THE SABBATH by L. A. Phippeny

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 8, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 10.

THE SABBATH

By L. A. Phippeny

BY L. A. PHIPPENY

THE SABBATH AND SUNDAY.

SINCE Jesus did not institute a change of the Sabbath before His death, and could not after His resurrection, why is Sunday regarded as a day of rest by the majority of the Christian world? It is not necessary for the purpose of this study to refer at length to this point. There are numerous publications that enter into the matter fully. A few facts will be sufficient here, and the honest searcher after light and truth will investigate further.

How the Sunday Rest-day Came in.

A careful search through the Bible, following thoughts touched upon in our study of last week, will reveal no authority for a change of the Sabbath. But the Word does tell us that after the time of the early apostles many heresies would come into the church. Evils were working even in their day. History tells the rest. The church became contaminated with the pagan doctrines of Rome, with the exception of a few branches here and there which retained in remarkable purity the apostolic faith and practise. As Christianity and Paganism felt more and more the influence of each other in the empire of Rome, their forms and doctrines became blended. But the Sabbath was observed by the Jewish Christians, and also by others, and no attempt appears to have been made to oppose it until Constantine's time.

As is well known, this emperor professed Christianity, but his profession, and his friendship toward the Christians were inspired more by political considerations than by anything else. Tho when this is said all is said, for religion in the Roman empire was an essential part of the state. Constantine himself was an ardent admirer and worshiper of Apollo, the Roman deity representing the sun, and sun worship in its various forms was old when Rome was born.

The chief festival of the sun worship was observed weekly on the first day of the week, and while Constantine pleased the Christians by adopting Christianity as the religion of the empire, he shrewdly retained his hold on his pagan subjects,—now made Christians because the empire was Christian—by bestowing special honors upon the "venerable day of the sun," as he called it. His famous, but mild, Sunday decree of 321 A.D. was followed by other enactments regarding worship upon that day, these enactments thereafter being largely accomplished through the demands of the bishops of the church in their continued endeavors to increase their power. Gradually the holding of games on Sunday was transferred to other days of the week because the circus had more attendants than the church services could claim; the celebration of Easter—the observance of the Passover—was definitely fixed to take place always on Sunday; the council of Laodicea decreed "that members of the church should not rest from work on the Sabbath (Saturday) like Jews, but should labor on that day and preferring in honor the Lord's day; then, if it be in their power, to rest from work as Christians;" and about the end of the fourth century "civil transactions of every kind on Sunday were strictly forbidden. Whoever transgressed was to be considered, in fact, as guilty of sacrilege."—Neander.

Note that no writer of the first three centuries attributes the origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or to His apostles. No one had thought of honoring the Sunday because of any divine authority connected with it. And it was not until about the fourth century that the idea of attaching any special significance to the day as related to the resurrection of Christ, or calling it the Lord's day, begins to appear. From this time on, the history of the church is the history of the development of the Papacy, with its numerous festivals and feast days and traditions. This, in brief, is the manner in which Sunday found its way into the church and gradually came to be called the Lord's day. But the Lord's day of the Scriptures refers to the seventh-day Sabbath.

Compromise Brings Apostasy.

In noting the gradual growth of Sunday observance the fact must not be lost sight of that the combining of pagan with Christian forms of worship resulted in apostasy. It was not the church in its simplicity and purity that allowed the introduction of error, and corrupted the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. Men were not vastly different then than they are now. Possession of wealth and power and influence and worldly pleasures absorbed the minds of men and women then as now, both in and out of the church. A great light had shined into the world when Jesus came, and seeds of truth had been planted which would bear fruit in due season. After the long night of moral darkness the light of a new day began to dawn on the world, preparatory to the second coming of the Master to restore the lost dominion.

Truth's Witnesses among the Nations.

But even during the darkness the seed which had taken root grew. There were honest souls among all nations, as witness the millions who died for holding to the truth as against apostasy. Neither was the Lord's Sabbath forgotten during this time. There are many noteworthy examples and sufficient records showing that God was not left without witnesses on this point. The Waldenses and Albigenses retained from the first their allegiance to God's ordained Sabbath. The Abyssinians, who separated from Rome in the fourth century retained the observance of the Sabbath, altho sufficient of Rome's forms had been adopted to cause them to hold to the Sunday also, so that both days have since been observed as festival and rest days by that people. The Armenians of the East Indies were Sabbath-keepers. Sabbath-keeping was known in Scandinavia long before the Reformation, and severe penalties were imposed by the established (papal) church upon those who persisted in keeping Saturday. The Christian Jews of India, who remained in the far East after the Babylonian captivity, and received the Gospel of Christ through the preaching of Thomas, who traveled among them in the early days, kept the Sabbath then and keep it still.

These are not the only instances that might be cited. Wherever the Word of God has gone, whether proclaimed by word of mouth, through manuscripts, or by the printed page, there are found some who have broken away from the traditions of the church, whether or not they have known how Sunday came in, and have taken their stand by faith on the everlasting Word. Why should it not be so? And why should not all Christians of the present day look the matter squarely in the face and realize the blessedness and the supreme pleasure of following the Master in His example and teachings, and give Him the honor due Him by honoring the Sabbath day ordained by Him for the everlasting good of all mankind?