Hi, I'm David Bercot. Tonight, we're going to be talking about what the early Christians believed about the Sabbath. Now, in the course of this, we're going to be covering a number of subtopics, and I'm going to just explain to you what we will be talking about. First, we're going to look at what day of the week was it that the early Christians met? Was it on Saturday, which was the Jewish Sabbath, or was it on Sunday, the day that most Christians meet for worship today?
And then, of course, we're going to look at the Scriptures to see if what they practice has supported in the Scriptures. Then we're going to look at the various references in the New Testament, in particularly the book of Acts, that talk about the Sabbath and Paul preaching on the Sabbath, and what that means.
And then we're going to be looking in general at whether the early Christians kept a Sabbath day, a day of rest, much like the Jewish Sabbath, whether they kept it on a Saturday or a Sunday, did they even observe a Sabbath at all? We'll be looking at what the significance, the spiritual significance of the Sabbath is. And then finally, I want to talk about was the Sabbath day transferred from Saturday to Sunday upon Christ's death.
Now, I grew up believing that Sunday did not become an official day of worship for Christians until Constantine made Sunday an official holiday. This would have been in the fourth century. Now, I did not grow up in a Sabbatarian church. That is a church that believed that Christians should meet on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Rather, the sect that I belonged to taught that there was no special day that the early Christians met. And so any day is as good as another.
Now, we did have meetings on Sunday, mainly because it was a day when most people were off of work and it was a convenient time to do it. So I was a little bit curious when I first began reading the writings of the early Christians to see exactly when they did worship or was it like I had been told that there was no special day? Well, I didn't get very far into their writings that it became quite obvious that the early Christians did in fact meet on Sunday, which they called the Lord's Day.
In fact, the evidence of this is about as solid as the evidence of any historical fact that I know of. I'm going to read to you just a sample of some of the quotations from the early Christians that make this quite clear that they met on Sunday or what they call the Lord's Day. The Didache, one of the earliest works that we have after the New Testament. Some, in fact, would date it as early as the year 80. And I think at the high end, generally not further than about 130 or maybe 140.
It says this," But every Lord's Day, gather yourselves together and break bread, and give Thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, so that your sacrifice may be pure." Ignatius, who was a personal disciple of the apostle John, said this in one of his letters. This is in volume one, page 62 of the Ante-Nicene writings. He said," No longer observing the Sabbath," that would be the Saturday, the 68, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day.
So if there's any question in your mind whether the Lord's Day was really Sunday, that perhaps it really meant Saturday, well, I think that quotation makes it pretty clear that they did not meet on the Jewish Sabbath, which was Saturday. Rather, they observed the Lord's Day, which was Sunday.
In fact, this is crystal clear in a passage from Justin Martyr in his first apology, which was a work addressed to the Roman Emperor giving a defense of Christianity and explaining how Christians met and what they did in their worship service. He says this is in volume one, page 186." And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place. And the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read.
But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which God made the world. And Jesus Christ, our Savior, rose from the dead on that same day. So you see, it's crystal clear. There's no room here to argue for any diversity. Sunday is when they all met, and it's the same day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, the first day of the week, which they call the Lord's Day.
In fact, because Christians met on Sunday, some of the pagans mistakenly thought that Christians were sun worshipers. Tertullian addressed this in his apologies. This first one from volume three, page 123 says," Others suppose that the Sun is the God of the Christians because we make Sunday a day of festivity." And then on volume 3, page 31, he says," We devote Sunday to rejoicing for a far different reason than sun worship." Now, many of us have been conditioned to think of Sunday as a particular somber day.
But for the early Christians, it wasn't. It was a day of rejoicing because our Lord was resurrected on that day. Now, when he speaks about festivity and rejoicing, he's not talking about amusements, going to the theater or the arena, which Christians didn't normally do anyway, but he's not talking about that kind of rejoicing, that kind of festivity. He's talking about a celebration in the church, rejoicing to know the Lord, to be part of His body, and knowing that He was raised from the dead.
Origen says this, we ourselves are accustomed to observe certain dates. For example, there is the Lord's Day. It's in Volume 4, page 647. Anatolius, writing about the year 270, says this," It should not be lawful to celebrate the Lord's mystery of Pascha that's Passover or what is known in the English-speaking world as Easter, at any other time but on the Lord's Day, the day on which the Lord's resurrection from death took place." Find that quote in volume 6, pages 148 and 149.
Victorinus, writing about the year 280, said on the seventh day, he rested from all his works and blessed it and sanctified it. On the former day, we are accustomed, former day meaning Saturday or the Sabbath. We are accustomed to fast rigorously, so that on the Lord's Day, we may go forth to our bread with Thanksgiving. Sunday was never used as a day of fasting among the primitive Christians because it was a day to celebrate the coming of life of Jesus Christ.
Peter of Alexandria, writing about the year 310, writes," We celebrate the Lord's day as a day of joy, for on it He rose again. We have received it as a custom, not even to bow the knee on that day." That's in Volume 6, page 278. What he's referring to is that the early Christians on Sunday did not pray kneeling or even bowing their heads. They prayed with their heads up, their arms outstretched, and standing was their posture because that was a symbol of rejoicing of celebration.
Finally, I'm going to read to you from the apostolic constitutions, which were compiled about the year 390. On the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's Day, you should meet more diligently, sending praise to God who made the universe by Jesus. Otherwise, what apology will a person make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection?
So I've read to you sample quotations from the earliest post-New Testament writers all the way till the end of the fourth century, and they're unanimous. And there are many other quotes that would corroborate these that demonstrate, I think, quite conclusively that the early Christians met on Sunday. That was their day of worship, not on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. In fact, there are no Orthodox early Christians who express a different view, who indicate that Christians are meeting on Saturday.
Now, one of the interesting things about Sunday, that's what the pagans call it Sunday, and the Christians refer to it as I've mentioned, the Lord's Day, is that it's the first day of the week, but in another sense, it's the eighth day. Because Jesus, on what is known often as Palm Sunday today, on the first day of the week, he entered Jerusalem and was met by crowds who laid down palm branches in front of his donkey. And then it was the next Sunday, the eighth day that he was resurrected.
And so early Christians often refer to the Lord's day as the eighth day. For example, Barnabas, one of the very early writings again after the close of the New Testament. In fact, some would date Barnabas as early as the year 70, and the upper end is maybe the year 130. This is in volume one, page 147 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. He says," I will make a beginning of the eighth day.
That is a beginning of another world." For that reason also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. Justin Martyr, writing about the year 160, says the eighth day possessed a certain mysterious significance, which the seventh day did not possess.
Justin Martyr writing again says," Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day after the Sabbath." Although the first day after the Sabbath remains the first of all the days, it is nevertheless also called the eighth. It's in volume one, page 215.
And Cyprian, writing about the year 250 says," Concerning the observance of the eighth day in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh, a sacrament was given beforehand in shadow and in usage." He's referring to the fact that God had commanded the Jews to circumcise their male babies on the eighth day from their birth. And the early Christians saw this as having prophetic significance, the eighth day being likewise the first day of the week being the day of Jesus' resurrection.
Anyway, he continues," But when Christ came, it was fulfilled in truth. For the eighth day, that is the first day after the Sabbath was to be that day on which the Lord would rise again, enliven us and give us the circumcision of the Spirit. The eighth day, that is the first day after the Sabbath, the Lord's Day was foreshadowed.
You see, the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, and so the day following it would logically, in a sense, rightfully be called the eighth day, although it's also the first day of the week.
But again, those quotations make it crystal clear that the early Christians did not meet on the Sabbath on Saturday, but rather they met on the first day or the eighth day of the week, the Lord's Day, which we know as Sunday today, in which it was called Sunday back then, but it being somewhat of a pagan name that Christians prefer to call it the Lord's Day. Now, a little bit later on this evening, we're going to talk about was the Sabbath then transferred to the first day of the week?
Did God transfer the Sabbath, which had originally been on the seventh day of the week, which is still the day that the Jews celebrate the Sabbath, that is on Saturday, was that day then transferred to Sunday so that now Sunday is the Sabbath day for us? We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But first, I want to go back into the Scriptures before we go any further with the passages from the early Christians.
As you have gotten very used to by now, I normally mention in my messages that if you want to know what the early Christians believed on a given subject, simply take all of the passages in the New Testament that pertain to that issue, give them a very literal and serious application, and you'll end up with what the early Christians believe. Now, that statement holds true almost always when we're dealing with issues of theology.
But when we're dealing with practices, such as what were the worship services like, what day of the week did they worship? How did they celebrate communion? What was their method of baptism? Here, what you'll find in the New Testament are clues. There's not any elaborate discussions. Now, on worship, we have those passages in 1 Corinthians where Paul gives instructions to the Corinthian congregation that was out of order.
But other than that, we don't have a lot of description of their worship services in the New Testament. And it's the same with, if I say almost all of the issues dealing with what did they practice, the scriptural witness is a bit thinner, we might say. Let's look at what the Scriptures do say that would give us some light, shed some light on what day of the week Christians met.
We have Acts 20:7, where it says," Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them." I think that's a pretty strong passage there. Normally, when we're establishing doctrines, we like to have a number of passages that we don't establish it on the basis of one verse. But we don't have a lot of verses pertaining to when the New Testament Christians worship.
But we have a very clear passage here in Acts 20:7, that is chapter 20, verse 7, that it was on the first day of the week. He says," When the disciples came together to break bread." So this wasn't something abnormal, but it was the regular day that they came together to break bread. Now, if you've heard my message on what the early Christians believed about communion, then you're well aware that Christians met on Sunday to celebrate communion, that they celebrated communion every Sunday.
So, here we have a testimony of the early Christians, and we have a strong corroboration in the New Testament. There's another verse that I think is not quite as conclusive, and that's 1 Corinthians 16:2, where Paul says," On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper." I say this isn't so clear because he doesn't say that's the day that you're worshiping. He doesn't say whether he means stored up at home, laid aside at home, or laid aside at the church.
But since other passages in the early Christian writings make it clear that they took up a collection on Sunday, their day of worship, then I think more than likely in light of that, that Paul is talking about laying things aside, bringing it to church to store up there at the church, but I don't think we can be dogmatic about that.
Then as far as this terminology referring to Sunday, the first day of the week, as the Lord's Day, we have the passage in Revelation 1:10, where John says," I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." So actually, that phrase," The Lord's Day" wasn't something the early Christians of the 2nd century coined. It was something that was being used in the days of the apostles.
However, even though the evidence is so very clear that the early Christians met for worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, which they called the Lord's Day, I've met a number of sincere Christians who believe that the early Christians, particularly the New Testament Christians, met for worship on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Now, I assume all of you know that the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday.
If there's any doubt in your mind about that, simply pick up the phone, call your local synagogue, ask to talk to the rabbi, and ask him what day of the week the Jewish congregation meets for Sabbath worship. What day of the week is the Jewish Sabbath? And I can assure you, he will tell you that it's Saturday. Whether you're talking to a Reformed Jew, a conservative Jew, or an Orthodox Jew, they're all going to tell you the same answer.
Interestingly, if our language, our native language was not English, this would probably be something you would instinctively know. For example, Spanish, which is a direct derivative of Latin, the day we call Saturday in Spanish is called Sabado, the Sabbath. And the day we call Sunday, they call Domingo of the Lord, the Lord's Day. And so Spanish-speaking Christians know just from childhood which day of the week is the Sabbath and which is the Lord's day.
But in English, our days of the week are still named after pagan gods, and so it's a little bit harder, I guess, to know. Well, anyway, I mentioned there are sincere Christians who do believe that the New Testament Christians worshipped on the Sabbath on Saturday. And in talking to some of these people, they've shown me some passages from the book of Acts, which they think demonstrates. For example, Acts 17, I'll just read verse two.
It says," Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures." Well, just looking at that verse, it might sound like, hmm, okay, maybe Christians didn't meet on the Sabbath. Or again, Acts 16:13, it says," And on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.
Oh, so they were meeting by the riverside and it says prayer was customarily made there on the Sabbath." However, when we look at the context of these verses, and there's many similar passages you can pull out of the book of Acts, you will find in every single situation that the group Paul was speaking to was not a Christian congregation, rather it was a Jewish gathering, and usually it was in the synagogue. For example, Acts 17: 1, we read verse two, but now let's look at verse one.
It says," Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews." And then it continues," Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, them meeting the Jews, not the Christian congregation." We already saw from Acts 20:7 that when he wanted to meet with the disciples, it was on Sunday, the first day of the week.
And likewise, the passage we read there in Acts 16 at the riverside, if we keep reading, it says," Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us saying," If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." So here you have unbaptized people, non-believers.
That's who Paul was preaching to you at the riverside, not a group of Christians. In fact, you'll see all throughout the book of Acts that that was Paul's custom. On the Sabbath, he would go into the synagogue or sometimes another gathering of Jews and preach Christ to them. But on Sunday, he met with his Christian brothers and sisters. Now I should also point out that many Jewish Christians, at least for a number of years or decades, also would go to their local synagogue on the Sabbath.
The fact that they were Christians didn't take away the fact that they were also ethnically Jews. And so Jewish Christians, and we're going to see this in a minute from the Scriptures, at least at the beginning of the Christian church, customarily followed the various Jewish laws, including the law on the Sabbath. And like I say, often they would go down to the synagogue, at least until they were thrown out.
Another verse that someone pointed out to me, Acts 15:21, this is when the council in Jerusalem is preparing the declaration of what the Gentile Christians were to observe. They said this in verse 21," For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues every Sabbath." Now, that was pointed out to me by someone who believes Christians should observe the Sabbath, and I don't quite get the connection.
It makes it very clear that it's talking about in the synagogues, Moses is preached. In the church, Jesus Christ was preached, not Moses. So he talked about in the synagogue, and many God-fearing Gentiles like Lydia would have been one, apparently, attended the synagogue, and so they were familiar with the law of Moses and what the Jews were teaching. Now, let me show you. You've no doubt read this passage a number of times, Acts 21.
And for this, you can see that the Jewish Christians still continue to keep many of the Mosaic commandments or customs. Acts 21 verses 18 through 25. Here we read," On the following day, all went in with us to James and all the elders were present." When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through His ministry.
And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord and they said to him," You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. But they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the custom. What then? The assembly must certainly meet for they will hear that you have come. Therefore do what we tell you.
We have four men who have taken a vow. Take them and be purified with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law.
But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. That was from the council there at Jerusalem. So that passage makes it very clear that the Jewish Christians still practiced the law, at least in that time period, before the death of Paul. This was still early in the history of the church.
I don't know that that was true everywhere or in all times, but it was true there at least in Jerusalem. And so it would be nothing strange for Paul, a Jew, to have likewise been at the synagogue on the Sabbath or at some other gathering of the Jews. As I said, Jewish Christians didn't cease to be Jews because they were believers in Christ. They still kept the law.
The difference between them, however, and the other Jews is that they knew that keeping the law was not required of them for salvation, that their salvation was a gift by grace, not a reward for keeping the law. Okay, we've talked now about what day of the week Christians met. Now I want to look at the issue of whether Christians, we Christians, whether we are even obligated to keep a Sabbath day or not, whether it's Saturday or Sunday.
And here, the testimony of the early Christians is crystal clear that they did not keep a Sabbath day, that Christians are not under the law of the Sabbath. Let me read to you just some sample quotations.
This first one we had read earlier, I want to just read it again from Ignatius, written about the year 105, volume one, page 62, talking about Christians, he says," No longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day." Aristides, who wrote the earliest apology that we have, written about the year 125, we don't have it in its entirety, but the part we do have says this, talking about the Jews, says," However, they too have erred from true knowledge.
In their imagination, they think that it is God who they serve." Actually, by their type of worship, they render their service to the angels and not to God. For example, they do this when they celebrate Sabbath. Find it at Volume 10, page 276. The letter to Diognetus, which probably dates back to about the year 125, says this about the Jews.
Their scrupulosity concerning meats and their superstition as respects the Sabbaths and their boasting about circumcision and their fancies about fasting in the new moons are utterly ridiculous and unworthy of notice. There he talks about the superstition as respects to Sabbaths. Justin Martyr in a work entitled Dialogue with Trypho the Jew. This is an apologetic work addressed to Jews.
He says this," Is there any other matter, my friends, talking about Jews, in which we Christians are blamed in this, that we do not live after the law and do not observe Sabbaths, as you do." It's in Volume 1, page 199. And this will be date back to about the year 160. And again, he says," There was no need of circumcision before Abraham, nor was there need of the observance of Sabbaths or of feasts and sacrifices before Moses.
Accordingly, there is no more need of them now." So the Sabbath commandment came in with Moses, and it ended with Jesus Christ.
Again, in the same work addressed to Jews, Volume 1, page 218, he writes," If some, through weak-mindedness, wish to observe the laws given by Moses, yet choose to live with the Christians and the faithful, as I said before, not inducing the Gentiles either to be circumcised like themselves, or to keep the Sabbath, or to observe any other such ceremonies, then I hold that we should join ourselves with such persons." And this would correlate with what we read earlier from the Book of Acts, that Jewish Christians
often originally continued to practice the works of the law.
And this was true even in Justin Martyr's day, although by his day, the church is predominantly Gentile and the amount of Jews who are in the church are now a very small minority, and some of them still kept the law, some didn't. Tertullian writes this, this dates back to about the year 197. You can find it in volume three, page 34.
He says," We do not follow the Jews and their peculiarities in regard to food, nor in their sacred names." And again, on page 153 of Volume 3," Let the one who contends that the Sabbath is still to be observed as a balm of salvation prove to us that in times past, righteous men kept the Sabbath or practiced circumcision, and were thereby made friends of God. God created Adam uncircumcised and non-observant of the Sabbath. Also, God freed from the deluge Noah, who was uncircumcised and did not observe the Sabbath.
Enoch too, he transported from this world, even though that most righteous man was uncircumcised and did not observe the Sabbath. Melchizedek also the priest of the Most High God, although uncircumcised and not observing the Sabbath, was chosen to the priesthood of God. So the early Christians looked at the Sabbath the same way they would circumcision, that it was not a requirement on Christians. And there was, in their eyes, no particularly good reason for Gentiles to follow those things.
Of course, somebody wanted to, not for salvation because he thought it was a good idea. That, of course, was a different matter. Tertullian, again, volume three, page 70 says," The Holy Spirit rebukes the Jews for their holy days." He says," Your Sabbath, new moons and ceremonies, my soul hates," quoting there from the testimony.
Victorinus, writing about the year 280, you can find this in volume seven, page 341, wrote," And let this become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews. For concerning their Sabbath, Christ Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, says by His prophets that his soul hates." Referring to that same verse that you quote. End of quotation.
In his body, or rather end of the quotation from the Old Testament, now Victorinus continues," In his body talking about Christ, he abolished this Sabbath." Finally, from the apostolic Constitutions from the year 390, we read," Keep the Sabbath and the Lord's Day Festival." The first is the memorial of the creation, the latter of the resurrection, making a distinction between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day. They were not the same. Continues, though.
However, there is only one Sabbath to be observed by you during the whole year, that of our Lord's burial. On that day, man should keep her fast, but not a festival. Find it in volume seven, page 469. So the Christians only kept, he said, one Sabbath day that they took NOTA one Saturday, and that was the day before Christ's resurrection while he was in the grave during what is known today as Holy Week, that Christians normally fasted on that Saturday before they celebrated on Sunday, the resurrection of Christ.
So the testimony of the early church is so clear. They did not keep a Sabbath. Christians are not under the law of the Sabbath. Of course, it's not just the Sabbath law that was abrogated with the coming of Christ, but the entire law of Moses was finished with the work of Christ. And so not only did the early Christians not keep His Sabbath, but they didn't keep any of the Jewish regulations, any of the Jewish feasts or customs. Let me read to you just a few quotes further on that part.
Going back to Ignatius, Volume 1, page 62, he writes," If we still live according to the Jewish law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace." Now, he's writing to Gentiles. He's not implying I don't believe that it would be wrong for a Jew to still keep Jewish customs if he's not doing it for the purpose of salvation. Tertullian, we read from him earlier. Let me read to you another passage about the law in general. Find this in volume three, pages 285 and 286.
He says," Paul blames the Galatians for maintaining circumcision and observing times, days, months, and years, according to those Jewish ceremonies. For they should have known those things were now abrogated, according to the new distance. Thus, it was said by Hosea," I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths." The Creator had long before discarded all these things, and the apostle was now proclaiming them to be worthy of renunciation.
So Brethren God was finished with all of those things. Paul wasn't making up something new coming from his own reasoning, but he was reflecting what the Holy Spirit had made clear. Again, Tertullian writes from volume three, page 471 of the Ante-Nicene fathers," We do not now deal with the law any further than to remark that the apostle here teaches clearly how it has been abolished by passing from shadow to substance." That is, it is passed from figurative types to the reality, which is Christ.
The whole point of the law was to lead up to Christ. Now that the reality is here, you don't need the shadow any longer. Origen, writing about the year 248, said this," We do not regulate our lives like the Jews, for we are of the opinion that the literal following of the laws is not the thing that conveys the real meaning of this legislation.
We maintain that when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart," quoting there from Paul." For the meaning of the law of Moses has been concealed from those who have not welcomed the way that is by Jesus Christ." You can find that quote in volume 4, page 569. Novatian, writing about the year 235, said from these things, it is plain that all of those things, he was talking about the clean and unclean animals, are returned to their original blessedness now that the law is finished.
This is exactly what the early Christians believe. The law is finished. It was a temporary thing. God had not originally told Noah that he could not eat the meat of certain kinds of animals. It was only during the period of the law. And after the law was finished and things returned to their natural state, including the dietary regulations and, of course, including the cell.
One last one from Lactantius, writing about the year 305, talking about the Jewish religious leaders, he says," They alleged other causes for their anger, namely that Jesus destroyed the obligation of the law given by Moses. That is, he did not rest on the Sabbath, but labored for the good of men." Furthermore, he abolished circumcision, and he took away the necessity of abstaining from the flesh of swine. However, he did not do this by his own judgment, but according to the will of God.
So the Jews brought this accusation against the Christians that they didn't follow the regulations of Moses because that was the plain truth. So the evidence is crystal clear, and I could quote to you many, many passages. These are just a few sample ones, representative ones. It's so clear, the early church taught that the law of Moses was nailed to the cross. It was abrogated. We are under none of the commandments of the law.
That is the dietary commandments, the festivals, the Sabbath, any of those sort of things We're only under the moral laws that were reiterated by Christ, either personally or through His apostles. But now, is this what the New Testament teach? We see what the literature is taught, but what about the New Testament? Let's look at the witness from the New Testament, and we'll start with the quote from the Old Testament. Now, we mentioned how Tertullian and Victorinus had quoted from the Old Testament.
That was a quotation from Isaiah chapter 1, verses 13 and 14, where God says," Bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. Paul, in writing to the Christians in Galatia, was quite concerned that they were again observing Jewish holy days.
And he says this in Galatians 4, verses 9 through 11," How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years." Well, see, if we are supposed to observe days that there's a Sabbath day each week, you would have hardly said that. Again, in Ephesians 2:15, he says this about Christ," Having abolished in His flesh the enmity. That is the law of commandments contained in ordinances." So Christ abolished the law.
The Sabbath was part of the law. It was not something God had from the beginning. You don't read anything about righteous men like Abraham and Noah and Enoch observing the Sabbath. Colossians 2 verses 14 and 16, he says about Christ, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us. Therefore, let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or I mean Sabbath.
So the law of the Sabbath as well as the law of the New Moon and the other Jewish festivals was wiped out in the death of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what the early Christians taught and is exactly what the New Testament teaches as well. Well, what about the claim that the Sabbath day was transferred from Saturday to Sunday by Jesus Christ. And so that we still should be observing a Sabbath, but now it's Sunday rather than Saturday.
Guess my response to that is, where on earth does it teach that in the New Testament? There is no verse in it that says anything about the Sabbath being changed from one day to a new day. The early Christians knew nothing of that. There's no passages anywhere in the writings of the early church that they regarded Sunday as the new Sabbath. In fact, this idea of Sunday being a Sabbath is actually something that came in with Constantine because it was Constantine who made Sunday a legal holiday.
Before then, it was not an official holiday. Now, many businesses were closed the entire weekend, Saturday and Sunday, but there was no requirement of that. And it was normal for people to work on Sunday. Saturday was really more of a Sabbath day among the world in general than was the first day of the week. He normally rests at the end of the week, the seventh day, not on the first day. And many of the early Christians had to work on the Lord's Day.
Often they met for worship before dawn, very early in the morning, because many of them had to go to work afterwards. Now, it became a custom, and I think a very good one to Tertullian makes reference to it, that if possible, Christians tried not to work on Sunday and to set that aside as a day of prayer, a day of worship. And like I say, I think it's very commendable. I think that is a very good thing to do.
And since we don't keep a Saturday Sabbath, I think it's also a good practice to have a Sabbath, to have a day of rest. And so Sunday works a lot better today than Saturday, since we're not living in a world that would normally regard Saturday as a day of rest. Unless, of course, we happen to be Jewish. So I'm not critical of people who want to keep Sunday as a Sabbath, but I think it's important we recognize this isn't the law of God.
This is something that came in after Constantine of viewing Sunday as a day of rest. And so we need to be very careful to not accuse others of sin if they work on Sunday or to regard this as a commandment from the New Testament. Now, again, I am opposed to Christians working on Sunday as a normal thing, not because in itself, it's a sin, but because it interferes with worship. I mean, that is the day that Christians have historically worshiped.
And nowadays, so many companies have a shifting, shifting shifts, a swing shifts where one week you're working in the morning, next week it's at night. And I've noticed that Christians who are having to do that and usually Sunday isn't excluded, that it really has a spiritual impact on them because you know some Sundays they have to miss church. Other Sundays they can make church but they have to leave right after that or maybe the night before they've been up all night working to ship that way.
And I think it does work to a spiritual detriment. So I'm very supportive of churches that have historically set aside Sunday as a day of rest and don't work. Don't open your business or carry on activities like that. Just so long as we recognize it's not a law of God. Now, the early Christians did see a meaning in the Sabbath, that it wasn't just temporarily for a rest from work for the Jews, but there was a greater spiritual meaning to it.
They believed that its meaning in eternity was that God's people should keep a Sabbath every day, not a Sabbath from doing physical work, but to a Sabbath of refraining from evil and works with flesh. Every day, not just on the Jewish Sabbath, not just on Sunday, but every day of the week. Justin Martyr in that work written to Jews that I've quoted from previously, volume one, page 200 says this," You now have need of a second circumcision, speaking to Jews, although you glory greatly in the flesh.
The new law requires you to keep a perpetual Sabbath. However, you, because you are idle for one day, suppose you are God. The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances. If there is any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so. Then he has kept the sweet and true Sabbath of God. Irenaeus, writing about the year 170 or 180, wrote this, quoting from Scripture," You will observe my Sabbath, for it will be a sign between me and you for your generations," quoting from the Old Testament.
Irenaeus continues," These things then were given for a sign. The Sabbath is taught that we should continue day by day at God's service, abstaining from all avarice and not acquiring or possessing treasures upon earth." However, a man was not justified by these things that is keeping the old law. Rather, they were given as a sign to the people. The fact is evident: Abraham himself, without circumcision and without observance of Sabbath, believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Find it volume 1, page 481. Tertullian wrote," We Christians understand that we still more should observe a Sabbath from all servile work." Always. This is not only every seventh day, but at all times. In the work called The Disputation of Archelaus and Manes, written about the year 320, and we find this, the law giver also desires that every individual among us should be devoted unceasingly to this kind of work, even as God himself is, that is, godly works.
Consequently, he directs us to continually rest from secular things and to engage in no worldly sort of work, whatever. This is called our Sabbath, refraining from the works of the flesh, the works of the world. It really grieves me today that so many Gentile Christians are turning to things of the law. I rejoice in the fact that there is an emphasis today among Jewish believers of keeping their Jewishness, that they don't have to hide it, that they can maintain Jewish practices and still be Christians.
And I think that's healthy and good. But I don't think it's healthy that Gentile Christians are turning back to the law. I mean, Paul said," Why are you doing this?" When the Gentile Christians were doing it in his day, you're keeping new moons and festivals. You're doing all of these things for what purpose? And what is particularly strange is that these very same Gentile Christians who are returning to keeping the festivals of the Jews refuse to keep the holy days of the Christian.
This is so top secret to keep old Jewish festivals that pointed to Jesus Christ at a bit of fulfilled that are done and then say," Oh, I don't want to keep the festivals of Christians." Now, of course, some of this is because certain, in fact, many of the so-called Holy Days are actually pagan festivals that have been given a Christian coating, but not all of them. The early Christians had their own calendar of special names.
For example, Tertullian wrote talking to Christians," You have your own registers, your own calendar. You have nothing to do with the joys of the world. In fact, you are called to the very opposite. For the world will rejoice, but you will mourn." Counseling Christians that they shouldn't keep pagan festivals. Origen wrote, we ourselves are accustomed to observe certain days. For example, there's the Lord's Day, Sunday.
The preparation that would be the Friday, what's called Good Friday nowadays, Pascha, known in English as Easter, and Pentecost. So there is a special day each week for Christians, the Lord's Day. There's three special days each year. The so-called Good Friday, there's nothing particularly good about it except that it worked in the end to our salvation, the death of Jesus, a day of mourning for Christians, and a day of celebration and celebrating Pascha, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And then there was Pentecost, the day the church was born. These are the days that we should be keeping as Christians, not going back to the law, returning to what Paul referred to as the beggarly things. Well, let's review what we've been talking about during the past hour. We've seen that the early Christians met on Sunday each week, not on Saturday. We also saw that the early Christians did not keep any kind of literal Sabbath. They did not teach that the Sabbath day had been transferred from Saturday to Sunday.
However, they kept a true Sabbath. A rest from all kinds of evil work were to the flesh every day of the week. We also saw how the early Christians did not keep any of the Mosaic law and believed, because it's taught in the New Testament, that the law of Moses was abrogated with Jesus Christ. It was nailed to the cross. It is no longer a requirement on us.
We've seen that Jewish Christians, many of them continued to live under the rules of the law, and that was allowed to them if they chose to do so, so long as they did not think that keeping those regulations had anything to do with their salvation. And we've seen that the early Christians had their own special days. They didn't keep the Jewish holidays. They kept the important days that were significant for Christianity and for the church.
If you haven't kept any of these Christian days, I would encourage you to do so. The day of Jesus' resurrection was, it's been paganized during the Middle Ages, but it was a celebration of Christians long before Constantine corrupted the church. It was a legitimate custom handed down from the apostles. It is something I think is worthy of celebration that we should keep. And Pentecost as well, the day that church was born. What a day to remember for we Christians.
Now, if you are dialoguing with somebody who believes that Christians should still keep the law or that we should at least still keep the Sabbath, particularly the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday. Or if you have more questions about that, I want to refer to you a book that goes into much more detail on this subject than what I've covered in the last hour. It's entitled, from the Sabbath to the Lord's Day, written by D.A. Carlson, C-A-R-L-S-O-N.
You should be able to order it from your local Christian bookstore or probably even a secular bookstore. And in that work, he goes into much more detail. He covers some of these quotes that we have looked at, but he goes into a lot more detail than I've been able to today. So hopefully you've learned something tonight in this message about the Lord's Day.
And I encourage you each day of the, rather each week throughout the year, that you think of the Lord's Day as something special, a day of rejoicing, a day to celebrate that Christ conquered death.