1st Century_ Saturday or Sunday_

The Bible News Prophecy Program discusses the belief that the Sabbath day has been changed from Saturday to Sunday. They argue that the original disciples of Jesus, who were observant Jews, continued to observe the Sabbath and that the shift to Sunday as a day of worship did not occur until much later. They reference biblical passages, writings of early church fathers, and historical accounts to support their assertion that Sabbath observance remained important to early Christians. They also highlight instances of political persecution and compromise that led to the abandonment of Sabbath observance by some Christians. They conclude that the Sabbath was not changed by true Christians, but rather by non-Christian political leaders. They mention various historical accounts and writings that indicate the continued observance of the Sabbath by certain groups of Christians even after attempts to change it. This is the Bible News Prophecy Program bringing you news and analysis of world events in the light of Bible prophecy. The following program is brought to you by the Continuing Church of God. Greetings friends, this is Steve Dupuy for the Bible News Prophecy Program with Dr. Bob Teal. Dr. Teal, we know from the book of Genesis that on Saturday God created the seventh day Sabbath. Yet there are many that feel that day has been changed. Why? Well, there's lots of reasons. I'd like to point out something that I read at the Banned by HWA website yesterday. It says, over the past ten years of this blog's existence, I've put together a narrative about what's happened in the Christian community in the first century. My narrative draws upon the evidence provided by scriptures, Josephus, the writings of the anti-Nicene fathers, Catholic scholars, and many biblical scholars. Like Jesus, it's important to understand the original disciples of his were observant Jews. In other words, they were accustomed to observing the Sabbath, holy days, avoiding unclean meats, etc. However, initially, the book of Acts informs us that Paul preached in synagogues around the eastern Mediterranean in Acts 13 and 14. Eventually, there was a backlash against Paul. We read about that in the 15th chapter of Acts, and this settles the matter. Again, I'm quoting here. Within the church as a whole, there were a number of elements of the faith that became universal, practiced by both Jewish and Gentile Christians. Indeed, in this connection, both the writings of the New Testament and the people who immediately followed the apostles affirmed that Sunday was a day highly regarded by all Christians by the close of the first century. Was Sunday really highly regarded by all Christians within 70 years after Christ's death? No. Even though he claimed to read the so-called apostolic fathers, that's not the case. The idea that the Bible's early church history points to Sunday being universally accepted instead of the seventh-day Sabbath I think in the first century is totally wrong and historically inaccurate. First, let's go to the New Testament. In Luke 4.16, it says, Jesus' custom was he went to the synagogue each Sabbath day and read. And in Mark 2.27.28, Jesus said, Well, that's a good point. What about Sabbath observance after Christ's death and the time period of the book of Acts? Well, even after Acts 15, for example, in Acts 17, it says, And in Acts 18.4, we read, related to Paul, He reasoned in the synagogues every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. So we see that it was Jewish and Gentile Christians, as far as the Sabbath goes. And as far as Paul goes, in Acts 28.17, when he got to Rome, he called for the religious leaders of the Jews and he said, Now, if Paul has switched Saturday to Sunday, he could not have said that. That's true. Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 11.1, Paul said to imitate him as he imitated Jesus. And both of their customs was to keep the Sabbath. Now, there are dozens of properly translated portions of the New Testament. Sadly, because the new King James got it wrong, a lot of people don't understand. I can read this from Roman Catholic or Protestant sources, at least Orthodox sources. Let's just read Hebrews 4 from the NASB. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and that the Sabbath is the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day for all his works, and again in this passage, they should not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and that the Sabbath is the seventh day, and God rested on the seventh day for all his works, and again in this passage, they should not enter my rest. Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and had a good news preached to them, they fail because of disobedience. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered into this rest himself also rests from his works, as God did from his. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience. But we don't want to disobey God, we want to believe it, and it says that's what we should do. And as far as proving that this talks about a Sabbath rest, even Origen of Alexandria of the 3rd century, he's one of the so-called anti-Nicene fathers, he understood this was talking about the Sabbath, because he wrote, What is the feast of the Sabbath? Except that which the apostle speaks. There remains, therefore, a Sabbatism, that is, the observance of the Sabbath by the people of God. Let's see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. On the Sabbath day, all worldly labors ought to be abstained from. Give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, going to church, attending to sacred readings and instruction. This is the observance of the Christian Sabbath. Well, it seems as if Origen of Alexandria sends the entire narrative of the banned by HWA website into falsehood. Do we have any additional historical writings? Yes. And, you know, I've read various of these apostolic fathers, and there's nothing in them that affirms that Sunday was a day highly regarded by all Christians by the close of the 1st century. Church historian Eusebius, he talked about Jerusalem, and he said that there were 15 bishops in succession there who received the knowledge of Christ in purity. And they continued from the days of the apostles until the siege which took place at this time, which is siege where the Jews rebelled against the Romans. And then that was the end of those bishops. Well, those bishops went until 135 AD, and they were keeping the Sabbath until the Jews lost control of Jerusalem, and that's the 2nd century. These were not leaders who held Sunday in high esteem or did away with the Sabbath. Well, if the Sabbath wasn't changed to Sunday by true Christians, who changed it? Well, Eusebius pointed out about this rebellion of the Jews against Rome. They were defeated by around 135. Emperor Hadrian, Roman emperor, he was very angry with them, and basically he said you couldn't keep the Sabbath, and Passover is a great day, by the way, in the Holy Days, and live in Jerusalem. So what happened was a Latin bishop by the name of Marcus rose up, and the only way you were allowed to live in Jerusalem is if you went along with this Marcus guy. And Christians in Judea were forced to make a decision. They could either keep the Sabbath and the rest of God's Holy Days, like Passover, on a biblical date, and go somewhere else, or they could compromise and support a religious leader, which is Marcus, who would not keep the Sabbath, and also supported Sunday, Passover, which we now call Easter Sunday. So it was a non-Christian political leader that outlawed the Sabbath. Are there more accounts of political persecution? Oh yeah, there was a deal where the Romans said to the compromisers, if you would abandon your laws, pray like we do, eat the things we do, we'll support you. And so there was a split within Jerusalem, and our people said, you guys made this deal with the Romans, and because of this, we can't be related to you, and so they asked the Romans to persecute the Christians, and so our people fled. Now, other faithful, including faithful Gentiles, by the way, kept the Sabbath. There's a document called The Life of Polycarp, and Polycarp was actually appointed by the apostles, and I'm going to read part of it. It says, Polycarp, on the Sabbath, when prayer had been long on bended knee, he, as was his custom, got up to read, and every eye was fixed on him. So Polycarp, we're talking here around 150 A.D., plus or minus, has shown that his custom was to regularly keep the Sabbath and preach on it. And even Roman Catholic scholars understand that Gentile Christians in Asia Minor still kept a church on the Sabbath. Do we know who the first so-called Christian was that did not observe the Sabbath that God created? Well, it could have been Simon Magnus, but the one we do know was a guy by the name of Marcion. And he was the first one, and according to Teutolian, another of these apostolic fathers who wrote in the early 3rd century, Marcion hated the Sabbath. And so you also have other people who denounced him. For example, Polycarp of Smyrna denounced him, Theophilus of Antioch, Serapion of Antioch, all church of God leaders, all denounced him. He also kept Passover on the 14th, even though Roman Alexandria in Jerusalem stopped around 135. The first true reference to Sunday actually comes from Justin Martyr, around 150 AD, and he called it the Sun God called day. He mentions Helios. And as far as people still keeping it in Antioch, a Roman Catholic cardinal said that a guy by the name of Lucian, who was a church of God leader, had Judaism, which meant he kept the Sabbath, and this was late 3rd century. And you can go through, there's all kinds of proof that Sabbath keeping was publicly going on in Asia Minor, by the way, until at least 364 AD. And because there was a council declared that Christians must not Judaize on the Sabbath by resting. They wouldn't do that if people were not still keeping the Sabbath. Was the council of Laodicea successful in changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? Not for the faithful. Around 404 AD, the Roman Catholic saint, the doctor of their church, Jerome, said that there are these people called Nazarenes, they believe in Christ, and they keep the Sabbath. So that was still going on. They're also, in Armenia, in the 4th century, semi-Aryans, such as Esotheus and Arius were keeping the Sabbath. Then in Ethiopia, in the 4th century, Prometheus said, we assemble on Saturday. Not because we're infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. There's also the apostolic constitutions that talked about it. And we keep going through this. We've got ideas that Sozomen, in the 5th century reported, the people of Constantinople and almost everywhere assemble on the Sabbath, which was a custom not observed at Rome or Alexandria because they dropped it off at an earlier time, but they don't know why. And Cyril of Jerusalem said that there were Sabbath peepers going on there in the 4th century. And although it was stopped, Sabbath keeping came back to Rome and Gregory the Pope, they called Gregory the Great, he condemned the Sabbath keeping and he called that preaching the Antichrist. So anyway, within the area of Rome, the people still keep the Sabbath in the early 6th, 7th century. Is there not a single Sunday observing group that recognizes its error? Well, they don't consider it an error, but as far as Roman Catholic scholars go, they ran a series of articles about Sabbath and Sunday. And so, I'm going to skim over some of this. This is from the late 1800s. God said to his servant, man, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. He says, no Protestant living today has ever obeyed that command. Instead, they prefer to follow an apostate church. Then he talked about Paul reasoned on every Sabbath and you see the Sabbath is in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Because it's impossible to find in the New Testament even the slightest inference by the Savior or apostles that the Sabbath changed. Those who follow the Bible as their guide, the wait is on Saturday, not a substitution Sunday. He says, I've looked at every text in the New Testament on the first day of the week and Lord's Day, and no. Because what happens is the Catholic Church over a thousand years before the existence of the Protestants by virtue of her divine mission changed the day from Saturday to Sunday. And that's what they claim. And I won't read there, but Isaiah 56 talks about that the Gentiles are going to keep the Sabbath. So anyway, and we need to continue in the Church of God to do this today. Antinocent writings, Catholic writings, all show that the faithful kept Saturday, not Sunday. In the first century, that switch. Hope Paul proclaims to those who watch and believe otherwise. You know, this topic reminds me of the time I tried to change my wedding anniversary by one tiny little day. My wife was not the least bit impressed. She acted like the day was written in stone. Well, God wrote the Ten Commandments in stone. As it says in Acts 5 29, rather they God rather than men. That's why we keep the Sabbath and not Sunday. Thank you, Dr. Thiel. For more interviews with Dr. Thiel in addition to written as well as audio articles, visit our website at biblenewsprophecy.net. This is Steve Dupuy for the Bible News Prophecy Program. This Bible News Prophecy Program was sponsored by The Continuing Church of God. For more information, including access to our free literature, visit biblenewsprophecy.net or www.ccog.org.