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
"Again, as to the assertion that the Sabbath has been abolished,
we deny that he has abolished it plainly (_plane_); for he was
himself also Lord of the Sabbath. And this (the law's relation
to the Sabbath) was like the servant who has charge of the
bridegroom's couch, and who prepares the same with all carefulness,
and does not suffer it to be disturbed or touched by any stranger,
but keeps it intact against the time of the bridegroom's arrival;
so that when he is come, the bed may be used as it pleases himself,
or as it is granted to those to use it whom he has bidden enter
along with him." Section 42.
Three things are plainly taught. 1. The law sacredly guarded the
Sabbath till the coming of Christ. 2. When Christ came, he did not
abolish the Sabbath, for he was its Lord. 3. And the whole tenor of
this writer's language shows that he had no knowledge of the change of
the Sabbath in honor of Christ's resurrection, nor does he even once
allude to the first day of the week.
CHAPTER X.
Victorinus--Peter--Methodius--Lactantius--Poem on Genesis--Conclusion.
TESTIMONY OF VICTORINUS, BISHOP OF PETAU.
This person wrote about A. D. 300. His bishopric was in Germany. Of his
work on the "Creation of the World," only a fragment is now preserved.
In the first section he speaks thus of the sanctification of the
seventh day:--
"God produced that entire mass for the adornment of his majesty in
six days; on the seventh to which he consecrated it [some words
are here lost out of the text] with a blessing. For this reason,
therefore, because in the septenary number of days both heavenly
and earthly things are ordered, in place of the beginning. I will
consider of this seventh day after the principle of all matters
pertaining to the number seven."
Victorinus, like some other of the fathers, held that the "true and
just Sabbath should be observed in the seventh millenary." He believed
that the Sabbath was abolished by the Saviour. He was in sympathy with
the act of the church of Rome in turning the Sabbath into a fast. He
held to a two days' weekly fast, as his words necessarily imply. He
would have men fast on the sixth day to commemorate Christ's death,
and on the seventh, lest they should seem to keep the Sabbath with the
Jews, but on the so-called Lord's day they were to go forth to their
bread with giving of thanks. Thus he reasons:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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