A handbook of Freethought : $b containing in condensed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the superstitious doctrines of Christianity
Religion
A handbook of Freethought : $b containing in condensed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the superstitious doctrines of Christianity
Christianity -- Controversial literature; Free thought
One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every
day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that
regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. (Romans
14 : 5, 6.)
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God,
how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days and months and
times and years. (Galatians 4 : 9, 10.)
Bear in mind, reader, that there is not so much as a dot in the New
Testament in favor of substituting Saturday for the Jewish Sabbath,
or for observing it as a Sabbath day. Jesus and Paul both repudiate
it. The history of the church is against the use of Sunday as the
Sabbath.
St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, in the year 345, says: "Turn thou
not out of the way into Samaritanism or Judaism, for Jesus Christ
hath redeemed thee; henceforth reject all observance of Sabbaths,
and call not meats, which are really matters of indifference, common
or unclean."
St. Jerome, in the year 392, says: "On the Lord's day they went to
church, and returning from church they would apply themselves to their
allotted works and make garments for themselves and others. The day
is not a day of fasting, but a day of joy; the church has always
considered it a day of joy, and none but heretics have thought
otherwise."
Sir William Danville, in his "Six Texts," p. 241, says: "Centuries
of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was observed by
the Christian church as a Sabbath. History does not furnish us with
a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed
previous to the sabbatical edict of Constantine in A. D. 321.
The Edict of Constantine.
In the code of Justinian lib. 3, title 12, sec. 2 and 3, we find the
first legal edict regulating the Sabbath:
Let all the judges and town people, and the occupation of all
trades, rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who
are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty attend
to the business of agriculture, because it often happens that no
other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest the
critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities
granted by Heaven.
By a multitude of religious teachers of the present day, this decree
of Constantine is recognized as the foundation of all "Sabbath"
or "Lord's day" legislation; as the first recognition by the "body
politic" of the usages or institutions of Christianity. But nothing
can be more easily shown than that this decree was not made in the
interest of Christianity; that it did not respect the Sabbath or
Lord's day; and that it was not issued by a Christian ruler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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