Sabbath & Sunday: Admissions & History
Catholic Admissions
"If we would consult the Bible only, without Tradition, we ought, for instance, still to keep holy the Saturday with the Jews, instead of Sunday..." (Deharbe's Catechism, translated by Rev. John Fander, published by Schwartz, Kirwin & Fauss, 53 Park Place, New York, Sixth American Edition, Copyright 1912, 1919, 1924, page 81)
"Sunday...It is the law of the Catholic Church alone..." (American Sentinel, June 1893)
“From this same Catholic Church you have accepted your Sunday, as the Lord's day, she has handed down as a tradition; and the entire Protestant world has accepted it as tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish it. Therefore that which you have accepted as your rule of faith, inadequate as it of course is, as well as your Sunday, you have accepted on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.” (D.B. Ray, The Papal Controversy, 1892, p.179)
"The church...took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday.... The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom.... And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday." (Dr. William L. Gildea, The Catholic World , March, 1894)
"They [the Protestants] deem it their duty to keep the Sunday holy. Why? Because the Catholic Church tells them to do so. They have no other reason. ...The observance of Sunday thus comes to be an ecclesiastical law entirely distinct from the Divine law of Sabbath observance. …The author of the Sunday Law...is the Catholic Church." (Walter Drum, Catholic priest, Ecclesiastical Review, February, 1914)
"The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed the Sabbath into Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority." (Canon and Tradition, p. 263)
"The Roman Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days, as holy days.” (Vincent Jo Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast day Occupations, Catholic University Press, 1943, p. 2)
"Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. "The Day of the Lord" (dies domini) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church's sense of its own power. The day of resurrection, the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, came on the first day of the week. So this would be the new Sabbath. People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy." (The Pastor's page of The Sentinel, Saint Catherine Catholic Church, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995)
"Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles..... From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first." (Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August 1900)
"Question: Which is the Sabbath day?"
"Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath."
"Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?"
"Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 336) transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday." (The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, by Peter Geiermann, 50)
"The civil authorities should be urged to cooperate with the church in maintaining and strengthening this public worship of God, and to support with their own authority the regulations set down by the church's pastors. For it is only in this way that the faithful will understand why it is Sunday and not the Sabbath day that we now keep holy." (Roman Catechism, 1985)
"A history of the problem shows that in some places, it was really only after some centuries that the Sabbath rest really was entirely abolished, and by that time the practice of observing a bodily rest on the Sunday had taken its place…It was the seventh day of the week which typified the rest of God after creation, and not the first day." (Vincent Jo Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast day Occupations, Catholic University Press, 1943, pp. 15, 22)
"Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts:
1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man.
2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws.
It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible." (Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society, 1975, Chicago, Illinois)
“Nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the apostles ordered the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is the seventh day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the [Roman Catholic] Church outside the Bible.” (Catholic Virginian, October 3, 1947)
“ 'Our Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week', Said Father Hourigan of the Jesuit Seminary. 'That is why the Church changed the day of obligation from the seventh day to the first day of the week. The Anglican and other Protestant denominations retained that tradition when the Reformation came along'.” (Toronto Daily Star, October 26, 1949)
"I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says: 'No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week.' And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church." (T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18, 1884)
“My brethren, look about the various wrangling sects and denominations. Show me one that claims or possesses the power to make laws binding on the conscience. There is but one on the face of the earth--the Catholic Church--that has the power to make laws binding upon the conscience, binding before God, binding upon the pain of hellfire. Take for instance, the day we celebrate--Sunday. What right have the Protestant churches to observe that day? None whatsoever. You say it is to obey the commandment, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' But Sunday is not the Sabbath according to the Bible and the record of time.
Everyone knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, while Saturday is the seventh, and the Sabbath, the day consecrated as a day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations…It was the Holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week. And has not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the council of Laodicea, A.D. 364 anathemized those who kept the Sabbath and urged all persons to labor on the seventh day under penalty of anathama.
Which church does the whole civilized world obey? Protestants call us every horrible name they can think of--anti-Christ, the scarlet-colored beast, Babylon, etc., and at the same time profess great reverence for the Bible, and yet by their solemn act of keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the power of the Catholic Church.” (Industrial American, Harlan Iowa; a published lecture by T. Enright, December 19, 1889)
"Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change [Scriptural Sabbath to Sunday] was her act... And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things." (H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons)
"But the Church of God [that is, the Romish church, NOT the true Church] has thought it well to transfer the celebration and observance of the Sabbath to Sunday." ('Catechism of the Council of Trent' translated by John A. McHugh and Charles J. Callan, p 402)
"It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is a homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church." (Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, by Mgr. Louis Segur, 1868, p.213)
"Question: What day was the Sabbath?"
"Answer: Saturday."
"Question: Who changed it?"
"Answer: The Catholic Church."
(Rev. Dr. Butler's Catechism, revised, p. 57)
"Question: Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals or precepts?"
"Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, -she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority." (Rev. Stephen Keenan's A Doctrinal Catechism, p. 174: Edward Dunigan and Brothers, New York, 1851)
"The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God...is purely a creation of the Catholic Church. It is...not governed by the enactments of the Mosaic law. It is part and parcel of the system of the Catholic Church." (John Gilmary Shea, The American Catholic Quarterly Review , January, 1883)
"Question: How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?"
“Answer: By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.”
"Question: How can you prove that?”
“Answer: Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the Church's power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin: and by not keeping the rest [of the Catholic feasts] by her commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.” (Rev. Henry Tuberville's, (D.D.R.C.) "An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine", p.58. New York: Edward Dunigan and Brothers, approved 1833)
"You will read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we [Catholics] never sanctify." (Cardinal Gibbons' Faith of Our Fathers, p. 111)
"Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church, has no good reasons for its Sunday theory, and ought logically to keep Saturday." (John Gilmary Shea, American Catholic Quarterly Review, January 1883)
"It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church." (Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, N.J. 'News' of March 18, 1903)
"The church has changed the Sabbath into the Lord's day by its own authority, concerning which you have no Scripture." (Johann Eck, Handbook of Common Places Against the Lutherans, 1533)
"Protestants...accept Sunday rather than Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church made the change… But the Protestant mind does not seem to realize that…in observing the Sunday, in keeping Christmas and Easter, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church--the Pope." (Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950.)
"The idea of importing into the Sunday the solemnity of the Sabbath with all its exigencies was an entirely foreign one to the early Christians." (Director of at Rome's Ecole Francaise, Louis M.O. Duchesne (1843-1922), Christian Worship, p.47)
"If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church." (Albert Smith, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replying for the Cardinal, in a letter dated February 10, 1920.)
"If you follow the Bible alone there can be no question that you are obliged to keep Saturday holy, since that is the day especially prescribed by Almighty God to be kept holy to the Lord. In keeping Sunday, non-Catholics are simply following the practise of the Catholic Church for 1800 years, a tradition, and not a Bible ordinance.... With the Catholics there is no difficulty about the matter. For, since we deny that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, we can fall back upon the constant practise and tradition of the Church." (Francis G. Lentz, The Question Box, 1900, pp. 98, 99)
"Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the Church?" (Bertrand L. Conway, The Question Box Answers, 1910, p. 255)
“A history of the problem shows that in some places, it was really only after some centuries that the Sabbath rest really was entirely abolished, and by that time the practice of observing a bodily rest on the Sunday had taken its place…It was the seventh day of the week which typified the rest of God after creation, and not the first day.” (Vincent Jo Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast day Occupations, Catholic University Press, 1943, pp. 15, 22)
“You will have noticed, my dear children, that the day on which we keep Sabbath is not the same as that on which it was observed by the Jews. They kept and still keep the Sabbath upon Saturday, we on Sunday; they on the seventh, we on the first day of the week…understand how great is the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church in interpreting or explaining to us the commandments of God--an authority which is acknowledged by the universal practice of the whole Christian world, even of those sects [i.e., protestants] who profess to take the Holy Scriptures as their sole rule of faith, since they observe as the day of rest not the seventh day of the week commanded by the Bible, but the first day, which we know is to be kept holy, only from tradition and teaching of the Catholic Church.” (Henry Gibson, Catechism Made Easy (No.2), Ninth Ed., Vol. 1, pp.341,342)
"Why don't you keep Holy the Sabbath Day?"
I am going to propose a very plain and serious question, to which I would entreat all who profess to follow "the Bible and the Bible only" to give their most earnest attention. It is this: Why do you not keep holy the Sabbath-day?
The command of Almighty God stands clearly written in the Bible in these words: "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt do any work" (Exod. xx. 8,9) And again, "Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire through out your habitations upon the Sabbath day" (Exod. xxxv. 2, 3). How strict and precise is God's commandment upon this head! No work whatever was to be done on the day which He had chosen to set apart for Himself and to make holy; He required of His people that they should not even light a fire upon that day. And accordingly, when the children of Israel "found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day," "the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp" (Numbers xv. 35). Such being God's command then, I ask you again, Why do you not obey it? Why do you not keep holy the Sabbath-day?
You will answer me, perhaps, that you do keep holy the Sabbath day; for that you abstain from all the worldly business and diligently go to church, and say your prayers, and read your Bible at home, every Sunday of your lives.
But Sunday is not the Sabbath-day. Sunday is the first day of the week; the Sabbath-day was the seventh day of the week. Almighty God did not give a commandment that men should keep holy one day in seven; but He named His own day, and said distinctly, "Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day;" and He assigned a reason for choosing this day rather than any other - a reason which belongs only to the seventh day of the week, and cannot be applied to the rest. He says, "For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it." Almighty God ordered that all men should rest from their labor on the seventh day, because He too had rested on that day: He did not rest on Sunday, but on Saturday. On Sunday, which is the first day of the week, He began the work of creation. He did not finish it; it was on Saturday that He "ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made; and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made" (Gen. ii. 2, 3) Nothing can more plain and easy to understand than all this; and there is nobody who attempts to deny it; it is acknowledged by everybody that the day which Almighty God appointed to be kept holy was Saturday, not Sunday. Why do you then keep holy the Sunday, and not Saturday?
You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has the authority to change an express commandment of God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead? This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer.
You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered, or at least from which you may confidently infer that it was the will of God that Christians should make that change in its observance which you have made. Let us see whether any such passages can be found. I will look for them in the writings of your own champions, who have attempted to defend your practice in this matter.
1. The first text which I find quoted upon the subject is this: "Let no man judge you in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath-days" (Col. ii. 16). I could understand a Bible Christian arguing from this passage, that we ought to make no difference between Saturday, Sunday, and every other day of the week; that under the Christian dispensation all such distinctions of days were done away with; one day was as good and as holy as another; there were to be no Sabbaths, no holy days at all. But not one syllable does it say about the obligation of the Sabbath being transferred from one day to another.
2. Secondly, the words of St. John are quoted, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day (Apoc. i. 10). Is it possible that anybody can for a moment imagine that here is a safe and clear rule for changing the weekly feast from the seventh to the first day? This passage is utterly silent upon such a subject; it does but give us Scriptural authority for calling some one day in particular (it does not even say which day) "the Lord's day."
3. Next we are reminded that St. Paul bade his Corinthian converts, "upon the first day of the week, lay by them in store, that there might be no gatherings" when he himself came (1 Cor. xvi. 2). How is this supposed to affect the law of the Jewish Sabbath? It commands a certain act of almsgiving to be done on the first day of the week. It says absolutely nothing about not doing certain other acts of prayer and public worship on the seventh day.
4. But it was "on the first day of the week" when the disciples were assembled with closed doors for fear of the Jews, and Jesus stood in the midst of them; and again, it was eight days afterwards (that is, on the first day of the following week) that "the disciples were within, and Thomas with them," and Jesus again came and stood in the midst (John xx. 19, 26): that is to say, it was on the evening of the day of the Resurrection that our Lord first showed Himself to many disciples gathered together; and after eight days He again showed Himself to the same company, with the further addition of St. Thomas. What is there in these facts to do away with the obligation of keeping holy the seventh day? Our Lord rose from dead on the first day of the week, and on the same day at evening He appears to many of His disciples; He appears again on that day [of the] week, and perhaps also on other days in the interval. Let Protestants, if they will, keep holy the first day of the week in grateful commemoration of that stupendous mystery, the Resurrection of Christ, and of the evidence He vouchsafed to give of it to His doubting disciples; but this is no scriptural authority for ceasing to keep holy another day of the week which God had expressly commanded to be kept holy for another and altogether different reason.
5. But lastly, we have the example of the Apostles themselves. "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight" (Acts xx. 7). Here we have clear proof that the disciples came together for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and that they heard a sermon on a Sunday. But is there any proof that they had not done the same on Saturday also? Is it not expressly written concerning those same early Christians, that they "continued daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house?" (Acts ii. 46). And as a matter of fact, do we not know from other sources that, in many parts of the Church, the ancient Christians were in the habit of meeting together for public worship, to receive Holy Communion, and to perform the other offices, on Saturdays just the same as on Sundays? Again, then, I say, let Protestants keep holy, if they will, the first day of the week, in order that they may resemble those Christians who were gathered together on that day in the upper chamber in Troas; but let them remember that this cannot possibly release them from the obligation of keeping holy another day which Almighty God has ordered to be kept holy, because on that day He "rested from all His work".
I do not know of any other passages of holy Scripture which Protestants are in the habit of quoting to defend their practice of keeping holy the first day of the week instead of the seventh; yet surely those which I have quoted are not such as should satisfy any reasonable man, who looks upon the written word of God as they profess to look upon it, namely as the one only appointed means of learning God's will, and who really desires to learn and to obey that will in all things with humbleness and simplicity of heart. It is absolutely impossible that a reasonable and thoughtful person should be satisfied, by the texts that I have quoted, that the almighty God intended the obligation of Saturday under the old law to be transferred to Sunday under the new. And yet Protestants do so transfer it, and never seem to have the slightest misgivings lest, in doing so, they should be guilty of breaking one of God's commandments. Why is this? Because, although they talk so largely about following the Bible and the Bible only, they are really guided in this matter by the voice of tradition. Yes, as much as they may have in fact no other authority to allege for this most important change. The present generation of Protestants keep Sunday holy instead of Saturday, because they received it as part of the Christian religion from the last generation, and that generation received it from the generation before, and so on backwards from one generation to another, by a continual succession, until we come to the time of the (so called) Reformation, when it so happened that those who conducted the change of religion in this country left this particular portion of Catholic faith, and practice untouched.
But, had it happened otherwise, - had some one or other of the "Reformers" taken it into his head to denounce the observance of Sunday as a Popish corruption and superstition, and to insist upon it that Saturday was the day which God had appointed to be kept holy, and that He had never authorized the observance of any other - all Protestants would have been obliged in obedience to their professed principle of following the Bible and the Bible only, either to acknowledge this teaching as true, and to return to the observance of ancient Jewish Sabbath, or else to deny that there is any Sabbath at all. And so, in like manner, any one at the present day who should be set about, honestly and without prejudice, to draw up for himself a form of religious belief and practice our of the written word of God, must needs come to the same conclusion: he must either believe that the Jewish Sabbath is still binding upon men's consciences, because of the Divine command, "Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day;" or he must believe that no Sabbath at all is binding upon them, because of the Apostolic injunction, "Let no man judge you in respect of a festival day, or of the Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ's." Either one or the other of these conclusions he might honestly come to; but he would know nothing whatever of a Christian Sabbath distinct from the Jewish, celebrated on a different day, and observed in a different manner, simply because Holy Scripture itself nowhere speaks of such a thing.
Now, mind in all this you would greatly misunderstand me if you supposed I was quarreling with you for acting in this matter on the true and right principle, in other words, a Catholic principle, viz., the acceptance, without hesitation, of that which has been handed down to you by an unbroken tradition. I would not tear from you a single one of those shreds and fragments of Divine truth which you have retained. God forbid! They are the most precious things you possess, and by God's blessing may serve as clues to bring you out of that labyrinth of error in which you find yourselves involved, far more by the fault of your forefathers three centuries ago than by your own. What do I quarrel with you for is, not your inconsistency in occasionally acting on a true principle, but your adoption, as a general rule, of a false one. You keep the Sunday, and not the Saturday; and you do so rightly, for this was the practice of all Christians when Protestantism began; but you have abandoned other Catholic observances which were equally universal at that day, preferring the novelties introduced by the men who invented Protestantism, to the unvarying tradition of above 1500 years. We blame you not for making Sunday your weekly holyday instead of Saturday, but for rejecting tradition, which is the only safe and clear rule by which this observance can be justified. In outward act we do the same as yourselves in this matter; we too no longer observe the Jewish Sabbath, but Sunday in its stead; but then there is this important difference between us, that we do not pretend, as you do, to derive our authority for so doing from a book, but we derive it from a living teacher, and that teacher is the Church. Moreover, we believe that not every thing which God would have us to know and to do is written in the Bible, but that is also an unwritten word of God, which we are bound to believe and to obey, just as we believe and obey the Bible itself, according to that saying of the Apostles, "Stand fast and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle" (2 Thess. ii 14). We Catholics, then, have precisely the same authority for keeping Sunday holy instead of Saturday as we have for every other article of our creed, namely, the authority of "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth" (1 Tim. iii 15); whereas you who are Protestants have really no authority for it whatever; for there is no authority for it in the Bible, and you will not allow that there can be authority for it anywhere else. Both you and we do, in fact, follow tradition in this matter; but we follow it, believing it to be a part of God's word, and the Church to be its divinely-appointed guardian and interpreter; you follow it, denouncing it all the time as a fallible and treacherous guide, which often "make the commandment of God of none effect." (The Clifton Tracts, Volume 4, "Why don't you keep holy the Sabbath Day?" by the Brotherhood of St. Paul, published under the sanction the Bishop of Clifton, Cardinal Wiseman, and republished with the approbation of the Most Rev. John Hughes, D.D., Archbishop of New York, Excelsior Catholic Publishing House, 1869)
"Reverend Sirs, Let me admonish you that no Protestant true to the principles of his religion and conscientiously obedient to his teacher, the Bible, need ever have misgivings as regards the freedom of Sunday; nay more, his teacher is consistent in impressing on him in every page of the New Testament, as well as of the OLD, that God has appointed the Sabbath, or Saturday, as the day set apart by Him for His worship.
"Imagine, then, my surprise on reading the city papers yesterday of the anomalous and self-stultifying position occupied by you, as accredited ministers of the Christian religion, laying snares and traps to inveigle the unwary that you might drag them before the courts for violation of a purely civil law, forbidding the sale of liquor on the first day of the week. On what grounds, may I ask, can you justify such proceedings? How were these people interfering with you in the practice of your religious acts? Place your finger on any page of your acknowledged divine teacher, the Bible, and show the world the proof that, on your own principles, they had violated any ordinance of the Christian religion. I hereby denounce your conduct in this matter as being in direct violation of the revealed will of God as taught by your Bible.
"Our Saviour, while on earth, kept no other day; and we learn that for over 30 years after His death, the Acts of the Apostles record the fact that the apostles consistently kept their Divine Master's Sabbath (the Sabbath which the Jews have kept ever since for over eighteen centuries, they having the same teacher, the Bible, as you have) according to the practice and teachings of Christ and His apostles, without modification, as testified by the New Testament from Matthew's Gospel to the Revelation. This statement is absolutely true and unsusceptible of successful contradiction.
"You had succeeded in getting a verdict against them before the civil courts for transgression against the civil law. I now in the presence of the public pronounce you, on your own principles, guilty of the grossest misdemeanor, thousands of times over, against the Divine Law. When, let me ask you, have you even once, in your lifetime, kept the Commandment of God: 'Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it Holy'? Which day is the Sabbath? I answer: 'The last day of the week, the day kept by God Himself, and for the reason assigned by Him for observance of man, the Sabbath or the day kept by the Redeemer and His apostles whilst they lived on earth'.
"You pose before the world as models of Christian morality, and behold, every week of your lives you are guilty of gross violation of one of God's most positive precepts, 'remember the Sabbath', etc. Let me illustrate in order to prove God's earnestness in this respect: 'And it came to pass when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and had found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day; and they brought him to Moses and Aaron, and the whole multitude. And they put him in prison, not knowing what they should do with him. And the Lord said to Moses: let that man die, let all the multitude stone him without the camp. And when they brought him out, they stoned him and he died as the Lord commanded', Numbers 15:32-36. Such, Reverend Sirs, was the punishment meted out by the command of God to a man who was guilty but once of an infraction of the law of the Sabbath, whilst each one of you is guilty of a similar desecration of the Sabbath (Saturday) -- and this on the unerring testimony of your own teacher, the Bible. 'Out of thy mouth I judge thee, thou wicked servant'.
"Nor have God's councils changed by the exercise of infinite patience. He can afford to bide His time for the vindication of His Authority and contempt of His commands. The precept, 'Remember the Lord's day to keep it holy', is as obligatory now as it was in the old law, as in the instance above quoted. Can you offer the slightest pretext or palliation for your abandonment of your teacher, the Bible, which enjoins absolutely the keeping of that day, kept by God Himself first, after creation? You pursued the violation of the civil law unrelentingly and did not cease, until you secured a conviction. How, may I ask, will you fare when cited before the Divine Tribunal, and compelled to answer from the pages of the Divine Record, which you boast of as your guide, and the truth is you have never once obeyed the Sabbath precept, and that you stand today before heaven and earth as the most unmitigated Sabbath breakers on earth? Do I exaggerate in the slightest degree the unscrupulous antagonism to the law of the Sabbath evinced by you, every week of your lives? Not in the least. I have already designated you, amongst the champion Sabbath breakers on earth, as God's word, your guide, proved you to be." (Father M. O'Keefe, pastor of the Roman Catholic Church in Towson, Maryland, speaking to the present “protestants” at a multi-denominational meeting at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore County, Maryland on October 24, 1895, which was called for the purpose of halting “Sunday Law” violations)
The Catholic Record September 1, 1923
"SABBATH OBSERVANCE"
A short time ago this staid city of London experienced a tempest in a teapot over Sabbath observance. It was proposed to allow the children to use the municipal swimming pool during the sweltering weather we were then having. Immediately there was a ministerial chorus of protest. One reverend Boanerges valiantly declared that they would not rest until they had routed "the hosts of hell." Presumably he saw in apocalyptic vision the infernal armies lined up behind His Worship the Mayor and others in their impious assault on the sanctity of "the Sabbath."
Imagine the consternation in the ministerial association and the jubilation amongst the hosts of hell when they read in the London Free Press of this dastardly flank attack on their citadel of sabbatarianism:
"That Sabbath observance in the strict sense of the law of Israel, whether on the traditional or any seventh day, is no concern of the Christian, was the assertion of Rev. J. Marion Smith, of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Toronto, in his evening sermon yesterday at the Talbot Street Baptist Church."
And this under a two-column heading: "Sabbath Observance Not Any Part of Man's Duty as a Christian!" True, Mr. Smith was speaking to the "interogative subject," "Can a Saved Man Be Lost?" That is quite a big subject in itself; but we shall take first his pronouncement on the Sabbath, which evidently struck the reporter and the city editor as the more sensational if not the more important part of the sermon. The report of the Free Press continues:
"Quoting St. Paul, he declares that making any point of the old Mosaic law a test of righteousness is to accept the full burden of the rules, rituals and customs enjoined by Moses.
" 'In Toronto, for instance', he said, 'there are many who make a great point of Sabbath observance. I do not consider it any part of my duty as a Christian to observe the Sabbath. When Christ came the old law was fulfilled and done away with. Christ was the only being, as a human, who could and did observe the whole law. Of course, as a Christian I observe certain rules of conduct and habit. But that is the matter of personal purity.' "
It will be noted that the last paragraph purports to quote the very words of the preacher.
To the Toronto Star, the Rev. Mr. Smith gave an explanatory interview which, though it may tend to allay Sabbatarian [Sunday-keeping Protestants] indignation, does not claim that he was misreported; indeed he further emphasizes the fact that the Jewish Sabbath and Christian Sunday are quite distinct and separate institutions.
We quote from The Star:
"The Jewish Sabbath is not Sunday, the Lord's Day. Christians are all wrong in speaking of the Sabbath as Sunday." said Mr. Smith. "The Sabbath is not binding upon a Christian as a means of justification from sin," he went on. "The keeping of Sunday, the Lord's day, is quite a different matter, and springs not from any obligation to the Jewish Law, but is the ready response from the heart of the Christian who observes Sunday as a day set aside for worship and rest. This observance is one of the highest privileges of mankind, and it is only reasonable that one-seventh of a man's time should be devoted to special worship and spiritual refreshment."
And further to mollify the critics he added in conclusion:
"One of the greatest blessings of Canada had been due to the strict observance of the Lord's Day. To throw Sunday wide open would be to paralyze much good that is now accomplished and to throw unlimited temptation before the young life of our boys and girls."
The ministers of London who criticize Mr. Smith's sermon left the real crux of the question untouched. And that is not surprising, for on Protestant principles there is no possible explanation of the substitution of the Christian Sunday for the Jewish Sabbath; for this plain abrogation of the express commandment of God as recorded in the Bible.
Protestants reject Divine Tradition, the Unwritten Word, which Catholics accept as of equal authority with the Written Word, the Bible. The Divine authority given by Christ to the Church to teach in His name, to bind and loose, Protestants deny. For them - and it is their boast - the Bible and the Bible alone has Divine authority.
Now in the matter of Sabbath observance the Protestant rule of Faith is utterly unable to explain the substitution of the Christian Sunday for the Jewish Saturday. It has been changed. The Bible still teaches that the Sabbath or Saturday should be kept holy. There is no authority in the New Testament for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday. Surely it is an important matter. It stands there in the Bible as one of the Ten Commandments of God. There is no authority in the Bible for abrogating this Commandment, or for transferring its observance to another day of the week.
For Catholics it is not the slightest difficulty. "All power is given Me in heaven and on earth; as the Father sent Me so I also send you," said our Divine Lord in giving His tremendous commission to His Apostles. "He that heareth you heareth Me." We have in the authoritative voice of the Church the voice of Christ Himself. The Church is above the Bible; and this transference of Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof positive of that fact. Deny the authority of the Church and you have no adequate or reasonable explanation or justification for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday in the Third - Protestant Fourth - Commandment of God. As the Rev. Mr. Smith rightly points out: "The Jewish Sabbath is not Sunday, the Lord's Day. Christians are all wrong in speaking of the Sabbath as Sunday." The Christians who so speak are "Bible Christians," those who make the Bible the sole rule of Faith; and the Bible is silent on Sunday observance, it speaks only of Sabbath observance. The Lord's Day - Dies Dominica - is the term used always in the Missal and the Breviary. It occurs in the Bible once (Apoc. 1.10); in Acts xx. 7 and 1 Cor. xvi. 2, there is a reference to "the first day of the week;" but in none of these is there the remotest intimation that henceforth the first day is to take the place of the seventh. That is the crux of the whole question, what authority does the Bible give for the change? And that difficulty Mr. Smith and his critics, though pious and effusive and vaguely eloquent about many things, have each and all sedulously evaded.
It affects very materially and very intimately the question of the proper observance of the Lord's Day.
In the first centuries the obligation of rest from work remained somewhat indefinite. The Council of Laodicea, held at the end of the fourth century, was content to prescribe that on the Lord's Day the faithful were to abstain from work as far as possible. At the beginning of the sixth century St. Cesarius and others showed an inclination - very familiar to us - to apply the law of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday. But the Council of Orleans in 538 reprobated this tendency as Jewish and non-Christian.
Thus by the same Divine authority, in virtue of which she did away with the Jewish Sabbath and substituted therefore the Christian Sunday, the Catholic Church legislated as to how the Lord's Day should be observed.
Due to the exaggerated importance given the Bible after the Reformation and to the influence of Puritanism, the Lord's Day in England and still more in Scotland began to take on all the rigorism of the Jewish Sabbath. That heritage, though somewhat softened, we still have with us. A game of ball where participants and spectators enjoy health-giving rest and recreation in the open air is "desecration of the Sabbath." The swimming pool controversy is another good example.
We would not be misunderstood. With much of the activity of the Sabbatarians we are in sympathy. Their insistence on a day of rest being given all workers is admirable. But their muddle-headed confusion of the Lord's Day with the Jewish Sabbath - against which the Rev. Mr. Smith so vigorously protests - finds no sympathy amongst the Catholics who receive the Lord's Day itself as well as its mode of observance from the Church and not from the Bible.
It might serve a good purpose if the Sabbatarians would meditate on Mark ii, 23-28.
"And it came to pass again, as the Lord walked through the cornfields on the sabbath, that his disciples began to go forward and pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said to Him: Behold why do they on the sabbath-day that which is not lawful?
"And He said to them: Have you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry himself and they that were with them? How he went into the house of God under Abiathar the high-priest and did eat the loaves of proposition which was not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave to them who were with him?
"And He said unto them: The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath."
That is the great principle that is forgotten under the damnosa hereditas of Puritanical sabbatarianism.
Our Divine Lord observed the Sabbath; but by word and deed he set Himself against the absurd rigorism that made man the slave of the day.
The train of thought and discussion set in motion by the Rev. Mr. Smith if followed up to its logical conclusion should serve a very good and very practical purpose.”
The above article was published in the Saturday, September 1st, 1923 edition of The Catholic Record of London, Ontario, Canada, Volume XLV, and appeared on page 4
THE CATHOLIC RECORD
Publisher & Proprietor, Thomas Coffey, LL. D.
Editors - Rev. James T. Foley, D. D. and Thomas Coffey, LL. D.
Associate Editor - H. F. Mackintosh.
Manager - Robert M. Burns.
The Catholic Record has been approved and recommended by Archbishops Falconio and Sbaretti, late Apostolic Delegates to Canada, the Archbishops of Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, and St. Boniface, the Bishops of London, Hamilton, Peterborough and Odgensburg, N. Y., and the clergy throughout the Dominion.
Rome's Challenge:
Why Do Protestants Keep Sunday?
FEBRUARY 24, 1893, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists adopted certain resolutions appealing to the government and people of the United States from the decision of the Supreme Court declaring this to be a Christian nation, and from the action of Congress in legislating upon the subject of religion, and remonstrating against the principle and all the consequences of the same. In March 1893, the International Religious Liberty Association printed these resolutions in a tract entitled Appeal and Remonstrance. On receipt of one of these, the editor of the Catholic Mirror of Baltimore, Maryland, published a series of four editorials, which appeared in that paper September, 2, 9, 16, and 23, 1893. The Catholic Mirror was the official organ of Cardinal Gibbons and the Papacy in the United States. These articles, therefore, although not written by the Cardinal's own hand, appeared under his official sanction, and as the _expression of the Papacy to Protestantism, and the demand of the Papacy that Protestants shall render to the Papacy an account of why they keep Sunday and also of how they keep it.
[NOTE: To clarify what is spoken of above, the statement concerning the Supreme Court's declaration that the U.S. is a Christian nation involves the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court supported Congress in forcing the World's Fair to close on Sunday at that time (1893), thus, in effect, making Sunday "Sabbath" the official religious day of this Nation--THIS is what put the Seventh Day Adventists to action. The articles are reprinted below as they appeared in the reprint editions of the Catholic Mirror, Nov.18, 25, and Dec 23, of 1893. I've commented throughout the articles. My words appear in brackets [ ]. Enjoy this piece of sarcastic literature that puts the "Sola Scriptura" Sundaykeepers in their place (though, the Mirror is not always Scripturally correct---remember, it is from the RCC). You won't hear such sarcasm from them today in this age of advanced ecumenism--there is a need to be sensitive toward the "separated brethren" to lure them back in to “Mother's” arms. ~Brian Hoeck www.truthontheweb.org]
THE CATHOLIC MIRROR Nov. 18, 1893
THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH
THE GENUINE OFFSPRING OF THE UNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HIS SPOUSE. THE CLAIMS OF PROTESTANTISM TO ANY PART THEREIN PROVED TO BE GROUNDLESS, SELF-CONTRADICTORY, AND SUICIDAL
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[From the Catholic Mirror of Sept. 2, 1893]
Our attention has been called to the above subject in the past week by the receipt of a brochure of twenty-one pages, published by the International Religious Liberty Association, entitled, "Appeal and Remonstrance," embodying resolutions adopted by the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists (Feb. 24, '93). The resolutions criticize and censure, with much acerbity, the action of the United States Congress, and of the Supreme Court, for invading the rights of the people by closing the World's Fair on Sunday.
The Adventists are the only body of Christians with the Bible as their teacher, who can find no warrant in its pages for the change of day from the seventh to the first. Hence their appellation, "Seventh-day Adventists." Their cardinal principle consists in setting apart Saturday for the exclusive worship of God, in conformity with the positive command of God Himself, repeatedly reiterated in the Sacred Books of the Old and New Testaments, literally obeyed by the children of Israel for thousands of years to this day, and endorsed by the teaching and practice of the Son of God whilst on earth.
Per contra, the Protestants of the world, the Adventists excepted, with the same Bible as their cherished and sole infallible teacher, by their practice, since their appearance in the Sixteenth century, with the time-honored practice of the Jewish people before their eyes, have rejected the day named for His worship by God, and assumed, in apparent contradiction of His command, a day for His worship never once referred to for that purpose, in the pages of that Sacred Volume.
What Protestant pulpit does not ring almost every Sunday with loud and impassioned invectives against Sabbath violation? Who can forget the fanatical clamor of the Protestant ministers throughout the length and breadth of the land, against opening the gates of the World's Fair on Sunday? The thousands of petitions, signed by millions, to save the Lord's Day from desecration? Surely, such general and widespread excitement and noisy remonstrance could not have existed without the strongest grounds for such animated protests.
And when quarters where assigned at the World's Fair to the various sects of Protestantism for the exhibition of articles, who can forget the emphatic _expression of virtuous and conscientious indignation exhibited by our Presbyterian brethren, as soon as they learned of the decision of the Supreme Court not to interfere in the Sunday opening? The newspapers informed us that they flatly refused to utilize the space accorded them, or open their boxes, demanding the right to withdraw the articles, in rigid adherence to their principles, and thus decline all contact with the sacrilegious and Sabbath-breaking Exhibition.
Doubtless, our Calvinistic brethren deserved and shared the sympathy of all the other sects, who, however, lost the opportunity of posing as martyrs in vindication of the Sabbath observance.
They thus became "a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men," although their Protestant brethren, who failed to share the monopoly, were uncharitably and enviously disposed to attribute their steadfast adherence to religious principle, to Pharisaical pride and dogged obstinacy.
Our purpose in throwing off this article, is to shed such light on this all-important question (for were the Sabbath question to be removed from the Protestant pulpit, the sects would feel lost, and the preachers be deprived of their "Cheshire cheese") that our readers may be able to comprehend the question in all its bearings, and thus reach a clear conviction.
The Christian world is, morally speaking, united on the question and practice of worshipping God on the first day of the week.
The Israelites, scattered all over the earth, keep the last day of the week sacred to the worship of the Deity. In this particular, the Seventh-day Adventists (a sect of Christians numerically few) [Today, the SDA's claim about nine million members] have also selected the same day.
The Israelites and Adventists both appeal to the Bible for the divine command, persistently obliging the strict observance of Saturday.
The Israelite respects the authority of the Old Testament only, but the Adventist, who is a Christian, accepts the New Testament on the same ground as the Old; viz: an inspired record also. He finds that the Bible, his teacher, is consistent in both parts; that the Redeemer, during His mortal life, never kept any other day than Saturday. The Gospels plainly evince to him this fact; whilst, in the pages of the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse, not the vestige of an act canceling the Saturday arrangement can be found.
The Adventists, therefore, in common with the Israelites, derive their belief from the Old Testament, which position is confirmed by the New Testament, endorsing fully by the life and practice of the Redeemer and His apostles the teaching of the Sacred Word for nearly a century of the Christian era.
Numerically considered, the Seventh-Day Adventists form an insignificant [at this time: 1893] portion of the Protestant population of the earth, but, as the question is not one of numbers, but of truth, fact, and right, a strict sense of justice forbids the condemnation of this little sect without a calm and unbiased investigation; this is none of our funeral.
The Protestant world has been, from its infancy, in the sixteenth century, in thorough accord with the Catholic Church, in keeping "holy," not Saturday, but Sunday. The discussion of the grounds that led to this unanimity of sentiment and practice for over 300 years, must help toward placing Protestantism on a solid basis in this particular, should the arguments in favor if its position overcome those furnished by the Israelites and Adventists, the Bible, the sole recognized teacher of both litigants, being the umpire and witness. If, however, on the other hand, the latter furnish arguments, incontrovertible by the great mass of Protestants, both classes of litigants, appealing the their common teacher, the Bible, the great body of Protestants, so far from clamoring, as they do with vigorous pertinacity for the strict keeping of Sunday, have no other resource left than the admission that they have been teaching and practicing what is Scripturally false for over three centuries, by adopting the teaching and practice of what they have always pretended to believe an apostate church [that is, the Roman Catholic Church], contrary to every warrant and teaching of Sacred Scripture. To add to the intensity of this Scriptural and unpardonable blunder, it involves on of the most positive and emphatic commands of God to His servant, man: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
No Protestant living today has ever yet obeyed that command, preferring to follow the apostate church referred to than his teacher, the Bible, which, from Genesis to Revelation, teaches no other doctrine, should the Israelites and the Seventh-day Adventists be correct. Both sides appeal to the Bible as their "infallible" teacher. Let the Bible decide whether Saturday or Sunday be the day enjoined by God. One of the two bodies must be wrong, and, whereas a false position on this all-important question involves terrible penalties, threatened by God Himself, against the transgressor of this "perpetual covenant." We shall enter on the discussion of the merits of the arguments wielded by both sides. Neither is the discussion of this paramount subject above the capacity of ordinary minds, nor does it involve extraordinary study. It resolves itself into a few plain questions easy of solution:
1st. Which day of the week does the Bible enjoin to be kept holy?
2nd. Had the New Testament modified by precept or practice the original command?
3rd. Have Protestants, since the sixteenth century, obeyed the command of God by keeping "holy" the day enjoined by their infallible guide and teacher, the Bible? And if not, why not?
To the above three questions we pledge ourselves to furnish as many answers, which cannot fail to vindicate the truth and uphold the deformity of error.
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[From the Catholic Mirror of Sept. 9, 1893.]
"But faith, fanatic faith, once wedded fast,
In some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last."--MOORE.
Conformably to our promise in our last issue, we proceed to unmask one of the most flagrant errors and most unpardonable inconsistencies of the Biblical rule of faith. Lest, however, we be misunderstood, we deem it necessary to premise that Protestantism recognizes no rule of faith, no teacher, save the "Infallible Bible." As the Catholic yields his judgment in spiritual matters implicitly, and with unreserved confidence, to the voice of his church, so, too, the Protestant recognized no teacher but the Bible. All his spirituality is derived from its teachings. It is to him the voice of God addressing him through his sole inspired teacher. It embodies his religion, his faith, and his practice. The language of Chillingworth: "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the religion of Protestants," is only one form of the same idea multifariously convertible into other forms, such as "the Book of God," "the Charter of Our Salvation," "the Oracle of Our Christian Faith," "God's Text-Book to the race of Mankind," etc., etc. It is then, an incontrovertible fact that the Bible alone is the teacher of Protestant Christianity. Assuming this fact, we will now proceed to discus the merits of the question involved in our last issue.
Recognizing what is undeniable, the fact of a direct contradiction between the teaching and practice of Protestant Christianity--the Seventh-day Adventists excepted--on the one hand, and that of the Jewish people on the other; both observing different days of the week for the worship of God, we will proceed to take the testimony of the only available witness in the premises; viz: the testimony of the teacher common to both claimants, the Bible. The first _expression which we come in contact in the Sacred Word, is found in Genesis 2d chapter, 2d verse: "And on the seventh day He (God) rested from all His work which He had Made." The next reference to this matter [examined in this article, that is--for the Sabbath is referred to between Gen 2 and Ex 20] is to be found in Exodus, 20th chapter, where God commanded the seventh day to be kept, because He had Himself rested from the work of creation on that day; and the sacred text informs us that for that reason He desired it kept, in the following words "Wherefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Again, we read in the 31st chapter , 15th verse: "Six days you shall do work; in the seventh day is the Sabbath, the rest holy to the Lord;" Sixteenth verse "It is an everlasting covenant," "and a perpetual sign," "for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and in the seventh He ceased from work."
In the Old Testament, reference is made one hundred and twenty-six times to the Sabbath, and all these texts conspire harmoniously in voicing the will of God commanding the seventh day to be kept, because God Himself first kept it, making it obligatory on all as "a perpetual covenant." Nor can we imagine any one foolhardy enough to question the identity of Saturday with the Sabbath or seventh day, seeing that the people of Israel have been keeping the Saturday from the giving of the law A.M. 2514 to A.D. 1893, a period of 3383 years [This timing spoken of is based on the incorrect teaching of Bishop Ussher--also, Sabbath was instituted at creation and has been kept since Adam]. With the example of the Israelites before our eyes today, there is no historical fact better established than that referred to, viz: that the chosen people of God, the guardians of the Old Testament, the living representatives of the only divine religion hitherto, had for a period of 1490 years anterior to Christianity, preserved by weekly practice the living tradition of the correct interpretation of the special day of the week, Saturday, to be kept "holy to the Lord," which tradition they have extended by their practice to an additional period of 1893 years more [at time of this original article], thus covering the full extent of the Christian dispensation. We deem it necessary to be perfectly clear on this point, for reasons that will appear more fully hereafter. The Bible--the Old Testament--confirmed by the living tradition of a weekly practice for 3383 years by the chosen people of God, teaches then, with absolute certainty, that God had, Himself, named the day to be "kept holy to Him,"--that day was Saturday, and that any violation of that command was punishable with death. "Keep you My Sabbath, for it is holy unto you; he that shall profane it shall be put to death; he that shall do any work in it, his soul shall perish in the midst of his people." Exodus 31st chapter, 14th verse.
It is impossible to realize a more severe penalty than that so solemnly uttered by God Himself in the above text, on all who violate a command referred to no less that one hundred and twenty-sex times in the Old Law. The ten commandments of the Old Testament are formally impressed on the memory of the child of the Biblical Christian as soon as possible, but there is not one of the ten made more emphatically familiar, both in Sunday school and pulpit, than that of keeping "holy" the Sabbath day.
Having secured with absolute certainty the will of God as regards the day to be kept holy, from His Sacred Word, because He rested on that day, which day is confirmed to us by the practice of His chosen people for thousands of years, we are naturally induced to inquire when and where God changed the day for His worship; for it is patent to the world that a change of day has taken place, and inasmuch as no indication of such change can be found within the pages of the Old Testament, nor in the practice of the Jewish people who continue for nearly nineteen centuries of Christianity obeying the written command, we must look to the exponent of the Christian dispensation, viz: the New Testament, for the command of God canceling the old Sabbath, Saturday.
We now approach a period covering little short of nineteen centuries, and proceed to investigate whether the supplemental Divine teacher--the New Testament--contains a decree canceling the mandate of the Old Law, and, at the same time, substituting a day for the Divinely instituted Sabbath of the Old Law, viz: Saturday; for, inasmuch as Saturday was the day kept and ordered to be kept by God, Divine authority alone, under the form of a cancelling decree, could abolish the Saturday covenant, and another divine mandate, appointing by name another day to be kept "holy," other than Saturday, is equally necessary to satisfy the conscience of the Christian believer. The Bible being the only teacher recognized by the Biblical Christian, the Old Testament failing to point out a change of day, and yet another day than Saturday being kept "holy" by the Biblical world, it is surely incumbent on the reformed Christian to point out in the pages of the New Testament the new Divine decrees repealing that of Saturday and substituting that of Sunday, kept by Biblicals since the dawn of the Reformation.
Examining the New Testament from cover to cover, critically, we find the Sabbath referred to sixty-one times. We find, too, that the Saviour invariably selected the Sabbath (Saturday) to teach in the synagogues and work miracles. The four Gospels refer to the Sabbath (Saturday) fifty-one times.
In one instance, the Redeemer refers to Himself as "the Lord of the Sabbath," as mentioned by Matthew [12:8] and Luke [6:5; as well as Mark 2:28], but during the whole record of His life, whilst invariably keeping and utilizing the day (Saturday), He never once hinted at a desire to change it. His apostles and personal friends afford to us a striking instance of their scrupulous observance of it after His death, and, whilst His body was yet in the tomb, St. Luke 23d chapter, 56 verse, informs us "And they returned and prepared spices and ointments, and rested on the Sabbath day according to the Commandment." "But on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, (Easter Sunday) bringing the spices they had prepared." The "spices" and "ointments" had been prepared Good Friday evening, because "the Sabbath drew near" 54th verse [Easter and "Good Friday" are two more examples, along with Sunday, of anti-Scriptural Catholic tradition. Easter is an adaptation of the heathen festival of Ishtar--it is not a true Christian holy day] This action on the part of the personal friends of the Saviour, proves beyond contradiction that, after His death, they kept "holy" the Saturday, and regarded the Sunday as any other day of the week. Can anything, therefore, be more conclusive than that the apostles and the holy women never knew any Sabbath, but Saturday, up to the very day of Christ's death?
We now approach the investigation of this interesting question for the next thirty years, as narrated by the Evangelist, St. Luke, in his Acts of the Apostles. Surely some vestage of the canceling act can be discovered in the practice of the Apostles during that protracted period.
But, alas! We are once more doomed to disappointment. Nine times do we find the Sabbath referred to in the "Acts," but it is the Saturday (the old Sabbath). Should our readers desire the proof, we refer them to the chapter and verse in each instance. [Acts 1:12] Acts 13c.,14v.; again, same chapter, 27v., again 42v; again,44v. Once more, 15c., 21v. [Acts 16:13] Again 17c., 2v.; again 18c., 4v. "And he (Paul) reasoned in the Synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Thus the Sabbath (Saturday) from Genesis to Revelation!!! Thus, it is impossible to find in the New Testament the slightest interference by the Saviour or His apostles with the original Sabbath, but, on the contrary, an entire acquiescence in the original arrangement; nay, a plenary endorsement by Him, whilst living; and an unvaried, active participation in the keeping of that day and no other by the Apostles, for thirty years after His death, as the Acts of the Apostles has abundantly testified to us.
Hence, the conclusion is inevitable; viz: that, of those who follow the Bible as their guide, the Israelites and Seventh-day Adventists have the exclusive weight of evidence on their side, whilst the Biblical Protestant has not a word in self-defense for his substitution of Sunday for Saturday.
THE CATHOLIC MIRROR Nov. 25, 1893
THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH
THE GENUINE OFFSPRING OF THE UNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HIS SPOUSE. THE CLAIMS OF PROTESTANTISM TO ANY PART THEREIN PROVED TO BE GROUNDLESS, SELF-CONTRADICTORY, AND SUICIDAL
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[From the Catholic Mirror of Sept. 16, 1893.]
When his Satanic Majesty, who was "a murderer from the beginning," "and the father of lies," undertook to open the eyes of our first mother, Eve, by stimulating her ambition, "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," his action was but the first of many plausible and successful efforts employed later, in the seduction of millions of her children. Like Eve, they learn too late, alas! the value of the inducements held out to allure her weak children from allegiance to God. Nor does the subject matter of this discussion form an exception to the usual tactics of his sable majesty.
Over three centuries since, he plausibly represented to a large number of discontented and ambitious Christians the bright prospect of the successful inauguration of a "new departure," by the abandonment of the Church instituted by the Son of God, as their teacher, and the assumption of a new teacher--the Bible alone--as their newly fledged oracle. [God the Father and Jesus Christ did not appoint, nor institute, the Roman Catholic Church as a teacher of the brethren--God gave us His Word (The Holy Scriptures) and His Holy Spirit as our guide to all truth. (II Tim 3:15,16; I Jn 2:27)]
The sagacity of the evil one foresaw but the brilliant success of this maneuver. Nor did the result fall short of His most sanguine expectations.
A bold and adventurous spirit was alone needed to head the expedition. Him his Satanic Majesty soon found in the apostate monk, [Martin] Luther, who himself repeatedly testifies to the close familiarity that existed between his master and himself, in his "Table Talk," and other works published in 1558, at Wittenberg, under the inspection of Melanchthon. His colloquies with Satan on various occasions, are testified to by Luther himself--a witness worthy of all credibility. What the agency of the serpent tended so effectually to achieve in the garden, the agency of Luther achieved in the Christian world.
"Give them a pilot to their wandering fleet,
Bold in his art, and turtored to deceit;
Whose hand adventurous shall their helm misguide
To hostile shores, or 'whelm them in the tide."
As the end proposed to himself by the Evil One in his raid on the Church of Christ was the destruction of Christianity, we are now engaged in sifting the means adopted by him to insure his success therein. So far, they have been found to be misleading, self-contradictory, and fallacious. We will now proceed with the further investigation of this imposture.
Having proved to a demonstration that the Redeemer, in no instance, had, during the period of His life, deviated from the faithful observance of the Sabbath, (Saturday), referred to by the four Evangelists fifty-one times, although He had designated Himself "Lord of the Sabbath," He never having once, by command or practice, hinted at a desire on His part to change the day by substitution of another; and having called special attention to the conduct of the Apostles and the holy women, the very evening of His death, securing beforehand spices and ointments to be used in embalming His body the morning after the Sabbath (Saturday), as Luke so clearly informs us (Luke 24 ch. 1 v.), thereby placing beyond peradventure, the Divine action and the will of the Son of God during life by keeping the Sabbath steadfastly; and having called attention to the action of His living representatives after His death, as proved by Luke; having also placed before our readers the indisputable fact that the apostles for the following thirty years (Acts) never deviated from the practice of the divine Master in this particular, as St. Luke (Acts 18 ch., 4 v.) assures us: "And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogues every Sabbath (Saturday), and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." The Gentile converts were, as we see from the text, equally instructed with the Jews, to keep the Saturday, having been converted to Christianity on that day, "the Jews and the Greeks" collectively.
Having also called attention to the texts of the Acts (9), bearing on the exclusive use of the Sabbath by the Jews and Christians for thirty years after the death of the Saviour as the only day of the week observed by Christ and His apostles, which period exhausts the inspired record, we now proceed to supplement our proofs that the Sabbath [Saturday] enjoyed this exclusive privilege, by calling attention to every instance wherein the Sacred Record refers to the first day of the week.
The first reference to Sunday after the resurrection of Christ is to be found in St. Luke's Gospel, 24ch., from 33 to 40 vs., and in St. John's, 20ch., 19v.
The above texts themselves refer to the sole motive of this gathering on the part of the apostles. It took place on the day of the resurrection (Easter Sunday), not for the purpose of inaugurating "the new departure" from the old Sabbath (Saturday) by keeping "holy" the new day, for there is not a hint given of prayer, exhortation, or the reading of the Scriptures, but it indicates the utter demoralization of the Apostles by informing mankind that they were huddled together in that room in Jerusalem "for fear of the Jews," as St. John, quoted above, plainly informs us.
The second reference to Sunday is to be found in St. John's Gospel, 20th chapter, 26th to 29th verses "And after eight days, the disciples were again within, and Thomas with them." The resurrected Redeemer availed Himself of this meeting of all the apostles to confound the incredulity of Thomas, who had been absent from the gathering on Easter Sunday evening. This would have furnished a golden opportunity to the Redeemer to change the day in the presence of all His Apostles, but we state the simple fact that, on this occasion, as on Easter day, not a word is said of prayer, praise, or reading of the Scriptures. The third instance on record, wherein the Apostles were assembled on Sunday is to be found in Acts, 2d chapter, 1st verse: "The apostles were all of one accord in one place" (Feast of Pentecost--Sunday). Now, will this text afford to our Biblical Christian brethren a vestige of hope that Sunday substitutes, at length, Saturday? For when we inform them that the Jews had been keeping this Sunday for 1500 years, and have been keeping it for eighteen centuries after the establishment of Christianity, at the same time keeping the weekly Sabbath, there is not to be found either consolation or comfort in this text. Pentecost is the fiftieth day after the Passover, which was called the Sabbath of weeks, consisting of seven times seven days; and the day after the completion of the seventh weekly Sabbath day, was the chief day of the entire festival, necessarily Sunday. What Israelite would not pity the cause that would seek to discover the origin of the keeping of the first day of the week in his Festival of Pentecost, that has been kept by him yearly for over 3,000 years? Who but the Biblical Christian, driven to the wall for a pretext to excuse his sacrilegious desecration of the Sabbath, always kept by Christ and His apostles, would have resorted to the Jewish Festival of Pentecost for his act of rebellion against his God and his teacher, the Bible?
Once more, the Biblical apologists but for the change of day, call our attention to Acts, 20th chapter, 6th and 7th verses: "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread" etc. To all appearances, the above text should furnish some consolation to our disgruntled Biblical friends, but being a Marplot, we cannot allow them even this crumb of comfort. We reply by the axiom "Quod probat nimis, probat nihil" - "What proves to much, proves nothing." Let us call attention to the same Acts, 2d chapter, 46th verse: "And they, continuing daily in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house," etc. Who does not see at a glance that the text produced to prove the exclusive prerogative of Sunday, vanishes into thin air--an ignis fatuus--when placed in juxtaposition with the 46th verse of the same chapter? What the Biblical Christian claims by this text for Sunday alone, the same authority, St. Luke, informs us was common to every day of the week: "And they, continuing daily in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house."
One text more presents itself, apparently leaning toward a substitution of Sunday for Saturday. It is taken from St. Paul's, 1 Ep. Cor., 16th chapter, 1st and 2d verses.
"Now concerning the collection for the saints." "On the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him a store," etc. Presuming that the request of St. Paul had been strictly attended to, let us call attention to what had been done each Saturday during the Saviour's life and continued for thirty years after, as the book of Acts informs us.
The followers of the Master met "every Sabbath day." "And Paul, as his manner was to reason in the Synagouge every Sabbath, interposing the name of the Lord Jesus, " etc. Acts 18th chapter, 4th verse. What more absurd conclusion than to infer that reading of the Scriptures, prayer, exhortation, and preaching, which formed the routine duties of every Saturday, as has been abundantly proved, were overslaughed by a request to take up a collection on another day of the week? [In truth, Paul did not request a public collection to take place on the first day of the week, but rather that each member take up a collection of their own goods and store it at their homes until Paul, or some of his fellow laborers in Christ, came to pick up the goods to bring to the poor saints in Jerusalem]
In order to appreciate fully the value of this text now under consideration, it is only needful to recall the action of the Apostles and holy women on Good Friday before sundown. They brought the spices and ointments after He was taken down from the cross; they suspended all action until the Sabbath "holy to the Lord" had passed, and then took steps on Sunday morning to complete the process of embalming the sacred body of Jesus.
Why, may we ask, did they not proceed to complete the work of embalming on Saturday? Because they knew well that the embalming of the sacred body of their Master would interfere with the strict observance of the Sabbath, the keeping of which was paramount; and until it can be shown that the Sabbath day immediately preceding the Sabbath of our text [that is, the Catholic Sunday Sabbath] had not been kept (which would be false, inasmuch as every Sabbath had been kept), the request of Paul to make the collection on Sunday remains to be classified with the work of the embalming of Christ's body, which could not be effected on the Sabbath, and was consequently deferred to the next convenient day, viz: Sunday, or the first day of the week.
Having disposed of every text to be found in the New Testament referring to the Sabbath (Saturday), and to the first day of the week (Sunday); and having shown conclusively from these texts, that, so far, not a shadow of pretext can be found in the Sacred Volume for the Biblical substitution for Sunday for Saturday; it only remains for us to investigate the meaning of the expressions "Lord's Day," and "Day of the Lord," to be found in the New Testament, which we propose to do in our next article, and conclude with apposite remarks on the incongruities of a system of religion which we shall have proved to be indefensible, self-contradictory, and suicidal.
____________
[From the Catholic Mirror of September 23, 1893.]
"Halting on crutches of unequal size,
One leg by true supported, one by lies,
Thus sidle to the goal with awkward pace,
Secure of nothing but to lose the race."
In the present article we propose to investigate carefully a new (and the last) class of proofs assumed to convince the Biblical Christian that God had substituted Sunday for Saturday for His worship in the New Law, and that the Divine will is to be found recorded by the Holy Ghost in Apostolic writings.
We are informed that this radical change has found _expression, over and over again, in a series of texts in which the _expression, "the day of the Lord," or "the Lord's day," is to be found.
The class of texts in the New Testament, under the title "Sabbath," numbering sixty-one in the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles; and the second class, in which "the first day of the week," or Sunday, having been critically examined (the latter class numbering nine), and having been found not to afford the slightest clue to a change of will on the part of God as to His day of worship by man, we now proceed to examine the third and last class of texts relied on to save the Biblical system from the arraignment of seeking to palm off on the world, in the name of God, a decree for which there is not the slightest warrant or authority from their teacher, the Bible.
The first text of this class is to be found in the Acts of the Apostles, 2d chapter, 20th verse: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord shall come." How many Sundays have rolled by since that prophecy was spoken? So much for that effort to pervert the meaning of the sacred text from the judgment day to Sunday!
The second text of this class is to be found in 1st Epistle Cor., 1st chapter, 8th verse: "Who also shall confirm you, unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." What simpleton does not see that the Apostle here plainly indicates the Day of Judgment? The next text of this class that presents itself is to be found in the same Epistle, 5th chapter, 5th verse: "To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." The incestuous Corinthian was, of course, saved on the Sunday next following! [The author's comments here are just dripping with sarcasm!] How pitiable such a makeshift as this! The fourth text, 2d Cor., 1st chapter, 13th and 14th verses: "And I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end, even as ye also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus."
Sunday, or the Day of Judgment, which? The fifth text is from St. Paul to the Philippians, 1st chapter, 6th verse : "Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ." The good people of Philippi, in attaining perfection on the following Sunday, could afford to laugh at our modern rapid transit!
We beg leave to submit our sixth of the class, viz. Philippians, first chapter, tenth verse. "That he may be sincere without offense unto the day of Christ." That day was next Sunday, forsooth! Not so long to wait after all. The seventh text 2 Ep. Peter 3:10 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." The application of this text to Sunday passes the bounds of absurdity.
The eighth text, 2 Peter, third chapter, twelve verse. "Waiting for and hastening unto the coming of the day of the Lord, by which the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved," etc. This day of the Lord is the same referred to in the previous text, the application of both of which to Sunday next would have left the Christian world sleepless the next Saturday night.
We have presented to our readers, eight of the nine texts relied on to bolster up by text of Scripture the sacrilegious effort to palm off the "Lord's Day" for Sunday, and with what result? Each furnished prima facie evidence of the last day; referring to it directly, absolutely, and unequivocally.
The ninth text wherein we meet the _expression "the Lord's day," is the last to be found in the Apostolic writings. The Apocalypse or Revelations, first chapter, tenth verse, furnishes it in the following words of St. John "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day;" but it will afford no more comfort to our Biblical friends than its predecessors of the same series. Has St. John used the _expression previously in his Gospel or Epistles? Emphatically, no. Has he had occasion to refer to Sunday hitherto? - Yes, twice. How did he designate Sunday on these occasions? Easter Sunday was called by him, chapter twenty, first verse, (St. John's Gospel) "The first day of the week."
Again, chapter twenty, nineteenth verse "Now when it was late that same day, being the first day of the week." Evidently, although inspired, both in his Gospel and Epistles, he called Sunday "the first day of the week." On what grounds, then, can it be assumed that he dropped that designation? Was he more inspired when he wrote the Apocalypse, or did he adopt a new title for Sunday, because it was now in vogue?
A reply to these questions would be supererogatory especially to the latter, seeing that the same _expression had been used eight times already by St. Luke, St. Paul, and St. Peter, all under Divine inspiration, and surely the Holy Spirit would not inspire John to call Sunday the Lord's day, whilst He inspired Sts. Luke, Paul, and Peter, collectively, to entitle the day of Judgment "the Lord's day." Dialecticians reckon amongst the infallible motives of certitude, the moral motive of analogy or induction, by which we are enabled to conclude with certainty from the known to the unknown; being absolutely certain of the meaning of an _expression uttered eight times, we conclude that the same _expression can have only the same meaning when uttered the ninth time, especially when we know that on the nine occasions the expressions were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Nor are the strongest intrinsic grounds wanting to prove that this, like its sister texts, contains the same meaning. St. John (Apoc.[Rev] first chapter, tenth verse) says "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day;" but he furnishes us the key to this _expression, chapter four, first and second verses "After this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven." A voice said to him: "Come up hither, and I will show you the things which must be hereafter." Let us ascend in spirit with John. Whither? Through that "door in Heaven," to Heaven. And what shall we see? - "The things that must come to pass hereafter," chapter four, first verse. He ascended in spirit to Heaven. He was ordered to write, in full, his vision of what is to take place antecedent to, and concomitantly with, "the Lord's day," or the day of judgment; the _expression "Lord's day" being confined in Scripture to the day of judgment exclusively.
We have studiously and accurately collected from the New Testament every available proof that could be adduced in favor of a law cancelling the Sabbath day of the Old Law, or one substituting another day for the Christian dispensation. We have been careful to make the above distinction, lest it might be advanced that the third commandment was abrogated under the new law [In truth, the Sabbath commandment is the fourth--but one would not expect a church that makes and worships idols to leave the second commandment against idolatry in place]. Any such law has been overruled by the action of the Methodist Episcopal Bishops in their Pastoral 1874, and quoted by the New York Herald of the same date, of the following tenor: "The Sabbath instituted in the beginning and confirmed again and again by Moses and the prophets, has never been abrogated. A part of the moral law, not a part or tittle of its sanctity has been taken away." The above official pronuciamento has committed that large body of Biblical Christians to the permanence of the 3rd commandment under the new law.
We again beg leave to call the special attention of our readers to the 20th of "the 39 articles of religion" of the Book of Common Prayer "It is not lawful for the church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's written word."
CONCLUSION
We have in this series of articles, taken much pains for the instruction of our readers to prepare them by presenting a number of undeniable facts found in the word of God to arrive at a conclusion absolutely irrefragable. When the Biblical system put in an appearance in the 15th century, it not only seized on the temporal possessions of the Church, but in its vandalic crusade stripped Christianity, as far as it could, of all the sacraments instituted by its founder, of the Holy Sacrifice, etc. Retaining nothing but the Bible, which its exponents pronounced their sole teacher in Christian doctrine and morals.
Chief amongst their articles of belief was, and is today, the permanent necessity of keeping the Sabbath holy. In fact, it has been for the past 300 years the only article of the Christian belief in which there has been a plenary consensus of Biblical representatives. The keeping of the Sabbath constitutes the sum and substance of the Biblical theory. The pulpits resound weekly with incessant tirades against the lax manner of keeping the Sabbath in Catholic countries, as contrasted with the proper, Christian, self-satisfied mode of keeping the day in Biblical countries. Who can ever forget the virtuous indignation manifested by the Biblical preachers throughout the length and breadth of our country, from every Protestant pulpit, as long as the question of opening the World's Fair on Sunday was yet undecided; and who does not know today, that one sect, to mark its holy indignation at the decision, has never yet opened that boxes that contained its articles at the World's Fair?
These superlatively good and unctuous Christians, by conning over their Bibles carefully, can find their counterpart in a certain class of unco-good people in the days of the Redeemer, who haunted Him night and day, distressed beyond measure, and scandalized beyond forbearance, because He did not keep the Sabbath in as straight laced manner as themselves.
They hated Him for using common sense in reference to the day, and He found no epithets expressive enough of His supreme contempt for their Pharisaical pride. And it is very probably that the Divine mind has not modified its views today, anent the blatant outcry of their followers and sympathizers at the close of this nineteenth century. But when we add to all this the fact that whilst the Pharisees of old kept the true Sabbath, our modern Pharisees, counting on the credulity and simplicity of their dupes, have never once in their lives kept the true Sabbath which their Divine Master kept to His dying day, and which His apostles kept, after His example, for thirty years afterward, according to the Sacred Record.
This most glaring contradiction, involving a deliberate sacrilegious rejection of a most positive precept, is presented to us today in the action of the Biblical Christian world. The Bible and the Sabbath constitute the watch word of Protestantism; but we have demonstrated that it is the Bible versus their Sabbath. We have shown that no greater contradiction ever existed than their theory and practice. We have proved that neither their Biblical ancestors nor themselves have ever kept one Sabbath day in their lives.
The Israelites and Seventh-day Adventists are witnesses of their weekly desecration of the day named by God so repeatedly, and whilst they have ignored and condemned their teacher, the Bible, they have adopted a day kept by the Catholic Church. What Protestant can, after perusing these articles, with a clear conscience, continue to disobey the command of God, enjoining Saturday to be kept, which command his teacher, the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, records as the will of God?
The history of the world cannot present a more stupid, self-stultifying specimen of dereliction of principle than this. The teacher demands emphatically in every page that the law of the Sabbath be observed every week, by all recognizing it as "the only infallible teacher," whilst the Disciples of that teacher have not once for over three hundred years observed the Divine precept! That immense concourse of Biblical Christians, the Methodists, have declared that the Sabbath has never been abrogated, whilst the followers of the Church of England, together with her daughter, the Episcopal Church of the United States, are committed by the twentieth article of religion, already quoted, to the ordinance that the Church cannot lawfully ordain anything "contrary to God's word written." God's written word enjoins His worship to be observed on Saturday, absolutely, repeatedly, and most emphatically, with a most positive threat of death to him who disobeys. All the Biblical sects occupy the same self-stultifying position which no explanation can modify, much less justify.
How truly do the words of the Holy Spirit apply to this deplorable situation! "Iniquitas mentita est sibi" - "Iniquity hath lied to itself." Proposing to follow the Bible only as teacher, yet before the world, the sole teacher is ignominiously thrust aside, and the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church--"the mother of abomination," when it suits their purpose so to designate her--adopted, despite the most terrible threats pronounced by God Himself against those who disobey the command. "Remember to keep holy the Sabbath."
Before closing this series of articles, we beg to call the attention of our readers once more to our caption, introductory of each, viz.: 1st--The Christian Sabbath, the genuine offspring of the union of the Holy Spirit with the Catholic Church His spouse. 2nd--The claim of "Protestantism to any part therein proved to be groundless, self-contradictory, and suicidal."
The first proposition needs little proof. The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission changed the day from Saturday to Sunday. We say by virtue of her divine mission, because he who called Himself the "Lord of the Sabbath," endowed her with His own power to teach, "he that heareth you, heareth Me;" commanded all who believe in Him to hear her, under penalty of being placed with the "heathen and the publican;" and promised to be with her to the end of the world. She hold her charter as teacher from Him--a charter as infallible as perpetual. The Protestant world at its birth found the Christian Sabbath too strongly entrenched to run counter to its existence; it was therefore placed under the necessity of acquiescing in the arrangement, thus implying the Church's right to change the day, for over three hundred years. The Christian Sabbath is therefore to this day, the acknowledged offspring of the Catholic Church as Spouse of the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant world.
Let us now, however, take a glance at our second proposition, with the Bible alone as the teacher and guide in faith and morals. This teacher most emphatically forbids any change in the day for paramount reasons. The command calls for a "perpetual covenant." The day commanded to be kept by the teacher has never once been kept, thereby developing an apostasy from an assumedly fixed principle, as self-contradictory, self-stultifying, and consequently as suicidal as it is within the power of language to express. Nor are the limits of demoralization yet reached. Far from it. Their pretense for leaving the bosom of the Catholic Church was for apostasy from the truth as taught in the written word. They adopted the written word as their sole teacher, which they had no sooner done than they abandoned it promptly, as these articles have abundantly proved; and be a perversity as willful as erroneous, they accept the teaching of the Catholic Church in direct opposition to the plain, unvaried, and constant teaching of their sole teacher in the most essential doctrine of their religion, thereby emphasizing the situation in what may be aptly designated "a mockery, a delusion, and a snare."
Should any of the Rev. Parsons, who are habituated to howl so vociferously over every real or assumed desecration of that pious fraud, the Bible Sabbath, think well of entering a protest against our logical and Scriptural dissection of their mongrel pet, we can promise them that any reasonable attempt on their part to gather up the disjectamembra of the hybrid, and to restore it to a galvanized existence, will be met with a genuine cordiality and respectful consideration on our part. But we can assure our readers that we know these reverend howlers too well to expect a solitary bark from them in this instance.
And they know us too well to subject themselves to the mortification which a further dissection of this antiscriptural question would necessarily entail. Their policy now is to "lay low", and they are sure to adopt it.
THE CATHOLIC MIRROR Dec. 23, 1893
THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH
THE GENUINE OFFSPRING OF THE UNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HIS SPOUSE. THE CLAIMS OF PROTESTANTISM TO ANY PART THEREIN PROVED TO BE GROUNDLESS, SELF-CONTRADICTORY, AND SUICIDAL
We beg leave to invite the attention of our readers to our advertisement in this issue, of the above pamphlet of 32 pages, containing four editorial articles published in the columns of THE MIRROR in our issues of 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd of September of this year. The daily appeals to us, from all sections of the country, for copies of the above issues, very soon exhausted the supply on hand, and we were obliged to issue a reprint of the articles in the issues of Nov. 18th and 25th, to meet the wishes of our subscribers.
This arrangement failing to meet the persistent and increasing demand for additional copies of the articles, we deemed it necessary to issue the same in pamphlet form, revised and enlarged by the writer, whose attention had been called to the propriety of developing more fully the spiritual grounds of the argument sustaining the command of the Redeemer to hear the voice of His Church as they would His own. "He that heareth you, heareth me." The avidity with which these editorials have been sought, and the appearance of a reprint of them by the International Religious Liberty Association, published in Chicago, entitled, 'Rome's Challenge: Why Do Protestants Keep Sunday?' and offered for sale in Chicago, New York, California, Tennessee, London, Australia, Cape Town, Africa and Ontario, Canada, together with the continuous demand, have prompted THE MIRROR to give permanent form to them, and thus comply with the demand.
The pages of this brochure unfold to the reader one of the most glaringly conceivable contradictions existing between the practice and theory of the Protestant world, and unsusceptible of any rational solution; the theory claiming the Bible alone as the teacher, which unequivocally and most positively commands Saturday to be kept "holy", whilst their practice proves that they utterly ignore the unequivocal requirements of their teacher, the Bible, and occupying Catholic ground for three centuries and a half, by the abandonment of their theory, they stand before the world today the representatives of a system the most indefensible, self-contradictory, and suicidal that can be imagined.
We feel that we cannot interest our readers more than to produce the "Appendix" which the International Religious Liberty Association, an ultra Protestant organization, has added to the reprint of our articles. The perusal of the "Appendix" will confirm the fact that our argument is unanswerable, and that the only recourse left the Protestants is either to retire from Catholic territory where they have been squatting for three centuries and a half, and accepting their own teacher, the Bible, in good faith, as so clearly suggested by the writer of the "Appendix", commence forthwith to keep the Saturday, the day enjoined by the Bible from Genesis to Revelation; or, abandoning the Bible as their sole teacher, cease to be squatters, and a living contradiction of their own principles, and taking out letters of adoption as citizens of the kingdom of Christ on earth--His Church--be no longer victims of self-delusive and necessary self-contradiction.
The arguments contained in this material are firmly grounded on the word of God, and having been closely studied with the Bible in hand, leave no escape for the conscientious Protestant except the abandonment of Sunday worship and the return to Saturday, commanded by their teacher, the Bible, or, unwilling to abandon the tradition of the Catholic Church, which enjoins the keeping of Sunday, and which they have accepted in direct opposition to their teacher, the Bible, consistently accept her in all her teachings. Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible."
APPENDIX
These articles are reprinted, and this leaflet is sent forth by the publishers, because it gives from an undeniable source and in no uncertain tone, the latest phase of the Sunday-observance controversy, which is now, and which indeed for some time has been, not only a national question with the leading nations, but also an international question. Not that we are glad to have it so; we would that it were far otherwise. We would that Protestants everywhere were so thoroughly consistent in profession and practice that there could be no possible room for the relations between them and Rome ever to take the shape which they have now taken.
But the situation in this matter is now as it is herein set forth. There is no escaping this fact. It therefore becomes the duty of the International Religious Liberty Association to make known as widely as possible the true phase of this great question as it now stands. Not because we are pleased to have it so, but because it is so, whatever we or anybody else would or would not be pleased to have.
It is true that we have been looking for years for this question to assume precisely the attitude which it has now assumed, and which is so plainly set forth in this material. We have told the people repeatedly, and Protestants especially, and yet more especially have we told those who were advocating Sunday laws and the recognition and legal establishment of Sunday by the United States, that in the course that was being pursued they were playing directly into the hands of Rome, and that as certainly as they succeeded, they would inevitably be called upon by Rome, and Rome in possession of power too, to render to her an account as to why Sunday should be kept. This, we have told the people for years, would surely come. And now that it has come, it only our duty to make it known as widely as it lies in our power to do.
It may be asked, Why did not Rome come out as boldly as this before? Why did she wait so long?--It was not for her interest to do so before. When she should move, she desired to move with power, and power as yet she did not have. But in their strenuous efforts for the national, governmental recognition and establishment of Sunday, the Protestants of the United States were doing more for her than she could possibly do for herself in the way of getting governmental power into her hands. This we well know, and therefore only waited. And now that the Protestants, in alliance with her, have accomplished this awful thing, she at once rises up in all here native arrogance and old-time spirit, and calls upon the Protestants to answer to her for their observance of Sunday. This, too, she does because she is secure in the power which the Protestants have so blindly placed in her hands. In other words, the power which the "Protestants" have thus put into her hands she will now use to their destruction. Is any other evidence needed to show that the CATHOLIC MIRROR (which means the Cardinal and the Catholic Church in America) has been waiting for this, than that furnished on page 22 of this leaflet? Please turn back and look at that page, and see that quotation clipped from the New York Herald in 1874, and which is now brought forth thus. Does not this show plainly that the statements of the Methodist bishops, the MIRROR, all these nineteen years, has been keeping for just such a time as this? And more than this, the Protestants will find more such things have been so laid up, and which will yet be used in a way that will both surprise and confound them.
This at present is a controversy between the Catholic Church and Protestants. As such only do we reproduce these editorials of the CATHOLIC MIRROR. The points controverted are points which are claimed by "Protestants" as in their favor. The argument is made by the Catholic Church, the answer devolves upon those Protestants who observe Sunday, not upon us. We can truly say, "This is none of our funeral." If they do not answer, she will make their silence their confession that she is right, and will act toward them accordingly. If they do answer, she will use against them their own words, and as occasion may demand, the power which they have put into her hands. So that, so far as she is concerned, whether the "Protestants" answer or not, it is all the same. And how she looks upon them, and the spirit in which she proposes do deal with them henceforth is clearly manifested in the challenge made in the last paragraph of the reprint articles.
There is just one refuge left for the Protestants. That is to take their stand squarely and fully upon the "written word only", "the Bible and the Bible alone", and thus upon the Sabbath of the Lord. Thus acknowledging no authority but God's, wearing no sign but His (Eze. 20:12,20), obeying his command, and shielded by his power, they shall have the victory over Rome and all her alliances, and stand upon the sea of glass, bearing the harps of God, with which their triumph shall be forever celebrated. Rev.18, and 15:2-4.
It is not yet too late for Protestants to redeem themselves. Will they do it? Will they stand consistently upon the Protestant profession? Or will they still continue to occupy the "indefensible, self-contradictory, and suicidal" position of professing to be Protestants, yet standing on Catholic ground, receiving Catholic insult, and bearing Catholic condemnation? Will they indeed take the written word only, the Scripture alone, as their sole authority and their sole standard? Or will they still hold the "indefensible, self-contradictory, and suicidal" doctrine and practice of following the authority of the Catholic Church and of wearing the sign of her authority? Will they keep the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, according to Scripture? Or will they keep the Sunday according to the tradition of the Catholic Church?
Dear reader, which will you do?
Protestant Confessions
Please note: Some of the admissions below may not be in support of the Scriptural Sabbath of Friday sunset through Saturday sunset, but rather of that of the first day of the week. They are included herein, in spite of this doctrinal misunderstanding, because of the admissions they contain regarding the continuance of the 4th Commandment itself.
Anglican
"For if we under the gospel are to regulate the time of our public worship by the prescriptions of the Decalogue, it will be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to the express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first day of the week." (John Milton, A Posthumous Treatise on the Christian Doctrine, bk. 2, chap. 7)
"The Sabbath should then be noted as a divine institution. the first use of 'sanctify' is here [Gen 2], and we are enabled to see that the root idea is 'separation' or 'consecration.' God separated--i.e. set apart--the Sabbath to be consecrated to a special purpose.
The Sabbath should be emphasized as of permanent obligation. The institution of the Sabbath is evidently grounded in creation, and is therefore pre-Mosaic, and not at all to be limited to the Jews. It is noteworthy that the fourth Commandment calls attention to the Sabbath as an already existing fact ('Remember the Sabbath day.' Exod. xx. 8). There are many indications, both in Genesis and in Babylonian records, that the Sabbath was part of the primeval revelation which received fresh sanction under Moses...The Sabbath should be carefully understood as to its essential elements. God's rest after creation is put forth as the reason and model of man's weekly rest. It involves the special consecration to God of a portion of our time. While it affords physical rest and recreation of energies, it also calls for worship of God...The law of God and the needs of man combine to make the observance of the Sabbath an absolute necessity." [.H. Griffith Thomas, Genesis: A Devotional Commentary, p. 38, section I. The Sabbath for Man (vers. 1-3)--Genesis 2]
"And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day....The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it."
(Isaac Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism, vol. 1, pp.334, 336.)
"There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday....Into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters....The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday." (Canon Eyton, The Ten Commandments, pp. 52, 63, 65.)
“In Rev. i. 9 we are told that John saw and received this revelation on "the Lord's Day." Leaving the former part of this verse for the present, let us notice the latter _expression, "the Lord's Day." *[For further information on this subject see a separate pamphlet on The Lord's Day, by the same author and publisher, 1907]. The majority of people, being accustomed from their infancy to hear the first day of the week called the Lord's Day, conclude in their own minds that that day is thus called in Rev. i.9 because that was the name of it. But the contrary is the fact: the day is so called by us because of this verse.
In the New Testament this day is always called "the first day of the week." (See Matt. xxviii.I. Mark xvi. 2,9. Luke xxiv. I. John xx. I,19. Acts xx.7. I Cor. xvi.2). Is it not strange that in this one place a different _expression is thought to refer to the same day? And yet, so sure are the commentators that it means Sunday, that some go as far as to say it was "Easter Sunday," and it is for this reason that Rev. i. 10-19 is chosen in the New Lectionary of the Church of England as the 2nd Lesson for Easter Sunday morning.
There is no evidence of any kind that "the first day of the week" was ever called "the Lord's Day" before the Apocalypse was written. That it should be so called afterwards is easily understood, and there can be little doubt that this practice arose from the misinterpretation of these words in Rev. i. 9. It is incredible that the earliest use of a term can have a meaning which only subsequent usage makes intelligible.
On the contrary, it ceased to be called by its Scripture name ("the First day of the week"), not because of any advance of Biblical truth or reverence, but because of declension from it. The Greek "Fathers" of the Church were converts from Paganism: and it is not yet sufficiently recognized how much of Pagan rites and ceremonies and expressions they introduced into the Church; and how far Christian ritual was elaborated from and based upon Pagan ritual by the Church of Rome. Especially is this seen in the case of baptism. (*See The Buddha of Christendom, by Dr. Robert Anderson, C.B. Hodder and Stoughton, page 68 and hap. ix).
It was these Fathers who, on their conversions, brought the title "Sunday" into the Church from the Pagan terminology which they had been accustomed to use in connection with their Sun-worship.
Justin Martyr (114-165 A.D.) in his second Apology...says in chap. lxvii. on "The weekly worship of the Christians,"-"On the day called SUN-DAY all who live in the country gather together to one place....SUN-DAY 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....".
It is passing strange that if John called the first day of the week "the Lord's Day," we find no trace of the use of such a title until a hundred years later. And that though we do find a change, it is to "Sunday," and not to "the Lord's Day"--a name which has become practically universal.” (E.W. Bullinger, Commentary on Revelation, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI, 1984)
"Not any ecclesiastical writer of the first three centuries attributed the origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or to His apostles." (Sir William Domville, Examination of the Six Texts, p. 6, 7)
"The Lord's day did not succeed in the place of the Sabbath....The Lord's day was merely an ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment, because for almost three hundred years together they kept that day which was in that commandment....The primitive Christians did all manner of works upon the Lord's day even in times of persecution when they are the strictest observers of all the divine commandments; but in this they knew there was none." (Bishop Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, Part 1, Book II, Chap.2, Rule 6 Sec.51, 59)
"The Puritan idea was historically unhappy. It made Sunday into the Sabbath day. Even educated people call Sunday the Sabbath. Even clergymen do. But, unless my reckoning is all wrong, the Sabbath day lasts twenty-four hours from six o'clock on Friday evening [it actually begins at sunset and continues until the following sunset]. It gives over, therefore, before we come to Sunday. If you suggest to a [Sunday] Sabbatarian that he ought to observe the Sabbath on the proper day, you arouse no enthusiasm. He at once replies that the day, not the principle, has been changed. But changed by whom? There is no injunction in the whole of the New Testament to Christians to change the Sabbath into Sunday." (D. Morse-Boycott, Daily Herald, London, Feb. 26, 1931)
"The Christian church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious transference of the one day to the other." ( F. W. Farrar, D.D., The Voice From Sinai, p.167)
"Take which you will, either of the Fathers or the moderns, and we shall find no Lord's day instituted by any apostolical mandate; no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week." (Dr. Peter Heylyn, History of the Sabbath, p.410)
"Neither did He (Jesus), or his disciples, ordain another Sabbath in the place of this, as if they had intended only to shift the day; and to transfer this honor to some other time. Their doctrine and their practice are directly contrary, to so new a fancy. It is true, that in some tract of time, the Church in honor of his resurrection, did set apart that day on the which he rose, to holy exercises: but this upon their own authority, and without warrant from above, that we can hear of; more then the general warrant which God gave his Church, that all things in it be done decently, and in comely order." (Dr. Peter Heylyn,, History of the Sabbath, Pt 2, Ch.2, p7)
"Merely to denounce the tendency to secularize Sunday is as futile as it is easy. What we want is to find some principle, to which as Christians we can appeal, and on which we can base both our conduct and our advice. We turn to the New Testament, and we look in vain for any authoritative rule. There is no recorded word of Christ, there is no word of any of the apostles, which tells how we should keep Sunday, or indeed that we should keep it at all. It is disappointing, for it would make our task much easier if we could point to a definite rule, which left us no option but simple obedience or disobedience.... There is no rule for Sunday observance, either in Scripture or history." (Dr. Stephen, Bishop of Newcastle, N.S.W., Newcastle Morning Herald, May 14, 1924)
Baptist
"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 discussion 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 [Jewish traditional] glosses, never alluded to any transference of the day; also that during the 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 the 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.!" (Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of The Baptist Manual, in a paper read before a New York ministers' conference, Nov. 13, 1893, reported in New York Examiner, Nov.16, 1893.)
"There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath to the Christian first-day observance." (William Owen Carver, The Lord's Day in Our Day, p. 49.)
"The Scriptures nowhere call the first day of the week the Sabbath...There is no Scriptural authority for so doing, nor of course, any Scriptural obligation." (The Watchman)
"We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government." (Baptist Church Manual, Art. 12)
“To prove that the ten commandments are binding, let any person read them one by one, and ask his own conscience as he reads, whether it would be a sin to break them. Is this, or any part of it, the liberty of the gospel? …Thus it is, by disowning the law, men utterly subvert the gospel. Believers, therefore, instead of being freed from the obligation to obey it, are under a greater obligation to do so than any men in the world. To be exempt from this is to be without law, and of course without sin, in which case we might do without a saviour, which is utterly subversive to all religion.” (Baptist Publication Society, Tract 64, pp.2-6)
"There's nothing in Scripture that requires us to keep Sunday rather than Saturday as a holy day." (Harold Lindsell, editor, Christianity Today, Nov. 5, 1976)
Christian
“We are in manner as superstitious in Sunday as they [the Jews] were in the Saturday, yea, we are much madder. For the Jews have the Word of God for their Saturday, since it is the seventh day, and they were commanded to keep the seventh day solemn; and we have not the Word of God for us, but rather against us, for we keep not the seventh day as the Jews do, but the first, which is not commanded by God's Law." (Don Sanford, A Choosing People: The History of the Seventh Day Baptists, p.22, quoting Bible translator William Tyndale's associate, John Fryth; see also Declaration of Baptism, p. 96.)
Congregationalist
"…it is quite clear that however rigidly or devotedly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath -- …'The Sabbath was founded on a specific Divine command. We can plead no such command for the obligation to observe Sunday…There is not a single sentence in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanctity of Sunday." (Dr. R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments, New York: Eaton &Mains, p. 127-129)
"…the Christian Sabbath [Sunday] is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the primitive Church called the Sabbath." (Timothy Dwight, Theology: Explained and Defended, 1823, Ser. 107, vol. 3, p. 258.)
"Much has been made of the attitude of Christ in speech and deed toward the Sabbath. Some have imagined that the words He uttered and by deeds He did He relaxed the binding nature of the old command. This view, however, is to absolutely misunderstand and misinterpret the doing and the teaching of Jesus." (G. Campbell Morgan, The Ten Commandments, p.50. New York: Fleming H. Revell)
"The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament." (Dr. Layman Abbot, in the Christian Union, June 26, 1890)--American Congregationalist
"It must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day." (Buck's Theological Dictionary, p.403)
"A further argument for the perpetuity of the Sabbath we have in Matthew 24:20, 'Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.' Christ is here speaking of the flight of the apostles and other Christians out of Jerusalem and Judea, just before their final destruction, as is manifest by the whole context, and especially by the 16th verse: 'Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.' But the final destruction of Jerusalem was after the dissolution of the Jewish constitution, and after the Christian dispensation was fully set up. Yet it is plainly implied in these words of the Lord, that even then Christians were bound to a strict observance of the Sabbath." (The Works of President Edwards, reprint of Worcester ed., 1844-1848, vol. IV, pp. 621-622)
"There is no command in the Bible requiring us to observe the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath." (Orin Fowler, A. M., Mode and Subjects of Baptism)
Disciples of Christ / Church of Christ
"I do not believe that the Lord's day came in the room of the Jewish Sabbath, or that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day, for this plain reason, that where there is no testimony, there can be no faith. Now there is no testimony in all the oracles of heaven that the Sabbath was changed, or that the Lord's day came in the room of it…There is no divine testimony that the Sabbath was changed, or that the Lord's day came in the room of it; therefore there can be no divine faith that the Sabbath was changed or that the Lord's day came in the room of it." [Alexander Campbell (under the pen name, Candidus), in Washington (Pa.) Reporter, Oct. 8, 1921]
"If it [Sabbath] yet exists, let us observe it…And if it does not exist, let us abandon a mock observance of another day for it. '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 changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio - I think his name is Doctor Antichrist.' (Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824, vol. 1. no. 7, p. 164.)
"The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change." (First Day Observance, pp. 17, 19.)
"There is no direct Scriptural authority for designating the first day 'the Lord's day'" (Dr D. H. Lucas, Christian Oracle, January, 1890)
"Sunday-keeping could not have been a part of the new covenant, because when Jesus died, He sealed His will or testament. Nothing could have been added to it afterward. Before He died, He had given the plan of salvation. He had commanded the ordinance of baptism and had instituted the Lord's Supper. He had kept the Sabbath holy and, by His example and instruction, had showed how to keep it. He had not taught or inferred that another day was to be substituted. The inserting of a clause in a will after the testator has died is a criminal act and is punishable by law. Thus it was not possible for any of the disciples by themselves to add Sunday-keeping to the will of Christ after He had sealed it with His own blood." (Roy B. Thurman, The Sabbath Today, p. 69)
"Finally, we have the testimony of Christ on this subject. In Mark 2:27, he says: 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.' From this passage it is evident that the Sabbath was made not merely for the Israelites, as Paley and Hengstenberg would have us believe, but for man...that is, for the race. Hence we conclude that the Sabbath was sanctified from the beginning, and that it was given to Adam, even in Eden, as one of those primeval institutions that God ordained for the happiness of all men." [Robert Milligan, Scheme of Redemption, (St. Louis, The Fethany Press, 1962), p.165]
Episcopalian
"The day is now changed from the seventh to the first day…but as we meet with no Scriptural direction for the change, we may conclude it was done by the authority of the church…" (Explanation of Catechism)
“Is there any command in the New Testament to change the day of the weekly rest from Saturday to Sunday? None.” (Manual of Christian Doctrine, p.127)
“The Bible commandment says on the seventh day thou shalt rest. That is Saturday. Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday.” (Philip Carrington, Toronto Daily Star, October 26, 1949)
"The Sabbath was religiously observed in the Eastern church three hundred years and more after our Saviour's Passion." (Prof. E. Brerewood of Gresham College, London in a sermon)
“We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy Catholic Church." (Bishop Seymour, Why We Keep Sunday.)
Irish Protestant Assembly
"The Great Teacher never intimated that the Sabbath was a ceremonial ordinance to cease with the Mosaic ritual. It was instituted when our first parents were in Paradise; and the precept enjoining its remembrance, being a portion of the Decalogue, is of perpetual obligation. Hence, instead of regarding it as a merely Jewish institution, Christ declares that it was made for MAN.' or, in other words, that it was designed for the benefit of the whole human family. Instead of anticipating its extinction along with the ceremonial law, He speaks of its existence after the downfall of Jerusalem [in A.D. 70, 39 years after the crucifixion]. When He announces the calamities connected with the ruin of the holy city, He instructs His followers to pray that the urgency of the catastrophe may not deprive them of the comfort of the Sabbath rest. "Pray ye,' said He, "that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath-day.' Matt. 24.201" (William Dool Killen, The Ancient Church, pp. 188-189)
Lutheran
"We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish Sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both." (The Sunday Problem, a study book of the United Lutheran Church (1923), p. 36.)
"They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day, as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!" (Augsburg Confession of Faith art. 28; written by Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, 1530; as published in The Book of Concord of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Henry Jacobs, ed. 1911, p. 63)
“I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of the Ten Commandments…Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also.” (Martin Luther, Spiritual Antichrist, pp.71,72)
"When servants have worked six days, they should have the seventh day free. God says without distinction, 'Remember that you observe the seventh day'…Concerning Sunday it is known that men have instituted it…It is clear however, that you should celebrate the seventh day." (Andres Carlstadt [Andreas Rudolf Karlstadt], Von dem Sabbat und gebotten feyertagen [“Concerning the Sabbath and Commanded Holidays”], 1524, chap.4, pp. 23-24) [Karlstadt (1480-1541) joined Luther at Wittenberg in 1517, and later taught at Bazel from 1534 onward]
“Indeed, if Carlstadt were to write further about the Sabbath, Sunday would have to give way, and the Sabbath---that is to say, Saturday---must be kept holy.“ (Martin Luther, Against the Celestial Prophets, quoted in Life of Martin Luther in Pictures, p.147)
"Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath.... The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered labouring on Sunday as a sin." (Augustus Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, (Rose's translation), Vol. 1, p.186)
"But they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the seventh day had to be kept by the children of Israel….These churches err in their teaching, for Scripture has in no way ordained the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect." (John Theodore Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday, pp. 15, 16.)
"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 ordained 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?" (George Sverdrup, A New Day)
"The taking over of Sunday by the early Christians is, to my mind, an exceedingly important symptom that the early church was directly influenced by a spirit which does not originate in the gospel, nor in the Old Testament, but in a religious system foreign to it." (Dr. H. Gunkel, Zum Religionsgesch. Verstaendnis des NT. p.76)
"God blessed the Sabbath and sanctified it to Himself. It is moreover to be remarked that God did this to no other creature. God did not sanctify to Himself the heaven, nor the earth, nor any other creature. But God did sanctify to Himself the seventh day…The Sabbath therefore has, from the beginning of the world, been set apart for the worship of God….God willed that this command concerning the Sabbath should remain. He willed that on the seventh day the word should be preached." (Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis, Vol.1, pp.138-140)
"Hence you can see that the Sabbath was before the law of Moses came, and has existed from the beginning of the world. Especially have the devout, who have preserved the true faith, met together and called upon God on this day." (Martin Luther, Comment on Exodus 16:4, 22-30. Translated from Luther's Old Testament Commentary, in Sammtliche Schriften [Collected Writings], edited by J. G. Walch, vol. 3, cal.950.)
Methodist
"Take the matter of Sunday. There are indications in the New Testament as to how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day of worship, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or to transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day." (Harris Franklin Rall, Christian Advocate, July 2, 1942, p.26.)
"But, the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken...Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other." [John Wesley, The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., John Emory, ed. (New York: Eaton & Mains), Sermon 25,vol. 1, p. 221.]
"The Sabbath was made for MAN; not for the Hebrews, but for all men." (E. O. Haven, Pillars of Truth, p.88)
"The reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on no positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from seventh day to the first." (C.G. Chappell, Ten Rules For Living, p.61)
“In the days of very long ago the people of the world began to give names to everything, and they turned the sounds of the lips into words, so that the lips could speak a thought. In those days the people worshiped the sun because many words were made to tell of many thoughts about many things. The people became Christians and were ruled by an emperor whose name was Constantine. This emperor made Sun-day the Christian Sabbath, because of the blessing of light and heat which came from the sun. So our Sunday is a sun-day, isn't it?” (Sunday School Advocate, December 31, 1921)
"It is true that there is no positive command for infant baptism. Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week. Many believe that Christ changed the Sabbath. But, from His own words, we see that He came for no such purpose [Matt 5:17-19]. Those who believe that Jesus changed the Sabbath base it only on a supposition." (Amos Binney, Theological Compendium, 1902 edition, pp. 180-181, 171)
"There is no intimation here that the Sabbath was done away, or that its moral use superseded, by the introduction of Christianity. I have shown elsewhere that, 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,' is a command of perpetual obligation." (Adam Clarke, The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Vol. 2, p. 524)
Dwight L. Moody
"I honestly believe that this commandment is just as binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated, but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.' It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was--in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age…The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?…'Sabbath' means rest, and the meaning of the word gives a hint as to the true way to observe the day. God rested after creation, and ordained the Sabbath as a rest for man…Saturday is my day of rest because I generally preach on Sunday, and I look forward to it as a boy does to a holiday. God knows what we need." (D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting Fleming H. Revell Co.: New York, pp. 46, 47, 48)
“We have abundant evidence both in the New Testament and in the early history of the church to prove that gradually Sunday came to be observed instead of the Jewish Sabbath, apart from any specific commandment.” (Norman C. Deck, Moody Bible Institute Monthly, November, 1936, p.138)
Mormon
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
"In this, a new dispensation, and verily the last dispensation of the fullness of times, the law of the Sabbath has been reaffirmed unto the church.... We believe that a weekly day of rest is no less truly a necessity for the physical well-being of man than for his spiritual growth; but primarily and essentially, we regard the Sabbath as divinely established, and its observance a commandment of Him who was and is and ever shall be, Lord of the Sabbath." (James E. Talmage, Articles of Faith, 25th Edition, Art. 13, Chap. 24, pp. 449, 451, 452)
"The Sabbath was to be a perpetual covenant between the Lord and the children of Israel. 'Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant' (verse 16). In verse 17 they are commanded to observe it as a sign that they remember that the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh day.
"In these quotations from Exodus 31, and in the Decalogue the most positive and weighty reasons are given by the Lord to the fathers of the house of Israel, for keeping the Sabbath day. The obligation is evidently as binding upon the Latter-day Saints as it was upon their fathers, and they in like manner will reap the reward of obedience." (Franklin D. Richards and James A. Little, A Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel, p. 226)
Pentecostal
“'Why do we worship on Sunday? Doesn't the Bible teach us that Saturday should be the Lord's Day?'...Apparently we will have to seek the answer from some other source than the New Testament." (A. Womack, "Is Sunday the Lord's Day?" The Pentecostal Evangel, Aug. 9,1959, No.2361, p.3)
Presbyterian
"The Sabbath is a part of the Decalogue -- the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution…Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand…The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath." (T. C. Blake, D.D., Theology Condensed, pp.474, 475.)
"Sunday being the first day of which the Gentiles solemnly adored that planet and called it Sunday, partly from its influence on that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body (as they conceived it) the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear carelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice that might be otherwise taken against the gospel" (T.M. Morer, Dialogues on the Lord's Day)
"The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof, and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it. Neither doth Christ in the gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation." (The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.)
"For the permanency of the Sabbath, however, we might argue its place in the decalogue, where it stands enshrined on a tablet that is immutable and everlasting." (Dr. Thomas Chalmers, Sermons, vol. 1, pp. 51-52)
"God instituted the Sabbath at the creation of man, setting apart the seventh day for the purpose, and imposed its observance as a universal and perpetual moral obligation upon the race." (Dr. Archibald Hodge, American Presbyterian Board of Publication, Tract No. 175, pp.3-4)
Reformed Presbyterian
“Every intelligent person knows that Sunday is of Pagan origin and of idolatrous import, coming down to us through Popery and Prelacy, associated with Christmas, Easter and other idolatrous and superstitious ceremonies of antichristian origin.” (David Steele, Sabbath, or Sunday, 1882)
Southern Baptist
"The sacred name of the seventh day is Sabbath. This fact is too clear to require argument [Exodus 20:10 quoted]... On this point the plain teaching of the Word has been admitted in all ages... Not once did the disciples apply the Sabbath law to the first day of the week - that folly was left for a later age, nor did they pretend that the first day supplanted the seventh."
(Joseph Judson Taylor, The Sabbath Question, pp. 14-17, 41)
“The first four commandments set forth man's obligations directly toward God…But when we keep the first four commandments, we are likely to keep the other six…The fourth commandment sets forth God's claim on man's time and thought…The six days of labor and the rest on the Sabbath are to be maintained as a witness to God's toil and rest in creation…No one of the ten words is of merely racial significance…The Sabbath was established originally [Genesis 2] in no special connection with the Hebrews, but as an institution for all mankind, in commemoration for all the descendants of Adam.” (Adult Quarterly, Southern Baptist Convention series, August 15, 1937)
"Before the giving of the law from Sinai the obligation of the Sabbath was understood. When some of the people went out [four chapters before Sinai] to get manna, God said unto Moses: 'How long refuse ye to keep My Commandments and My Laws? The Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He hath given you on the sixth day bread enough for two days' [Ex. 16]. Indeed, it may be questioned if the Law given through Moses on tables of stone disclosed any new truth . . . The fourth commandment does not institute a Sabbath, nor does it sanctify a day; it simply writes the Sabbath among the immutable things of God." (Joseph Judson Taylor, The Sabbatic Question, 1914, pp. 22, 24)
"There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish Seventh Day Sabbath to the Christian First Day observance…There are in the New Testament no commands, no prescriptions, no rules, no liturgies applying to the observance of the Lord's Day…There is no organic connection between the Hebrew Sabbath and the Christian Lord's Day…It was only a short while until gentiles predominated in the Christian movement. They brought over the consciousness of various observances in the pagan religions, pre-eminently the worship of the sun--a sort of Sunday consciousness." (William Owen Carver, Sabbath Observance, 1940. pp. 49, 52, 54)
DICTIONARIES
"As the Sabbath is of divine institution, so it is to be kept holy unto the Lord. Numerous have been the days appointed by men for religious services; but these are not binding, because of human institution. Not so the Sabbath. Hence the fourth commandment is ushered in with a peculiar emphasis-'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.' ... The abolition of it would be unreasonable.” (Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary, 1830 Edition, p.537)
"The notion of a formal substitution by apostolic authority of the Lord's day [meaning Sunday] for the Jewish Sabbath [or the first for the seventh day]... and the transference to it, perhaps in a spiritualized form, of the sabbatical obligation established by the promulgation of the fourth commandment, has no basis what- ever, either in Holy Scripture or in Christian antiquity." (Sir William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Vol. II, p. I82, Article: "Sabbath")
“But although it [Sunday] was in the primitive times indifferently called the Lord's day, or Sunday, yet it was never denominated the Sabbath; a name constantly appropriate to Saturday, or the seventh day, both by sacred and ecclesiastical writers." (Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary, 1830 Edition, p.572)
“Acc. to Ex. 20.11 and 31.17 it [the Sabbath] represents the rest God took on the seventh day from His work of Creation, whereas acc. to Deut. 5.15 it is apparently kept in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt. …Though the primitive Christians largely continued to keep the seventh day as a day of rest and prayer, the fact that the Resurrection and the Coming of the Holy Ghost had taken place on the first day of the week soon led to the observance of that day (i.e. Sunday), to the exclusion of the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday.” (F. L. Cross, editor, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church,, 1993)
“Although God gave the Ten Commandments to His people through Moses at Mount Sinai more than 3000 years ago, they are still relevant today. They have an abiding significance, for God's character is unchangeable. These laws originate from God and from His eternal character; therefore, their moral value cannot change.
Almost 1,500 years after God gave the laws, Jesus upheld them, calling them the 'commandments' and listing five of them for the rich young ruler (Matt 19:16-19). And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus showed that His coming had not canceled the Commandments. He specifically mentioned the laws against killing (Matt. 5:21) and committing adultery (Matt. 5:27)
Jesus actually placed these laws on a higher plane by demanding that the spirit as well as the legal aspects of the law be kept (Matt. 5:17-28). Jesus placed His eternal stamp of approval on the law by declaring, 'Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill' (Matt. 5:17-19).”
“God never intended for the Ten Commandments to be a set of regulations by which the people of Israel would earn salvation. God's favor had already been freely granted (Ex. 20:1-2). This was overwhelmingly demonstrated by His deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage (Deut 4:37). Therefore, at the heart of the covenant relationship lay an act of divine GRACE. God even prefaced the Ten Commandments with a reminder of His deliverance (Ex. 20:2).
The Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3-17; Deut. 5:7-21) are still relevant today. The world desperately needs to see the name and character of God displayed in the lives of Christians who still take His Word seriously. These Commandments, particularly coupled with the teachings of Christ, are still the best guidelines for practical daily living known to mankind.”
“ 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy' (Ex. 20:8). Sabbath means 'rest,' but God intended this day to stand for more than an absence of work. It was to be a day of worship as well--a day for setting aside all thoughts of materialistic gain and thinking about Him. God Himself set the pattern by ceasing from His labors after creating the world. Why, then, must modern-day Christians feel that being busy is equated with being spiritual?”” (Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, edited by R.F. Youngblood, F.F Bruce, and R.K. Harrison, article: “Commandments, Ten,” pp. 291,292)
“At times Jesus is interpreted to have abrogated or suspended the Sabbath commandment on the basis of the controversies brought about by the Sabbath healings and other acts. Careful analysis of the respective passages does not seem to give credence to this interpretation. The action of plucking ears of grain on the Sabbath by the disciples is particularly important in this matter. Jesus makes a foundational pronouncement at that time in a chiastically structured statement of antithetic parallelism: 'The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath' (Mark 2:27). The disciples act of plucking the grain infringed against the rabbinic halakhah of minute casuistry in which it was forbidden to reap, thresh, winnow, and grind on the Sabbath (Sabb. 7.2). Here again rabbinic Sabbath halakhah is rejected, as in other Sabbath conflicts. Jesus reforms the Sabbath and restores its rightful place as designed in creation, where Sabbath is made for all mankind and not specifically for Israel, as claimed by normative Judaism (cf. Jub. 2:19-20, see D3). The subsequent logion, 'The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath' (Mark 2:28; Matt. 12:8; Luke 6:5), indicates that man-made Sabbath halakhah does not rule the Sabbath, but that the Son of Man as Lord determines the true meaning of the Sabbath. The Sabbath activities of Jesus are neither hurtful provocations nor mere protests against rabbinic legal restrictions, but are part of Jesus' essential proclamation of the inbreaking kingdom of God in which man is taught the original meaning of the Sabbath as the recurring weekly prolepsis 'day of the Lord' in which God manifests His healing and saving rulership over man.” (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 5, pp. 854-855)
ENCYCLOPEDIAS
"Sunday was a name given by the heathens to the first day of the week, because it was the day on which they worshipped the sun, ... the seventh day was blessed and hallowed by God Himself, and ... He requires His creatures to keep it holy to Him. This commandment is of universal and perpetual obligation. ... The Creator 'blessed the seventh day' declared it to be a day above all days, a day on which His favour should assuredly rest. ... So long, then, as man exists, and the world around him endures, does the law of the early Sabbath remain. It cannot be set aside, so long as its foundations last.... It is not the Jewish Sabbath, properly so-called, which is ordained in the fourth commandment. In the whole of that injunction there is no Jewish element, any more than there is in the third commandment, or the sixth.” (Eadie's Biblical Cyclopedia, 1872 Edition, p.561)
"Thus we learn from Socrates (H.E., vi.c.8) that in his time public worship was held in the churches of Constantinople on both days. The view that the Christian's Lord's day or Sunday is but the Christian Sabbath deliberately transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week does not indeed find categorical _expression till a much later period.... The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in A.D. 321, enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday (venerabili die Solis), with an exception in favour of those engaged in agricultural labour.... The Council of Laodicea (363) ... forbids Christians from Judaizing and resting on the Sabbath day, preferring the Lord's day, and so far as possible resting as Christians." (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1899 Edition, Vol. XXIII, p.654)
"Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the sabbatical observance of Sunday is known to have been ordained is the sabbatical edict of Constantine, A.D. 321.” (Chambers' Encyclopaedia, Article: "Sunday”)
"It must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day." (M'Clintock and Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical literature, Vol. IX, p.196)
"Sunday (Dies Solis, of the Roman calendar, 'day of the sun,' because dedicated to the sun), the first day of the week, was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship. The 'sun' of Latin adoration they interpreted as the 'Sun of Righteousness.”...No regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor, indeed, is its observance even enjoined." (A Religious Encyclopedia, Vol.3, p.2259, article: "Sunday," New York, Funk and Wagnall, 1883; see also Schaff-Herzog, Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 4, article: “Sunday,” 1891)
“The Sabbath was replaced by Sunday as a result of three apostate influences in the second century: anti-Judaism, arising from the church's separation from the synagogue; the influence of sun cults in the Roman empire, which led the church into making Sunday the holy day; and the church of Rome's growing authority shown in changing the day” (E. Ferguson, Editor, The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Garland Reference Library: 1990, pp 807-808).
“Jesus said, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mk. 2:27f.). Although many regard this teaching as tantamount to a rejection of the Mosaic law, Christ actually affirmed the Sabbath by saying it was made not just for Jews, but for mankind, and was not for one time but for all time, presumably. He observed the Sabbath, worshiping and teaching in the synagogue. His conflicts with the scribes and Pharisees concerned His doing good on the Sabbath, which He said did not violate the law (3:2; Lk. 13:14).
Since the Sabbath was made for people and not vice versa, people cannot determine or use it as they please. It would then cease to be the Sabbath and become a day that people, not God, define. Christ was alluding to what the scribes and Pharisees made of the Sabbath: a day full of all sorts of regulations, which were very burdensome to conscientious followers of the law. God had not imposed those burdens. He had made the Sabbath pleasant; people had made it otherwise. If people form the Sabbath in their own image, it does not carry the utility and meaning that Christ attributes to the true Sabbath of God. Thus, in this statement that Christians commonly take today as liberating them from Sabbatical law, Christ actually bound His followers more tightly to it. It is to be remembered, of course, that God requires man to love mercy as well as do rightly and walk humbly on the Sabbath--that is the law.” (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Vol. 3, article: “LAW IN THE NT,” Sect. I. A.4, p.86)
OTHER GENERAL SOURCES
“Modern Christians who talk of keeping Sunday as a 'holy' day, as in the still extant 'Blue Laws' of colonial America, should know that as a 'holy' day of rest and cessation from labor and amusements Sunday, was unknown to Jesus…It formed no tenet [teaching] of the primitive Church and became 'sacred' only in course of time. Outside the Church its observance was legalized for the Roman Empire through a series of decrees starting with the famous one of Constantine in 321, an edict due to his political and social policies…So much confusion in identifying Sunday and the Sabbath has been inherited by Britain and America through Puritan influence that it seems well to recapitulate the well known facts. " (Walter Woodburn Hyde, Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire, 1946, p. 257). [Dr. Hyde was a professor of Greek, Latin, and ancient history in several American universities].
“During this indefinite time a considerable amount of a sort of theokrasia seems to have gone on between the Christian cult and the almost equally popular and widely diffused Mithraic cult, and the cult of Serapis-Isis-Horus. From the former it would seem that the Christians adopted Sunday as their chief day of worship instead of the Jewish [that is, “God's”] Sabbath.” (H.G. Wells, The Outline of History, New and Revised, p.543)
“Probably very few Christians are aware of the fact that what they call the 'Christian Sabbath' (Sunday) is of pagan origin. The first observance of Sunday that history records is in the fourth century, when Constantine issued an edict (not requiring its religious observance, but simply abstinence from work) reading, 'let all the judges and people of the town rest and all the various trades be suspended on the venerable day of the sun.' At the time of the issue of this edict, Constantine was a sun-worshipper; therefore it could have had no relation whatsoever to Christianity…I challenge any priest or minister of the Christian religion to show me the slightest authority for the religious observance of Sunday. And, if such cannot be shown by them, why is it that they are constantly preaching about Sunday as a holy day? …The claim that Sunday takes the place of Saturday, and that because the Jews were supposed to be commanded to keep the seventh day of the week holy, therefore the first day of the week should be kept by Christians, is so utterly absurd as to be hardly worth considering…That Paul habitually observed and preached on the seventh day of the week, is shown in Acts 18:4 - 'And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath' (Saturday)“ (Henry M. Taber, Faith or Fact, pp. 112,114, 116)
Sabbath History
INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." (Genesis 2:1-3)
SABBATH OBSERVANCE (Pre-Mt Sinai)
“And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD…” (Exodus 16:23)
JESUS
"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read." (Luke 4:16)
JESUS
"And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And He said unto him, if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:16,17)
JESUS
"But pray ye that your flight be not in winter, neither on the Sabbath day." (Matthew 24, 20).
Jesus asked his disciples to pray that in the flight from the doomed city of Jerusalem they would not have to flee on the Sabbath day. This flight took place in 70 A.D. (40 years after His death) and will take place yet again.
HIS FOLLOWERS
"And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." (Luke 23:56) Again--after His death.
PAUL
"And Paul, as his manner was went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2)
PAUL AND GENTILES
"And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God." (Acts 13:42,44.) Here we find Gentiles in a Gentile city gathering on the Sabbath. It was not a synagogue meeting in verse 44, for it says almost the whole city came together, verse 42 says they asked to hear the message the "next Sabbath." And note this point: The Bible does not say it is the "old Jewish Sabbath that was passed away," but the Spirit of God, writing the Book of Acts some 30 years after the Crucifixion, calls it "the next Sabbath."
JOSEPHUS
"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!" [M'Clatchie, Notes and Queries on China and Japan (edited by Dennys), Vol 4, Nos 7, 8, p.100. ]
FIRST CENTURY CHRISTIANS
“The first Christian church established at Jerusalem by apostolic authority became in its doctrine and practice a model for the greater part of those founded in the first century….These Judaizing Christians were first known by the outside world as 'Nazarenes'….All Christians agreed in celebrating the seventh day of the week in conformity to the Jewish converts.” (Hugh Smith, History of the Christian Church, pp.50, 51, 69)
“The Jewish converts, or, as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who had laid the foundations of the church, soon found themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes, that from all the various religions of polytheism enlisted under the banner of Christ…The Nazarenes retired from the ruins of Jerusalem to a little town of Pella beyond Jordan, where that ancient church languished above sixty years in solitude and obscurity.” (Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 1, Ch 15)
"Then the spiritual seed of Abraham fled to Pella, on the other side of Jordan, where they found a safe place of refuge, and could serve their Master and keep His Sabbath." (Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, b, 3, chap. 5)
PHILO
Declares the seventh day to be a festival, not of this or of that city, but of the universe. (M'Clatchie, Notes and Queries, Vol. 4, 99)
EARLY CHRISTIANS
"The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the Apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to the purpose." [Dialogues on the Lord's Day, p. 189. London: 1701, By Dr. T.H. Morer (A Church of England divine). ]
“Until the second century there is no concrete evidence of a Christian weekly Sunday celebration anywhere. The first specific references during that century come from Alexandria and Rome, places that also early rejected observance of the seventh-day Sabbath." (Dr. Kenneth Strand, The Sabbath in Scripture and History, p. 330)
“Yet, for some hundreds of years in the primitive church, not the Lord's-day only, but the seventh day also, was religiously observed, not by Ebion and Cerinthus only, but by pious Christians also, as Baronius writeth, and Gomarus confesseth, and Rivert also.” (William Twisse, Morality of the Fourth Commandment, p. 9, London, 1641)
"As long as the church was mainly Jewish, the Hebrew Sabbath was kept; but as it became increasingly Gentile, the first day gradually took the place of the seventh day." (Hurlbut, Story of the Christian Church, p. 45)
"...The Sabbath was a strong tie which united them with the life of the whole people, and in keeping the Sabbath holy they followed not only the example but also the command of Jesus." (Geschichte des Sonntags, pp. 13, 14)
"It is certain, that Christ himself, his Apostles, and the Primitive Christians, for some good space of time did constantly observe the seventh-day Sabbath.” (William Prynne, A Briefe Polemicall Dissertation, Concerning...the Lords day-Sabbath, p. 33)
2ND CENTURY CHRISTIANS
"The Gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath," (Gieseler's Church History, Vol.1, ch. 2, par. 30, 93.)
EARLY CHRISTIANS
"The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews...therefore the Christians, for a long time together, did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council." [The Whole Works of Jeremy Taylor, Vol. IX, p.416 (R. Heber's Edition, Vol. XII, p. 416).]
EARLY CHURCH
"It is certain that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed (together with the celebration of the Lord's day) by the Christians of the East Church, above three hundred years after our Saviour's death." (Prof. E. Brerewood, A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath, p. 77) Note: By the "Lord's day" here the writer means Sunday and not the true Sabbath," which the Bible says is the Sabbath (Mark 2:27,28). This quotation shows Sunday coming into use in the early centuries soon after the death of the Apostles. Paul the Apostle foretold a great "falling away" from the Truth that would take place soon after his death. As the historian Mosheim noted:
“Before the second century was half gone, before the last of the apostles had been dead for forty years, this apostate, this working of the 'Mystery of Iniquity,' had so largely spread over the east and west, that it is literally true, that a large part of the Christian observances and institutions, even in this century, had the aspects of pagan mysteries.” (Ecclesiastical History, Century 2, Part 2, Ch 2, Par 1)
And yet further, H.G. Wells stated: "During this indefinite time a considerable amount of a sort of theocrasia [intimate union] seems to have gone on between the Christian cult and the almost equally popular and widely diffused Mithraic cult, and the cult Serapis-Isis-Horus. From the former it would seem the Christians adopted Sunday as their chief day of worship instead of the [“]Jewish[“] Sabbath." (The Outline of History 1, p.455)
2ND, 3RD, 4TH CENTURIES
"In memory of our Lord's betrayal and crucifixion the fourth and sixth days of each week were kept as fasts, by abstaining from food until the hour at which he gave up the Ghost, the ninth hour, or 3 P.M. In the manner of observing the seventh day the Eastern church differed from the Western. The Orientals, influenced by the neighborhood of the Jews, and by the ideas of Jewish converts, regarded it as a continuation of the Mosaic Sabbath, and celebrated it almost in the same manner as the Lord's-day; while their brethren in the West - although not until after the time of Tertullian, extended to it the fast of the preceding day. (Rev. James Cragie Robertson, History of the Church, p. 158, London. 1854.)
“The seventh day is recognized as sacred, not only by the Hebrews, but also by the Greeks.” (Clement of Alexandria, ca. 195 A.D., 2.469)
"Thus Christ did not at all rescind the Sabbath. He kept the law thereof, and both in the former case did a work which was beneficial to the life of his disciples (for he indulged them with the relief of food when they were hungry), and in the present instance cured the withered hand, in each case intimating by facts, "I came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it"; although Marcion has gagged his mouth by this word. For even in the case before us he fulfilled the law, while interpreting its condition. [Moreover.] He exhibits in a clear light the different kinds of work, while doing what the law excepts from the sacredness of the Sabbath, [and] while imparting to the Sabbath-day itself, which from the beginning, had been consecrated by the benediction of the Father, an additional sanctity by his own beneficent action. For he furnished to this day divine safeguards - a course which his adversary would have pursued for some other days, to avoid honoring the Creator's Sabbath, and restoring to the Sabbath the works which were proper for it. Since, in like manner, the prophet Elisha, on this day restored to life the dead son of the Shunammite woman, you see, O Pharisee, and you, too, O Marcion, how that it was [proper employment] for the Creator's Sabbaths of old to do good, to save life, not to destroy it; how that Christ introduced nothing new, which was not after the example, the Gentleness, the mercy, and the prediction also of the Creator. For in this very example he fulfills the prophetic announcement of a specific healing: "The weak hands are strengthened," as were also, "the feeble knees," in the sick of the palsy. (Tertullian, Against Marcion, Bk 4, Chap 12 “Concerning Christ's authority over the Sabbath,” Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. 7, pp. 219, 220.)
"Again as to the assertion that the Sabbath has been abolished, we deny that He [Jesus] has abolished it plainly (plane). For He was Himself also Lord of the Sabbath. And this, the law's relation to the Sabbath, was like the servant who has charge of the bridegroom's couch, and who prepares the same with all carefulness, and does not suffer it to be disturbed or touched by any stranger, but keeps it intact against the time of the bridegroom's arrival; so that when He is come, the bed may be used as it pleases Himself, or as it is granted to those to use it whom He has bidden enter along with Him. [Archelaus, a Bishop who wrote against Heresies. Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. 20, p. 373, Disputation with Manes, Sec. 42., (circa 280 A.D.)]
“He refers to Eusebius for proof that Constantine, besides issuing his well-known edict that labor should be suspended on Sunday, enacted that 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'” (Hugh Grotius, died 1645, Opera Omnia Theologica, quoted in Robert Cox's Literature of the Sabbath Question Vol.1, p.223)
"From the apostles' time until the council of Laodicea, which was about the year 364, the holy observance 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.)
EGYPT (OXYRHYNCHUS PAPYRUS) (200-250 A.D.)
"Except ye make the sabbath a real sabbath [Greek: “sabbatize the Sabbath"], ye shall not see the Father." [The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, pt,1, p.3, Logion 2, verso 4-11 (London Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898).]
EARLY CHRISTIANS-3rd Century
"Thou shalt observe the Sabbath, on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation, but ceased not from His work of providence: it is a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of the hands." (The Anti-Nicene Fathers, Vol 7,p. 413. From Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, a document of the 3rd and 4th Centuries.)
AFRICA (ALEXANDRIA)
"After the festival of the unceasing sacrifice (the crucifixion) is put the second festival of the Sabbath, and it is fitting for whoever is righteous among the saints to keep also the festival of the Sabbath. There remaineth therefore a sabbatismus, that is, a keeping of the Sabbath, to the people of God (Hebrews 4:9)." (Origen, Homily on Numbers 23, par.4, in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 12,cols. 749, 750.)
INDIA (BUDDHIST CONTROVERSY, 220 A.D.)
The Kushan Dynasty of North India called a famous council of Buddhist priests at Vaisalia to bring uniformity among the Buddhist monks on the observance of their weekly Sabbath. Some had been so impressed by the writings of the Old Testament that they had begun to keep holy the Sabbath. (Lloyd, The Creed of Half Japan, p. 23.)
PALESTINE TO INDIA (CHURCH OF THE EAST)
As early as A.D. 225, there existed large bishoprics or conferences of the Church of the East (Sabbath-keeping) stretching from Palestine to India. (Mingana, Early Spread of Christianity, Vol.10, p. 460.)
EARLY CHRISTIANS
"The seventh-day Sabbath was...solemnised by Christ, the Apostles, and primitive Christians, till the Laodicean Council did in manner quite abolish the observations of it." (Dissertation on the Lord's Day, pp. 33, 34)
ITALY AND EAST-4th Century
"It was the practice generally of the Easterne Churches; and some churches of the west...For in the Church of Millaine [Milan];...it seems 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. Dr. Heylyn]
ORIENT AND MOST OF WORLD
"The ancient Christians were very careful in the observance of Saturday, or the seventh day...It is plain that all the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival...Athanasius likewise tells us that they held religious assembles on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, Epiphanius says the same." (Antiquities of the Christian Church, Vol. II Book XX, chap. 3, sec.1, 66. 1137,1138.)
ABYSSINIA
"In the last half of that century St. Ambrose of Milan stated officially that the Abyssinian bishop, Museus, had 'traveled almost everywhere in the country of the Seres' (China). For more than seventeen centuries the Abyssinian Church continued to sanctify Saturday as the holy day of the fourth commandment." (Ambrose, DeMoribus, Brachmanorium Opera Ominia, 1132, found in Migne, Patrologia Latima, Vol.17, pp.1131,1132.)
ITALY-MILAN
"Ambrose, the celebrated bishop of Milan, said that when he was in Milan he observed Saturday, but when in Rome observed Sunday. This gave rise to the proverb, 'When you are in Rome, do as Rome does.'" [Heylyn, The History of the Sabbath (1612)]
"In the Western churches, particularly the Roman, where opposition to Judaism was the prevailing tendency, this very opposition produced the custom of celebrating the Saturday in particular as a fast day. This difference in customs would of course be striking where members of the Oriental church spent their Sabbath-day in the Western church." (History of the Christian Religion and Church, during the first three centuries, p. 186, Rose's translation. Nearly the same language is used in his General History, Vol. 1, P. 298, Torrey's translation)
"The Roman church regarded Saturday as a fast day in direct opposition to those who regarded it is a Sabbath. (Dr. Charles Hase, History of the Christian Church, p. 67, paragraph 69, New York, 1855)
SPAIN-COUNCIL ELVIRA (A.D.305)
Canon 26 of the Council of Elvira reveals that the Church of Spain at that time kept Saturday, the seventh day. "As to fasting every Sabbath: Resolved, that the error be corrected of fasting every Sabbath." This resolution of the council is in direct opposition to the policy the church at Rome had inaugurated, that of commanding Sabbath as a fast day in order to humiliate it and make it repugnant to the people.
PERSIA-A.D. 335-375 (40 YEARS PERSECUTION UNDER SHAPUR II)
The popular complaint against the Christians-"They despise our sungod, they have divine services on Saturday, they desecrate the sacred the earth by burying their dead in it." (Truth Triumphant, p.170.)
PERSIA-A.D.335-375
"They despise our sun-god. Did not Zoroaster, the sainted founder of our divine beliefs, institute Sunday one thousand years ago in honour of the sun and supplant the Sabbath of the Old Testament. Yet these Christians have divine services on Saturday." (O'Leary, The Syriac Church and Fathers, pp.83, 84.)
COUNCIL LAODICEA-A.D.365
"Canon 16-On Saturday the Gospels and other portions of the Scripture shall be read aloud." "Canon 29-Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day they shall especially honor, and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day." (Hefele's Councils, Vol. 2, b. 6.)
CONSTANTINE (letter to 'heretics'--circa 365 A.D.)
"Forasmuch, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, we give warning by this present statute (Law) that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies....Take the far better course of entering the Catholic church." (Eusebius' -Life of Constantine, Book III)
NAZARENES
"Nazarenes, an obscure Jewish-Christian sect existing at the time of Epiphanius (fl. A.D. 370) in Coele-Syria, Decapolis (Pella) and Basanitis (Cocabe). According to that authority (Panarion, XXIX. 7), they dated their settlement in Pella from the time of the flight of the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem, immediately before the siege in A.D. 70; he characterizes them as neither more or less than Jews pure and simple, but adds that they recognized the new covenant as well as the old, and believed in the resurrection, and in the one God and His Son Jesus Christ. He cannot say whether their Christological views were identical with those of Cerinthus and his school, or whether they differed at all from his own. But Jerome (Ep. 79, to Augustine) says that they believed in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, and rose again, but adds that, `desiring to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither the one nor the other.' They used the Aramaic recession of the Gospel according to Matthew, which they called the Gospel to the Hebrews, but, while adhering as far as possible to the Mosaic economy as regarded . . . sabbaths, foods, and the like, they did not refuse to recognize the apostolicity of Paul or the rights of heathen Christians," (Jerome, Comn. in Isaiah 9:1)” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Vol. 19, p319, article: Nazarenes)
ARABIA, PERSIA, INDIA, CHINA
"Mingana proves that in 370 A.D. Abyssinian Christianity (a Sabbath keeping church) was so popular that its famous director, Musacus, travelled extensively in the East promoting the church in Arabia, Persia, India and China." [Truth Triumphant,"p.308 (Footnote 27).]
SPAIN
It is a point of further interest to note that in north-eastern Spain near the city of Barcelona is a city called Sabadell, in a district originally inhabited by a people called both "Valldenses" and Sabbatati."
THE WORLD
"For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrated the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious assemblies on the Sabbath," 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 Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, chap. 22, p. 289, circa 440 A.D.)
"These Gentile Christians of Rome and Alexandria began calling the first day of the week 'the Lord's day.' This was not difficult for the pagans of the Roman Empire who were steeped in sun worship to accept, because they referred to their sun-god as their 'Lord' " (E. M. Chalmers, How Sunday Came Into the Christian Church, p. 3)
"The situation in Rome and Alexandria, however, was not typical of the rest of early Christianity. In these two cities there was an evident early attempt by Christians to terminate observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, but elsewhere throughout the Christian world Sunday observance simply arose alongside observance of Saturday…Thus, even as late as the fifth century almost the entire Christian world observed both Saturday and Sunday for special religious services. Obviously, therefore, Sunday was not considered a substitute for the Sabbath." (Kenneth A. Strand, The Sabbath in Scripture and History, pp. 323,324)
“Centuries of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was observed by the Christian Church as the Sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in A.D. 321” (Examination of Six Texts, Sir William Domville)
CONSTANTINOPLE
"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." (Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, Book 7, chap.19.)
THE WORLD--AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO (NORTH AFRICA)
Augustine shows here that the Sabbath was observed in his day "in the greater part of the Christian world," and his testimony in this respect is all the more valuable because he himself was an earnest and consistent Sunday-keeper. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st Series, Vol.1, pp. 353, 354.)
POPE INNOCENT (402-417)
Pope Sylvester (314-335) was the first to order the churches to fast on Saturday, and Pope Innocent (402-417) made it a binding law in the churches that obeyed him, (In order to bring the Sabbath into disfavour.) "Innocentius did ordain the Saturday or Sabbath to be always fasted." (Dr. Peter Heylyn, History of the Sabbath, Part 2, p. 44.)
5TH CENTURY CHRISTIANS
Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church. (Lyman Coleman, Ancient Christianity Exemplified, ch. 26, sec. 2, p. 527.)
In Jerome's day (420 A.D.) the devoutest Christians did ordinary work on Sunday. (Dr. White, Lord Bishop of Ely, Treatise of the Sabbath Day, p. 219.)
FRANCE
"Wherefore, except Vespers and Nocturns, there are no public services among them in the day except on Saturday (Sabbath) and Sunday." (John Cassian, a French monk, Institutes, Book 3, ch. 2.)
AFRICA
"Augustine deplored the fact that in two neighbouring churches in Africa one observes the seventh-day Sabbath, another fasted on it." (Dr. Peter Heylyn, The History of the Sabbath, p 416.)
SPAIN (400 A.D.)
"Ambrose sanctified the seventh day as the Sabbath (as he himself says). Ambrose had great influence in Spain, which was also observing the Saturday Sabbath." (B.J Wilkinson, Ph.D., Truth Triumphant, p. 68.)
CHURCH OF THE EAST
"Mingana proves that in 410, Isaac, supreme director of the Church of the East, held a world council,--stimulated, some think, by the trip of Musaeus,--attended by eastern delegates from forty grand metropolitan divisions. In 411 he appointed a metropolitan director for China. These churches were sanctifying the seventh day." (J.F. Coltheart, Sabbath of God Through the Centuries, p.11)
SIDONIUS (SPEAKING OF KING THEODORIC OF THE GOTHS, A.D. 454-526)
"It is a fact that it was formerly the custom in the East to keep the Sabbath in the same manner as the Lord's day and to hold sacred assemblies: while on the other hand, the people of the West, contending for the Lord's day have neglected the celebration of the Sabbath." (Apollinaries Sidonli Epistolae, lib.1, 2; Migne, 57.)
EGYPT
"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. 119)
SCOTTISH CHURCH
"In this latter instance they seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early monastic church of Ireland by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours." (W.T. Skene, Adamnan Life of St. Columba, 1874, p.96.)
SCOTLAND, IRELAND
"We seem to see here an allusion to the custom, observed in the early monastic Church of Ireland, of keeping the day of rest on Saturday, or the Sabbath." (History of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Vol.1, p. 86, by Catholic historian Bellesheim.)
SCOTLAND-COLUMBA
"Having continued his labours in Scotland thirty-four years, he clearly and openly foretold his death, and on Saturday, the month of June, said to his disciple Diermit: "This day is called the Sabbath, that is the rest day, and such will it truly be to me; for it will put an end to my labours.'" (Butler's Lives of the Saints, Vol.1, A.D. 597, art. "St. Columba” p. 762)
COLUMBA (RE: DR. BUTLER'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS DEATH)
The editor of the best biography of Columba says in a footnote: "Our Saturday. The custom to call the Lord's day Sabbath did not commence until a thousand years later." [Adamnan's Life of Columba (Dublin, 1857), p. 230.]
SCOTLAND AND IRELAND
Professor James C. Moffatt, D.D., Professor of Church History at Princeton, says: It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labour. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of week." (The Church in Scotland, p.140.)
SCOTLAND AND IRELAND
"The monks sent to England [in 596 A.D.] by Pope Gregory the Great soon came to see that the Celtic Church differed from theirs in many respects…Augustine himself [a Benedictine abbot]…held several conferences with the Christian Celts in order to accomplish the difficult task of their subjugation [submission] to Roman authority…The Celts permitted their priests to marry, the Romans forbade it. The Celts used a different mode of baptism from that of the Romans…The Celts held their own councils and enacted their own laws, independent of Rome. The Celts used a Latin Bible unlike the [Catholic] Vulgate, and kept Saturday as a day of rest.” (A.C. Flick, The Rise of Medieval Church, p. 236-327)
HYPSISTARIANS-(Body of believers who fled Judea in the fourth century)
“There is another sect…'Hypsistarians,' that is, worshipers of the most high God, whom they worshiped as the Jews, only in one person. And they observed their Sabbaths, and used distinction of their meats, clean and unclean, though they did not regard circumcision, as Gregory Nazianzen, whose father was one of the sect, gives account of them” (Joseph Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, Book 16, Ch 6, Sec 2)
ROME
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)
ROME (POPE GREGORY I, A.D.590 TO 604)
"Gregory, bishop by the grace of God to his well-beloved sons, the Roman citizens: It has come to me that certain men of perverse spirit have disseminated among you things depraved and opposed to the holy faith, so that they forbid anything to be done on the day of the Sabbath. What shall I call them except preachers of anti-Christ?" (Epistles, b.13:1)
ROME (POPE GREGORY I)
Declared that when anti-Christ should come he would keep Saturday as the Sabbath. "Epistles of Gregory I, (b 13, epist.1. Found in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.)
"Moreover, this same Pope Gregory had issued an official pronouncement against a section of the city of Rome itself because the Christian believers there rested and worshipped on the Sabbath." (same reference).
"About 590 Pope Gregory, in a letter to the Roman people, denounced as the prophets of Antichrist those who maintained that work ought not to be done on the seventh day." (James T. Ringgold, The Law of Sunday, p. 267)
COUNCIL OF FRIAUL, ITALY-A.D. 791 (CANON 13)
"We command all Christians to observe the Lord's day to be held not in honour of the past Sabbath, but on account of that holy night of the first of the week called the Lord's day. When speaking of that Sabbath which the Jews observe, the last day of the week, and which also our peasants observe.." (Mansi, 13, 851)
PERSIA AND MESOPOTAMIA
"The hills of Persia and the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates re-echoed their songs of praise. They reaped their harvests and paid their tithes. They repaired to their churches on the Sabbath day for the worship of God." (Realencyclopaedie fur Protestatische and Krche, art. "Nestorianer" also: Yule, "The Book of Sir Marco Polo," Vol.2, p.409.)
INDIA, CHINA, PERSIA, ETC
"Widespread and enduring was the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath among the believers of the Church of the East and the St. Thomas Christians of India, who never were connected with Rome. It also was maintained among those bodies which broke off from Rome after the Council of Chalcedon namely, the Abyssinians, the Jacobites, the Maronites, and the Armenians," (Schaff-Herzog, The New Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, art. "Nestorians"; also Realencyclopaedie fur Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, art. "Nestorianer.")
COUNCIL OF LIFTINAE, BELGIUM-A.D.745 (ATTENDED BY BONIFACE)
"The third allocution of this council warns against the observance of the Sabbath, referring to the decree of the council of Laodicea." (Dr. Hefele, Conciliengeschicte, 3, 512, sec. 362)
CHINA-A.D.781
In A.D. 781 the famous China Monument was inscribed in marble to tell of the growth of Christianity in China at that time. The inscription, consisting of 763 words, was unearthed in 1625 near the city of Changan and now stands in the "Forest of Tablets," Changan. The following extract from the stone shows that the Sabbath was observed:
"On the seventh day we offer sacrifices, after having purified our hearts, and received absolution for our sins. This religion, so perfect and so excellent, is difficult to name, but it enlightens darkness by its brilliant precepts." (Christianity in China, M. I'Abbe Huc, Vol. I, ch.2, pp. 48, 49)
BULGARIA
"Bulgaria in the early season of its evangelization had been taught that no work should be performed on the Sabbath." (Responsa Nicolai Papae I and Con-Consulta Bulgarorum, Responsum 10, found in Mansi, Sacrorum Concilorum Nova et Amplissima Colectio, Vol.15; p. 406; also Hefele, Conciliengeschicte, Vol.4, sec. 478)
BULGARIA
(Pope Nicholas I, in answer to letter from Bogaris, ruling prince of Bulgaria.) "Ques. 6-Bathing is allowed on Sunday. Ques. 10-One is to cease from work on Sunday, but not also on the Sabbath." (Hefele, 4,346- 352, sec. 478)
The Bulgarians had been accustomed to rest on the Sabbath. Pope Nicholas writes against this practice.
CONSTANTINOPLE
(Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople [in counter-synod that deposed Nicolas], thus accused Papacy). Against the canons, they induced the Bulgarians to fast on the Sabbath." Photius, von Kard, Hergenrother, 1, 643) Note: The Papacy had always tried to bring the seventh-day Sabbath into disrepute by insisting that all should fast on that day. In this manner, she sought to turn people towards Sunday, the first day, the day that Rome had adopted.
ATHINGIANS
Cardinal Hergenrother says that they stood in intimate relation with Emperor Michael II (821-829) and testifies that they observed the Sabbath. (Kirchengeschichte, 1, 527)
INDIA, ABYSSINIA
"Widespread and enduring was the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath among the believers of the Church of the East and the St. Thomas Christians of India. It was also maintained by the Abyssinians.“
"The Ethiopians received the Eastern form of doctrine in the fourth century. The Sabbath had not then been discarded as the day of rest, though the Sunday festival was observed. In the seventh century the rise of the Saracen [Mohammedan] power cut Abyssinia [Ethiopia] off from the knowledge of the world. Gibbon says: 'Encompassed on all sides by the enemies of their religion, the Ethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten' (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 47, par. 37). And when discovered by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, they were found making the seventh day, as well as Sunday, a day of rest, not having known of its being set fully aside in the course of apostasy. Gibbon relates how the Jesuits never rested until they persuaded the Abyssinian king (A.D. 1604) to submit to the pope, and to prohibit Sabbath observance." (Bible Students Source Book, p. 895.)
BULGARIA
"Pope Nicholas I, in the ninth century, sent the ruling prince of Bulgaria a long document saying in it that one is to cease from work on Sunday, but not on the Sabbath. The head of the Greek Church, offended at the interference of the Papacy, declared the Pope ex-communicated." (Truth Triumphant, p. 232)
CHURCH OF THE EAST-Kurdistan
"The Nestorians eat no pork and keep the Sabbath. They believe in neither auricular confession nor purgatory." (Schaff-Herzog, The New Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge," article "Nestorians.")
WALDENSES
"And because they observed no other day of rest but the Sabbath dayes, they called them Insabathas, as much as to say, as they observed no Sabbath." [Luther's Fore-Runners (original spelling), pp. 7, 8]
WALDENSES
Roman Catholic writers try to evade the apostolic origin of the Waldenses, so as to make it appear that the Roman is the only apostolic church, and that all others are later novelties. And for this reason they try to make out that the Waldenses originated with Peter Waldo of the twelfth century. Dr. Peter Allix says:
"Some Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for them...It is absolutely false, that these churches were ever found by Peter Waldo...it is a pure forgery." (Ancient Church of Piedmont, pp.192, Oxford: 1821)
WALDENSES
"It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses, or Vaudes, before his time, from the valleys in which they dwelt." (Ibid., p. 182)
WALDENSES
On the other hand, he "was called Valdus, or Waldo, because he received his religious notions from the inhabitants of the valleys." (History of the Christian Church, William Jones, Vol II, p.2)
SCOTLAND
“They held that Saturday was properly the Sabbath on which they abstained from work.” (Celtic Scotland, Vol. 2, p. 350)
"They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a sabbatical manner...These things Margaret abolished." (Andrew Lang, A History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation, Vol.1, p. 96.)
"It was another custom of theirs to neglect the reverence due to the Lord's day, by devoting themselves to every kind of worldly business upon it, just as they did upon other days. That this was contrary to the law, she (Queen Margaret) proved to them as well by reason as by authority. 'Let us venerate the Lord's day,' said she, 'because of the resurrection of our Lord, which happened upon that day, and let us no longer do servile works upon it; bearing in mind that upon this day we were redeemed from the slavery of the devil. The blessed Pope Gregory affirms the same.'" [Life of Saint Margaret, Turgot, p. 49 (British Museum Library)]
Historian, Skene, commenting upon the work of Queen Margaret: "Her next point was that they did not duly reverence the Lord's day, but in this latter instance they seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early Church of Ireland, by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours." [Skene, Celtic Scotland, Vol.2, p. 349]
SCOTLAND AND IRELAND
T. Ratcliffe Barnett, in his book on the fervent Catholic queen of Scotland who in 1060 was first to attempt the ruin of Columba's brethren, writes: “In this matter the Scots had perhaps kept up the traditional usage of the ancient Irish Church which observed Saturday instead of Sunday as the day of rest.” (Barnett, Margaret of Scotland: Queen and Saint, p.97)
COUNCIL OF CLERMONT
"During the first crusade, Pope Urban II decreed at the council of Clermont (A.D.1095) that the Sabbath be set aside in honour of the Virgin Mary." (History of the Sabbath, p.672)
CONSTANTINOPLE
"Because you observe the Sabbath with the Jews and the Lord's Day with us, you seem to imitate with such observance the sect of Nazarenes." (Migne, Patrologia Latina,Vol. 145, p. 506; also Hergenroether, Photius, Vol. 3, p.746.) The Nazarenes were a Christian denomination.
GREEK CHURCH
"The observance of Saturday is, as everyone knows, the subject of a bitter dispute between the Greeks and the Latins." [John Mason Neale, A History of the Holy Eastern Church, Vol 1, p. 731. (Referring to the separation of the Greek Church from the Latin in 1054)]
LOMBARDY
"Traces of Sabbath-keepers are found in the times of Gregory I, Gregory VII, and in the twelfth century in Lombardy." (Strong's Cyclopaedia, 1, 660)
WALDENSES
"Robinson gives an account of some of the Waldenses of the Alps, who were called Sabbati, Sabbatati, Insabbatati, but more frequently Inzabbatati. 'One says they were so named from the Hebrew word Sabbath, because they kept the Saturday for the Lord's day.'" (General History of the Baptist Denomination, Vol.II, P. 413)
SPAIN (Alphonse of Aragon)
"Alphonse, king of Aragon, etc., to all archbishops, bishops and to all others...'We command you that heretics, to wit, Waldenses and Insabbathi, should be expelled away from the face of God and from all Catholics and ordered to depart from our kingdom.'" (Marianse, Praefatio in Lucam Tudensem, found in Macima Gibliotheca Veterum Patrum, Vol.25, p.190)
HUNGARY, FRANCE, ENGLAND, ITALY, GERMANY (Referring to the Sabbath-keeping Pasagini)
"The spread of heresy at this time is almost incredible. From Gulgaria to the Ebro, from northern France to the Tiber, everywhere we meet them. Whole countries are infested, like Hungary and southern France; they abound in many other countries, in Germany, in Italy, in the Netherlands and even in England they put forth their efforts." (Dr. Hahn, Gesch. der Ketzer. 1, 13, 14)
WALDENSES
"Among the documents, we have by the same peoples, an explanation of the Ten Commandments dated by Boyer 1120. Observance of the Sabbath by ceasing from worldly labours, is enjoined." (Blair, History of the Waldenses, Vol.1, p. 220)
WALES
"There is much evidence that the Sabbath prevailed in Wales University until A.D.1115, when the first Roman bishop was seated at St. David's. The old Welsh Sabbath-keeping churches did not even then altogether bow the knee to Rome, but fled to their hiding places." (Lewis, Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, Vol.1, p.29)
FRANCE
"For twenty years Peter de Bruys stirred southern France. He especially emphasized a day of worship that was recognized at that time among the Celtic churches of the British Isles, among the Paulicians, and in the great Church of the East namely, the seventh day of the fourth commandment."
PASAGINI
The papal author, Bonacursus, wrote the following against the "Pasagaini": "Not a few, but many know what are the errors of those who are called Pasagini...First, they teach that we should obey the Sabbath. Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church." (D'Achery, Spicilegium I,f.211-214; Muratory, Antiq. med. aevi.5, f.152, Hahn, 3, 209)
PASSAGINIANS
“In Lombardy, which was the principle residence of the Italian heretics, there sprung up a singular sect, known, for what reason I cannot tell, by the denomination Passaginians.... Like the other sects already mentioned, they had the utmost aversion to the discipline and dominion of the Church of Rome; but they were at the same time distinguished by two religious tenets which were peculiar to themselves.
The first was a notion that the observance of the Law of Moses, in everything except the offering of sacrifices, was obligatory upon Christians; in consequence of which they...Abstained from those meats, the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic economy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. The second tenet that distinguished this sect was advanced in opposition to the doctrine of three persons in the divine nature” (Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., Cent 12, Part 2, Ch. 5, Sec. 14, p. 127)
“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. They hold also that Christ, the Son of God, is not equal with the Father, and that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, these three...are not one God and one substance; and as a surplus, to these errors, they judge and condemn all the doctors of the Church and universally the whole Roman Church ... (Dr. Allix, Eccl. Hist. of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont, pp. 168-169, Allix quoting a 12th century Roman Catholic author)
“The Passagii in the twelve and thirteenth centuries denied that the coming of Jesus abrogated the Penteteuchal legislation, and urged upon Christians the literal fulfillment of all its precepts, except that with references to sacrifices. The numerous Sabbatarian movements in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, Russia, and England also demanded Christian adherence to Mosaic precepts. The Puritans in England and America, several sects on the Continent and in England, sought to restore to prominence in Christian life the principal of literal observance of the Jewish [(sic) “God's”] laws… The attitude of the [“] official [“] Church [i.e., the Roman Catholic Church] has been, of course, to condemn these sectaries as heretical. Nevertheless their frequency, the number of their followers, their persistence in Christianity from the earliest times to the present, have made them a formidable factor.” (Louis Israel Newman, Ph.D., Jewish Influence on Christian Reform Movements, Columbia University Oriental Studies Vol. XXIII, 1925, p.15)
WALDENSES
"They say that the blessed Pope Sylvester was the Antichrist of whom mention is made in the Epistles of St. Paul as having been the son of perdition.[They also say] that the keeping of the Sabbath ought to take place." [Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont, p.169 (by prominent a Roman Catholic author writing about Waldenses)]
FRANCE (Waldenses)
To destroy completely these heretics Pope Innocent III sent Dominican inquisitors into France, and also crusaders, promising "a plenary remission of all sins, to those who took on them the crusade...against the Albigenses." (Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol.XII, art."Raymond VI," p. 670)
WALDENSES OF FRANCE
"The inquisitors...[declare] that the sign of a Vaudois, deemed worthy of death, was that he followed Christ and sought to obey the commandments of God." (History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages," H.C. Lea, vol.1)
FRANCE
Thousands of God's people were tortured to death by the Inquisition, buried alive, burned to death, or hacked to pieces by the crusaders. While devastating the city of Biterre, the soldiers asked the Catholic leaders how they should know who were heretics; "Slay them all, for the Lord knows who is His." (History of the Inquisition, pp.96)
FRANCE--KING LOUIS IX,1229
Published the statute "Cupientes” in which he charges himself to clear southern France from heretics, as the Sabbath-keepers were called.
WALDENSES OF FRANCE
"The heresy of the Vaudois, or poor people of Lyons, is of great antiquity, for some say that it has been continued down ever since the time of Pope Sylvester; and others, ever since that of the apostles." (The Roman Inquisitor, Reinerus Sacho, writing about 1230)
FRANCE--Council Toulouse, 1229
Canons against Sabbath-keepers: "Canon 3.-The lords of the different districts shall have the villas, houses and woods diligently searched, and the hiding-places of the heretics destroyed.
"Canon 14-Lay members are not allowed to possess the books of either the Old or the New Testaments." (Hefele, 5, 931, 962)
EUROPE
"The Paulicians, Petrobusinas, Passaginians, Waldenses, Insabbatati were great Sabbath-keeping bodies of Europe down to 1250 A.D."
PASAGINIANS
Dr. Hahn says that if the Pasaginians referred to the 4th Commandment to support the Sabbath, the Roman priests answered, "The Sabbath symbolised the eternal rest of the saints."
MONGOLIA
"The Mongolian conquest did not injure the Church of the East. (Sabbath-keeping.) On the contrary, a number of the Mongolian princes and a larger number of Mongolian queens were members of this church."
WALDENSES
“We are to worship one only God, who is able to help us, and not the saints departed; that we ought to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that there was no necessity of observing other feasts [i.e., Roman Catholic ordained feasts].” (Luther's Fore-Runners, p.38, quoting from the Waldensian faith)
"They [Waldenses and Picards] do not hear the masses of Christians [Catholics]...they flee the image of the Crucifix as the devil, they do not celebrate the feasts [Catholic holidays] of the divine Virgin Mary and of the apostles,...Some indeed celebrate the Sabbath that the Jews observe!" (Beitraege zur Sektengeschiechte des Mittelalters, translated by J. J. von Doellinger, vol. 2, no. 61, p. 662)
INSABBATI
"For centuries evangelical bodies, especially the Waldenses, were called Insabbati because of Sabbath-keeping." (Gui, Manuel d' Inquisiteur)
BOHEMIA, 1310 (Modern Czechoslovakia)
"In 1310, two hundred years before Luther's theses, the Bohemian brethren constituted onefourth of the population of Bohemia, and that they were in touch with the Waldenses who abounded in Austria, Lombardy,. Bohemia, north Germany, Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Moravia. Erasmus pointed out how strictly Bohemian Waldenses kept the seventh day Sabbath." (Armitage, A History of the Baptists, p.313; Cox, The Literature of the Sabbath Question, vol. 2, pp. 201-202)
NORWAY
Then, too, in the "Catechism" that was used during the fourteenth century, the Sabbath commandment read thus; "Thou shalt not forget to keep the seventh day." (Documents and Studies Concerning the History of the Lutheran Catechism in the Nordish Churches, p.89. Christiania 1893)
NORWAY
"Also the priests have caused the people to keep Saturdays as Sundays." (Theological Periodicals for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway, Vol.1, p.184, Oslo)
ENGLAND, HOLLAND, BOHEMIA
"We wrote of the Sabbatarians in Bohemia, Transylvania, England and Holland between 1250 and 1600 A.D." (Truth Triumphant, Wilkinson, p.309)
NORWAY (Church Council held at Bergen, August 22, 1435)
"The first matter concerned a keeping holy of Saturday. It had come to the earth of the archbishop that people in different places of the kingdom had ventured the keeping holy of Saturday. It is strictly forbidden-it is stated-in the Church Law, for any one to keep or to adopt holy-days, outside of those which the pope, archbishop, or bishops appoint." (The History of the Norwegian Church under Catholicism, R. Keyser, Vol. II, p. 488. Oslo: 1858)
NORWAY, 1435 (Catholic Provincial Council at Bergen)
"We are informed that some people in different districts of the kingdom, have adopted and observed Saturday-keeping. It is severely forbidden-in holy church canon-one and all to observe days excepting those which the holy Pope archbishop, or the bishops command. Saturday-keeping must under no circumstances be permitted hereafter further than the church canon commands. Therefore, we counsel all the friends of God throughout all Norway who want to be obedient towards the holy church to let this evil of Saturday- keeping alone; and the rest we forbid under penalty of sever church punishment to keep Saturday holy." (Dip. Norveg., 7, 397)
NORWAY, 1436
(Church Conference at Oslo) "It is forbidden under the same penalty to keep Saturday holy by refraining from labour." (History of the Norwegian Church, p.401)
FRANCE - Waldenses
"Louis XII, King of France (1498-1515), being informed by the enemies of the Waldenses inhabiting a part of the province of Province, that several heinous crimes were laid to their account, sent the Master of Requests, and a certain doctor of the Sorbonne, to make inquiry into this matter. On their return they reported that they had visited all the parishes, but could not discover any traces of those crimes with which they were charged. On the contrary, they kept the Sabbath day, observed the ordinance of baptism, according to the primitive church, instructed their children in the articles of the Christian faith, and the commandments of God. The King, having heard the report of his commissioners, said with an oath that they were better men than himself or his people." (History of the Christian Church, Vol.II, pp. 71, 72, third edition. London: 1818)
BOHEMIA
"Erasmus testifies that even as late as about 1500 these Bohemians not only kept the seventh day scrupulously, but also were called Sabbatarians." (Cox, The Literature of the Sabbath Question, Vol.2, pp.201, 202 Truth Triumphant, p.264)
INDIA
"Separated from the Western world for a thousand years, they were naturally ignorant of many novelties introduced by the councils and decrees of the Lateran. 'We are Christians, and not idolaters,' was their expressive reply when required to do homage to the image of the Virgin Mary.'"
SWEDEN
"This zeal for Saturday-keeping continued for a long time: even little things which might strengthen the practice of keeping Saturday were punished." (Bishop Anjou, Svenska Kirkans Historia after Motetthiers, Upsala)
LICHENSTEIN FAMILY
(Estates in Austria, Bohemia, Morovia, Hungary. Lichenstein in the Rhine Valley wasn't their country until the end of the 7th century). "The Sabbatarians teach that the outward Sabbath, i.e. Saturday, still must be observed, They say that Sunday is the Pope's invention." (Refutation of Sabbath, by Wolfgang Capito, published 1599)
CARLSTADT AND LUTHER
“Carlstadt held to the divine authority of the Sabbath from the Old Testament.” (Life of Luther, by Dr. Barnes Sears, p.402)
"When servants have worked six days, they should have the seventh day free. God says without distinction, 'Remember that you observe the seventh day'…Concerning Sunday it is known that men have instituted it…It is clear however, that you should celebrate the seventh day." (Andres Carlstadt [Andreas Rudolf Karlstadt], Von dem Sabbat und gebotten feyertagen [“Concerning the Sabbath and Commanded Holidays”], 1524, chap.4, pp. 23-24)
“Indeed, if Carlstadt were to write further about the Sabbath, Sunday would have to give way, and the Sabbath---that is to say, Saturday---must be kept holy.“ (Martin Luther, Against the Celestial Prophets, quoted in Life of Martin Luther in Pictures, p.147)
DR. MARTIN LUTHER
"God blessed the Sabbath and sanctified it to Himself. God willed that this command concerning the Sabbath should remain. He willed that on the seventh day the word should be preached." (Commentary on Genesis, Vol.1, pp.138-140)
BOHEMIA (the Bohemian Brethren)
Dr. R. Cox says: "I find from a passage in Erasmus that at the early period of the Reformation when he wrote, there were Sabbatarians in Bohemia, who not only kept the seventh day, but were said to be...scrupulous in resting on it." (Literature of the Sabbath Question, Cox, Vol. II, pp. 201, 202)
HISTORIAN'S LIST OF CHURCHES (16th Century)
"Sabbatarians, so called because they reject the observance of the Lord's day as not commanded in Scripture, they consider the Sabbath alone to be holy, as God rested on that day and commanded to keep it holy and to rest on it." (A. Ross)
PRINCES OF LICHTENSTEIN (Europe)
About the year 1520 many of these Sabbath-keepers found shelter on the estate of Lord Leonhardt of Lichtenstein held to the observance of the true Sabbath." (J.N. Andrews, History of the Sabbath, p. 649, ed.)
BOHEMIA & ENGLAND
"In Bohemia Sabbatarians sprung up as early as 1520. Such Sabbatarians, or similar sects, we meet about 1545 among the Quakers in England." (Chief Rabbi Kohn, Sabbatarians in Transylvania, 1894 ed.)
"In the reign of Elizabeth, it occurred to many conscientious and independent thinkers (as it previously had done to some Protestants in Bohemia) that the fourth commandment required of them the observance, not of the first, but of the specified 'seventh' day of the week." (Chambers' Cyclopaedia, article "Sabbath," Vol. 8, p. 462, 1537)
AUSTRIA
"Sabbatarians now exist in Austria." (Luther, Lectures on Genesis, A.D.1523-27)
HOLLAND AND GERMANY
Barbara of Thiers, who was executed in 1529, declared: "God has commanded us to rest on the seventh day." Another martyr, Christina Tolingerin, is mentioned thus: "Concerning holy days and Sundays, she said: 'In six days the Lord made the world, on the seventh day he rested. The other holy days have been instituted by popes, cardinals, and archbishops.'" (Martyrology of the Churches of Christ, commonly called Baptists, during the era of the Reformation, from the Dutch of T.J. Van Bright, London, 1850,1, pp.113-4.)
GERMANY -Dr. Esk (while refuting the Reformers)
"However, the church has transferred the observance from Saturday to Sunday by virtue of her own power, without Scripture." (Dr. Esk's Enchiridion, 1533, pp.78,79)
ABYSSINIA--A.D. 1534 (Abyssinian legate at court of Lisbon)
"It is not therefore, in imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ and His holy apostles, that we observe the day." (Gedde's Church History of Ethiopia, pp. 87,8)
PURITANS
"Several leaders and preachers of the Puritans have re-transferred the rest day from Sunday to Saturday (1534)," (Chief Rabbi Kohn, Sabbatarians in Transylvania, p. 38)
BAPTISTS
"Some have suffered torture because they would not rest when others kept Sunday, for they declared it to be the holiday and law of Antichrist." [Sebastian Frank (A.D. 1536)]
NORWAY-1544
"Some of you, contrary to the warning, keep Saturday. You ought to be severely punished. Whoever shall be found keeping Saturday, must pay a fine of ten marks." (History of King Christian the Third, Niels Krag and S. Stephanius)
FINLAND-Dec. 6,1554
(King Gustavus Vasa I, of Sweden's letter to the people of Finland) "Some time ago we heard that some people in Finland had fallen into a great error and observed the seventh day, called Saturday." (State Library at Helsingfors, Reichsregister, Vom J., 1554, Teil B.B. leaf 1120, pp.175-180a)
INDIA
"The famous Jesuit, Francis Xavier, called for the Inquisition, which was set up in Goa, India, in 1560, to check the 'Jewish wickedness' (Sabbath-keeping)." (Adeney, The Greek and Eastern Churches, p.527, 528)
SWITZERLAND
"The observance of the Sabbath is a part of the moral law. It has been kept holy since the beginning of the world." (Ref. Noted Swiss writer, R Hospinian, 1592)
RUSSIA (Council, Moscow, 1593)
"The accused [Sabbath-keepers] were summoned; they openly acknowledged the new faith, and defended the same. The most eminent of them, the secretary of state, Kuritzyn, Ivan Maximow, Kassian, archimandrite of the Fury Monastery of Novgorod, were condemned to death, and burned publicly in cages, at Moscow; Dec. 17, 1503." [H. Sternberfi, Geschichte der Juden, (Leipsig, 1873), pp.117-122]
SOCINIANS
“This logical development of judaizing Sabbatarianism is curiously illustrated in the history of a sect of Sabbatarian Socinians founded in Transylvania in Hungary towards the end of the sixteenth century. Their first principle, which led them to separate from the rest of the Unitarian body, was their belief that the day of rest must be observed with the Jews on the seventh day of the week and not on the Christian Sunday.” (The Catholic Encyclopedia, online edition, article: Sabbatarians, Sabbatarianism)
ETHIOPIA-1604
Jesuits tried to induce the Abyssinian church to accept Roman Catholicism. They influenced King Zadenghel to propose to submit to the Papacy (A.D.1604). "Prohibiting all his subjects, upon severe penalties, to observe Saturday any longer." (Gedde's Church History of Ethiopia. p.311, also Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. 47)
ENGLAND
"Upon the publication of the 'Book of Sports' in 1618 a violent controversy arose among English divines on two points: first, whether the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was in force; and, secondly, on what ground the first day of the week was entitled to be observed as 'the Sabbath.'" (Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, art. "Sabbatarians." p.602)
ENGLAND-1618
"At last for teaching only five days in the week, and resting upon Saturday she was carried to the new prison in Maiden Lane, a place then appointed for the restraint of several other persons of different opinions from the Church of England. Mrs. Traske lay fifteen or sixteen years a prisoner for her opinion about the Saturday Sabbath." (Pagitt's Heresiography, p.196)
AMERICA (The Puritans-1620)
“Strange as it may seem, in the early history of America there was an attempt at suppression of the Christmas spirit. The sterns Puritans at Plymouth, imbued with rigorous fervor of the Old Testament, abhorred the celebration of orthodox holidays. Their worship was on the Sabbath (Saturday), rather than Sunday, and Christmas in particular they considered a pagan celebration. Later immigrants attempted to observe Christmas as a time of joy, but were suppressed. Governor Bradford, Elder Brewster, Miles Standish and other leaders were firm against the yuletide spirit as we know it today.” [editorial, Hugh Sprague, St. Joseph Gazette, (Missouri) December, 1934]
TRANSYLVANIA (ca. 1588-1623)
The Transylvanian Church of God “restored the original and true Christianity, in that they actually accepted and practised Jewish religious customs and statutes which the Old Testament prescribes and which original Christianity observed as binding and only later discarded.” (Gerhard O Marx, Beliefs and Practices of the Church of God in Transylvania during the period 1588-1623, p.8, Extracted, compiled, and translated from Dr. Samuel Kohn, Chief Rabbi of Budapest Hungary, DIE SABBATHARIER IN SIEBENBURGEN Ihre Geshichte, Literatur, und Dogmatik, Budapest, Verlag von Singer & Wolfer, 1894; Leipzig, Verlag von Franz Wagner)
On pages 62-67 of Kohn's work, the Old Sabbath Songbook is discussed: “The hymnal was written in Hungarian by Eossi, Enok Alvinczi, Johannes Bokenyi, Thomas Pankotai, & Simon Pechi. ... It consisted of 102 hymns: 44 for the Sabbath, 5 for the New Moon, 11 for Passover and Unleavened Bread, 6 for the Feast of Weeks, 6 for Tabernacles, 3 for New Year [i.e., Trumpets], 1 for Atonement, 26 for everyday purposes.” (ibid)
SWEDEN AND FINLAND
"We can trace these opinions over almost the whole extent of Sweden of that day--from Finland and northern Sweden. "In the district of Upsala the farmers kept Saturday in place of Sunday. "About the year 1625 this religious tendency became so pronounced in these countries that not only large numbers of the common people began to keep Saturday as the rest day, but even many priests did the same." (History of the Swedish Church, Vol. I, p.256)
MUSCOVITE RUSSIAN CHURCH
“They solemnize Saturday (the old Sabbath)”. (Samuel Purchase, His Pilgrims Vol. I, p. 350)
INDIA (Jacobites)-1625
"They kept Saturday holy. They have solemn service on Saturdays." (Pilgrimmes, Part 2, p.1269)
HUNGARY, RUMANIA
"But as they rejected Sunday and rested on the Sabbath, Prince Sigmond Bathory ordered their persecution. Pechi advanced to position of chancellor of state and next in line to throne of Transylvania. He studied his Bible, and composed a number of hymns, mostly in honour of the Sabbath. Pechi was arrested and died in 1640.
ENGLAND-Charles I, 1647 (when querying the Parliament Commissioners)
"For it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is no longer to be kept, or turned into the Sunday wherefore it must be the Church's authority that changed the one and instituted the other." (Cox, Sabbath Laws, p.333)
AMERICA-1664
"Stephen Mumford, the first Sabbath-keeper in America came from London in 1664." (History of the Seventh-day Baptist Gen. Conf. by Jas. Bailey, pp. 237, 238)
ENGLAND-1668
"Here in England are about none or ten churches that keep the Sabbath, besides many scattered disciples, who have eminently preserved." (Stennet's letters, 1668 and 1670. Cox, Sab.,1, 268)
AMERICA-1671 (Seventh-day Baptists)
"Broke from Baptist Church in order to keep Sabbath." (Bailey's History, pp. 9,10)
ENGLAND-John Milton
"It will surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first." (Sab. Lit. 2, 46-54)
BOHEMIA, MORAVIA, SWITZERLAND, GERMANY
"One of the counsellors and lords of the court was John Gerendi, head of the Sabbatarians, a people who did not keep Sunday, but Saturday." (Lamy, The History of Socinianism, p. 60)
TELEGRAPH PRINT, NAPIER
The inscription on the monument over the grave of Dr. Peter Chamberlain, physician to King James and Queen Anne, King Charles I and Queen Katherine says that Dr. Chamberlain was "a Christian keeping the commandment of God and the faith of Jesus, being baptised about the year 1648, and keeping the seventh day for the Sabbath above thirty-two years."
ENGLAND
"Here and there also you meet with a Millenarian; but I know there is a particular Society, though it makes but little noise, of People, who though they go by the Name of Sabbatarians make Profession of expecting the Reign of a Thousand Years without participating in the other opinions which are ascribed to the ancient Millenarians. These Sabbatharians are so call'd, because they will not remove the Day of Rest from Saturday to Sunday. They leave off work betimes on Friday Evening, and are very rigid observers of their Sabbath. They administer Baptism only to adult People; and perhaps they are blameable in these two Things only because they look upon them to be more important than they really are. The major Part of them will eat neither Pork, nor Blood, nor things strangled, but they do not absolutely forbid the Use of those meats; they leave it to the Liberty of every Conscience. For the rest, their Morality is severe, and their whole outward Conduct pious and Christian-like. Were it only for this one Opinion or Belief of theirs concerning the absolute Necessity of keeping the Sabbath on Saturday without paying any Regard to the next Day...; that alone would be enough to make them unavoidably a Society by themselves." (Henri Misson, M. Misson's Memoirs and Observations in his Travels around England, 1698, translated into English in 1719, p.9)
ABYSSINIA
"The Jacobites assembled on the Sabbath day, before the Domical day, in the temple, and kept that day, as do also the Abyssinians as we have seen from the confession of their faith by the Ethiopian king Claudius." [Abundacnus, Historia Jacobatarum, p.118-9 (18th Century)]
RUMANIA, 1760 (and what is today) YUGOSLAVIA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA
"Joseph II's edict of tolerance did not apply to the Sabbatarians, some of whom again lost all of their possessions." (Jahrgang 2, 254)
"Catholic priests aided by soldiers forcing them to accept Romanism nominally, and compelling the remainder to labour on the Sabbath and to attend church on Sunday--these were the methods employed for two hundred fifty years to turn the Sabbatarians.
GERMANY-Tennhardt of Nuremberg
"He holds strictly to the doctrine of the Sabbath, because it is one of the ten commandments." (Bengel's Leban und Wirken, Burk, p.579)
He himself says: "It cannot be shown that Sunday has taken the place of the Sabbath (P.366). the Lord God has sanctified the last day of the week. Antichrist, on the other hand, has appointed the first day of the week." [Ki Auszug aus Tennhardt's Schriften, P.49 (printed 1712)]
BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA
Their history from 1635 to 1867 is thus described by Adolf Dux: "The condition of the Sabbatarians was dreadful. Their books and writings had to be delivered to the Karlsburg Consistory to becomes the spoils of flames." (Aus Ungarn, pp. 289-291. Leipzig, 1850)
HOLLAND AND GERMANY
"Dr. Cornelius stated of East Friesland, that when Baptists were numerous, "Sunday and holidays were not observed," (they were Sabbath-keepers). (Der Anteil Ostfrieslands and Ref. Muenster," 1852, pp l29, 34)
MORAVIA-Count Zinzendorf
In 1738 Zinzendorf wrote of his keeping the Sabbath thus: "That I have employed the Sabbath for rest many years already, and our Sunday for the proclamation of the gospel." (Budingsche Sammlung, Sec. 8, p. 224. Leipzig, 1742)
AMERICA, 1741 -Moravian Brethren (after Zinzendorf arrived from Europe).
"As a special instance it deserves to be noticed that he is resolved with the church at Bethlehem to observe the seventh day as rest day. (Ibid., pp. 5, 1421, 1422)
AMERICA
But before Zinzendorf and the Moravians at Bethlehem thus began the observance of the Sabbath and prospered, there was a small body of German Sabbath-keepers in Pennsylvania. (See Rupp's History of Religious Denominations in the United States, pp.109- 123)
RUSSIA
"But the majority moved to the Crimea and the Caucasus, where they remain true to their doctrine in spite of persecution until this present time. The people call them Subotniki, or Sabbatarians," (Sternberg, Geschichte der Juden in Polen, p.124)
CHINA
"At this time Hung prohibited the use of opium, and even tobacco, and all intoxicating drinks, and the Sabbath was religiously observed." (The Ti-Ping Revolution, by Lin-Le, and officer among them, Vol. 1, pp.36-48, 84)
"The seventh day is most religiously and strictly observed. The Taiping Sabbath is kept upon our Saturday." (p. 319)
CHINA
"The Taipings when asked why they observed the seventh day Sabbath, replied that it was, first, because the Bible taught it, and, second, because their ancestors observed it as a day of worship." (A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday.)
INDIA AND PERSIA
"Besides, they maintain the solemn observance of Christian worship throughout our Empire, on the seventh day." (Christian Researches in Asia, p.143)
AMERICA (Seventh-day Adventists)
In 1844 Seventh-day Adventists arose and had spread to nearly all the world by the close of the 19th Century. Their name is derived from their teaching of the seventh-day Sabbath and the Advent of Jesus. In 1874 their work was established in Europe, 1885 -Australasia, 1887-South Africa, 1888-Asia, 1888-South America. Seventh-day Adventists uphold the same Sabbath that Jesus and His followers kept. The sacred Torch of Truth was not extinguished through the long centuries. Adventists are working today in nearly 1000 languages of earth and have over 27,000 churches. Over ten million members around the globe welcome the sacred Sabbath hours. (Sabbath of God Through the Centuries)
SWEDEN (Baptists)
"We will now endeavour to show that the sanctification of the Sabbath has its foundation and its origin in a law which God at creation itself established for the whole world, and as a consequence thereof is binding on all men in all ages." [Evangelisten (The Evangelist). Stockholm, May 30 to August 15,1863 (organ of the Swedish Baptist Church)]
"We find traces of these Jewish doctrines throughout practically the whole of Sweden of the day, from Finland through northern Sweden…Some of the common people would not work on Saturday but would keep it…They also assert that they through various dreams and visions were moved to such worship." (Svenska Kyrkans Historia, 1864, Vol. 1, pp. 357-358).
TRANSYLVANIA
“In 1867 the Hungarian parliament gave complete religious freedom to all religious confessions, including the Jews. Many Sabbatarians now left their Christian churches and revealed themselves as Sabbath-keepers.” (Marx, Beliefs and Practices of the Church of God in Transylvania during the period 1588-1623)
HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AMERICA (Sabbatarian Baptists)
'Although there does not seem to be any immediate or obvious connection between the observance of the seventh day and the rejection of infant baptism, these two errors in doctrine and discipline are often found together. Thus Sabbatarianism made many recruits among the Mennonite Anabaptists in Holland and among the English Baptists who, much as they differ on other points of doctrine, agree in the rejection of paedo-baptism. And it is presumably a result of this contact with Anabaptism that Sabbatarianism is also found in association with fanatical views on political or social questions. The most conspicuous of English Sabbatarian Baptists was Francis Bampfield (d. 1683), brother of a Devonshire baronet and originally a clergyman of the English Church. He was the author of several works and ministered to a congregation of Sabbatarian Baptists in London. He suffered imprisonment for his heterodoxy and eventually died in Newgate. In America the Baptists who profess Sabbatarianism are known as Seventh-Day Baptists.” (The Catholic Encyclopedia, online edition, article: Sabbatarians, Sabbatarianism)
DENMARK
This agitation was not without its effect. Pastor M.A. Sommer began observing the seventh day, and wrote in his church paper, "Indovet Kristendom" Nov. 5, 1875, an impressive article about the true Sabbath. In a letter to Elder John G. Matteson, he says:
"Among the Baptists here in Denmark there is a great agitation regarding the Sabbath commandment. However, I am probably the only preacher in Denmark who stands so near to the Adventists and who for many years has proclaimed Christ's second coming." (Advent Tidente," May, 1875)
TRANSYLVANIA (1894)
“The largest group of Sabbath-keepers in Transylvania today--and they number in the thousands--are situated in the areas of Oluj and Sibiu. The bishop of Cluj--Rumania's second largest city--keeps the Sabbath” (Samuel Kohn, DIE SABBATHARIER IN SIEBENBURGEN Ihre Geshichte, Literatur, und Dogmatik)
NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH
“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 66:22,23)
Extracts from "A Chart of the Week"
by William M. Jones
GROUP #1 SEMITIC LANGUAGES
Hebrew, Ancient and Modern
First day: o-khad be-shab-bath ("one into the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shabbath ("Sabbath")
Ancient Syriac
First day: khad be-shab-bo ("one into the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shab-ba-tho ("Sabbath")
Chaldee Syriac (Kurdistan and Urumia, Persia)
First day: khad be-shab-ba ("one into the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shaptu ("Sabbath")
Babylonian (a written language dating back to 3800 B.C.)
First day: makh-ru ("first")
Seventh day: sa-ba-tu ("Sabbath")
Arabic (western Asia, northern and western Africa)
First day: al-a-had ("the one")
Seventh day: as-sabt ("the Sabbath")
Maltese (Malta)
First day: h'add ("one")
Seventh day: is-sibt ("the Sabbath")
Ethiopic (Abyssinia)
First day: e-hud ("one")
Seventh day: san-bat ("Sabbath")
GROUP #2 HAMITIC LANGUAGES
(Used by the descendants of Noah's son Ham)
Coptic (Egypt, a dead language for 300 years)
First day: pi-ehoou emmah a ouai ("the first day")
Seventh day: pi sabbaton ("the Sabbath")
Tamashek (Atlas mountains, Africa)
First day: a-hai i-yen ("first day")
Seventh day: a-hal es-sabt ("the Sabbath")
Kabyle (North Africa, Ancient Numidan)
First day: ghas al-a-had ("day the one)
Seventh day: ghas assebt ("the Sabbath day")
Hausa (Central Africa)
First day: lahade ("the one, or first")
Seventh day: assebatu ("the Sabbath)
GROUP #3 JAPHETIC LANGUAGES
(Used by the descendants of Noah's sons Japheth)
Hindustani (Muhammadan and Hindu, India)
First day: yek-shamba ("one to the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shamba ("Sabbath")
Pasto (Afghanistan)
First day: yek-shamba ("one to the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shamba ("Sabbath")
Pahlivi (ancient Persian)
First day: mittira ("sun")
Seventh day: shambid ("pleasantest day of the week")
Persian (Persia)
First day: yek-shambi ("one to the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shambah ("Sabbath")
Armenian (Arinenia)
First day: mia shapti ("one to the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shapat ("Sabbath")
Kurdish (Kurdistan)
First day: yek-shamba ("one to the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shamba ("Sabbath")
Brdhuiky (Beluchistan)
First day: yek-shambe ("one to the Sabbath")
Seventh day: shembe ("Sabbath")
GROUP #4 M1SCELLANEOUS
Georgian (Caucasus)
First day: kvira ("lordly")
Seventh day: shabati ("Sabbath")
Suanian (Caucasus)
First day: moushladh'h ("day one")
Seventh day: sammtyn ("Sabbath")
Ingoush (Caucasus)
First day: kyrynda ("lordly")
Seventh day: shatt ("Sabbath")
Malayan (Malaya, Sumatra)
First day: hari ahad ("day one")
Seventh day: hari sabtu ("day Sabbath")
Javanese (Java)
First day: dina ahad ("day one")
Seventh day: saptoe or saptu ("Sabbath")
Dayak (Borneo)
First day: andau ahat ("day one")
Seventh day: sabtu ("Sabbath")
Makassar (southern Celebes and Salayer islands)
First day: aha ("one")
Seventh day: sattu ("Sabbath")
Malagassy (Madagascar)
First day: alahady ("the one")
Seventh day: alsabotsy ("the Sabbath")
Swahili (east equatorial Africa)
First day: al-ahad ("the one")
Seventh day: as-sabt ("the Sabbath")
Mandingo (west Africa, south of Senegal)
First day: allahaddo ("the one")
Seventh day: sibiti ("the Sabbath")
Teda (central Africa)
First day: lahadu ("the one")
Seventh day: essebdu ("the Sabbath")
Bornu (central Africa)
First day: lade ("the one")
Seventh day: sibda ("Sabbath")
Fulfulde (central Africa)
First day: lahade ("the one")
Seventh day: assebdu ("the Sabbath")
Logone (central Africa)
First day: sel-lade ("the one")
Seventh day: se-sibde ("the Sabbath")
Bagrimma (central Africa)
First day: lahadi ("the one")
Seventh day: sibbedi
Maba (central Africa)
First day: ahad ("one")
Seventh day: sab ("Sabbath")
Permian (Russian)
First day: vovzem, kresene
Seventh day: subota ("Sabbath")
Votiak (Russian)
First day: zuc-arna, arna-nunal
Seventh day: subbota ("Sabbath")
GROUP #5 LANGUAGES PROPERLY DESIGNATING THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK AS A BUSINESS DAY
Arabic (very old names)
First day: au-had ("business day")
Seventh day: shi-yar ("chief or rejoicing day")
Osmanlian (Turkey)
First day: bazaar-guni ("market day")
Seventh day: yom-es-sabt ("day of the Sabbath")
Kazani-Tartar (east Russia)
First day- atna kone ("market day")
Seventh day- subbota ("Sabbath")
Circassian (Circissia)
First day: mouy-isht-kha-maf ("market day")
Seventh day: mafizaka ("morrow after assembly")
GROUP #6 LANGUAGES DESIGNATING THE SEVENTH DAY AS THE SABBATH, BUT GIVING THE FIRST DAY QUESTIONABLE DESIGNATIONS
Orma (south of Abyssiania)
First day: gifti ("lady," "Virgin Mary day")
Seventh day: zam-ba-da ("Sabbath")
Congo (west equatorial Africa)
First day: sumingo (Domingo)
Second day: ("second market day")
Seventh day: sabbado or Kiansbula ("Sabbath")
Wolof (Senegambia, west Africa)
First day: dibar (Diamanche)
Seventh day: alere-asser ("last day Sabbath")
Norman French (l0th and 11th centuries)
First day: diemane
Seventh day: sabbedi ("Sabbath day")
D'oc. French (ancient and modern)
First day: dimenche ("day dominical")
Seventh day: dissata ("day Sabbath")
Ecclesiastical Roman
First day: dominica
Seventh day: sabbatum ("Sabbath")
Latin (Italy)
First day: dies solis, dies dominicus ("day of the sun," "day of the Lord")
Seventh day: sabbatum ("Sabbath")
Italian (Italy)
First day: demenica
Seventh day: sabato, sabbato ("Sabbath")
Spanish (Spain)
First day: domingo
Seventh day: sabado ("Sabbath")
Portuguese (Portugal)
First day: domingo
Seventh day: sabbado ("Sabbath")
French (France)
First day: diamanche ("day dominical")
Seventh day: samedi ("Sabbath day")
Roman (Spain, Catalonia)
First day: diumenge
Seventh day: dissapte ("day Sabbath")
Shewing the UNCHANGED ORDER of the Days and the true Position of the SABBATH, as proved by the combined testimony of Ancient and Modern Languages.
|
No. |
LANGUAGE
(Where Spoken, Read,
or Otherwise Used |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Name of the
SEVENTH DAY |
|
1 |
Shemitic
Hebrew Bible world-wide |
Day One |
Day Second |
Day Third |
Day Fourth |
Day Fifth |
Day the Sixth |
Yom hash-shab-bath
Day the Sabbath |
|
2 |
Hebrew
(Ancient and Modern) |
One into the Sabbath |
Second into the Sabbath |
Third into the Sabbath |
Fourth into the Sabbath |
Fifth into the Sabbath |
Eve of Holy Sabbath |
Shab-bath
Sabbath |
|
3 |
Targum of Onkelos
(Hebrew Literature) |
Day One |
Day Second |
Day Third |
Day Fourth |
Day Fifth |
Day the Sixth |
Yom hash-shab-bath
Day the Sabbath |
|
4 |
Targum Dialect of the
Jews in Kurdistan |
Day One of the Seven |
Day 2nd of the Seven |
Day 3rd of the Seven |
Day 4th of the Seven |
Day 5th of the Seven |
Day of Eve
(of Sabbath) |
yoy-met sha-bat kodesh
Holy Sabbath Day |
|
5 |
Ancient Syriac
*Each day proceeds on,
and belongs to the Sabbath |
One into Sabbath |
Two into Sabbath |
Three into Sabbath |
Four into Sabbath |
Five into Sabbath |
Eve
(of Sabbath) |
Shab-ba-tho
Sabbath |
|
6 |
Chaldee Syriac
Kurdistan and Urdmia, Persia |
One into Sabbath |
Two into Sabbath |
Three into Sabbath |
Four into Sabbath |
Five into Sabbath |
Eve
(of Sabbath) |
Shap-ta
Sabbath |
|
7 |
Samaritan
(Old Hebrew Letters)
Nablus, Palestine |
Day One |
Day Second |
Day Third |
Day Fourth |
Day Fifth |
Day Sixth |
Shab-bath
Sabbath |
|
8 |
Babylonian
Euphrates & Tigris Valleys Mesopotamia
(Written lang. 3800 B.C.) |
First |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Sixth |
Sa-ba-tu
Sabbath |
|
9 |
Assyrian
Euphrates and Tigris Valleys,
Mesopotamia |
First |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Sixth |
sa-ba-tu
Sabbath |
|
10 |
Arabic
(Very old names) |
Business Day |
Light Moon |
War Chief |
Turning Day or Midweek |
Familiar or Society Day |
Eve
(of Sabbath) |
Shi-yar
Chief or Rejoicing Day |
|
11 |
Arabic
(Ancient and Modern)
Westn. Asia,
E,W & N. Africa |
The One |
The Two |
The Three |
The Four |
The Fith |
Assembly
(day, Muham) |
as-sabt
The Sabbath |
|
12 |
Maltese, Malta |
One (day) |
Two (and day) |
The 3 (3rd d.) |
The 4 (4th d.) |
Fifth (day) |
Assembly |
Is-sibt.
The Sabbath |
|
13 |
Ge-ez or Ethiopic
Abyssinia
(Ge-ez signifies "original") |
One (day) |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Eve (of Sabbath) |
san-bat
Sabbath |
|
14 |
Tigre
Abyssinia
(Closely related to Ge-ez) |
One (First day) |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Eve (of Sabbath) |
san-bat
Sabbath |
|
15 |
Amharic, Abyssinia
(Nearly related to Ge-ez) |
One |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Eve (of Sabbath) |
san-bat
Sabbath |
|
16 |
Falasha
(Language of the
Jews of Abyssinia) |
One |
Second |
Third |
Fourth |
Fifth |
Sixth |
yini sanbat
The Sabbath |
|
17 |
Coptic / Egypt
(A dead lang. for 200 years) |
The First Day |
The 2nd Day |
The 3rd Day |
The 4th Day |
The 5th Day |
The 6th Day |
pi sabbaton
The Sabbath |
|
18 |
Orma or Galla
South of Abyssinia
(This language has two sets of names, the first
being the oldest) |
Lady, Virgin Mary Day.
Great or Festival Sabbath |
Second day.
First Trade Day |
3rd Day to the Sabbath.
Second Trade Day |
4th day to the Sabbath.
Fourth (day) |
Fifth (day) |
Assembly (day) |
Last day of the half-week
inclusive of 4th day.
Little or Humble or
Solemn Sabbath
(A day of no ceremonial display and no work) |
|
19 |
Tamashek or Towarek.
(From ancient Lybian or Numidian).
Atlas Mountains, Africa. |
First day |
Second day |
Third day |
Fourth day |
Fifth day |
Assembly Day |
a-hal es-sabt.
The Sabbath Day |
|
20 |
Kabyle or Berber.
(Ancient Numidian)
North Africa |
Day the One (First) |
Day the Two (2nd) |
Day the Three (3rd) |
Day the Four (4th) |
Day the Fifth |
The Assembly Day |
ghas or wars assebt
The Sabbath Day |
|
21 |
Hausa
Central Africa) |
The One (1st) |
The Two (2nd) |
The Three (3rd) |
The Four (4th) |
The Fifth |
The Assembly |
assebatu
The Sabbath |
|
22 |
Urdu or Hindustani
(Muhammadan and Hindu, India)
(Two names for the days) |
One to Sabbath. Sunday |
2nd to Sabbath. Moon-day |
3rd to Sabbath. Mars |
4th to Sabbath. Mercury |
5th to Sabbath. (Eve of Juma) |
Assembly (day) |
sanichar - Saturn
shamba - Sabbath |
|
23 |
Pashto or Afghan
Afghanistan |
One to the Sabbath |
Two to Sabbath |
Three to Sabbath |
Four to Sabbath |
Five to Sabbath |
Assembly (day) |
khali - Unemployed-day,
Shamba - Sabbath |
The CHART OF THE WEEK, is over a hundred years old. It is extremely valuable and almost impossible to find today.
Dr. William Meade Jones lived over a hundred years ago, and was a well-known London, England, research expert. He discovered in his studies that the Seventh-day Sabbath was the only weekly Sabbath ever commanded by God in the Bible.
Jones decided that, since Scripture clearly shows that the Bible Sabbath was first given to mankind at end of Creation Week, --If Genesis 2:1-3 is really true, then two important facts would have had to be known throughout the ancient world: First, a fixing of the seven-day weekly cycle on a world-wide basis, and second, an ancient world-wide knowledge of the Seventh-day Sabbath.
Jones was convinced of this for several reasons:
- Adam and Noah were both earnest worshipers of God and would therefore have been faithful Sabbath keepers.
- They would have taught their descendents about the Bible Sabbath, who would be aware of its original sacredness.
- The truth that God is to be worshiped on the seventh of each seven-day week, requires a seven-day week, even though they may have later turned to idols and left the worship of the True God.
- Therefore, as the descendents of Adam and Noah spread out all over the world, they would have carried with them these two important facts: Each week has seven days, and the seventh day of the week is the holy Sabbath given by God to mankind.
Even though many of Adam's and Noah's descendents would become scoffers, Jones reasoned, all of them would still carry with them the twin truths of the six-day Creation Week, of Genesis 1 (by their keeping of the seven-day weekly cycle, and the Seventh-day Sabbath by naming the seventh day of the week in their language as the day of Sabbath rest).
William Mead Jones decided that if Genesis 1 and 2 were really true, and that if God really created the world in six days and then rested on the Seventh day, then a majority of the languages of the world would prove the fact! And this, in turn, would be a powerful proof, not only that the Seventh day (and not the first) was the true Sabbath of God, but also a dramatic proof that Genesis 1 and 2 are genuine, and that God is our Creator!
Thinking about both of these facts is stunning in the light of the abundance of corroborating evidence given on this amazing chart that proves them to be true!
Statements by eminent scientists, historians and astronomers:
"One of the most striking collateral confirmations of the Mosaic history of the creation is the general adoption of the division of time into weeks, which extends from the Christian states of Europe to the remote shores of Hindustan, and has equally prevailed among the Hebrews, Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, and northern Barbarians, --nations some of whom had little or no communication with others, and were not even known by name to the Hebrews." --Horne's Introduction, Volume 1, page 69
In the official League of Nations "Report on the Reform of the Calendar," published at Geneva, August 17, 1926, are the following representative statements by noted astronomers:
"The week has been followed for thousands of years and therefore has been hallowed by immemorial use." --Anders Donner, "The Report," p. 51. [Donner had been a professor of Astronomy at the University of Helsingfors.]
"I have always hesitated to suggest breaking the continuity of the week, which without a doubt is the most ancient scientific institution bequeathed to us by antiquity." --Edouard Baillaud, "The Report, p. 52. [Baillaud was Director of the Pris Observatory.]
"The week is a period of seven days.. It has been employed from time immemorial in almost all Eastern countries." --The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, Volume 4, p. 988, article, "Calendar."
"As to Question (1)--I can only state that in connection with the proposed simplification of the calendar, we have had occasion to investigate the results of the works of specialists in chronology and we have never found one of them that has ever had the slightest doubt the continuity of the weekly cycle since long before the Christian era.
"As to Question (2) --There has been no change in our calendar in past centuries that has affected in any way the cycle of the week." --James Robertson, personal letter, dated March 12, 1932. [Dr. Robertson was Director of the American Ephemeris, Navy Department, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.]
"As far as I know, in the various changes of the Calendar there has been no change in the seven day rota of the week, which has come down from very early times." --F.W. Dyson, Personal letter, dated March 4, 1932. [Dr. Dyson was Astronomer Royal, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London.]
"Some of these (the Jews and also many Christians) accept the week as of divine institution, with which it is unlawful to tamper; others, without these scruples, still feel that it is useful to maintain a time-unit that, unlike all others, has proceeded in an absolutely invariable manner since what may be called the dawn of history." --Our Astronomical Column," Nature, London, number 127, June 6, 1931, p. 869
"The week of seven days has been in use ever since the days of the Mosaic dispensation, and we have no reason for supposing that any irregularities have existed in the succession of weeks and their days from that time to the present." --Dr. W.W. Campbell, Statement. [Dr. Campbell was Director of Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, California.]
"For more than 3,000 years science has gone backward, and with profound research, reveals the fact that in that vast period the length of the day has not changed by the hundredth part of a single second of time." --General O.M. Mitchell, Astronomy of the Bible, p. 235
"By calculating the eclipses, it can be proven that no time has been lost and that the creation days were seven, divided into twenty-four hours each." --Dr. Hinckley, The Watchman, July, 1926. [Dr. Hinckley was a well-known astronomer of half a century ago.]
"In spite of all of our dickerings with the calendar, it is patent that the human race never lost the septenary [seven-day] sequence of week days and that the Sabbath of these latter times comes down to us from Adam, through the ages, without a single lapse." --Dr. Totten, Statement. [Dr. Totten of New Haven, Connecticut, was Professor of Astronomy at Yale University when this statement was made.]
"The continuity of the week has crossed the centuries and all known calendars, still intact." --Professor D. Eginitis, Statement. [Dr. Eginitis was Director of the Observatory of Athens, Greece.]
"It is a strange fact that even today there is a great deal of confusion concerning the question of so-called 'lost time.' Alterations that have been made to the calendar in the past have left the impression that time has actually been lost. In point of fact, of course, these adjustments were made to bring the calendar into closer agreement with the natural [solar] year. Now, unfortunately, this supposed 'lost time' is still being used to throw doubt upon the unbroken cycle of the Seventh-day Sabbath that God inaugurated at the Creation. I am glad I can add the witness of my scientific training to the irrevocable nature of the weekly cycle.
"Having been time computer at Greenwich [England Observatory] for many years, I can testify that all our days are in God's absolute control--relentlessly measured by the daily rotation of the earth on its axis. This daily period of rotation does not vary one-thousandth part of a second in thousands of years. Also, the year is a very definite number of days. Consequently, it can be said that not a day has been lost since Creation, and all the calendar changes notwithstanding, there has been no break in the weekly cycle." --Frank Jeffries, Statement. [Dr. Jeffries was Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Research Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England.]
We conclude this study with an interesting historical analysis published by the Presbyterian Church:
"The division of time into weeks is a singular measure of time by periods of seven days that may be traced not only through the sacred history before the era of Moses, but in all ancient civilizations of every era, many of which could not possibly have derived their notion from Moses.. Among the learned of Egypt, the Brahmans of India, by Arabs, by Assyrians, as may be gathered from their astronomers and priests, this division was recognized. Hesiod (900 B.C.) declares the seventh day is holy. And so also Homer and Callimachus. Even in the Saxon mythology, the division by weeks is prominent. Nay, even among the tribes of primitive worshipers in Africa, we are told that a peculiar feature of their religion is a weekly sacred day, the violation of which by labor will incur the wrath of their god. Traces of a similar division of time have been noticed among the Indians of the American continent.
"Now, on what other theory are these facts explicable than upon the supposition of a divinely ordained Sabbath at the origin of the race?" --"The Christian Sabbath." tract number 271, released by the Presbyterian Board of Publication.
Sad isn't it? Yet and still people will go on believing lies and they will lift their eyes up in a living burning hell because they refuse to change and keep God's Commandments!!!
