Lesson 31
What is the Origin of Sunday Observance?
AMBASSADOR CHRISTIAN COLLEGE‐ Dr. Keith Slough
INTRODUCTION
The Catholic Letter Thomaston, Georgia May 22, 1934
The Letter of Request to the Vatican: Pope Pius XI Rome, Italy Dear Sir: Is the accusation true, that Protestants accuse you of? They say you changed the Seventh Day Sabbath to the, so called, Christian-Sunday: identical with the First-Day of the Week. If so, when did you make the change, and by what authority? Yours very truly,
J.L. Day And here is the reply Mr. Day received: The Catholic Extension Magazine, The Largest Catholic Magazine Published in USA, 180 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, (Under the Blessing of Pope Pius XI) Dear Sir: Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish [Seventh Day] Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts: (1)That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man. (2)We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church instituted by Christ [s1Jpposedly], to teach and guide men through life, has the right to change the [Biblical] laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to the Sunday. We frankly say, "Yes the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday Abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages, and a thousand other laws.” (3) We also say that of all Protestants, the Seventh Day [Christians] are the only group that reason correctly and are consistent with their teachings. It is always somewhat laughable to see the Protestant Churches, in pulpit and legislature, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in the Bible. With best wishes, Peter R. Tramer, Editor
(From Historical Facts, by V.W. Johnson, Creation Calendar Assn).
The True Origin of Sunday Observance:
Which Day is the Lord's Day? It is time you saw the true origin of Sunday observance. Every knowledgeable Christian knows that The Ten Commandments enforce the religious observance of the seventh day of the week. Yet today's churchianity (which originated from Rome) commands us to rest on and worship on the first day of the week. WHEN was this change made? And where do we find it in the New Testament?
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HAT IS THE ORIGIN OF SUNDAY OBSERVANCE? How did Sunday take the place of the original seventh day of the week, commanded in The Ten Commandments? Was the change made by Christ? Was it made by apostolic ordinance found in the New Testament? Or did the apostate Roman Catholic Church institute Sunday observance in place of number four of the Ten Commandments? It is time you saw the truth! It is time you "proved all things" from the pages of your Bible and no longer assume anything! When did this change occur? Where in the New Testament is Sunday called "the Sabbath" or "the Lord's Day"? Did Jesus and the apostles observe Sunday as their Christian Sabbath? Let's see. The First Day of the Week in The New Testament The word "Sunday" no where appears in the Bible. But the expression "First Day of the Week" does appear in the New Testament exactly eight times! If the first day of the week is ever called the "Sabbath" or commanded to be observed as a New Testament Sabbath, then surely we will find it in one or more of these eight passages! Now let's read what the Bible has to say about Sunday observance. 1) The first place where the term "First day of the week" is ever used in the New Testament is found in Matthew 28:1. There we read "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher." Notice that when Matthew wrote this "Gospel" account many years after the cross he did not call the first day of the week, the "Sabbath." Rather he said the first day of the week ‐ our Sunday ‐ was the day following the Sabbath. Sunday is therefore not the Sabbath of the New Testament but occurs after God's "Sabbath" day. Also notice that Matthew did not dignify Sunday as ''the Lord's Day." He merely referred to it as nothing more than "the first day of the
week." It’s plain and simple. Notice also that Jesus' disciples (among the women in this case) who went to take care of His body, waited until Sunday to do the laborious job of embalming a body. They did not do this on the Sabbath, but waited until Sunday (called one of the "six working days" in Ezekiel 46: 1) to do this work. I am amazed at the enormous lack of understanding of so many professing Christians. Some believers even some preachers, believe it or not ‐have assumed this was a religious gathering ‐ a worship service! I have actually heard this ridicules idea preached! Some have assumed they were gathering at the tomb to actually celebrate His resurrection! Nonsense!!! These disciples did not even know He had been resurrected! Rather the reason they were coming to the sepulcher was to embalm His body. They assumed He was still dead! No, this was not a religious worship service. Rather, these women were going there to WORK on Sunday ‐to embalm His body! Not to have a "church service"! Christ's disciples did not know He had in fact been resurrected! And when they did hear of it later in the day, they still refused to believe it! How then can some preachers assert they were celebrating His resurrection when they did not even know about it? But if these false prophets are right in their teaching that this was a religious service to celebrate His resurrection, then where were the other disciples? Where were James, John and Peter, and the other apostles? No, they did not know Christ had been raised from the dead. So these few women who came to the tomb had nothing religious in mind. Rather they waited until the first day of the working week, to begin the laborious work of embalming His body because they thought He was still dead! Will you believe your own Bible? Matthew never mentions the term "first day of the week" again. But the second place we find the term is the last chapter of the book of Mark. 2) Mark 16:1‐2 is simple another account of the same event given by Matthew. Read it in your own Bible. Notice we read that the women came to "anoint" His body. This referred to the embalming process, which they assumed they still had to do. Verse 2 says, “And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun;” And notice that Mark also says the first day of the week (Sunday) occurs after the Sabbath. So Mark also does not call Sunday either by the term "Lord's Day" or a New Testament "Sabbath." Rather Mark, writing in the New Testament, says that the Sabbath is the day before the first day of the week. Again we have no command to keep Sunday as the Sabbath, or a special religious day of rest or worship. 3) The third place where the Bible mentions Sunday is Mark 16:9. Here we read, "Now when Jesus was raised, early the first day of the week He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils."
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Notice we read that after Jesus was risen from the dead, that it was "early the first day of the week" that He appeared to Mary Magdalene. Of course Jesus appeared to people on all days of the week. We must acknowledge that this of and by itself does not suggest a religious service is to be held on the first day of the week. And we find no commandment from Christ to rest on Sunday or to observe that day as a special religious day of worship. Nor does He here tell Mary that Sunday is now "the Lord's Day" or the New Testament "Sabbath." Nor do we find any example of Mary resting on this day. Rather she was there on Sunday for the express purpose of physical work. While many people use His resurrection as the reason for their observance of Sunday, where does Jesus Himself tell us to ignore the fourth of the Ten Commandments and work on the Sabbath in order to rest on the first day of the week? ‐ substituting Sunday in place of one of the Ten Commandments? So far we see no such command. However we still have five more passages to read to find such a command. Surely if Jesus did give the early church a command to keep Sunday we will find it in one of the following five passages! We must! Or we have to acknowledge the New Testament does not teach Sunday observance for the Christian church! Now let's examine the next five passages carefully, prayerfully, and with total honesty. Did Jesus Command Sunday Rest? 4) The fourth place where the New Testament mentions Sunday by the term "the first day of the week" is found in Luke's account of the resurrection of Jesus. Notice: ''Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus" (verses 2‐ 3). Again we see they were not there to conduct a religious service as some ignorant people believe today, but were there to work in anointing His body for permanent burial. They did not know He had been raised from the dead yet, for verse 4 says "they were much perplexed"! They did not know Jesus had been resurrected from the dead! ‐no matter what you may have heard otherwise! Again, will you be honest enough to believe your own Bible? Understand! These disciples came to the tomb to WORK ‐ not to celebrate His resurrection which they did not even know had occurred! Yet this false teaching has permeated our churches! Why? Why can't they just read the Word of God and believe what they read? Yet you will continue to hear the traditional teaching that these handful of women disciples went to the cemetery to celebrate His resurrection and to rest on this day as the new Christian "Sabbath." But is this what your Bible teaches?
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Notice the verse preceding verse 1 of chapter 24. What day did these Christian disciples rest on? What day did the Holy Spirit inspire Luke to record was the Sabbath"? Did Luke call Sunday the Sabbath? Notice the verse immediately preceding chapter, 24. In verse 56 of the previous chapter we read that the women "returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and RESTED THE SABBATH DAY according to the commandment"! When did Luke write his account? Bible scholars and reference Bibles agree that Luke wrote this some 30 years after the cross! Luke was obviously writing for the church. It was not the Jews who would be reading this account but the Christians of the first century! The "commandment" here, as all scholars acknowledge in their commentaries and weighty theological reference books, is the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments. The "Sabbath" they rested on after the cross was the seventh day of the week ‐not just one day out of seven. It was the day immediately proceeding the first day of the week ‐the day we call Saturday! So at this time Christ's disciples were not resting on Sunday, but rather on the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath "according to the commandment." Obviously had the true Church of God been observing Sunday now as the Christian Sabbath, Luke would have not called the seventh day the Sabbath. Yet he did. So far in the first four passages mentioning the first day of the week Sunday ‐ we find no command from Christ nor do we find an apostolic ordinance to observe Sunday as "the Sab‐ bath" or "the Lord's Day." But we still have four more passages to study. 5) The fifth place where Sunday is mentioned by the term “first day of the week;” is found in John 20:1. It is again another account of the resurrection of Christ. And notice again there is no apostolic command to observe this day as the "Sabbath." Notice also that when the women came to the tomb that morning it was ''yet dark." So Christ had certainly risen before sunrise –perhaps many hours before sunrise. He did not have a Sunday morning "sunrise" resurrection at all! For the women learned of the empty tomb in the morning before sun rise ‐ "when it was yet dark" (verse 1). Why then do most churches have "sunrise services"? Believe it or not the ancient pagans had sunrise services in religious worship of the SUN GOD, and the Roman Catholic Church borrowed this heathen practice "converting" this pagan custom into a supposedly "Christian" service. This is strictly forbidden in Deuteronomy 12:30‐32! As we clearly see from John 20: 1 Jesus did NOT RISE AT SUNRISE! Such is a pagan custom having nothing to do with Jesus Christ and is therefore to be avoided by all true Christians! I'll be blunt. "Easter" sunrise services are a heathen custom and you are committing a grave SIN to attend such services!!! Your pastor likely doesn't know the truth about these pagan practices. Your denomination is equally ignorant. But now you know! And you have no excuse! You plainly see that Jesus was NOT resurrected at sunrise but was already raised from the dead long before the sun rose! The daylight part of Sunday had not even started yet! Rather the sunrise service brought into Protestant Christianity was inherited from "Mother
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Rome" ‐the WHORE of the book of Revelation, and is a heathen service originally dedicated to the pagan SUN GOD!! A VOID ALL SUCH "WORSHIP"!!! Only Three More Passages So far we see no apostolic command to observe the first day of the week, the day we call "Sunday," as a holy day, or "Lord's Day" or "Sabbath." Obviously then if there is an apostolic command to keep Sunday as a "Christian Sabbath," a command to keep the first day of the week instead of keeping the day required by the very Ten Commandments, then we will find it in at least one of the following three passages. Again we must examine them with open mind and heart, and honestly without personal interpretation or bias. Remember we must ob‐ jectively study the Bible to show ourselves approved to God, "proving all things" ‐not merely believing what we wish to believe because of popular opinion. Now then what does the Bible say? 6) John 20:19 is the sixth place where "the first day of the week" the day we call "Sunday" ‐ is mentioned in the New Testament. Here we read: "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assemble for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." Many carelessly assume this was a religious gathering, that the disciples were gathered together to worship Christ. Is that what the verse says? Read it again! Why were they "gathered together"? Was it to worship God? No! Rather the Holy Spirit inspired John to write that they were gathered together behind closed doors "FOR FEAR OF THE JEWS"! The Jews had just crucified their Master, and they were in hiding for very fear of their lives!! The doors were closed ‐ evidently locked! They were hiding IN FEAR! Yet Jesus found them! Some uninformed people have assumed they were gathered to celebrate His resurrection! Nonsense! How could they celebrate something they did not believe had even occurred? And if that was the case why wasn't Thomas with them? None of them believed Christ had risen from the dead! But this was the first opportunity Christ had to appear to most of His disciples. Yet still in this passage we find no command from Christ to start a new tradition of keeping Sunday instead of the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments. We have yet two more passages to examine to find a command to keep, observe, celebrate, worship on, or rest on the first day of the week. 7) The very next place where the term "first day of the week" is mentioned in the Bible is found in Acts 20:7. Look this up in your own Bible. Here we read (beginning in verse 6) that after the Passover Feast was observed by these faithful Christians, that "upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight."
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At last we find a preaching service on the first day of the week. But when did this service occur? Was it on Sunday morning when most churches have their services? No, for we read Paul preached to them after they had "broken bread" (an expression referring to the eating of a common meal) until midnight. And notice also verse 8 says "there were many LIGHTS in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together." This service was at night! ‐not on Sunday morning! Remember also that in Bible times the days began and ended at sunset (see Leviticus 23:32). Each day begins and ends with a sunset. This could not therefore have been Sunday night, for after sundown on Sunday begins the second day of the week. But we are clearly told this was the first day of the week! So, this was in the evening or the EVE of the first day of the week. It was the night before Sunday morning or what you and I call Saturday night! For the Sabbath begins at Friday sunset (when the sixth day of the week is over) and ends at sunset 24 hours later. When the Sabbath is over at sundown, then the first day of the week immediately begins ‐at sundown ‐Saturday night ‐not at 12:00 midnight, as we do it in modern times. So this was a Saturday EVENING service ‐not a Sunday morning service! So after they had rested the Sabbath day, they waited till sundown to go to the labor of preparing and cooking the food which they could not do on the Sabbath. Nor were they observing "communion" or "the Lord's Supper." The expression "breaking of bread" has absolutely nothing to do with communion which the early church only observed once a year at the Passover which they had just concluded!!! (verse 6). Notice that Paul "broke bread" even with heathen sailors in Acts 27:35. All churches know that communion is for the saints. Paul strictly forbids us to partake of ''the Lord's table" with devils (I Corinthians 10:21). No, when Paul "broke bread" with these unconverted heathen, he was not observing "communion" with them but merely eating a meal. And that is all they were doing in Acts 20:7. They had come together to eat for they were hungry! "Breaking bread" was not a religious ceremony at all but rather the eating of a meal which was indulged in daily, including every Saturday night. Also Paul was planning to leave Troas and "depart on the morrow" going on foot to Assoc (verse 13). Map makers know this is a distance of just over 19 miles. And he made this long hike on Sunday morning!!! Why wasn't Paul in church on Sunday morning? Why was he out hiking (That certainly was not resting!)? Because he had just had services the day before, and a very special service after their evening meal the evening before. No we do not see the apostles resting on the first day on the week. And notice again there is not a single command for Christians to worship on Saturday night or Sunday morning. So far in the preceding seven passages we have found not a single command to "keep Sunday" as the "Lord's Day" or the Christian Sabbath. Nor have we found one solitary example of church worship on the first day of the week! And now we come to the eighth and final place in the New Testament where the "first day
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of the week" is mentioned. 8) Read First Corinthians 16:1‐2 which speaks of a "collection for the saints." This was not a collection for the work of the Gospel Ministry. Rather Paul commands them to do this on the first day of the week "that there be no gatherings" when he came. What were these "gatherings"? It was not dropping money into a collection plate. No, for Paul also is asking the Christians in Rome to collect for these "poor saints" down in Jerusalem in Romans 15:24‐26,28. Biblical historians know about the famine that was then ravaging Palestine. The "poor saints" in Jerusalem needed food ‐not money. Notice Paul wrote that he was taking FRUIT to these saints. Scholars place the writing of First Corinthians in the spring, at Passover time. After Passover on the first day of the week was the "wave sheaf' offering in Palestine when the new harvest could be eaten (see Leviticus 23:9‐14). Paul is writing just prior to Passover and is telling them to wait until this Sunday before gathering in the "fruit of the field" the food they were sending down to the poor saints in Jerusalem. This passage does not involve a religious ceremony or church service but rather is a command for God's Church in Corinth to go out to their fields and LABOR (on the first day of the week) harvesting and GATHERING the food they were planning to send with Paul (verses 3‐ 4). This harvesting, or gathering of food, required a great deal of WORK! Why were they not resting? Why were they not "in church"? Obviously the early church ‐as all Biblical scholars agree ‐did not have religious services on Sunday but rather continued to hold them on the Sabbath "according to the commandment" (Luke 23 :56). We have found no command in any of these eight passages requiring us to rest or attend a worship service on the first day of the week! Nor do we find a single apostolic example to do so! How then did Sunday observance come into the church? It certainly was NOT ordained by Christ or the apostles. Nor is it authorized anywhere in the entirety of the Bible! Since there is no command in Scripture to "keep Sunday" ‐ to worship on, rest on, celebrate or observe in any way the first day of the week as God's Sabbath or "Lord's Day" then we must turn to secular sources for the answer! A Look at Secular History Notice this quotation from the book of Ecclesiastical History, verse 22, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, Vol. n, Page 132. "Almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the scared mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition [Sun worship], have ceased to do this." This statement comes from a Greek historian named Socrates (not to be confused with the famed philosopher before Christ), in the fifth century A.D. T.H. Morer, rector of the Church of England in his book, Six Dialogues on the Lord's Day has
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this to say about the ORIGIN of Sunday observance: "It is not to be denied but we borrow the name of this day (Sunday) from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and we allow that the old Egyptians worshiped the SUN, and as a standing memorial of their veneration, dedicated this day to him [the SUN‐god]: And we find by the influence of their examples, other nations, and among them the Jews themselves, doing him homage..." (pages 22‐23). The first day of the week then, is not commanded in the Bible, but was borrowed by the Catholics as a day of religious observance, from the heathen! The very first known Sunday law did not come from the Bible, but from Emperor Constantine! This law came about in the year A.D. 321. These are the words of this pagan sun worshipper who "converted" (supposedly) to Christianity. He wrote: "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 gain sowing or vine planting..." (Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12,3; translated in Philip Schaff, D.D., History of the Christian Church, seven‐volume edition, 1902, Vol. ill, page 380). The true Seventh Day Sabbath was a day of total rest (Exodus 34:21). But this day (Sunday) was a MAN‐made day with NO scriptural authority whatsoever! Constantine, as you know, was a Roman Catholic! And to this day, the Catholic Church takes full responsibility for changing God's Sabbath to the first day of the week! Listen to this admission from the Catholic Press of Sydney, Australia: "SUNDAY is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles. From 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"! ‐ August 25, 1900. And they are right! Sunday observance is nowhere to be found as a weekly religious day anywhere in the entirety of the Bible! In the Catholic Mirror of Baltimore, Maryland comes this frank statement in its September 23, 1893 Issue: "The CATIIOLIC 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"! Therefore the seventh day worship and rest was never changed to the first day of the week at all by Christ or the apostles! Rather the apostate Roman Catholic Church was responsible! No Biblical Authority for SUNDAY Observance! Canon Eyton of the Church of England states in his book, The Ten Commandments, "There is NO HINT, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday… Into the rest of
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Sunday no divine law enters… The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands on exactly the same footing as the observance of Sunday" (Pages 62, 63, and 65). In his book, Plain Sermons on the Catechism, Isaac Williams, B.D., a minister for the Anglican Church has this to say about the origin of Sunday observance: "Where are we told in Scripture that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day… the reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things [traditions of men], not because the Bible, but because the church [the Catholic Church], has enjoined it"! ‐from Volume I, pages 334‐336. In other words they have openly laid aside the commandment of God that they may hold their own TRADITION! (Mark 7:7‐9, 13). From Unger's Bible Dictionary, article "Sunday," comes this quote from Ignatius: "The observance of the Jewish Sabbath [by this he means the seventh day of the week, our Saturday] in the churches of the Jewish Christians continued for the FIRST FIVE CENTURIES"! Notice Ignatius called these Christians "Jewish" because they continued to observe the seventh day Sabbath centuries after the cross. Yet we see from the Book of Acts that even the Gentiles kept the Sabbath along with the Jews in the New Testament period. But why did these Christians not keep "Sunday"? Why did some Christians continue to keep the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments? It is obvious that they were not observing Sunday to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. Rather they knew in that day that He had been in the tomb three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40) and that He did not die on Friday but on the Passover, which was on Wednesday that year. They knew therefore that Christ rose from the dead on Saturday evening ‐not Sunday morning! They had absolutely no Scriptural reason to hold a religious service on Sunday. Nor did they rest on the first day of the week. Rather they continued to obey the Ten Commandments which require Sabbath observance ‐ rest and worship ‐ on the seventh day of the week. For this reason anti‐Semitic Romans sneeringly called these sincere Bible‐believing Christians "Jewish." But many of these Christian believers were Gentiles, who were following Jesus ‐ the Jewish Messiah. These Gentile Christians continued to follow the apostle Paul who himself "followed" or imitated Christ (I Corinthians 11:1). Paul commanded the Gentile Christians he shepherded to follow (or "imitate") him just as he himself imitated Christ! But continue the quotation from Unger's Bible Dictionary: "We fail to find the slightest trace of a LAW or apostolic edict instituting the observance of the 'day of the Lord' [or the so‐called "Lord's Day"] nor is there in the Scriptures an intimation [ or hint] of a substitution of this for the Jewish [he means the seventh day] Sabbath… the transference of this idea to the first day of the week DOES NOT APPEAR IN THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST NOR OF HIS APOSTLES..." ‐ Unger's Bible Dictionary, article: Sunday, page 1050 (emphasis added). We have, ourselves, seen this is indeed the case. And the quotes go on and on. But one more quote should suffice. Here is a quote from
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Roman Catholic Cardinal James Gibbons in his book, Faith of Our Fathers: ''Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is bound to believe, nor 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 scared 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 [Catholics and Protestants] never sanctify"! (Faith of Our Fathers, Gibbons, page 111, first edition). What an admission! So now we see from profane history as well as the Bible that Sunday observance is only a tradition of MEN ‐nowhere to be found in Scripture! Which day then did the early TRUE Christians in the days of Christ and the apostles keep and which day should true Christians today observe? Revelation 1:10 What about Revelation 1: 10? Is this referring to Sunday? Read the entire chapter. Nowhere do you find a single reference to any 24‐hour period called "the Lord's Day." Rather, as all scholars admit, this was a translation meaning exactly the same thing as "the Day of the Lord." Indeed, the Day of the Lord is the very theme of the book of Revelation ‐ the day of Christ's second coming! The Day of the Lord has nothing to do with Sunday. The first day of the week is not mentioned in chapter one of this book or anywhere in the entire book of Revelation! But for those who insist that the term "Lord's Day" must refer to a weekly day of worship, then we must go to other Scriptures to see what day that would be. Which Day is the Lord's Day? All we have to do is to ask Jesus Himself which day is His day. For is He not the "Lord"? Notice we are given the answer not once ‐ but three times in the New Testament. Read it yourself in Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:28, and Luke 6:5. In these passages we read that Jesus said Himself, that He was Lord "even of the Sabbath day"! (Matthew 12:8). Not one time however did He refer to Sunday as being His day. So if Revelation 1:10 does refer to a weekly day of which Jesus is Lord, then it cannot refer to Sunday, but rather to the Sabbath. You have now seen the proof that the early church never commanded the weekly observance of the first day of the week. That leaves us with a couple of questions. Did the early church no longer keep the Ten Commandments which command us to keep a weekly day of rest? Did they work seven days a week and no longer keep any day as the Sabbath? Or, did the early true Church of God continue to keep the same day that Jesus
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Himself kept when He was on this earth? ‐the day on which He said He was Lord? Did they continue to observe the seventh day of the week as the weekly day of rest and worship? What does the New Testament teach us? What does secular history have to say about the early church? In the next lesson we will show you which day the early New Testament church actually did observe before the Roman Church introduced Sunday.
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