Many refer to the writings of church fathers in an attempt to prove that from pretty much the beginning of Christianity, Christians met regularly on Sunday, no longer keeping the Sabbath.
Yet how reliable is this message that is posted on many a website?
A while back websites quoted four paragraphs supposedly from the Didache that supposedly supported Sunday worship in the first century. Their error was pointed out that three of those quotes came from a document written 200 years later.
Here is one sample --
Originally Posted By: from antiSabbath website
90AD DIDACHE: ...every Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice: for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's day, being the day of the resurrection... (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 7, pg. 449)
First of all you won't find that quote in the Didache at all. It comes from a document written 200 years later. (So much for accurately portraying dates on those websites)
Quote:
[c. 250-300 AD Apostolic Constitutions:] We enjoin you to fast every fourth day of the week, and every day of the preparation, and the surplusage of your fast bestow upon the needy; every Sabbath-day excepting one, and every Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies and rejoice: for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's day, being the day of the resurrection, ,or during the time of Pentecost, or, in general, who is sad on a festival day to the Lord. For on them we ought to rejoice, and not to mourn.—bk. 5, sec. 3, xx.
Now I wonder why the anti-Sabbath website elipsed "every Sabbath day" ?? Obviously in the third century they were still observing the Sabbath day !!! Even if the day of resurrection also had meetings on it.
At the point in time when the above was written they were not to fast on the Sabbath except for one -- further study reveals that one was the yearly rememberance of Christ being in the grave. Later decades we find commands to fast on every Sabbath -- this was the papal means of casting contempt upon the God's Holy Day.
All from [c. 250-300 AD Apostolic Constitutions:] . . . but assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the Lord's house: in the morning saying the sixty-second Psalm, and in the evening the hundred and fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath-day, and on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection . . . ?—bk. 2, sec. 7, lix.
[c. 300-350 AD Apostolic Constitutions:] Let your judicatures be held on the second day of the week, that if any controversy arise about your sentence, having an interval till the Sabbath, you may be able to set the controversy right, and to reduce those to peace who have the contests one with another against the Lord's day.—bk. 2, sec. 6, xlvii.
Not that the Sabbath-day is a day of fasting, being the rest from the creation . . . .—bk. 5, sec. 3, xv.
O Lord Almighty Thou hast created the world by Christ, and hast appointed the Sabbath in memory thereof, because that on that day Thou hast made us rest from our works, for the meditation upon Thy laws.—bk. 7, sec. 2, xxxvi.
On this account He permitted men every Sabbath to rest, that so no one might be willing to send one word out of his mouth in anger on the day of the Sabbath. For the Sabbath is the ceasing of the creation, the completion of the world, the inquiry after laws, and the grateful praise to God for the blessings He has bestowed upon men. All which the Lord's day excels . . . .—bk. 7, sec. 2, xxxvi.
So what do we see?
We do NOT see Christians as having given up the Sabbath at all. Yes, they do meet on Sundays and as time progresses Sunday (with the help of Roman Catholic Church) will push out the Sabbath, but it had not done so prior to the days of Constantine.
This is NOT a clear -- Before the cross - God's people kept the 7th day After the cross - they changed to the 1st day.
No, it was a process --
At first they all kept the seventh day as God's sabbath. The resurrection celebration on occasiona Sundays was innocent enough. BUT
The grievious wolves were in the church early eating away at God's commandments, gradually driving out God's Holy Day and replacing it with the 1st day of the week. That change took CENTURIES.
More quotes from the Constitutions:
"Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath-day and the Lord's day let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety. We have said that the Sabbath is on account of the creation, and the Lord's day of the resurrection.—bk. 8, sec. 4, xxxiii.
64. If any one of the clergy be found to fast on the Lord's day, or on the Sabbath-day, excepting one only, let him be deprived; but if he be one of the laity, let him be suspended.—bk. 8, Eccl. Canons.
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 demons. 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."; Book ii. sect. 4, par. 36.
But keep the Sabbath, and the Lord's day festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection. But there is only one Sabbath to be observed by you (as a fast) in the whole year, which is that of our Lord's burial, on which men ought to keep a fast, but not a festival.—bk. 7, sec. 2, xxiii.
And look at this
Origen, (185-253) wrote: “But what is the feast of the Sabbath except that of which the apostle speaks, ‘There remaineth, therefore, a Sabbatism,’ that is, the observance of the Sabbath by the people of God? (See Heb. 4) Leaving the Jewish observances of the Sabbath, let us see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. On the Sabbath day all worldly labors ought to be abstained from. If, therefore, you cease from all secular works, and execute nothing worldly, but give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction … this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath.”
At that time, this was referring to the seventh day of the week. Like Jesus and Paul he is addressing how to OBSERVE the seventh day sabbath, not change to a different day.
Apostolical Constitutions” comes down to us from the third century, and contains what was at that time very generally believed to be the doctrine of the apostles. It is therefore valuable to us, not as authority respecting the teaching of the apostles, but as giving us a knowledge of the views and practices which prevailed in the third century.
At the time these “Constitutions” were put in writing the ten commandments were revered as the immutable rule of right, and the Sabbath of the Lord was by many observed as an act of obedience to the fourth commandment, and as the divine memorial of the creation. But the first-day festival had already attained such strength and influence as to clearly indicate that before long it would claim the entire ground.
