I used to use these verses to teach people that they must keep
the Ten Commandments, especially the Sabbath. But look at what I John 3:21-24
has to say!
3. "The Roman Catholic Church changed the day of worship from
Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday." "Isn't it paying homage to the
Roman church to worship on Sunday, because didn't the Roman Emperor Constantine
change the day of worship?"
Costantine's Edict , AD 321
It is claimed that Constantine's edict of March 7, 321 changed the day
of worship from Saturday to Sunday. Consantine's edict reads:
On the venerable Day of the Sun [venerablili dei Solis] 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.Codex Justinaianus, book
3 title 12,3 trans. In Schaff, History of the Christian Church 5th ed.
(New York: Charles Scribner, 1902), vol. 3, P. 380, note1.
Pliny's Letter , AD 107
Pliny was governor of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, from AD 106-108. He wrote
in AD 107 to Trajan, the emperor, concerning the Christians. This is what
he said:
They were want to meet together on a stated day before it
was light, and sign among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as
God....When these things were performed, it was their custom to separate
and then to come together again to a meal which they ate in common without
any disorder.
We know the day the early church broke bread was on a Sunday.
Upon the first day of the week when the disciple came together
to break bread. Acts 20:7
The Epistle of Barnabas, AD 120
In chapter 2 the Epistle of Barnabas says:
"Incense is a vain abomination unto me, and your new moons and
Sabbaths I cannot endure. He has, therefore, abolished these things."
When he speaks of the first day of the week, Barnabas says:
"Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day,
also, on which Jesus rose again from the dead." Chapter 25
Statements By the Church Fathers:
Justin Martyr, AD 140
Note: Justin's "Apology" was written at Rome about the year AD
140, only 44 years after the Apostle John recieved the vision of the Revelation
at Patmos.
The Schalff-herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge states this
about Justin's works: "In these works Justin professes to present
the system of doctrine held by all Christians and seeks to be orthodox on
all points. The only difference he knows of as existing between Christians
concerned the millennium. Thus Justin is an incontrovertible witness for
the unity of faith in the Church of his day and that fact that the Gentile
type of Christianity prevailed." Quoted by Canright in the Complete
Testimony of the Early Fathers, Fleming H. Revell, 1916, pp. 24-25.
Note: At this early date , AD 140, the only difference among Christians
was about the millennium. At that time , they had no disagreement in keeping
Sunday, and as you will see, Justin says that was the day on which all Christians
worshiped.
In chapter 67 of his first Apology, entitled, "Weekly Worship of
the Christian" writing to the pagan emperor, Justin states:
"...we bless the Maker of all through His Son, Jesus
Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all
who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and
the memoirs of the Apostles or writings of the prophets are read as
long as time permits;then, when the reader has ceased, the president
verbally instructed, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.
Then we all rise together and pray, and , as we before said, when our
prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought...But Sunday is
the day on which God, having wrought the change in the darkness and
matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day
rose from the dead."The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol 1, pp. 185-186
(Emphasis Added)
Clement of Alexandria, in Egypt, AD 194
Clement, writing around AD 194 says:
"He, in fulfillment of the precept, keeps the Lord's Day when
he abandons an evil disposition, and assumes that the Gnostic, glorifying
the Lord's resurrection in himself." Book 7, Chapter 12 (emphasis
added)
Ignatius of Antioch, the third bishop of Antioch, who died in AD 108,
wrote:
"If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient
order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer
observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day,
on which also our life has sprung up again in Him....Let us therefore
no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice
in days of idleness; for "he that does not work, let him not eat"....let
every friend of Christ keep the Lord's day as a festival, the resurrection
day, the queen and chief of all days [of the week]" Epistle
of Ignatius to Magnesians, "The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol, 1, pp.
62-63 (emphasis added).
Tertullian of Africa, wrote around AD 200:
In his Apology, Chapter 16 Tertullian says:
"We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those
who call this day their Sabbath, and devote it to ease and eating, deviating
from the old Jewish customs, which they are not very ignorant of."
"Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed
, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a
well-known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we make
Sunday a day of festivity " Ancient Syriac Documents, The
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, P. 123
Note: The early church explained why they prayed toward the east.
It was because, "...as the lightning which lighteneth from the east
and is seen even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be;
that by this we might know and understand that He will appear from the East
suddenly" Ancient Syriac Documents, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol.
8, P 668
Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth in Greece, AD 170
Dionysius was Bishop of Corinth, the Church which Paul raised up and to
which he gave the command about Sunday collections, in I Cor. 16:1-2. He
says:
"We passed this holy Lord's Day, in which we
read your letter, from the constant reading of which we shall be able
to draw admonition" Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, BK. 3,
Chapter 23 (Emphasis Added)
©Calvary Community Church 1997