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Seventh-day
Adventists claim that the weekly Sabbath was
changed by Rome in the fourth century and
needs to be restored.
This idea was
first made popular by Ellen G. White and the
early founders of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church. And yet, everything Ellen G. White
and the Seventh-day Adventist Church say
about the so-called change of the Sabbath is
a lie!
Ellen White had this
to say about the change of the Sabbath.
“I saw that the
Sabbath commandment was not nailed to the
cross. If it was, the other nine
commandments were; and we are at liberty to
break them all, as well as to break the
fourth. I saw that God had not changed the
Sabbath, for He never changes. But the pope
had changed it from the seventh to the first
day of the week; for he was to change times
and laws.” [Early Writings, p. 33, 1847].
“It was on
behalf of Sunday that popery first asserted
its arrogant claims; and its first resort to
the power of the state was to compel the
observance of Sunday as the ‘Lord’s Day.’” [The Great Controversy, p. 447].
“Royal edicts, general councils, and church
ordinances sustained by secular power were
the steps by which the pagan festival [day
of the Sun] attained its position of honor
in the Christian world.” [The Great
Controversy, p. 574].
Some
Roman Catholic sources do claim to have
changed the Sabbath to Sunday.
“The Catholic
Church, . . . by virtue of her divine
mission, changed the day from Saturday to
Sunday.” [The Catholic Mirror, official
publication of James Cardinal Gibbons, Sept.
23, 1893].
But
did the Roman Catholic Church actually change the
Sabbath to Sunday?
The Roman Catholic Church
makes all kinds of false claims about their
role in Church history and the Bible. There
are a lot of things the Roman Catholic
Church claims that Seventh-day Adventists
don’t accept. Just because the Roman
Catholic Church claims to have changed the
Sabbath to Sunday doesn’t mean they actually
did.
Are the Sabbath laws
from the Mosaic Covenant binding on Christians?
Let’s examine what the Bible has to say about the
Sabbath and the New Covenant.
1.
“In
Colossians 2:16-17, Paul explicitly refers
to the Sabbath as a shadow of Christ, which
is no longer binding since the substance
(Christ) has come. It is quite clear in
those verses that the weekly Sabbath is in
view. The phrase “a festival or a new moon
or a Sabbath day” refers to the annual,
monthly, and weekly, holy days of the Jewish
calendar (cf. 1 Chron. 23:31; 2
Chron. 2:4; 31:3; Ezek. 45:17; Hosea
2:11). If Paul were referring to special
ceremonial dates of rest in that passage,
why would he have used the word “Sabbath?”
He had already mentioned the ceremonial
dates when he spoke of festivals and new
moons.
2. The Sabbath was the sign to
Israel of the Mosaic Covenant (Exod.
31:16-17; Ezek. 20:12; Neh. 9:14).
Since we are now under the New Covenant
(Heb. 8; 2 Cor. 3:3-11, 12-18), we are no longer required to
observe the sign of the Mosaic Covenant.
3. The New Testament never commands
Christians to observe the Sabbath.
4.
In our only glimpse of an early church
worship service in the New Testament, the
church met on the first day of the week
(Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:20-22; 16:2).
5. Nowhere in the Old Testament are the
Gentile nations commanded to observe the
Sabbath or condemned for failing to do so.
That is certainly strange if Sabbath
observance were meant to be an eternal moral
principle.
6. There is no evidence in
the Bible of anyone keeping the Sabbath
before the time of Moses, nor are there any
commands in the Bible to keep the Sabbath
before the giving of the law at Mount Sinai.
7. When the Apostles met at the
Jerusalem council (Acts 15), they did not
impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentile
believers.
8. The apostle Paul warned
the Gentiles about many different sins in
his epistles, but breaking the Sabbath was
never one of them.
9. In Galatians
4:8-11, Paul rebukes the Galatians for
thinking God expected them to observe
special days (including the Sabbath).
10. In Romans 14:5-12, Paul forbids those
who observe the Sabbath (these were no doubt
Jewish believers) to condemn those who do
not (Gentile believers).
11. The
early church fathers, from Ignatius to
Augustine, taught that the Old Testament
Sabbath had been abolished and that the
first day of the week (Sunday) was the day
when Christians should meet for worship
(contrary to the claims of many seventh day
Sabbatarians who claim that Sunday worship
was not instituted until the fourth
century).
12. Sunday has not replaced
Saturday as the Sabbath. Rather the Lord’s
Day is a time when believers gather to
commemorate His resurrection, which occurred
on the first day of the week. Every day to
the believer is one of Sabbath rest, since
we have ceased from our spiritual labor and
are resting in the salvation of the Lord
(Matt. 11:28-30; Heb. 4:9-11).
So while we still
follow the pattern of designating one day of
the week a day for the Lord’s people to
gather in worship, we do not refer to this
as “the Sabbath.”
[1]
Everything Ellen
G. White and the Seventh-day Adventist
Church teach about the Sabbath is a lie.
The belief that Christians are obligated
to keep the seventh day Sabbath from the Old
Covenant; Sunday to become the mark of the
Beast; the coming world-wide Sunday law;
the claim that the seventh day Sabbath is
the seal of God for the New Covenant Church;
the Sabbath as a test of faithfulness in the
last days, all have one thing in common,
they do not exist in scripture.
There
is no command anywhere in the New Testament
for Christ’s followers to keep the seventh
day Sabbath from the Old Covenant. New
converts were never required to keep it. The
Sabbath was for Israel alone because it served as a
ceremonial sign for the Mosaic Covenant
(Exod. 31:12-14; Ezek. 20:12, 20).
In
fact, there is no command in the New
Covenant for Christians to
keep any day of the week holy (Matt. 11:28-30; 12:1-8; Acts
15:1-28; Col. 2:14-17; Gal. 4:10-11; Rom.
14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-18; 2 Cor. 3:3-11; Heb.
3:7-4:13; 8:6-9:4; 10:23-25).
Nothing the Seventh-day
Adventist Church and their prophet, Ellen G.
White say about the change of the Sabbath is
true!
Ellen G. White,
the false prophet of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church originally said the papacy
changed the Sabbath in AD 321, which turned
out to be false. When she realized what she
said was false she changed what she said and
claimed that Constantine was the one who
changed the Sabbath to Sunday.
[2] Both
statements can’t be true! Which of Ellen
White’s contradictory statements is
correct? Neither!
The Bible and all
of the historical writings we have of the
Early Church Fathers show that the Church
began to worship on the first day of the
week in honor of Christ’s resurrection
(which they called the Lord’s Day), in the
first century.
The Jewish Christians
didn’t stop keeping the Sabbath or the other
holy days of the Mosaic Covenant
immediately. Many believe that they kept
both the Sabbath and meeting together on the
first day of the week until the destruction
of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when their temple
was destroyed.
The pope did not
change the seventh day Sabbath to Sunday,
and neither did the Emperor Constantine. The
Sabbath was given to Israel alone, and it
ended along with all of the other laws of
the Old Covenant.
Early
church history testifies to the fact that
the Christian Church came together for
worship on the first day of the week in
honor of Christ’s resurrection.
The following quotes are from the
writings of the Early Church Fathers prior
to the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 when
Seventh-day Adventists, and some of the
other seventh day Sabbatarians say the
Sabbath was changed to Sunday.
THE DIDACHE (The Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles, Chapter XIV) - A.D. 90
“Christian Assembly on the Lord’s Day: “But
every Lord’s day [the first day of the week]
do you gather yourselves together, and break
bread, and give thanksgiving after having
confessed your transgressions, that your
sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that
is at variance with his fellow come together
with you, until they be reconciled, that
your sacrifice may not be profaned.”
THE EPISTLE OF BARNABAS - A.D. 100
“Wherefore, also we keep the eighth day with
joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose
again from the dead.”
PLINY’S
LETTER - A.D. 107
Pliny was
governor of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, from
A.D. 106-108. He wrote in A.D. 107 to
Trajan, the emperor, concerning the
Christians. This is what he said, “They were
wont to meet together, on a stated day
before it was light, and sing among
themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as
God. . . When these things were performed,
it was their custom to separate and then to
come together again to a meal which they ate
in common without any disorder.”
THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS - A.D. 110
(Ignatius, also called “Theophorus,” was a
disciple of the apostle John. It was John
who appointed him as bishop, or overseer, to
the church in Antioch in the late first
century).
“Be not
deceived with strange doctrines, nor with
old fables, which are unprofitable. For if
we still live according to the Jewish Law,
we acknowledge that we have not received
grace. . . If, therefore, those who were
brought up in the ancient order of things
have come to the possession of a new hope,
no longer observing the Sabbath, but living
in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on
which also our life has sprung up again by
Him and By His death. . . Let us therefore
no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish
manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for
“he that does not work, let him not eat.”. .
. let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s
day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the
queen and chief of all the days.” “Epistle
of Ignatius to the Magnesians,” (The
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, pp. 62-63).
“If those who have been brought up in
the ancient order of things have come to the
possession of a new hope, no longer
observing the Sabbath but living in
observance of the Lord’s day, on which also
our life has sprung up again by him and his
death. . . how shall we be able to live
apart from him, when even the prophets
themselves—also his disciples— waited for
him in the Spirit as their Teacher?” (Letter
to the Magnesians 9)
“It is absurd to
profess Christ and to Judaize. For
Christianity did not believe into Judaism,
but Judaism into Christianity.” (Letter to
the Magnesians 10)
THE
EPISTLE OF BARNABAS - A.D. 120
“Incense is a vain abomination unto me, and
your new moons and Sabbaths I cannot endure.
He has, therefore, abolished these things.
When he speaks of the first day of the week,
Barnabas says: "Wherefore, also, we keep the
eighth day with joyfulness, the day, also,
on which Jesus rose again from the dead’”
(Chapter 25).
As you can see from the
preceding quotes, the early church ceased to
keep the Sabbath and set apart the first day
of the week as a time to meet together for
worship and the Lord’s Supper in the first
century.
This is what
Christianity Today had to say about the
so-called change of the Sabbath from the
seventh day to Sunday, the first day of the
week.
“No specific names or
dates are associated with the church’s shift
from observing the holy day on Saturday to
observing it on Sunday. At first, especially
when many Christians were converted Jews,
their holy day was Saturday. However,
because the Resurrection and the beginning
of Creation had both occurred on the first
day of the week (Sunday), the church soon
observed that day instead. (More Gentiles
were becoming Christians as well, which
contributed to a desire to shake off Jewish
customs.) By the end of the first century,
Sunday worship was the norm. We can assume
the change caused some friction, for in
Colossians 2:16 Paul admonishes, “Therefore
do not let anyone judge you by what you eat
or drink, or with regard to a religious
festival, a New Moon celebration or a
Sabbath day.” It’s important to note that
the Sabbath was not simply moved; Christians
altered the observance as well as the day.
Hallmarks of the early Christian “Lord’s
day” celebration, according to Justin Martyr
(ca. 100-ca. 165), included readings from
Scripture (particularly the Gospels), a
sermon, communal prayer, and Communion—very
different from Jewish Sabbath observance. By
Jewish standards, Christians don’t keep the
Sabbath at all.”
[3]
The Seventh-day
Adventist Church historian, Dr. Samuele
Bacchiocchi proved that Ellen G. White was
wrong about the change of the Sabbath.
Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, one of the
Seventh-day Adventist’s top scholars and
historians regarding the Sabbath issue,
wrote in an e-mail message to the “Free
Catholic Mailing List” on February 8, 1997,
and said this:
“I differ from Ellen White, for example, on
the origin of Sunday. She teaches that in
the first centuries all Christians observed
the Sabbath and it was largely through the
efforts of Constantine that Sundaykeeping
was adopted by many Christians in the fourth
century. My research shows otherwise. If you
read my essay “How Did Sunday-Keeping Begin”
which summarizes my dissertation, you will
notice that I place the origin of
Sundaykeeping by the time of the Emperor
Hadrian, in A.D. 135.”
Dr.
Bacchiocchi also pointed out in his email
thread, “End Time Issues,” #87, that:
“No Adventist scholar has ever taught or
written that Sunday observance began in the
fourth century with Constantine. A
compelling proof is the symposium The
Sabbath in Scripture and History, produced
by 22 Adventist scholars and published by
the Review and Herald in 1982. None of the
Adventist scholars who contributed to this
symposium ever suggest that Sundaykeeping
began in the fourth century.”
Dr.
Samuele Bacchiocchi could not find any evidence from
the writings of the Early Church Fathers
that said the early church kept the seventh
day Sabbath according to the Fourth
Commandment. All of the evidence from
history shows that the early church set
apart Sunday, the first day of the week, for
worship and the breaking of bread from the time of
the apostles.
Always
Remember:
The Sabbath rest
God wants us to experience is the rest of
faith in his one and only Son (Heb. 4:1-11).
Jesus promises to give his divine rest to
all those who believe in Him (Matt.
11:28-30). He is the good shepherd who came
into the world to free us from the curse of
sin and death and give us an abundant life.
Jesus came to set us free from life’s
worries and to give us comfort and peace by
trusting in Him. God’s true rest is for
everyone who seeks the forgiveness of their
sins and freedom from the crushing burden
and guilt of trying to earn their salvation
by keeping Old Covenant laws.
We can
only experience God’s true rest when we stop
working for our salvation and put our trust
in Jesus Christ alone for our redemption.
Who are you going to follow, the false
beliefs of Ellen G. White and the
Seventh-day Adventist Church, or the Bible?
You cannot be true to both. †
References:
1.
Are the Sabbath laws binding on Christians
today?
2. See: “Early
Writings” pages 32-33, and “The Great
Controversy” page 53, 447.
3. “When
did the Christian church switch the Sabbath
from Saturday to Sunday?”
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