Ambassador
College
Church
History
Lecture 9
How Sunday Worship Came to be Part of the Church
I. ORIGINS IN
PAGANISM:
A. In days of Nimrod.
B. Shortly after the
flood.
C. Paul dealt with it in the New
Testament.
1. I Cor 8:1-5 - Sunday - day of the Lord (Baal's
day)
a.
Many gods and lords
2. Gal. 4:10 - Deals with pagan customs.
D.
Rome was anti-sabbath very early because of Pagan Practice and Anti-Semitism
E. Rome's
attitude toward the Sabbath began to effect Christianity about 70 A.D.
According to Dies Dominica, by F.A. Regan:
"The year A.D. 70 marks the decisive break between Sabbath and Sunday." p. 18
Bacchiocchi adds:
"Rome adopted new political and fiscal policies against the Jews. Under Vespasian (A.D. 69- 79) both the Sanhedrin and the office of the High Priest were abolished and worship at the temple site was forbidden. Hadrian (A.D. 117-148) outlawed the practice of the Jewish religion and particularly the observance of the Sabbath." p.171
A. Began around time of Constantine.
B.
Sabbath keeping continued.
1.
In West until 600 A.D. (Rome and
Italy).
2. In East until 1000
A.D.
A. Sunday worship
evolved into state religion.
B.
His whole desire was unity - accomplished this through the
church.
A Critical History of the Sabbath and Sunday, by A.H. Lewis, shows how his conversion was feigned:
"Although Constantine (A.D. 306-337) Professed conversion to Christianity, he was devoted to the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology, and would represent himself with symbols of the god of light and poetry." p.138-139
In From Sabbath to Sunday, Carlyle B. Haynes explains how Sunday played an important part in unity of Rome:
"Two reasons why the Sabbath of the Lord was discarded and the day of sun worshippers was adopted:
1)
There was a strong desire to avoid being identified with the Jews, whose
bigotry and downfall had made them unpopular.
2)
There was an equally strong desire to win the pagan sun worshippers and
gain their adherence to the church." p. 31
D. Constantine’s' Edict on Heresy -
no date.
1. Prohibits
assembling of any other church.
2.
Catholic church given permission to confiscate property belonging
to heretics.
Constantine's Edict states:
"Victor Constantinus, Maximus Augustus, to the heretics.... Forasmuch, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, we give warning by this present statute that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies: and our care in this respect extends so far as to forbid the holding of your superstitious and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever.
"Let those of you, therefore, who are desirous of embracing the true and pure religion, take the far better course of entering the catholic Church, and uniting with it in holy fellowship, whereby you will be enabled to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. In any case, the delusions of your perverted understandings must entirely cease to mingle with and mar the felicity of our present times:"
E. What early church writers had to
say...
1. Eusebius describes
enforcement of
decree.
a.
"Lurking places of heretics...to be had..."
"Thus were the
lurking-places of the heretics broken up by the emperor’s command, and the
savage beasts they harbored (I mean the chief authors of their impious
doctrines) driven to flight.... Accordingly, numbers...acknowledged the
Church as a mother from whom they had wandered long, and to whom they now
returned with joy and gladness. Thus the members of the
entire body became united, and compacted in one harmonious whole; and the
one catholic Church, at unity with itself, shone with full luster, while
no heretical or schismatic body anywhere continued to exist. And the
credit of having achieved this mighty work our Heaven-protected emperor
alone, of all who had gone before him, was able to attribute to
himself."
b. Pressure was
great
c.
People forced back into Catholic Church
2. Justin
Martyr:
a. Describes how Sunday was
kept.
"And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits.... Then we all rise together and pray, and...bread and wine and water are brought."
b. His justification for keeping Sunday:
"First day God wrought day in light....” They observe the day God began his work.... "For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn; and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration."
Note the Anti-Jewish sentiment of Justin in his Dialogue:
"The Sabbath is a temporary ordinance, derived from Moses, which God did not intend to be kept literally, for He Himself does not stop controlling the movement of the universe on that day. He imposed it solely on the Jews as a mark to single them out for punishment they so well deserved for their infidelities." text 23,3
3. Tertullian - late
2nd century.
a.
Sunday a day of
"festivity"
b.
Says pagans started, they now continued
Tertullian, the father
of Latin Christianity, never cites any scripture for his beliefs. He claims tradition for the
customs of his day. Here is
what he wrote about Sunday:
"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, and faith, as their preserver. That reason will
support tradition, and custom, and faith, you will either yourself
perceive, or learn from some one who has."
F. Doctrine concerning
Sunday...
1. Friday was the
crucifixion and Sunday was the resurrection - commonly accepted as
fact.
2. Sunday not kept in
same manner as the sabbath.
3.
Never regarded as commandment.
G. Edict of Constantine (Milan - 313
A.D.)
1. First Sunday
law.
a.
Declares day of rest and closure of business on
Sunday
b.
Day set aside for fasting
2.
Saturday could be kept, but people were required to work
According to Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; translated in History of the Christian Church, by Schaff, Vol. III, p. 380:
"On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost."
IV. Catholics continued side by side in Saturday / Sunday Observance.
1. Took a long time to do away with
the Sabbath.
2. Required
to work on Sabbath - observed as Sunday is today.
Cannon 19 of The Council of Laodicea says:
"The Gospels are to be read on the Sabbath, with the other Scriptures (see Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, p. 133).
A. Socrates - late 4th
century.
1. Catholic
historian.
2. Called Sunday, "the Lord's day" as a day honoring
the resurrection.
3. Reviews history of
the early church.
In Bingham's Antiquities, we read what Socrates says:
"Saturday and the Lord's day [were] the two great festivals, on which they always held church assemblies. And Cassian takes notice of the Egyptian churches, that among them the service of the Lord's Day and the Sabbath was always the same."
B. Gregory - shortly after the
Council of Laodicea.
1.
Said both Saturday and Sunday were "sister."
"With what eyes can you behold the Lord's day, when you despise the Sabbath? Do you not perceive that they are sisters, and that in slighting the one, you affront the other?"
2. Problem not the day, but how it was kept.
C. Augustine - 400
A.D.
1. Story of Jewish Sabbath
transferred to Sunday.
2.
Sunday is taking pre-eminence.
"The holy doctors of the
church have decreed that all the glory of the Jewish Sabbath is
transferred to it [Sunday].
Let us therefore keep the Lord’s day as the ancients were commanded
to do the Sabbath."
3. Modern religions admit basis unscriptural and are a result of the Roman Catholic Church.
From Cardinal Gibbon's Book, Faith of Our Fathers, we read:
"A rule of Faith, or a competent guide to heaven, must be able to instruct in all the truths necessary for salvation. Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths, which a Christian is bound to believe, not do they explicitly enjoin all the duties, which he is obliged to practice. Not to mention other examples, is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday, and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify." p. 89
Index | Lecture 8 | Lecture 10