the [holy] oracles, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread." But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, "To the end, for the eighth day," on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ, whom the children of perdition, the enemies of the Saviour, deny, "whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things," who are "lovers of pleasure, and not lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." These make merchandise of Christ, corrupting His word, and giving up Jesus to sale: they are corrupters of women, and covetous of other men's possessions, swallowing up wealth insatiably; from whom may ye be delivered by the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ! (Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, Chapter IX)
250AD IGNATIUS: "On the day of the preparation, then, at the third hour, He received the sentence from Pilate, the Father permitting that to happen; at the sixth hour He was crucified; at the ninth hour He gave up the ghost; and before sunset He was buried. During the Sabbath He continued under the earth in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathaea had laid Him. At the dawning of the Lord's day He arose from the dead, according to what was spoken by Himself, "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man also be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath embraces the burial; the Lord's Day contains the resurrection." (The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians, chapter 9)
250AD IGNATIUS: If any one fasts on the Lord's Day or on the Sabbath, except on the paschal Sabbath only, he is a murderer of Christ. (The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians, chapter 8)
250AD IGNATIUS: "This [custom], of not bending the knee upon Sunday, is a symbol of the resurrection, through which we have been set free, by the grace of Christ, from sins, and from death, which has been put to death under Him. Now this custom took its rise from apostolic times, as the blessed Irenaeus, the martyr and bishop of Lyons, declares in his treatise On Easter, in which he makes mention of Pentecost also; upon which [feast] we do not bend the knee, because it is of equal significance with the Lord's day, for the reason already alleged concerning it." (Ignatius, Fragments)
300 AD Victorinus "The sixth day [Friday] is called parasceve, that is to say, the preparation of the kingdom. . . . On this day also, on account of the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, we make either a station to God or a fast. On the seventh day he rested from all his works, and blessed it, and sanctified it. On the former day we are accustomed to fast rigorously, that on the Lord's day we may go forth to our bread with giving of thanks. And let the parasceve become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews . . . which Sabbath he [Christ] in his body abolished" (The Creation of the World).
300AD EUSEBIUS: "They did not, therefore, regard circumcision, nor observe the Sabbath neither do we; … because such things as these do not belong to Christians" (Ecc. Hist., Book 1, Ch. 4)
300AD EUSEBIUS: [The Ebionites] were accustomed to observe the Sabbath and other Jewish customs but on the Lord's days to celebrate the same practices as we in remembrance of the resurrection of the Savior. (Church History Ill.xxvii.5)
300 AD Eusebius of Caesarea "They [the pre- Mosaic saints of the Old Testament] did not care about circumcision of the body, neither do we [Christians]. They did not care about observing Sabbaths, nor do we. They did not avoid certain kinds of food, neither did they regard the other distinctions which Moses first delivered to their posterity to be observed as symbols; nor do Christians of the present day do such things" (Church History 1:4:8).
300 AD Eusebius of Caesarea "The day of his [Christ's] light . . . was the day of his resurrection from the dead, which they say, as being the one and only truly holy day and the Lord's day, is better than any number of days as we ordinarily understand them, and better than the days set apart by the Mosaic Law for feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths, which the Apostle [Paul] teaches are the shadow of days and not days in reality" (Proof of the Gospel 4:16:186).
345 AD Athanasius "The Sabbath was the end of the first creation, the Lord's day was the beginning of the second, in which he renewed and restored the old in the same way as he prescribed that they should formerly observe the Sabbath as a memorial of the end of the first things, so we honor the Lord's day as being the memorial of the new creation" (On Sabbath and Circumcision 3).
350 AD APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS: Be not careless of yourselves, neither deprive your Saviour of His own members, neither divide His body nor disperse His members, neither prefer the occasions of this life to the word of God; but assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the Lord's house: in the morning saying the sixty-second Psalm, and in the evening the hundred and fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath-day. And on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection, on which we pray thrice standing in memory of Him who arose in three days, in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the Gospel, the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food? (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book 2)
350 AD APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS: For if the Gentiles every day, when they arise from sleep, run to their idols to worship them, and before all their work and all their labors do first of all pray to them, and in their feasts and in their solemnities do not keep away, but attend upon them; and not only those upon the place, but those living far distant do the same; and in their public shows all come together, as into a synagogue: in the same manner those which are vainly called Jews, when they have worked six days, on the seventh day rest, and come together in their synagogue, never leaving or neglecting either rest from labor or assembling together... If, therefore, those who are not saved frequently assemble together for such purposes as do not profit them, what apology wilt thou make to the Lord God who forsakes his Church, not imitating so much as the heathen, but by such, thy absence grows slothful, or turns apostate. or acts wickedness? To whom the Lord says to Jeremiah, "Ye have not kept My ordinances; nay, you have not walked according to the ordinance of the heathen and you have in a manner exceeded them... How, therefore, will any one make his apology who has despised or absented himself from the church of God? (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book 2)
350 AD APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS: Do you therefore fast, and ask your petitions of God. We enjoin you to fast every fourth day of the week, and every day of the preparation, and the surplusage of your fast bestow upon the needy; every Sabbath-day excepting one, and every Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice: for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's day, being the day of the resurrection, or during the time of Pentecost, or, in general, who is sad on a festival day to the Lord For on them we ought to rejoice, and not to mourn. (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book 5)
350 AD APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS "Which Days of the Week We are to Fast, and Which Not, and for What Reasons: But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; for they fast on the second and fifth days of the week. But do you either fast the entire five days, or on the fourth day of the week, and on the day of the Preparation, because on the fourth day the condemnation went out against the Lord, Judas then promising to betray Him for money; and you must fast on the day of the Preparation, because on that day the Lord suffered the death of the cross under Pontius Pilate. But keep the Sabbath, and the Lord's day festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection. But there is one only Sabbath to be observed by you in the whole year, which is that of our Lord's burial, on which men ought to keep a fast, but not a festival. For inasmuch as the Creator was then under the earth, the sorrow for Him is more forcible than the joy for the creation; for the Creator is more honourable by nature and dignity than His own creatures." (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book 7)
350 AD APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS "How We Ought to Assemble Together, and to Celebrate the Festival Day of Our Saviour's Resurrection. On the day of the resurrection of the Lord, that is, the Lord's day, assemble yourselves together, without fail, giving thanks to God, and praising Him for those mercies God has bestowed upon you through Christ, and has delivered you from ignorance, error, and bondage, that your sacrifice may be unspotted, and acceptable to God, who has said concerning His universal Church: "In every place shall incense and a pure sacrifice be offered unto me; for I am a great King, saith the Lord Almighty, and my name is wonderful among the heathen." (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book 7)
350 AD Cyril of Jerusalem "Fall not away either into the sect of the Samaritans or into Judaism, for Jesus Christ has henceforth ransomed you. Stand aloof from all observance of Sabbaths and from calling any indifferent meats common or unclean" (Catechetical Lectures 4:37).
360 AD Council of Laodicea "Christians should not Judaize and should not be idle on the Sabbath, but should work on that day; they should, however, particularly reverence the Lord's day and, if possible, not work on it, because they were Christians" (canon 29).
387 AD John Chrysostom "You have put on Christ, you have become a member of the Lord and been enrolled in the heavenly city, and you still grovel in the Law [of Moses]? How is it possible for you to obtain the kingdom? Listen to Paul's words, that the observance of the Law overthrows the gospel, and learn, if you will, how this comes to pass, and tremble, and shun this pitfall. Why do you keep the Sabbath and fast with the Jews?" (Homilies on Galatians 2:17).
387 AD John Chrysostom "The rite of circumcision was venerable in the Jews' account, forasmuch as the Law itself gave way thereto, and the Sabbath was less esteemed than circumcision. For that circumcision might be performed, the Sabbath was broken; but that the Sabbath might be kept, circumcision was never broken; and mark, I pray, the dispensation of God. This is found to be even more solemn that the Sabbath, as not being omitted at certain times. When then it is done away, much more is the Sabbath" (Homilies on Philippians 10).
412 AD Augustine "Well, now, I should like to be told what there is in these Ten Commandments, except the observance of the Sabbath, which ought not to be kept by a Christian . . . Which of these commandments would anyone say that the Christian ought not to keep? It is possible to contend that it is not the Law which was written on those two tables that the apostle [Paul] describes as 'the letter that kills' [2 Cor. 3:6], but the law of circumcision and the other sacred rites which are now abolished" (The Spirit and the Letter 24).
597 AD Gregory I "It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day. What else can I call these [men] but preachers of Antichrist, who when he comes will cause the Sabbath day as well as the Lord's day to be kept free from all work. For because he [the Antichrist] pretends to die and rise again, he wishes the Lord's day to be had in reverence; and because he compels the people to Judaize that he may bring back the outward rite of the Law, and subject the perfidy of the Jews to himself, he wishes the Sabbath to be observed. For this which is said by the prophet, 'You shall bring in no burden through your gates on the Sabbath day' (Jer. 17:24) could be held to as long as it was lawful for the Law to be observed according to the letter. But after that the grace of almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ, has appeared, the commandments of the Law which were spoken figuratively cannot be kept according to the letter. For if anyone says that this about the Sabbath is to be kept, he must needs say that carnal sacrifices are to be offered. He must say too that the commandment about the circumcision of the body is still to be retained. But let him hear the apostle Paul saying in opposition to him: 'If you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing' (Gal. 5:2)" (Letters 13:1).

http://www.bible.ca/H-sunday.htm

This post has been edited by God-Sent: Oct 31 2009, 06:48 AM

Lol nice

I read the first few quotes (since the earlier the better in this sort of thing ) and they were pretty conclusive.

I really dont want to get into this as many people dont care about what God says in the commandments but very well I will refute all your reasons.




Laughable, most Christians, to begin with were Jewish, The first Christians in India were Jewish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians

The church in the East kept the Sabbath Day (Assryian church) (I need to find the unbaised quote again)

The Coptics (They were so different from main stream Christianity that many were kill and persecuted as heretics in the good ol' crusades)


Nay, further, the multitude of mankind itself have had a great inclination of a long time to follow our religious observances; for there is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come, and by which our fasts and lighting up lamps, and many of our prohibitions as to our food, are not observed;

Every one knew about the Sabbath, pagans were keeping it!



What about Judaizers? They are even mentioned in the Spanish inquisition,


Ignatius, about 107 AD
“If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again in Him...Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in the days of idleness; for "he that does not work, let him not eat." ...let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's day as a festival, the resurrection day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]”

Some Christians were keeping the Sabbath as he says (part in bold)



Where does it say this?



Where prove this? You cant I gurantee you.



This is getting silly. Let me explain this. Peter, James, John, Judas (the other one), Bartholomew, Philip, Mathias, Paul, Barnabus were ALL JEWS! Yes I kid you not! They were Jews. Jews keep the Sabbath. Now I thought you were smarter than this, I thought one would read their Bible and find what the Truth is, I am not saying the Sabbath belief is a main belief a lot Christians believed it has been raped and violated and people will have to explain to God why they violated His laws.

But the law was done away with? Give me one verse saying the law of God is done away with! Just give me one! You cant! None! You twist scripture.
Like this one:

2Co 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Let me show you the real beautiful meaning of this chapter, are you ready?




Ok Lets say your statement is correct, lets review it.


Now God says He rested on the Sabbath Day, no arguements there, I hope. Man and Woman was made a day before, their first day was a Sabbath! I find that amazing in it self. Anways so you are saying, that God rested on the SAbbath day but Adam and Eve didnt?

Wouldnt God want to share that experience with His creations?



What does this verse mean? what are God's Laws, commands and statutes?




Wrong the NT NEVER states the third commandment, therefore I can take God's name in vain! Yay! God doesnt care about His holy name so why should I care?
Dude this is a silly argument as the Bible explicitly states that I should honor God's name, as one should keep the Sabbath

Isa 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:



What does the Bible say, God sent, Sunday or Saturday. (Hint go to Exodus 20)




fair enough SOME quotes are, what about these quotes:

"For although almost all churches throughout The World celebrated the sacred mysteries (the Lord's Supper) on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Allexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this." The footnote which accompanies the foregoing quotation explains the use of the word "Sabbath." It says: "That is, upon the Saturday. It should be observed, that Sunday is never called "the Sabbath' by the ancient Fathers and historians." Socrates, "Ecclestical History," Book 5, chap. 22, p. 289.


"There are several cities and villages in Egypt where, contrary to the usage established elsewhere, the people meet together on Sabbath evenings, and, although they have dined previously, partake of the mysteries." Sozomen. "Ecclesiastical History" Book 7, ch. 19


"The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria." Sozomen, "Ecclesiastical History," Book 7, chap. 19.

You may be able to twist this on uneducated Sabbath keeper, But i have done my research and am very learned on the topic.

I would like to end with what Jesus said:

Mar 2:27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

God made us the Sabbath, a day we can rest and forget about the worries of the world, you can disagree with the statement as much as you want, just remember Jesus said this.

This post has been edited by Solja247: Oct 31 2009, 08:07 AM

Thats what I thought...when one of you have real evidence email me: Adam_rulz7@hotmail.com or PM me.

How does one humbly go about informing you that you are arrogant, prideful, puffed up, and need humility badly.
Perhaps the tone to address this via the internet is impossible to achieve, but this does not change that you greatly need to learn what humility is. Your arrogance and pride is ever before you in every post, that we are all inferior to you and your knowledge surpasses all of ours.

Your knowledge and intellectualism does nothing if you lose your soul, and it profits you, nor anyone anything, if you are not loving in anything you say. Until then, you post in vanity and pride.

Do you want to know why no one wants to debate?

TL;DR.

If you want to make that assumption I couldnt care less, Im over confident in Biblical truths, I will agree to that.




People challenged me and I challenged them, how is that prideful? I was just returning the favour?



No one cares about it.

oh and it is not much of a debate.

If you fail to see the arrogance within the first 11 words of your sentence, then this post is nothing but a waste of bandwidth.

You apparently can't be wrong, and you can't be humble, despite how Paul warns us not to be puffed up with knowledge.
When you start a post with: I really dont want to get into this as many people dont care about what God says in the commandments but very well I will refute all your reasons. You're instantly denied as anything close to an apologist, and do nothing but prove how large your ego is to yourself.

It's beyond being right and wrong now. Your knowledge doesn't benefit you anything because you gain nothing if you know all the theology but you know not love. Your posts are not loving, they are not humble, they are not gracious, and they are not meek in any way, shape, or form.

This is nothing of any way Jesus ever spoke, taught, or lived. This is nothing of the way any early church father or apostle spoke. Until the point you learn graciousness and humility, you will simply continue to be viewed as a joke and ignorant debater.

Im sorry I fail to see arrogance in that statement, now you are really confusing me...is it a sin to be over confident?



Of course I can. I dont debate certain things because I am unsure, and may be wrong.



Humbleness, I have thought about this word a lot. People think its arrogant and prideful to say, 'they know a lot about the Bible, or have read the bible several times' Why should one be humble about that? They should be glad! Would you rather a dumb witted christian or an intelligent Christian?


But I will agree with you...I do take pride in keeping the Sabbath, if thats what you are asking about?




You dont understand the context of the first post (my challenging post)



Show me where? I debate, if you dont like it because I dont give people cybe hugs all the time...thats me.



Thats a bit ridiculous...what about logic?

For example I dont see how my big long argument is logical and why it should be taken as a joke.

I have nothing more to say.

You start accusing, then you dont even explain...

(BTW the challenge is still on)