What Adventism Does NOT Want You To Know About the Sabbath

In his book The History of the Sabbath and the first day of the week 7th Adventist Pioneer Jay and Andrews puts forth a bold claim regarding the history of corporate Christian worship on Sunday a historical claim that has been inherited and is often repeated by many modern 7thday Adventist we have proved that the Sunday Festival in the Christian church had no sabatical character before the time of Constantine we have also shown that heathenism in the person of Constantine first gave to Sunday its sabatical character and in the very Act of doing

It designated it as a heathen and not as a Christian Festival thus establishing a heathen Sabbath it was now the part of popery authoritatively to effect its transformation into a Christian institution a work which it was not slow to perform Sylvester was the bishop of Rome while Constantine was Emperor how Faithfully he acted his part in transforming the Festival of the sun into a Christian Institution is seen in that by his Apostolic Authority he changed the name of the day giving it the imposing title of Lord’s day to Constantine and Sylvester therefore The

Advocates of first day observance are greatly indebted the one elevated it as a heathen Festival to the throne of the Empire making it a day of rest for most kinds of business the other changed it into a Christian institution giving it the dignified appellation of Lord’s day it is not not a sufficient reason for denying that Pope Sylvester not far from ad 325 authoritatively conferred on Sunday the name of Lord’s day to say that one of the Fathers as early as ad 200 calls the day by that name and that some seven different writers between ad2 and 325

Can be induced who give this name to Sunday this is to say that Andrews argued that Sunday did not have a Sabbath likee character in the Christian church before Constantine he claims that Constantine as a heathen ruler first gave Sunday its rest day status and that Pope Sylvester later transformed it into a Christian institution by officially and deceptively designating it as the Lord’s day now he recognized that multiple early Christian writers like turolian origin cyprian and others referred to Sunday as the Lord’s day before Sylvester but he dismisses this

Evidence by suggesting that Sylvester’s official designation rather than earlier Christian usages are what truly established Sunday as a Christian institution but essentially he argued that Sunday’s elevation to a sacred day was a process that was first driven by Constantine’s Pagan influence and then completed by the papacy so with that in mind I want to test a very specific historical claim that he makes and no it isn’t over the phrase Lord’s day nor is it about whether or not sacred scripture supports corporate first day worship this has been done elsewhere today I

Specifically want to focus on the very beginning of his claim which is that prior to Constantine the first day of the week had no sabatical characteristics I want to preface by saying that if you are an Adventist and you are prepared to write out the SDA script Regarding why the first day of the week has no biblical support this video is about historical claims and just like Andrews did not exclusively appeal to scripture when talking about the history of Constantine neither will I so please spare us the script talking points I have addressed the biblical

Warrant for corporate first day worship elsewhere in both written and video formats but today we are focused on the historicity of Andrews claim but before diving into it if you like what we’re doing here please consider partnering with us at answering adventism tocom this ministry is a viewer supported effort that is only made possible by the generosity and support of our YouTube members and website Partners it is you who make it possible for us to have the impact that we are more and more Christians are getting equipped and more and more Adventists are being reached

With the true Christ in his gospel thank you so much for your support all right so before we more closely examine the specific charge regarding emperor Constantine giving the first day of the week its Sabbath likee character it’s important that you understand the general thesis and argumentation put forth in his book which is nothing short of a master class in historical revisionism carefully crafted to prop up the 7th Day Adventist agenda while ignoring mountains of evidence to the contrary his pmic centers on the foundational claim that the 7th Day

Sabbath was the exclusive day of worship for early Christians he desperately tries to paint Sunday observance as a late paganized Innovation driven by Sun worship and political scheming while he recognizes that ancient Christian commentators and expositors like terlan origin and cyprian of Carthage called Sunday the Lord’s day as early as the late 2nd Century he tries to get around this Inconvenient Truth with the flimsy defense that their testimony doesn’t count because Pope Sylvester supposedly made the name official later on on top of this he also misrepresents

Constantine’s role another common error that you need to expect when engaging with an Adventist on this subject they’re suggesting that this Sunday law somehow created Christian Sunday worship but Constantine’s decree was a civil law not a religious one this remedial failure to distinguish between the two results in flawed conclusions Christians were not waiting for a Roman Emperor to tell them when to worship they had already been honoring the first day of the week for over a century Constantine merely formalized what was already common place as church historian Philip

Schaf notes in his history of the Christian religion the observance of Sunday originated in the time of the Apostles and ever since forms the basis of public worship with its ennobling sanctifying and cheering influences in all Christian lands so long as Christianity was not recognized and protected by the state the observance of Sunday was purely religious a strictly voluntary service but exposed to continual Interruption from the bustle of the world and a hostile Community the Pagan Romans paid no more regard to the Christian Sunday than to The Jewish Sabbath in this

Matter as in others the accession of Constantine marks the beginning of a new era and did good service to the church and to the cause of public order and morality Constantine is the founder in part at least of the Civil observance of Sunday by which alone the religious observance of it in the church could be made Universal and could be properly secured in the year 321 he issued a law prohibiting manual labor in the cities and all judicial transactions at a later period also military exercises on Sunday he Exempted The Liberation of slaves which as an act of Christian humanity

And charity might with special propriety take place on that day but the Sunday law of Constantine must not be overrated there is no reference whatsoever in his law either to the fourth Commandment or to the resurrection of Christ besides he expressly Exempted the country districts where paganism still prevailed from the prohibition of Labor and thus avoided every appearance of Injustice Christians and pagans had been accustomed to Festival rests Constantine made these rests to synchronize and gave the preference to Sunday on which day Christians from the beginning celebrated

The resurrection of their lord and savior this and no more was implied in the famous enactment of 321 now what’s fascinating about this is that SDA Pioneer JH Wagner extoled Dr Schoff on his IAL prowess something that is shared by many modern 7th Day Adventist Scholars to this day who would recognize the same thing in his book The Origin and growth of Sunday observance in the Christian church Wagner stated that Dr schaf is justly esteemed as a man of extensive learning and whose testimony regarding facts no one would call in question he is a theologian and

A warm friend of Sunday keeping but his theological relations have not prevented his giving the facts into the first Sunday law well as we just saw Dr schof very clearly stated that Constantine’s Edict of Milan cannot be overstated and abused to claim that it did things that it did not actually do and according to him the practice of corporate first day worship started with the apostles Dr schof also points out that Constantine’s edict had to do with civil not religious law something that both Wagner and Andrews failed to delineate between now what’s interesting about this is that

Despite his recognition that people like origin used the term Lord’s Day prior to Constantine Mr Andrews clearly was not aware of the actual teaching and exag Jesus of people like origin such as in his homy on numbers 28 for example now the second Feast after the Feast of the Perpetual sacrifice is recorded to be the sacrifice of the Sabbath and it is necessary that every saint and just person celebrate the Feast of the Sabbath as well what is the Feast of the Sabbath if not that Feast of which the Apostle says so a Sabbath that is the observance of the Sabbath will be left

For the people of God therefore leaving behind the judaic observances of the Sabbath let us see what sort of observation of the Sabbath there ought to be for the Christian on Sunday no worldly activity is supposed to be carried out thus if you cease from doing secular works and carry out nothing worldly but make room for Spiritual Works if you come together at church give ear to the Divine readings and discussions think about Heavenly things show concern for the Future Hope keep the coming judgment before your eyes do not look to present invisible things

This is how the Christian observes the Sabbath oh whoops origin didn’t just use the phrase Lord’s day to refer to the first day of the week but he preached and taught that the New Testament Christian keeps the Sabbath by ceasing from any secular work making room for Spiritual matters like going to church hearing the preaching of the Divine homilies and spending the day thinking about Heavenly matters which is the ascribing of sabatical characteristics to the first day now Andrews was more than likely unaware of this homy as until recently it hadn’t been translated

Into English and to make matters worse for Andrew’s revisionism origin was teaching in Alexandria which is located in the East not the Western Roman Empire where Constantine would eventually take his Reign he preached the sermon around 220 ad which is almost a 100 years before Constantine’s rise to power and the enactment of his Edict of Milan in 313 which would make it very hard for origin to have been greatly indebted to Constantine I want to reiterate for all the Adventists who are currently writing a novel this is not being presented as an argument for corporate first day

Worship I have laid out the biblical Arguments for such elsewhere whether one agrees with origin’s ex aesus is irrelevant to the history I don’t particularly agree with origin’s hermeneutics or everything that he taught some of it ended up being outright heretical but that doesn’t change the facts of history at the end of the day Andrew’s attempt to frame Sunday as a Papal and Pagan conspiracy collapses under scrutiny which is why a more fitting title for his book would have been the Rewritten history of the Sabbath and the first day of the week he

Starts with a conclusion 7 Day saboten ISM must be right and then Works backward to cherry-pick the evidence his argument is not historical it’s Adventist propaganda masquerading AS Scholarship those who truly want to understand the history of the Sabbath and Sunday notice I said history should look Beyond Andrew’s narrow agenda-driven narrative and examine the full breadth of early Christian test testimony which overwhelmingly affirms that Sunday not Saturday was established as the day of Christian worship long before Constantine and Sylvester so next

Time you here in Adventist try and recycle this line of argumentation or copy and paste claims from Doug bachelor’s Sabbath propaganda website sabbathtruth.com remember that history is not on the SDA Church’s side whether it be patristic history or 1844 May Christ richly bless you in the grace and peace won by him and his vicarious day death on the cross for Sinners until next time God bless holy toit apostate did he say that come on man