The Recorded Changes to Sabbath-Keeping

The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven- day week with its numbered week days, but by the close of the third century A.D. this began to give way; and in the fourth and fifth centuries the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western half of Christendom. During these same centuries the spread of Oriental solar worship, especially that of Mithra (Persian sun worship) in the Roman world, had already led to the substitution by pagans of Sun-day, as the first day of the planetary week. ... Thus gradually a pagan institution was ingrafted on Christianity.

"Until well into the second century [a hundred years after Christ] we do not find the slightest indication in our sources that early followers marked Sunday by any kind of abstention from work." -W .Rordorf, Sunday, p. 157.

"The ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed by the Christians of the Eastern Church [in the area near Palestine] above three hundred years after our Saviour's death." -A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath, p. 77.

Origen advocated Sabbath-keeping:

After the festival of the unceasing sacrifice [the crucifixion] is put the second festival of the Sabbath, and it is fitting for whoever is righteous among the saints to keep also the festival of the Sabbath. There remaineth therefore a sabbatismus, that is, a keeping of the Sabbath, to the people of God [Hebrews 4:9] (Homily on Numbers 23, para. 4, in Migne, Patrologia Græca, Vol. 12, cols. 749, 750).

Similarly the Constitution of the Holy Apostles (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 413; c. 3rd century) states: 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.

The Sabbatati of Europe established in Milan kept the Sabbath. It was the practice generally of the Eastern Churches; and some churches of the West ... For in the Church of Millaine [Milan]; ... "it seemes the Saturday was held in a farre esteeme ... Not that the Easterne Churches, or any of the rest which observed that day were inclined to Iudaisme [Judaism]; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Iesus [Jesus] Christ the Lord of the Sabbath " (Dr. Peter Heylyn History of the Sabbath, London 1636, Part 2, para. 5, pp. 73-74; original spelling retained).

The Change

"Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath. ... The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place ; for men appear by that time to have considered labouring on Sunday as a sin."-AUGUSTUS ~EANDER, "General History of the Christian Religion and Church" (Rose's tran51ation). Vol. I, page JR6

The first direct reference to Sunday as a day of rest from physical toil we find in Tertullian, in about A.D. 200 in his Liber de Oratione, chapter 23. "We, however (just as we have received) , only on the day of the Lord's resurrection ought to guard not only against kneeling, but every posture and office of solicitude ; deferring even our businesses lest we give any place to the devil." -TERTULLIAN, "Ante-Nicene Fathers," Vol. III, page 689.

Eusebius, fourth-century bishop and friend of the wicked Emperor Constantine, whose Sunday law is the first on record, flatly says: " All things, whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's day [as they had begun to call Sunday] ." -"Commentary on the Psalms ."

"Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath. ... The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place ; for men appear by that time to have considered labouring on Sunday as a sin."-AUGUSTUS ~EANDER, "General History of the Christian Religion and Church" (Rose's tran51ation). Vol. I, page JR6

The Dictionary of New Testament Theology discusses this alleged Sabbath-annulling by Yeshua, and then concludes, "We may conclude then, that though [Yeshua] broke through the rabbinic tradition about the Sabbath, there was no annulling of the observance of the day."' Why then has Sunday become the day of worship instead of Sabbath? Why are we not keeping Sabbath while Sabbath-observance will be practiced in the new earth by those who have survived the end-time judgment (Isa. 66:23)? Who then changed the Sabbath to Sunday? Is the change Scriptural? Cardinal Gibbons in Faith of Our Fathers, 92nd ed., p. 89, says, "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."

Sun-worship had considerable influence amongst Constantine's predecessors, the emperors before him. Elagabalus, Nero, Diocletian and Aurelian were each involved in Sun-worship, especially Elagabalus and Aurelian. Likewise, Constantine's family had been Sun- deity worshippers, and so was Constantine himself.' Constantine called the Sun-deity: "Unconquered Sun, my companion." His edict in the year 321 legislated the "venerable day of the Sun" to be a rest-day. This rest was commanded in honour of the Sun, and not in honour of Messiah.

"Sun worship was the earliest idolatry ." -Fausset Bible Dictionary , p. 666. "Sun worship was one of the oldest components of the Roman religion." -Gaston H. Halsberge, The Cult of Sol Invictus, 1972, p. 26.

The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible' emphasizes the motive of Constantine for legislating Sunday as a day of rest, and stresses, "the general importance of the Sun-god in the Empire. Indeed, this god was the titulary divinity of Constantine's family, and from the fourth century there is an increasing assimilation of Christ to the Sun-god (as Sun of Righteousness), the Christos Helios (cf. Eusebius Life of Constantine 1.4.18; and the notable mosaic of Christos Helios recently uncovered in the tomb of the Julii under the Vatican)."

But this theme of "Christ-the- True-Sun" had already been diffusely proclaimed by Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215) in many of his writing~..: Origen followed in the footsteps of Clement, his teacher, and pro- claimed our Saviour to be "the Sun," "the True Sun." Cyprian also called our Saviour "the True Sun." Because of this, Bishop Zeno of Verona elaborated at great length on Christ-the-Sun as the True Sun, as the Eternal Sun- .Some might say that Helios also means the sun as the physical sun. But, all encyclopedias affirm that, in religion, Helios means the Sun-deity. This assimilation of our Saviour to the Sun-deity was not difficult, for the pagans of the Roman Empire were steeped in Sun-worship and they rcferred to their Sun-deity as their "Lord" (Kurios). Helios, the Sun- deity, was called "the Lord (Kurios) of the heaven and the earth."18 Indeed, certain historians have felt that Sun-worship has really given Sunday the name "Lord's day." A. Paiva writes, "The first day of each week, Sunday, was consecrated to Mithra since times remote, as several authors affirm. Because the Sun was god, the Lord par excellence, sun- day came to be called the Lord's day, as later was done by Christianity."19 Our Saviour was called "Lord" (Kurios) and the Sun-deity was also called "Lord" (Kurios), the "Lord par excellence." So, the name- titles being easy to unite, it made it easier to identify our Saviour's "day" with the day of the Sun-deity!

Constantines Edict

Here is the first Sunday law in history, a legal enactment by Constantine I (reigned 306-337): "On the Venerable Day of the Sun ["Venerable die Solis" -the sacred day of the Sun ] let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost- given the 7th day of March [A.D. 321], Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time."- The First Sunday Law of Constantine I, in "Codex Justianianus,"lib. 3, tit. 12,3; trans. in Phillip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3, p. 380.

"This [Constantine's Sunday decree of March 321] is the 'parent' Sunday law making it a day of rest and release from labor. For from that time to the present there have been decrees about the observance of Sunday which have profoundly influenced European and American society. When the Church became a part of State under the Christian emperors, Sunday observance was enforced by civil statutes, and later when the Empire was past, the Church in the hands of the papacy enforced it by ecclesiastical and also by civil enactments." -Walter W. Hyde, Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire, 1946, p. 261.

"Constantine's decree marked the beginning of a long, though intermittent series of imperial decrees in support of Sunday rest" -Vincent J. Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations, 1943, p. 29.

"Constantine labored at this time untiringly to unite the worshipers of the old and the new into one religion. All his laws and contrivances are aimed at promoting this amalgamation ..Of all his blending and melting together of Christianity and heathenism, none is more easy to see through than this making of his Sunday law: The Christians worshiped their Christ, the heathen their sun-god [so they should now be combined]." -H. G. Heggtveit, Illustreret Kirkehistorie, 1895, p. 202.

"If every Sunday is to be observed by Christians on account of the resurrection, then every Sabbath on account of the burial is to be regarded in execration [cursing] of the Jews." -Pope Sylvester, quoted by S. R. E. Humbert, "Adversus Graecorum Calumnias," in J. P. Migne, Patrologie, p. 143 [Sylvester (A.D. 314-337) was the pope at the time Constantine I was Emperor].

"All things whatsoever that were prescribed for the [Bible] Sabbath, we have transferred them to the Lord's day, as being more authoritative and more highly regarded and first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath." -Bishop Eusebius, quoted in J. P. Migne, "Patrologie," p. 23,1169-1172 (Eusebius of Caesarea was a high-ranking Catholic leader during Constantine's lifetime].

This change-over to Sunday by the Church took place in the year 336 and was the first law passed to legalise Sunday-keeping (some authorities give the date as 364) at the Council of Laodicca, Canon 29:

"Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [in the original: 'sabbato' -shall not be idle on the Sabbath], 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 ['anathema,' excommunicated] from Christ." - Council of Laodicea, c. A.D. 337, Canon 29, quoted in C. J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 316.

Sun-day had triumphed over the Sabbath.

Sun Worship

"'Babylon, the mother of harlots,' derived much of her teaching from pagan Rome and thence from Babylon. Sun worship -that led her to Sunday keeping, -was one of those choice bits of paganism that sprang originally from the heathen lore of ancient Babylon: The solar theology of the 'Chaldeans' had a decisive effect upon the final development of Semitic paganism. .[It led to their] seeing the sun the directing power of the cosmic system. All the Baals were thence forward turned into suns; the sun itself being the mover of the other stars -like it eternal and 'unconquerable' .. Such was the final form reached by the religion of the pagan Semites, and following them, by that of the Romans. .when they raised 'Sol Invictus' [the Invincible Sun] to the rank of supreme divinity in the empire." -Franz F. V. M. Cummont, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans, p. 55.

"When Christianity conquered Rome, the ecclesiastical structure of the pagan church, the title and the vestments of the 'pontifex maximus,' the worship to the 'Great Mother' goddess and a multitude of comforting divinities .. .. the joy or solemnity of old festivals, and the pageantry of immemorial ceremony, passed like material blood into the new religion, -and captive Rome conquered her conqueror. The reins and skills of government were handed down by a dying empire to a virile papacy ." - Will Durant, Caesar and Christ, p. 672.

The Messianic Belief, being united with all the Sun-worshipping cults, was to become one strong body which gradually would overrun, assimilate and syncretize all remaining obstacles, either by force, or by "assimilation and compromise." The many half'-Christian and mostly Sun-worshipping Gnostic sects, heavily leaning towards allegorization and Neoplatoizm, had already influenced or infiltrated the Christianity of Alexandria and of Rome. -Clement of Alexandria and Origen had already been quoting freely from the books of the Gnostics Valentinus and Heracleon. Irenaeus, Tertullian and Hippolytus later on also did likewise with the writings of Valentinus and Ptolemy.. .Already in the year 124 Emperor Hadrian wrote from Alexandria (on his visit there) the fo11owing, in a letter, "Those who worship Serapis are Christians and those who ca11 themselves bishops of Christ are vowed to Serapis."' , (Serapis being the Sun-deity of Alexandria). The intermingling between Christianity and Gnosticizrn is typified by the Christian leader Clement's repeated praise of the "true Gnostic," meaning thereby the perfect Christian!

Some we11-known Church Fathers who came from Gnosticizm were: Epiphanius who had been a Nicolaitan, Ambrose of Milan who had been a Valentinian, and Augustine who had been a Manichean for 9 years before joining the Catholic Church.: All these Gnostic sects were distinguished by their rejection of the Old Testament Law, some of them even rejecting the Mighty One of the Old Testament, and some of them even equated the Mighty One of the Old Testament with the Evil One!

In their rejection of the Old Testament Law, the Valentinian Gnostics even rejected all moral laws, leading to scandalous living. This Valentinianizm acted as a half-way house for two hundred years between heathenism and Christianity. The Marcionites were later on refuted, but they also contributed toward the aversion to, and even rejection or, the Old Testament. Sun-worshipping Mithraism, who advanced Babylonian (Chaldean) astrology with the Sun at the centre of it, played a major role in the resultant merger between Sun-worship and the Messianic Belief. Manes and his followers, the Manicheans, from among whom Augustine came, "looked on Judaism with horror, rejected the Old Testament entirely, and [Manicheism] was not improbably born in an outbreak of anti-Semitic fury."- The Manicheans (who were half-Christians) kept Sunday in honour of the Sun, and not in honour of the Resurrection day.

However, the Council of Laodicea's directive in the year 336 (or 364), that Christians are not to Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, was apparently only obeyed in Rome and in Alexandria, the two centres where Christianity was infiltrated by, and mixed with pagan religion.,;. Two contemporary historians, namely Sozomen in the year 440 and Socrates in the year 439, both recorded this remarkable situation. Socrates wrote, "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."

Sozomen confirms this, "the people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week," such a "custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria. "

But gradually the influence and power of the Roman Church grew, sup- ported by political and civil authorities with their power. Sabbath-keeping dwindled until there was hardly a remnant left, scattered and persecuted. So, the first contributory factor for the adoption of Sunday instead of the Sabbath, was the assimilation of our Saviour to the Sun, even the Sun as deity, Him being made into Christos Helios, Christ the True Sun, Christ the Eternal Sun.

The second contributory factor was the general importance and popularity of Sun-worship that had become deeply rooted in Alexandria and in Rome. The third contributory factor was the strong anti-Judaism that prevailed. The fourth contributory factor was the Eastward orientated prayers and worship. In Ezekiel 8:9-16, Elohim calling this a "wicked abomination." In verse 16 we read of the 25 men "worshipping the Sun towards the East." Israel was commanded to shun such an abominable practice by rather praying towards Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:29-48, Ps. 138:2 and Dan. 6: 10). In the Law, Israel was sternly warned against Sun-worship (Deut. 4: 19) as we have already seen.

F.J. Dolger, in his comprehensive Sol Salutis, devoted many pages to this Eastward orientated prayer and worship. The Roman Christians, whose ranks were flooded with half-converted believers coming from pagan worship, especially Sun-worship in its various forms, simply continued the practice of worshipping the Sun towards the East, or praying to the Sun in the East. This manner of Sun-worship was a well-known custom of the Manicheans' and the Mithras-cult, two of the most popular forerunners and cradles of the mixed and merged Church. This Eastward orientated Sun-worship had come from Apollo-worship, the Greeks, the Syrians (Antioch and Baalbek or Heliopolis), the Persian religions, from India, Babylon, Assyria, Ethiopia, Arabia, Egypt, the Hermetic religion, the Osiris religion, from Carthage (Tunis), the Phoenicians, and Thrace. Other contemporary and preceding cults practicing Sun-worsl1lp were the Pythagoreans, the Therapists and the Magi. Prayer and worship towards the East was also practiced by Socrates, and later by the Neoplatonists too.

But perhaps the strongest influence was that of Alexandria, firstly because of its spreading Serapis-Isis cult (both these idols being identified with the Sun), and secondly and more dangerously, the Hellenized, allegorizing, syncretistic Alexandrian Christianity, the product of Clcmcnt and Origen. These two teachers, through their many writings, had done much to justify the adoption or Greek philosophy, Gnostic teachings and also Sun-worship, into Christianity, Origen not only called our Saviour "the True Sun," as mentioned before, but both Clement and Origen attempted to justify Eastward orientated prayer and worship. Clement tried to justify this by allegorizing Psalm 132:7, 2 Corinthians 4:6, and Matt. 4: 16 (Isa. 9:2). Origen, his scholar, continued this allegorization of Scripture to justify Sun-worship, and quoted Zech. 6: 12 from the Greek Septuagint, where the Hebrew "branch" had been badly mistranslated anatole (anatole - rising, east or dayspring). Justin was also intrigued with this anatole and often quoted anatole as if pointing to the Messiah, also by attempting to identify the Messiah as the "sun" of Psalm 72: 17. Origen, in his Gene,fin Homilia I ,5 and 1,8 identified the Messiah with the Sun. Even Tertullian, in the year 197 , as previously stated, was perturbed at the praying toward the Sun in the East, but found it acceptable if this was done "on other ground than Sun-worship"!

The other text that was used in an attempt to .justify the identifying of our Saviour with the Sun, was the well-known Malachi 4:2, which I discussed earlier. We also read of Origen's Commentary on John, wherein he equates Messiah's resurrection with the rising Sun in the East. They also twisted Matt. 24:27 in an attempt to prove the Messiah's Second Coming to be from the East. They did the same with Mal. I: II. Justin also encouraged prayer towards the East, quoting the Greek Septuagint's incorrect rendering of Psalm 68:34. ' As an expression of our longing for Paradise, they also tried to justify prayer towards the East because of the garden that was "planted eastward in Eden" (Gen. 2:R). This is well documented in the writings of Basilius, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Severus, Cyrill of Jerusalem, Archbishop Germanos of Constantinople, John of Damascus and also Thomas of Aquina, Although Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius and Augustine rejected the heathen belief that the Almighty lived in the Eastern heavens, heathen converts must have been responsible for this continued belief.

In the Orient this prayer towards the East was a counter-measure against Judaism." This prayer toward the East was very much alive in the Roman religion in the 6th and 7th centuries and continued right up to the year 1300.. F.J. Dolger summarizes the outcome of it all, as follows, "The Gentile Christians, with the Eastward orientated prayers, simply retained an inborn custom of their heathen past, They tilled this custom with new contents, being freed from heathenism through it and at the same time being made a sign of distinction between Judaism and Christianity." Indeed, this practice probably originated from Brahman India, Ambrosius admitted that this was adopted "from the custom of the Brahmans" (the upper class of Indians).

With this deeply rooted and generally prevailing Sun-worship as back- ground, it was easy to accept the resemblance between the day of our Saviour's resurrection and the day of the Sun, i.e. Sunday. Clement, Justin, Ignatius, Jerome and others following, put emphasis on the day of the resurrection, thereby attempting to identify the Messiah with "the True Sun," the One who has been behind it all along! In fact, Firmicus identified our Saviour with the Sun-deity in his writings in the year 343, and Garruci painted our Messiah with sun-rays around His head, thereby clearly identifying our Saviour with the Sun-deity, now being called "Christ Helios," "Sun of Resurrection," "the True Sun." Clement of Alexandria wrote, quoting Menander, "Sun, one must venerate you as the first of the gods; through you we are capable of looking at the other gods The solarization became even worse. In the 5th century, the Messiah was not only called "the True Sun," but also "the true Apollo,"' the age- old Sun-deity or the Greeks! Other paintings and pictures followed, as well a statue and images of our Messiah with sun-rays or a nimbus (sun-disc) about His head. There are a great number of these illustrations to be found in ecclesiastical books.

The keeping of the day of the resurrection may make sense, but this is not legislated in Scripture. However, the fact remains that it has taken the place of Sabbath-keeping, thereby trampling the Fourth Commandment underfoot. Thus, the prophecy was fulfilled of "the horn" ...that "shall intend to change appointed times and law" (Dan. 7:25); and the prophecy of the end-time judgment upon the earth, in Isa. 24: 1-6, "Because they have transgressed the Laws, changed the ordinance, broken the Everlasting Covenant" (Isa. 24:5). This is the very same Everlasting or Eternal Covenant which we found in Exod. 31: 16, of which the sign is the Sabbath!

The Institutionalisation of the Sunday

"Thus we learn from Socrates (H.E., vi.c.8) that in his time public worship was held in the churches of Constantinople on both days. ...The view that the Christian's Lord's day or Sunday is but the Christian Sabbath deliberately transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week does not indeed find categorical expression till a much later period. ...The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in A.D. 321, enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday ( venerabili die Solis) , with an exception in favour of those engaged in agricultural labour. ...The Council of Laodicea (363) ...forbids Christians from Judaizing and resting on the Sabbath day, preferring the Lord's day, and so far as possible resting as Christians."-Encyclopedia Britannica, 1899 Edition, Vol. XXIII, page 654.

" As we have already noted, excepting for the Roman and Alexandrian Christians, the majority of Christians were observing the seventh-day Sabbath at least as late as the middle of the fifth century [A.D. 450]. The Roman and Alexandrian Christians were among those converted from heathenism. They began observing Sunday as a merry religious festival in honor of the Lord's resurrection, about the latter half of the second century AD. However, they did not try to teach that the Lord or His apostles commanded it. In fact, no ecclesiastical writer before Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century even suggested that either Christ or His apostles instituted the observance of the first day of the week.

"These Gentile Christians of Rome and Alexandria began calling the first day of the week 'the Lord's day.' This was not difficult for the pagans of the Roman Empire who were steeped in sun worship to accept, because they [the pagans] referred to their sun-god as their 'Lord.' " -E. M. Chalmers, How Sunday Came into the Christian Church, p. 3.

The following statement was made 100 years after Constantine's Sunday Law was passed: "Although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this." -Socrates Scholasticus, quoted in Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, chap. 22 [written shortly after A.D. 439].

"The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria." -He as Sozomen, quoted in Ecclesiastical History, vii, 19, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, Vol. 2, p. 390 [written soon after A.D. 415].

"Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued." -Lyman Coleman, Ancient Christianity Exemplified, chap. 26, sec. 2, p. 527.

"Contantine's [five Sunday Law] decrees marked the beginning of a long though intermittent series of imperial decrees in support of Sunday rest." -A History of the Councils of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 316.

About 590, Pope Gregory , in a letter to the Roman people, denounced as the prophets of Antichrist those who maintained that work ought not to be done on the seventh day." -James T. Ringgold, The Law of Sunday, p. 267. In the later centuries, persecution against believers in the Bible Sabbath intensified until very few were left alive. When the Reformation began, the true Sabbath was almost unknown.

"What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as a Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the fourth, fifth, and sixth, centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency abstinence from labor on Sunday." -Hutton Webster, Rest Days, pp. 122-123,270.

During the many centuries of the Dark Middle Ages the ordinary people had no access to the Scriptures. When it eventually became available to them, because of the Reformation and the invention of the printing press, the supreme authority of the Scriptures was contested. Finally, after debating this issue for many years, the Archbishop of Reggio at the Council of Trent in 1562 set all hesitation aside by openly declaring that tradition stood above Scripture! His words were, "The authority of the Church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed. ..the Sabbath into Sunday, not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority." (Canon and Tradition, p. 263). Similar confessions as to the un-Scriptural origin of this change are to be found in theological works of all the major denominations.

"Sunday was a name given by the heathens to the first day of the week, because it was the day on which they worshipped the sun, ...the seventh day was blessed and hallowed by God Himself, and. ..He requires His creatures to keep it holy to Him. This commandment is of universal and perpetual obligation. ...The Creator 'blessed the seventh day'-declared it to be a day above all days, a day on which His favour should assuredly rest: ...So long, then, as man exists, and the world around him endures, does the law of the early Sabbath remain. It cannot be set aside. so long as its foundations last. ...It is not the Jewish Sabbath, properly so-called, which is ordained in the fourth commandment. In the whole of that injunction there is no Jewish element, any more than there is in the third commandment, or the sixth."- Eadie's Biblical Cyclopedia, 1872 Edition, page 561.

" As the Sabbath is of divine institution, so it is to be kept holy unto the Lord. Numerous have been the days appointed by men for religious services; but these are not binding, because of human institution. Not so the Sabbath. Hence the fourth commandment is ushered in with a peculiar emphasis-' Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day.' ...The abolition of it would be unreasonable."-CHARLES BUCK, " A Theological Dictionary," r83O Edition, page 537.