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Seventh-day
Adventists claim that the weekly Sabbath was
changed by Rome and needs to be restored.
This idea was first made popular by
Ellen G. White and the early founders of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church.
[1] And yet,
everything Ellen G. White and the
Seventh-day Adventist Church says about the
so-called change of the Sabbath is a lie!
Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, a Seventh-day
Adventist Historian and Theologian proved
that Ellen G. White lied about who changed
the Sabbath, and when!
“Dr. Samuele
Bacchiocchi, one of the Seventh-day
Adventist’s top scholars wrote in an E-mail
message to the “Free Catholic Mailing List”
on February 8, 1997 and said:
“I
differ from Ellen White, for example, on the
origin of Sunday. She teaches that in the
first centuries all Christians observed the
Sabbath and it was largely through the
efforts of Constantine that Sundaykeeping
was adopted by many Christians in the fourth
century. My research shows otherwise. If you
read my essay “HOW DID SUNDAY-KEEPING BEGIN”
which summarizes my dissertation, you will
notice that I place the origin of
Sundaykeeping by the time of the Emperor
Hadrian, in A. D. 135.”
Bacchiocchi
could not find one quote from the early
church fathers that said the early church kept the
Sabbath.
No pope was around
in AD 321 to change the Sabbath.
Ellen G. White, who is
considered inspired by Seventh-day
Adventists, said that the Pope changed the
Sabbath in about AD 321. Why do all
Adventists today reject their inspired
prophet and say the change of the Sabbath
occurred in about AD 140? If White was wrong
about this, was she wrong when she traveled
to heaven and saw the 4th commandment
glowing brighter than all the rest?
If the current position of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church is that the change from
Saturday to Sunday took place in AD 140,
doesn’t that mean that they have come a long
way from Ellen Whites AD 321 prediction and have
only 40 more years to travel to reach the
truth of the Apostolic age?
If the
change from Saturday to Sunday happened, why
is there absolutely no discussion of this
change of actual day for the first 600 years
of church history? Merely calling Sunday the
Sabbath doesn’t count!
If
Sabbatarians reject White’s inspiration,
that Constantine changed the Sabbath day to
Sunday, why do they keep bringing
Constantine up as proof? If Constantine
changed the Sabbath to Sunday, why does he
merely legislate that work must stop on
Sunday with no actual mention of the day
being moved?
What is problematic is
the impression many people get from Ellen G.
White’s statements that the Sabbath was
observed “by all Christians . . . in the
first centuries” until “the early part of
the fourth century [when] the emperor
Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a
public holiday.” (pp. 52-53) ... The
earliest documents mentioning Sunday worship
go back to Barnabas in 135 and Justin Martyr
in 150. Thus, it is evident that Sunday
worship was already established by the
middle of the second century. This means
that to be historically accurate the term “centuries” should be changed to the
singular “century.’” — End Time Issues, #87.
More from Ellen G. White:
“It was
on behalf of Sunday that popery first
asserted its arrogant claims; and its first
resort to the power of the state was to
compel the observance of Sunday as the
‘Lord’s Day.’” — Great Controversy, page 447.
“Royal edicts, general councils, and
church ordinances sustained by secular power
were the steps by which the pagan festival
[day of the Sun] attained its position of
honor in the Christian world.” — Great
Controversy, page 574.
Dr.
Bacchiocchi’s rebuttal:
“Both
statements just cited are inaccurate,
because the secular power of the state did
not influence or compel Christians to adopt
Sunday during the second and third
centuries. At that time the Roman emperors
were rather hostile toward Christianity.
They were more interested to suppress
Christianity than to support church leaders
in their promotion of Sunday worship. The
bishop of Rome could not have resorted to
“the power of the state to compel the
observance of Sunday as ‘the Lord’s Day.’”
Eventually, beginning with the fourth
century, some Roman emperors actively
supported the agenda of the church, but this
was long after the establishment of Sunday
observance.” — End Time Issues, #87.
Dr. Bacchiocchi was presenting a more
realistic view of the history of Sunday
observance than Ellen G. White did.
No
educated historian takes the claim that the
pope changed the Sabbath seriously.
The fact
is that Sunday was kept by Christians long
before Sylvester, long before Constantine.
Ignatius of Antioch, AD 107: let every
friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a
festival, the resurrection-day, the queen
and chief of all the days of the week.
(Epistle to the Magnesians, chapter 9.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 1, page 62-63)
The Epistle of Barnabas, AD 70-120:
Wherefore we Christians keep the eighth day
for joy, on which also Jesus arose from the
dead and when he appeared ascended into
heaven. (The Epistle of Barnabas, section
15, Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 1, page 147)
Justin Martyr, AD 150: But Sunday is the
day on which we hold our common assembly,
because it is the first day of the week and
Jesus our saviour on the same day rose from
the dead. (First apology of Justin, Chapter
68)
As Dr. Bacchiocchi points out in
his End Time Issues, #87:
“No Adventist scholar has ever taught or
written that Sunday observance began in the
fourth century with Constantine. A
compelling proof is the symposium The
Sabbath in Scripture and History, produced
by 22 Adventist scholars and published by
the Review and Herald in 1982. None of the
Adventist scholars who contributed to this
symposium ever suggest that Sundaykeeping
began in the fourth century.”
Historians and Theologians of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church have never
denied that Christians came together for
worship on the First day of the week as
early as the second century.
This Pope
Sylvester thing is a rather desperate
attempt to salvage a claim which should have
been abandoned long ago. All it does today
is make people laugh at those who suggest
it, and when those who believe it realize
they have been duped, they will realize that
the whole system is based on such
misinformation. I didn’t think that this is
what Adventism wants ... but for some, their
traditions seem more important than
admitting the facts and moving on to a more
productive Christianity.”
More from
Ellen G. White:
“I saw that the
Sabbath commandment was not nailed to the
cross. If it was, the other nine
commandments were; and we are at liberty to
break them all, as well as to break the
fourth. I saw that God had not changed the
Sabbath, for He never changes. But the pope
had changed it from the seventh to the first
day of the week; for he was to change times
and laws [Daniel 7:25]”. — Ellen G. White, A
word to the Little Flock, page 18, paragraph
3, and Early Writings, page 32, paragraph 3.
“The pope has changed the day of rest
from the seventh to the first day.” — Ellen
G. White, Early Writings, page 65.
Ellen White was confused! She later
wrote that the papacy began in A. D. 538.
“The 1260 years of papal supremacy began
with the establishment of the papacy in A.
D. 538, and would therefore terminate on
1798.” — Great Controversy, page 266, 1888
edition.
“This period, as stated in
the preceding chapters, began with the
establishment of the papacy, A. D. 538, and
terminated in 1798. At that time, when the
papacy was abolished and the pope was made
captive by the French army, the papal power
received its deadly wound, and the
prediction was fulfilled, ‘He that leadeth
into captivity shall go into captivity.” —
Great Controversy, page 439, 1888 edition.
Ellen G. White lied and said that the pope
changed the Sabbath in AD 325. When that was
proven to be false, she changed her comments
and said that it was Constantine who changed
the Sabbath. Constantine’s own edict proves
that he did no such thing. Now many SDAs in
their Revelation Seminars are saying it was
changed by Roman Christians around AD 325.”
[2]
Nothing the Seventh-day
Adventist Church and their prophet, Ellen G.
White say about the change of the Sabbath is
true!
When did
the Christian Church change from keeping the Sabbath
to worshipping on Sunday?
“No specific
names or dates are associated with the
church’s shift from observing the holy day
on Saturday to observing it on Sunday. At
first, especially when many Christians were
converted Jews, their holy day was Saturday.
However, because the Resurrection and the
beginning of Creation had both occurred on
the first day of the week (Sunday), the
church soon observed that day instead. (More
Gentiles were becoming Christians as well,
which contributed to a desire to shake off
Jewish customs.) By the end of the first
century, Sunday worship was the norm. We can
assume the change caused some friction, for
in Colossians 2:16 Paul admonishes,
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by
what you eat or drink, or with regard to a
religious festival, a New Moon celebration
or a Sabbath day.”
It’s important to
note that the Sabbath was not simply moved;
Christians altered the observance as well as
the day. Hallmarks of the early Christian “Lord’s day” celebration, according to
Justin Martyr (ca. 100-ca. 165), included
readings from Scripture (particularly the
Gospels), a sermon, communal prayer, and
Communion—very different from Jewish Sabbath
observance. By Jewish standards, Christians
don’t keep the Sabbath at all.”
[3]
Are the Old Covenant Sabbath laws binding on
Christians today?
We believe the Old
Testament regulations governing Sabbath
observances are ceremonial, not moral,
aspects of the law. As such, they are no
longer in force, but have passed away along
with the sacrificial system, the Levitical
priesthood, and all other aspects of Moses’
law that prefigured Christ. Here are the
reasons we hold this view.
1. “In
Colossians 2:16-17, Paul explicitly refers
to the Sabbath as a shadow of Christ, which
is no longer binding since the substance
(Christ) has come. It is quite clear in
those verses that the weekly Sabbath is in
view. The phrase “a festival or a new moon
or a Sabbath day” refers to the annual,
monthly, and weekly holy days of the Jewish
calendar (cf. 1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 31:3; Ezekiel 45:17; Hosea 2:11). If Paul were referring to special
ceremonial dates of rest in that passage,
why would he have used the word “Sabbath?”
He had already mentioned the ceremonial
dates when he spoke of festivals and new
moons.
2. The Sabbath was the sign to
Israel of the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 31:16-17; Ezekiel 20:12; Nehemiah 9:14).
Since we are now under the New Covenant
(Hebrews 8), we are no longer required to
observe the sign of the Mosaic Covenant.
3. The New Testament never commands
Christians to observe the Sabbath.
4.
In our only glimpse of an early church
worship service in the New Testament, the
church met on the first day of the week
(Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:20-22; 16:2).
5. Nowhere in the Old
Testament are the Gentile nations commanded
to observe the Sabbath or condemned for
failing to do so. That is certainly strange
if Sabbath observance were meant to be an
eternal moral principle.
6. There is
no evidence in the Bible of anyone keeping
the Sabbath before the time of Moses, nor
are there any commands in the Bible to keep
the Sabbath before the giving of the law at
Mount Sinai.
7. When the Apostles met
at the Jerusalem council (Acts 15), they did
not impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentile
believers.
8. The apostle Paul warned
the Gentiles about many different sins in
his epistles, but breaking the Sabbath was
never one of them.
9. In Galatians 4:10-11, Paul rebukes the Galatians for
thinking God expected them to observe
special days (including the Sabbath).
10. In Romans 14:5, Paul forbids those
who observe the Sabbath (these were no doubt
Jewish believers) to condemn those who do
not (Gentile believers).
11. The
early church fathers, from Ignatius to
Augustine, taught that the Old Testament
Sabbath had been abolished and that the
first day of the week (Sunday) was the day
when Christians should meet for worship
(contrary to the claim of many Seventh-day
Sabbatarians who claim that Sunday worship
was not instituted until the fourth
century).
12. Sunday has not
replaced Saturday as the Sabbath. Rather the
Lord’s Day is a time when believers gather
to commemorate His resurrection, which
occurred on the first day of the week. Every
day to the believer is one of Sabbath rest,
since we have ceased from our spiritual
labor and are resting in the salvation of
the Lord (Hebrews 4:9-11).
So while
we still follow the pattern of designating
one day of the week a day for the Lord’s
people to gather in worship, we do not refer
to this as “the Sabbath.”
[4]
Everything Ellen G. White
and the Seventh-day Adventist Church teach
about the Sabbath is a lie.
The belief that Christians are obligated to
keep the seventh day Sabbath from the Old Covenant;
Sunday to become the mark of the Beast; the
coming, world-wide Sunday law; the claim
that the seventh day Sabbath is the seal of
God for the New Covenant Church; the Sabbath
as a test of faithfulness in the Last Days,
all have one thing in common, they do not
exist in scripture.
There is no
command anywhere in the New Testament for
Christ’s followers to keep the seventh day
Sabbath from the Old Covenant. New converts
were never required to keep it. The Sabbath
was for Israel alone and served as a sign
for the Mosaic Covenant (Exod. 31:12-14;
Ezek. 20:12, 20).
In fact,
there is no command for Christians to keep
any day of the week holy in the New Covenant (Matt. 11:28-30; 12:1-8; Acts 15:1-20;
Col. 2:14-17; Gal. 4:10-11; Rom. 14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-18;
2 Cor. 3:3-11; Heb. 3:7-4:13; 8:6-9:4; 10:23-25).
References:
1. see:
“Ellen White Was Wrong About Who Changed the
Sabbath.”
2. Parts of this
page are from:
Pope Sylvester I – who changed the Sabbath?
&
Samuele Bacchiocchi, Seventh-day Adventist
Historian Refuted.
3.
When did the Christian church switch the
Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?
4.
Are the Sabbath laws binding on Christians
today?
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