Five Essential Bible Truths – Part 4
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What Happened to the Lord’s Day?

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The Seventh Day of Creation is Our Saturday

The Bible reveals how God’s subjects are to worship Him. This is not a matter left to human design. Unfortunately, the devil, during the past 6,000 years, has obstructed God’s truth and implemented many false religions around the world. For example, suppose you came to Earth on a spaceship and you met three religious leaders. The first was a Moslem, the second, a Jew and the last, a Christian. You ask the each person the same question: “What day of the week do you worship on?” The Moslem would say, “The sixth day, or Friday, because Mohammed rested on Friday from travel.” The Jew would say “I worship on the seventh day of the week, or Saturday, as the fourth commandment requires.” The Christian would say, “I go to church on Sunday, the first day of the week, because of Christ’s resurrection.” As you leave Earth in your spaceship, you marvel at this interesting point: These three religions represent 50% of Earth’s inhabitants and each religion claims to have the truth about God.  Each religious system also declares that the other two religious systems are false and yet, they unwittingly confirm the truth. Their diversity confirms that the weekly cycle remains intact. Here is how: The sixth day of the week is adjacent to the seventh day, which just happens to be adjacent to the first day of the week. In other words, each religious system worships on unique days that are adjacent to each other. This fact confirms the perpetuity of Creation’s week since Jesus was on earth and shows that the weekly cycle has not been altered.  The Israelites have formally worshiped on the seventh day ever since the Exodus in 1437 B.C., the Christians in Rome, according to Justin Martyr, have formally worshiped on the first day of the week since A.D. 150, and Moslems have formally worshiped on the sixth day of the week since the sixth century A.D. If the weekly cycle had been altered in any way, these holy days of worship would not be adjacent to each other! The seventh day (Saturday) is still God’s holy day, just as it was at Creation.

So, What Happened?

So, how did Sunday become the day known as the Lord’s Day? Who made the change and how did it occur? Material documenting first century Christianity is meager and imperfect. The best records for this period are known as the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. These documents are not part of the Bible, nor do they have the authority of the Bible. However, they do offer a glimpse into the religious thinking of that era.

 Apostolic Age

This part includes several ancient references for the consideration because a great number of scholars have tried to prove from the ancient writings that Sunday observance was a widely accepted practice during the apostolic age (A.D. 30 – A. D. 100). Early Christian writings however, reveal a sinister process at work. The writings reveal how God’s word became corrupted, even in the hands of well-intentioned people. Consider these references and draw your own conclusions. The first mention of worship occurs about A.D. 97 when Clement of Rome wrote to the believers in Corinth. He wrote: “These things therefore being manifested to us, and since we look into the depths of divine knowledge, it behooves us to do all things in (their proper) order, which the Lord has commanded us to perform at stated times. He has enjoined offerings [to be presented] and services to be performed [to Him], and that no thoughtlessly or irregularity, but at the appointed times and hours.”(Clement of Rome, Epistles to Corinthians, Vol I Ante-Nicean Library, (Buffalo, 1887) p.16.)

As you can see, Clement did not endorse a particular day of the week for worship. This early quotation, however, is included because some scholars claim that Clement of Rome defended Sunday observance in A.D. 97.

Here is another early reference that people often use to support Sunday observance in the early Christian Church. Pliny the Younger, the pagan governor of Bythinia, wrote this statement about A.D. 107. Writing to Emperor Trajan, he requested advice about Christian assemblies in his province. At that time, Roman leaders anticipated civil revolts in a number of provinces and Pliny was especially cautious of a new sect of people called Christians. He wrote:

 “They [the Christians] affirmed that the whole of their guilt or error was that they met on a certain stated day before it was light and addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ as to some God…” (Pliny the Younger, Pliny’s letter to Trajan, Harvard Classics, Vol 9, (New York, 1937) p. 404)

Again, Pliny did not say which day of the week the Christians were meeting. All that we can learn from him is that they met for prayer before it was light.

Post Apostolic Age

As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, certain compromises and transformations within Christianity were made for a variety of reasons. Initially, Christians in Rome were regarded as a dangerous sect since they refused to regard Caesar as a divine god. As time passed, however, Christianity began to appeal to the educated and wealthy in Rome. These individuals could afford manuscripts and they had influence within the government of Rome. By A.D. 150, the Roman Christians and pagans had found areas of mutual respect. About this time, a well-educated man named Justin Martyr became a Christian and tried to soften the hostility existing between Romans and Christians. One area of compromise was religious meetings on Sunday. The Romans regarded Sunday as a holiday. As Christians in Rome began to worship on Sunday, they found that they met little resistance, since the pagans regarded Sunday as a holiday. Justin Martyr writes:

“But Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which God, having wrought change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead.” (Justin Martyr, First Apology of Justin Martyr, Ante-Nicean Christian Library, (Boston 1887) p. 187 Chapter 67.)

Justin Martyr’s justification for holding a common assembly on Sunday is interesting. He sited the separation of darkness and light on the first day of Creation as grounds for holding a common assembly, and then, the resurrection of Jesus. Martyr offers no Scriptural authority for holding an assembly on Sunday, but his remarks do support the idea that Roman Christians were anxious to divorce themselves from the cradle of Judaism.

Christianity had no “central office” in those days and each geographical location adjusted doctrine to meet their needs. During the last part of the second century A.D., Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, became alarmed at a number of heresies that had infiltrated the Christian movement. He knew that Christians in Rome were meeting on Sunday and that they had abandoned the seventh day Sabbath. He spoke against the practice when he wrote:

“For He [Christ] did not make void, but fulfilled the law [Ten Commandments].” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Vol 1 Ante-Nicean Christian Library, (Boston, 1887) p. 471.)

Terullian, another church father, wrote extensively about Christian doctrine. He, like Irenaeus, was alarmed by the practices of certain Christians, especially those in Rome. In regard to the seventh day Sabbath he wrote:

“Thus Christ did not all rescind the Sabbath. He kept the law [Ten Commandments] thereof….He restored to the Sabbath the works for were proper for it.” (Terullian, Book IV, Chapter 12, Vol 3 Ante-Nicean Christian Library, (Boston, 1887) p. 362.)

Many leaders considered Sunday observance in those early days. Bishop Archelaus wrote in his disputation with Manes:

“Again as to the assertion that the [seventh day] Sabbath has been abolished we deny that He [Christ] has abolished it plainly. For He Himself was also Lord of the Sabbath.” (Archelaus, The Disputation with Manes, Vol 4 ante-Nicean Christian Library, (Boston 1887), p. 217.)

By the time Christianity reached the end of the third century A.D., confusion was taking a heavy toll on Christian doctrine. Christians had spread to every province within the Roman Empire. Christians in Alexandria and Egypt (the South) were beginning to defend views different from those in Rome (the North). The authority of the Church was being discussed. Church doctrine needed stronger and clearer definition. Questions were raised for which there was little agreement. Cultural, linguistic and social factors were beginning to define Christendom according to geography. The result, which could be easily anticipated, was a highly fractured church. A “central office” for church leadership was needed. The Christians in Rome believed they were in the best position to lead a universal Christian Church, since the Roman government was looking more favorably toward Christianity. When Constantine came to the throne, he used Christianity for political advantage. Constantine thought that Christianity could unify the Roman Empire. By endorsing a “Roman version” of Christianity, Constantine set a powerful sequence of events into motion. In future years, the Church of Rome would dominate all factions of Christianity.

What do these events have to do with Sunday observance? The Roman Christians were the first group to adopt Sunday observance. Strange as it may seem, they never claimed divine authority for this action. Further, the Roman Christians did not consider Sunday work as sinful. Instead, Sunday was regarded as a day of celebration and rejoicing, not a day of fasting or reflection.

Constantine was an astute politician. When he ascended to the throne, the Roman Empire was fractured by ethnicity. Constantine was looking for a way to unify the empire and he saw Christianity as a means to an end. Therefore, “he got religion” and baptized his army into Christianity by marching them through a river. To further promote his religion and political interests, he implemented the first Sunday law in A.D. 321:

“Let all judges and all city people and all tradesmen, rest upon the venerable day of the Sun. But let those dwelling in the country freely and with full liberty attend to the culture of their fields; since it frequently happens, that no other day is fit for the sowing of grain, or the planting of vines; hence the favorable time should not be allowed to pass, lest the provision of heaven be lost.” (Cod. Justin, III Tit 12, L.3., March 7, A.D. 321.)

Of course, this decree brought great pleasure to the bishop of Rome since the aims of the Roman church and the aims of the government were on parallel courses. The government wanted a stable empire and the church wanted control over one universal Christian church.

There is a World Out There

Even though the Roman church was meeting on Sunday when Constantine issued his decree, most Christians were still observing the seventh day Sabbath. Socrates wrote at the turn of the fourth century:

“Such is the difference in the churches on the subject of fasts. Nor is there less variation in regard to religious assemblies. For although almost all churches through the world celebrate the scared mysteries on Sabbath of every week, yet the Christian of Rome and Alexandria have ceased doing this.” (Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, Book V, Chap 22, Ante-Nicean Christian Library, Vol II, (Boston p. 132.)

However, Constantine’s decree did not reduce the importance of the seventh day Sabbath for most Christians Something else would need to occur before the importance of the seventh day could be minimized. The church in Rome needed an elaborate doctrine that dealt directly with the issue of the “Lord’s Day.” Church leaders in Rome needed to present a strong case to the Christian body. Therefore, Eusebius, a Christian confident and advisor to Constantine masterminded the doctrine of Sunday observance. Notice his argument for the observance of Sunday:

“Wherefore as they [the Jews] rejected it [the Sabbath law], the Word [Christ] by the new covenant, translated and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the morning light, and gave us the symbol of true rest, viz., the saving Lord’s day, the first [day] of light, in which the Savior of the world, after all his labors among men, obtained the victory over death, and passed the portals of heaven, having achieved a work superior to the six-days creation. On this day, which is the first [day] of light and of the true Sun, we assemble, after an interval of six days, and celebrate holy and spiritual Sabbaths, even all nations redeemed by him throughout the world, and do things according to the spiritual law, which were decreed for the priests to do on the Sabbath. And all things whatsoever that is was the duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day, as more appropriately belong to it, because it has a precedence and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. All things whatsoever that it was the duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s Day.” (Eusebius’s Commentary on Psalms 92, quoted in Cox’s Sabbath literature, Vol I, p.361.)

Eusebius, who lived three hundred years after Christ, is the first man to be documented as claiming that Christ changed the day of worship. THEN, Eusebius testifies that he (and others) “have transferred all things, whatsoever that it was the duty to do on the Sabbath” to Sunday. Notice that Eusebius offers no Scriptural authority for the change. Further, no church father or authority during that time period seconded the claims of Eusebius, nor did Eusebius quote from another source. Eusebius just took the thorny problem of worship in hand and became the father of a false doctrine that favored the Church of Rome. Can mere mortals change the law of Almighty God? In just three hundred years, Christians repeated the failures of the Jews. Christians altered the plainest truths of God’s Word. Jesus said of the Jews, “They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” (Matthew 15:9)

Even with Constantine’s blessing upon Eusebius’ writings, the seventh day Sabbath did not die in Christian churches. By the year A.D. 460, Sozoman wrote: “Assemblies are not held in all churches on the same time or manner. The people of Constantinople and almost everywhere assemble on the [seventh day] Sabbath as well as the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or Alexandria.”(Sozeman, Ecclesiastical History, Book VII, Chap 19, Ante-Nicean Christian Library, Vol II, (Boston 1887) p. 390.)

Students of church history know the Church of Rome eventually dominated Christianity. Eventually, the Roman Empire and the bishop of Rome became the Bishop of the Universal Christian Church. For nearly 13 centuries, the kings and queens of Europe were subservient to the Bishop of Rome. This great time period of church domination was appropriately called the “Dark Ages” because religious dominion is a cruel master.

Summary

Sunday observance started in Rome as a compromise with the pagans. Most Christians were not of Jewish descent so Judaism and its seventh day Sabbath was not considered a high priority issue. In fact, early Christians in Rome did not want to be identified with Judaism since the Jews were hated in Rome. The early Christians in Rome were predisposed to meet on Sunday for religious celebrations (since this was the pagan practice in Rome) and did not view their actions as having serious ramifications in ages to come. However, as centuries passed, the church in Rome became the world’s leading Christian church. It was strategically located close to the leaders of world government. About the third century A.D., the Lord’s Day became an issue of significant concern. Eusebius constructed a doctrine to justify Sunday observance and Constantine implemented a Sunday law in A.D. 321 to unify the Roman Empire. Today, almost all of

Christianity worships on Sunday. Protestant denominations still show allegiance to the Church in Rome by worshiping on Sunday.

There is no biblical basis for Sunday sacredness and no Biblical basis for observing the Lord’s Day on Sunday. The support for Sunday observance and sacredness as the Lord’s Day is based on tradition and the arrogance of man. God’s law has not changed. The Ten Commandments stand without impeachment. If ten thousand men were to justify the change from Sabbath to Sunday, this does not change the law of God. The fourth commandment still establishes the seventh day of the week as God’s holy day.

I would like to close this part with three texts. The first is written by King Solomon. “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man for God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13,14) Jesus said, “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (John 15:10) Surrendering your life to Jesus means you resolve to obey God’s commandments at any cost, which includes His Sabbath. Think of it this way: God offers you and me a one-day vacation each week from the cares of the world. He promises to sustain everything we do until we return to work, so that nothing will be lost. Faith in God means being willing to obey God. When you consider His wonderful offer, what could keep any intelligent person from accepting it? Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

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