Q: Who changed the Sabbath to
Sunday?
A: Sunday
was anciently the worship day of sun worshippers, and this was so in the days
of the early Christian church. (Andrews, J.N., History of the Sabbath [Payson, Ariz.: Leaves-of-Autumn Books, 1991re-print], p. 148 of the
e-book version.) In
searching early Christian history, the first possibly valid evidence we find of Christians observing Sunday
comes from A.D. 140, in a letter written by Justin Martyr, regarding the
practice of Christians at Rome. (Ibid.,
p. 150.)
Observance
of Sunday was introduced gradually, and the Sabbath was kept among early
Christians for centuries. (Ibid.,
p. 189, 190) As
Sunday observance entered the Christ-ian church, many Christians observed both
Saturday and Sunday.
“The observance of the Lord's day was ordered
while yet the Sabbath of the Jews was continued; nor was the latter superseded
until the former had acquired the same solemnity and importance, which
belonged, at first, to that great day which God originally ordained and
blessed. . . . But in time, after the Lord's day was fully established, the
observance of the Sabbath of the Jews was gradually discontinued, and was
finally denounced as heretical.” (Coleman, Ancient Christianity Exemplified,
Chapter xxvi, Sect. 2, quoted in Ibid.,
p. 190)
Amazingly,
“Not any ecclesiastical writer of the first three centuries attributed the
origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or to his apostles.” (Domville, Sir William,
Examination of the Six Texts, Supplement, pp. 6, 7, quoted in Ibid., p. 149) What
then, was the reason for Sunday observance?
For one, some Christians thus hoped to ease
conversion of pagans to Christianity. (Ibid.,
p. 148)
Some
Christians sought to dissociate themselves from the Jews by keeping Sunday. At
the beginning of the third century, certain of the western Christian churches,
led by Rome, started to spend Saturday as a day of fasting,
to show their distaste for Judaism. However, as late as A.D. 692, the eastern
churches rejected the custom of fasting on the Sabbath. (Ibid.,
p. 156)
Another reason for Sunday
observance was that it was far more convenient
to fit in with the customs of the surrounding pagan society by keeping
the same
rest day as they did. (Ibid.,
p. 147, 148)
J.N. Andrews in his book History
of the Sabbath, gives the following con-clusions of his research of the
earlier Christian references to Sunday observance. “We shall find, first, that
no one claimed for first-day observance any divine authority; second, that none
of them had ever heard of change of the Sabbath, and none believed the
first-day festival to be a continuation of the Sabbatic institution….” (Ibid.,
p. 159)
One
early church writer explains the real basis behind early Sunday
observance. Tertullian proclaimed, referring to the manner of Sunday
observance, and other customs, “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 observer.” (De Corona, sect. 4, quoted in Ibid., p. 162)
In A.D. 321, the emperor Constantine enacted an edict requiring all
except agriculturalists to refrain from labor “on the venerable day of the
sun.” (Ibid.,
p. 192) Thus Constantine hoped to effect unity
between pagans and Christians, although at that time, outside of Rome and Alexandria, not many Christians kept
Sunday as the main worship day. (Standish, Colin D. & Russell R., The Lord’s Day, [Rapidan, Va.:Hartland Publications, 2002], pp. 77, 78) We must note that Constantine’s edict required rest on a
day devoted to the sun, not to the Lord’s resurrection or any other Christian
theme. However, this law set a new precedent, for before that time, Christians
had not seen Sunday as a day for abstinence from labor. (Andrews, pp. 193, 194)
“Thus
it is seen that a law, enacted in support of a heathen institution, after a few
years came to be considered a Christian ordinance; and Constantine himself,
four years after his Sunday edict, was able to control the church, as
represented in the general council of Nice, so as to cause the members of that
council to
establish their annual festival of the passover upon Sunday.” (Ibid.,
p. 196)
Not
long after Constantine’s edict, around A.D. 325, Pope Sylvester of Rome, exercising his supposed apostolic auth-ority,
officially gave Sunday the name of “Lord’s Day.” (Ibid.,
p. 196, 197) Also
during Constantine’s time, Eusebius was the first to promote that
Christ had transferred the Sabbath to Sunday. (Ibid.,
p. 199-201)
At
the council of Laodicea (dated at A.D. 364), a decree was made to put
down the observance of seventh-day Sabbath-keeping. The Sabbath was being
observed by Christians in the eastern churches at that time. This council
decreed that Christians should work on Saturday and rest, if possible, on
Sunday. Those who would continue to keep Saturday holy were cursed. Of course,
faithful people continued keeping Sabbath even after this decree. (Ibid.,
p. 201, 202)
“From
the apostles' time until the council of Laodicea, which was about the year 364, the holy
observation of the Jews' Sabbath continued, as may be proved out of many
authors; yes, notwithstanding the decree of that council against it.” (Ley, John, Sunday a Sabbath,
p. 163 [1640)]
quoted in Ibid.,
p. 202)
The
Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly claimed responsibility for changing the
Sabbath to Sunday.
“The Catholic Church of its own infallible
authority created Sunday a holy day to take the place of the Sabbath of the Old
Law.” (Kansas City Catholic,
“Protestants Keeping Sunday Holy,” February 9, 1893, Kansas
City, Mo., quoted in Standish, p.55)
“Ques.—Have you any other way of proving
that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
“Ans.—Hand
she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists
agree with her;--she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the
first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change
for which there is no Scriptural authority.” ([1]Keenan, Stephen A
Doctrinal Catechism [3d ed.], p. 174, quoted in Bible Readings for the Home [Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald
Publishing Association, 1958], pp. 417, 418)
“Protestantism,
in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday
theory, and ought, logically,
to keep Saturday as the Sabbath.” (Shea, John Gilmary, “The Observance of Sunday and Civil Laws for
Its Enforcement,” The American Catholic Quarterly Review, 8, [January 1883] p.
152, quoted in The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Students' Source Book; The
Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, volume 9. [Hagerstown, Md.:Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2002],
article 1625)
Suggested
Further Reading:
Standish,
Colin D. & Russell R., The Lord’s Day,
(Rapidan, Va.:Hartland Publications, 2002).
Andrews,
J.N., History of the Sabbath (Payson,
Ariz.: Leaves-of-Autumn Books, 1991 re-print).
