history of sabbath and sunday powerpoint

8/11/2019 History of Sabbath and Sunday Powerpoint

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The History of the Change of

God's Sabbath from Saturdayto Sunday

The Law of God is as sacred as God

Himself. It is a Revelation of His will, a

transcript of His Character, theexpression of Divine Love and Wisdom.

Patriarchs and Prophets- page 52


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There is a lot of history in the change of the

Sabbath. This study will be devoted largely

with what occurred after the first century

church. We have learned in our previous

study of Daniel 7, that the beast power wouldthink to change the times and the law, Daniel

7:25. We also studied that the Papacy

declares that they changed the Sabbath and

did so on their ecclesiastical authority, forwhich there was no Biblical authority to do

so. We learned that there were nine points of

identification in both Daniel 7 and Revelation

13, to show that the beast of Daniel 7 and the

beast of Revelation 13 were one and the

same, and could be no other power but Papal

Rome. Now we will discover what actually

took place to bring about the change of the

Sabbath.


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We learned that the entire Bible is silent on Sunday

sacredness. But the Bible is filled with references to

God's blessed Sabbath day. We learned that Jesus asGod of creation made the worlds and He made the

Sabbath on the seventh day when He rested from His

work of creation. Jesus as man kept the seventh day

Sabbath and declared it was made for man, and not man

for the Sabbath. He spoke that it would be in existence in

AD 70 and the Bible tells us that it will be kept in the

earth created anew. Jesus kept the Sabbath in the tomb

as He rested from the work of redemption. He spoke of

no change to anyone and Himself declared He did notcome to destroy the law but to fulfill, and fulfill the

righteous requirements is what He did, leaving us an

example to follow.


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NO CHRISTIAN EVER kept Sunday until after 200 AD

In all of the Old Testament, reference is made 126 times to the

Sabbath that God commanded as His expressed will, the

seventh day. There are 61 New Testament references to the

same Sabbath, 51 are harmoniously in the four Gospels,

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In 2003, only the Israelitesand those Christian churches keeping the seventh day

Sabbath have the exclusive weight of scriptural evidence on

their side, while any church claiming the Bible and the Bible

only, has not a word in self-defense of their position onaccepting the substitution of Sunday for Sabbath. At the

conclusion of this historical look at the change of the

Sabbath, we are going to quote leaders of various Protestant

denominations on the Sabbath question.


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The fact of the matter is that NO CHRISTIAN EVER kept

Sunday until after 200 AD. The earliest Christians wereJews and there never was a question as to which day

was Sabbath. The Jews of today still worship on the

Sabbath of creation week. In fact, they have been keeping

the same weekly seventh day Sabbath from Sinai to

today, 2003, a period of 3,493 years. In the time of Christwe know that the fourth and final world empire, Rome

was in power. The pagan Romans hated the Jews

because of Jewish rebellions throughout the empire. In

115 AD the Jews revolted in Cyrene, Egypt and Cyprus.More than 220,000 Greeks and Romans perished in

Cyrene alone. After crushing each revolt the Romans

would tighten their yoke around the Jews.


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The Roman emperor Hadrian said he would rebuild the

temple of the Jews, but it would be dedicated to aRoman Deity. A Jew named Bar Kochba proclaimed

himself to be the long awaited messiah and began a

revolt in Palestine in 132-135 AD. In the first year of the

revolt, the Romans were driven out of more than 50cities and villages. Bar Kochba proclaimed himself king

and even struck his own coinage. Hadrian had his top

general Julius Severus to lead the troops into a three

year battle to crush the rebellion and finally killed Bar

Kochba.


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These rebellions inflamed Roman Anti-Judaism. After

the Bar Kochba revolt, Jews were forbidden to enter

Jerusalem. Hadrian outlawed Judaism, the study of

the Torah and Sabbath-keeping. The first day of the

week was the Pagan day of worship and most of theRoman empire was largely pagan. Through the

influence of Eastern sun cults, sun worship had

become dominant in Rome by the early second

century.


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Christianity was still in its infancy and it was

caught between Roman Imperialism and JewishNationalism. Since Christianity originated in the

land of the Jews, and its Holy Writings were

Jewish, Christians were mistaken for Jews. A

small number of Christians after 200 AD, easedaway from the seventh day Sabbath so as to

appear different from the Jews.


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The Gradual Shift to Sunday

A dispute arose amongst Christians about

annually observing one day in honor of Christ's

resurrection. The church of Rome suggested

Sunday, but all the other churches preferredNisan 16 regardless of what day it fell on. Rome's

insistance on Sunday prevailed and all accepted

that day as a yearly celebration.


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Later on, while still keeping the seventh day

Sabbath, a dispute arose over introducinglent into the church. Then it was decided to

keep every Sunday during those 40 days. It

was not until the fourth century that a

decision was made to keep every Sunday inthe year. Christians were keeping both

Saturdaythe Sabbath, and Sunday in honor

of the resurrection.


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The Pagan Emperor Constantine Converts to Christianity

Obelisks and altars, objects of Pagan sun worship,

had proliferated throughout the city and the empire,

from the early second century. By the third century,Roman Christians favored Sunday, the day of the

resurrection, over the Sabbath.


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For Justin Martyr, Sunday commemorated

the First day of creation, the creation oflight. For the church fathers of that day, the

resurrection was a secondary reason for

Sunday observance. As sun worship

began to fade in the Roman empire, the

resurrection became the primary motive for

Sunday keeping.


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It was early in the fourth century that the Roman emperor

Constantine converted to Christianity. He gave power and

authority to the Church at Rome as well as its base of

operation. The emperor moved his power base to the city

known today as Constantinople. He had great influence overthe pagan world. The church at Rome made many

concessions to accommodate the flood of Pagans converting

to Christianity. The first day worship was an easy one, since

so many concessions had already been made. The Pagansworshipped many gods and carved out likenesses in wood

and stone. The Pagan-Christians would merely stop making

heathen idols and start carving likenesses of Mary, Jesus,

Joseph, apostles and other saints. The church fathers

reasoned God would not be particular when so many

numbers were swelling the ranks of Christian believers. The

second commandment of God, forbidding idol worship was

thrown out. The tenth commandment became the ninth and

tenth.


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"Let all judges and all city people and all

tradesmen rest upon the venerable day of

the sun. But let those dwelling in thecountry freely and with full liberty attend to

the culture of the fields; since it frequently

happens that no other day is so fit for the

sowing of grain, or the planting of vines;

hence, the favorable time should not be

allowed to pass, lest the provision of

heaven be lost."


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Many Christians felt that this was good and

Constantine brought about the end of thepersecution of Christians. However, the

questionable conversion of Constantine brought

into the church the secular law ordering fourth

commandment violation through a counterfeitSabbath, Mother-Goddess worship of Mary, idol

worship in general and Caesar like proclamations

of being God.


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Sunday envelops Christianity and is firmly rooted by the sixth century

The Council of Trent convenes in the sixteenth century to deal

with Protestantism

The total transition from Sabbath to Sunday finally enveloped

Christianity by the sixth century. By the early sixteenth century, the

Catholic Church convened a series of meetings known as "The

Council of Trent". The purpose was to formulate its permanent

fundamentals to be known as the Catholic Creed. The other purposewas to deal with the questions raised and forced upon the attention

of Europe by the Protestant reformers. They charged that the

Catholic Church had apostatized from the truth as contained in the

written word, the Bible. Their constant watchwords were, "The Bible

and the Bible only." The Catholics insisted on "The Scripture and

Tradition." The Bible as interpreted by the Church and the reasoning

of its "Holy Fathers" the Popes and Bishops of earlier generations.

There was a large and strong party of Catholics who were in favor of

abandoning "tradition" in favor of "the scriptures only," as the

standard of authority.


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Debates were long and heated. The church fathers

realized that to accept this position would be a big

step toward justifying the claims of the protesters.The ultra-Catholic portion of the council had the

difficult task of convincing the others that "scripture

and tradition" was the only sure ground to stand on.

If this could be done, a decree could be issued thatwould condemn the reformation. Day after day

debates raged and sides remained fast until the

council was brought to a standstill. Finally the

Archbishop of Reggio introduced the following

argument to the council:


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"The Protestants claim to stand upon the written

word only. They profess to hold the scripture alone

as the standard of faith. They justify their revolt by

the plea that the church has apostatized from thewritten word and follows tradition. Now the

Protestants' claim, that they stand on the written

word only, IS NOT TRUE. Their profession of

holding the scripture alone as the standard of faithis FALSE!


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The PROOF: The written word explicitly enjoins the

observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath!

They do not observe the seventh day, but reject it!If they do truly hold the scripture alone as their

standard, they would be observing the seventh day

as is enjoined in the scripture throughout. Yet they

not only reject the observance of the Sabbathenjoined in the written word, but they have adopted

the observance of Sunday, for which they only

have the TRADITION of the Church. Consequently

the claim of scripture alone as the standard FAILSand the doctrine of scripture and tradition as

essential, is fully established, the Protestants

themselves being the judges."


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By this observation the archbishop scoreda telling point, for the Protestants' own

statement of faith, the Augsburg

Confession of 1530, had clearly admitted

that the observation of the Lord's day hadbeen appointed by the church only.


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The Protestants stand on "The Bible and the Bible Only",

defeated by Sunday Sacredness

It was only on the basis that the Protestants rejected the Biblical seventhday Sabbath, that the Catholic Church had the grounds to condemn the

movement, and tradition was to continue. And what did Jesus say

regarding tradition? In Matthew 15:3 "Why do ye also transgress the

Commandment of God by your tradition?" And in verse 6 Jesus said,

"Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your

tradition." Now the Jews had enacted a rule that let a person by-pass

leaving his possessions to his parents in case of his dying, which ran

contrary to the commandment to "Honor thy father and mother...." Clearly

the Lord is not pleased with us following the traditions of men in place of

any of His commandments. Read very carefully what Jesus then said in

verse 9. "In VAIN do they worship me, teaching for doctrines thecommandments of men,". But this is exactly what the Catholic Church

has perpetrated!! And when Protestants endorse worshipping on

Sundays, they support the Roman Church's traditions. Is the Holy Spirit

reaching your understanding?

It was only on the basis that the Protestants rejected the Biblical seventhday Sabbath, that the Catholic Church had the grounds to condemn the

movement, and tradition was to continue. And what did Jesus say

regarding tradition? In Matthew 15:3 "Why do ye also transgress the

Commandment of God by your tradition?" And in verse 6 Jesus said,

"Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your

tradition." Now the Jews had enacted a rule that let a person by-pass

leaving his possessions to his parents in case of his dying, which ran

contrary to the commandment to "Honor thy father and mother...." Clearly

the Lord is not pleased with us following the traditions of men in place of

any of His commandments. Read very carefully what Jesus then said in

verse 9. "In VAIN do they worship me, teaching for doctrines thecommandments of men,". But this is exactly what the Catholic Church

has perpetrated!! And when Protestants endorse worshipping on

Sundays, they support the Roman Church's traditions. Is the Holy Spirit

reaching your understanding?


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Now read what the position of

different Protestant churches are in

regards to the Sabbath day:

Baptist

Dr. Edward T.

Hiscox, author of

"The Baptist

Manual," made this

candid admission

before a group of

ministers:

"There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but thatSabbath day was not Sunday. Earnestly desiring information on this

subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, where can the record

of such a transaction [change of the Sabbath] be found? Not in the New

Testament, absolutely not. There is no scriptural evidence of the change

of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week. Of

course I know quite well that Sunday did come into use in early Christianhistory. ... But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of

paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted

and sanctioned by papal apostasy and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to

Protestantism!" (In a paper read before a New York Ministers' Conference,

November 13, 1893.)


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Christian

"There never was any change of the

Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is

not in any place in the Bible any intimationof such a change." First Day observance,

pp 17,19.


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Church of Christ

"I do not believe that the Lord's day

came in the room of the Jewish

Sabbath, or that the Sabbath waschanged from the seventh to the first

day." - Alexander Campbell,

Washington Reporter, Oct. 8, 1821.


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Episcopal

"Is there any command in the

New Testament to change the

day of weekly rest fromSaturday to Sunday? None." -

Manual of Christian Doctrine,

page 127.


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Methodist

"Take the matter of Sunday....there is

no passage telling Christians to keep

that day, or to transfer the JewishSabbath to that day."

Harris Franklin Rall, Christian

Advocate, July 2, 1942.


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Lutheran

"The observance of the Lord's day

(Sunday) is founded not on any

command of God, but on theauthority of the church."

Augsburg Confession of Faith,

quoted in Catholic Sabbath Manual,part 2, Chapter 1, Section 10.


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Sunday Sacredness is not Biblical,

it is purely a Papal Instituted TRADITION

And from the Cyclopedia of Biblical,

Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. 9page 196, "It must be confessed that there is

no law in the New Testament concerning the

first day."


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Note- Though some individual pastorsmay argue the point, and even trivialize

the keeping of any particular day, there is

not one single Sunday-keepingorganization which did not in its official

literature plainly admit that there is no

Scripture to support Sunday observance.


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