21. What did this council, in its twenty-ninth canon, decree concerning the Sabbath and Christians
who continued to observe it ?
Answer
"Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [Sabbath], but shall work on that day. . . . If, however,
they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ. "-Hefele's "History of the Councils of the
Church," Vol. II, page 316.
NOTES-Some of the further steps taken by church and state authorities in bringing about this
change may be noted as follows:"In 386, under Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, it was decreed that all litigation and business
should cease [on Sunday] . . . .
"Among the doctrines laid down in a letter of Pope Innocent 1, written
in the last year of his papacy (416), is that Saturday should be observed as a fast-day. . . .
"In 425, under Theodosius the Younger, abstinence from theatricals and the circus [on Sunday]
was enjoined. . . .
"In 538, at a council at Orleans, it was ordained that everything previously permitted on Sunday
should still be lawful; but that work at the plough, or in the vineyard, and cutting, reaping, threshing,
tilling, and hedging should be abstained from, that people might more conveniently attend church. . . *
"About 590 Pope Gregory, in a letter to the Roman people, denounced as the prophets of
Antichrist those who maintained that work ought not to be done on the seventh day.' - "Law of Sunday," by
James T. Ringgold, pages 265-267.
The last paragraph of the foregoing quotation indicates that even as late as AD. 590 there were
those in the church who observed and who taught the observance of the Bible Sabbath, the seventh day.
How thoroughly does the Spirit search out the hidden treasures of truth?
9. In what words to Peter did Jesus indicate the kind of service a converted person should render to his brethren?
Who will thus he judged by the saints?
When did Paul expect to receive his crown?
Why, after the fall, was man shut away from the tree of life?
Why are its gates not to be closed?
What will be excluded from this city?
Questions & Answers are from the book Bible Readings for the Home Circle