Some Historical Facts Worth Remembering
THE SABBATH AND THE SUNDAY. NO. 3.
Some Historical Facts Worth Remembering.
RECALLING the fact, so abundantly fortified by history, that Sunday was “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times,” even as sun-worship was the chief worship; and the further fact that God emphatically warned his people against sun-worship and the observance of heathen times, of which the “solar holiday” was the chief, we proceed to record anew some important facts, showing how Sunday came to be observed in the early church. Before doing this, however, we ask our readers to note the following important truths with reference to apostasy: (1) It does not take apostasy long to develop, especially among a half-converted people. Proof: Less than forty days after Israel had solemnly promised to do God’s will, after witnessing his wonderful power to save and in the very sight of his wondrous glory from which he spoke the law they promised to obey, the majority of the Hebrews had turned back to the worship of the Egyptian sun-god Apis. Compare Ex. 19:5-8; 20:1-17; 24:3-8, 12, 18; 32:1-6. (2) The heathen world surrounding the Jews were sun-worshipers in the days of Christ and the apostles, holding the yearly festivals of the Saturnalia and Easter, and the weekly Sunday. (3) The apostasy had begun even as early as the days of the apostle Paul (2 Thess. 2:7), and he declared it would increase on his departure (Acts 20:29, 30), to which alone the word of God would prove a remedy (verse 32). (4) One of the first apostasies recorded was in the church at Galatia. (Gal. 3:1). As they turned from Christ, the only source of justification and power, they turned “again to the weak and beggarly elements,” to do “service unto them which by nature are no gods.” (Gal. 4:8, 9.) As soon as they went back to their idolatry, they went back to the heathen days and months, and times (Gal. 4:11), prominent among which was the Sunday. These are simple facts, and now for some more directly on 41. Says Neander, the greatest of church historians, (Church History, translated by H. J. Rose, p. 186): “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 laboring on Sunday as a sin.” Neander lived A.D. 1789 to 1850. Dr. Peter Heylyn, a member of the Church of England, who wrote in 1636, gives this testimony to the same effect: “Take which you will, either the ‘fathers’ or the moderns, and we shall find no Lord’s day instituted by any apostolic mandate; no sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week.”—Hist. of the Sabbath, part 2, chap. 1, sec. 10. Says Sir William Domville: “Not any ecclesiastical writer of the first three centuries attributed the origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or to his apostles.”—Examination of the Six Texts, Supplement, pp. 6, 7. 42. The earliest testimony among the “fathers” in behalf of Sunday observance that can lay claim to genuineness is by Justin Martyr, a half-converted heathen philosopher, and a portion of the time at least an inhabitant of Rome, the seat of the apostasy. Justin simply speaks of meeting together for worship, etc., “upon the day called Sunday.” He gives the day no other title. This testimony is found in “Justin Martyr’s First Apology,” translated by Wm. Reeves, p. 127, secs. 87, 88, 89. Justin wrote about A.D. 140. 43. The first effort made by Rome to rule the Christian church was an edict in behalf of Sunday. The eastern churches celebrated the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month, without regard to the day of the week. Rome began keeping it on the Sunday following “Good Friday.” Victor, bishop of Rome, made a decree imposing the custom of Rome upon all the churches, that is, to observe the Passover on Sunday. “This bold attempt,” says Bower (Hist. of the Popes, vol. 1, pp. 18, 19), “we may call the first essay of papal usurpation.” See also Dowling’s “Hist. of Romanism,” book 1, chap. 2, sec. 9. In the heading of page 32, Dowling, a Methodist Episcopal, calls this attempt of Victor in behalf of Sunday exaltation, “The earliest instance of Romish assumption.” Victor issued his edict in A.D. 196. 44. The first early “father” who applies the term “Lord’s day” to Sunday is Tertullian. On that day he tells us that fasting or kneeling was unlawful. They traced on the forehead the sign of the cross, and made offerings for the dead in connection with Sunday observance. Concerning these observances Tertullian frankly says: “If for these and other such rules you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener.” Tertullian wrote about A.D. 200. 45. The first law for Sunday as a weekly day of observance on record, human or divine, is by Constantine, at that time heathen emperor of Rome and sun-worshiper: “Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades, rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty attend to the business of agriculture. . . . Given the seventh day of March; Crispus and Constantine being consuls, each of them for the second time.” This was given in the year A.D. 321. 46. Sylvester, bishop of Rome, authoritatively bestowed upon the Sunday the title of “Lord’s day.” This was needed to supplement Constantine’s heathen decree. See “Historia Ecclesiastica,” per M. Ludovicum Lucium, cent. 4, chap. 10, pp. 739, 740, Ed. Basilea, 1624, Library of Andover Theological Seminary. Sylvester’s decree of assumption was in A.D. 325. These evidences might be greatly extended, showing how Sunday came into the church with the apostasy, those that brought it in never contending for a moment that its observance was enjoined by the Lord. Heylyn truly states (Hist. of the Sabbath, part 2, chap. 3, sec. 12): “Thus do we see upon what grounds the Lord’s day [Sunday] stands; on custom first, and voluntary consecration of it to religious meetings; that custom countenanced by the authority of the church of God, which tacitly approved the same; and finally confirmed and ratified by Christian princes [of which Constantine was a type] throughout their empires. And as the day . . . received the greatest strength from the supreme magistrate, as long as he retained that power which to him belonged, as after from the canons and decrees of councils, the decretals of popes, and orders of particular prelates, when the sole managing of ecclesiastical affairs was committed to them.” The Sunday rests wholly on the tradition and corrupt teaching of an apostate church. The Sabbath rests on the word of God and the example of Jesus Christ. Which will you take?