{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38378/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38378","id":"gutenberg_38378","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38378","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Sabbath"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN SABBATH\n\nIS IT OF DIVINE ORIGIN?\n\nBy J. B. Remsburg\n\n\nIs the Christian Sabbath of divine origin? I propose to show that it is\nnot--that there is no more divinity attached to Sunday than to any other\nday. I propose to show that the oft-repeated claim that it superseded\nthe Jewish Sabbath by divine authority is false; I propose to show that\nit was originally a heathen holiday, borrowed from the pagan world--the\n_venerabile die solis_ a day once consecrated to the orb of light, but\nwhich has been obscured by the thick clouds of theological gloom, that\nin the darkness Superstition's bats and owls may the more easily secure\ntheir prey; I propose to show that this Puritanical institution, whose\ndecrepit form, supported by the crutches of state laws, still lingers\nin our midst, is one of the most despicable frauds that a tyrannical\npriesthood ever imposed upon credulous humanity. I propose to show that\nhe who deals in pious cant about \"Sabbath desecration\" is a knave, or\nelse\n\n     \"Most ignorant of what he's most assured.\"\n\nThe testimony that I bring is not the testimony of the enemies of\nChristianity, but of its friends--of its most learned, most loyal, and\nmost honorable defenders. My witnesses include the great apostle, Paul;\nthe most eminent of the Christian fathers; the Protestant reformers; and\nmany more of the church's greatest scholars and divines.\n\nST. PAUL.\n\n\"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day\nalike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind\" (Rom. xiv, 5).\n\n\"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of\na holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days\" (Colossians ii.\n16).\n\nJUSTIN MARTYR.\n\n\"You, because you are idle for one day, suppose you are pious.... Our\nGod is not pleased with such observances\" (Dialogues, chap. xii).\n\n\"You see that the heavens are not idle, nor do they observe the Sabbath\"\n(Ibid, chap, xxiii).\n\nIREN\u00c6US.\n\n\"These things [circumcision and Sabbath observance], therefore, which\nwere given for bondage, and for a sign to them, he [Christ] canceled by\nthe new covenant of liberty\" (Against Heresies).\n\nTERTULLIAN.\n\n\"The observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary\"\n(Answer to Jews).\n\n\"By us [Christians], to whom Sabbaths are strange\" (On Idolatry).\n\nEUSEBIUS.\n\n\"They [the patriarchs] did not therefore regard circumcision nor observe\nthe Sabbath, neither do we\" (Ecclesiastical History, Book I., chap. iv).\n\nST. CYRIL.\n\n\"Jesus Christ hath redeemed thee. Henceforth reject all observance of\nSabbaths\" (Savage's Sunday Observance).\n\nST. EPIPHANIUS.\n\n\"God regardeth not outward cessation from works more upon one day than\nanother\" (Taylor's Works, Vol. XII).\n\nST. JEROME.\n\n\"Considered in a purely Christian point of view all days are alike\"\n(Neander's Church History, Vol. III.).\n\n\"As soon as they [certain devout Christian women] returned home on the\nLord's day, they sat down severally to their work, and made clothes for\nthemselves and others\" (Heylyn's History of the Sabbath, Part II., chap.\niii).\n\nLUTHER.\n\n\"As regards the Sabbath, or Sunday, there is no necessity for keeping\nit\" (Michelet's Life of Luther, Book IV., chap. ii).\n\n\"Paul and the apostles, after the gospel began to be preached and spread\nover the world, clearly released the people from the observance of the\nSabbath\" (Luther's Works, Vol. III., p. 73).\n\n\"If anywhere the day is made holy for the mere day's sake--if anywhere\nany one sets up its observance upon a Jewish foundation--then I order\nyou to work on it, to dance on it, to ride on it, to feast on it--to do\nanything that shall reprove this encroachment on the Christian spirit of\nliberty\" (Table Talk).\n\nMELANCTHON.\n\n\"The scripture allows that the observance of the Sabbath\nhas now become void, for it teaches that the Mosaic ceremonies are not\nneedful after the revelation of the gospel\" (Augsburg Confession).\n\n\"The observance neither of the Sabbath nor of any other day is\nnecessary\" (Ibid).\n\nBUCER.\n\n\"It is not only a superstition, but an apostasy from Christ, to think\nthat working on the Lord's day, in itself considered, is a sinful thing\"\n(Cox's Sabbath Laws, p. 289).\n\nZWINGLE.\n\n\"It is lawful on the Lord's day, after divine service, for any man to\npursue his labors\" (Ibid, p. 287).\n\nBEZA.\n\n\"No cessation of work on the Lord's day is required of Christians\"\n(Ibid, p. 286).\n\nERASMUS.\n\n\"It is meet, therefore, that the keeping of the Sabbath day give\nplace to the commodity and profit of man\" (Paraphrase on Mark).\n\nCALVIN.\n\n\"The Fathers frequently call the command for the Sabbath a\nshadowy commandment, because it contains the external observance of the\nday, which was abolished with the rest of the figures at the advent\nof Christ.... The same day which put an end to the shadows admonishes\nChristians not to adhere to a shadowy ceremony\" (Institutes, Book II.,\nchap. viii). \"Christians, therefore, should have nothing to do with a\nsuperstitious observance of days\" (Ibid).\n\nARCHBISHOP CRANMER.\n\n\"The Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath day, but we Christians are\nnot bound to such commandments of Moses's law\" (Cranmer's Catechism).\n\nWILLIAM TYNDALE.\n\n\"We be lords over the Sabbath, and may yet change it into Monday, or\ninto any other day as we see need, or may make every tenth day holy\"\n(Answer to More, Book I., chap. xxv).\n\nJOHN FRITH.\n\n\"We are in manner as superstitious in the Sunday as they [the\nJews] are in the Saturday; yea, are we much madder; for the Jews have\nthe word for their Saturday, since it is the seventh day, and they are\ncommanded to keep the seventh day solemn; and we have not the word of\nGod for us, but rather against us, for we keep not the seventh day\nas the Jews do, but the first, which is not commanded by God's law\"\n(Declaration of Baptism).\n\nCOLERIDGE.\n\n\"The English Reformers took the same view of the day as Luther\nand the early church\" (Comments on Luther's Table Talk).\n\nDR. HESSEY.\n\n\"The Reformers were nearly unanimous on this point. Sabbatarianism of\nevery phase was expressly repudiated by the chief reformers in almost\nevery country\" (Bampton Lectures).\n\nJOHN MILTON.\n\n\"The law of the Sabbath being thus repealed, that no\nparticular day of worship has been appointed in its place [by divine\nauthority] is evident\" (Christian Doctrines, Book II., chap. vii).\n\nGROTIUS.\n\n\"These things refute those who suppose that the first day of the week\nwas substituted in place of the Sabbath, for no mention is ever made of\nsuch a thing by Christ or his apostles\" (Annotations on Exodus).\n\nARCHBISHOP PALEY.\n\n\"The observance of the Sabbath was not one of the articles enjoined by\nthe apostles\" (Moral Philosophy, Book V., chap. vii).\n\n\"The opinion that Christ and his apostles meant to retain the duties of\nthe Jewish Sabbath, shifting only the day from the seventh to the first,\nseems to prevail without sufficient reasons\" (Ibid). \"The resting on\nthat day from our employments, longer than we are detained from them\nby attendance upon these assemblies, is, to Christians, an ordinance of\nhuman institution\" (Ibid).\n\nARCHBISHOP WHATELY.\n\n\"It is not merely that the apostles left us no\ncommand perpetuating the observance of the Sabbath, and transferring the\nday from the seventh to the first.... There is not even any tradition of\ntheir having made such a change; nay, more, it is even abundantly plain\nthat they made no such change\" (Notes on Paul).\n\nJEREMY TAYLOR.\n\n\"The Lord's day did not succeed in the place of the Sabbath, but the\nSabbath was wholly abrogated\" (Taylor's Works, Vol. XII). \"The primitive\nChristians did all manner of works upon the Lord's day, even in times of\npersecution, when they were the strictest observers of all the divine\ncommandments\" (Ductor Dubitantium, Book II., chap. ii).\n\nBISHOP WHITE.\n\n\"In St. Jerome's days, and in the very place where he was\nresiding, the devoutest Christians did ordinarily work upon the Lord's\nday, when the service of the church was ended\" (Dialogues on the Lord's\nDay, p. 236).\n\nBISHOP WARBURTON.\n\n\"The observance of the Sabbath is no more a natural duty than\ncircumcision\" (Divine Legation, Book IV., sec. 6).\n\nWILLIAM PENN.\n\n\"To call any day of the week a Christian Sabbath is not Christian, but\nJewish\" (Penn's Works).\n\nCANON BARRY.\n\n\"The notion of a formal substitution, by apostolic authority, of the\nLord's day for the Jewish Sabbath... has no basis whatever in holy\nscripture or in Christian antiquity\" (Lecture on Sabbath).\n\nREV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.\n\n\"Scholars are now generally agreed that the Sabbath obligation was not\ntransferred by Christ or his apostles to the first day; that there is\nnot in the Christian scriptures [New Testament] a single command to keep\nthe Sabbath in any form or on any day\" (North American Review).\n\nANDREWS.\n\n\"The festival of Sunday is more ancient than the Christian religion, its\norigin being lost in remote antiquity. It did not originate, however,\nfrom any divine command nor from piety toward God; on the contrary, it\nwas set apart as a sacred day by the heathen world in honor of their\nchief god, the sun\" (History of the Sabbath, p. 258).\n\nVERSTEGAN.\n\n\"Unto the day dedicated unto the especial adoration of the idol of the\nsun, they [the pagans] gave the name of Sunday, as much as to say the\nsun's day or the day of the sun. This idol was placed in a temple, and\nthere adored and sacrificed unto\" (Antiquities, p. 68).\n\nMORER.\n\n\"Sunday being the day on which the gentiles solemnly adored that\nplanet, and called it Sunday,... the Christians thought fit to keep the\nsame day and the same name of it, that they might not appear causelessly\npeevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the gentiles\"\n(Dialogues on the Lord's Day, p. 22).\n\nDEAN MILMAN.\n\n\"The day of the sun would be willingly hallowed by almost all of the\npagan world\" (History of Christianity, Book III., chap. iv).\n\nDOMVILLE.\n\n\"Centuries of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was\nobserved by the Christian church as a Sabbath. History does not furnish\nus with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed\nprevious to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in a.d. 321\" (Six Texts,\np. 241).\n\n\"Not any ecclesiastical writer of the first three centuries attributed\nthe origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or to his apostles\"\n(Six Texts, supplement).\n\nKITTO.\n\n\"Though in later times we find considerable reference to a sort of\nconsecration of the day [Sunday], it does not seem at any period of the\nancient church to have assumed the form of such an observance as some\nmodern religious communities have contended for. Nor do these writers\nin any instance pretend to allege any divine command, or even apostolic\npractice, in support of it\" (Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Art.\nLord's Day).\n\nCOX.\n\n\"There is no evidence, however, that either at this, or at a period much\nlater, the observance was viewed as deriving any obligation from the\nFourth Commandment; it seems to have been regarded as an institution\ncorresponding in nature with Christmas, Good Friday, and other festivals\nof the church\" (Sabbath Laws, p. 281).\n\nNEANDER.\n\n\"The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a\nhuman ordinance\" (Church History, Rose's translation, p. 186).\n\nDR. HENGSTENBERG.\n\n\"The opinion that the Sabbath was transferred to Sunday was first\nbroached in its perfect form, and with all its consequences, in the\ncontroversy which was carried on in England between the Episcopalians\nand Presbyterians [about the close of the sixteenth century]. The\nPresbyterians were now in a position which compelled them either to\ngive up the observance of the Sunday, or to maintain that a divine\nappointment from God separated it from the other festivals. The first\nthey could not do.... They therefore decided upon the latter\" (Lord's\nDay, p. 66).\n\nDR. HEYLYN.\n\n\"The brethren had tried many ways to suppress them [church festivals]\nformerly, as having too much in them of the superstitions of the church\nof Rome, but they had found no way successful till they fell on this,\nwhich was to set on foot some new Sabbath doctrine, and, by advancing\nthe authority of the Lord's-day Sabbath, to cry down the rest\" (History\nof the Sabbath). \"Though Jewish and Rabbinical this doctrine was, it\ncarried a fair show of piety, at the least, in the opinion of the common\npeople, and such as did not stand to examine the true grounds thereof,\nbut took it upon the appearance; such as did judge, not by the\nworkmanship of the stuff, but the gloss and color, in which it is not\nstrange to see how suddenly men were induced, not only to give way unto\nit, but without more ado to abet the same, till in the end, and in\nvery little time, it grew the most bewitching error and most popular\ninfatuation that ever was infused into the people of England\" (Ibid).\n\nREV. J. N. WAGGONER.\n\n\"Read your Bible through a hundred times with reference to this\nsubject, and you will each time become more and more convinced of the\ntruthfulness of the following notable facts: 1. There is no divine\ncommand for Sunday observance. 2. There is not the least hint of a\nSunday institution. 3. Christ never changed God's Sabbath to Sunday.\n4. He never observed Sunday as the Sabbath. 5. The apostles never kept\nSunday for the Sabbath. 6. There is no prophecy that Sunday would ever\ntake the place of the Sabbath. 7. Neither God, Christ, angels, nor\ninspired men have ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy day\"\n(The Truth Found).\n\nCARDINAL GIBBONS.\n\n\"Read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a\nsingle line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday as a Sabbath\"\n(Faith of Our Fathers).\n\nALEXANDER CAMPBELL.\n\n\"There is no precept or command in the New Testament to compel by civil\nlaw any man who is not a Christian to pay regard to the Lord's day.\nIt is without authority of the Christian religion. I write this\nfrom principle. I have but one object in view--the suppression of an\nanti-rational, anti-constitutional, and anti-scriptural confederation,\nthat I conscientiously believe to be dangerous to the community, and\ninimical to civil and religious liberty; and while I am able to wield\npen, I will oppose every such encroachment on human right*\" (Washington,\nPa., Reporter, 1821).\n\n     St. Patrlck's   Cathedral,   New   York. Valued  at\n     $800,000.    Not  Taxed.\n\nPRESIDENT GARFIELD\n\nin Congress, June 22, 1874, said: \"The divorce between the church and\nthe state ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no\nchurch property, anywhere in any state, or in the nation, should be\nexempted from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any\nchurch organization, to that extent you impose a church tax upon the\nwhole community.\"\n\nThe census of 1890 gave the United States church property worth\n$679,426,489. The 1906 census showed $1,257,575,867. The value had\nnearly doubled in 16 years. Although church property doubles in\n16 years, church membership would not double in' 70 years, for the\n36,000,000 members in 1911 gained but a half million in 1912. Church\nprogress, then, is not counted in converts, but in dollars accumulated\nthrough an exemption which in New York equals the cost of caring for all\nthe city's poor.\n\nPRESIDENT GRANT\n\nin his annual message of 1875 said: \"In a growing country, where real\nestate enhances so rapidly with time as in the United States, there is\nscarcely a limit to the wealth that may be acquired by corporations,\nreligious or otherwise, if allowed to retain real estate without\ntaxation. The contemplation of so vast a property as here alluded to,\nwithout taxation, may lead to sequestration without constitutional\nauthority, and through blood. I would suggest the taxation of all\nproperty equally.\"","title":"The Christian Sabbath: Is It of Divine Origin?","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":2651}