Sabbath: Did history play a trick on us?

THE Romans had occupied Israel and that was a constant bitter pill to swallow for the Jews. When Jesus came, preaching a “turn the other cheek” message, that seemed out of touch with their immediate needs then. They wanted a military leader to free them from Roman administrators and stop Romans soldiers from patrolling their streets.

On His last trial, Pilate brought in Barabbas, which means, “son of the father”, and Jesus, who was the “Son of the Father” side-by-side and the people chose Barabbas to be released because he was a militant “Robin Hood” type zealot.

Initially, Rome had thought the Jewish religion too ridiculous to be a threat to theirs and declared it a “religio lecita” — a licit or legal religion — and allowed to flourish in the empire. That changed because of the intense nationalistic patriotism of the Jews. Historians say between 65 and l35 AD when Jerusalem was twice sacked, more than two million Jews died in the rebellion and revolt.

Then came a young Jewish guerrilla fighter named Barkokeba, a militant messianic figure many Jews had been looking for to lead them in massive revolt against Rome. And this time the Roman Empire countered with a furious, take-no-prisoners vengeance. After the rebellion things had to change, the Emperor Hadrian (ll7-l38 AD) decreed new policies against the Jews:

1. First, he prohibited any Jew under the threat of death to set foot in the new Roman city rebuilt over.

2. Secondly, he outlawed the practice of the Jewish religion…it was now a “religio illecita.”

3. Thirdly, he outlawed the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.

Meanwhile, the new Jewish Christians continued working on their friends and families and neighbours declaring the Good News of the Gospel of Christ and the whole place was on fire with thousands turning to Christ. But as far as the Roman Empire was concerned, they were all one and the same — Jews and Christians — just a bunch of fanatical religious zealots.

1. After all, the Christians worshiped on the same day as the Jews…the 7th day Sabbath.

2. They worshiped in the same places as the Jews, the neighbourhood synagogues, unless of course they were expelled by angry Jews.

While Rome saw no distinction between the two religions, no Jew or Christian ever confused their separate identities. The Jews were convinced that the Christian church was out to destroy Judaism. And the new Christians were convinced that Judaism without Jesus was a bankrupt system in the end. Add another dimension, along comes Emperor Nero, whose wife, Empress Poppea Sabrina, converted to Judaism in 62 AD. Nero himself is a friend of the Jews and soon he turns on this growing movement of Christians with a vengeance.

When Rome caught fire in the night, he blamed it on the Christians and a merciless persecution ensued. Christians were covered with pitch and lighted up as human lampposts, they lined the streets of the Imperial City, and their smouldering bodies a testimony to Roman rage. Pressure was definitely mounting on the Christian Church. Were they not worshiping on the same Sabbath as the Jews who were now an illegal religion? They did. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be a duck!

So now the challenge was for the Christian church to distance itself from anything Jewish, now “religio illecita.” More and more Christian writers began to distance themselves from the Sabbath. Until one author, Justin Martyr (l00-l64 AD), went so far as to suggest that the seventh-day Sabbath was “a brand of infamy imposed by God on the Jews to single them out for punishment they so well deserved for their wickedness” (Bacch. l84).

A lot of subtle changes started taking place. Under pressure — in a desperate effort to differentiate themselves from the forbidden Jewish religion — historical research conclusively reveals that the Christians of the 2nd and 3rd centuries abandoned the Sabbath of Jesus and the apostles and the New Testament Church. They couldn’t stand the pressure and persecution any longer.

But the fact remains that those later Christians could have chosen Thursday or Friday or even Wednesday instead of celebrating Sabbath on Saturday as they had been doing. Anti-Judaism created the desire to substitute a new day of worship, but it did not determine the specific choice of Sunday.

Why Sunday? Enter Emperor Constantine. His empire divided by two major constituencies: pagan Romans and Christian Romans. He sought to unite them. So in March, 32l AD, Constantine makes a calculated political decision and issues an empire-wide edict that the day of the Sun would be a day of rest, not a religious day of rest but a day for all citizens to refrain from work. A day to build harmony and peace throughout the empire. And soon, it was that Constantine himself was baptised a Christian. Then some say he marched his army across a river and declared them baptised.

For by the 4th century, the Christians in the west had officially declared their day of worship to be the day of the Sun (Sunday), the day the Sun of Righteousness arose from the dead, was how they defended it. And of course their pagan neighbours were already worshiping the sun on Sunday, so what a convenient blending of pagan and Christian truth! Peace at last for all. And when in the middle of the 4th century the church in Rome convened a council at Laodecia, at last was the official stance ratified in the words:

“Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour and … If possible, do no work on that day.” (Finley 64) {Note how he separates Saturday/Sabbath from the Lord’s day!}

We have a clear line of truth.

God has a day “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” [Rev 1:10]. That day is called the Sabbath “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath” [Mark 2:28]. The Sabbath is the seventh day. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” [Genesis 2:1,2].

Some more quotes from Catholic scholars:

Bishop Eusebius, the high-ranking Catholic leader during Constantine’s reign:

“All things whatsoever that were prescribed for the [Bible] Sabbath, we have transferred them to the Lord’s day, as being more authoritative and more highly regarded and first in rank, and more honourable than the Jewish Sabbath” (Quoted in J. P. Migne’s “Patrologie” p 23, 1169-1172).

The Convert’s Catechism, the instructional book for those who join the Roman Catholic Church:

“Question: Which is the Sabbath day?” “Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.” “Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?” “Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

Cardinal James Gibbon:

“You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find a single line authorising the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday.”

Then why does Rome venerate Sunday? The Catholic Encyclopaedia answers:

“The church, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath of the seventh day of the week to the first made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day.” (V 4, p 153)

[It says ‘the Third Commandment’ instead of Fourth because the Catholic Catechism dropped the Second Commandment, forbidding graven images, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” (because it condemned their usage of the statues of “Peter”, “Mary” etc.) and consequently divided the Tenth Commandment into two parts in order to still get ten commandments] see Exodus 20: 1-17 for Biblical 10 Commandments.

But if the Catholic Church claims to have changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, why do most Protestant churches also worship on Sunday?

In his book, the Faith of Millions, the late Rev. John A. O’Brian, former professor at Notre Dame University, writes:

“But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom, even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.”

Whose authority will you follow, clever human devices and Divine command? It is my prayer that every Christian studies the Bible for themselves and stop following human traditions or clever philosophies. They will not save from the fires of hell.

Christ said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” [Matthew 15:9].

Aristotle in 300 BC made the following scientific observation and wrote it down in his journal: “The spider is a small animal which has six legs.” That declaration was accepted as truth for 1700 years, until somebody else counted the legs of the spider in 1400 AD and discovered that it has eight legs! They had to rewrite their books but for 1700 years nobody challenged the great Aristotle, and so his false count was followed mindlessly by all those behind him!

A reward of £1million was offered to anyone who finds a text of scripture from the Bible instructing us to keep Sunday holy. To date, there haven’t been any takers! We could up the ante to £2 million (just to show our confidence in the Scriptures).