The Sabbath And The Church Fathers

What do the church fathers have to add to the growing argument for a Sunday vs. a Saturday holy day?

Clement of Alexandria, 190 A.D., gives us an insight as to where the "eighth day" concept may have come from in Miscellanies V.xiv.106.2: "Plato prophetically speaks of the Lord's Day in the tenth book of the Republic , in these words, 'And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they must go on.' " If indeed it was a Greek philosopher that gave rise to a side-track for the Christian faith, it would not be the first time that such a thing occurred.

In 200 A.D. wrote Tertullian in his Apology, "We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath." In his Answer to the Jews , "...the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary." See here how Christian thought begins to reflect the growing tradition as opposed to the expressly revealed Word of God,.

Twenty years later Origen was saying, "On Sunday none of the actions of the world should be done..." (Homil. 23). And in a commentary on John, "...it is not possible that the day of rest after the Sabbath should have come into existence from the seventh day of our God. On the contrary, it is our Saviour who, after the pattern of his own rest, caused us to be made in the likeness of his death, and hence also of his resurrection."

But if we are to be consistent with patterns, on the seventh day Christ was fully at rest, whereas His work of resurrection and later His work of establishing of the Church for the furtherance of the work of the Gospel, are all first day activities. As the light was called into existence on day one of creation, so the new creation begins on day one. The patterns still point to a Sabbath rest and a first day celebration of Light. Where is the logical or Scriptural proof that a change is in order?

In 250 Ignatius also calls for observance of the Lord's Day (Sunday) as opposed to a Sabbath Day, but offers no valid proof. His suggestion is that we are to "keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner" not after the physical manner of the Jews, for the one who does not work should not eat! (as says Paul).

Now we have truly come full circle. From a strict command to rest on the seventh day, to a strict command to work, supposedly backed up by apostolic decree. Ignatius goes so far as to say that anyone who fasts on the Lord's Day or the Sabbath, is a murderer of Christ (Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians).

The evidence continues to mount in years to come that the official church was certainly favoring not only a Sunday feast to be held on a weekly basis, but a replacement of the seventh day with the first day as a day of rest. If you will, a Christian Sabbath had evolved, with absolutely no Scriptural support, but with approval in the various church headquarters and eventually in Rome. It is easy to see now why Rome, with its loose playing with facts regarding church history, makes the claim that it is on Roman authority alone that this strange practice was created. In matter of fact, the Roman church did not gain ascendancy overnight, and the Sunday tradition, growing in a number of places before Rome's rise, was later rubber-stamped by Rome when she was the ruling church. Either way, we have the church to thank for Sabbath-Sunday, not the apostolic foundations recorded in Scripture.

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