[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]
The Sabbath Is Saturday
The Bible teaches that Christians should keep the Sabbath. But what day is it?
The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. Just look for the seventh day on your calendar. That’s the Sabbath.
Today, we call the seventh day Saturday. But in the Bible, it’s called the Sabbath.
- It’s a day of rest.
- It’s a day to cease from our normal labors.
- And it’s a day to worship God, to assemble with other Christians.
- It’s holy time, made holy by God.
Jesus Christ kept the Sabbath. He taught His followers to keep it with the other Commandments. The Apostles also kept it, and taught its observance.
The Bible never says that Sunday is holy. The Bible never tells us to worship God on Sunday. And yet, most mainstream Christians do just that.
So if Jesus and the apostles kept the Sabbath on the seventh day, why don’t most people keep it today? What happened? Who changed the Sabbath?
This is an important question that strikes at the very heart of the worship of God. It’s something we need to know the answer to.
From time to time, viewers ask us, “If the Bible says the seventh day is holy, why don’t most churches keep it?”
You might be wondering, too. Maybe you’ve asked your pastor or your priest. It’s a really good question, and it deserves an answer, not just an “oh, you know, Christ came and did everything for us,” but a real answer from the Bible and from documented history.
And as we always say on Tomorrow’s World, don’t believe us. Open your Bible and believe what you see written in the pages of that Bible.
You see, after the death of the original apostles, the church underwent radical changes. What happened?
The late pastor and evangelist John Ogwyn summed it up this way in the study guide we’re offering today, God’s Church Through the Ages. On page 2, he writes:
When we look at the story of the mainstream, professing Christian church throughout the centuries, it appears to be a vastly different church from the one described in the pages of your New Testament. In the book of Acts we find that God’s Church celebrated “Jewish” holy days…. Yet less than 300 years later, we find a church claiming Apostolic origin but observing the “venerable day of the Sun” instead of the seventh-day Sabbath…. How could such an amazing transformation have taken place? What happened?” (Ogwyn, J.; p. 2; God's Church Through the Ages).
How do you go from a Church keeping the Sabbath to worshiping on an entirely different day? Does it make sense that Christ would lead His Church to observe one day, and then a few years later direct that an entirely different day is to be kept? After all, as Paul said (in Hebrews 13:8):
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Sunday Is Not the Lord’s Day in the Bible
It’s important to note that Jesus Christ taught and kept the Sabbath. In fact, in Luke 6:5, He said:
“The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
So when we speak of the Day of the Lord, the Day of the Lord is not Sunday. By Jesus’ own testimony, the Day of the Lord—the Day He is the Lord of—is the seventh day, the Sabbath.
Another important key to keep in mind is we have a record of Christ’s Church keeping the seventh-day Sabbath years after His death and resurrection.
In Acts 13, we read about Paul teaching the Jews in Antioch, in Pisidia, on the Sabbath day. But notice what happened at the conclusion of His teaching. This is found in Acts 13:42.
So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.
Wouldn’t this have been a beautiful opportunity for Paul to tell those Gentiles the Sabbath wasn’t required for them? But he didn’t. Instead, notice in Acts 13:44:
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
3 Reasons People Worship on Sunday (Erroneously)
Now we’re not going to go into all the proofs of the Sabbath on this program. That’s covered in other telecasts and articles on Tomorrowsworld.org. Just type in the word “Sabbath” in the search bar. Or you can go on our Tomorrow’s World YouTube channel.
So again—how did the Church go from keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, to keeping Sunday only three centuries later?
To understand what happened, we’ll examine three basic points. These three points describe what was happening in the first few centuries after Christ. Let me share them with you now. And then we’ll discuss each one of them, one by one.
What happened to the church from the first century to the fourth century?
- #1: False teachers introduced heresies against the Laws of God.
- #2: Anti-Jewish sentiment grew, leading many to abandon the Sabbath.
- #3: Sunday keepers became the majority; Sabbath-keepers the minority.
1. False Teachers and Heresy Against the Ten Commandments
So, let’s take these points one by one, and see what we can find from the Bible and the record of history.
- False teachers introduced heresies against the laws of God.
Jesus warned of false teachers when He was yet alive. He said in Matthew 7:15–16,
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits….”
That warning was repeated by the last living apostles as well. In fact, in some instances, they warned that false teachers were already beginning to infiltrate the Church. Notice what the Apostle Jude wrote in Jude 1:3–4:
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude said false teachers were already introducing the idea that grace meant you don’t have to keep the law. But God does require us to keep His Law.
In Romans 7:12 the Apostle Paul said:
The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
That law defines how to love, but what we’re seeing is even in the first century, there were men who were trying to do away with that law.
The Apostle John was the last living apostle of the original Church. He died in the 90s AD. But before his death, he also warned against false teachers claiming to be followers of Christ. Notice what he said in 1 John 2:4.
He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
So toward the end of John’s life, false teachers were already infiltrating the Church. And John called them liars. If this was already happening during the lifetime of John, imagine what would happen after his death.
2. Antisemitic Push to Quit Keeping the Sabbath
But other forces were also at work that were going to lead many to compromise on keeping the Sabbath. So how did that happen? That brings us to our next point.
Over time, after the death of the original apostles:
- Anti-Jewish sentiment grew, leading many to abandon the Sabbath.
The first century AD was a tumultuous time for Jews under the Roman rule. Multiple uprisings against the Romans had occurred. One of them, from 66 to 70 AD, resulted in the temple being destroyed and Jerusalem overrun. But that was not the end of it. As the website christianhistoryinstitute.org points out,
[a]fter the Jewish War (66–70), progressively more disastrous uprisings followed: the Kitos War of 115–117 and the Bar Kochba revolt 20 years later. After each conflict Rome leveled punitive taxes and other restrictions on Jews, regardless of whether they had supported the revolts (many had not) (“Faith divided,” Christian History Magazine. 2020).
These restrictions grew more severe, until in 135 AD, in exasperation the Romans expelled all Jews from Jerusalem on pain of death.
This had a huge impact on the church. Many Christians in Jerusalem completely stopped keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. Why? Because they didn’t want to be mistaken for Jews in the eyes of the Roman authorities. As the article concludes:
Non-Jewish Christians now had reason to avoid calling attention to their relationship with this potentially seditious sect….
The renowned historian Edward Gibbon describes how the Jerusalem church changed dramatically under the leadership of their new Latin bishop Marcus after 135 AD. This is detailed in his famous work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
At his persuasion the most considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had persevered above a century. By this sacrifice of their habits and prejudices, they purchased a free admission into the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their union with the Catholic church (1862, p. 94).
Understand, when it says they “renounced the Mosaic law,” they’re talking about the Ten Commandments. They’re talking about the keeping of the Sabbath.
Gibbon continues:
The crimes of heresy and schism were imputed to the obscure remnant of the Nazarenes which refused to accompany their Latin bishop.… In a few years after the return of the church of Jerusalem, it became a matter of doubt and controversy whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, but who still continued to observe the law of Moses, could possibly hope for salvation (ibid.).
Wow. The bulk of these church-goers turned their back on the law of Moses. And that includes the Ten Commandments, which includes the seventh-day Sabbath. And why? Because they didn’t want to be mistaken for Jews.
This was not the only time Jews were expelled from their homes in the Roman empire. In Acts 18:1, we find a record of it happening in Rome.
After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome).
So we see tensions between the Jews and Roman authorities were flaring up again and again throughout the Roman empire during this time. And that had an impact on the church, in creating a desire to distance themselves from the Jews. Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi explains this in his book From Sabbath to Sunday.
The adoption of this negative attitude toward the Jews can be explained (but not necessarily justified!) by several circumstances existing particularly at the time of Hadrian. First, the relationship between Rome and the Jews was extremely tense…. Such circumstances invited Christians to develop a new identity, not only characterized by a negative attitude toward Jews, but also by the substitution of characteristic Jewish religious customs for new ones (pp. 182–183).
Not only was Sunday worship urged there, but concrete measures were also taken to wean Christians away from any veneration of the Sabbath (1977, p. 186).
But Jesus Said Enter Through the Narrow Gate—Few Find It
Think about it. How powerful is peer pressure? And how difficult it is to do the right thing in the face of persecution? But what did Jesus say? In Matthew 7:13–14:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
What did the Apostle Paul teach the disciples, after he had been stoned for the Gospel of Christ? We read that in Acts 14:22.
We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.
Sunday Worship Began with Compromise
So what we’re seeing is the beginning of Sunday worship—compromise in an attempt to avoid persecution.
But God has not called us to compromise. God has called us to believe what’s written in His Word, and follow the truth no matter what. With God’s help, if we ask for His help, we can give our lives to Him, and obey this book.
So again, many of the Christians in the early decades of the second century were intimidated into compromising on the Sabbath. And they were deceived by teachers teaching contrary to Scripture. Dr. Bacchiocchi refers to church leaders who urged members to abandon the Sabbath on page 186.
While prior to him [that is, Justin Martyr] Ignatius in Asia Minor (ca. A.D. 110) and Barnabas in Alexandria (ca. A.D. 135) explicitly upbraided Sabbath-keeping, it is Justin who provides the most devastating and systematic condemnation of the Sabbath and the first explicit account of Christian Sunday worship (ibid.).
What a remarkable transformation from the teaching of Paul to the Gentiles on the Sabbath, to Christians being questioned as to whether they could even be saved if they keep the Sabbath.
3. Sunday Worship Popularity vs. Keeping the Sabbath
By the end of the second century, Sunday-keeping was even more entrenched among the mainstream visible Christian church. And soon it would become the enforced doctrine in the official religion of the entire Roman Empire. And that brings us to our next point.
- Sunday-keepers became the majority; Sabbath-keepers the minority.
Tertullian was an author and theologian from Carthage, who wrote in the late second century and early third century. He was one of the primary defenders of mainstream Christianity in his day. In one of his works, Ad Nationes (ch. 13), he defends Sunday worship against an unlikely foe—the pagans. Notice what he wrote.
Others… 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 (Tertullian, “The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met By a Retort,” Ad Nationes).
Now, stop and think for a moment. Why would worldly, idol-worshipping pagans get confused that Christians were actually sun-worshippers? Well, because those Christians were worshipping on a day set aside by the pagans to honor and give deference to their sun-god. Now, these Christians were undoubtedly keeping Sunday in their minds to honor Christ’s resurrection.
But by the way, Jesus wasn’t resurrected on Sunday. He was actually resurrected toward the end of the previous day, on the Sabbath. But that’s a different story. If you’d like to explore that topic, go to our Tomorrowsworld.org website, and in the search bar type in “Easter.”
But back to Tertullian. What we see is that mainstream Christianity was distancing itself from the Jews. And at the same time, it was moving closer to the pagans and their traditions, including keeping Sunday.
This point is even more bluntly made by respected historians such as Will Durant. In The Story of Civilization, Vol. 3 he writes:
Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it…. Christianity became the last and greatest of the mystery religions (Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. 3. 1944, pp. 595, 600).
Is it any wonder then, a century later, when Constantine wanted to unify the empire, he astutely chose Christianity as his new religion? He saw some Christians worshipping on the day set aside by the pagans to honor the sun. And so it fit well for him to even issue an edict for all Christians to honor the “venerable day of the Sun.”
Notice what Paul Johnson, a devout Catholic, said about this.
Many Christians did not make a clear distinction between this sun cult and their own. They referred to Christ “driving his chariot across the sky”; they held their services on Sunday, knelt towards the East and had their nativity-feast on 25 December, the birthday of the sun at the winter solstice… Constantine never abandoned sun-worship and kept the sun on his coins. He made Sunday into a day of rest (A History of Christianity, 1976, p. 67–68).
Wow.
Roman Empire Fulfills Prophecy in Daniel 7:25
From the Sabbath being kept and taught by Christ and the apostles, to a pagan, sun-worshipping, political emperor embracing Christianity as his own—what a profound change in only three centuries, and now with the stamp of approval of the mighty Roman Empire.
In fact, this was prophesied in Daniel 7. In a vision, Daniel saw a prophecy of four successive world-ruling kingdoms. But notice what he saw regarding the final kingdom, identified as the Roman Empire, in Daniel 7:25.
He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.
The Roman Empire was prophesied to be part of a system intending to change times and law. What “time” is included in a law of God? Well, the Sabbath.
Who Changed the Sabbath Day to Sunday? No One.
But did Constantine’s decree really change the Sabbath? Did the Roman Empire, in concert with the mainstream church, really change the day to worship God? No.
No one can change it. You can’t change something that God has ordained.
Exodus 20 outlines the Ten Commandments given at Mount Sinai. One of those commandments, the fourth, is the command to remember and observe the Sabbath. Notice in Exodus 20:8–10.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work…
But how and when was the Sabbath instituted? Read on in Exodus 20:11.
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
God hallowed the seventh day by resting Himself. He made it holy. All the councils and all the canons of man cannot change what God purposed.
True Christians Still Keep the Sabbath
So, who changed the Sabbath? Nobody.
And in fact, even after Constantine’s edict, there were faithful Christians still adhering to the true Sabbath, the seventh day. So much so that forty years later, the Council of Laodicea was convened to address, among other questions, the keeping of the Sabbath (Canon 29 of the Council of Laodicea).
… Forbids Christians from Judaizing and resting on the Sabbath day, and actually enjoins them to work on that day (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 26. 1911, p. 95).
Why was that canon published? Because true followers of Christ were still keeping the Sabbath. They were harassed, they were persecuted, and they often had to flee to the outer parts of the empire, but they were faithful.
Evangelist John Ogwyn explains this in the study guide God’s Church Through the Ages.
After Constantine began the systematic enforcement of compliance with Roman theology in 325 AD, the remnants of the true Church were in large part forced to flee the bounds of the Roman Empire into the mountains of Armenia, and later into the Balkan areas of Europe. They were few in number, utterly lacking in prestige or wealth, and labeled as enemies of the state by a supposedly “Christian” Roman Empire (p. 24).
And over the next 1,000 years, we have faint historical traces of Christians who obediently followed God, keeping His Sabbath, in spite of persecution. As Mr. Ogwyn continues:
In God’s sight… they were precious. It was not God’s purpose that His true Church grow into a great, powerful organization that would “Christianize” the world…. Its continuity would be measured not by a succession of proud, powerful, presiding bishops in a particular city… but by a succession of faithful, converted people—who, though scattered and persecuted, continued to worship the Father in spirit and in truth (ibid.).
In a book entitled Faith of Our Fathers, first published in 1876, James Cardinal Gibbons made this remarkable admission:
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 (The Faith of Our Fathers, 1917, p. 97).
So who changed the Sabbath? No one. The Scriptures reveal the Sabbath as the seventh day, and all the councils and canons of man cannot change what God purposed. When we observe the Sabbath each week, we are honoring and remembering God’s work at Creation. And we are recognizing His loving guidance in our lives.
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