Something to think about? Should we keep the Sabbath holy? The answer is simple, yes In our look at the Ten Commandments, we now come to the Fourth which, without a doubt, has historically been the most misunderstood, controversial, and misapplied of the entire list. Schisms and divisions have cleft congregations and denominations apart over the interpretation of how the Fourth Commandment applies, or doesn’t apply, to the Body of Christ. Which day of the week ought a Christian attend worship services? Sunday? Saturday? Does it matter? Which day of the week is the actual Sabbath? Are we violating God’s Commandments if we get this wrong? WHY keep the Sabbath day? What is the object of the Sabbath? Who made it? When was it made, and for whom? Which day is the true Sabbath? Many keep the first day of the week, or Sunday. What Bible authority have they for this? Some keep the seventh day, or Saturday. What Scripture have they for that? Here are the facts about both days, as plainly stated in the Word of God: This is what the Bible said.. After working the first six days of the week in creating this earth, the great God rested on the seventh day. (Genesis 2:1.3.) This stamped that day as Gods rest day, or Sabbath day, as Sabbath day means rest day. To illustrate: When a person is born on a certain day, that day thus becomes his birthday. So when God rested upon the seventh day, that day became His rest, or Sabbath, day. Therefore the seventh day must always be Gods Sabbath day. Can you change your birthday from the day on which you were born to one on which you were not born? No. Neither can you change Gods rest day to a day on which He did not rest. Hence the seventh day is still Gods Sabbath day. The Creator blessed the seventh day. (Genesis 2:3.) He sanctified the seventh day. (Exodus 20:11.) He made it the Sabbath day in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:1-3.) It was made before the fall; hence it is not a type; for types were not introduced till after the fall. Jesus says it was made for man (Mark 2:27), that is, for the race, as the word man is here unlimited; hence, for the Gentile as well as for the Jew. It is a memorial of creation. (Exodus 20:11; 31:17.) Every time we rest upon the seventh day, as God did at creation, we commemorate that grand event. It was given to Adam, the head of the human race. (Mark 2:27; Genesis 2:1-3.) Hence through him, as our representative, to all nations. (Acts 17:26.) It is not a Jewish institution, for it was made 2,300 years before ever there was a Jew. The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath, but always the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Men should be cautious how they stigmatize Gods holy rest day. Evident reference is made to the Sabbath and the seven-day week all, through the patriarchal age. (Genesis 2:l-3; 8:10,12; 29:27,28.etc.) It was a part of Gods law before Sinai. (Exodus 16:4, 27-29.) Then God placed it in the heart of His moral law. (Exodus 20:1-17.) Why did He place it there if it was not like the other nine precepts, which all admit to be immutable? The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God. (Deuteronomy 4:12,13.) Then He wrote the commandment with His own finger. (Exodus 31:18.) He engraved it in the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature. (Deuteronomy 5:22.) It was sacredly preserved in the ark in the holy of holies. (Deuteronomy 10:1-5.) God forbade work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times. (Exodus 34:21.) God destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness because they profaned the Sabbath. (Ezekiel 20:12, 13.) It is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know Him from false gods. (Ezekiel 20:20.) God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:24, 25.) He sent them into the Babylonish captivity for breaking it. (Nehemiah 13:18.) He destroyed Jerusalem for its violation. (Jeremiah 17:27.) God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep it. (Isaiah 56:6, 7.) This is in the prophecy, which refers wholly to the Christian dispensation. (See Isaiah 56.) God has promised to bless all who keep the Sabbath. (Isaiah 56:2.) The Lord requires us to call it honourable. (Isaiah 58:13.) Beware, ye who take delight in calling it the. “old Jewish Sabbath,” “a yoke of bondage,” etc. After the holy Sabbath has been trodden down many generations,” it is to be restored in the last days. (Isaiah 58:12,13.) All the holy prophets kept the seventh day. When the Son of God came, He kept the seventh day all His life. (Luke 4:16; John 15:10.) Thus He followed His Fathers example at creation. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son? The seventh day is the Lords Day. (See Revelation 1:10; Mark 2:28; Isaiah 58:13; Exodus 20:10.) Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), that is, to love and protect it, as the husband is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her (1 Peter 3:6.) He vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for mans good. (Mark 2:23-28.) Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, He carefully taught how it should be observed. (Matthew 12:1-13.) He taught His disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was “lawful” (Matthew 12:12.) He instructed His apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded forty years after His resurrection. (Matthew 24:20.) The pious women who had been with Jesus carefully kept the seventh day after His death. (Luke 23:56.) Thirty years after Christs resurrection, the Holy Spirit expressly calls it the Sabbath day,(Acts 13:14.) Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it the Sabbath day in A.D. 45. (Acts 13:27.) Did not Paul know? Or shall we believe modern teachers, who affirm that it ceased to be the Sabbath at the resurrection of Christ? Luke, the inspired Christian historian, writing as late as A.D. 62, calls it the Sabbath day. (Acts 13:44.) The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath. (Acts 13:42.) In the great Christian council, A.D. 49, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the sabbath day. (Acts 15:21) It was customary to hold prayer meetings upon that day. (Acts 16:13.) Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on that day. (Acts 17:2, 3.) It was his custom to preach upon that day. (Acts 17:2,3.) The Book of Acts alone gives a record of his holding eighty-four meetings upon that day. (See Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4. 11.) There was never any dispute between the Christians and the Jews about the Sabbath day. This is proof that the Christians still observed the same day that the Jews did. In all their accusations against Paul, they never charged him with disregarding the Sabbath day. Why did they not, if he did not keep it? But Paul himself expressly declared that he had kept the law. “Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all. Acts 25:8. How could this be true if he had not kept the Sabbath? The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine times, and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament, “the Sabbath day.” Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbaths being abolished, done away, changed, or anything of the kind. God has never given permission to any man to work upon it. Reader, by what authority do you use - the seventh day for common labor? No Christian of the New Testament, either before or after the resurrection, ever did ordinary work upon the seventh day. Find one case of that kind, and we will yield the question. Why should modem Christians do differently from Bible Christians? There is no record that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the seventh day. As the Sabbath was kept in Eden before the fall, so it will be observed eternally in the new earth after the restitution. (Isaiah 66:22, 23.) The seventh-day Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from His own mouth, and was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai. (See Exodus 20.) When Jesus began His work, He expressly declared that He had not come to destroy the law. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets.” Matthew 5:17 Jesus severely condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God, while at the same tune they made void one of the Ten Commandments by their tradition. The keeping of Sunday is only a tradition of men. Forty Bible Facts Concerning the First Day of the Week The very first thing recorded In the Bible is work done on Sunday, the first day of the week. (Genesis l: l-5.) The Creator Himself did this. If God made the earth on Sunday, can it be wicked for us to work on Sunday? God commands men to work upon the first day of the week. (Exodus 20.8-11.) Is it wrong to obey God? None of the patriarchs ever kept it. None of the holy prophets ever kept it. By the express command of-God, His holy people used the first day of the week as a common working day for 4,000 years, at least. God Himself calls it a working day. (Ezekiel 46:1.) God did not rest upon it. He never blessed it. Christ did not rest upon it. Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3), and worked at His trade until He was thirty years old. He kept the Sabbath and worked six days in the week, as all admit. Hence He did many a hard day’s work on Sunday. The apostles worked upon it during the same time. The apostles never rested upon it. Christ never blessed it. It has never been blessed by any divine authority. It has never been sanctified. No law was ever given to enforce the keeping of it, hence it is no transgression to work upon it. “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” Romans 4:15 (See also 1 John 3:4.) The New Testament nowhere forbids work to be done on it. No penalty is provided for its violation. No blessing is promised for its observance. No regulation is given as to how it ought to be observed. Would this be so if the Lord wished us to keep it? It is never called the Christian Sabbath. It is never called the Sabbath day at all. It is never called the Lord’s day. It is never called even a rest day. No sacred title whatever is applied to it. Then why should we call it holy? It is simply called “first day of the week.” Jesus never-mentioned it in any way, never took its name upon His lips, so far as the record shows. The word Sunday never occurs in the Bible at all. Neither God, Christ, nor inspired men ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy day. The first day of the week is mentioned only eight times in all the New Testament. (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.) Six of these texts refer to the same first day of the week. Paul directed the saints to look over their secular affairs on that day. (1Corinthians 16:2.) In all the New Testament we have a record of only one religious meeting held upon that day, and even this was a night meeting. (Acts 20:5-12.) There is not intimation that they ever held a meeting upon it before or after that. It was not their custom to meet on that day. There was no requirement to break bread on that day. We have an account of only one instance in which it was done. (Acts 20:7.) That was done in the night-after midnight. (Verses 7-11.) Jesus celebrated it on Thursday evening (Luke 22), and the disciples sometimes did it every day (Acts 2:42-46.) The Bible nowhere says that the first day of the week commemorates the resurrection of Christ. This is a tradition of men, which contradicts the law of God. (Matthew 15:1-9.) Baptism commemorates the burial and resurrection of Jesus. (Romans 6:3-5.) Finally, the New Testament is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath day or any sacredness for the first day. Here are one hundred plain Bible facts upon this question, showing conclusively that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord in both the Old and New Testament.* How the Sabbath Was Changed.... Today I want to answer the question which so many listeners have been concerned about since our first broadcast on the Sabbath question. How did the change take place, substituting Sunday for Saturday as the day of worship? This is possibly one of the most disturbing religious questions among thinking Christians today. Unfortunately, the issue is not examined publicly very often for reasons that we’ll consider today. But multitudes have wondered when, how and why the change came about. We have established in previous broadcasts that the Bible itself speaks with absolute consistency on this subject. No Change Documented in the Bible.... In both Old and New Testament there is not a shadow of variation in the doctrine of the Sabbath. The seventh day, Saturday, is the only day ever designated by the term Sabbath in the entire Bible. Not only was Jesus a perfect example in observing the weekly seventh-day Sabbath, but all His disciples followed the same pattern after Jesus had gone back to heaven. Yet no intimation of any change of the day is made. The apostle Paul, who wrote pages of counsel about lesser issues of Jewish and Gentile conflicts, had not one word to say about any controversy over the day of worship. Circumcision, foods offered to idols, and other Jewish customs were readily challenged by early Gentile Christians in the church, but the weightier matter of weekly worship never was an issue. Why? For the simple reason that no change was made from the historic seventh day of Old Testament times, and from creation itself. Had there been a switch from the Sabbath to the first day of the week, you can be sure the controversy would have been more explosive than any other to those Jewish Christians. History Gives Some Clues If the change did not take place in the Scriptures or through the influence of the apostles, when and how did it happen? In order to understand this, we must understand what happened in that early church soon after the apostles passed off the stage of action. Paul had prophesied that apostasy would take place soon after his departure. He said there would be a falling away from the truth. One doesn’t have to read very far in early church history to see just how that prophecy was fulfilled. Gnosticism began to rise up under the influence of philosophers who sought to reconcile Christianity with Paganism. At the same time, a strong anti-Jewish sentiment became more widespread. Very speculative interpretations began to appear regarding some of the great doctrines of Christ and the apostles. The Conversion of Constantine By the time Constantine was established as the emperor of Rome in the early fourth century, there was a decided division in the church as a result of all these factors. I think most of you know that Constantine was the first so-called Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. The story of his conversion has become very well known to students of ancient history. He was marching forth to fight the battle of Milvian Bridge when he had some kind of vision, and saw a flaming cross in the sky. Underneath the cross were the Latin words meaning “In this sign conquer.” Constantine took this as an omen that he should be a Christian, and his army as well. He declared all his pagan soldiers to be Christians, and became very zealous to build up the power and prestige of the church. Through his influence great blocks of pagans were taken into the Christian ranks. But, friends, they were still pagan at heart, and they brought in much of the paraphernalia of sun-worship to which they continued to be devoted. We mentioned in a previous broadcast about the adoption of Christmas and Easter into the church. At the same time, many other customs were Christianized and appropriated into the practice of the church as well. Sun Worship You see, at that time the cult of Mithraism or sun-worship was the official religion of the Roman Empire. It stood as the greatest competitor to the new Christian religion. It had its own organization, temples, priesthood, robes—everything. It also had an official worship day on which special homage was given to the sun. That day was called “The Venerable Day of the Sun.” It was the first day of the week, and from it we get our name Sunday. When Constantine pressed his pagan hordes into the church they were observing the day of the sun for their adoration of the sun god. It was their special holy day. In order to make it more convenient for them to make the change to the new religion, Constantine accepted their day of worship, Sunday, instead of the Christian Sabbath which had been observed by Jesus and His disciples. Remember that the way had been prepared for this already by the increasing anti-Jewish feelings against those who were accused of putting Jesus to death. Those feelings would naturally condition many Christians to swing away from something which was held religiously by the Jews. It is therefore easier to understand how the change was imposed on Christianity through a strong civil law issued by Constantine as the Emperor of Rome. The very wording of that law, by the way, can be found in any reliable encyclopedia. Those early Christians, feeling that the Jews should not be followed any more than necessary, were ready to swing away from the Sabbath which was kept by the Jews. Historical Accounts Some of you may be greatly surprised by the explanation I’ve just made, and I’m not going to ask you to believe it blindly. I have before me a multitude of authorities to verify what has been said. Here are historians, Catholics and Protestants, speaking in harmony about what actually took place in the fourth century. After Constantine made the initial pronouncement and legal decree about the change, the Catholic Church reinforced that act in one church council after another. For this reason, many, many official statements from Catholic sources are made, claiming that the church made the change from Saturday to Sunday. But before I read those statements I shall refer to one from the Encyclopedia Britannica under the article, Sunday. Notice: “It was Constantine who first made a law for the proper observance of Sunday and who appointed that it should be regularly celebrated throughout the Roman empire.” Now you can check these statements in your own encyclopedias or go to the library and look into other historical sources. Here is a statement from Dr. Gilbert Murray, M.A., D.Litt., LLD, FBA, Professor of Greek at Oxford University, who certainly had no ax to grind concerning Christian thought on the Sabbath question. He wrote: “Now since Mithras was the sun, the Unconquered, and the sun was the Royal Star, the religion looked for a king whom it could serve as a representative of Mithras upon earth. The Roman Emperor seemed to be clearly indicated as the true king. In sharp contrast to Christianity, Mithraism recognized Caesar as the bearer of divine grace. It had so much acceptance that it was able to impose on the Christian world its own sun-day in place of the Sabbath; its sun’s birthday, the 25th of December, as the birthday of Jesus.” History of Christianity in the Light of Modern Knowledge. Looking a bit further into historical statements, Dr. William Frederick says: “The Gentiles were an idolatrous people who worshipped the sun, and Sunday was their most sacred day. Now in order to reach the people in this new field, it seems but natural as well as necessary to make Sunday the rest day of the church. At this time it was necessary for the church to either adopt the Gentile’s day or else have the Gentiles change their day. To change the Gentiles day would have been an offense and stumbling block to them. The church could naturally reach them better by keeping their day.” There it is, friends, a clear explanation by Dr. Frederick as to how this change happened. Another statement very parallel to this one is found in the North British Review. But let’s move on to a statement from the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 153. “The church after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath or seventh-day of the week to the first, made the third commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s day.” Catholicism Takes Credit for the Change Now a quote from the Catholic Press newspaper in Sidney, Australia. “Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles. From the 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.” The Catholic Mirror of September 23, 1894, puts it this way: “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.” To point up the claims we’re talking about, I want to read from two Catechisms. First, from the Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine by Reverend Peter Giermann. “Question: Which is the Sabbath day? Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day. 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 transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.” Second, from Reverend Steven Keenan’s Doctrinal Catechism we read this: “Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept? 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.” Then from Cardinal Gibbons’ book, The Question Box, p.179, “If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh-day Adventist is right in observing Saturday with the Jew. Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the Catholic Church?” One more statement taken from the book, The Faith of Millions, p. 473. “But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistency but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text from the Bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.” That is a most interesting statement, is it not, friends? And it is a very true statement. There is some inconsistency somewhere along the line, because we have examined the statements of history, and you can check them for yourself in any library. I’m not reading anything one-sided here at all. I’ve tried to give you an unbiased picture. Although we have seen the claims made by the Catholic Church in their publications, we are not reading them to cast any reflection upon anyone, by any means. We are simply bringing you a recital of what has been written and what claims have been made. Again, something think about!!
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 20:00:54 +0000
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