Comments On Some Articles Dealing With the Sabbath and Sunday

All text is quoted from www.bible.com.

Section: /7-pope-changed.htm

Whether one calls the apostle Peter a pope or not, the Roman Catholics trace their leadership lineage back to him, and in lists of popes that I have read he is the first listed.  Therefore, Ellen G. White — though I disregard her as a prophet as well — was not incorrect in stating that the pope attempted to change the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday.  Using Colossians 2:18 to zero in on E.G. White as a false prophet is stretching the Scripture’s real intent, I would say.

It is a matter of history that Constantine in 325 A. D. did indeed decide in favor of Sunday as the universal day of worship throughout the Roman Empire in his attempt to unify all nations, thus putting the “Jews’ Sabbath” outside of the law.  Sabbath keeping was punishable by death.  Constantine ruled in favor of the masses of heathens that had kept the pagan day of the sun in Mithraism and other such religious systems since the days of Babylon.  Syncretism was his goal, as has been the goal of the rulers of the Catholics and Protestants ever since.

Christians were not meeting on Sunday from the earliest records of history.  The Old Testament “Christians” (there was a Church before Christ, as can be quite easily proven) met on the same day as did Christ, and He observed the seventh-day Sabbath (Luke 4:16, etc.).  Christ came to “magnify and make the law more honorable” (Isaiah 42:21), and “fulfill” it by showing us how we ought to observe it (Matt. 5:17-18) — healing, preaching, casting out demons, etc., as He did on the Sabbath — but never did He say it ought to be done away with.  The Sabbath was initiated at the re-creating of the earth (Genesis 2), reiterated as applicable to all men by Yahweh at Mt. Sinai in His covenant with Israel (Ex. 20; Deut. 5), and now this same law resides in the hearts and minds of His saints (Heb. 8: Jer. 31).

Early “Christians” in Rome began keeping Sunday in addition to the Sabbath well after the time of Christ, but can we say that justified the practice in God’s eyes, or that these people could even be termed “Christians” any more, because they were no longer following in Christ’s footsteps?  One could justifiably say that these Roman “Christians”, having recently come out of heathenism and its Sunday-keeping traditions, had slipped back into their old ways like Joe Tkach Jr., has shepherded the Worldwide Church of God into embracing Sunday keeping after denying the truth of God’s laws.  These Romans are like the seed sown among thorns, where the world’s cares have choked out the truth and they returned to their old ways

Bacchioichi rightly places the first “official government” attempts to promote Sunday keeping at the expense of the correct seventh-day Sabbath as occurring during Emperor Hadrian’s time in A.D. 135.  There probably were attempts before then as well to stamp out Sabbath keeping, since even in the apostle John’s time the Church was suffering much persecution, likely motivated in large part because of Sabbath keeping.

            The Catholics claim to have changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday because they claim the popes have such authority (as given in Matthew 18:18; 16:17-19), though this claim is erroneous, of course.  No one can change what God has ordained.  The point to be emphasized here, I believe, is that while the Catholics have indeed made the official claim to have changed the day of rest, other individuals or organizations of men have done likewise.  There is no end to the list of impostors Satan has raised up to try and change the truths of the Almighty.  However, they cannot be changed!

            Colossians 2:16-17 in no way says that the Sabbath was abolished, as this paper claims.  Rather, it says that the body of Christ (its Spirit-inspired members) are to judge, from God’s word, in matters of meat, drink, holy days, new moons, and sabbaths … based obviously on the immutable truths of the Eternal written throughout the Torah, the prophets, and the other books.

To say that Acts 20:7, I Cor. 16:1-2, and Heb. 10:24-25 support doing one’s servile work on the Sabbath, and “partaking of communion” on Sunday, is balderdash.  Acts 20:7 speaks of the disciples eating on Sunday, and Paul preaching to them; I’m sure Paul preached any time during the week he found it expedient, but that has nothing to do with when the Sabbath is kept.  I Cor. 16:1-2 speaks of laying aside items for delivery to the needful saints in Jerusalem on Sunday, not on the Sabbath, most likely so they would not possibly disobey God’s dictates for the rest day.  Heb. 10:24-25 does not even talk about Saturday versus Sunday worship.  The author(s) of this paper are really amateurs, and have little grasp of the veracity of Biblical truth.  To say that “the apostles in 33 A.D. introduced Sunday worship” is ridiculous!  They are reiterating typical, worn-out arguments of typical Protestants that have been tried and refuted by Biblical researchers — even Catholic scholars — for centuries.  These are indeed amateurs.

Section:  /H-sunday.htm

The historical record:

1.  False.  How can these authors possible believe that Christians always worshipped on Sunday when Christ Himself never did?!!!  He set the example, and Christian’s are to follow in His footsteps:  Matt. 5:17-19; I Peter 2:21; I John 2:6; etc.

2. Many sources state that the early Church kept the seventh day Sabbath.  See Bacchiocchi’s books, such as From Sabbath to Sunday, and other sources.

3. The Catholics partake of their so-called “communion” on Sunday, but this is an ancient pagan ritual, including the transubstantiation idea, which certainly did not come from Christ and our Father.  True Christians keep the Passover, when they partake of the bread and wine.  They do not take “communion” like the false organizations do.

4. Every day is the “Lord’s day”, for He made them all, but only the seventh day is the holy Sabbath (rest day).

5. If early “Christians” called the day of Christ’s resurrection the “Lord’s day”, implying that His rising from the dead on that day somehow sanctified that day as the day of rest now and put away the seventh day Sabbath — despite the clear and open teachings of Christ and God the Father from the beginning — I would like to know to know how they leap to that conclusion.  Such a leap makes no sense.

6. See point 5.

7. All of the patriarchs before Moses kept the Sabbath day.  It was part and parcel with the way of God from the creation, and that day has never been lost or been disregarded by the saints, up to this very day.

8. Augustine can say whatever he wants, but he was hardly a part of God’s true Sabbath-keeping Church.

9 and 10. Too much of the text is cut off to make sense of this.

What gobbeldegooh is written here!  To say that Christians do not keep the 10 commandments is preposterous!  Of course we do, because we have the law written in our hearts and we desire to do them, just like Christ did.  We keep the Sabbath because it is part of God’s eternal law, and He does not change, and Acts 20:7 in no way says that Sunday is the day of rest (see the earlier comments).  God’s covenant at Mt. Sinai was not to the “Jews”, but to all of Israel, and meant for the entire world in the due course of time.  The “new covenant” is the “laws of God written in our hearts”:  see Hebrews 8:10, where it says” … I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts ….”  That is a “better law” because it is now internalized, because the bearer of this law will now be internally motivated to do them, not be coerced by an external code written on tablets of stone.

            What preposterous statements this author is making!  To say that no one before Moses ever heard of the Sabbath law, much less kept it, is crazy.  This author is out of his mind and must not have read the Scriptures.  Does the author think that Shem, Noah, Enoch, or Abraham did not have access to the laws of God, much less the creation story?  How did Moses have knowledge of this all?  At least part of it was passed down by the patriarchs, albeit some of it was given by direct divine communication.  This author also denies what the Scriptures says (apparently because he refuses to believe anything that contradicts what he wants to reader to believe) in Genesis 2:2-3, for instance, that the seventh day is the day to rest, not the first day.

            If the Letter of Barnabas states that the eighth day (Sunday) was to be kept as the rest day, rather than the seventh day, then this Book of Barnabas is a spurious book and is error-ridden, and should be discarded.  Christ did not preach such things, but upheld the validity of the eternal laws of God from the creation.  The same goes for Didache, Ignatius, Pliny, Juston, and the others.  Satan has exerted a non-stop, concerted effort to stamp out the truths of God throughout the 6,0000-year history of man, and will accelerate that effort at the end time in which we now live.  To try and presume that we are to keep Sunday as the rest day because somehow Christ’s resurrection on the day changed the rest to Sunday is, as mentioned earlier, preposterous.  God’s word says we keep the Sabbath in remembrance of the creation (Exodus 20:8-11), not of Christ’s resurrection.  Where is the scriptural backing for the author’s statements?  There is none!

Section:  /ntx-sabbath-sunday.htm

I will mention just a few points about this uninspired, misleading paper.  God the Father designed one law and one wayfor all of mankind, just as He gave Jesus Christ as a sacrifice ultimately for all of mankind, not just for Israel.  See Leviticus 24:2;  “You shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger as for one of your own country ….”  As Paul mentioned, Gentiles may be “grafted in” to the Israelite rootstock, but the law is the same for those grafted in as for Israelites (Romans 11:13-24).  The only difference between the “old” and “new” covenants is that the new covenant is an internal one (as described before); of course, we are not talking here about the various sacrifices, oblations, washings, and so forth that were added because of Israel’s sins but were not originally included in Israel’s central laws and statutes (see Jeremiah 7:21-23).

            I find it humorous in paragraph two that the author states that, while he claims the commandments are done away, including the Sabbath command, yet “… all things revealed in the old covenant having to do with the eternal divine principles of decency, right, and justice are also given even greater emphasis in the perfect law, which is the law of liberty, which is the law of Christ.”  He is trying here to cover up for the fact that he cannot explain away obeying nine of the commandments while disbanding that pesky tenth one also, so he must resort to a foggy platitude that sounds good, but not understanding that the fourth commandment also leans on decency, right, and justice, and is part of the perfect law of liberty of Christ … the law he kept correctly in the spirit, and showed us also how to keep it correctly in the spirit.  He tried hard to explain away that one commandment but could not succeed, of course.

Jesus Christ did teach the Sabbath command in the New Testament by (1) living it by His example (all Israelites knew of it; it was not even a question to discuss or challenge), and (2) stating it is still in force in the statements He made to the rich young ruler.  See this story in Luke 18:18-23.  Here Christ told him, “You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother.”  He did not mention “Do not covet”, nor did He mention the first four, including the Sabbath command.  Are we to assume one is free, then, to covet, for the Scriptures decry covetousness (Mark 7:22, etc.), idol worship, taking God’s name in vain, and worshipping false gods.  Are we somehow to assume that the Sabbath command is excluded when He said in Luke 18:20, “You know the commandments …?”  That makes no sense, for Christ Himself kept the Sabbath.

            Truly the Bible never mentions that Sunday is given in place of the Sabbath.  Sunday was syncretized into so-called Christianity by government leaders (under  Satan’s sway) who gave preference to pagan sun-worshipping populations in their jurisdictions versus the rest day of the Almighty.

Section:  /7-sunday-1st-day.htm

I have already covered Acts 20:7 and I Cor. 16:1-2 before.  Neither of these move the Sabbath to Sunday.  Neither does Christ’s resurrection on the first day of the week move the seventh day to the first day of the week.

            To say that “Bible trashers are the only ones Sabbatarians can find who say Sunday is of pagan origin” is totally erroneous.  The Catholic Church, which claims authority to change the day, essentially does so if one contends that Constantine’s declaration in 325 A.D. is in the Catholic sphere of influence.  In that decree, the pagan day of the sun was lifted above the Sabbath.  Also, there are many sources in archeology and literature that show the heathens worshipped the sun on the first day of the week, the day of the sun.  See Hislop and Woodrow for a start.

            In summary, the writer(s) of these papers is not inspired of the true God to conclude as he did that the Sabbath is not still in force and relevant today.  He chooses to overlook very obvious truths of Christ and Scripture, and to twist scriptures to suit his own erroneous conclusions.