There were just two festivals that landed on Sunday.
The waving of the First Sheaf and the day of Penticost.

That means TWICE A YEAR, a special event took place on a Sunday.

The Feast of Tabernacles was not governed by the weekly cycle. It began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and just like in our calendar the fifteenth day of a month can land on any day of the week, so the two "sabbaths" of the Feast of Tabernacles could have both been on Mondays one year, Tuesdays the next, etc.

So that really was NOT at all connected with Sunday being anything special.

Our own campmeetings are eight day events, I don't think anyone thinks of the second Sabbath as being any special "eighth" day worship day.

Personally I think the "eighth day" concept as referring to sunday was not at all part of the Jewish thinking.

It was something that those who wanted to disassociate themselves from the Jews developed. They added spiritualized dimensions to the number "eight", applied it to Sunday in an effort to make the Sabbath to Sunday switch.

Nor do I believe the early Christians were meeting on Sunday on any regular basis. They were keeping the 7th day Sabbath.

Even in the 5th Century Socrates wrote:

"Nor is there less variation in regard to religious assemblies. For although almost all 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, have ceased to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebaïs, hold their religious assemblies on the sabbath...



The assumption that Christians were keeping Sunday early on is what the Catholic church would like us to believe.

Before taking the ancient "writings" of "church fathers" as the final word, we need to make sure they ACTUALLY wrote what is attributed to them. And then there's also the fact that Rome diligently destroyed all writings considered "heretical", thus we do not have the writings from the "church in the wilderness", and there is evidence that there WERE such writings, but all we have is what their enemies wrote ABOUT them.

The seven-day week was adopted by the Romans around the beginning of the first century AD, that is, at the beginning of the Christian era.

Thanks Rosangela
I think with a little research the seven day week can be traced right back to creation.

Actually Justin's letter is a powerful answer to those who say Rome knew nothing about a day in honor to the sun known as Sunday or the seven day week.
Either Justin's letter was interloped (added to) to prove early Sunday worship, or the Romans already were honouring Sunday (in a seven week cycle) as a special day dedicated to the sun.
The Sunday promoters can't have it both ways.

I believe it is the latter. Justinian shows the biggest reason why SOME early Christians were moving to Sunday. They wanted to be disassociated from the Jews.

The Jews were in constant trouble with Rome. Rome had destroyed their city and temple in 70 AD. The Romans, under Hadrian, crushed a second Jewish rebellion for independence in a three-year war ending in 135 AD. The rebellion was led by Simon bar Kochba, who was declared to be the messiah. This time the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem even plowing it up and banning all Jews from the area. Emperor Hadrian prohibited Sabbath worship throughout the Roman Empire as well as circumcision. So it was a Tough time!

Justin the Martyr wrote to the Roman Emperor Antoninus, who ruled from 138-161. So we see this was written soon after all the major Jewish catastrophies. He is trying to gain favor for Christians from the new Roman Emperor.

Justin writes:


So what do we have here --
1. A life and death struggle in which some of the Christians feel it imperative to be disassociated with the Jews.

2. A decree forbidding worship on Saturday and other Jewish identifying practices.

3. A man trying to win the favor of new Roman emperor.

4. A clear indication that this Roman emperor was well acquainted with calling the days of the week by the pagan names "sunday" "Saturnday"

These pagan names were NOT the names the Jewish used for their weekdays. They were clearly pagan. And obviously in use when the shift to sunday was being pushed.

5. Now we can consider this -- German Adventists have been severely critisized for their support of Hitler in his early years, and for compromising on the Sabbath due to political and often life and death demands to participate in the war.
Does this mean that the compromise is the RIGHT action and should now be regarded as the NORM for Adventist believers?

I think we would answer that with a resounding "NO".
Yet, the Christian world looks at a similar compromise as written by Justin, and say "YES" the compromise should be regarded as the norm.

Yet, if it really was the norm then why would the Catholic church for centuries after this be issuing decrees and working in many ways and many places to gradually stamp out, and outlaw worship on the true Sabbath?

We need to keep in focus the centuries long battle the Catholic church waged against the Sabbath? Then the true picture as outlined in Spirit of Prophecy comes back into focus.

I presume you are refering to this quote:




Please post documentation supporting the accusation that the early documents have been "doctored". Also, please post the original documents, (or links to them) so we can compare them. Since it has been "proved over and over", that should not be hard.

Point number two. Having just maligned the quote from Justin Martyr as being "doctored" with additions, spurious dates, etc., you now use it to support an allegation of your own. Can you please explain. Are the early manuscripts reliable or not?

Maybe. (Early manuscripts do not support that view.) Or maybe they didn't write about it because they recognized that it wasn't a critical issue.



I have no idea what you are saying here.

Perhaps you would like to email the author, Thomas D. Hanson, Sr. http://www.gci.org/aboutus/contact


(A very interesting read, by the way. The author quotes many SDA sources, if you check the end notes link. http://www.gci.org/law/sabbath/hansonnotes)

Judaizers adhered to the need to observe the Mosaic laws. Do you think they would urge the new Christians to observe circumcision (a frequent theme in Paul's letters) but wouldn't urge them to observe the Sabbath (since the latter were supposedly observing Sunday)?

Any internet source will give the birth and death dates for Justin Martyr as c. 100 and c. 165, respectively. This is obviously second century and what he wrote was obviously a mistake.

I've taken a quick look at the article.


This is pathetic. Not having one single Bible passage to quote which commands Sunday to be observed, the author, obviously, has to rely on tradition.