The Complete Testimony of the Fathers of the First Three Centuries Concerning the Sabbath and First DayAndrews, John Nevins
Religion
The Complete Testimony of the Fathers of the First Three Centuries Concerning the Sabbath and First Day
Andrews, John Nevins
Sabbath; Seventh-Day Adventists; Sunday
This was not a weekly but a yearly festival. Fasting is also set forth
in this paragraph, but every Sabbath except the one Christ lay in the
tomb is exempted from this fast, and every so-called Lord's day:--
"We enjoin you to fast every fourth day of the week, and every day
of the preparation [the sixth day], and the surplusage of your fast
bestow upon the needy; every Sabbath day excepting one, and every
Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice; for he will
be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's day, being the day of the
resurrection, or during the time of Pentecost, or, in general,
who is sad on a festival day to the Lord. For on them we ought to
rejoice, and not to mourn."
This writer asserts that it is a sin to fast or mourn on Sunday, but
never intimates that it is a sin to labor on that day when not engaged
in worship. We shall next learn that the decalogue is in agreement with
the law of nature, and that it is of perpetual obligation:--
In book vi., section 4, paragraph 19, it is said: "He gave a
plain law to assist the law of nature, such an one as is pure,
saving, and holy, in which his own name was inscribed, perfect,
which is never to fail, being complete in ten commands, unspotted,
converting souls."
In paragraph 20 it is said: "Now the law is the decalogue, which
the Lord promulgated to them with an audible voice."
In paragraph 22 he says: "You therefore are blessed who are
delivered from the curse. For Christ, the Son of God, by his
coming has confirmed and completed the law, but has taken away the
additional precepts, although not all of them, yet at least the
more grievous ones; having confirmed the former, and abolished the
latter." And he further testifies as follows: "And besides, before
his coming he refused the sacrifices of the people, while they
frequently offered them, when they sinned against him, and thought
he was to be appeased by sacrifices, but not by repentance."
For this reason the writer truthfully testifies that God refused to
accept their burnt-offerings and sacrifices, their new moons and their
Sabbaths.
In book vi., section 23, he says: "He who had commanded to honor
our parents, was himself subject to them. He who had commanded to
keep the Sabbath, by resting thereon for the sake of meditating on
the laws, has now commanded us to consider of the law of creation,
and of providence every day, and to return thanks to God."
This savors somewhat of the doctrine that all days are alike. Yet this
cannot be the meaning; for in book vii., section 2, paragraph 23, he
enjoins the observance of the Sabbath, and also of the Lord's-day
festival, but specifies one Sabbath in the year in which men should
fast. Thus he says:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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