The Sabbath Was Kept For Several Centuries
It is some time subsequent to the time of the apostles that we must look for the change from Sabbath to Sunday observance. We must find it in history, since it cannot be found in Scripture. As the canon of Scripture closes with the Revelation, we are left without any record whatsoever of a change. It had not therefore taken place up to that time. It was altogether a later development, and came in as a perversion of the teachings of Christ and the apostles.DOF 164.1
The first recorded instance of religious meetings being held by some of the Christian churches on Sunday, which has any claim to be considered genuine, is mentioned by Justin Martyr, AD. 140, when some Christians met and read the writings of the apostles Justin does not, however, even intimate that this day had any divine authority, either from Christ or from His apostles. Nor was it kept as a day of rest. It was about this time, however, that the great apostasy began to develop, which was foretold by the apostle Paul in the following scriptures:DOF 164.2
“I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29, 30.DOF 164.3
Again:
“The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3, 4.DOF 164.4
And yet again:
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. So that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? ... For the mystery of iniquity does already work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-7.DOF 165.1
This apostasy, which was already working in Paul’s day, soon began to play havoc with the church. The pagan Romans who nominally accepted Christianity, generally remained unchanged at heart, and in a short time they began to remodel the religion of the apostles. The Baptist historian Robinson says:DOF 165.2
“Toward the latter end of the second century, most of the churches assumed a new form; the first simplicity disappeared; and insensibly, as the old disciples retired to their graves, their children came forward, and new-molded the cause.” —Ecciesiastical Researches, chap. 6, p. 51.DOF 165.3
It was a number of centuries, however, before the Sabbath began to be superseded by Sunday as a day of rest from labor. On this point the historian Coleman says:DOF 165.4
“Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church.”—Ancient Christianity Exemplified, chap. 26, sec. 2, p. 527.DOF 165.5
In the same chapter he also says:
“During the early ages of the church, it [Sunday] was ever entitled ‘the Sabbath,’ this word being confined to the seventh day of the week.”DOF 165.6
Dr. T. H. Morer (Church of England) also makes this statement:DOF 166.1
“The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted that they derived this practice from the apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to that purpose.”—Dialogues on the Lord’s Day, p. 189.DOF 166.2
H. C. Haggtveit (Lutheran) bears the following testimony:DOF 166.3
“For the first five centuries of the church there is no mention of any transfer or change of the Sabbath to the first day of the week.”—Church History, p. 79.DOF 166.4
Neander, one of the greatest of church historians, says:DOF 166.5
“The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was only a human ordinance; and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect,—far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.”—The History of the Christian Religion and Church, vol. 1, p. 186.DOF 166.6