HISTORY OF THE "LORD'S DAY"

[Anna]

HISTORY OF THE "LORD'S DAY"

Since most members of this network have probably not studied this subject, this blog is being started to give you some insight on how/why Christians primarily worship on Sunday rather than keeping the Sabbath holy, as their Lord and Savior did.

Note the foundation of Sunday sanctity, has no foundation in the Bible, but rather in the "Church Fathers" about whom Paul warned in

Acts 20:29-

29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, todraw away disciples after them.
31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
~~~~~~~~~~~

I present to you this evidence that the Apostles had ever broken the Sabbath because if they had they would have been stoned! None were ever stoned or accused of violating the Sabbath so my question is "Why do Christians violate it today"? There is not one example of a Sabbath breaking New Testament believer from Acts - Revelation. So who is your example and your authority to break/desecrate the Sabbath?

I encourage you all to review the following and ask yourself why you are keeping the commandments of men, Sunday and rejecting the commandment of God to "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy"? I implore you also to recall that our Master's last words in the "Great Commission" were that we are mandated to teach and observe "whatsoever He, our Lord/Jesus/Yahshua commanded? Did He ever break the Sabbath? If He did not why do you?

Rev. 14:12-
"Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

HISTORY OF THE "LORD'S DAY"

By the beginning of the 2nd century, the early church writers made it very clear that the first day of the week (Sunday) had become widely recognized as a special day for Christians to engage in public, congregational assemblies. Justin Martyr (110 - 165 A.D.) identifies the Lord's day as being "Sunday.....the first day.....and Jesus Christ our Savior on that same day rose from the dead." He further says that on this day the saints assemble for worship.

In The Teaching of the Twelve (120 - 190 A.D.) the following statement is found: "But every Lord's day do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread." Clement (153 - 217 A.D.) says that we are to "keep the Lord's day" and thus "glorify the Lord's resurrection." The Constitution of the Holy Apostles says that on this day we are to "meet more diligently.....assembling ourselves together, without fail."

Ignatius (a disciple of the apostle John) described Jewish Christians with these words: "They have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him" (Letter to the Magnesians 9:1-3).

As Christianity spread throughout the world, and as more and more non-Jews entered the church, observance of the Sabbath faded out. However, some of the distinguishing features of the Jewish Sabbath came to be incorporated into the Lord's Day observance. Like the Sabbath, Sunday was regarded as a day of joy, festivity, and praise. Fasting was forbidden. In time, Christians were even forbidden to work on the Lord's day (although this was the last feature of the Sabbath to be carried over to the Lord's day).

Tertullian (160 - 220 A.D.) was the first writer to urge the cessation of labor on Sunday. "We, on the day of the Lord's resurrection, ought to.....defer even our businesses lest we give any place to the devil." In 321 A.D. the Emperor Constantine issued an edict which made Sunday an officially recognized day of rest from labor. This tradition has been carried on even to this present time. Eusebius (Bishop of Caesarea; died: 329 A.D.) praised Constantine for this edict, saying it would "lead all mankind to the worship of God."

During the centuries which followed, a great many church councils, imperial laws, and renowned religious leaders, sought to enforce the proper (as they deemed it) observance of the Lord's day.

#1 --- Council of Nicea (325 A.D.) --- It commanded that one must stand up during prayers on the Lord's day (the 20th Canon).

#2 --- Council of Gangra (c. 350 A.D.) --- Fasting on the Lord's day is condemned; also staying away from the "House of God" and attending any non-Christian assembly.

#3 --- Council of Laodicea (363 A.D.) --- Observing the Jewish Sabbath is condemned; Sunday is commanded to be a day of rest from labor: "That Christians must not act as Jews by refraining from work on the Sabbath, but must rather work on that day, and, if they can, as Christians they must cease work on the Lord's Day, so giving it the greater honor" (the 29th Canon).

#4 --- The Apostolic Constitutions (c. 375 A.D.) --- Worshippers are commanded to assemble twice on the Lord's day -- morning and evening.

#5 --- The 4th Council of Carthage (436 A.D.) --- Anyone who left church services during the preaching was to be excommunicated. Fasting was again forbidden. Attendance at public games or the circus was forbidden on the Lord's day. (NOTE: In 425 A.D., Theodosius the Younger passed a law forbidding all games on Sunday (or any other church festival day). In 469 A.D. this law was strengthened to say that even if the Emperor's birthday fell on Sunday, no games would be allowed.)

#6 --- The 3rd Council of Orleans (538 A.D.) --- All agricultural work is forbidden on Sunday. However, those who refuse to travel or prepare meals on this day are condemned as being "Judaistic."

#7 --- The 2nd Council of Macon (585 A.D.) --- Work of any kind is prohibited on this day, and it is commanded that Christians worship God on this day.

#8 --- Gregory the Great (became Bishop of Rome in 590 A.D.) --- He condemned Sabbath observance as a "doctrine of Antichrist" (also the applying of Sabbath laws & rituals to the Lord's day). In spite of this, however, Christendom increasingly during the time of the Middle Ages observed Sunday as a Christian Sabbath.

#9 --- Alcuin (735 - 804 A.D.) --- He wrote, "Christian custom has transferred the observance of the Sabbath to the Lord's Day." Peter Alphonsus (12th century A.D.) was the first writer to actually use the term "Christian Sabbath" in connection with the Lord's day.

#10 --- Council of Clovishoff (747 A.D.) --- This council, which was held in England, decreed that travel is forbidden on the Lord's day.

#11 --- The Constitutions of Egbert (749 A.D.) --- Severe penalties are levied against anyone who works on Sunday.

#12 --- Charlemagne --- In France he issued a decree (789 A.D.) prohibiting all ordinary labor on Sunday as a breach of the 4th Commandment.

13 --- The Archbishop of Canterbury --- In the 14th century he ordered "abstinence from secular works on the sacred day of the Lord." However, he warned the people not to meet on Saturdays lest they "partake in the Jewish profession."

#14 --- Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) --- By the time of the Reformation, the Lord's Day had "deteriorated into a mere holiday devoted to idleness and dissipation." It had been reduced to oppressive laws and ceremonies. Luther insisted that the believer was not to be bound by such legalism, and advocated revolt against it. In his Table Talk he says, "If anywhere the day is made holy for the mere day's sake---if anywhere anyone sets up its observance on a Jewish foundation, then I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to dance on it, to feast on it, to do anything that shall remove this encroachment on Christian liberty."

#15 --- Huldreych (Ulrich) Zwingli (1484 - 1531) --- He taught that worship to God should not be tied down to any one day, for by doing so it "would impose on us a ceremony." John Calvin (1509 - 1564) agreed with Zwingli, saying worship of God was a daily and life-long activity. "Christians, therefore, should have nothing to do with a superstitious observance of days" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 8).

#16 --- John Knox (1505 - 1572) --- This reformer agreed with the above two men, but felt observance of Sunday should be maintained as a matter of expediency, "for it afforded rest for the body and an opportunity for united worship of God."

#17 --- The Augsburg Confession --- This was produced by Luther and Malancthon in 1530 A.D. It says in part: "For they that think that the observation of the Lord's Day was appointed by the authority of the Church, instead of the Sabbath, as necessary (unto salvation), are greatly deceived. The Scripture has abrogated the Sabbath. And yet, because it was requisite to appoint a certain day that the people might know when they ought to come together, it appears that the Church did for that purpose appoint the Lord's Day."

#18 --- The 2nd Helvetic Confession (1566) --- "Although religion be not tied unto time," yet they felt it expedient to set aside a day (the Lord's day) and "consecrate it to religious exercises and to a holy rest."

#19 --- The Westminster Confession (1643) --- "As it is of the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in His word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him; which, from the beginning of the world to the Resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and from the Resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord's Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath."

This was the product of English Puritanism. The Puritan teachings also affected other countries. The Parliament of Scotland accepted them, for example, and in 1618 they were incorporated into the Synod of Dort in Holland. Finally, the Puritans brought their strict "Christian Sabbath" to America, where it became the prevailing view for centuries.

The Puritans enacted certain laws ("Blue Laws") to insure the strict observance of Sunday. These laws were even more strict than "those formulated by the ancient Jews to enforce the observance of their sabbath." "The influence of Puritanism on American religious life cannot be overemphasized. The 'Christian Sabbath' of the Puritans, so much a part of their religious life, worked itself into the hearts and minds of the American people, and became a standard of the ideal Sunday of America for many generations."

However, the strict legal, ceremonial, and ritualistic nature of this day has not been without cost. As a result of this harsh legalism, "there has been a manifest decline in church attendance and in any spiritual observance of the day during the present century!" In a report to the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ (in 1917), the following was stated: "While Sunday is being observed as a day of rest, its observance as a day of worship is declining." D.H. Martin wrote (in 1933), "It is fast becoming a day for secular business and amusements, and little is being done to save it."

Such organizations as "The Lord's Day Alliance" have been formed to try and "promote the due observance of Sunday." Their efforts, however, are meeting with little success. By reducing the Lord's Day to a commanded legalistic ritual, and by imposing strict penalties for those who do not comply, we are destroying its worth and effectiveness as originally given by the Lord. "The reaction against the strict observance of Sunday so characteristic of the Puritans has continued, and the observance of the day has continued to become more lax. This neglect of Sunday observance may be correlated with a general decline in spiritual matters. Sunday has become a day of business and recreation, with only an hour or two in the morning set aside for worship, and that only by devout Christians."