Sabbath Keeping In the Third Century

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

There is an ancient document called the “Constitutions of the Holy Apostles.” The first several books were written in the late 200s AD (Schaff, Phillip, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2, p. 185). While the work is certainly not authored by the Apostles, it certainly can give us some insight into the late third century church. The writings from this time period portray the Sabbath in a positive light as a day of rest. In book 2, Section 4, Article 36, we learn:

THE RECITAL OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, AND AFTER WHAT MANNER THEY DO HERE PRESCRIBE TO US.

“xxxvi. Have before thine eyes the fear of God, and always remember the ten commandments of God, — to love the one and only Lord God with all thy strength ; to give no heed to idols, or any other beings, as being lifeless gods, or irrational beings or daemons. Consider the manifold workmanship of God, which received its beginning through Christ. Thou shalt observe the Sabbath, on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation, but ceased not from His work of providence; it is a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of the hands…”

(excerpt taken from Roberts and Donaldson, ed. “The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to AD 325 AD”. Vol VII. New York: 1890. page 413)

Over 200 years after Jesus was on earth, there were Christians still honoring the Sabbath. They still considered the law a very important part of their daily lives. This is a reminder that there have been Christians honoring the Sabbath from Jesus until today that were not affiliated with either Catholic or Protestant churches.

Kelly McDonald is the BSA President.

kellymcdonaldjr.com

Catholic Confessions About the Sabbath

Did you know that many Catholic authors over the years have confessed that the Sabbath is Scriptural and that Sunday is not? They also confess that the Roman Church is the one responsible for trying to change the day. Neither Jesus nor the early Apostles tried to change the Sabbath.

Below, we have surprising admissions from some of these Catholic authors!

James Cardinal Gibbons in The Faith of our Fathers, 1917, pp 72-73, wrote:

“But 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”

John Laux, a Catholic author of educational material, in his work A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies (1932, p 51), wrote: 

“If we consulted the Bible only, we should still have to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday, with the Jews, instead of Sunday.”

Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism (1876), p. 174:

“Question:  Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?

“Answer:  Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”

Catholic Virginian Oct. 3, 1947, p. 9, art. “To Tell You the Truth.”

“For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the[Roman Catholic] church outside the Bible.”

Rev. Peter Geiermann, The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1937), p. 50

“Question: Which is the Sabbath day?
Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
Answer. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea, transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
Question: Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
Answer: The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on a Sunday.
Question: By what authority did the Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
Answer: The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her.”

These quotes are shocking admissions by the Roman Catholic Church. Some of them are contradictory. In the last quote, by Geiermann, he claimed that the Sabbath was ‘substituted’ because of Christ’s resurrection and also because of Holy Spirit outpouring at Pentecost. But he also claimed that this Sabbath change did not occur until Laodicea (which was in 364 AD). How can it be both? The answer is that it was never changed. The Roman Church did not start emphasizing Sabbatory observance of Sunday until the mid-fourth century! This is an obvious admission that it is not an Apostolic practice!

As we have reviewed in other articles, most Christians kept the Sabbath over 100 years after the Council of Laodicea (Click HERE to learn more).

We can see from these quotes that the Roman Catholic Church admits when the Sabbath is and that she has tried to change it. The Bible, the example of Jesus, and the Apostles all affirm the eternal truth that it is still from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

Be sure to read more articles on this website or visit our home website to learn more! (www.biblesabbath.org)

God Bless! 

Kelly McDonald, Jr.
BSA President – www.biblesabbath.org. 

Augustine’s Sabbath Confessions

by Kelly McDonald, Jr.

Augustine, a Catholic apologist, lived from 354-430 AD. While he was an apologist in the Catholic Church, his letters contain some confessions about the Sabbath. Two letters in particular reveal that most Christian communities in the Mediterranean world actually honored the seventh-day Sabbath.

396 AD – From Augustine to Casulanus

“This question I would wish to see him investigate, and resolve in such a manner as would not involve him in the guilt of openly speaking against the whole Church diffused throughout the world, with the exception of the Roman Christians, and hitherto a few of the Western communities. Is it, I ask, to be endured among the entire Eastern Christian communities, and many of those in the West, that this man should say of so many and so eminent servants of Christ, who on the seventh day of the week refresh themselves soberly and moderately with food, that they are in the flesh, and cannot please God; and that of them it is written, “Let the wicked depart from me, I will not know their way; and that they make their belly their god”, that they prefer Jewish rites to those of the Church, and are sons of the bondwoman; that they are governed not by the righteous law of God, but by their own good pleasure, consulting their own appetites instead of submitting to salutary restraint; also that they are carnal, and savour of death, and other such charges, which if he had uttered against even one servant of God, who would listen to him, who would not be bound to turn away from him?” (Augustine, Letter 36, Chapter 2, Sec. 4)

 

405 AD – From Augustine to Jerome

“For if we say that it is wrong to fast on the seventh day, we shall condemn not only the Church of Rome, but also many other churches, both neighbouring and more remote, in which the same custom continues to be observed. If, on the other hand, we pronounce it wrong not to fast on the seventh day, how great is our presumption in censuring so many churches in the East, and by far the greater part of the Christian world!” (Aug, Letter 82, 2, 14)

In the 100s and 200s AD, the Roman Catholic Church began to fast on the Sabbath to desecrate the day. They wanted to go contrary to the practice of the seventh day as an enjoyable day. Augustine reminds us that most Christians in the Mediterranean world still rested on the seventh-day and ate festive foods. They refused to fast on the seventh day because it was to be the most enjoyable day of the week.

Kelly McDonald Jr. is president of the BSA. You can visit his website here: kellymcdonaldjr.org

How the Sabbath Came to the Cherokee Strip Part 3 of 3

(Oklahoma Territory Land Run 1893)

by Bryan Burrell

 

The  doctrine of the seventh-day Sabbath, which had seemed so strange at first, now became very easily understood.   In 1898 the Websters united with the Church of God and took their stand with the faithful little group that had brought this new light into the wilderness of the Indian Territory.

The next year, 1899, another Sabbath keeping minister  came to the Strip.   S. S. Davison filed claims a few miles northwest of Golden Valley School.  Some Sabbathkeeping kin, the Sheffields, also filed at that time and later other sabbath keeping relatives and friends came to the Territory.

In the years that followed, the land became more settled, and the towns grew.  In 1907 the Indian Territory became the State of  Oklahoma  and the group of Sabbathkeepers was growing and continued to meet in the Golden Valley School.

World War I broke out and  the United States became involved.  Out of this tragedy came a good thing for the Sabbathkeeping church in Fairview.  The Germans in the community were discouraged from speaking their native language and  their group quit meeting in their church building and it became available to the  group of Sabbathkeepers who purchased the building in 1920 for $1,000.

Thus the Sabbath came to the Cherokee Strip.  The building purchased during World War I is the Church of God at Fairview.  It has been remodeled  several times and progress has also greatly changed the land.   Almost every section line is a road.  Telephone lines have been stretched to every part of the region and rural electricity lights  the countryside.  The wheatfields that once were prepared and harvested by horses are now tilled  and harvested by large tractors and combines.  The old soddies and dugouts soon gave way to comfortable  houses.    Every Sabbath morning around the church  where once stood horses and buggies, you will now see automobiles.  But the gospel that the congregation studies on Sabbath morning  is the word of the never changing God.   Generations of Sabbathkeepers from the families who homesteaded in the Cherokee Strip now reside all over the country;  grateful for the brave hard working and dedicated  pioneers who lived  and shared their Sabbath beliefs.

This story is part of an article printed several years ago in The Sabbath Sentinel.

Much of the early Fairview Church history was recorded by Roy Wells and Clayton Faubion around 1950.    In 1994 the church hosted a centennial celebration.

The Fairview Church was the first Church of God, Seventh Day established in Oklahoma and in September 1905 they organized the Oklahoma Conference with C.C. Wells-Pres., Frank Miller-V Pres., Leah Davison Miller-Sec., and Eber Davison-Treas.

Bryan Burrell is a Board Member and Treasurer for the BSA.

How the Sabbath Came to the Cherokee Strip Part 2 of 3

(Oklahoma Territory Land Run 1893)

by Bryan Burrell

 

The winter of ’93 and ’94 was pretty tough on those pioneers who decided to stay on their claims.  They threw together crude shelters of sod and poles and fashioned dugouts by digging huge holes with low walls of sod and roofs of poles and more sod.  By spring, things took on a brighter look and the settlers were there to stay.

Ed Webster, using part of his six months in which to establish a residence upon his claim, returned to Missouri for his wife, Crinner and they came to the Indian Territory to make their home.   Their neighbors on the east who had stayed through the winter and had their dugout in a fairly habitable condition was Junis Wells’ brother, Charley.  They had been right about the wagon they had seen on the day the race took place.  Junis and Charley had gone in and had staked claims.  Their father and a sister had also taken claims.    The Wells families made the Websters welcome, and until their own home was ready they camped in their covered wagon in the Wells’ yard.

Through the busy days of getting their home established and their ground in production, the Websters had little time to think about the strange doctrines of the Wells families.   Ed Webster had not had time to go to church before, and he knew little about religion.  The strange things the Wells boys believed were far different from Crinner Webster’s church.

The Wells families would go every Saturday to a little sod schoolhouse about six miles west where they would hold church services.  The Horton and Douglas families had filed near there and they,too, were of the same belief and they all met for services in the school house.

There were no towns, yet.  A man had put up a crude building, and had brought a wagon load of supplies from Enid.  That was a store.  It was not uncommon for him to sell out his entire stock of merchandise in a few hours and hitch up to his wagon and head for another supply.

Two brothers, Henry and Clifford Bower made the run and filed on tracts that were divided by what is now known as West Central Street in the town of Fairview.  Henry started a store there shortly after establishing a residence  in 1894.  That store was the start of what is now Fairview in northwestern Oklahoma.

The seventh-day people soon began planning to get a minister of their faith to come to the Indian Territory.  In 1896,  J. R. Goodenough came and filed on a claim not far from the school where they were holding services.   He began to preach the same strange belief that the Wells families had been talking, and the Websters were often invited to attend the meetings, but they declined.  Goodenough held a few night meetings in a school near  the Websters and their neighbor came back talking about that preacher.  “He says he is going to preach on prophecy.”  That got the Websters interested and they went to hear him.   The meeting didn’t last long, but the Websters began going to the weekly meetings at the Golden Valley School.

We will finish next time!

 

How the Sabbath Came to the Cherokee Strip Part 1 of 3

(Oklahoma Territory Land Run 1893)

 

by Bryan Burrell

 

It was September 17, 1893.  A small town near what would become the city of Fairview, in the Indian Territory, on the edge of the Cherokee Strip, was overrun with people from all over the world.  Immigrants to the United States had joined with multitudes from all over the nation and had stationed themselves at strategic points on both sides of a narrow strip of land in the Cimarron country, through which the Cherokee Indians had been permitted to travel between their reservation to the east and their hunting grounds in Colorado.  This strip of land was to be opened for homesteading, and the rush was about to start.  Many knew little about the farm and certainly knew little about pioneer life but this chance to have free land for their families brought the people to the Strip.    Word had spread of the success of the run into Cheyenne Territory in 1889.  Everett Shelton had made the ’89 run and had urged his brothers-in-law, Joe Bousman and Ed Webster to make this race.

 

This Saturday morning, September 17, 1893 Shelton was helping Bousman and Webster to find their places when he noticed a covered wagon parked apart from the rest of the crowd.  The horses were unharnessed and tied, and there was no sign of activity about the wagon.  “H-m-m-m,” he mused, “That wagon must belong to a seventh-day man.”  “I wonder,” he said as he looked at the idle wagon, “if that could be Junis Wells from Kansas.”

 

Shelton had been teaching school in southeastern Kansas when he became acquainted with Wells and they had  spent many hours in pleasant conversation and study of the Bible, which they both loved.  Junis Wells was a man of many strange ideas, and Shelton had set out to change his ideas and even called upon his minister to help him out.  But Junis  Wells was too much for them and they gave it up.

 

The time was drawing near that the starting gun would be fired and the rush would be on, so Shelton and Webster hastened to their places.  Then the sound of the starting gun set the sea of men and horses to rolling forward into the Cherokee Strip, one of the most dramatic scenes in our nation’s history.  Out of that memorable day have come many stories of heroism, romance, violence and intrigue.

 

Ed Webster started with the rest in the mad scramble for a piece of land.    He was in no wise a horseman.  He could make the horse run, and he could make him walk, but those were the only two speeds he could get out of the beast.  Seven miles in he came to a place where some cattlemen had built a fence, but fire had destroyed most of the posts.  He jumped from the horse and threw the lines over one of the charred stumps and there he set his stake.

 

The next day was Sunday and Shelton saw the covered wagon that the day before had set idle,  now moving out across the Strip, quietly picking its way.  Webster had returned from staking his claim and was ready to file but had to wait for his number to be called.  Bousman staked a claim and  while he was waiting for his number to be called, a claim-jumper filed on his claim.  He could have fought it  but he returned to Missouri.

 

We will continue next time!

 

Bryan Burrell is a Board Member and Treasurer for the BSA.

Sabbath Keeping in 600 AD

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

Recall from previous blogs that the Arians had Sabbath-keeping tendencies. They eventually conquered and ruled the Western Roman Empire. In 476 AD, Odoacer king of the Heruli ruled Italy. In the 490s AD, the Ostrogoths conquered the Heruli. Not long after this, the Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian conquered the Ostrogoths.

In the 580s AD, the Arian Lombards overran Italy and began to rule most of the inner part of the country. There were remnants of Arian Christians in France and even Spain. During this time, we have some writings of Catholic clergy who lived in the region.

575 AD

Around 575 AD, Gregory of Tours [modern day France] tells us, “The day of the Lord’s resurrection is the first, not the seventh as many think” (History of the Franks, 1:22 [others list it as 1:23]).

Late 500s or Early 600s AD

Pope Gregory I tells us, “It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day. What else can I call these but preachers of Antichrist, who, when he comes, will cause the Sabbath day as well as the Lord’s day to be kept free from all work…he compels the people to Judaize that he may bring back the outward rite of the law, and subject the perfidy of the Jews to himself, he wishes the Sabbath to be observed.” (Registrum Epistolarum, Book 13, Letter 1)

These two men give us some important details. From one, we learn that most people still believed in a seventh-day resurrection of Jesus. From the second, we learn that a significant number of people still honored the Sabbath. Sabbatarians were so numerous that Pope Gregory I compares them to the anti-Christ and the one-world government of prophecy!

We can see that Sabbath keepers in Italy still had strong numbers; Catholicism viewed them as a major threat. Many still believed in a Saturday resurrection, which was contrary to the Catholic view.  Sabbath keeping still had influenced in certain areas several centuries after the time of Christ.

Kelly McDonald, Jr.

BSA President www.biblesabbath.org

An Ancient Sabbath Keeping King

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

As we have reviewed in other Sabbath history segments, Arian Christians had Sabbath-keeping tendencies. They were a group who seem to have practiced the commandments of God. Between 341 and 380 AD, an Arian minister named Ufilas went to the region known as Germany and Poland today. He evangelized the Germanic and Gothic tribes just on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. He converted many Gothic tribes to Arianism. Among his incredible works was to create an alphabet for the Gothic language and then translate the Bible into that language. Up until his time, the Gothic language was only spoken. Eventually, 8 of the 10 major tribes including the Visigoths, Burgundians, Vandals, and Lombards would claim some form of Arian belief.

By the mid-400s AD, the Western Roman Empire was overrun by the Gothic/Germanic tribes. Because most of these were Arian, Sabbath keeping was also diffused in the area. Sidonius Apollinaris, who was a writer and Christian of this time period, tells us about one particular Visigothic King, Theodoric, who ruled southern France and Spain from 453-466 AD.

450s/460s AD
“On ordinary days, his table resembles that of a private person…. What need for me to describe the pomp of the Sabbath?” (Sidonius Appollinarius Book 1, Letter 2, Section 6.)

If you were to read the full context of this quote, Sidonius explains that Theodoric ate like a common man during the week, but on the Sabbath he ate with great pomp. This shows that Sabbath keeping was revered even by kings in this time period. To learn more about the connection between Sabbath keeping and Arianism, CLICK HERE. To learn more about Sabbath keeping in this era of time, CLICK HERE.

God Bless!

Kelly McDonald, JR.

BSA President www.biblesabbath.org

Sabbath Keeping in 400 AD

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

In the 300s and 400s AD, a group of Christians called Arians were the majority belief system. Dr. Arius and his followers were known for practicing a lifestyle considered by many to be Jewish. Below, we have some quotes from two early Church historians – Sozomen and Socrates. They record the Sabbath-keeping practices of the Arians and most of Christianity in general.

Approximately 400 AD

“Likewise some meet both upon the Sabbath and upon the day after the Sabbath, as at Constantinople, and among almost all others. At Rome and Alexandria they do not. Among the Egyptians, likewise, in many cities and villages, there is also a sacred custom among all of meeting on the evening of the Sabbath, when the sacred mysteries are partaken of” (Sozomen, Church History, bk 7, ch 19).

“The Arians, as we have said, held their meetings without the city. As often therefore as the festal days occurred — I mean Saturday and Lord’s day—in each week, on which assemblies are usually held in the churches, they congregated within the city gates about the public squares, and sang responsive verses adapted to the Arian heresy. This they did during the greater part of the night : and again in the morning, chanting the same songs which they called responsive, they paraded through the midst of the city, and so passed out of the gates to go to their places of assembly” (Socrates, Church History bk 6, ch 8).

“For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious assemblies on the Sabbath, but do not participate of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in general : for after having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening making their offerings…” (ibid, bk 5, ch 22)

The quote provides clear evidence that the Arians had Sabbath-keeping tendencies. Unfortunately, many of them also met on the first day of the week. There could be various explanations of this. We go into depth about this development in another article, which you can read by CLICKING HERE.

The first quote from Socrates above indicates that they celebrated the Sabbath so strongly that their celebration spilled over into the first day of the week. Also, remember that Constantine set the precedent years before to force all Roman citizens to rest on the first day of the week (it had been reinforced in 386 by Theodosius I). This is discussed in the article link provided above. An entire generation grew up resting on Sabbath to honor the commandments of God and then the first day of the week out of social custom.

God’s plan in the Bible is to work six days and rest on the seventh. One thing we do learn from these historical examples is that most Christians honored the Sabbath. Rome and Alexandria were the exceptions.

God Bless!

Kelly McDonald, Jr.

BSA President – www.biblesabbath.org

Council of Laodicea – 364 AD

Over the years, there has been some debate about when the Council of Laodicea was held. Some ascribe it to Constantine’s time, and others to a later date. We have two more articles on Constantine and the Sabbath (click here for #1 and click here for #2) and a free book on Constantine and the Sabbath (CLICK HERE to download). These decrees do not really belong to the time of Constantine, as there are no church records to confirm this date. The best date for this council is about 364 (to read more about the dating of this council, read the appendix at the end of this article).

One of the goals of this council was to discourage Sabbath keeping in the Eastern Roman Empire during this time; most Christians in the East still observed the Sabbath. The canons, or final conclusions issues by council, confirm this detail. We have some quotes below:

“Canon 16: The Gospels are to be read on the Sabbath [i.e. Saturday], with the other Scriptures.

Canon 29: Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour, and, as being Christians, shall if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.

Canon 37: No one shall accept festal presents from Jews and heretics, or keep the festivals with them.”

(Quotes from this Synod taken from: Hefele, Joseph. A History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents. Edinborough, 1896. Vol 2, Pages 295-324. To read the rest of the canons from this council, CLICK HERE).

What do we learn from the council?
Some people try to claim that this council shows the Sabbath was ‘instantly’ changed to Sunday. This incorrect. Most Christians in the east, and many in the West, still observed the Sabbath AFTER this council was held and many decades into the future! To read an article about this subject, CLICK HERE)! 

The Roman Church did not have the civil authority (at that time) to force people to follow these canons from this council. The Council simply reflects the Roman Church’s view of the Sabbath at that time. 

The Council of Laodicea was clearly promoted by the Roman Church and those leaders who agreed with them. We learn that even in congregations with pro-Roman influence, the Sabbath still retained some level of importance as the Scriptures were supposed to be read on the day. However, the canons of this council are very anti-Semitic and anti-Sabbath. One goal of this council was to discourage people from keeping God’s Sabbaths in the Biblical manner by resting on the day.

In this Council, we can see the enemy’s plan to discourage people from keeping the commandments of God. Though he may try his best, we know that he can never win! Councils like this were the foundation for anti-Semitism that would form Christian thinking centuries later and to some extent even today.

Kelly McDonald, Jr.

BSA President – www.biblesabbath.org

Article Appendix: The Timing of Laodicea

Some of the decrees of this Council are curiously uncharacteristic to be allowed by the Emperor Constantius (Constantine’s son who ruled from 337 to 361). It also would be uncharacteristic for it to be held under Valens, who ruled the East from 364-378. These two rulers were favorable towards Arianism. This was the main Christian group in the Eastern Empire. They were known for Sabbath-keeping tendencies.

There was a period of time from 361 to 364 in which two rulers, Julian and Jovian, ruled in the East. Julian was known for his paganism. Jovian, on the other hand, was known to favor the Roman Church. During Jovian’s short reign (only about 8 months) is the most likely time period for this council.