THE DAY OF THE SUN Flashcards
Sun1.) What are the origins of Sunday worship?
Sunday has become the traditional day of rest for Christians, that’s all it is—a tradition, one not based on Scripture.
Every Christian who desires to “enter into life” should be concerned about the correct Sabbath day. Sunday has its roots in various iterations of pagan sun worship through out the history of mankind. In early ages, mankind, having forgotten the true Creator of the heavens and the earth “and all that in them is,” and being possessed, as all men are, with an inherent instinct which goes seeking after an object or being to worship, began to look about for such an object or being.
Their choice rested on the biggest and brightest thing their eyes could see. They chose the sun as god. With its brightness and welcome warmth, it caused earthly life to bud, blossom, and bring forth; surely it must be the true god and the author of man’s being. Thus we find in history sun god’s a-plenty. They are pictured on temples and monuments of Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome. These sun gods were called: Ra, Isis, Osiris, Baal, Mithras, Hercules, Apollo, and Jupiter. These all are the heathen gods of sun worship.
Even in the Bible, sun worship is mentioned. In Job 31:26-28, we read: “If I beheld the sun when it shined, . . . and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.” Again in Ezekiel 8:16: “At the door of the temple of the lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east.”
Sun2.} What was the pagan influence on the other days of the week?
The pagans had many so called gods Besides the sun, they worshiped the moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn. And they bestowed upon the days of the week the names of their gods. The sun was honored with the first day of the week and was given over to be the first and foremost of all gods, and the day was called the sun’s day, or Sunday. The moon took second place and also the second day; hence Monday. Saturn held Saturday, the last day. So from antiquity, Sunday has been held as a day of pagan worship.
Sun3.) Was sun worship evident at the time of the Ministry of Christ?
Pagans were worshiping the sun on Sunday when Christ came. When the gospel from Judea came to the gentiles in the Roman empire, it found them paying homage to the sun on the first day of the week. As the Spirit of God, manifested in Christ, began to work upon the hearts of men, many left the worship of Apollo, the sun god, and joined the Christians.
After Christ’s return to heaven, a great majority were still pagans worshiping the sun on Sunday, while the followers of Jesus worshiped God on the true 7th day Sabbath. With mighty manifestations of God’s Spirit, Christianity mounted, and paganism began to wane. The Spirit-filled preaching of Paul in Asia, Macedonia, and Italy won thousands to the ranks of Christ. The church at that time was powerful, because of its zeal and earnestness and consecrated lives, as portrayed by the first horsemen of Revelation, the white horse. The worship of the true God and the following of His commandments spread over the whole world.
Sun4.) What was the falling away spoke of by the Apostle Paul?
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “Now we beseech you, brethern, … that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, … as that the day of the Lord is just at hand; let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. … For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work.” II Thessalonians 2:1-4, 7,
Paul saw apostasy working in the early church. A “falling away” was to come “first”. A “mystery of lawlessness,” or a spirit of making void the law of God, was already at work. A “man of sin” was to be revealed sitting right in the church, “setting himself forth as God.” It is quite evident that from this one source was to come the tendency to change the law of God.
There can be but little doubt that Paul was acquainted with the prophecy of Daniel 7:24, 25, regarding that “little horn” which was to come up out of Rome, with eyes and mouth like a man’s (verse 8) and “speak words against the Most High,” and “wear out the saints of the Most High,” and “think to change the times and the law.” Daniel had prophesied of a man of sin that was to “think” to change the law; and Paul, by the same Spirit, prophesied of the man of sin that had the mystery of lawlessness. Daniel had prophesied of a man of sin that was to “think” to change the law; and Paul, by the same Spirit, prophesied of the man of sin that had the mystery of lawlessness. God was making known to the people of God the fact that there was to come into the church a power that would “change the times and the law.” And true to the prophecy, we find its fulfillment today.
Sun5.) What brought on the compromise of christian truth with paganism?
Soon after Paul was put to death, there swept over the church, in the midst of its prosperity, a sharp rivalry among the bishops of the leading churches as to whom should be the greatest. They became thirsty for more power. They did almost anything to inflate their membership, increase their bishoprics, and add to their power. They lowered standards of truth to raise membership. Compromise! Multitudes joined the church.
The white horse of purity and simplicity that the church had ridden, “conquering and to conquer,” was exchanged for the red horse of strife and worldliness. She traded her “gold tried in the fire” for the tinsel of popularity. Paganism stalked into the church without a changed heart or life. Scarcely a century after his death, Paul’s prophecy was meeting its fulfillment. There was a “falling away” from purity, and an induction of pagan principles and philosophies into the church.
Sun6.) Who changed the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week, and by what authority?
Who Changed The Day? The majority today are not keeping the day that Jesus kept. And the question is, Who changed the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week, and by what authority? Every Christian who desires to “enter into life” should be concerned about this. We ought to know how this change came about. Is the greater part of Christendom right in observing Sunday instead of the Sabbath day.
The Man of Sin. Here is the warning of apostasy. Paul saw it working in the early church. A “falling away” was to come “first”. A “mystery of lawlessness,” or a spirit of making void the law of God, was already at work. A “man of sin” was to be revealed sitting right in the church, “setting himself forth as God.” It is quite evident that from this one source was to come the tendency to change the law of God.
There can be but little doubt that Paul was acquainted with the prophecy of Daniel 7:24, 25, regarding that “little horn” which was to come up out of Rome, with eyes and mouth like a man’s (verse 8) and “speak words against the Most High,” and “wear out the saints of the Most High,” and “think to change the times and the law.” Daniel had prophesied of a man of sin that was to “think” to change the law; and Paul, by the same Spirit, prophesied of the man of sin that had the mystery of lawlessness. Daniel had prophesied of a man of sin that was to “think” to change the law; and Paul, by the same Spirit, prophesied of the man of sin that had the mystery of lawlessness. God made known to the people of God the fact that there was to come into the church a power that would “change the times and the law.” And true to the prophecy, we find its fulfillment.
In the early dawn of the fourth century, Constantine, a Roman general, ambitious for the throne, adopted Christianity as a matter of political advantage. He saw paganism declining. In reality, it was being absorbed by the church. Merely as a measure of popularity, he proclaimed himself a Christian. The fawning bishops acclaimed him.
Constantine faced this situation: More than half the people worshiped on Sunday—pagans. The others observed the Sabbath—professed Christians. He conceived the idea of cementing the two factions. Though professing Christianity, he did not want to conflict with the prejudices of his pagan subjects. Artfully balancing himself between the two, he allayed the “fears of his subjects by publishing in the same year two edicts, the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday, and the second directed the regular consultation of the aruspices” —a pagan practice. (Gibbon’s Decline and all of the Roman Empire,” Chapter 20)
Here we are then, face to face with the first human law, human, ever given for the purpose of making Sunday a day of sacred rest. And it is entirely a man-made law, uninspired by Divinity. On the seventh day of March, 321, Constantine gave forth his Sunday law:
“Let all the judges and town people and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun (Dies Solis); but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty, attend to the business of agriculture; because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest the critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities granted by Heaven.” Right there we find the genesis of Sunday keeping in the Christian Church.
Sun7.) What happen at the Council of Laodecia?
The church followed the leadership of Constantine, and in the year 364, at the council of Laodicea, passed a law requiring that Christians must “not Judaize by resting on Saturday.” Eusebius, a noted bishop of the church, states, “All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day.” Here, then, it is plain that a human hand, and not a divine, changed the Sabbath. Eusebius says, “We have transferred.”
Finally the Sabbath was crushed, and Sunday, the pagan holiday, was instituted. Henceforth, it was espoused by the church, and supported, as it is in our day. Doctor Eck, the astute lawyer and champion of the Church in its controversy with Martin Luther, admits, “The church has changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday on its own authority, without Scripture, doubtless under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
Sun8.) Why did Jesus rebuke the traditions of the men in his day as the setting aside the commandments of God?
Today there is no serious question from either clergy or layman as to which day the seventh day really is. Astronomers assure us that the seventh day today is the same seventh day which Jesus kept when He was here over 1900 years ago.
Now we come to that strange omission I mentioned in the beginning. Why do the majority of Christians break the Commandment of God by refusing to keep the Sabbath He ordained, blessed, and sanctified? The seventh day, or Saturday, has been made a day of labor and commerce in direct violation of the law written by the very finger of God.
Surely every believer knows that the Creator rested on the seventh day and hallowed it as the Sabbath. And all know that the fourth commandment enjoins the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. Most followers of Christ know that He never kept any other day than the Sabbath day. Yet, in spite of these Bible evidences, the majority of the Christian world observe Sunday, the first day of the week, and worship on that day.
No change from seventh-day to first day worship is recorded in the Bible. If the change were catalogued there, it would no longer be so perplexing. But our Creator says, “I am the Lord, I change not.” Malachi 3:6. The commandment must still stand; for the Saviour declares that “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17. Since heaven and earth are still standing and very much in evidence, the fourth precept of that law must still be obligatory. Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law;” and, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandment.” Matthew 5:17; 19:17.
Jesus severely condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God, while at the same time they made void one of the Ten Commandments by their tradition. The keeping of Sunday is only a tradition of men.
Is the 1st day of the week or Sunday to be one of six days of work in weekly cycle?
The very first thing recorded In the Bible is work done on Sunday, the first day of the week. (Genesis l: l-5.) The Creator Himself did this. If God made the earth on Sunday, can it be wicked for us to work on Sunday?
God commands men to work upon the first day of the week. (Exodus 20.8-11.) Is it wrong to obey God?
None of the patriarchs nor the holy prophets ever kept it.
By the express command of-God, His holy people used the first day of the week as a common working day for 4,000 years, at least. God Himself calls it a “working” day. (Ezekiel 46:1.)
God did not rest upon it. He never blessed it. Christ did not rest upon it.
Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3), and worked at His trade until He was thirty years old. He kept the Sabbath and worked six days in the week, as all admit. Hence He did many a hard day’s work on Sunday.
The apostles worked upon it during the same time. The apostles never rested upon it.
Christ never blessed it. It has never been blessed by any divine authority. It has never been sanctified.
No law was ever given to enforce the keeping of it, hence it is no transgression to work upon it. “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” Romans 4:15 (See also 1 John 3:4.)
The New Testament nowhere forbids work to be done on it. No penalty is provided for its violation.
No blessing is promised for its observance. No regulation is given as to how it ought to be observed. Would this be so if the Lord wished us to keep it? It is never called the Christian Sabbath.It is never called the Sabbath day at all. It is never called the Lord’s day. It is never called even a rest day.
No sacred title whatever is applied to it. Then why should we call it holy? It is simply called “first day of the week.” Jesus never-mentioned it in any way, never took its name upon His lips, so far as the record shows.
The word Sunday never occurs in the Bible at all. Neither God, Christ, nor inspired men ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy day. The first day of the week is mentioned only eight times in all the New Testament. (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.)
Six of these texts refer to the same first day of the week. Paul directed the saints to look over their secular affairs on that day. (1Corinthians 16:2.) In all the New Testament we have a record of only one religious meeting held upon that day, and even this was a night meeting. (Acts 20:5-12.) There is not intimation that they ever held a meeting upon it before or after that. It was not their custom to meet on that day.
There was no requirement to break bread on that day. We have an account of only one instance in which it was done. (Acts 20:7.)
That was done in the night-after midnight. (Verses 7-11.) Jesus celebrated it on Thursday evening (Luke 22), and the disciples sometimes did it every day (Acts 2:42-46.) The Bible nowhere says that the first day of the week commemorates the resurrection of Christ. This is a tradition of men, which contradicts the law of God. (Matthew 15:1-9.) Baptism commemorates the burial and resurrection of Jesus. (Romans 6:3-5.)
Finally, the New Testament is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath day or any sacredness for the first day.
