"There is nothing in Scripture that requires us to keep Sunday rather than Saturday as a holy day."
Christianity Today, Dr. Harold Lindsell, Editor, November 5, 1976.
One man esteemeth one day above another: another
esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully
persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day,
regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not
the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that
eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks;
and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and
giveth God thanks.
Romans 14:5-6
The question is not which day man esteems -- the question is "Which day does God esteem above others?" Scripture is very clear on this point. See Ezekiel 20:12, Exodus 31:13, and especially Matthew 12:8. Don't let false teachers lead you astray, God does not change, and neither does His Sabbath.
HONESTY IN CHRISTIANITY
We can thank God that there are still some denominations that are willing to lay out all their honesty cards on the table, for all to see. These are fruits of "good religion," and acceptable churches to attend. Following are just a few of these honest denomintations who have opted to eschew the "tap dancing," and honestly answer the scripture-versus-tradition issue in the Sunday-and-Sabbath question:
BAPTIST
"There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no such scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week.
"I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in this aspect of it, is the gravest and most perplexing question connected with Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people; and the only reason that it is not a more disturbing element in Christian thought and in religious discussions, is because the Christian world has settled down content on the conviction that somehow a transference has taken place at the beginning of Christian history.
"To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during the three years' intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, discussing it some of its various aspects, freeing it from false glosses, never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated. Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that He has said unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach this subject.
"Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come to use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!"
"The Manual of Baptist Churches," Dr. Edward Hiscox
quoted in the New York Examiner, November 16, 1893.
"It is sometimes argued that Christ abrogated the mosaic law, and therefore there is no longer any obligation to keep the Sabbath; but He Himself declares that He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Notice that He never says that He abrogated the Sabbath."
"Baptist Sunday School Quarterly," March 1929.
PRESBYTERIAN
"The Christian Sabbath is not in the Scripture, and was not by the primitive church called the Sabbath."
"Dwight's Theology," Volume IV, Page 401.
"God instituted the Sabbath at the creation of man, setting apart the seventh day for that purpose, and imposed its observance, as a universal and perpetual moral obligation upon the race."
Tract No. 175, Dr. Archibald Hodges, Presbyterian Board of Publication.
"Some have tried to build the observance of Sunday upon apostolic command, whereas, the apostles gave no such command on the matter at all . . . The truth is as soon as we appeal . . . to the Bible the Sabbatarians have the best of the argument."
"The Christian at Work," an editorial.
CATHOLIC
"We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodecia transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."
Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine
"There is but one church on the face of the earth which has the power, or claims power, to make laws binding on the conscience, binding before God, binding under penalty of hell-fire. For instance, the institution of Sunday. What right has any other church to keep this day? You answer by virtue of the third commandment, which says, 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.' But Sunday is not the Sabbath. Any schoolboy knows that Sunday is the first day of the week. I have repeatedly offered one thousand dollars to anyone who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the first day of the week."
T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture delivered in 1892.
"The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the Catholic Church."
"Plain Talk About Protestantism," Father Segur, Page 213.
"If you look to the Bible as an authority for the observance of the day, you will not find it. It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and all other Christians outside the pale of the Mother Church, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in the observance of Sunday. The Seventh-day Adventists are the only ones who properly apply the term 'Sabbath,' because they do observe the seventh day, and not the first day, as the day of rest."
"Clifton Tracts," Volume IV, Page 15.
"Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought, logically, to keep Saturday with the Jews."
"American Catholic Quarterly Review," January 1883.
"Protestants have no Scripture for the measure of their day of rest -- they abolish the observance of Saturday without warrant of Scripture -- and substitute Sunday in its place without Scriptural authority -- consequently they have for all this only traditional authority."
Keenan's Doctrinal Catechism, Page 354.
"From this same Catholic Church you have accepted your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord's day, she has handed down as a tradition; and the entire Protestant world has accepted it as a tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish it. Therefore that which you have accepted as your rule of faith, inadequate as it of course is, as well as your Sunday, you have accepted on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church."
"The Papal Controversy," D.B. Ray, Page 179, 1892.
WHEN SUNDAY-KEEPING
ACTUALLY BEGAN
In the early church, Christians began to keep Sunday as a memorial of the resurrection of Christ, while yet retaining the Biblical practice of Sabbath-keeping; however, as time passed, and persecution spilled over from Jews to Christians, a separation was attempted. Anti-Semitism and the turning from the commandments to tradition strengthened Sunday-keeping, and Sabbath-keeping all but fell away from the Christian Church.
But true Sabbathkeeping existed fully in the Christian Church even as late as 400 years after the crucifixion!
"With what kind of eyes do you see the Lord's Day, you who dishonor the Sabbath? Do you not know that these days are sisters?"
De Castigotione, ("On Reproof") in MPG, Volume 46, Col. 309, Greek. Gregory of Nyssa (331-396 a.d.).
"On Saturday the Gospels and other portions of the Scripture shall be read aloud."
Council of Laodicea (343-381 a.d.), A History of Christian Councils, Volume 2, translated and edited by H.N. Oxenham, Page 310, Can. 16.
"In some places no day is omitted, on which the Communion is not offered; in some only on the Sabbath and the Lord's day, and in some only on the Lord's day."
Letter 54 to Januarius, Augustine (430 a.d.), Chapter 2, in MPL, Volume 33, Col. 200.
"There are no public services among them in the day except on Saturday and Sunday, when they meet together at the third hour for the purpose of holy communion."
Institutes III, Book 3, Chapter 2, John Cassian (440 a.d.), translated in NPNF, Second Series, Volume 2, Page 213.
"The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which is never observed at Rome, or at Alexandria."
Ecclesiastical History VII, Chapter 19. Sozomen (440 a.d.).
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