Sunday’s History
This study will briefly reveal the origin of Sunday observance as well as how and when it was adopted into the Christian church.
Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, New Edition says this about Sabbath;
"observances followed on the Sabbath are derived from Biblical injunctions.
Jews and Christians alike are instructed to rest and to refrain from certain types of work.
Strictness of Sabbath observance among Jews and Christians was characteristic of early times and of the Middle Ages (q.v.); among the orthodox it continues today. Most Christian churches have transferred to the first day of the week many features of the Sabbath."
Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, New Edition says this about Sunday;
"first day of the week, derived from the Roman holiday dies solis, meaning sun's day, and observed by most Christians as a holy day in honor of the resurrection of Christ.
The Roman emperor Constantine 1st made dies solis an official, legal holiday.
Since the 4th century, ecclesiastical and civil legislation have limited work on Sunday, and Christians have traditionally attended religious services."
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As one can see, the encyclopedia plainly states it was the churches who "transferred" (changed) the worship to the first day.
It was never instructed by God, Christ, the disciples or any of the prophets.
It also states that Christians are instructed by the Bible to keep the Sabbath.
The origin of Sunday worship stems from the same place as most holidays, paganism.
The pagan's worshipped their sun-god on this day, known to them as the venerable day of the sun.
The encyclopedia even says Christians didn't worship on Sunday until the fourth century.
They continued to keep Sabbath until it was made a law.
Over a thousand years later, (plenty of time for Christians to get used to and accept Sunday worship), the reform movement began.
It was at this time,(1500's), that these new Protestant churches took Sunday worship with them, when their founders left the Catholic church.
The original command to keep the Sabbath was replaced by men deciding to honor a pagan worship day and justifying it with the fact that Christ was raised on the first day.
Christians were given baptism as a symbol of the resurrection, we were never instructed to invent other symbols or acknowledge any day on its behalf, (Acts 1:22, 1Pet. 3:21).
This is something "man" has chosen to do with no authority from God.
We are definitely not told to adopt heathen worship days and call them Christian.
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Mat. 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat. 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Mat. 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
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Let us now look at what different denominations have revealed about Sunday worship.
Baptist: Sunday Sabbath not in the scriptures.
"There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not on Sunday...It will be said, however, and with some show of truimph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week....where can the record of such a transaction be found?
Not in the New Testament.
Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources.
But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of a sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!"
Dr. Edward Hiscox, author of The Baptist Manual
"There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish seventh day Sabbath to the Christian first day observance"
William Owen Carver, The Lord's Day in One Day p.49
Roman Catholic: No such law in the bible.
"Nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday.
We have the commandment of God, given to Moses, to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is, the seventh day of the week, Saturday.
Today, most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the [Roman] church outside the Bible."
Catholic Virginian, Oct. 3, 1947
Question: "Have you not any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?"
Answer: "Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her - she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority."
Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed. p. 174
Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the NEW LAW, that he himself has explicitly substituted sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is entirely abandoned.
It is now commonly held that God simply gave His church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as holy days.
The church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days."
John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies 1936, vol. 1 p. 51
Anglican/Episcopal: The Catholics changed it.
"We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy Catholic Church."
Bishop Seymour, Why We Keep Sunday
Lutheran: They err in teaching Sunday Sabbath.
But they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the seventh day had to be kept by the children of Israel.....These churches err in their teaching, for scripture has in no way ordained the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect"
John Theodore Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday, pp.15, 16
"We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish Sabbath faded from the mind
of the Christian church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day too possession of the church.
We have seen that the Christian of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both."
The Sunday Problem, a study book by the Lutheran Church (1923) p.36
"They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabath Day, as having been changed into the L-rd's Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems.
Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten commandments!"
Augsburg Confession of Faith, art. 28;written by Melanchthon and approved by Martin Luther, 1530; as published in The Book of Concord of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Henry Jacobs, editor (1911), p.63
Presbyterian: Sunday kept the Gentiles happy.
"Sunday being the first day of which the Gentiles solemnly adored that planet and called it Sunday, partly from its influence on that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body (as they conceived it) the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear carelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice that might be otherwise taken against the gospel"
T.M. Morer, Dialogues on the Lord's Day
Moody Bible Institute: "Sabbath was before Sinai"
"The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since.
This Fourth Commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing that the Sabbath had already existed when [Yahweh] wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai.
How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they admit that the other nine are still binding?”
D.L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, p.47
Methodist: God/Christ did not abolish the moral law.
The moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He [God] did not take away.
It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this.
This is a law which can never be broken...Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other."
John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions, Vol.1, No. 25
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The term Sunday came from the sun god that was worshipped on that day. The Roman empire was filled with Pagan's who worshipped there sun god on "dies solis", a Roman holiday. We received all the names of the days of the week from the planets.
English - "Planet"
Monday - Moon
Tuesday - Mars
Wednesday - Mercury
Thursday - Jupiter
Friday - Venus
Saturday - Saturn
Sunday - (Sun)
English has retained the original planets in the names for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. For the four other days, however, the names of Anglo-Saxon or Nordic gods have replaced the Roman gods that gave name to the planets. Thus, Tuesday is named after Tiw, Wednesday is named after Woden, Thursday is named after Thor, and Friday is named after Freya.
