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(312-313)... Worship of the heavenly bodies the oldest form of idolatry
(313-314)... Names of the days of the week
(314-315)... Prominence of Sunday
(315-316)... Condition of Pagan Rome
(316-318)... Rome’s Form of Worship
(318-320)... Reaction of Paganism and Christianity on Each Other
(320-321)... Pagan Influences on the Christian Forms of Worship
(321-323)... Patriotism and Expediency as Factors for the Change of the Day
(323-324)... The Greek apologists
(324-326)... Justin Martyr
(326-328)... A “new law,” and a Perpetual Sabbath
(328-333)... Reasons for the Sunday Festival
(333-335)... Irenaeus’ View of the Decalogue-- and the Easter controversy
(335-337)... Eusebius’s record of Irenaeus’ Sunday Position
(337-338)... The First Instance of Papal Assumption
(338-341)... Summary
(341).......... Rome again Conquers the Christian World

WORSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES THE OLDEST FORM OF IDOLATRY

The worship of the sun is one of the oldest forms of idolatry, and it is found among all the leading heathen nations of antiquity. But the adoration of the heavenly bodies did not originate as the result of any divine command, or from a sense of true piety’ it was rather a perversion of the truth that God alone is the Creator of all things and that He only is to be worshiped. In adoring the heavenly bodies, the heathen worshiped the creature rather than the Creator. 1

From the earliest times, God warned his people against this sort of idolatry. 2 The following quotation from the book of Job clearly shows that the worship of the heavenly bodies was known already in his day:--

From the Portable Comments we take the following explanation of this passage:--

The early sun-worship mentioned in the Divine Record is attested by innumerable representations in the temples and on the monuments of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome. Indeed, “Pharaoh,” the title of all Egyptian rulers, means nothing less than the “sun,” it being in reality “Phra,” from Ra., the Egyptian sun-god; and the winged disk seen over the heads of many of the ancient monarchs of that country, was a symbol of the sun. Ra, Isis, Osiris, Baal, Mithras, Hercules, Apollo, and Jupiter are all heathen deities of the sun and light.

NAMES OF THE DAYS OF THE WEEK

As the heavenly bodies were held in such high regard, it was but natural that this esteem should find expression in naming the days of the week after these deities, the gods most highly honoured occupying the first place. As the sun, from which light and heat emanated, was the most prominent and powerful object in the kingdom of nature, it was accorded the first rank: “Sunday was the first day of the week in the East from all antiquity.” 4

The Sun, Moon, mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn were the seven deities to whom the Chaldeans dedicated the days of the week. God distinguished the common days of the week by simply giving their numerical order; but upon the seventh day, on which He had rested and which He had blessed and sanctified, He bestowed the title,”the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” thus setting apart the seventh day of the week, hallowed and honoured of Him, and distinguishing it as the Lord’s day.

The heathen, on the other hand, who had gods many and lords many, bestowed upon each day of the week the name of one of their gods, dedicating the first day to the sun, as the source of light and life. The Anglo-Saxons dedicated Tuesday to Tuisco, Wednesday to Wodon, Thursday to Thor, and Friday to Frea or Frigga. Thus they partially broke the link with planetary “gods“, however, the “day of the sun“ was retained.

PROMINENCE OF SUNDAY

Verstegan speaks thus of the Germans:

And then, of the Saxon ancestors, he remarks:--

CONDITION OF PAGAN ROME

Having thus shown the prominent position that sun-worship and the sun-day occupied in heathenism, we will next turn our eyes to the condition of paganism in the Roman empire, and in Rome itself, as well as to the religious attitude of her many philosophers at the very time when Christianity came “forth conquering, and to conquer.”

Gibbon gives us the desired information:--

ROME’S FORM OF WORSHIP

This explains why during this very time the Oriental cults, consisting chiefly in sun-worship, were introduced among, and mingled with, the sun-worship of the Roman Jupiter. In course of time the worship of Isis, Osiris, Mithra, and Apollo outshone the Roman Jupiter, and became, by the beginning of the third century, the favorite deities of the Roman emperors, some of whom even claimed to be the incarnation of the sun-god.

Paganism had its pontifex maximus, which was applied to the deified Roman emperors from the days of Caligual, who, according to Seneca, 10 had his toe kissed. Its fine temples, though in ruins are still objects of admiration; and Grecian art, in its golden age, adorned them with innumerable statues of the various deities. In honor o f the gods, smaller sanctuaries were also created in grottoes, on the hilltops, or in prominent thoroughfares.

From the days of Jeremiah, paganism had its “queen of heaven,” unto whom were offered cakes of wheat and incense. 11

Each country, each province, each town, yea, even each family, had its images of tutelary deities. Bloody and bloodless sacrifices were offered by priests in showy attire, to appease for sin. Ascetic tendencies and stoicism manifested themselves in the heathen world, and virgins were chosen to keep the sacred fire ever burning.

We find lavers of holy water at the entrances of the heathen temples, and offerings were sprinkled therewith. Incense was burned to the gods, and votary gifts were deposited at their altars, for supposed healing. Mysteries of all sorts were invented to captivate the senses of the worshipers, and showy processions were held. Innumerable holidays, commemorating certain events, and honouring certain deities, were introduced. Midsummer and midwinter day, when the sun is at its zenith and at its nadir, were in especial esteem. Human reason and philosophy did their utmost to produce a system of religion which would satisfy the cravings of the masses.

As Justin Martyr refers 12 to the Mithraic sun worship, we shall give a brief description of it. Mithra was the Persian embodiment of light, and the god of truth. Its worship spread from Persia to Babylon, where it absorbed Chaldaic elements. At an early date soldiers and slaves brought it to Rome. Some Mithra inscriptions date from the time of Trajan and Hadrian. First favored by the lower classes, Mithraism spread upward with great rapidity. Grottoes, natural or artificial, were its sanctuaries. The grotto at Spoleto has three niches for Mithra and his two torch bearers, and in front of them there is an altar with the significant inscription, “Soli invicto Mitra sacrum” (sacred to the invincible sun Mithra) It had, in common with Christianity, its belief in a mediator, in the resurrection, the lustrations, the sacred meal of bread and water. On the day of the sun the hymn, or iescht, of Mithra was recited, and prayers were addressed to him and to his assistant genii. 13

REACTION OF PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY ON EACH OTHER

But while paganism did everything in its power to stop the victorious advance of the Christian religion by the creation of a counterpart to it, were there not at work similar tendencies in the church to supplant the more easily conquered paganism? We have already found in the struggle with Gnosticism that while the church repudiated it, it soon afterward became a part of her own system.

The same holds true in the controversy between the early church and philosophy. Scarcely a century after Paul condemned philosophy, philosophers were the teachers of the church, and defended the church on philosophical principles, as Schaff thus states:--

But while Gnosticism and pagan philosophy had their respective influence on Christianity, we find that the rites and ceremonies of paganism exercised none the less influence upon it, as Mosheim thus concludes in the testimony from which we have already quoted:--

PAGAN INFUENCES ON THE CHRISTIAN FORMS OF WORSHIP

As already in the second century “ a large part of the Christian observances and institutions had the aspect of the pagan mysteries,” the mighty counter-influence of paganism on Christianity at an early date is here admitted without question. And not only did the Christian observances and institutions have the aspect of the pagan mysteries of sun worship, but the very attitude of sun-worshipers toward the rising sun, was retained in worshiping the true God.

How extensive and comprehensive the Christian worship toward the east was, Dr. Dodgson shows in a note to Tertullian’s Apology, chapter 16:--

Still more, the day annually celebrated in commemoration of the resurrection bears, in its very name, the evience of pagan influence. That this is so, and how naturally this transformation from the pagan to the Christian celebration came about, is thus set forth by Schaff:--

Does not this statement, setting forth the ease with which the transfer was made from the pagan Ostra, the annual festival of sunrise and natural spring, to the Christian Easter in commemoration of the beginning of the new life through Christ’s resurrection, clearly demonstrate how easy and natural it was to change the pagan holiday dedicated to the sun into the so-called Christian holy day of the Sun of Righteousness? Were not the heathen myths also applicable in this case as “dim presentiments and carnal anticipations of Christian truths”? That this transformation was made on this basis is thus admitted in a statement found in the North British Review, already referred to”--

PATRIOTISM AND EXPEDIENCY AS FACTORS FOR THE CHANGE OF THE DAY

D.B.Byers, in the “Christian Sabbath,” attests the same fact, as follows:--

Even church historians, writing in favor of Sunday, have to admit the possibility of this being the case, as the following quotation will show:--

The very motives prompting such a change are thus clearly set forth by a London Anglican rector, T.H. Morer, in his “Discourses on the Lord’s Day,” as early as 1701:--

THE GREEK APOLOGISTS

As our investigation thus far has not furnished any clear and reliable testimony from the Fathers as to the origin of Sunday, except that it is merely of human origin, the evidences for this gradual transformation in the manner already described, must be produced from the writings of the ante Nicene church Fathers, covering the period from A.D. 150 to 311.

Schaff thus introduces this period:--

This introduction corroborates what we have already inferred, that “leaving behind many important truths of the apostolic age,” these church Fathers laid the foundation of the future church containing “the germs of nearly all the corruptions of Greek and Roman Christianity.”

JUSTIN MARTYR

Most noted among the Greek apologists of this period, was Justin Martyr, who addressed his first apology to Emperor Antoninus Pius about A.D. 147. Eusebius calls him a “genuine lover of the true philosophy,” who “in the garb of a philosopher proclaimed the divine Word and defended the faith by his writings” 23
As the theology of this philosopher mostly concerns us, we will let Schaff give us the necessary information:

This statement from Schaff shows several striking resemblances between the theology of the Gnostic Barnabas and Justin, the philosopher. Both have the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures in common, both have no clear insight into the relations existing between the old and the new covenant, both refer to the new law, and therefore both must bring forth a new day.

A “NEW LAW“ AND A PERPETUAL SABBATH

Trypho advised Justin, in chapter 8, to observe the Sabbath and “do all things commanded in the law;” in chapter 10 he adds, “You observe no festivals Sabbaths,” This was the golden moment for Justin to bring forth the Lord’s day of the new covenant and to produce the command of Christ or the apostles, if not from Scripture, then from unwritten tradition, of which the Gnostics had provided such and abundant supply, But let us observe Justin’s reply, in chapter 12:--

But how about the seventh-day Sabbath enjoined in the fourth commandment? Justin replies in chapter 18,22:--

He inadvertently alludes to the keeping of the ten commandments as the performance of “the eternal and natural acts of righteousness.” We see in this acknowledgment, as Harnack fitly remarks, “the beginning of a compromise, in so far as a distinction was made between the moral law of nature continued in the Old Testament -- the Decalogue -- and the ceremonial law,”

On the other hand, the philosophy adduced, “that the heavens are not idles,” not only an argument against the Jews, but against the creator himself, who rested on the Sabbath in the beginning, and enjoined the Sabbath observance upon man in a perpetual and universal command. But we can see a slight change indicated. First the new law is not defined. Then, there is a suggested reference later to the ten commandments being the moral law, but without the observance of the Sabbath. Having thus cleared up the position of Justin, and finding that he believed in a spiritual, perpetual Sabbath, we are now ready to question from his “First Apology” his full statement about Sunday:---

This is the first instance in which the day of the sun is plainly mentioned as a day of Christian worship, as far as Rome is concerned. Something over a century has passed since the day of Christ; the apology itself bears no date, but it is generally placed at about 147 A.D. In this Apology, and in fact throughout all his writings, Justin uses everywhere the heathen designations for the day. Thus this new day of Christian worship appears as the day of the sun, a very significant fact. The reasons for this assembly are, “being the first day in which God set himself to work upon the dark void in order to make the world, and in which Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead,” Thus the day of the sun is set forth as the first day of light and of life, but these old heathen motives for distinguishing the first day of the week as the day of the sun and life-giving power, appear in the Christian setting -- this life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Nothing whatever is here said of any divine commandment to observe this day. Even the idea of a memorial would include a twofold memorial, of the creation of light in the beginning and of the resurrection of Christ four thousand years later. Bishop J Taylor fittingly replies to this:

The Hauck-Herzog Cyclopedia thus lays stress on the two reasons given here for the observance of the first day of the week:--

But in chapter 24 Justin sets forth a new reason for the superiority of the holy day of the new law over the rest day of the old, strange as it may seem:--

The philosopher seems entirely to overlook the fact that the command of circumcision reads: “In the eight day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised,” 30 It does not read, each eighth day of the week, but the eighth day after the birth of the male child, which might be on any day of the week; so that this rite was performed even on the Sabbath day. 31

In summing up Justin Martyr, we find attested what even Schaff himself had to admit: “He had no clear insight into the distinction between the Old Testament and the New, between the law and the gospel.” For him, consequently, the law and the Sabbath were both abolished. The day of the sun came in as a voluntary assembly day for prayer and worship. He accounts for its superiority by stating that it is the first day of light, the day on which Christ arose form the dead, and that it possesses, as eighth day, mysterious import, and that this mysterious import of this eighth day of the week is derived from the fact that the children of Israel were commanded, “on account of the wickedness of their hearts,” to circumcise their children on the eighth day after their birth.

Pseudo-Barnabas, Gnostic, and Justin Martyr, philosopher, thus have in common the new law, and the eighth day and with it the mysteries which only a philosopher or a Gnostic could fathom. To this may be added the facts that he everywhere tries to find the sign of the cross, and wants to have it made on every occasion; that , in chapter 61, he calls baptism “illumination,” and the baptized, “illuminated,” terms never applied in this way in the Bible, but occurring in the initiatory ceremonies of the pagan mysteries. He also mentions the bread and the wine mixed with water, and the elements of the Lord’s supper being carried to absent persons. While Barnabas introduces this eighth day by rejecting the historical connection between ancient Israel and the people of God, Justin slightly weakens the charge, spiritualises away the Sabbath, and introduces the sun’s day as a voluntary ordinance on its own independent grounds, good or bad as they may be.

IRENAEUS’ VIEW OF THE DECALOGUE
AND THE EASTER CONTROVERSY

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, 178 A.D. and, in connection with him, the Easter controversy next claim our attention. In his own writings no mention is made of the first day of the week, but such mention is found in two statements concerning him.
His position on the law and the Sabbath he defines in his books against heresies, in which he chiefly refutes the Gnostics, and demonstrates the oneness between the two covenants. He teaches that God gave to Israel in the Decalogue the natural precepts which he implanted in the heart of Adam and the righteous patriarchs from the beginning:

The Sabbath, on the other hand, he spiritualizes and sees in it simply as a sign of the future kingdom of God:

Although Irenaeus writes five books against the heresies, it is rather strange that he himself nowhere alludes to Sunday. But in a fragment ascribed to him, we find the following:--

The Ante-Nicene Library makes the following important note on this:--

Some unknown writer “after the Nicene council” says that Irenaeus declared that the custom of not kneeling on Sunday “took its rise from apostolic times,” It is the unknown writer who applies the term Lord’s day to Sunday, and not Irenaeus himself, and at the sem time this writer declares that Pentecost is of equal significance with Sunday.

EUSEBIUS’S RECORD OF IRENAEUS’ SUNDAY AND EASTER POSITION

The next statement we find in Eusebius, in connection with the great controversy as to the day on which Easter should be observed. Passover and Pentecost were important annual festival in ancient Israel as significant types of the great future events of redemption. As type met antitype, early Christianity, composed at first chiefly of Israelites, would voluntarily continue these festival, but in commemoration of facts accomplished, as the death of the Lord, his resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They would therein naturally follow the Jewish method of computation. The Passover lamb was to be eaten on the fourteenth of Nisan, without reference to the day of the week on which it fell; then followed the seven days of unleavened bread. 38
Now, it is a singular fact that “neither the Apostolic Fathers, nor Justin, nor the Didache mention any annual feast.” 39 These, as well as the so-called vigils (dies stationum) are supposed to have existed on the strength of later statements. As the events commemorated by Easter extended over several days, there was room for play-- whether the fourteenth should be chosen, when the Passover was eaten, or the first day, as the day of the resurrection. Again, whether they should partake of the Lord’s supper on the fourteenth after having fasted previously, or whether they should fast until the first day, and then take the Lord’s supper, was the question.

A number of the churches in the East, appealing to apostolic example, fasted until the close of the fourteenth, and celebrated the Passover at the beginning of the fifteenth, by having the communion and the love feast; but in some parts of the West, especially in the Roman Church, likewise appealing to an ancient custom, celebrated the death of Jesus on a Friday, and his resurrection always on a Sunday after the March full moon, fasting till Sunday and celebrating the communion on that day. Thus it happened that one part of Christianity was fasting and mourning over the death of Christ, while the other part was already rejoicing over his accomplished resurrection. This difference had already been discussed when the martyr bishop Polycarp of Smyrna visited Ancietus, bishop of Rome, between 150 and 133 A.D. But although they could not agree, they parted in peace, as far as Eusebiuss’ statement goes.

THE FIRST INSTANCE OF PAPAL ASSUMPTION
AND THE EASTER QUESTION

But some forty years later the Roman bishop Victor, thinking that he, being bishop of the capital of the Roman empire, had therefore the right to dictate to the other bishops, in an imperious tone required the churches in the East to abandon their practise, and follow the example of Rome. An Eastern synod considered his letter, and Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, in his answer to Victor, appealing to the example of Philip, of John, of Polycarp, and of other ancient bishops, winds up: “All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith”. 40

Victor turned a deaf ear to this remonstrance,-- though it surely had apostolic tradition in its favor, if there be such a thing, -- branded the Eastern churches as heretical, and threatened to excommunicate them. Thus the first instance on record in which the bishop of Rome attempted to be the Pope over all the churches, was by an edict in behalf of Sunday. Bower calls this “the first essay of papal usurpation;” 41 And Dowling, “the earliest instance of papal assumption.” 42

This caused Irenaeus, as well as other bishops, though they agreed with min on the disputed point to reprove him for his unchristian conduct. In a letter to victor, he, after quoting Col. 2:16, says:--

Now referring to this very controversy, Eusebius first states, in chapter 23, that all the bishops unanimously agreed “that the mystery of our Lord’s resurrection should be celebrated on no other day than the Lord’s day; and that on this day alone we should observe the close of the paschal fasts.” In the next chapter Eusebius represents Irenaeus as writing a letter to the same effect to the bishop of Rome. 44

Thus we have not the words of Irenaeus, A.D. 178, but the result of the synod held in his day, stated in the language of a church historian of the fourth cenury, and he uses at that time, for Sunday the title Lord’s day.

This whole controversy, which was one of the chief questions of the council of Nicaea, and really laid the foundation for the later division between the East and the West, contains some valuable lessons. First, that the so-called apostolic tradition is so uncertain a matter that as early as A.D. 150, differences of opinon arose about it; second, that some forty years later, Victor, the bishop of Rome, assumed to settle thses differences of tradition by the supposed exalted position of his office over the other bishops, and threatened to excommunicate the so-called heretics, though they could appeal to John and Philip as their authorities, while the others appeal to Peter and Paul.
While we have seen from the Fathers how Sunday was introduced as a voluntary human insitiution, we have here a plain indication of how the Sabbath of the Decalogue was forced out.

SUMMARY

The first clear evidence that the first day of the week was used as an assembly day by the Christians we have found in the middle of the second century, where it appears under the heathen designation of “day of the sun,” or where it is called, as in the Bible, “the first day of the week,” The only new thing about it is the mixed use of the pagan and Bible terms. Its being employed as an assembly day is justified by the breaking forth of light on the first day of creation week and also on the resurrection morn, --reasons agreeable to both pagan and proselyte. The other argument adduced in its favor is the mysterious import of circumcision on the eighth day, the fallacy of which we have shown. It appears as a part of the “the new law,” or revision of the Decalogue, demanding a perpetual Sabbath, not of rest or of idleness, but of continual activity -- a very soothing doctrine to the Roman slave, to the mechanic, to the farmer, or to the official, if compared to the rest demanded in the law as it stands. There is not a word anywhere intimating that Christ or the apostles instituted the day, or that it is to be observed as the Sabbath. On the contrary, it appears as an independent, voluntary institution, closely associated with the pagan day of the sun.

Toward the close of the second century we find a controversy springing up between the East the West, as to whether Easter should always be celebrated on the first day of the week, or on the fixed day of the month (the fourteenth o Nisan), and whether the fasting should stop at the beginning of the seventh-day Sabbath, or at the commencement of Sunday. The Roman bishop appears as champion of the venerable day of the sun, and his chief instrument of warfare is excommunication, but he is thwarted in his efforts to force the East to conform to the usage of the West, and in the course of time this dispute ripens into open rupture between Constantinople and Rome.

Gnosticism, as a sect, is subdued; but its principles of a new and spiritual law and a new and spiritual Sabbath become the principles of the coming Catholic Church; it is on this very basis that the day of the sun creeps into the church as an honored day of worship. The strength of Judaism is also broken; its laws are no longer asserted to be of the devil; but the Catholic church assimilates from it all that she can to assist her in building up her claims to power, and to increase her pomp.

ROME AGAIN CONQUERS THE CHRISTIAN WORLD

While paganism is putting forth every effort to revive, and especially to increase, the mysteries of the sun, and to press sun-worship to the front, Catholicism makes all these movements serve her cause. Indeed, the second century is the genesis of the Catholic church. Rome again conquers the world step by step -- but this time it is the Christian world. 45 -- --until we have a full reproduction of paganism in Christian garb, with the Gnostic system of interpretation, and a decrepit Jewish ritual, but with this one exception; that on her victorious banners we see emblazoned as the sign of her triumph over her opponents, and as he mark of her high authority, the significant sign of Sunday, the day of the origin of light.