The Origin and Growth of Sunday Observance in the Christian Church

INTRODUCTION

It is not the intention of the writer of this pamphlet to give a general view of the subject of the Sabbath and Sunday. The object is to defend the faith of Seventh-day Adventists on the single point of the change of the Sabbath, and who is responsible for that change. On this point our faith has been assailed, and indeed misrepresented, by one who was formerly a minister of the denomination. He made liberal use of his former position to assure his readers that he thoroughly understood our arguments, and was well qualified to present them. Yet he carefully concealed our real arguments, leading his readers to suppose that no such arguments existed. OGSO 3.1

Under these circumstances faithfulness to the truth made it imperatively necessary to expose his sophistry. It will be seen from quotations at the beginning of the tract, that he claimed that our only evidence that the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath was drawn from the Catholic catechisms; that beside those catechisms we had never been able to present a single item of historical proof that the church changed the Sabbath. For this reason, in order that the reader may more readily and clearly see the incorrectness of his assertions, the testimony of Catholic catechisms and of Catholic authors has been entirely ignored in this argument. OGSO 3.2

The writer has been equally careful to exclude the testimony of all those who were favorable to the observance of the Seventh-day Sabbath. Every item of the evidence is from those who favored the keeping of Sunday, and most of it is from those who were ardently in favor of the observance of that day. Therefore it is not too much to say that, as far as our cause is concerned, the evidence of this tract is scrupulously impartial. Indeed, we doubt whether an argument of the same length was ever before published on any subject, in which the testimony of friends was altogether rejected, and only the testimony of opponents used. They who believe in the observance of Sunday will here find a strong array of evidence against the scriptural authority of that day, but that evidence is all their own. And much more of the same kind, from the same sources, could be given. OGSO 3.3

Will the reader please imagine, while he reads this work, that another argument is presented, namely, one in favor of the Sunday, in which is given such an array of admissions in its favor from those who keep the seventh day, as is here given from Sunday-keepers. What would he think of their cause? Would he not wonder that any kept the seventh day when the facts of the Bible and history compelled them to prove every point claimed by their opposers,-to yield every point necessary to prove their position? And this is our wonder, now, that any will persist in keeping Sunday when its own friends give such overwhelming testimony against it. OGSO 4.1

The “History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week,” by the late J. N. Andrews, is an impartial and truthful history, in which are given such an array of evidences as cannot be gathered in the compass of a tract like this. We recommend it to every reader as the most complete work that has ever been published on this subject. OGSO 4.2

Finally, we would call the attention of the reader to the fact that on the subject of the Sabbath, the Bible is not yea and nay. All the plain, clear testimony of the Scriptures is in harmony with the emphatic declaration of Jehovah himself, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Everything not in harmony with this is mere inference and human invention. May the Lord give every reader grace to examine the subject with reverence, and with an earnest desire to know and do the will of the Most High. If we tremble at his word now, we may be spared the pain of trembling before him when every work is brought into judgment. Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14. OGSO 4.3