For how long a time was the seventh-day Sabbath observed in the Christian church?
Answer
For many centuries. In fact, its observance has never wholly ceased in the Christian church.
NOTES-Mr. Morer, a learned clergyman of the Church of England, says: "The primitive
Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not
to be doubted that they derived this practice from the apostles themselves." Dialogues on the Lord's
Day," page 189.
Professor E. Brerewood, of Gresham College, London (Anglican), says: "The Sabbath was
religiously observed in the Eastern church three hundred years and more after our Savior's passion." A
Learned Treatise of the Sabbath" page 77.
Lyman Coleman, a careful and candid historian, says: "Down even to the fifth century the
observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and solemnity
gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued." -"Ancient Christianity Exemplified," Chap. 26,
sec. 2.
The historian Socrates, who wrote about the middle of the fifth century, says: "Almost all the
churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the
Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this.""Ecclesiastical History," book 5, chap. 22.
Sozomen, another historian of the same period, writes: "The people of Constantinople, and of
several other cities, assemble together on the Sabbath as well as on the next day; which custom is never
observed at Rome." - "Ecclesiastical History," book 7, chap. 19.
All this would have been inconceivable and impossible had there been a divine command given
for the change of the Sabbath. The last two quotations also show that Rome led in the apostasy and in the
change of the Sabbath.
What home did God make for man in the beginning?
When men appreciate God's love, what will they do?
What is God ready to do for all who seek forgiveness?
Of what kind of doctrines should we beware?
How did the Israelites in the wilderness on the sixth day prepare for the Sabbath?
10. Under what illustration from nature are the resurrection and the final salvation of the righteous taught?
When afflicted, for what did he pray?
Questions & Answers are from the book Bible Readings for the Home Circle