The Spurious Apostolic Constitutions
During the second, third and fourth centuries, many documents appeared purporting to be written by the apostles. These were falsely called "Apostolic Constitutions."
They were circulated to create the impression that pagan tradition had Apostolic blessing! Although deliberate frauds, these documents, nevertheless, express the corrupt church teachings which filled the Christian-professing world during the centuries after the death of the apostles.
The following (from Ante-Nicene Fathers) are certain of the constitutions or statutes in part that formed the practices, not of the scattered remains of the true body of Christ, but in the Catholic churches, especially the Eastern. Here is what they say regarding the Sabbath as a day of public worship:
"I Peter and Paul" — remember, this is a forgery — "do make the following constitutions. Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath-day and the Lord's Day let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety. We have said that the Sabbath is on account of the creation, and the Lord's Day of the resurrection" (Ch. XXXIII, p. 495).
These spurious laws continue:
"Thou shalt observe the Sabbath, on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation, but ceased not from His work of providence" (Ch. XXXVI, p. 413).
"On the day of the resurrection of the Lord, that is, the Lord's day, assemble yourselves together, without fail" (Ch. XXX, p. 471).
But the resurrection was not on Sunday! This decree is nothing but the tradition of MEN — inherited from Babylonia! The Constitutions continue:
"You must fast on the day of Preparation, because on that day the Lord suffered the death of the cross under Pontius Pilate. But keep the Sabbath and the Lord's day festival, because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection" (p. 469).
Notice that Saturday and Sunday are being observed side by side!
"But assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the Lord's house: in the morning saying the sixty-second Psalm; and in the evening the hundred and fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath-day. And on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's Day, meet more diligently" (p. 423).
"Every Sabbath-day excepting one, and every Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice" (p. 449).
Notice — Gentiles assembling on the Sabbath as well as on Sunday centuries after apostolic days. It took centuries before the ecclesiastical power was able to suppress the Sabbath!
Daniel prophetically gazed upon this ecclesiastical system that would "think to change times and laws" (Daniel 7:25). Jesus condemns it as "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth"! (Rev. 17:5)
Origen Instructs Gentiles How to Observe Sabbath
Now we come to Origen who wrote about 230 A.D. What did Origen of Egypt say about the Sabbath?
He spoke in no uncertain terms about Sabbath keeping within the Gentile churches in Egypt. What follows is not said by a Judo-Christian, as those who obeyed God were called. This was written by a Catholic to Catholics concerning the seventh day of the week at the beginning of the third century:
"But what is the feast of the Sabbath except that of which the apostle speaks, 'There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism' (Hebrews 4:9), that is, the observance of the Sabbath by the people of God? [Notice how this man understood his native Greek tongue!] Leaving the Jewish observances of the Sabbath, let us see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. On the Sabbath day all worldly labors ought to be abstained from. If, therefore, you cease from all secular works, and execute nothing worldly, but give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction . . . this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath" (Origen's Opera, Book 2, p. 358).
These are mighty strong words, expressed by an Egyptian church leader. Here is the teaching of this world's churches 200 years after the crucifixion!
This is not spoken of Sunday, but the seventh day of the week — around 230 A.D.!
Constantine Enforces Sunday!
The opening of the fourth century was tumultuous for the Roman Empire. It witnessed a final struggle between the pagan Roman Empire and a pagan religion masquerading in the garb of Christianity. It was a deadly fight in which the State sought to protect itself against church domination. The State did not triumph. Diocletian, Maximian and Galerius were the Roman Emperors foremost in proscribing every form of Christianity. The persecutions lasted nearly a decade. But they failed.
The professing Christian religion suddenly emerged to freedom under an Edict of Toleration. The nature of such an edict could mean but one thing, that Christianity was looked upon by the political leaders of the Roman Empire as the future State religion. Events now happened fast.
In 321 A.D., on the seventh of March, an unusual edict was issued by Crispus and Constantine, often designated as the earliest Sunday law. It read thusly:
"On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost." (Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; translated in History of the Christian Church, by Schaff, Vol. III, p. 380).
This edict was a civil statute, not an ecclesiastical one. It was a heathen institution of which Hutton Webster says:
"This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus (a title the popes later took from the emperors), was only adding the day of the Sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar" (Rest Days, pp. 122, 123).
That is how Sunday became the official "MARK of the Beast." (The Beast is the Roman Empire) It was imposed by the STATE! The professing Christian world voluntarily accepted it. All who would not obey the new decree were forced to flee the confines of the Western Roman Empire. Only in the East did Sabbath keepers remain.
Now we shall see how all Sabbath keeping was finally stamped out of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Council of Laodicea Prohibits Sabbath Keeping
About 365 A.D. the Council of Laodicea was called to settle, among other matters, the Sabbath question! One of its most famous canons was the twenty-ninth, which reads thus:
"Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather, honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ." (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XIV, p. 148).
The force of the Roman State had already been utilized in 325 A.D. — after the Council of Nicaea — to confiscate the property and to destroy the lives of any who obeyed God's command to keep the Passover. So now, in 365 A.D., the heavy hand of the State fell upon any who would be faithful in resting on the Sabbath and worshipping God as commanded in the Bible.
Why give such a command if there were no true Christians observing the Sabbath?
Although Sabbath keeping was absolutely prohibited by this Council, yet the whole Greek world still continued to attend church services on the Sabbath and work the remainder of the day!
Notice what canon sixteen of the Council reads: "The Gospels are to be read on the Sabbath, with the other Scriptures" (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, p. 133). The "Sabbath" mentioned is the seventh day of the week!
Notice. Although the people were required to work on Saturday, they were still commanded to attend church that day! Saturday then was observed much as Sunday is now!
Says Socrates, the Catholic historian, in speaking of the Eastern churches during the life of Chrysostom (345-407). "'Saturday and the Lord's Day [were] the two great festivals, on which they always held church assemblies.' And Cassian takes notice of the Egyptian churches, that among them the service of the Lord's day and the Sabbath was always the same" (Bingham's Antiquities, p. 656).
Public worship on the Sabbath was far from expelled in the churches of the East even after four centuries!
Gregory, Bishop of Nyassa, a representative of the Eastern churches, about ten years after the Council at Laodicea dared to tell the world: "With what eyes can you behold the Lord's day, when you despise the Sabbath? Do you not perceive that they are sisters, and that in slighting the one, you affront the other?"
Sunday Finally Made a Rest Day
Observance of Sunday as a day of total rest was not strictly enforced for almost two centuries more. We even find Jerome, the translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible, working after the Sunday services several years following the enactments at Laodicea.
But Augustine, around 400 A.D., declared: "The holy doctors of the church (not the Bible, but men) have decreed that all the glory of the Jewish Sabbath is transferred to it {Sunday}. Let us therefore keep the Lord's day as the ancients were commanded to do the Sabbath" (Sabbath Laws, p. 284).
It was the Church which sanctioned the Roman Sunday as a rest day — and not merely a secular holiday. It was the Church which claimed to have altered God's law (Daniel 2:21) and transferred the law of the Sabbath to Sunday.
It was another six hundred years before the last recorded semblance of public worship on the Sabbath was extirpated from the Eastern churches.
Pope Gregory of Rome, who reigned from 590-604, anathematized "Those who taught that it was not lawful to do work on the day of the Sabbath" (History of the Popes, Vol. II, P. 378).
That stamped the Sabbath out of the churches of the British Isles and the continent where, according to Webster's Rest Days, "The Celts kept Saturday as a day of rest, with special religious services on Sunday (A. Bellesheim, History of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Edinburgh, 1887-1890, i, 86)."
That's the record of history!
The Protestant Attitude
Carlstadt was one of the few men in the Reformation who observed the Sabbath. But his teachings were rejected by the leaders of the Protestant movements. Luther admitted in His book Against the Celestial Prophets: "Indeed, if Carlstadt were to write further about the Sabbath, Sunday would have to give way, and the Sabbath — that is to say, Saturday — must be kept holy."
The only reason Luther could think of as an excuse for perpetuating the Roman Sunday is given in his Larger Catechism. Luther reasoned that "to avoid the unnecessary disturbance which an innovation would occasion, it should continue to be Sunday." (Shaft-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, article "Sunday").
This is why Protestants observe Sunday today! They have voluntarily adopted the MARK of the Beast — the ROMAN EMPIRE'S national holiday!
The question you face today is what are you going to do? Follow the pagan traditions of men — or OBEY THE WORD OF GOD WHICH IS GOING TO JUDGE YOU?