The Change of the Sabbath

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Chapter 12- How Sunday Rose Into Prominence

IN this treatise, giving an account of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, it is but reasonable that we should present the prominent causes which led to this result. We have shown that the Bible gives no account of such a change: but it has been made, and the great mass of Christians are now observing the first day of the week. There must have been a united action of powerful causes to accomplish this. We present, as the most prominent of these, the following: ChSa 94.1

1. Sunday was an ancient heathen festival, which, from time immemorial, had been looked upon with favor, and regarded as more or less sacred by worshipers of the sun; so that when Christianity made progress among the idolatrous Gentile nations, it came in conflict with this custom. ChSa 94.2

2. The difficulty of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, surrounded as Christians were by the great masses of the people who did not observe it, but who paid more or less respect to Sunday. ChSa 94.3

3. The voluntary observance of memorable days, such as the day of the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension, etc., as the church lost its purity, and began to wander away from the Scriptures. ChSa 94.4

4. Hatred of the Jews, which was cherished among the Gentile nations, especially the Roman people, and after the death of the apostles, among Christians, on account of the persecutions they received, and because the Jews put Christ to death. ChSa 94.5

5. Especially, as the work of apostasy proceeded, the acceptance of tradition in place of the Bible. Here the church lost its connection with God, and wandered into heathenish practices, setting aside precious truths of divine authority, and accepting the inventions of men. ChSa 95.1

6. The hatred of the Church of Rome to the Sabbath of the Lord, seeking constantly to lower it in the estimation of the people, and to exalt the first day in its place. When this church came fully into power, it accomplished the work. ChSa 95.2

These influences combined, in the space of centuries, gradually to undermine the Sabbath, and to exalt the first day of the week in popular estimation, till, in the observance of the masses, it wholly superseded the Sabbath. We will notice more particularly some of these causes. ChSa 95.3