Sign In Sign-Up

Sabbath vs. Sunday

An Internet Debate
Installment #11

This installment is entirely written by Dr. Samuele

Bacchiocchi. It is called The Sabbath Under Crossfire
and is an update report on the current
Sabbath/Sunday controversy. Dr. Sam felt it was very
important for people to understand that the renewed
attempts of Dale Ratzlaff and a host of other authors
to negate the continuity and value of the Sabbath for
today, is nothing else than the continuation of the
anti-Sabbath theology that originated in the second
century and has been reproposed throughout the
centuries.

By approaching the current controversy within a

larger historical context, Dr. Sam feels that his
readers can understand why some Christians, like
Ratzlaff, follow the Lutheran/Catholic tradition that
emphasizes the termination of the Sabbath at the
Cross, while other Christians, like the 20 plus
denominations represented by the Lord's Day
Alliance, follow the Reformed tradition that stresses
the continuity between the Sabbath and Sunday,
viewing the latter as the Christian Sabbath.

Links to significant points in this installment

Discussion 1:
Current controversy of Sabbath vs. Sunday has been rekindled by
three significant developments: 1) Numerous doctoral dissertations
by Sunday keeping scholars who argue for the abrogation of the
Sabbath in the New Testament and the apostolic origin of Sunday. 2)
Abandonment of the Sabbath by former Sabbatarian organizations
like the Worldwide Church of God. 3) The released Pastoral Letter
Dies Domini from Pope John Paul II that calls for a revival of Sunday
observance.

Discussion 2:
Origin of anti-Sabbath theology can be traced back to the time of
the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135 A.D. Contempt for Sabbath.
 Discussion 3:
New developments occurred after the Constantinian Sunday Law of
A. D. 321. -- The Sabbath as the principle of one-day-in-seven was
binding upon Christians, but the Sabbath as the specification of the
seventh-day was abolished by Christ.

Discussion 4:
Martin Luther, John Calvin and other reformers propose distinctions
between the moral (creational) and ceremonial (Mosaic) aspects of
the Sabbath. Calvin tries to resolve tension between the Sunday-
Sabbath as a perpetual creation ordinance and the Saturday-
Sabbath as a temporary ceremonial.

Discussion 5:
Severed ties to Sabbath commandment reduce Sunday keepers to
only an hour of worship. Reformed tradition views Sunday as the
Christian Sabbath.

Discussion 6:
Significance of the Papal Pastoral Letter Dies Domini. Pope argues
for theological connection between Sabbath and Sunday AND calls
for Sunday Rest legislation to facilitate Sunday observance.

Master Index to major arguments in all installments.

The Sabbath under Crossfire

A look at recent developments
in the context of historic anti-sabbath theology

Few Biblical doctrines has been under the constant crossfire

of controversy during Christian history like that of the
Sabbath. In his two volumes bibliographic survey of the
Sabbath/Sunday literature produced between the
Reformation and 1860, J. A. Hessey lists about one thousand
treatises for that period. (1) Since last century an even
greater number of studies dealing with the Sabbath/Sunday
question have been published. Truly it can be said that the
Sabbath has had no rest.

In recent times the controversy has been rekindled by at

least three significant developments:

1. Numerous doctoral dissertations and articles written

by Sunday keeping scholars who argue for the
abrogation of the Sabbath in the New Testament and
the apostolic origin of Sunday.
 2. The abandonment of the Sabbath by former
Sabbatarian organizations like the Worldwide Church
of God and other religious groups.
3. The newly released Pastoral Letter Dies Domini of
Pope John Paul II that calls for a revival of Sunday
observance. This historical document is of enormous
significance because the Pope grounds the moral
obligation of Sunday observance in the Sabbath
Commandment itself and calls for Sunday legislation
to facilitate the compliance with such obligation.

This article looks at these recent developments within the

larger historical context of the origin and development of the
anti-Sabbath theology. An understanding of how the
abrogation view of the Sabbath began and developed
through the centuries, is essential for comprehending why
the Sabbath is still under crossfire today. We shall look briefly
at the Sabbath from four significant perspectives:

1. The origin and development of the anti-Sabbath

theology.
2. The interpretation of the Sabbath during the Middle
Ages and by the Reformers.
3. The Sabbath in recent publications.
4. The significance of the papal Pastoral Letter Dies
Domini for the future of the Sabbath/Sunday question.

Part 1: The Origin of the Anti-Sabbath Theology

The origin of the anti-Sabbath theology can be traced back

to the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian who promulgated
in 135 A.D. a most repressive anti-Judaic legislation,
prohibiting categorically the practice of Judaism in general
and of Sabbathkeeping in particular. The aim of the Hadrianic
legislation was to liquidate Judaism as a religion at a time
when the Jews were experiencing resurgent Messianic
expectations that exploded in violent uprising in various
parts of the empire, especially Palestine. (2)

At that critical time a whole body of anti-semitic literature

was produced by Roman authors attacking the Jews
ethnically and religiously. (3) Christian authors joined the
fray by producing a whole literature "Against the Jews-
Adversos Judaeos" condemining the Jews as a people and
Judaism as a religion. (4) For example, the author of The
Epistle of Barnabas (generally dated between 130 and 138)
defames the Jews as "wretched men" (16:1) who were
abandoned by God because of the ancient idolatry (5:14). He
empties their religious practices like Sabbathkeeping of any
historical validity (15:1-8).

At about the same time Justin Martyr (about 150 A.D.)

further develops the "Christian" theology of contempt for the
Jews and their Sabbath by making the latter a temporary
Mosaic ordinance imposed solely on the Jews as "a mark to
single them out for punishment they so well deserve for their
infedelities" (5) It is hard to believe that a church leader like
Justin, who died as a martyr, would reduce the Sabbath to a
sign of Jewish depravity. Justin argues that the New
Covenant demands not "refraining from work on one day of
the week" but "observing a perpetual Sabbath" by abstaining
from sin. (6)

Justin's anti-Sabbath theology has been reproposed in

different ways throughout the centuries. In our times
Dispensationalists and New Covenant authors maintain
essentially the same view that the Sabbath is a temporary
Mosaic ordinance no longer binding upon New Covenant
Christians who observe the day spiritually by accepting the
rest of salvation, rather than physically by desisting from
work on the seventh day.

To give concrete expression to their contempt for the

Sabbath, Christians were urged to spend the day fasting
rather than feasting. Such a practice seems to have been first
introduced by the Gnostic Marcion (about 150 A.D.), well-
known for his anti-Judaic and anti-Sabbath teachings. (7)
Sabbath fasting was promoted by papal decretals in order to
show, as Pope Sylvester (A. D. 314-335) puts it, separation
from and "contempt for the Jews-exacratione Judaeorum."
(8) The practice was enforced by the Church of Rome for
centuries as indicated by the attempt of Pope Leo IX to
impose Sabbath fasting on the Eastern Greek churches. Their
refusal to accept Sabbath fasting contributed to the historical
break of A. D. 1054 between the Roman (Latin) church and
the Eastern (Greek) church. (9)
Part 2: The Sabbath in the Middle Ages and the Reformation

The Sabbath in the Middle Ages

A new development occurred following the Constantinian

Sunday Law of A. D. 321. The absence of any command of
Christ or the Apostles to observe Sunday made it necessary
for church leaders to defend its observance by appealing to
the Fourth Commandment. This was done by arbitrarily and
artificially differentiating between the moral and the
ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath commandment. The moral
aspect was understood to be the creation ordinance to
observe one-day-in-seven while the ceremonial was
interpreted to be the Mosaic specification of the seventh-day.
Thus, the Sabbath as the principle of one-day-in-seven was
binding upon Christians, but the Sabbath as the specification
of the seventh-day was abolished by Christ because allegedly
it was designed to aid the Jews in commemorating creation
and in experiencing spiritual rest.

To contend that the specification of the seventh day is a

ceremonial element of the Sabbath, because it was designed
to aid the Jews in commemorating creation and in
experiencing spiritual rest, means to be blind to the fact that
Christians need such an aid just as much as the Jews; it
means to leave Christians confused as to the reasons for
devoting one day to the worship of God.

This artificial distinction, articulated especially by Thomas

Aquinas (about 1225-1274 A.D.), became the standard
rationale for defending the Church's right to introduce and
regulate the observance of Sunday and holy days. This
resulted in an elaborate legalistic system of Sunday keeping
akin to that of the rabbinical Sabbath. (10)

The Reformers and the Sabbath

The sixteenth-century reformers reproposed with new

qualifications the distinctions between the moral (creational)
and ceremonial (Mosaic) aspects of the Sabbath. Their
position was influenced especially by their understanding of
the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments.

Martin Luther upheld a radical distinction between the Old

and New Covenants. Like Marcion and Justin, he attacked the
Sabbath as a Mosaic institution "specifically given to the
Jewish people." (11) In the Large Catechism (1529 A.D.)
Luther explains that the Sabbath:

"is altogether an external matter, like other

ordinances of the Old Testament, which were
attached to particular customs, persons, and
places, and now have been made free through
Christ." (12)

The Lutheran radical distinction between the Old and New

Covenants, or the Law and the Gospel, has been adopted and
developed by many modern antinomian denominations,
including the Worldwide Church of God and other former
Sabbatarian groups. These churches generally claim that the
Sabbath is a Mosaic institution which Christ fulfilled and
abolished. Consequently New Covenant Chrsitians are free
from the observance of any day.

John Calvin rejected Luther's antithesis between Law and

Gospel. In his effort to maintain the basic unity of the Old
and New Testaments, Calvin Christianized the Law,
spiritualizing, at least in part, the Sabbath commandment. He
accepted the Sabbath as a creation ordinance for mankind
while at the same time maintaining that with "the advent of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the ceremonial part of the
commandment was abolished"? (13) Calvin's view has been
adopted by churches in the Reformed tradition, such as the
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Baptists.

The difference between the Sabbath as a creational

ordinance for mankind and as a ceremonial (Mosaic) law
abolished by Christ is not easy to detect, especially for
someone not trained to distinguish theological nuances.
Calvin describes the Mosaic (Jewish) Sabbath as being
"typical" (symbolic), that is, a type of the "spiritual rest, the
truth of which was manifested in Christ." (14) The Christian
Sabbath [Sunday] on the other hand is "without figure," that
is, a pragmatic institution, designed to provide time for rest,
meditation, and church services. (15)

Calvin's attempt to resolve the tension between the Sunday-

Sabbath as a perpetual creation ordinance and the Saturday-
Sabbath as a temporary ceremonial law can hardly be
considered successful. Do not both fulfill the same pragmatic
functions? Moreover, by teaching that for Christians the
Sunday-Sabbath represents "self-renunciation" and the "true
rest" of the Gospel, (16) did not Calvin also attribute to the
day a "typological-symbolic" significance, much like the type
he assigned to the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath?

The unresolved contradiction between the moral and

ceremonial aspects of the Fourth Commandment has given
rise to two main opposing views over the relationship
between Sunday and the Sabbath commandment. On the one
hand, the Catholic and Lutheran traditions emphasize the
alleged ceremonial aspect of the Fourth Commandment
which was supposedly abolished by Christ. Consequently,
they largely divorce Sunday keeping from the Sabbath
commandment, treating Sunday as an ecclesiastical
institution ordained primarily to enable the laity to attend
weekly the church service.

On the other hand, the churches of the Reformed tradition

give prominence to the moral aspect of the Sabbath
commandment, viewing the observance of a day of rest and
worship as a creation ordinance for mankind. Consequently,
they promote Sunday keeping as the legitimate substitution
and continuation of the Old Testament Sabbath.

PART 3: The Sabbath in Recent Research

These two views are reflected in recent publications. The

Lutheran abrogation view of the Sabbath is espoused in the
symposium edited by Donald Carson, From Sabbath to Lord's
Day (1982) and in Willy Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the
Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the
Christian Church (1968). Both of these studies defend the
thesis that seventh-day Sabbathkeeping is not a creation
ordinance binding upon Christians, but a Mosaic institution
annulled by Christ. Consequently Sunday is not the Christian
Sabbath, but a Christian creation, introduced to
commemorate Christ's resurrection through the Lord's
Supper celebration.

By severing all ties with the Sabbath commandment, the

Catholic/Lutheran tradition reduces Sunday to an hour of
worship which an increasing number of Catholic and
Protestant churches are anticipating to Saturday night. This
trend could prove to be the deathblow to Sunday observance
(17) since in time even the hour of worship could readily be
squeezed out of the hectic schedule of modern life.

Recently the abrogation view of the Sabbath has been

adopted with some modifications by the Worldwide Church of
God (WCG), whose leaders early in 1995 declared the
Sabbath to be a Mosaic, Old Covenant institution that
terminated at the Cross. The same view is presented in a
rather simplistic way in the book The Sabbath in Crisis,
authored by Dale Ratzlaff, a former Seventh-day Adventist
pastor. Both the WCG and Ratzlaff believe that the New
Covenant does not mandate the observance of any day,
because the Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ who offers
us daily His salvation rest.

The Reformed tradition which views Sunday as the Christian

Sabbath is reflected in the study by Roger T. Beckwith and
William Stott, This is the Day: The Biblical Doctrine of the
Christian Sunday (1978). The authors argue that the
Apostles used the Sabbath to frame Sunday as their new day
of rest and worship: (18)

"in the light of the New Testament as a whole, the

Lord's Day can be clearly seen to be a Christian
Sabbath-a New Testament fulfillment to which the
Old Testament Sabbath points forward." (19)

Consequently they conclude that the practical implication of

their conclusions is that Sunday should be observed, not
merely as an hour of worship, but as "a whole day, set apart
to be a holy festival . . . for worship, rest and works of mercy."
(20) The Lord's Day Alliance actively promotes this view
through its official magazine, Sunday, and its various
agencies.

PART 4: The Significance of the Papal Pastoral Letter Dies

Domini

The preceding survey of the Sabbath/Sunday controversy,

offers us a historical perspective for analyzing Pope John
Paul II's Pastoral Letter Dies Domini. (21) This document has
enormous historical significance since it addresses the crisis
of Sunday observance at "the threshold of the Great Jubilee
of the Year 2000" (#3). The "strikingly low" attendance to
the Sunday liturgy reflects in the Pope's view the fact that
"faith is weak" and "diminishing" (# 5). If this trend is not
reversed it can threaten the future of the Catholic Church as
it stand at the threshold of the third millennium (#30).

The need for brevity causes me to focus only on two

significant aspects of this document, namely:

1. The theological connection between Sabbath and

Sunday
2. The call for Sunday Rest legislation to facilitate
Sunday observance

(1) The Theological Connection between Sabbath and

Sunday

A surprising aspect of the Pastoral Letter is way the Pope

develops the theological foundation of Sunday observance by
appealing to the continuity Sabbath commandment, rather
than to the traditional distinction between the moral and
ceremonial aspects of the commandment. The Pope correctly
notes the theological development of the Sabbath from the
rest of creation (Gen 2:1-3; Ex 20:8-11) to the rest of
redemption (Deut 5:12-15). He goes as far as describing the
Sabbath as a " kind of 'sacred architecture' of time which
marks biblical revelation. It recalls that the universe and
history belong to God; and without constant awareness of
that truth, man cannot serve in the world as a co-worker of
the Creator" (#15).

Contrary to Dispensationalists who negate the continuity and

value of the Sabbath in the Christian dispensation, the Pope
argues that the creative and redemptive meaning and
function of the Sabbath were not abolished at the Cross, but
were assumed by Sunday, which embodies and preserves its
theology and practice. The Pope states:

"Far from being abolished, the celebration of

creation becomes more profound within a
Christocentric perspective . . . The remembrance
of the liberation of the Exodus also assumes its
 full meaning by Christ in his Death and
Resurrection. More than a 'replacement' of the
Sabbath, therefore, Sunday is its fulfilment, and in
a certain sense its extension and full expression in
the ordered unfolding of the history of salvation,
which reaches its culmination in Christ" (# 59).

The Pope maintains that New Testament Christians "made

the first day after the Sabbath a festive day" because they
discovered that the creative and redemptive
accomplishments celebrated by the Sabbath, found their
"fullest expression in Christ's Death and Resurrection, though
its definitive fulfillment will not come until the Parousia, when
Christ returns in glory" (#18).

Dr. Bacchiocchi's Evaluation of Pope's Letter

The Pope's attempt to make Sunday the legitimate fulfilment

and "full expression" of the creative and redemptive
meanings of the Sabbath, is very ingenious, but
unfortunately lacks Biblical and historical support. From a
Biblical perspective, there are noindications that New
Testament Christians ever interpreted the day of Christ's
Resurrection as representing the fulfilment and "full
expression" of the Sabbath. In fact, the New Testament
attributes no liturgical significance to the day of Christ's
Resurrection, simply because the Resurrection was seen as
an existential reality experienced by living victoriously by the
power of the Risen Savior, and not a liturgical practice,
associated with Sunday worship.

Had Jesus wanted to memorialize the day of His resurrection,

He would have capitalized on the day of His resurrection to
make such a day the fitting memorial of that event. But, none
of the utterances of the risen Savior reveal an intent to
memorialize the day of His Resurrection by making it the new
Christian day of rest and worship. Biblical institutions such as
the Sabbath, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, all trace their
origin to a divine act that established them. But there is no
such divine act to sanction a weekly Sunday or annual Easter
Sunday memorial of the Resurrection.

From a historical perspective, the Pope's claim that the

celebration of Christ's Resurrection on a weekly Sunday and
annual Easter-Sunday "evolved from the early years after the
Lord's Resurrection"(#19) is discredited by compelling
historical facts. For example, for at least a century after
Christ's death Passover was still observed by the date of
Nisan 14 (irrespective of the day of the week), and not on
Easter-Sunday.

The introduction of Easter-Sunday instead is a post-apostolic

development which is attributed, as Joachim Jeremias puts it,
"to the inclination to break away from Judaism" (22) and to
avoid, as J. B. Lightfoot explains, "even the semblance of
Judaism." (23)

The promotion of Easter-Sunday by the Church of Rome in

the second century caused the well-known Passover
(Quartodeciman) controversy which eventually led Bishop
Victor to excommunicate the Asian Christians (about 191
A.D.) for refusing to adopt Easter-Sunday. Indications such
as these suffice to show that Christ's Resurrection was not
celebrated on a weekly Sunday and annual Easter-Sunday
from the inception of Christianity. The social, political, and
religious factors that contributed to the change from Sabbath
to Sunday and Passover to Easter-Sunday, are examined at
length in my dissertation From Sabbath to Sunday.

In the light of these reflections we conclude that the Pope's

attempt to invest Sunday with the theological meaning and
eschatological function of the Sabbath, is well-meaning but
without Biblical or historical support. Moreover, such an
attempt breaks the continuity and cosmic scope of the
Sabbath which embraces and unites creation, redemption
and final restoration; the past, the present and the future;
man, nature and God; this world and the world to come.

(2) The Legislation Needed to Facilitate Sunday Observance

In his Pastoral Letter Dies Domini, Pope John Paul II devotes

one of the five chapters (chapter 4) to emphasize both the
moral obligation of Sunday observance and the legislation
needed to facilitate the compliance with such obligation.

Moral Obligation

The Pope finds "the underlying reasons for keeping 'the

Lord's Day' holy inscribed solemnly in the Ten
Commandments" (# 62). He appeals to the Sabbath
commandment, rather than to Conciliar decisions, to justify
the moral obligation of Sunday observance. Why?
Undoubtedly because he recognizes that the Fourth
Commandment provides the strongest moral conviction that
Christians need for sanctifying the Lord's Day.

The problem in grounding the moral obligation of Sunday

observance in the Sabbath commandment lies in the simple
fact that Sunday is not the Sabbath. The two days differ not
only in their names or numbers, but also in their origin,
meaning, and experience.

In terms of origin, the Sabbath is a creational institution

while Sunday is a post-apostolic, ecclesiastical creation. In
terms of theological meaning, the Sabbath in the Scripture
encompasses creation, redemption, and final restoration. By
contrast, the theological meaning of Sunday, according to
the Fathers, includes such disparate meanings as the
commemoration of the anniversary of creation, the creation
of light on the first day, the celebration of Christ's
Resurrection, and a wide range of speculations regarding the
cosmic and eschatological superiority of the eighth day with
respect to the seventh day. (24) None of these meanings call
for the observance of Sunday as a Holy Day.

In terms of experience, the essence of Sabbath keeping is the

consecration of time to the Lord by giving priority to Him in
one's thinking and living during the 24 hours of the Sabbath.
By contrast, the essence of Sunday keeping is attending the
church service. Sunday originated as an early hour of
worship (Justin, Apology 67) which was followed by regular
secular activities and in spite of the efforts later made by
Constantine (321 A.D. Sunday Law), church councils, and
Puritans, to make Sunday into a Holy Day, Sunday has largely
remained the Hour of Worship and nottheDayof Rest and
Worship. The recognition of this historical reality has made it
possible in recent times to anticipate the Sunday worship
obligation to Saturday evening, a practice that is becoming
increasingly popular not only among Catholics but even
among Protestants.
Sunday Legislation

To facilitate compliance with the moral obligation to observe

Sunday, the Pope calls upon Christians "to ensure that civil
legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy" (#67).
The Pope builds his case for the need of a Sunday Rest
legislation by appealing to two historical precedents:

1. The providential protection that the Constantinian

Sunday Law provided for Christians to observe Sunday
"without hinderance"(# 64)
2. The historical insistence of the Church, "even after the
fall of the Empire," that civil governments uphold
Sunday Rest laws to facilitate Sunday observance
(#64).

The Pope concludes that Sunday legislation is especially

needed today in view of the physical, social, and ecological
problems created by our technological and industrial
advancements:

"Therefore, in the particular circumstances of our

time, Christians will naturally strive to ensure that
civil legislation respects their duty to keep
Sunday holy" (#67).

Dr. Bacchiocchi's Evaluation of Pope's call for Sunday Rest

In evaluating Pope John Paul II's call for a Sunday Rest

legislation, it is important to distinguish between his
legitimate concern for the social, cultural, ecological, and
religious wellbeing of our society, and the hardship such
legislation causes to minorities who for religious or personal
reasons choose to rest and worship on Saturday or on other
days of the week.

To call upon Christians to "strive to ensure that civil

legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy" (# 67),
means to ignore that we live today in a pluralistic society
where there are, for example, Jews and some Christians who
to keep their seventh day Sabbath Holy, and Moslems who
may wish to observe their Friday.

If Sunday keepers expect the State to make their Sunday the

legislated day of rest, then, Sabbath keepers too have an
equal right to expect the State to make their Saturday the
legislated day of rest. To be fair to the various religious and
non-religious groups, the State would then have to pass
legislation guaranteeing special days of rest for different
people. Such a legislation is inconceivable because it would
disrupt our socio-economic structure.

The Pope's call for Sunday Rest legislation ignores two

important facts. First, historically Sunday Laws have not
fostered church attendance. In Western Europe Sunday Laws
have been in effect for many years now, yet church
attendance is considerably lower than in the USA, running at
less than 10% of the Christian population. In Italy, where I
come from, it is estimated that 95% of the Catholics go to
church three times in their lives, when they are hatched,
matched, and dispatched.

Second, Sunday legislation is superfluous today because the

short-working week, which a long weekend of two or even
three days, already makes it possible for most people to
observe their Sabbath or Sunday. Problems do still exists,
especially when an employer is unwilling to accommodate the
religious convictions of a worker. The solution to such
problems is to be sought not through a Sunday or Saturday
Law, but rather in such legislation as the pending Religious
Freedom in the Workplace Act, which is designed to
encourage employers to accommodate the religious
convictions of their workers, when these do not cause undue
hardship to their company.

The solution to the crisis of declining church attendance

must be sought, not by calling upon the State to legislate on
the day of rest and worship, but by calling upon Christian to
live according to the moral principles of the Ten
Commandments. The Fourth Commandment specifically calls
upon Christians today to "Remember" what many have
forgotten, namely, that the seventh day is holy unto the Lord
our God (Ex 20:8-11).

An important factor which has caused many Christians to

forget the observance of the Sabbath is the anti-Sabbath
theology which, as we have seen, through the centuries has
taught Christians to view the Sabbath as a Jewish, Old
Covenant institution that terminated at the Cross. By
destroying the moral foundation for the observance of God's
Holy Day, the anti-Sabbath theology has deprived Christians
of the moral conviction needed for remembering the Sabbath
day to keep it holy.

The Sabbath has been under constant crossfire. What has

suffered from the crossfire, however, is not the Sabbath day
but mankind for whom the day was made. Being deprived of
the physical, mental, and spiritual renewal the Sabbath is
designed to provide, many people are seeking today for inner
peace and rest through pills, drugs, alcohol, health clubs,
meditation goup, and vacation in fantasy islands. The
Sabbath invites us to find inner peace and rest, not through
pills or places, but through the Person of our Saviour who
says: "Come unto me, and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28).
By inviting us to stop our daily work, the Sabbath enables us
to experience more fully and freely the presence, peace, and
rest of Christ in our lives (Heb 4:10).

Footnotes

1. J. A. Hessey, Sunday, Its Origin, History and Present

Obligation (London: Murray Publishing Company,
1860).
2. For a documentation and discussion of the Hadrianic
legislation, see Samuele Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to
Sunday. A Historical Investigation of the rise of Sunday
Observance in Early Christianity (Rome, The Pontifical
Gregorian University, 1977), pp. 178-182. To order a
copy, send $15.00, postpaid, to Biblical Perspectives,
4990 Appian Way, Berrien Springs, MI 49103
3. See From Sabbath to Sunday, pp. 175-175.
4. The following list of significant authors and/or writings
which defamed the Jews to a lesser or greater degree
may serve to make the reader aware of the existence
and intensity of the problem: The Preaching of Peter,
The Epistle of Barnabas, Quadratus' lost Apology,
Aristides' Apology, The Disputation between Jason and
Papiscus concerning Christ, Justin's Dialogue with
Trypho, Miltiades' Against the Jews '(unfortunately lost),
Apollinarius' Against the Jews (also perished), Melito's
 On the Passover, The Epistle to Diognetus, The Gospel
of Peter, Tertullian's Against the Jews, Origen's Against
Celsus.
5. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 23, The Writings of
Justin Martyr, T. B. Falls, trans., (New York: Christian
Heritage, 1948), p. 182. See also chapter 29, 16, 21.
6. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 12, Falls, The
Writings of Justin Martyr, p. 166.
7. For texts and discussion regarding Marcion, see From
Sabbath to Sunday, pp. 186-187. Epiphanius informs us
that Marcion ordered his followers "to fast on Saturday
justifying it in this way: Because it is the rest of the God
of the Jews... we fast in that day in order not to
accomplish on that day what was ordained by the God
of the Jews"(Adversus haereses 42, 3, 4, Patrologie
Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, Garnier Fratres, 1857).
8. S. R. E. Humbert. Adversus Graecorum calumnias 6,
Patrologie Latina, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, Garnier Fratres,
1844), 143, 937.
9. For a discussion and texts regarding Sabbath fasting,
see From Sabbath to Sunday, pp.187-198.
10. See L. L. McReavy, " 'Servile Work:' The Evolution of the
Present Sunday Law," Clergy Review 9 (1935), pp. 279f.
A brief survey of the development of Sunday laws and
casuistry is provided by Paul K. Jewett, The Lord's Day
(Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1972), pp. 128-169. A good
example of the adoption of Aquinas' moral-ceremonial
distinction can be found in the Catechism of the Council
of Trent.
11. Luther, Against the Heavenly Prophets, Luther's Works
(1958) 40: 93. A valuable study of Luther's views
regarding the Sabbath is to be found in Richard Muller,
Adventisten-Sabbat-Reformation, (Studia Theologica
Lundensia: Lund, 1979), pp. 32-60.
12. Concordia or Book of Concord, The Symbols of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1957), p. 1974.
13. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans.
Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1972), vol.
1, p. 341
14. John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses
Called Genesis, trans. John King (Grand Rapids,
 Eerdmans, 1948), p. 106.
15. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans.
Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1972), vol.
1, p. 343.
16. John Calvin, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of
Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, trans.
Charles William Bingham (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans,
1950), pp. 435-436.
17. This concern is expressed by Roger T. Beckwith and W.
Stott, This is the Day: The Biblical Doctrine of the
Christian Sunday (London: Marshall, Morgan Scott,
1978), p. ix.
18. Ibid., p. 26; cf. pp. 2-12.
19. Ibid., pp. 45-46.
20. Ibid., p. 141.
21. The English text of the Pastoral Letter Dies Domini was
downloaded from the Vatican web site. Since the
document is divided in 87 paragraphs, the references in
parenthesis are to the number of the paragraph.
22. Joachim Jeremias, "Paska", Theological Dictionary of
the New Testament, Gerhard Friedrich, ed., (Grand
Rapids, Eerdamans, 1968), vol. 5, p. 903, note 64).
23. J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers (London,
MacMillan
24. For texts and discussion, see From Sabbath to Sunday,
pp. 278-301

[Installment #10] | [Installment #12]

This article taken from the Bible Study Web Site at http://www.biblestudy.org/