The history of how Sunday worship came about.

[reddogs]

Since the scriptures are clear that no other day was made as the day of worship except the seventh day, and the Commandments show this with unblinking clarity to Christians, what does history show. If Christians look through all these things and become fully aware that Sunday worship is not ordained by God or anywhere in the Bible or given by Christ or the apostles, and with full knowledge continue to transgress what is shown to them from scripture, will God wink at it, lets look at scripture......

Acts 17:30
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

It shows that God allows for mankind's ignorance, but we have many scholars who have studied this issue and so Christians have become aware of the history of Sunday worship. How Sunday was the established day of pagan festival, which later, when these pagans professed Christianity, they gradually brought into the early churchm the practice of the pagan festivals with them into the church, and the bishops looked the other way as long as they had 'converts' to show they were more influential or had more numbers than other bishops.

Now from scripture we see the people of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, including Jesus Christ Himself, observed the Sabbath. We see Jesus Christ is “Lord even of the Sabbath day” as the Creator. Jesus said, “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.” Matthew 12:8. By identifying Himself as “Lord even of the Sabbath day,” Jesus of was showing that He was the One who originally created Earth in six days, and rested on the seventh day. And the New Testament makes clear that Jesus is the Creator...

"All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that has been made." John 1:3

"He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not". John 1:10

"God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." Eph. 3:9

"For by Him [Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him." Col. 1:16

So scripture makes clear Jesus Christ is our Creator and also gave us the Sabbath for man not just the Jews.

"And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:" Mark 2:27

Not only did Jesus create the Sabbath but He makes clear it was the seventh day and Holy...
"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:11

"And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." Exodus 16:23

Now you can check the scriptures and it will make clear the Sabbath is on Saturday, while Sunday is "the first day of the week". No where in the Bible, including after Christ's resurrection, will you find people observing the first day of the week, Sunday, as a replacement for the Sabbath.

So if Christians, knowing that Sunday is not the Sabbath, and knowing the Commandments show what is transgression or iniquity/sin, and clearly show what day is the Sabbath, continue to transgress what God commands, what will happen when Christ comes.

 

[reddogs]

It wasn't the apostles or from Christ, or any change in the Bible, so how did Sunday worship come from. Well history gives us a clue in the various descriptions I came across..

"On March 7, 321, Roman Emperor Constantine I decreed that dies Solis Invicti (‘sun-day,’ or Day of Sol Invictus, Roman God of the Sun) would be the Roman day of rest throughout the Roman Empire...

Though Sol Invictus (meaning ‘The unconquered Sun’) was indeed a pagan Roman God, and had been featured on Roman coins, Constantine coopted this pagan heritage along with the Judeo-Christian following of the 10 Commandments by granting a day to honor God and rest for man. As the Roman Empire gradually converted to Christianity, Sunday became the natural day for the Sabbath and rest since Romans were already accustomed to Sunday as their day off."March 7, 321: How Sunday Became the Christian Day of Rest - History and Headlines

"The early Romans initially adopted the earlier Greek Hellenistic religion that incorporated the worship of many deities, including Apollo and Helios—the sun god, who was known to the Romans as Sol. As time passed, Sol eventually took on the combined attributes of Apollo, Helios and Mithra. The early Roman Emperors promoted the rising cult of Sol Invictus with the addition of numerous new temples, statues, rites and festivals created in Sol's name. Like earlier solar deities, Sol's tasks included steering the sun-chariot across the sky each day, a reminder that this cult was a blending of monotheism and earlier paganism.

By promoting the cult and the consolidation of divine power into Sol, Roman emperors were able to please the military and also enhance their own power by identifying Sol as the source of imperial legitimacy; in some cases the emperors were able to promote themselves as the personification of Solon earth.

Constantine in the early 4th century advanced the pagan cult of Sol Invictus to the height of its popularity. Among his efforts was the minting of this special coin dedicated to Sol. Constantine also built his famous Arch in Rome, inscribed with several references to Sol Invictus, and positioned it carefully to align with the colossal 100' bronze statue of Sol that adjoined the Coliseum at the time. The rising popularity Christianity in Rome's rural areas was a factor in Constantine’s later adoption of Christianity as the Empire's official religious—a transition arguably made easier by the preceding, well accepted ideas embodied in and popularized by the cult of Sol Invictus." ..Biblical Artifacts Ancient Coins and Artifacts from the Holy Land

"Sol Invictus played a prominent role in the Mithraic mysteries and was portrayed as being equated with, allied with, or an epithet of Mithras, although the relationship between the public cults themselves is controversial. The New Testament scholar Helmut Koester, in his book, Introduction to the New Testament, says “Although Mithras appeared to be the most oriental god among the new deities, and although his cult was essentially celebrated in exclusive mystery associations—the Mithras cult was a “mystery religion” in the strict sense of the word—this god was received by the Romans without resistance, and at the end of the 3d century CE, as Sol Invictus he became the official god of the Roman state.” ..The Dying-and-Rising Gods: Sol Invictus

The text of Constantine's Sunday Law of 321 A.D.:
First Sunday Law enacted by Emperor Constantine -
March, 321 A.D.
On the venerable 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, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time [A.D. 321].)
Source: Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; trans. in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3 (5th ed.; New York: Scribner, 1902), p. 380, note 1. ...Was The Seven-Day Weekly Cycle Created By Man?

The early believers kept Saturday as the Sabbath until March 7, 321 CE when Constantine passed his law requiring believers to worship on Sunday, the day the pagans worshiped the sun-god, Sol Invictus. Believers continued to keep Saturday as the Sabbath but gradually were swept aside as the day of the sun took root in the empire, and we see the start of serious oppression for the day of worship, and many believers began to be persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church for keeping the Sabbath.

Rome had been the center of many of the pagan festivals and cults, and it was held that Mithras was born on what we now call Christmas day, and his followers celebrated the spring equinox. The Sol Invictus, associated with Mithras, was one the main pagan cult the church faced and rather than reject it let it come into the church with its sun worship. The Cybele cult also flourished in Rome on today's Vatican Hill. They held that Cybele's lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection. There was violent conflict on Vatican Hill in the early days of Christianity between the Jesus worshipers and pagans who quarreled over whose God was the true, and whose the imitation. Christianity came to an accommodation with the pagan Spring festival and used it to bring in unconverted pagans.

History clearly shows how the Pagan worship of Sol Invictus and festivals got into the early church and it was never sanctioned by scripture or given by Christ and the Apostles.

Transition from Pagan to Christian

'This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the Sun, the worship of which was then firmly [p. 123] established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar…
[p. 270] 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.' - Source: Hutton Webster, Rest Days, pp. 122, 123, 270. Copyright 1916 by The Macmillan Company, New York.

'The Church made a sacred day of Sunday largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.' Source: Arthur Weigall, The Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 145. Copyright 1928 by G. p. Putnams Sons, New York. ...Sunday Worship

By the time of Emperor Constantine, the Christian religion received imperial sanction and the bishop of Rome became more than just another bishop, and brought in a system of worship from another origin than Christianity.

After the fall of Rome, the Bishop of Rome served as a source of authority and continuity from the old empire but Rome had also been the center of the pagan priests and their temples during the Roman Empire, and they did not go away. The Bishop of Rome, to bring in more converts brought what they were familiar with and allowed the traditional Roman mysteries and deities of solar monism such as Mithras and Sol Invictus and idol worship back into the church, along with its Pagan doctrines, graven images and ceremonies. It renamed the mother goddess and others that were worshiped and brought them into the church at Rome, then with its influence it spread into the other centers of Christianity. So next lets take a look at the Roman mysteries and the changes to the day of worship and how they were brought in.

Christians at Rome had been faithful as they were persecuted for many years but as they became accepted and persecution stop, other challenges faced them. Greek philosophy and Gnosticism had been picked up and in Rome the old beliefs and festivals were still followed by the Romans and many Christian and leaders didnt see a problem with it. The first issue began when early in the life of the Church, disputes arose as the bishop of Rome allowed the celebration of the Pasch or Passover to continue till the following Sunday so Christians could also celebrate Spring Equinox festival as they had done before.

Now the danger of allowing the Christians to join in pagan solstice celebrations was overlooked as the new pagan 'converts' joined the church and swelled the numbers under the bishop of Rome. So you had a introduction into the early church of what many were familiar with from the tradition of ancient Rome, not from scripture and it began to spread throughout the empire.

 

[reddogs]

Now other Christian leaders saw the danger of worship according to the old pagan festivals and tried to stop it in what came to be known as Paschal/Easter controversies. The first recorded such controversy came to be known as the Quartodeciman controversy.

Eusebius of Caesarea (Church History, V, xxiii) wrote:
"A question of no small importance arose at that time [i.e. the time of Pope Victor I, about A.D. 190]. The dioceses of all Asia, according to an ancient tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon [of Nisan], on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should always be observed as the feast of the life-giving pasch (epi tes tou soteriou Pascha heortes), contending that the fast ought to end on that day, whatever day of the week it might happen to be. However it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this point, as they observed the practice, which from Apostolic tradition has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the Resurrection of our Saviour." So the bishop of Rome began the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on Sunday and it spread through the old areas of the Empire.Polycarp the disciple of John the Apostle who was now the bishop of Smyrna, came and confronted Anicetus, the Bishop of Rome who had allow the changes in the Passover and other changes to bring in converts. According to Irenaeus, around the 150s or 160, Polycarp visited Rome to discuss the differences that existed between the other centers of Christianity in Asia and Rome "with regard to certain things" and especially about the time of the Pasch or Passover which in Rome were now the Easter festivals.

Irenaeus says that Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, observed the fourteenth day of the moon, whatever day of the week that might be, following therein the tradition which he derived from John the Apostle. Irenaeus said that on certain things the two bishops speedily came to an understanding, while as to the time of the Pasch and the change to Easter, each adhered to his own custom. Polycarp following the eastern practice of celebrating Passover on the 14th of Nisan, the day of the Jewish Passover, regardless of what day of the week it fell while the bishop of Rome let it be observed on Sunday.

So the Bishop of Rome ignore the warning and continued to allow the Passover to be observed on Sunday at the pagan Spring Equinox festival connected to the goddess Eostre the "goddess of sunrise" so this is how the Pasch was change to the festival of Easter. But not only was it just the festival but had been elevated as more pagan converts came in, they were allowed to worship on the pagan day of worship which they were used to, while Christians continued to worship on Sabbath.

When Polycarp was martyred for standing against the pagan worship, the Smyrnaean letter known as the Martyrdom of Polycarp states that Polycarp was taken on the day of the Sabbath and killed on the Great Sabbath, so we see that he observed the Sabbath. Scholar William Cave wrote, "...the Sabbath or Saturday (for so the word sabbatum is constantly used in the writings of the fathers, when speaking of it as it relates to Christians) was held by them in great veneration, and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the public solemnities of religion. But in the Western part of the Empire, Sunday had entered in through the back door celebration of the Pasch or Passover.

But it gets even worse, as later, one of the bishops of Rome, around 195, which some call Pope Victor I attempted to excommunicate the Christians who continued correctly to celebrate the the Pasch or Passover, turning the divergence of practice into a full-blown ecclesiastical controversy. According to Eusebius, synods were convened and letters were exchanged, but in the end, having over-stepped his mark Pope Victor was rebuked and backed down.

Eusebius of Caesarea (Church History, V, xxiv) notes:
"But this did not please all the bishops. And they besought him to consider the things of peace, and of neighborly unity and love. Words of theirs are extant, sharply rebuking Victor. Among them was Irenæus, who, sending letters in the name of the brethren in Gaul over whom he presided, maintained that the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord should be observed only on the Lord’s day. He fittingly admonishes Victor that he should not cut off whole churches of God which observed the tradition of an ancient custom."

So now you see where the 'Lord’s day' comes in and it wasnt from the disciple of John the Apostle or John himself.

 

[reddogs]

We find in history many sources that point out the origins of the corruption....

...the "temples, incense, oil lamps, votive offerings, holy water, Holidays, and seasons of devotion, processions, blessings of the fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure (of priests, munks and nuns), images, and statues... are all of PAGAN ORIGIN." -The Development of the Christian Religion Cardinal Newman p.359

The penetration of the religion of Babylon became so general and well known that Rome was called the "New Babylon." -Faith of our fathers 1917 ed. Cardinal Gibbons, p. 106

"Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the instruments and appendages of demon worship to an evangelical use... the rulers of the church from early times were prepared should occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace." -Development of Christian Doctrine, Cardinal Newman. p. 372

Cardinal Newman lists many examples of things of "pagan origin" which the papacy brought into the church "in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen: "in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen:" "The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; holy water; asylums [hermitages, monasteries and convents]; [pagan] holy-days, processions, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images, . . . and the Kyrie Eleison."--Cardinal J. H. Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1920 edition, p.373 [Roman Catholic].

"The [Catholic] Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season . . . The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom . . . The sun has worshipers at this hour in Persia and other lands . . . Hence the Church would seem to say, 'Keep that old pagan name [Sunday]. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.' And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus"--William L. Gildea, "Paschale Gaudium," in The Catholic World, 58, March, 1894, p. 809 [A Roman Catholic weekly].
"in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen:" "The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; holy water; asylums [hermitages, monasteries and convents]; [pagan] holy-days, processions, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images, . . . and the Kyrie Eleison."--J. H. Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1920 edition, p.373 [Roman Catholic].

"The mighty Catholic Church was little more then the Roman Empire baptized."-- A. C, Flick, The Rise of the Mediaeval Church, 1909 edition, p. 148. From ancient Babylon came the cult of the virgin mother-goddess, who was worshiped as the highest of gods--see S. H. Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 1931 edition. This worship was taken over as Mary-worship by Rome. Heathen sun-worship on Sunday was likewise adopted by the Roman apostasy.

"In order to attach to Christianity great attraction in the eyes of the nobility, the priests adopted the outer garments and adornments which were used in pagan cults." -Life of Constantine, Eusabius, cited in Altai-Nimalaya, p. 94

"The Church did everything it couldto stamp out such 'pagan' rites, but had to capitualet and allow the rites to continue with only the name of the local diety changed to some Christian saint's name." -Religious Tradition and Myth. Dr. Edwin Goodenough, Professor of Religion, Harvard University. p. 56, 57

"From the foregoing, which treats merely of the more important solar festivals, it is clear that these products of paganism are as much in force at present ... as they ever were, and that Christianity countenances, and in many cases has actually adopted and practiced, pagan rites whose heathen significance is merely lost sight of because attention is not called tot the source whence these rites have sprung. So heavy was this infiltration that Sir Samuel Dill exclaims: "Christianity is only a sect of the Mithraists." -Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, p. VII

"We know that Mithraism was a state religion of Rome at the time that the Christian church was established there. Evidently tenants of Mithraism such as Sunday worship and eating the wafer in the mass were adopted into Christianity at that time" -Jim Arrabito "666 & the Mark"

In Stanley's History, page 40: "The popes filled the place of the vacant emperors at Rome, inheriting
their power, their prestige, and their titles from PAGANISM."

"In short, sun worship, symbolically speaking, lies at the very heart of the great festivals which the Christian Church celebrates today, and these relics of heathen religion have, through the medium of their sacred rites, curiously enough blended with practices and beliefs utterly antagonistic to the spirit which prompted them." -Sun Lore of All Ages, Olcott, p. 248

"Yet the cross itself is the oldest of phallic emblems, and the lozenge-shaped windows of cathedrals are proof that the yonic symbols have survived the destructions of the pagan Mysteries. The very structure of the church itself is permeated with (sexual symbolism) phallicism. Remove from the Christian Church all emblems of Priapic origin and nothing is left..." -The secret teaching of all ages by Manley P. Hall

"When the zealots of the primitave Christian Church sought to Christianize paganism, the pagan initiates retorted with a powerful effort to paganize Christianity. The Christians failed but the pagans succeeded. With the decline of paganism the initiated pagan hierophants transferred their base of operations to the new vehicle of primitive Christianity, adopting the symbols of the new cult to conceal those eternal verities which are ever the priceless possession of the wise." -The secret teachings of all ages, Manley P. Hall p. CLXXXV

"...The world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church. Now the work of corruption rapidly progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ." -The Great Controversy, p. 50

"The belief in miracle-working objects, talismans, amulets, and formulas was dear to Christianity, and they were received from pagan antiquity . . . The vestments of the clergy and the papal title of 'pontifex maximus' were legacies from pagan Rome. The [Catholic] Church found that rural converts still revered certain springs, wells, trees, and stones; she thought it wiser to bless these to Christian use then to break too sharply the customs of sentiment . . . Pagan festivals dear to the people, reappeared as Christian feasts, and pagan rites were transformed into Christian liturgy . . . The Christian calendar of saints replaced the Roman 'fasti' [gods]; ancient divinities dear to the people were allowed to revive under the names of 'Christian saints' . . . Gradually the tenderest features of Astarte, Cybele, Artemis, Diana, and Isis were gathered together in the worship of Mary"--Wil Durant, The Age of Faith, 1950, pp. 745-746.

Langdon tells us that Mary worship came from ancient Babylon where the virgin mother-goddess was worshiped under the name "Ishtar." Elsewhere in the Near East, the mother-goddess was called "Astarte, Ashtoreth, Persephone, Artemis, [Diana] of Ephesus, Venus, and Isis." This goddess, considered to be greater than any god, was called by these heathen the "virgin mother, merciful mother, Queen of Heaven, and my lady" [which is what "Madonna" means in Italian]. Langdon says she was often sculptured in mother-and-infant images, or as a "mater dolorom" [sorrowful mother] interceding for men with a wrathful god. And thus ancient paganism was brought into the churches and lives of Christians.--see S.H. Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 1931 edition, pp. 12-34, 108-111, 341-344. Laing mentions several other corruptions by which the mother-goddess was worshiped by heathens, that Rome adopted into Christianity: holy water, votive offerings, elevation of sacred objects [lifting of the host], the priest's bells, the decking of images, processions, festivals, prayers for the dead, the worship of relics and the statues of saints.--see Gordon J. Laing, Survivals of Roman Religion, 1931 edition, pp. 92-95, 123-131,238-241.

Two dominant elements brought into Christianity from paganism by Rome were Sun worship symbols and the religious practices of ancient Babylon] "The solar theology of the Chaldaeans [Babylonians], had decisive effect . . . [upon the] final form reached by the religion of the pagan Semites, and following them, by that of the Romans when [the Roman emperor] Aurelian, the conqueror of Palmyra, had raised 'Sol Invictus' [the invincible sun-god] to the rank of supreme divinity in the Empire"--The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 11, pp. 643, 646-647. From Palmyra he transferred to the new sanctuary the images of Helios [the sun-god] and Bel, the malaise patron god of Babylon--see Cumont, The Oriental Religions In Roman Paganism, 1911 edition, pp. 114-115, 124.

"The [Catholic] Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season . . . The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom . . . The sun has worshipers at this hour in Persia and other lands . . . Hence the Church would seem to say, 'Keep that old pagan name [Sunday]. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.' And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus"--William L. Gildea, "Paschale Gaudium," in The Catholic World, 58, March, 1894, p. 809 [A Roman Catholic weekly].

"The removal of the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330, left the Western Church, practically free from imperial power, to develop its own form of organization. The Bishop of Rome, in the seat of the Caesars, was now the greatest man in the West, and was soon [when the barbarians over-ran the empire] forced to become the political as well as the spiritual head."--A.C. Flick, The Rise of the Mediaval Church p. 168.

"Whatever Roman elements the barbarians and Aryans left . . . [came] under the protection of the Bishop of Rome, who was the chief person there after the Emperor's disappearance . . . The Roman Church in this way privily pushed itself into the place of the Roman World-Empire, of which it is the actual continuation; the empire has not perished, but has only undergone a transformation . . . It [the Catholic Church] is a political creation, and as imposing as a World-Empire, because [it is a continuation of] the Roman Empire. The Pope, who calls himself 'King' and 'Pontifex Maximus' [the title of the Roman Emperor in the time of Christ], is Caesar's successor."--Adolf Harnack, What is Christianity? 1963, pp. 269-270.

"Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western emperors was left to the mercy of the barbarous hordes, the Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked him to rule them; and thus, . . . commenced the temporal sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of Caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages."--American Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 1911.

[Speaking of the time, about 500 A.D., when the Roman Empire was crumbling to pieces:] "No, the [Catholic] Church will not descend into the tomb. It will survive the Empire . . . At length a second empire will arise, and of this empire the Pope will be the master--more then this, he will be the master of Europe. He will dictate his orders to kings who will obey them"--Andrea Lagarde, The Latin Church in the Middle Ages, 1915, p. vi.

"From the foregoing, which treats merely of the more important solar festivles, it is clear that these products of paganism are as much in force at present... as they ever were, and that Christianity countenances, and in many cases has actually adopted and practiced, pagan rites whose heathen significance is merely lost sight of because attention is not called to the source whence those rites have spring. So heavy was this infiltration that Sir Samuel Dill exclaims: "Christianity is only a sect of the Mithraists." -Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius. P. viif

So from history we see the tradition the church at Rome was following did exist, but it wasn't the tradition of the Apostles or from scripture as we can see from the changes, to say nothing of Christ or His resurrection.

 

[reddogs]

Now lets look what happened in Rome as the surge in 'converts' swelled its importance and how the early church was changed and another structure came in and imposed itself on the church. I was doing some work on the Greeks and how they pick up and passed on to the Romans the ancient Babylonian sun gods and system of worship, when I came across a interesting sermon that really hit the issue.

'...Pope is a shortened title for Pontifex Maximus. In Greek it means father. The Pontifex Maximus (meaning king of sacrifices or servant to the triads, as well as the "greatest bridge-maker between the gods and men") was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome. It's a pagan title that was incorporated from the Etruscan-Latin polytheistic culture (700 BC) who lived before the Romans. These early people (just like the Romans) had built great temples to the gods and goddess of the day. They also had a pagan triad. Eventually the Etruscans were conquered by Rome.

The title Pontifex Maximus (Pope) is mentioned numerous times by the early Catholic Church fathers (especially by Tertullian), but it was not applied to a Catholic bishop until much later on. The early Catholics said that the Pontifex Maximus was the "King of Heathendom," the evil high priest of the pagan mystery religion of Rome. This post was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion. A distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic, it gradually became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the Imperial office. It's last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of Gratian (reigned 375-383). He was then urged by the Catholic bishops to renounce the cultic Roman title, and instead grant it to their exalted leading bishop over Rome.

Pontifex Maximus is a name that's being used by the Roman Catholic Church clergy today. Though it may be abbreviated into Pope or Papa, yet it's clearly a title incorporated directly from paganism. Interesting to note that the all the pagan pontiffs or popes held that office for life. Exactly like the Catholics Popes. And their cult members met and elected a successor, who after his election became the next Pope or Pontifex Maximus (Dionys. II.22, 73). Just like the election held by the Catholic Church cardinals to choose a new Pope. The Pontifex Maximus was the guardian of the Vestal virgins. The Roman Catholic Church has simply named them Nuns instead. Many historians agree that the idea for the powers of the pope with the College of Cardinals came from the Pagan College of Pontiffs with its Sovereign Pontiff which had no doubt been in Rome from the earliest times, and must have been framed on the order of the original Council of Pontiffs at Babylon. It's also obvious to any historian that while the Catholics have called themselves Christians, they more closely resemble the ancient pagans both in customs and names. Pope Gregory I (601 AD) said in so many words literally, "We must compromise with the pagans in order to further Christianity."...'
Untitled Document

By the time of Emperor Constantine, the Christian religion received imperial sanction and the bishop of Rome became more than just another bishop, and brought in a system of worship from another origin than Christianity.

 

[reddogs]

Now lets take a look at the College of Pontiffs or Collegium Pontificum which was a body of the ancient Roman state whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the pagan religion. It consisted of the Pontifex Maximus, the Vestal Virgins, the Rex Sacrorum, and the flamines.

The Pontifex Maximus was the head and most important member of the college and held the sole power in appointing members to the other priesthoods. There were four chief colleges of priests in ancient Rome, the most illustrious of which was that of the pontifices. The others were those of the augures, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, and the epulones. The same person could be a member of more than one of these groups, including the Pontifex Maximus, who was president of the college. By the third century B.C., the pontiffs had assumed control of the state religious system. So we see where the title "pontiff" and its position was in the pagan priesthood.

The Rex Sacrorum, during the Roman Republic, was chosen by the pontifex maximus from a list of patricians submitted by the College of Pontiffs. The rex sacrorum wore a toga, the undecorated soft "shoeboot" (calceus), and carried a ceremonial ax; as a priest of archaic Roman religion, he sacrificed capite velato, with head covered. At Rome, the Rex Sacrorum priesthood was deliberately depoliticized; the rex sacrorum was not elected, and the comitia or the legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic merely witnessed his inauguration. Like the flamen Dialis but in contrast to the pontiffs and augurs, the rex was barred from a political and military career. It is not clear if the position carried over into the church as the Cardinals from what I can see, but the early on, Cardinals wore a violet or blue cape unless granted the privilege of wearing red, scarlet garments — the blood-like red was said to symbolize a Cardinal's willingness to die for his faith. But the Rex Sacrorum priesthood were appointed to counsel the Pontiff much as Cardinals which also were appointed to counsel the Pontiff in Rome. Historically, Cardinals were the clergy of the city of Rome, serving the Bishop of Rome as the Pope, but in the twelfth century the practice of appointing ecclesiastics from outside Rome as cardinals began, with each of them being assigned a church in Rome as his titular church, or being linked with one of the suburbicarian dioceses, while still being incardinated in a diocese other than that of Rome. There was created the College of Cardinals which is a body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church and a function of the college is to advise the pope about church matters when he summons them to an ordinary consistory.

Now lets take a look at the Vestal Virgins who were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The College of the Vestals and its well-being was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome, as embodied by their cultivation of the sacred fire that could not be allowed to go out. Around age 6 to 10, girls were chosen for this position and were obligated to perform the rites and obligations, including remaining chaste, for 30 years. The chief Vestal (Virgo Vestalis Maxima or Vestalium Maxima, "greatest of the Vestals") oversaw the efforts of the Vestals, and was present in the College of Pontiffs. The Vestals were freed of the usual social obligations to marry and bear children, and took a vow of chastity. Now we see where the nuns and there position and duties came from.

Then there were the flamens who were priests in charge of fifteen official cults of Roman religion, each assigned to a particular god. The three major flamens (flamines maiores) were the Flamen Dialis, the high priest of Jupiter; the Flamen Martialis, who cultivated Mars; and the Flamen Quirinalis, devoted to Quirinus. When a vacancy occurred, the persons were nominated to it and consecrated (inaugurabatur) by the Pontifex Maximus. So we see where the position and duties of the priests come from, and you can see why they were divided into orders, each devoted for a particular god.

So the bishop of Rome basically took the Collegium Pontificum and imposed it at will and the original teachings and practices of the original Christian church as depicted in the Acts of the Apostles was set aside or subtly shifted to allow the changes to take place. The bishop of Rome soon had no other bishop held at the same level, from the patriarch of Alexandria to the one in Jerusalem and he was pushing for more converts so allowing the pagan beliefs and ceremonies to come into the church.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

Speaking of the Sabbath commandment- Happy Sabbath- thanks for sharing this important biblical Truth.

 

[YeshuaFollower]

Now lets take a look at the College of Pontiffs or Collegium Pontificum which was a body of the ancient Roman state whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the pagan religion. It consisted of the Pontifex Maximus, the Vestal Virgins, the Rex Sacrorum, and the flamines.

The Pontifex Maximus was the head and most important member of the college and held the sole power in appointing members to the other priesthoods. There were four chief colleges of priests in ancient Rome, the most illustrious of which was that of the pontifices. The others were those of the augures, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, and the epulones. The same person could be a member of more than one of these groups, including the Pontifex Maximus, who was president of the college. By the third century B.C., the pontiffs had assumed control of the state religious system. So we see where the title "pontiff" and its position was in the pagan priesthood.

The Rex Sacrorum, during the Roman Republic, was chosen by the pontifex maximus from a list of patricians submitted by the College of Pontiffs. The rex sacrorum wore a toga, the undecorated soft "shoeboot" (calceus), and carried a ceremonial ax; as a priest of archaic Roman religion, he sacrificed capite velato, with head covered. At Rome, the Rex Sacrorum priesthood was deliberately depoliticized; the rex sacrorum was not elected, and the comitia or the legislative assemblies of the Roman Republic merely witnessed his inauguration. Like the flamen Dialis but in contrast to the pontiffs and augurs, the rex was barred from a political and military career. It is not clear if the position carried over into the church as the Cardinals from what I can see, but the early on, Cardinals wore a violet or blue cape unless granted the privilege of wearing red, scarlet garments — the blood-like red was said to symbolize a Cardinal's willingness to die for his faith. But the Rex Sacrorum priesthood were appointed to counsel the Pontiff much as Cardinals which also were appointed to counsel the Pontiff in Rome. Historically, Cardinals were the clergy of the city of Rome, serving the Bishop of Rome as the Pope, but in the twelfth century the practice of appointing ecclesiastics from outside Rome as cardinals began, with each of them being assigned a church in Rome as his titular church, or being linked with one of the suburbicarian dioceses, while still being incardinated in a diocese other than that of Rome. There was created the College of Cardinals which is a body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church and a function of the college is to advise the pope about church matters when he summons them to an ordinary consistory.

Now lets take a look at the Vestal Virgins who were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The College of the Vestals and its well-being was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome, as embodied by their cultivation of the sacred fire that could not be allowed to go out. Around age 6 to 10, girls were chosen for this position and were obligated to perform the rites and obligations, including remaining chaste, for 30 years. The chief Vestal (Virgo Vestalis Maxima or Vestalium Maxima, "greatest of the Vestals") oversaw the efforts of the Vestals, and was present in the College of Pontiffs. The Vestals were freed of the usual social obligations to marry and bear children, and took a vow of chastity. Now we see where the nuns and there position and duties came from.

Then there were the flamens who were priests in charge of fifteen official cults of Roman religion, each assigned to a particular god. The three major flamens (flamines maiores) were the Flamen Dialis, the high priest of Jupiter; the Flamen Martialis, who cultivated Mars; and the Flamen Quirinalis, devoted to Quirinus. When a vacancy occurred, the persons were nominated to it and consecrated (inaugurabatur) by the Pontifex Maximus. So we see where the position and duties of the priests come from, and you can see why they were divided into orders, each devoted for a particular god.

So the bishop of Rome basically took the Collegium Pontificum and imposed it at will and the original teachings and practices of the original Christian church as depicted in the Acts of the Apostles was set aside or subtly shifted to allow the changes to take place. The bishop of Rome soon had no other bishop held at the same level, from the patriarch of Alexandria to the one in Jerusalem and he was pushing for more converts so allowing the pagan beliefs and ceremonies to come into the church.

Thank you very much for the series of posts very informative I have learned a few things that confirms a what i was thinking about the catholic church. thank you also for mentioning the references of the info!

BLessings.

jff

 

[reddogs]

You are starting your thread with false premise. All days are made to worship. I don't believe the vast majority of Christians believe Sunday was/is ordained by God. The only people ever recorded on Earth that God gave the Sabbath to was Israel. The remainder of the World was oblivious to God's command to keep the Sabbath as required. You have provided zero evidence that we today are sinning because we do not observe a special day given only to one nation in a covenant that was broken and no longer exists.

All of your cut and pasting does not prove that we are under any command from God to observe any day.


Repent for what? You try to use that verse to indicate we are breaking the old covenant Israelite sabbath which does not exist and hasn't existed since Calvary.


Pagan schmagen, I am told the necktie dates back to the Pagans, but men and women wear them to church. Pagans probably are responsible for other customs, that we use today.


Just where do WE see that. You just gave us another false statement. Can we rely on this thread to be the real truth?

The fact is He never asked anyone to observe it except Israel.


If we check scripture, we will find that Sabbath is no longer a requirement for anyone, so your point is mute. The fact is not many who have accepted that they must observe the old covenant Sabbath are willing to check to find out if what they are doing is scriptural.

That may or not be true. What we do know is that no one, after Christ's death on the cross, is under the old covenant which contained the law concerning the Sabbath.


Where there is no law there is no sin. The fact is there has never been a law demanding the keeping of the Sabbath for anyone, accept Israel.

Look for yourself what day they say is the day of worship, and look as to the reason... Why do Christians worship on Sunday? | GotQuestions.org

 

[reddogs]

You ask a Christian and they claim a almost mind numbing claims as to why they keep Sunday as the day of worship, or they say well it was changed from Sabbath to the "Lords Day". Well lets take a look and see what day it clearly is...

Exodus 20:8-11
"8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

It is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, not Moses' sabbath, or the Jews sabbath, or anyone else's sabbath.

Leviticus 23:3
"Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings."

We see the same.

Deuteronomy 5:12-13
"12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. 13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou."

Again the same.

Exodus 31:13
"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you."

It was not 'Moses' sabbath.

Leviticus 19:1-2
"1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. 3 Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 19:30
"Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD."

Leviticus 26:2
"Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.

Isaiah 56:4-6
"4 For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; 5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. 6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;"

Ezekiel 20:12-13
"12Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. 13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

Ezekiel 20:16
"Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols."

Ezekiel 20:19-24
"19I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;
20 And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God. 21 Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. 22 Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. 23 I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; 24 Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols."

Ezekiel 22:8
"Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths."

Ezekiel 22:26
"Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them."

Ezekiel 23:38
"Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths."

The Lord claims the sabbath as His very own. It is a day, therefore it is literally, the Lord's day. So how many times must the Lord call the sabbath His day to understand that there is only one day in the scriptures that would be referred to as the Lord's day? Other than the seventh day sabbath, the Lord's day can also refer to the day on which He will return to this earth. That is all. Sunday, or the first day of the week is never referred to as the Lord's day in the scriptures, or the early church. This title was only applied to Sunday later on, to cover their deception. It was applied by those who began the apostasy and abomination which was the result of the corruption of worship brought in to the early church.

 

[reddogs]

The Bible is quite silent on Sunday sacredness, so those who claim they follow 'Solo Scriptura' or the "Bible Only" Protestant Churches contradict themselves by observing it as a replacement for the Sabbath. So lets go over how the belief was held by the Reformers as they knew Sunday sacredness was not scriptural.

The Reformers held that Sunday observance was not juris divini (of divine law), but only quasi juris divini (of semidivine law); yet they did would not allow that the claim that it could be changed and appointed by the authority of the Roman Catholic church. However the Protestant churches held to tradition when it came to Sunday sacredness, and followed the Catholic practice of Sunday observance. This is not found in the Bible, and Christ observed the Sabbath and He set an example for us to follow:

Luke 4:16 King James Version (KJV)
"16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read."

The practice of observing the first day of the week as Sabbath has no sanction either in Christ or in the New Testament. Jesus kept the Sabbath and He went to on Sabbath to the synagogue to worship, and nowhere does scripture have anything contesting this. We find it in many text:

Luke 4:17 King James Version (KJV)
"17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,"

The Sabbath was not only for going to church in order to worship but also to hear God’s Word. On the Sabbath day we find Christ in His mission to teach, to relieve the oppressed, to heal every kind of disease, and to restore those who are brokenhearted and without hope. And Christ did even more:

Luke 4:31-41 King James Version (KJV)
"31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.
32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
36 And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.
38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.
39 And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
41 And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ."

We also see how on the Sabbath day Christ handled the demon-possessed man who confronted Jesus, and He rebuked the evil angels just as He rebuked the Devil himself.

Mathew 4:1-11 King James Version (KJV)
"1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

Notice He states "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve", worship is important. Now much of the Christian world reverences Sunday or holds to Sunday sacredness, but did God know that this attempt to change His holy Sabbath would occur? Lets look:

"And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. " Daniel 7:25

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." Acts 20:28-30

God predicted that from within the church itself, there would arise men who would attempt to change what He had set from Creation and His holy law. So the prophecy has shown to be true, as the false doctrines and the error that the tradition and the teaching of the Catholic Church was as authoritative and at least equal to that of the Bible was brought in. Then the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, so nobody could question the Pope or his authority in all these changes or doctrines, and that the pope is Jesus Christ's vicar on earth, which is unscriptural.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

Catholic Churches hold worship services seven days a week several times a day.

It’s pretty well-known the Catholic church main day of worship is on Sunday. This is a tradition of the Catholic church and they take ownership of changing the corporate day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday and admit without the authority of scripture. Regardless, the only day God told us to keep holy is the seventh day Exodus 20:8-11- God commanded all other days to be working days. Exodus 20:9. Jesus in His own words told us to obey the commandments of God over the traditions of man. Matthew 15:3-9

 

[reddogs]

Very true, a rite which have been renamed as all the rest of the idols and 'holidays' and only on Sunday and not from scripture...
"The primary reason why Christians are obligated to observe Sunday, is not just because it has been mandated by any law of a church, but because it has been mandated by the experience of the Lord’s Resurrection on the first day of the week (Sunday), and the interpretation of this experience from the early Christian times that has been passed on to us and preserved today. Sunday is the “Day of Resurrection”. Sunday (“day of the sun” for pagans), is considered for Christians as the day when the “light of the world is raised, the son of justice is revealed“ (CCC #1166).

For Catholics, at the center and heart of the Sunday observance, is the celebration of the Holy Eucharist:"... Sunday and the Eucharist – Holy Faith Catholic Church

 

[reddogs]

Now as for the idea that the resurrection changed the Sabbath, there is nothing in the scriptures or the acts of the apostles for such a change. We see that the Sabbath also was Paul's custom and it was way after the resurrection..
"1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." 4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas." Acts 17:1-4. And also we find Acts 18:4,
"And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks."

As had Christ, the early church and the apostles worshiped on the seventh-day Sabbath. In his travels Paul attended the synagogue on the Sabbath, and preached Christ and His resurrection, so if anything was changed, he certainly would made it clear to all he wrote and spoke to. Now if you read your Bible, the Gentiles were prophesied to keep the Sabbath, notice what Isaiah 56:1-2 says..
"1Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Isaiah 56:1-2.

and we see it in Acts 13:42-44
"42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44 And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." Acts 13:42-44

The early church worshipped on the Sabbath everywhere without question, and it was what went out to India, China, North Africa, the Middle East and even the Roman world during the first century in all the places it went.

Josephus
"There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the Barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come!" M'Clatchie, "Notes and Queries on China and Japan" (edited by Dennys), Vol 4, Nos 7, 8, p.100.

Early Christians
"...The Sabbath was a strong tie which united them with the life of the whole people, and in keeping the Sabbath holy they followed not only the example but also the command of Jesus." "Geschichte des Sonntags," pp.13, 14

2nd Century Christians
"The Gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath," Gieseler's "Church History," Vol.1, ch. 2, par. 30, 93.

"The early church taught the Sabbath was for God's work of providence and meditation on His way of life. "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." (Constitution of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, pg 413, 3rd century) This was over 300 years after the resurrection of Christ.

"The Sabbath was kept in the early Eastern Churches, and some Churches of the West. "For in the Church of Millaine (Milan), it seemes that Saturday was held in a farre esteeme... Not that the Easterne Churches, or any of the rest which observed that day were inclined to Judaism; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath." (History of the Sabbath, Dr. Peter Heylyn, London 1636, Part 2, para. 5, pgs 73-74)

"Sabbath observance was widespread and appears to have been opposed by the Roman Catholic Church. It was kept holy by Christians in Egypt in the third century, as the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus shows."(c. 200-250 A.D.) "Except ye make the Sabbath a real Sabbath [Greek, "sabbatize the Sabbath"], ye shall not see the Father." (The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Pt. 1, pg 3, Logion 2, verses 4-11, London: Offices of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, 1898)

 

[reddogs]

So we can see that the early church were Sabbath keepers, it was only when the church in Rome began to allow the ancient 'traditions' and forced it on other areas of the empire that you begin to see changes. In his book 'From Sabbath to Sunday', Samuele Bacchiocchi claimed that the change from Sabbath to Sunday "was introduced at Rome about the middle of the second century." Sabbath and Sunday - Adventist Theories - GCI Archive

In support of that position, Samuele Bacchiocchi argues that Sunday-keeping was a Roman Catholic innovation that achieved universality because of the authority of the Roman church. Anti-Jewish sentiments were strong in Rome, and Gentiles became prominent in the church there. Since Hadrian fought against the Jews, his reign would be a likely candidate for the beginning of Sunday observance.

Because of the exigency that arose to separate Christians from the Jews and their Sabbath, Gentile Christians adopted the venerable day of the Sun from pagan sun worship as a substitute. Although the church in Rome influence some areas of the empire, it was not able to change long-standing Sabbath worship in all parts, especially in the East where those beliefs were based on apostolic practice.

Emperor Aurelian begins new Sun cult. (274 A.D.)
[p. 55] In 274, Aurelian created a new cult of the Invincible Sun. Worshipped in a splendid temple, served by pontiffs who were raised to the level of the ancient pontiffs of Rome, celebrated every fourth year by magnificent games, Sol Invictus was definitely promoted to the highest rank in the divine hierarchy and became the official protector of the Sovereigns and of the Empire He [Aurelian] placed in his new sanctuary the images of Bel and Helios, which he captured at Palmyra. In establishing this new State cult, Aurelian in reality proclaimed the dethronement of the old Roman idolatry and the accession of Semitic Sun-worship

[p. 56] This sidereal theology, founded on ancient beliefs of Chaldean astrologers, transformed in the Hellenistic age under the twofold influence of astronomic discoveries and Stoic thought, [was] promoted, after becoming a pantheistic Sun-worship, to the rank of official religion of the Roman Empire.
Source: Franz Cumont, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans (reprint; New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960), pp. 55, 56.
First Sunday Law enacted by Emperor Constantine -

March, 321 A.D.
On the venerable 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, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time [A.D. 321].)
Source: Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; trans. in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3 (5th ed.; New York: Scribner, 1902), p. 380, note 1.

Transition from Pagan to Christian
[p. 122] This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity of Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the Sun, the worship of which was then firmly [p. 123] established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar

[p. 270] 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 labour on Sunday.
Source: Hutton Webster, Rest Days, pp. 122, 123, 270. Copyright 1916 by The Macmillan Company, New York.
Yes, the title Pontifex Maximus is pagan, derived from the Sun worshipping Roman Empire, and the source of the papal title of Pontiff.

Pagan Festivals and Church Policy
The Church made a sacred day of Sunday largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.
Source: Arthur Weigall, The Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 145. Copyright 1928 by G. p. Putnams Sons, New York.

 

[reddogs]

Now its clear that Sunday worship was not scriptural so they had to make secular laws or imperial degrees to make the people change their Sabbath worship. Here is a good historical record in a book on the Sunday Legislation that was enacted throughout the years.. Sunday legislation; its history to the present time and its results : Lewis, Abram Herbert, 1836-1908 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

And when clearly there was no scriptural change to the Sabbath even from their claim of being from the resurrection, they came up with what they said was proof of a change to a 'Christian day' versus the 'Jewish day' of worship, claiming it was changed by virtue of the 'Lords day'. Yet if we look at the text it says nothing of the Sabbath being changed...
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet," Rev 1:10

And history gives us when and how this idea came about...
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 A.D. 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.' "--EM. Chalmers, "How Sunday Came Into the Christian Church," p. 3.

Certain historians agree that it was the pagan sun-worshipers--and not Christians--who first gave the name 'Lord's day' to Sunday. "The first day of each week, Sunday, was consecrated to Mithra [the most widely known sun-god of the early Christian centuries] since times remote, as several authors affirm. Because the Sun was god, the Lord par excellence, Sunday came to be called the 'Lord's day,' as later was done by Christianity."--Agostinho de Almeida Paiva, 0 Mitraiomo, p. 3.

In Revelation 1:10 we are told of "the Lord's Day," but we are not there told which day of the week this is. Else where in Scripture the "Lord's Day" is clearly explained: only the Seventh-day Sabbath is His day (Ex 16:23,25; 20:10; 31:15; 35:2; Lev 23:3; Deut 5:4; Isa 58:13; Matt 12:8 and Mark 2:28). But it was pope Sylvester, Bishop of Rome (314- 337 A.D.--the "pope" during the reign of Constantine) who officially called Sunday the "Lord's Day." "He officially changed the title of the first day, calling it the 'Lord's Day' "--M. Ludovicum Lucium, Historia Ecclesiastica, "Century IV," chap. 10. pp. 739-740, Edition Basilea, 1624.

"The keeping of the Sunday rest arose from the custom of the people and the constitution of the Church . . . Tertullian [155-225 A.D.] was probably the first to refer to a cessation of affairs on the Sunday; the Council of Laodicea [337 A.D.] issued the first conciliar church council] legislation for that day; Constantine I [321 A.D.] issued the first civil legislation."--Vincent J. Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast-day Occupations, 1943, p. 203. [Kelly is an American Catholic priest of the Redemptorist order].

Though Sunday is mentioned in so many different ways during the second century, it is not till we come almost to the close of the second, century that we find the first; instance in which it is called “Lord’s day."....

The Sunday Lord's Day Not Traceable to the Apostles

​

 

[Bob S]

The following is a repost of one I mistakenly deleted. It is a refute to the OP.

Bob S said to reddogs:

You are starting your thread with false premise. All days are made to worship. I don't believe the vast majority of Christians believe Sunday was/is ordained by God. The only people ever recorded on Earth that God gave the Sabbath to was Israel. The remainder of the World was oblivious to God's command to keep the Sabbath as required. You have provided zero evidence that we today are sinning because we do not observe a special day given only to one nation in a covenant that was broken and no longer exists.

All of your cut and pasting does not prove that we are under any command from God to observe any day.


Repent for what? You try to use that verse to indicate we are breaking the old covenant Israelite sabbath which does not exist and hasn't existed since Calvary.


Pagan schmagen, I am told the necktie dates back to the Pagans, but men and women wear them to church. Pagans probably are responsible for other customs, that we use today.


Just where do WE see that. You just gave us another false statement. Can we rely on this thread to be the real truth?

The fact is He never asked anyone to observe it except Israel.


If we check scripture, we will find that Sabbath is no longer a requirement for anyone, so your point is mute. The fact is not many who have accepted that they must observe the old covenant Sabbath are willing to check to find out if what they are doing is scriptural.

That may or not be true. What we do know is that no one, after Christ's death on the cross, is under the old covenant which contained the law concerning the Sabbath.


Where there is no law there is no sin. The fact is there has never been a law demanding the keeping of the Sabbath for anyone, accept Israel.

reddogs responded with the following: "Look for yourself what day they say is the day of worship, and look as to the reason..."

I am amazed as to why anyone would use the dictates of the Catholic to determine anything about when and how to worship. On top of that we, because the Catholic church worships on Sunday, are somehow the beast power and the Protestants are the image to the beast Is a ludicrous belief that comes from the Ellen White book The Great Controversy and the ongoing belief system of the church she cohosted.

Some are trying to tell us the new covenant is just the old one warmed over. Paul, Jesus' ambassador to the church, refutes that theory completely. When those some are introduced with scripture that refutes Ellen and her beliefs, they either come back with lame excuses or refuse comment.

 

[reddogs]

The following is a repost of one I mistakenly deleted. It is a refute to the OP.

Bob S said to reddogs:

reddogs responded with the following: "Look for yourself what day they say is the day of worship, and look as to the reason..."

You really are not paying attention to the facts, the Catholic Church claims it has the authority to change the day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday and so dont need to follow scripture and they are clear about it, and the Christian world pretty much follows this change.....

The Sunday law was officially confirmed by the Roman Papacy. The Council of Laodicea in A.D. 364 decreed, “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” (Strand, op. cit., citing Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, 2 [Edinburgh, 1876] 316).

Cardinal Gibbons, in Faith of Our Fathers, 92nd ed., p. 89, freely admits, “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 [the Catholic Church] never sanctify.”

Again, “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).

“Protestants do not realize that by observing Sunday, they accept the authority of the spokesperson of the Church, the Pope” (Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950).

“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change [Saturday Sabbath to Sunday] was her act... And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things” (H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons).

The Catholic Church claims that “the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact” (Catholic Record of London, Ontario Sept 1, 1923).... Who Changed The Sabbath to Sunday? — The Church of God International

Now if you claim that neither Sunday or the seventh day Sabbath is the day of worship, not much I or anyone can help you with that private interpretation...

 

[JSRG]

While there are a good number of issues I see (much of this is simply asserted based on speculation, and when sources or quotes are given, they're generally just copied from other websites), there is far too much here to go through everything, or even most of it. Even this post you are reading took a very long time. Still, there are at least some points I wish to address, so I'm going to focus on the parts that seem especially erroneous. Hopefully it will still be of use to people.

The Cybele cult also flourished in Rome on today's Vatican Hill. They held that Cybele's lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection. There was violent conflict on Vatican Hill in the early days of Christianity between the Jesus worshipers and pagans who quarreled over whose God was the true, and whose the imitation. Christianity came to an accommodation with the pagan Spring festival and used it to bring in unconverted pagans.

A claim of this magnitude ("They held that Cybele's lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection.") is expected to be backed up by evidence, but... none is provided at all. You simply assert this with no backing. I attempted to look up to find verification, but all I could find were places that either gave no citations, or places that gave citations that, when looked up, themselves gave no citation. So please, give us a primary or scholarly source that attests to this. As far as I can tell, it's not true.

Christians at Rome had been faithful as they were persecuted for many years but as they became accepted and persecution stop, other challenges faced them. Greek philosophy and Gnosticism had been picked up and in Rome the old beliefs and festivals were still followed by the Romans and many Christian and leaders didnt see a problem with it. The first issue began when early in the life of the Church, disputes arose as the bishop of Rome allowed the celebration of the Pasch or Passover to continue till the following Sunday so Christians could also celebrate Spring Equinox festival as they had done before.

This claim about there being some connection between the celebration of Easter/Passover on Sunday having some connection to an equinox celebration is nonsensical. The Jewish Passover occurs (or is supposed to occur) after the Spring Equinox. So by having the Christian Passover celebration the Sunday after the Jewish Passover actually takes it farther away from the Spring Equinox. How in the world can moving the celebration farther away from the Spring Equinox in any way facilitate them celebrating the Spring Equinox in the way they did before? It does the opposite! This claim about the Spring Equinox is brought up several other times, and each time it has this same problem.

Now other Christian leaders saw the danger of worship according to the old pagan festivals and tried to stop it in what came to be known as Paschal/Easter controversies. The first recorded such controversy came to be known as the Quartodeciman controversy.

Eusebius of Caesarea (Church History, V, xxiii) wrote:
"A question of no small importance arose at that time [i.e. the time of Pope Victor I, about A.D. 190]. The dioceses of all Asia, according to an ancient tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon [of Nisan], on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should always be observed as the feast of the life-giving pasch (epi tes tou soteriou Pascha heortes), contending that the fast ought to end on that day, whatever day of the week it might happen to be. However it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this point, as they observed the practice, which from Apostolic tradition has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the Resurrection of our Saviour." So the bishop of Rome began the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on Sunday and it spread through the old areas of the Empire.Polycarp the disciple of John the Apostle who was now the bishop of Smyrna, came and confronted Anicetus, the Bishop of Rome who had allow the changes in the Passover and other changes to bring in converts. According to Irenaeus, around the 150s or 160, Polycarp visited Rome to discuss the differences that existed between the other centers of Christianity in Asia and Rome "with regard to certain things" and especially about the time of the Pasch or Passover which in Rome were now the Easter festivals.

It is claimed that "the bishop of Rome began the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on Sunday." Yet the quote offered gives no proof of this at all. It says nothing about the Bishop of Rome beginning it, merely that he (along with the Christian world outside of Asia) did so, and even says that the practice of doing it on Sunday was of apostolic origin. So this claim that the Bishop of Rome was the one who started it is simply speculation that is actually contradicted by the very quote offered.

Scholar William Cave wrote, "...the Sabbath or Saturday (for so the word sabbatum is constantly used in the writings of the fathers, when speaking of it as it relates to Christians) was held by them in great veneration, and especially in the Eastern parts honoured with all the public solemnities of religion. But in the Western part of the Empire, Sunday had entered in through the back door celebration of the Pasch or Passover.

He may have been a scholar, but the work being cited is from the 17th century... rather out of date. But let's look at it anyway. Now, the actual quote by Cave ends with the phrase "solemnities of religion" but there is no ending quotation mark. Perhaps this was just a typo to omit it, but it should be noted that the additional sentence comes not from Cave at all. Indeed, if we read Cave in context, it is clear the "veneration" or "observing" of the Sabbath extended to having religious assemblies on the day, but not that any rest was seen as required.

"In order to attach to Christianity great attraction in the eyes of the nobility, the priests adopted the outer garments and adornments which were used in pagan cults." -Life of Constantine, Eusabius, cited in Altai-Nimalaya, p. 94

So this one is just one of a larger post that's just a bunch of copied and presumably unverified citations. I expect few if any of them were actually verified, and plenty seem of questionable merit. Let's use the above one as an especially blatant example. The work here is not Altai-Nimalaya, but Altai Himalaya. It's a book from 1829 by Nicholas Roerich. And he does indeed offer the above quote (though he attributes it to Eusebius, not the incorrectly spelled Eusabius). Now, I have immediately skeptical of Roerich as he, shortly after giving that, also claims Pope Leo X said "How useful to us is this allegory of Christ", which is a false quote (see Did Pope leo X call Christ a fable?). And indeed, this one seems false too. The four books of Life of Constantine can be found at these links:

CHURCH FATHERS: Life of Constantine, Book I (Eusebius)

Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.

www.newadvent.org

CHURCH FATHERS: Life of Constantine, Book II (Eusebius)

Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.

www.newadvent.org

CHURCH FATHERS: Life of Constantine, Book III (Eusebius)

Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.

www.newadvent.org

CHURCH FATHERS: Life of Constantine, Book IV (Eusebius)

Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.

www.newadvent.org

So I searched through these for the word priest and found no matches for the above quote. Since you were the one who was confident enough about this quote to post it as evidence, would you mind telling us where in Life of Constantine it is?

Now lets look what happened in Rome as the surge in 'converts' swelled its importance and how the early church was changed and another structure came in and imposed itself on the church. I was doing some work on the Greeks and how they pick up and passed on to the Romans the ancient Babylonian sun gods and system of worship, when I came across a interesting sermon that really hit the issue.

'...Pope is a shortened title for Pontifex Maximus. In Greek it means father. The Pontifex Maximus (meaning king of sacrifices or servant to the triads, as well as the "greatest bridge-maker between the gods and men") was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome. It's a pagan title that was incorporated from the Etruscan-Latin polytheistic culture (700 BC) who lived before the Romans. These early people (just like the Romans) had built great temples to the gods and goddess of the day. They also had a pagan triad. Eventually the Etruscans were conquered by Rome.

The term "pope" was being used by popes long before "Pontifex Maximus" was ever used by them, so to claim that it is a shortened title for Pontifex Maximus is simply absurd.

Pope being a shortened title for Pontifex Maximus is flat nonsense. As any etymological dictionary will tell you, pope comes from the Greek word pappas; oddly, the essay you're posting admits that, but still insists that pope is the shortened form of Pontifex Maximus, which makes no sense. What makes this claim even more blatantly false is that Pontifex Maximus wasn't being applied to the pope until around the year 1400 (see When did the Pope start to use the ancient pagan title of “Pontifex Maximus”?), by which time the word "pope" had been used for a long time already (this incidentally dispenses with your source's later claim that the title was granted to the pope in the fourth century).

The early church worshipped on the Sabbath everywhere without question, and it was what went out to India, China, North Africa, the Middle East and even the Roman world during the first century in all the places it went.

More copied quotes follow, but I'll actually go through these ones because I've looked into them in the past, and they're often posted together.

First, though, I should note there's a bit of a bit and switch here. In this post you say "the early church worshiped on the Sabbath". Okay, no objection there, but note they also worshipped on Sunday. However, in the next post you declare "So we can see that the early church were Sabbath keepers" which is apparently in reference to the above quotes. But the above quotes prove nothing about them being Sabbath keepers--that is, seeing rest as obligated on Saturday.

So now let's look through these quotes. Do they do anything to prove Sabbath observance among the early Christians--and perhaps more importantly, among the non-Jewish Christians? Let's take a look.

Josephus
"There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the Barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come!" M'Clatchie, "Notes and Queries on China and Japan" (edited by Dennys), Vol 4, Nos 7, 8, p.100.

This quote (which, due to being copied, is not even a direct citation) proves absolutely nothing whatsoever about Christians observing Sabbath.

Early Christians
"...The Sabbath was a strong tie which united them with the life of the whole people, and in keeping the Sabbath holy they followed not only the example but also the command of Jesus." "Geschichte des Sonntags," pp.13, 14

The original work is in German and I cannot read it. However, I asked someone who does know German to look at the applicable pages. They told me that neither page "supports any claim of early observance of the Sabbath." Obviously I am having to take their word for this, of course.

2nd Century Christians
"The Gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath," Gieseler's "Church History," Vol.1, ch. 2, par. 30, 93.

Statement in full context: "While the Jewish Christians of Palestine retained the entire Mosaic law, and consequently the Jewish festivals, the Gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath and the passover (1. Cor v. 6-8), with reference to the last scenes of Jesus' life, but without Jewish superstition (Gal. iv. 10; Col. ii. 16)." He does not explicitly define what he means by Jewish superstition but given the verses cited, it seems fairly clear that he is saying that their observation of the Sabbath was without any requirement of rest as was done by the Jews. So he says they have religious assemblies, but denies a requirement of Sabbath rest, at least for the Gentile Christians.

"The early church taught the Sabbath was for God's work of providence and meditation on His way of life. "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." (Constitution of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, pg 413, 3rd century) This was over 300 years after the resurrection of Christ.

One doesn't even need to look up the citation to see what's wrong here; it says that the Sabbath is "a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of the hands." In other words, it is not requiring "idleness of the hands" or rest.

"The Sabbath was kept in the early Eastern Churches, and some Churches of the West. "For in the Church of Millaine (Milan), it seemes that Saturday was held in a farre esteeme... Not that the Easterne Churches, or any of the rest which observed that day were inclined to Judaism; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath." (History of the Sabbath, Dr. Peter Heylyn, London 1636, Part 2, para. 5, pgs 73-74)

On page 72, he writes: "As for the Saturday, that retained its wounted credit in the Easterne Church; little inferior to the Lords day; if not plainely equall: not as a Sabbath, thinke not so, but as a day designed unto sacred meetings." So this is an assertion that they had religious gatherings on Saturday, but again a rejection of the claim that there was a required day of rest.

"Sabbath observance was widespread and appears to have been opposed by the Roman Catholic Church. It was kept holy by Christians in Egypt in the third century, as the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus shows."(c. 200-250 A.D.) "Except ye make the Sabbath a real Sabbath [Greek, "sabbatize the Sabbath"], ye shall not see the Father." (The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Pt. 1, pg 3, Logion 2, verses 4-11, London: Offices of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, 1898)

A vague statement in a papyrus of unclear orthodoxy means little in proving what Christians were believing (there was no shortage of heterodox groups). However, we know exactly what this quote is from now. The papyrus being cited (Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1) is actually a portion of the Gospel of Thomas, a heterodox work. While we knew of its existence even in 1898, we didn't find a full copy of it until 1945 when a full translated copy was discovered that was a perfect match for Papyrus Oxrhynchus 1 (and a few other of the Oxrhynchus papyri). Now, one can forgive a work written in the late 19th century for being unaware of a document that wouldn't be uncovered for another half century, though it does show the danger of simply putting quotes from older, out of date sources. But it is the year 2023. Surely by now people can put forth the necessary work to figure out it was from the Gospel Thomas--certainly, I was able to do so.

The Gospel of Thomas is an apocryphal text that, according to the early Christian writers, was used by gnostics. Now, to be fair, much of it is simply quotes taken from the Gospels (sometimes paraphrased but retaining the same meaning) and there can be no objection in those cases. However, there are things not found in the Gospels; some reasonable, some less so, and some are just weird. From the Thomas O. Lambdin translation, here's an especially bizarre statement from it (#114):

"Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life."
Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.""

So we're not talking about some orthodox Christian document here. We're talking about a document seen as heterodox in the early centuries, used by gnostic groups, and with some rather odd statements attributed to Jesus. To try to hold it up as proof that orthodox Christians were keeping the Sabbath doesn't make much sense. Again, I don't blame people in 1898 for being unaware of its original context, but it's been known that this was from the Gospel of Thomas for more than half a century at this point, so it is poor form to refer to to it as some kind of orthodox document in present day.

 

[reddogs]

While there are a good number of issues I see (much of this is simply asserted based on speculation, and when sources or quotes are given, they're generally just copied from other websites), there is far too much here to go through everything, or even most of it. Even this post you are reading took a very long time. Still, there are at least some points I wish to address, so I'm going to focus on the parts that seem especially erroneous. Hopefully it will still be of use to people.



A claim of this magnitude ("They held that Cybele's lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection.") is expected to be backed up by evidence, but... none is provided at all. You simply assert this with no backing. I attempted to look up to find verification, but all I could find were places that either gave no citations, or places that gave citations that, when looked up, themselves gave no citation. So please, give us a primary or scholarly source that attests to this. As far as I can tell, it's not true.



This claim about there being some connection between the celebration of Easter/Passover on Sunday having some connection to an equinox celebration is nonsensical. The Jewish Passover occurs (or is supposed to occur) after the Spring Equinox. So by having the Christian Passover celebration the Sunday after the Jewish Passover actually takes it farther away from the Spring Equinox. How in the world can moving the celebration farther away from the Spring Equinox in any way facilitate them celebrating the Spring Equinox in the way they did before? It does the opposite! This claim about the Spring Equinox is brought up several other times, and each time it has this same problem.



It is claimed that "the bishop of Rome began the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on Sunday." Yet the quote offered gives no proof of this at all. It says nothing about the Bishop of Rome beginning it, merely that he (along with the Christian world outside of Asia) did so, and even says that the practice of doing it on Sunday was of apostolic origin. So this claim that the Bishop of Rome was the one who started it is simply speculation that is actually contradicted by the very quote offered.



He may have been a scholar, but the work being cited is from the 17th century... rather out of date. But let's look at it anyway. Now, the actual quote by Cave ends with the phrase "solemnities of religion" but there is no ending quotation mark. Perhaps this was just a typo to omit it, but it should be noted that the additional sentence comes not from Cave at all. Indeed, if we read Cave in context, it is clear the "veneration" or "observing" of the Sabbath extended to having religious assemblies on the day, but not that any rest was seen as required.



So this one is just one of a larger post that's just a bunch of copied and presumably unverified citations. I expect few if any of them were actually verified, and plenty seem of questionable merit. Let's use the above one as an especially blatant example. The work here is not Altai-Nimalaya, but Altai Himalaya. It's a book from 1829 by Nicholas Roerich. And he does indeed offer the above quote (though he attributes it to Eusebius, not the incorrectly spelled Eusabius). Now, I have immediately skeptical of Roerich as he, shortly after giving that, also claims Pope Leo X said "How useful to us is this allegory of Christ", which is a false quote (see Did Pope leo X call Christ a fable?). And indeed, this one seems false too. The four books of Life of Constantine can be found at these links:

CHURCH FATHERS: Life of Constantine, Book I (Eusebius)

Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.

www.newadvent.org

CHURCH FATHERS: Life of Constantine, Book II (Eusebius)

Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.

www.newadvent.org

CHURCH FATHERS: Life of Constantine, Book III (Eusebius)

Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.

www.newadvent.org

CHURCH FATHERS: Life of Constantine, Book IV (Eusebius)

Featuring the Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia, Summa Theologica and more.

www.newadvent.org

So I searched through these for the word priest and found no matches for the above quote. Since you were the one who was confident enough about this quote to post it as evidence, would you mind telling us where in Life of Constantine it is?



The term "pope" was being used by popes long before "Pontifex Maximus" was ever used by them, so to claim that it is a shortened title for Pontifex Maximus is simply absurd.

Pope being a shortened title for Pontifex Maximus is flat nonsense. As any etymological dictionary will tell you, pope comes from the Greek word pappas; oddly, the essay you're posting admits that, but still insists that pope is the shortened form of Pontifex Maximus, which makes no sense. What makes this claim even more blatantly false is that Pontifex Maximus wasn't being applied to the pope until around the year 1400 (see When did the Pope start to use the ancient pagan title of “Pontifex Maximus”?), by which time the word "pope" had been used for a long time already (this incidentally dispenses with your source's later claim that the title was granted to the pope in the fourth century).



More copied quotes follow, but I'll actually go through these ones because I've looked into them in the past, and they're often posted together.

First, though, I should note there's a bit of a bit and switch here. In this post you say "the early church worshiped on the Sabbath". Okay, no objection there, but note they also worshipped on Sunday. However, in the next post you declare "So we can see that the early church were Sabbath keepers" which is apparently in reference to the above quotes. But the above quotes prove nothing about them being Sabbath keepers--that is, seeing rest as obligated on Saturday.

So now let's look through these quotes. Do they do anything to prove Sabbath observance among the early Christians--and perhaps more importantly, among the non-Jewish Christians? Let's take a look.



This quote (which, due to being copied, is not even a direct citation) proves absolutely nothing whatsoever about Christians observing Sabbath.



The original work is in German and I cannot read it. However, I asked someone who does know German to look at the applicable pages. They told me that neither page "supports any claim of early observance of the Sabbath." Obviously I am having to take their word for this, of course.



Statement in full context: "While the Jewish Christians of Palestine retained the entire Mosaic law, and consequently the Jewish festivals, the Gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath and the passover (1. Cor v. 6-8), with reference to the last scenes of Jesus' life, but without Jewish superstition (Gal. iv. 10; Col. ii. 16)." He does not explicitly define what he means by Jewish superstition but given the verses cited, it seems fairly clear that he is saying that their observation of the Sabbath was without any requirement of rest as was done by the Jews. So he says they have religious assemblies, but denies a requirement of Sabbath rest, at least for the Gentile Christians.



One doesn't even need to look up the citation to see what's wrong here; it says that the Sabbath is "a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of the hands." In other words, it is not requiring "idleness of the hands" or rest.




On page 72, he writes: "As for the Saturday, that retained its wounted credit in the Easterne Church; little inferior to the Lords day; if not plainely equall: not as a Sabbath, thinke not so, but as a day designed unto sacred meetings." So this is an assertion that they had religious gatherings on Saturday, but again a rejection of the claim that there was a required day of rest.



A vague statement in a papyrus of unclear orthodoxy means little in proving what Christians were believing (there was no shortage of heterodox groups). However, we know exactly what this quote is from now. The papyrus being cited (Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1) is actually a portion of the Gospel of Thomas, a heterodox work. While we knew of its existence even in 1898, we didn't find a full copy of it until 1945 when a full translated copy was discovered that was a perfect match for Papyrus Oxrhynchus 1 (and a few other of the Oxrhynchus papyri). Now, one can forgive a work written in the late 19th century for being unaware of a document that wouldn't be uncovered for another half century, though it does show the danger of simply putting quotes from older, out of date sources. But it is the year 2023. Surely by now people can put forth the necessary work to figure out it was from the Gospel Thomas--certainly, I was able to do so.

The Gospel of Thomas is an apocryphal text that, according to the early Christian writers, was used by gnostics. Now, to be fair, much of it is simply quotes taken from the Gospels (sometimes paraphrased but retaining the same meaning) and there can be no objection in those cases. However, there are things not found in the Gospels; some reasonable, some less so, and some are just weird. From the Thomas O. Lambdin translation, here's an especially bizarre statement from it (#114):

"Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life."
Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.""

So we're not talking about some orthodox Christian document here. We're talking about a document seen as heterodox in the early centuries, used by gnostic groups, and with some rather odd statements attributed to Jesus. To try to hold it up as proof that orthodox Christians were keeping the Sabbath doesn't make much sense. Again, I don't blame people in 1898 for being unaware of its original context, but it's been known that this was from the Gospel of Thomas for more than half a century at this point, so it is poor form to refer to to it as some kind of orthodox document in present day.

Yes, its all just quotes, cause the witnesses of the early church are not around, but check your history its clear what they dd. But lets go to the Roman Catholic Church and see what they say....

"Question:​

Until recently, I always thought Catholics worshiped on the Sabbath, and that the early Church moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Is this true?

Answer:​

This is a common misunderstanding. Catholics do not worship on the Sabbath, which according to Jewish law is the last day of the week (Saturday), when God rested from all the work he had done in creation (Gen. 2:2-3). Catholics worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week (Sunday, the eighth day); the day when God said “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3); the day when Christ rose from the dead; the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles (Day of Pentecost). The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “The Church celebrates the day of Christ’s Resurrection on the ‘eighth day,’ Sunday, which is rightly called the Lord’s Day” (CCC 2191).
The early Church did not move the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Instead “The Sabbath, which represented the completion of the first creation, has been replaced by Sunday, which recalls the new creation inaugurated by the Resurrection of Christ” (CCC 2190). Sunday is the day Catholics are bound to keep, not Saturday."

Did the Early Church Move the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?

Some people believe that Catholics worship on the Sabbath, but the early Church moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Is this true? Find out here.

www.catholic.com

"Q. Why do some religions say that the Sabbath day is Saturday while others — including Catholics — say it’s on Sunday? (Eldon, Missouri)

A. No, Catholics do not say that the Sabbath is on Sunday. The Sabbath is on Saturday, as it was in the Old Testament when God rested from all the work he had done in creation (Gn 2:2-3) and as it is observed by Jews today.

Christians, though, celebrate Sunday instead, because that is the day on which Jesus rose from the dead and the day on which the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: “Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath. In Christ’s Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God” (No. 2175).".... The Sabbath: Saturday or Sunday?/ Catholic view of 'the rapture' - Catholic Review

"And claiming authority over it

It is true that the Catholic Church through the authority of Christ replaced the Hebrew Sabbath (Saturday) with the Lord's Day (Sunday); however, this occurred very early - well before the time of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century. For Christians two important events happened on Sunday. First, the Resurrection of Christ occurred on Easter Sunday (John 20:1ff). Secondly, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church on Pentecost Sunday (Acts 2:1ff). Also after His Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the Apostles twice, each on Sunday (John 20:19 & 26). As a result, Sunday became known as the Lord's Day for Christians." .... The Sabbath or the Lord's Day

"Why does the Catholic Church claim to have changed the Sabbath commandment from Saturday to Sunday?
In the Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, we read:

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, (336 A.D.) 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 [Easter] Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on a [Pentecost] 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!"... Why does the Catholic Church claim to have changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?

You can check all the Catholic sites, and its much the same, so need to honestly address what Catholics themselves claim and believe rather than try to refute history which is quite clear...