March 17, 2008

• Sabbath: What's the Issue?

  Anti-Judaism at root of 'Sunday Sabbath'?
  4th century church banned observing Saturday at risk of ex-communication

  Posted: March 16, 2008
  5:25 pm Eastern

  © 2008 WorldNetDaily

  When
  Samuele Bacchiocchi, a Seventh-Day Adventist, immersed himself in the
  research of how the biblical Sabbath moved from Saturday to Sunday, he
  did so in an unlikely environment for a non-Catholic – the Pontifical
  Gregorian University in Rome.

  He not only had open access to
  long-forgotten historical records, he also graduated at the top of his
  class – summa cum laude, an honor which included a gold medal from Pope
  Paul VI.

  But what he found in that investigation would probably
  shock most Christians who have never studied the subject, nor thought
  deeply about what became of the fourth commandment.

  What caused
  the switch from worship on Saturday to Sunday? One of the principle
  motivations in the early church, Bacchiocchi finds, was anti-Judaism.

  Consider
  this Nicene conciliar letter from Constantine written in A.D. 325: "Let
  us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd: for we
  have received from our Savior a different way ... Strive and pray
  continually that the purity of your souls may not seem in anything to
  be sullied by fellowship with the customs of these most wicked men ...
  All should unite in desiring that which sound reason appears to demand
  and in avoiding all participation in the perjured conduct of the Jews."

  Not
  surprisingly, anti-Sabbath laws followed in Rome – imposing harsh
  penalties for anyone who refused to work on Saturday or who deigned to
  worship on that day of the week.

  He quotes Sylvester I, the pope
  from 314-337: "If every Sunday is to be observed joyfully by the
  Christians on account of the resurrection, then every Sabbath on
  account of the burial is to be execration (loathing or cursing) of the
  Jews."

  Observing the Sabbath meant excommunication from the
  church as of A.D. 363 and the Council of Laodicea: "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."

  But Bacchiocchi also reminds readers the Saturday
  Sabbath, despite official repression against it, never was completely
  abandoned.

  Likewise, over the years, some prominent voices have never forgotten the Sabbath – and what became of it.

  Was it, indeed, a Roman Catholic decision made after the first century and the death of the apostles?

  It's hard to argue with the historical record.

  In fact, some Catholics revel in the role Rome played in the switch.

  "The
  Catholic Church of its own infallible authority created Sunday a holy
  day to take the place of the Sabbath of the old law," wrote the Kansas
  City Catholic on Feb. 9, 1893.

  Other Catholic sources agree with little self-doubt.

  "Sunday
  is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended
  only on Catholic principles," wrote the Catholic Press in Sydney,
  Australia, on Aug. 25, 1900. "From beginning to end of Scripture there
  is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public
  worship from the last day of the week to the first."

  James
  Cardinal Gibbons seconds the motion in his famous "The Faith of Our
  Fathers," published in 1876: "You may read the Bible from Genesis to
  Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the
  sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious
  observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify."

  But it's
  not just Catholics who acknowledge the church has just plain forgotten
  one of God's great commandments – without so much as a second thought.

  Dwight
  L. Moody, one of America's great Protestant evangelists of the 19th
  century, noted the omission in his book, "Weighed and Wanting."

  "The
  Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since," he
  wrote. "The fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing
  that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tablets
  of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been
  done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still
  binding?"

  How do today's top Christian pastors refute the evidence the Sabbath is still in effect?

  Greg
  Laurie, a Calvary Chapel pastor with one of the largest congregations
  in the country in Southern California, as well as a weekly columnist at
  WND, says there are three reasons Christians do not observe the Sabbath:

  It is the only commandment not repeated in the New Testament.
  Jesus never taught anyone to keep the Sabbath.
  The apostles never taught anyone to keep the Sabbath.
  The Sabbath, he says, is a "shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

  "It
  would be like coming back from a long trip away from my wife and kids,"
  he says. "I could not wait to get home and be reunited with them. Then
  while getting off the plane I see them with the sun behind them casting
  a long shadow before them. Then I get off the plane and run and fall
  down and try to hug the shadow!"

  ----- my comments -----

  Regarding
  Greg Laurie's comments, it should be remembered that in the New
  Testament, the Sabbath was not an issue because it was already the day
  of worship. Jesus didn't teach anyone about keeping Sabbath because
  they already knew about it and were keeping it. In the four gospels we
  read that Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdaline rested on Sabbath
  then went to the tomb in the early hours of the first day of the week.
  In Acts Paul preached on Sabbath. The gospel was to go to the Jew
  first. Jews didn't need to be taught about Sabbath.

  Is the
  Sabbath a "shadow of things to come?" Jesus celebrated Sabbath with
  Adam and Eve in Eden. The day will come when we will sit in His
  pressence with the Father in heaven and keep the Sabbath. Sabbath
  observance will never again become a point of contention between
  Christians who pray for the peace of Jerusalem, ask for the mind of
  Christ, and seek to enter into His rest as we strive for true unity in
  the Holy Spirit.

  There is a reason why God said "Remember the
  Sabbath day." We have forgotten it and now as He tries to lead us back
  into His rest, we treat it as if it were irrelevant, an old relic that
  doesn't mean anything to us. If we break one commandment, then we are
  guilty of breaking them all. If Sabbath is irrelevant, then so are the
  commandments regarding adultery, murder, coveting, bearing false
  witness, among others. If this is just a "shadow," then the people who
  fought so hard to keep the Ten Commandments hanging in the courts
  throughout America were just wasting time.

  If the Ten
  Commandments have value to Christians, then we must allow them to be
  written on our hearts and imprinted on our minds so that we will not
  sin against God or each other.

  The world doesn't hate
  Christians because of the love we claim to have for it. It hates us
  because of our divisiveness and our hypocracy. Sabbath is just one more
  issue that drives this point home. It is not an issue of salvation; it is an issue concerning obedience to God's laws that govern His kingdom.

  • 10:07 pm
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