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
"Neither dost thou fear the Lord, who cries aloud with such an
utterance; even he who commands us to give food even to our
enemies. Look forward to thy meals from that Tobias who always on
_every day_ shared them entirely with the poor man. Thou seekest to
feed him, O fool, who feedeth thee again. Dost thou wish that he
should prepare for me, who is setting before him his burial? The
brother oppressed with want, nearly languishing away, cries out at
the splendidly fed, and with distended belly. What sayest thou of
the Lord's day? If he have not placed himself before, call forth a
poor man from the crowd whom thou mayest take to thy dinner. In the
tablets is your hope from a Christ refreshed." Section 61.
Whether Commodianus meant to charge his brethren to relieve the hungry
on one day only of the week, or whether he held to such a Lord's day
as that of Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and others (namely, one that
includes every day of the life of him who refrains from sin), and so
would have his brethren imitate Tobias, who fed the hungry _every
day_, must be left undetermined. He could not have believed that Sunday
was the Lord's day by divine appointment, for he refers to the passover
festival (which rests solely upon the traditions and commandments of
men) as coming "once in the year" and he designates it as "Easter that
day of ours _most blessed_." Section 75. The day of the passover was
therefore in his estimation the most sacred day in the Christian church.
TESTIMONY OF ARCHELAUS, BISHOP OF CASCAR.
This person wrote about A. D. 277, or according to other authorities
he wrote not far from A. D. 300. He flourished in Mesopotamia. What
remains of his writings is simply the record of his "Disputation with
Manes," the heretic. I do not find that he ever uses the term "Lord's
day." He introduces the Sabbath and states his views of it thus:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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