The Testimony of a Roman Governor
In support of Sunday, many preachers and writers turn to a letter written about 112 A.D. by Pliny, the Roman governor of Bythinia-Pontus. This was the area to which Peter addressed his first letter (I Pet. 1:1).
But Pliny's letter does not say what most ministers claim!
Pliny wrote to his superior, Emperor Trajan, seeking to know the legal steps he should take against Christians accused of crimes pertaining to their religion (These so-called Christians were those who had followed the leadership of the Babylonian priests who had secretly entered the Church of God to steal the name of Christ so that they could label their pagan religion "Christian"). Of these Christians under his jurisdiction Pliny related:
"They affirmed that the whole of their guilt or error was, that they MET ON A CERTAIN STATED DAY, before it was light and addressed themselves in a form of prayer to Christ, as to some god, binding themselves by a solemn oath . . . never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery . . . after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to eat in common a harmless meal" (Coleman's Ancient Christianity, pp. 35-36).
This letter, it is claimed, proved that Christians observed Sunday as early as 112 A.D.! But it proves no such thing! Pliny's letter merely mentions that Christians — these were apostate Christians — met "on a certain stated day," but he does not tell the Emperor which day it was! Let us not assume.
History proves that it was the Sabbath! As late as 400 A.D. the professing Christians of Bithynia-Pontus, and all the Eastern Roman Empire in general, met on Saturday to celebrate the pagan "sacred mysteries." So wrote Socrates.
It was not on Sunday but on Saturday that early Catholics celebrated, without Biblical authority, the resurrection of Christ with the pagan "sacred mysteries" — the "common meal" mentioned by Pliny.
Why Apostate Christians Met Before Dawn
The New Testament Church never followed these customs. So widely spread and in such numbers were these professing Christians that "the temples were almost deserted, and the sacrificial ritual was interrupted" (Ramsey, The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 198). Truly converted Christians were to be a "little flock" (Luke 12:32-40), not multitudes of Gentiles coming wholesale into the churches and bringing heathen customs with them!
Notice also that they met at dawn! — "before it was light." This was the common tithe for pagans to hold religious services in honor of the rising sun! Then they bound themselves by an oath — oaths are forbidden in Scripture (James 5:12). After dismissal, they would "reassemble to eat in common a harmless meal" — the "sacred mysteries" of Babylon!
Remember, Socrates admitted these apostates met on the Sabbath — just as some apostate churches still meet on the Sabbath today. Sunday — in Pliny's day — had not yet been widely introduced among professing Christians. Pliny's letter, then, is not proof for Sunday, but for church services on Saturday!
And this was more than 80 years after the resurrection of Christ!
Sunday Emerges for the First Time — at Rome
Now we come to the astounding origin of Sunday in the professing Christian world! Here we shall find WHO began to enforce the first "Sunday worship services"!
It is at Rome particularly that we first notice the custom to observe the "sacred mysteries" on Sunday! This was a result, Socrates wrote, "of an ancient tradition." But how early was the Sunday tradition?
Here are the facts!
Irenaeus, a bishop in France, living toward the close of the second century, wrote a letter to bishop Victor of Rome. He names specifically the men who first began to enforce not only every Sunday, but also "Easter Sunday" and who forbade the Passover and the Sabbath to be observed in accordance with the practice of the apostles! Here is what Irenaeus wrote:
"We mean Anicetus, and Pius, and Hyginus, and Telesphorus, and Xystus. They neither observed it" — the true Passover on the 14th of Nisan — "nor did they permit those after them to do so."
Who were these men? — Bishops of the Church of Rome!
Here is the first record, by a Catholic, of the fact that the Roman bishops ENFORCED the "sacred mysteries" on a Sunday!
It was bishop Xystus (his name is also spelled Sixtus) who was the first recorded individual to prevent the proper observance of the Sabbath and the Passover, and to celebrate the "sacred mysteries" each Sunday morning and on "Easter Sunday." Irenaeus speaks further of him, declaring that his doctrine was in direct "opposition" to the practice of the remainder of the churches. Bishop Sixtus was living at the beginning of the second century, just after the apostle John died! According to Roman Catholic tradition, he enforced his new practice not later than about 115 A.D. to 125 A.D.
Thus it was not until nearly 20 years after the death of the last apostle that the first "Sunday worship service" is recorded in the professing Christian church!
Here you have the astounding origin of the first ecclesiastically enforced annual Easter Sunday in the Roman Church.
The "sacred mysteries" were also observed thenceforth in Rome every Sunday! — Instead of every Saturday.
Roman Custom Spreads
Now notice how this local Roman custom spread throughout the churches.
While at Rome, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, discussed the matter of Easter Sunday with the Roman bishop, Anicetus, about 150 A.D.
Irenaeus continued: "For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe it " — the Passover — "because he had always observed it with John the disciple of our Lord, and the rest of the apostles, with whom he associated; and neither did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe it, who said that he was bound to follow the customs of the presbyters before him" (Quoted from Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, book V, chap. 24, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1).
Notice that bishop Anicetus had no Scriptural grounds — he determined to follow the "customs" of men! — Easter Sunday! It was Polycarp who followed the example of the apostles.
Shortly after Polycarp left, there appeared an amazing letter — said by many scholars to be a deliberate forgery. This letter is described by Bingham as follows:
"Pope Pius, who lived about 147, had made a decree, That the annual solemnity of the Pasch (Pasch is the Greek word for Passover), should be kept only on the Lord's day" — Sunday — "and in confirmation of this he pretended, that Hermes, his brother, who was then an eminent teacher among them, had received instruction from an angel, who commanded that all men should keep the Pasch on the Lord's day" — "Baal's Day"! (From pp. 1148-1149 of Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church. See also Apostolical Fathers, by Donaldson, p. 324)
If this letter was a deliberate forgery, it was invented after Polycarp's time in an effort to lend weight to the pagan custom of Anicetus, bishop of Rome, who falsely maintained the Sunday observance of the eucharist. If it were not a forgery, then Pius himself was the author of this deceptive letter. (Pius died just prior to the visit of Polycarp to Rome)
This is the kind of deception by which Sunday was introduced into the professing Christian world!
Other Spurious Letters Appear
As soon as the tradition of Good Friday-Easter Sunday had official Roman support, fraudulent letters, masquerading as apostolic letters, were circulated. These fraudulent letters are often quoted today as proof of the observance of Sunday in the true New Testament Church!
These deliberate frauds demonstrate the foulness of the Babylonian Mystery. Neither the apostles, nor the Church of God ever had recourse to frauds! God's Sabbath is based on inspired Scripture. Sunday is based on a fraud — a LIE!
The first and most important letter was the spurious "Epistle of Barnabas." One fable claims that it was the work of the companion of Paul. Anyone reading it knows better. The weight of scholarship proves that it is a deliberate forgery — a spurious letter — composed about the commencement of the second century by another person assuming the name of Barnabas.
This epistle, or letter, is filled with many inaccuracies, triflings and absurdities. It is a complete contrast to the inspired New Testament epistles. It is written in confused, mysterious language. Yet this is the kind of rubbish that is used to support Sunday. Its origin is of the Devil himself.
The next letter — or rather forgery — to consider is that of Ignatius. His work, "The Epistle to the Magnesians," written shortly after the turn of the first century, is usually regarded as one of several spurious letters written by another and attributed to Ignatius. Whether or not Ignatius wrote it is of no importance. For it still typifies the satanic Babylonian Mystery which cleverly foisted on the world a day in honor of Baal!
There are two forms of his letters, one Greek, the other Syriac. Each is entirely different from the other. They are probably both forgeries. The Greek version of Ignatius was strongly influenced by Rome. It calls Sunday "the queen and chief of all the days" — an expression derived from the Babylonian mysteries.
But there is a longer Eastern version in Syriac that is truly remarkable. It indicated that in the Eastern churches, where the apostolic tradition was strongest, the false teachers had a much more difficult time uprooting the Sabbath. Here is what it reads in part:
"Those who were conversant with the ancient Scriptures came to newness of hope. . . Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for 'he that does not work, let him not eat.' For say the . . . oracles, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread,' But let everyone of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before. . . .
And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days of the week. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, 'To the end, for the eighth day,' on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ."
These words from the Syriac version of the forgery of Ignatius clearly demonstrate how difficult it was to suppress the Sabbath shortly after apostolic days.
The letter was deliberately forged in order to persuade the Gentiles that they should no longer keep the Sabbath as they had been doing. Henceforth they should work on the Sabbath day after attending church services on it. This command would not have been necessary if the Sabbath was not being observed. IT IS PROOF THAT THE SABBATH WAS STILL BEING KEPT BY MULTITUDES OF GENTILES!