PLEASE TELL ME
Whence Came Sunday Keeping?
[re Daniel 7:25 we are told that the times
will be changed. Was this the change of the
Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? If so. was
it made by man or God? R. I.
By reading Daniel 7:25 vou will observe
that this attempted change was made by man;
but since God made the Sabbath in the be-
ginning, 1t 1s quite clear that man could not
change that day unless he were greater than
God. Although he was to attempt it, he
would only “think” to do it. Dr. R. W. Dale.
Congregationalist, Spe aking of the Ten Com-
mandments, said: “It 1s quite clear that,
however rigidly or devoutly we may spend
Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was founded on a specific,
divine command. We can plead no such com-
mand for the obligation to observe Sunday.
.. There 15 not a single sentence in the
New Testament to suggest that we ear any
penalty by violating the supposed sanctity
of Sundav.”—The Tew Commandments.”
Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 106, 107.
Said Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor of the
Christer Union: “The current notion that
Christ and Ths apostles authoritatively sub-
stituted the first day for the seventh, 1s ab-
olutely without any authority im the New
Testament. —Quoled from the Christian
Urdon, June 26, 1590.
Said the great historian, Neander: © The
festival of Sunday, like all other festivals,
was always only a human ordinance, and it
was far from the intentions of the apostles to
establish a divine command in this respect,
far from them, and from the early apostolic
church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath
to Sunday.” Rose's Translation, page 18t.
The Roman Imperor Constantine, who
was reputedly converted to C hristianity, mn
his edict of March 7, 321 A.p., ordered: “ot
all judges and town people, and the pecupi
tion of all trades rest on the venerable day «
the sun, but let those who are situated in on
country, freely and at full liberty, attend to
the business of agriculture, because it often
happens that no other day is so fit for sowing
corn and planting vines, lest the critical mo-
ment being let slip. men should lose the com-
modities granted by heaven.” You will
notice that he does not call Sunday the Sab-
bath but the “venerable day of the sun,” for
it had long been devoted to sun w orship. You
will also observe that although this law pre-
scribed that those in the city should keep
Sunday, it provided that those who lived in
the countr y should be free to work, to plant.
or to harvest, lest they might otherwise lose
their crops. That was the first, oflicial effort
of man to change the Sabbath from Saturday
the seventh day of the week, to Sunday the
first day of [the week. oo JA
We read: “Sylvester, bishop of Rome, 314-
S337 AD, officially changed the title of the
first dav, calling it the Lord's Day.” -See
“listoria Fuclisinsticn. by M. Lodovienm
Lacium, cent. 4, cap. 10, pages 739, 740, edi-
tion Basile. 1624.
At the Council of Laodicea, held about
S64, the Catholic Church declared: “Chris-
tinns shall not Judaize and be idle on Satur-
day [Sabb ith, origimal], but shall work on
that day; but the Lord's day [Sunday] they
shall espoe ially honor, and, as being Chris-
tians, shall, if possible, do no work on that
day. If, however, they are found Judaizing
[keeping Saturday as the Sabb: ith], they shall
be shut out from AS hrist.’ A History of the
Chourch Councils,” Rev. Charles Joseph Hefele,
D.D. (Roman Catholicy, 326 to 429 A. D. (Vol.
11, Na SIH. Edinburgh’: T.& T. Clarke. 1896.
Says the Fipiscopal Church in “The Sab-
hath: or an Lixamination of the Six Texts,”
by Sir William Domville, page 291, published
in London, Chapman and Hall, 1549: © Cen-
JANUARY 1912
turies of the Christian era passed away before
the Sunday was observed by the © hristian
church as a Sabbath. History does not furnish
us with a single proof or mdieation that it
was at any time so observed previous to the
Sabbatical edict of Constantine, a.p. 321.
Concerning this legislation, Professor Hut-
ton Webster, Ph.D. (University of Nobraska),
in a book entitled, “Rest Daves’ page 122,
published by Macmillan & Co., New York,
N.Y, savs: “This legislation by (‘onstantine
probably bore no rel ation to Christianity;
1t appears, on the contrary, that the emperor,
in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus [his posi-
tion ax high priest of paganism, was nly
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.”
The Catholics themselves have said:
“Seventh-day Adventists hold to the observ-
ance of the Jewish Sabbath, which, as we
know, was celebrated on the seventh day of
the no ck. They reject the Christian Sunday.
In this they are more consistent than the
Sih Protestants, who profess to hold that
the Bible interpreted by their private judg-
ment is the rule of faith. For against these
Adventists other seets are unable to explain
their Sunday observance. This rests on the
authority of the Catholic Church.” -—Quoted
in The Messenger of the Sacred Heart,”
published at 5151 FE. Fordham Road, New
Yorl:, November, 1927.
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