The origin of Sunday worship. Do you know how it happened? Was it right? Imagine the following scenario.
It is your 20th wedding anniversary. You love your spouse and you want to demonstrate your love. You plan the most special day, a nice meal, a lovely outing, a romantic date, whatever you know your spouse loves. Everything is in place for a memorable day.
And then the anniversary day arrives. And, to your dismay, you discover that your spouse has made other plans with friends that do not include you. When you inquire why, the reply comes: “I thought maybe we can celebrate our anniversary next week!”
A bit of a simplistic story perhaps. Overlooking an anniversary may be irritating but usually has no long-term consequences.
Humanity is guilty of a more grievous offense. It has forgotten an infinitely more important day. In our last study we saw how God set apart the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, as a day of rest and worship to commemorate the wonderful work of creation. But few remember it.
By contrast, most Christians worship God on Sunday. I am sure that most do so sincerely. But the reality is, God never asked us to have Sunday as a day of rest and worship.
So where did this tradition come from?
Jesus and the apostles all celebrated Sabbath on the seventh day of the week. The origin of Sunday worship came much later. And it came not by Divine command but by human tradition. It came in three steps.
Early Christians kept the seventh-day Sabbath. We saw this in a previous study. As Gentiles began to come into the church in large numbers, some friction developed between them and Christians of Jewish background.
In the early 2nd century Rome was becoming decidedly anti-Jewish. Two Jewish revolts against Rome in AD 115-117 and 132-135 had cost dearly in terms of life and resources and had been put down with a lot of violence. Jerusalem was turned into a pagan city and renamed Aelia Capitolina, and Jews were barred from living there. In AD 135 Sabbath observance was banned. The mood in Rome was decidedly anti-Jewish and numerous very hostile writings against the Jews appeared at the time.
The Christians were in a predicament. By this time, and especially in Rome, the vast majority were of non-Jewish background with little empathy for Jews. But because of their Sabbath keeping, in the eyes of the Romans, Christianity was but a variation of Judaism. Christians too came under pressure.
What would they do?
Rome was a melting point. The Gnostics who looked very unfavorably on Judaism were strong in Rome. Marcion, an affluent Christian from Sinope in Asia Minor, was very vocal against the Old Testament. Both Marcion and the Gnostics were eventually rejected by the Christians of Rome. But their anti-Judaism and anti-Sabbath attitude found a welcoming ear among some Christians who were feeling the pressure of the imperial decrees. Gradually they abandoned the Sabbath and turned to Sunday.
In the next 200 years, the preference for Sunday over the Sabbath spread from Rome to Alexandria, and elsewhere. But this was still a minority view.
Early 4th century AD. Constantine is at last emperor of a united Roman Empire once again after years of civil war. But he faces a problem. The majority of the Empire’s population is pagan. The most popular deity is the sun deity worshipped in the form of Mithras. The sun’s special day is Sunday.
A sizeable minority, however, is Christian. And despite repeated and violent efforts by his predecessors to root them out, Christianity is still a growing faith.
“If you can’t beat them join them,” says the well-known adage. Being a shrewd politician, Constantine sets out to unite the religiously divided empire. Over the next years he takes steps to legitimize Christianity. But this comes at a price as pagan and Christian customs begin to mix.
On March 7, 321 Constantine issues the first Sunday law:
“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 so suitable for grain-sowing or vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost” (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Vol. II: From Constantine the Great to Gregory the Great A.D. 311–600, New York: Charles Scribner, 1867, page 380).
Notice that there is nothing Christian in this edict. It refers to Sunday as “the venerable day of the Sun.”
But the once persecuted, now free Christians jump on the bandwagon. Forty-three years later, in AD 364 at the Ecumenical Council of Laodicea the churches legislate ecclesiastically what Constantine has already legislated as civil law:
“Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring 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” (Council of Laodicea, canon 29).
What began in Rome as a move to protect Christians from the anti-Jewish wrath, now becomes official church policy.
Some Christians quickly adapted to the new realities and grateful for imperial favour happily adopted Sunday and abandoned the Sabbath.
Some kept both Sabbath and Sunday. Socrates Scholasticus (c. AD 380-439) writes:
“For although almost all churches throughout the World celebrated the sacred mysteries (the Lord's Supper) on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this” (Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, chap. 22).
Sozomenus, a 5th century church historian (c. AD 400-450) writes:
“The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria” (Salminius Hermias Sozomenus, Ecclesiastical History, 7.1.8).
Yet others could switch between the two. Ambrose (c. 340–397), bishop of Milan, said that when he was in Milan, he kept the Sabbath but when he was in Rome he kept Sunday. From which practice the proverb “when in Rome do as the Romans do,” derives (Heylyn, The History of the Sabbath, 1612, p. 416).
And others continued to keep the seventh-day Sabbath for centuries. We have abundant testimonies to Sabbath keeping from all over the world.
For more information, check the link below:
https://www.sabbathtruth.com/sabbath-history/sabbath-through-the-centuries
The change from the Sabbath to Sunday was not commanded by Jesus or the apostles. There is no inkling of it in the Bible. It came considerably later, by expediency and human tradition.
Against these, now, in these last days, God calls us to return to the Biblical practise of Sabbath keeping rather than the imperial/ecclesiastical Sunday keeping.
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).
In this study we looked at the origin of Sunday worship. And in the previous we looked at what the Bible says about the seventh-day Sabbath.
Two days. One instituted by God. The other by human decrees. While as Christians we are to respect other Christians and human laws, when there is a contradiction between the Word of God and the words of men, we are to choose the former.
God invites you and every Christian to return to the Biblical Sabbath. How will you respond?
I commit to keep God’s seventh-day Sabbath holy.
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