Causes which Elevated Sunday and Abased the Sabbath.
By John Nevins Andrews
THE first day of the week is almost universally observed as the Christian Sabbath. Yet no precept for its observance is to be found in any part of the Bible. It is never called the Sabbath. Though eight times mentioned in the New Testament, it is never honored with any sacred title. There is no record of its observance as a day of abstinence from labor. A local and temporary precept respecting the laying by of money on that day, for benevolent purposes, was given by Paul; but even this was to be done by each one separately, i. e., at home. There is on record a single meeting of the church at Troas in the night time of the first day of the week; but this was followed by Paul's act of setting out early first-day morning on his journey to Jerusalem. No sacred writer counted the day worthy of Sabbatic honors, and there is an excellent reason for this: They were inspired of God, and therefore withheld such honors because the Spirit of God did not bestow them. The seventh day is observed by only a minority of Christians, small, indeed, though much more considerable when those of other countries are counted, than most persons suppose. Yet the seventh day is the only weekly Sabbath of the Bible. It has had the highest of all honors bestowed upon it. God rested upon the seventh day, and because of that rest, he blessed the day and sanctified it. The seventh day, though stigmatized by men as the Jewish Sabbath, is by the great Lawgiver honored with the title of “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” The day is called the holy of the Lord and honorable, and such in the highest and noblest sense it really is. It is the Sabbath, even when mentioned in the New Testament in immediate connection with the first day of the week, and in the very instances in which the resurrection of Christ on that day is recorded. The resurrection of Christ had therefore nothing to do with the change of the Sabbath. In fact, such change is absolutely unknown to the Scriptures, except as the work of an enemy. But if the hand of God did not make this change, how was it accomplished? Sunday is in possession of the ground. If it was not placed in possession by the Most High, how did it come to pass that it obtained such eminence as it now holds, and by what means was the Sabbath of the Lord brought down to the dust? Possession is not always proof of ownership. Were there a divine precept for first-day observance, the Bible would record it. The day has, therefore, no divine warrant for the place it holds. There is such warrant in behalf of the seventh day, and yet men trample that day in the dust. There must have been powerful causes thus to elevate the day which has no Bible precept in its support, and abase the day which holds so prominent a place in the law of God. Let us enumerate some of these causes. 1. Prominent among the causes which abased the Sabbath of the Lord was the intense hatred which existed toward the Jews. This people, who retained the ancient Sabbath, had slain Christ. It was easy for men to forget that Christ, as Lord of the Sabbath, had claimed it as his own institution, and that the great Lawgiver had pronounced it “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” and to call the Sabbath a Jewish institution which Christians should not regard. This was actually the course of things, and the power of this blind, unreasoning prejudice was immense. Victorinus, one of the old Christian fathers, says, “Let the sixth day become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews.” And Constantine, who had so much to do with the elevation of Sunday, says: “It becomes us to have nothing in common with the perfidious Jews.” These quotations illustrate the intense prejudice toward everything observed by the Jews. 2. Still more powerful than this was the active hatred of the church of Rome toward the Sabbath, and its ever-present determination to elevate Sunday to the highest place of honor. This church, as the chief in the work of apostasy, took the lead in the earliest effort to suppress the Sabbath by turning it into a fast, that it might be odious and despicable in the eyes of men. And the very first act of papal aggression was by an edict in behalf of Sunday. Thereafter, in every possible form, this church continued this work until the pope announced that he had received a divine mandate for Sunday observance in a roll which had fallen from Heaven. The angel told Daniel that the Roman power would “think to change times and laws,” and that it would “cast down the truth to the ground.” Dan. 7: 25; 8: 12. 3. Another thing which effectually prepared the way for the elevation of Sunday, and which shows how easily such a thing could originate in apparent piety toward the Saviour, was the voluntary observance of days memorable in the history of the Lord Jesus. Thus, in the Christian church, almost from the beginning, men voluntarily honored the fourth, the sixth, and the first, days of the week, as the weekly memorials of the betrayal, the crucifixion, and the resurrection of Christ. In like manner, they honored the anniversary of the passover by the annual commemoration, with one party, of the death, and with the other, of the resurrection, of Christ; and the anniversary of the Pentecost, by the annual commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit on that day. These acts, which in themselves could not be counted sinful, and which seemed to be prompted by ardent piety, originated custom in this matter, which Dr. Heylyn pronounces the first of the two things on which Sunday observance rests. 4. Out of this speedily came traditions of an authoritative character. The making tradition to be of equal authority with the Scriptures was the great error of the early church, and the one to which that church was specially exposed. It had in it, first, those who had seen the apostles, and next, those who had seen persons who had seen them. It was this which rendered the voluntary observance of memorable days a dangerous thing. For what began as a voluntary observance became, after the lapse of a few years, a standing custom, established by tradition, which must be obeyed because it came from those who had seen the apostles, or from those who had seen others who had seen them. This is also the origin of the various errors of the great apostasy. This system of error began in apparent innocency, and its foundation was laid by men who had not the slightest idea of the vast edifice of error which was to be reared thereon. 5. The entrance of the no-law heresy was another powerful agency for the abasement of the ancient Sabbath. This heresy is seen in Justin Martyr, the earliest witness to the Sunday festival, and in the church of Rome, of which he was then a member. 6. The extensive observance of Sunday as a heathen festival not only contributed to the establishment of the day as a festival in the Christian church, but also aided to elevate it above the other days of voluntary observance. The first day of the week corresponded to the widely observed heathen festival of the sun. It was therefore easy to unite the honor of Christ in the observance of the day of his resurrection with the convenience and worldly advantage of his people in having the same festival day with their heathen neighbors, and to make it a special act of piety, in that the conversion of the heathen was thereby facilitated, while the neglect of the ancient Sabbath was justified by stigmatizing that divine memorial as a Jewish institution with which Christians should have no concern. These six things show that Satan had agencies at work fully adequate, if God suffered them to proceed, to effect the complete abasement of the Sabbath, and the elevation of Sunday to the highest honors. The following scriptures are here worthy of notice:— Prov. 30: 5, 6: “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Matt. 15: 9: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Eccl. 12: 13: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”