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
"On this day [the sixth] also, on account of the passion of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we make either a station to God, or a fast. On
the seventh day he rested from all his works, and blessed it, and
sanctified it. On the former day [the sixth] we are accustomed to
fast rigorously, that on the Lord's day we may go forth to our
bread with giving of thanks. And let the _parasceve_ [the sixth
day] become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe
any Sabbath with the Jews, which Christ himself, the Lord of the
Sabbath, says by his prophet that 'his soul hateth;' which Sabbath
he in his body abolished, although, however, he had formerly
himself commanded Moses that circumcision should not pass over the
eighth day, which day very frequently happens on the Sabbath, as we
read written in the gospel. Moses, foreseeing the hardness of that
people, on the Sabbath raised up his hands, therefore, and thus
fastened himself to a cross. And in the battle they were sought
for by the foreigners on the Sabbath day, that they might be taken
captive, and, as if by the very strictness of the law, might be
fashioned to the avoidance of its teachings." Section 4.
These statements are in general of little consequence, but some of
them deserve notice. First, we have one of the grand elements which
contributed to the abandonment of the Sabbath of the Lord, viz., hatred
toward the Jews for their conduct toward Christ. Those who acted
thus forgot that Christ himself was the Lord of the Sabbath, and that
it was his institution and not that of the Jews to which they were
doing despite. Secondly, it was the church of Rome that turned the
Sabbath into a fast one hundred years before this, in order to suppress
its observance, and Victorinus was acting under its instructions.
Thirdly, we have a reference to the so-called Lord's day, as a day of
thanksgiving, but no connection between it and the Sabbath is indicated
for in his time the change of the Sabbath had not been thought of. He
has other reasons for neglecting the seventh day which here follow:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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