By constantly crying in the ears of
the people: "Sunday is a heathen day; and all who
observe it keep 'the venerable day of the sun' ";
"The bishop of Rome is authority for Sunday
observance"; "Constantine changed the
Sabbath"; "The observance of the first day of
the week began with the pope of Rome," etc., etc.,
Adventists frighten a few ignorant souls into this belief;
and the result is, they cease to observe the great
memorial day of the gospel, and go back under the
"yoke of bondage." This man of straw is one of
the most effectual means in the hands of Sabbatarians. But
the whole is wrong from the ground up. Not a word of truth
is there in any of the assertions quoted. The facts of
history utterly refute them. Let us examine.
The heathens never kept Sunday, as
Adventists affirm. I quote from Canright:
'Such statements are utterly false.
Each day of the week was named after some god, and, in a
certain sense, was devoted to the worship of that god, as
Monday to the moon, Saturday to Saturn, Sunday to the sun,
etc. But did they cease work on these days? No; if they
had they would have kept every day in the week. Did they
observe Sunday by ceasing to work? No indeed. No such
thing was taught or practiced by the Romans. They had no
weekly rest day.
'Prof. A. Rauschinbusch, of
Rochester Theological Seminary, quotes Lotz thus: "It
is a vain thing to attempt to prove that the Greeks and
Romans had anything resembling the Sabbath. Such opinion
is refuted even by this, that the Roman writers ridicule
the Sabbath as something peculiar to the Jews.' In proof
he cites many passages from the Roman poets, and one from
Tacitus. Seneca also condemned the Sabbath observance of
the Jews as a waste if time by which a seventh part of
life was lost."—Saturday or Sunday ? (page 83).
"No special religious celebration of any one day of
the week can be pointed out in any one of the pagan
religions.—"Herzog (Art. "Sabbath.") The
pagans never kept Sunday. So much for that. Saturday was
sacred to Saturn as Sunday was to the sun.' So if
Christians keep a heathen day, Adventists also do.
Next we inquire, Did Constantine
change the Sabbath? Adventist literature and teachings
say, "Yes." History and facts say,
"No." Notice the Adventists' dilemma. One time
they cry, "Constantine changed the Sabbath," and
again they say, "It was the pope." Pray how can
this be? Constantine's Sunday law was made in A. D. 321,
long years before there was a pope recognized as
controlling Christendom. Then, their talk about the pope's
changing the observance of the day is refuted by their own
literature, which teaches that it was Constantine. Now
comes the climax. Elder Waggoner, a leading Adventist,
finally admits that "it is safe to affirm that there
was nothing done in the time of Constantine, either by
himself or any other that has the least appearance of
changing the Sabbath." —Replies to Elder Canright,
(page 150). Amen. Then, from their own admission, we are
forced to conclude that they know better themselves when
they try to scare the people into believing that
Constantine or the pope of Rome changed the observance of
the day.
The facts are, as proved in
preceding chapters, that the Christian church observed the
Lord's Day as the great memorial day of the gospel, from
the resurrection day on. When Constantine was converted,
or became favorable to the Christian religion, he simply
issued an edict throughout his empire for people to
observe the Christian's day. That is all there is to it.
"The first day of the week, which was the ordinary
and stated time for the public assemblies of the
Christians, was, in consequence of a peculiar law enacted
by Constantine, observed with greater solemnity than it
had formerly been."—Mosheim (Part II, chap. 4, sec.
5). The united testimony of the early Christian writers as
seen in a preceding chapter, was that they all held Sunday
as a sacred and memorial day, and this long before
Constantine's time.
The following quotation is from The
Sabbath. After quoting Mrs. White. who says in her book
Great Controversy that the observance of days was
changed by Constantine and the bishop of Rome, the writer,
D. S. Warner, says:
"Look at the impudence of this
prophetess! The apostle John called the resurrection day
'the Lord's day' in A. D. 96. She says that title was
conferred upon it by the bishop of Rome in the fourth
century. She speaks of the 'false' and the 'true,' calling
the first day of the week the false and the seventh day
the true. But eighteen hundred years before she was born,
Justin Martyr wrote under the same head, and denounced the
Jewish Sabbath as the false, and declared the first day
the true Lord's day. He wrote in the virgin purity of
Christianity; she writes under the thick fogs of Babel
confusion. He wrote as the Apostle did who pronounced the
curse of God upon the false teachers who troubled the
Galatian church, 'subverting the gospel of Christ' by
enjoining the law and its 'days.' She writes largely the
doctrine of the Ebionites, one of the first and most
abominable heresies.
"She says that in the first
centuries the seventh day had been kept by all Christians.
And her own word is the only proof she offers. But we have
seen that both the Word of God and the early church
Fathers teach us that only persons who were weak and
ignorant of the liberties of the sons of God thought it
necessary to observe the law respecting meats and the
Sabbaths. And Justin told Trypho that the Sabbath of the
law belonged only to the Jews, and that it was not proper
for Christians to observe it; and by others we are
positively told that Saturday was a common work day in the
primitive church of God. This prophetess leaves the
impression that Constantine, as a heathen, enjoined the
observance of Sunday as a public festival, and after his
professed conversion still adhered to it, thus making him
the author of that day of worship. So Adventism teaches.
But all readers of the New Testament and of early history
know better. For two hundred years before Constantine's
day, in fact from the resurrection of Christ, the first
day was kept by the church of God, as a memorial day, a
weekly day of worship. Constantine had nothing to do with
the establishment of the Lord's Day in the church.
God's institutions need no kingly
decrees. But what that emperor did simply related to the
day in his empire.
"Should the head of the
Chinese empire become specially favorable to the Christian
religion, nothing would be more natural than that he would
adopt the first day of the week as their national holiday.
This is substantially what Constantine did. Yet there is
no more reason of truth in ascribing to him the origin of
the observance of the Lord's Day than there would be in
making the emperor of China father of it, were he to do
the same thing in this century. When Constantine called
the first day 'the venerable day of the sun,' he had no
reference to any idolatrous use of that day. More than a
hundred years before, the days of the week had all been
named after planets, as follows: the first day after the
Sun—Sunday; the next after the moon—Monday; the last
after Saturn—Saturday; etc. And these names had passed
into common use. Constantine, having been convinced of the
truth of the Christian religion, would naturally speak of
the preeminence of their day of worship, of which
preeminence he had a beautiful illustration of the fact
that the sun is the greatest planet of the solar system,
and the source of all light. So this constant cry of
Adventism that 'Constantine changed the Sabbath,' etc., is
false. And no person can inform himself of the historical
facts and make the assertion without knowing he is wrong.
They dispute the plain scriptures, renounce all early
history that exposes their creed, and virtually make their
own history to suit their purpose.
"They are now sending out two
pamphlets, the first of which is entitled Rome's
Challenge, Why do Protestants Keep Sunday? the second, Our
Answer. In the first, Roman authorities are quoted,
affirming that they changed the day from the seventh to
the first day; that there is no evidence in Scripture or
early history in favor of the firstday observance; that it
rests only upon Rome's authority to change the laws of
God. To this false statement Adventists give consent, and
then claim to be persecuted because they do not keep the
day Rome made. But God's Word and the writings of the
church Fathers rebuke both."
After Waggoner (Adventist) admitted
that Constantine did not change the Sabbath, he then
attempted to fix the Council of Laodicea, A. D. 364, as
the exact place where and time when the pope made the
change. Adventists of late accept Waggoner's position. The
twenty ninth canon of that council reads thus:
"Christians ought not to Judaize and to rest in the
Sabbath, but to work in that day; but preferring the
Lord's Day, should rest, if possible, as Christians.
Wherefore if they shall be found to Judaize, let them be
accursed from Christ." On this Waggoner says,
"Now if anyone can imagine what would be changing the
Sabbath, if this is not, I would be extremely happy to
learn what it could be." As a thorough refutation of
the Adventists' position on this important point, I quote
the following facts and able arguments from Seventh day
Adventist Renuonced:
"1. If the Sabbath was changed
to Sunday by the pope right here, as he affirms, then
certainly it was not changed before nor after nor at any
other place. So if this fails their whole cause is lost.
Let the reader mark the importance of this fact.
"2. He admits what every
scholar knows, that till after the time of Constantine the
bishop of Rome had no 'authority whatever above the other
bishops' and so could not have changed the Sabbath before
that time. He says: 'It was Constantine himself that laid
the foundation of the papacy.'—Replies to Elder Canright,
(page 148). Surely the papacy did not exist before its
foundation was laid.
"3. He admits, as above, that
Constantine did nothing to change the Sabbath.
"4. But we have abundantly
proved in preceding pages that all Christians long before
this date were unanimous in observing the Lord's Day. This
one simple fact proves the utter absurdity of the claim
that it was changed at Laodicea, A. D. 364, or by the
papacy at any time.
"5. In the year 324, or just
forty years before the Council of Laodicea, Eusebius,
bishop of Caesarea, Palestine, wrote his celebrated
history of Christianity. He had every possible opportunity
to know what Christians did throughout the world. He says:
'And all things whatsoever it was the duty to do on the
Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's Day as
more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath.'—Quoted in
Sabbath Manual (page 127)
"That is the way the Sabbath
and Sunday stood forty years before Laodicea. They did not
keep the Sabbath, but did keep the Lord's Day . . . How
much truth, then, can there be in the position that the
Sabbath was changed to Sunday by the pope forty years
later? Shame on such attempts to pervert the truth. But
let us look at the real facts about the Council of
Laodicea. Seventh day Adventists claim two things, viz.,
that the Sabbath was changed by the Roman church, and that
it was done by the authority of the pope. Then they select
Laodicea as the place and time. But—
"1. Laodicea is not Rome. It
is situated in Asia Minor over one thousand miles east of
Rome. It was in Asia, not in Europe. It was an Eastern,
not a Western town, an Oriental, not a Latin city.
"2. It was a Greek, not a
Roman city.
"3. The pope of Rome did not
attend this Council at Laodicea, A. D. 364. Does Waggoner
claim that he did? No, he does not dare to.
"4. The pope did not attend,
nor did he send a legate or a delegate or anyone to
represent him. In fact, neither the Roman Catholic Church,
nor the pope had anything to do with the council in any
way, shape, or manner. It was held without even their
knowledge or consent.
"5. At this early date, A. D.
364, the popes, or rather bishops of Rome, had no
authority over other bishops. It was two hundred years
later before they were invested with authority over all
the churches. Even then their authority was stoutly
resisted for centuries in the East where this council was
held. See Bowers History of Popes, or any church history.
"6. Liberius was bishop of
Rome at the time of this council at Laodicea. He was
degraded from his office, banished, and treated with the
utmost contempt. Bower says that in order to end his
exile, Liberius 'wrote in a most submissive and cringing
style to the eastern Bishops.'— History of the Popes
(vol. 1, p. 64). And this was the pope who changed the
Sabbath at a council of these same Eastern bishops, one
thousand miles away, which he never attended!
"7. The council of Laodicea
was only a local council, a small, unimportant affair, and
not a general council at all.... The general councils are:
1. That at Nice, A. D. 325. 2. That at Constantinople, A.
D. 381. 3. That at Ephesus, A. D. 431, etc. See the list
in Johnson's Cyclopedia, or any history. Bower in his
extensive work, the History of the Popes, gives an account
of all the general councils, the important local councils,
and all with which Rome or the popes had to do, but does
not even mention this one at Laodicea.... 'This council is
not even mentioned by Mosheim, Milner, Ruter, Reeves,
Socrates, Sozomen, nor by four other historians on my
table.' McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia says: 'Thirty
two bishops were present from different provinces in
Asia.' All bishops of the Eastern church, not one from the
Roman church! And yet this was the time and place when and
where the Roman church and the pope changed the Sabbath.
"8. Now think of it: this
little local council of thirtytwo bishops revolutionizes
the whole world on the keeping of the Sabbath!
"9. The fact is that this
council simply regulated in this locality an already long
established institution, the Lord's Day, just the same as
council after council did afterwards.... The Lord's Day
had been kept by the church hundreds of years before the
council of Laodicea mentioned it.
"10. The church of Laodicea
where this council was held was raised up by Paul
himself.... It was one of the seven churches to which John
wrote (Rev. 3:14). Hence it is certain that it was well
instructed and grounded in the doctrines of the apostles.
Between Paul and this council, that is, A. D. 270,
Anatolius was bishop of Laodicea. He wrote: "Our
regard for the Lord's resurrection, which took place on
the Lord's Day, will lead us to celebrate it on the same
principle' (Canon 16). Here we have that church keeping
Sunday one hundred years before this council.
"11. Finally, if the Council
of Laodicea changed the Sabbath, as Adventists say, then
it was changed by the Greek church instead of the Roman
church) changed by the Eastern churches over which Rome
had no authority; changed before the papacy was
established, before the pope had an authority over the
East, by a small local council which neither the pope nor
any of his servants attended. The absurdity of this claim
is manifest without further argument."
