Section 9. The Sabbath and the Weekly Cycle

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7. The Sabbath in Church Creeds.

8. Antiquity and Unbroken Sequence of Weekly Cycle.

7. The Sabbath in Church Creeds

A knowledge of the growth of the doctrine of Sunday sacredness in the Reformation movement will enable the reader to understand better the degree to which the Protestant Reformation caused a reform in the doctrine of a divinely ordained weekly rest day. We may willingly grant that the immediate successors of Luther moved upward a great distance from the laxity of the Dark Ages when they endeavored to obey more fully the fourth commandment, even though their interpretation of it was to a greater or less degree faulty.

The most interesting fact that stands out is that the doctrine of the sanctity of a weekly rest day gained strength only as increasing emphasis was placed on the truth that the fourth commandment is morally binding on Christians. Without this emphasis Protestantism would never have had stamped upon it that measure of regard for a weekly holy day that has quite definitely distinguished Reformation churches from the Catholic Church. When religious leaders today Attack the binding claims of the fourth commandment in their attempt to meet the Sabbath truth, they are attacking the foundation on which has been reared whatever degree of sanctity Protestantism has attached to a weekly rest day.

It is said that the Reformers did not move on into the full light concerning the fourth commandment; but what is to be said of their spiritual successors today who would attempt to abolish the command? We who are Adventists are moving on in the true path of reformation when we give increasing emphasis to the importance of the fourth commandment, and insist that this command be obeyed exactly as God gave it, and not as changed during the centuries of apostasy.

The following sketch from Philip Schaff, eminent church historian, places the matter of the Sabbath in proper historical perspective.

Philip Schaff on Sabbath Reform

"Chapter XXI. 'Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day' [of the Westminster Confession, AD. 1647], must be mentioned as (next to the Irish Articles) the first symbolical endorsement of what may be called the Puritan theory of the Christian Sabbath. Which was not taught by the Reformers and the Continental Confessions, but which has taken deep root in England, Scotland, and the United States, and has become the basis of a far stricter observance of the Lord's day than exists in any other country. This observance is one of the most prominent national and social features of Anglo-American Christianity, and at once strikes the attention of every traveler.

"The way was gradually prepared for it. Calvin's view of the authority of the fourth commandment was stricter than Luther's, Knox's view stricter than Calvin's, and the Puritan view stricter than Knox's. The Prayer Book of the Church of England, by incorporating the responsive reading of the Decalogue in the regular service, kept alive in the minds of the people the perpetual obligation of the fourth commandment, and helped to create a public sentiment within the Church of England favorable to the Puritan theory, although practically great desecration

prevailed during Elizabeth's reign. The 'judicious' Hooker, who was no Puritan, says: 'We are bound to account the sanctification of one day in seven a duty which God's immutable law does exact forever.'

"Towards the dose of Elizabeth's reign the Sabbath question assumed the importance and dignity of a national movement, and of a practical reformation which traveled from England to Scotland and from both countries to North America. The chief impulse of this movement Was given in 1595 by Dr. Nicholas Bownd (or Bound), a learned Puritan clergyman of Norton in Suffolk. He is not the originator, but the systematizer or first clear expounder, of the Puritan theory of the Christian Sabbath, namely, that the Sabbath or weekly day of holy rest is a primitive institution of the benevolent Creator for the benefit of man. And that the fourth commandment as to its substance (that is, the keeping holy one day out of seven) is as perpetual in design and as binding upon the Christians as any other of the Ten Commandments, of which Christ said that not 'one jot or one tittle' shall pass away till all be fulfilled.

"The work in which this theory was ably and earnestly vindicated proved to be a tract for the times. Heylin, a High Church opponent, says 'that in a very little time it grew the most bewitching error, the most popular deceit that had ever been set on foot in the Church of England.' Fuller dates from it 'the more solemn and strict observance of the Lord's day.'...

"The Puritan Sabbath theory was denounced and assailed by the rising school of High Churchism as a Sabbatarian heresy and a cunningly concealed attack on the authority of the Church of England, by substituting the Jewish Sabbath for the Christian Sunday and all the church festivals. Attempts were made by Archbishop Whitgift in 1599, and by Chief justice Popham in 1600, to suppress Bownd's book and to destroy all the copies, but 'the more it was called in, the more it was called on;' its price was doubled, and 'though the book's wings were clipped from flying abroad in print, it ran the faster from friend to friend in transcribed copies, and the Lord's day, in most places, was most strictly observed. The more liberty people were offered, the less they used it.... It was sport for them to refrain from sports. ... Scarce any comment, catechism, or controversy was set forth by the stricter divines, wherein this doctrine (the diamond in this ring) was not largely pressed and proved; so that, as one saith, the Sabbath itself had no rest.'

"At last King James I brought his royal authority to bear against the Puritan Sabbatarianism so called, and issued the famous 'Book of Sports,' May 24, 1618, which was afterwards republished, with an additional order, by his son, Charles I, no doubt by advice of Archbishop Laud, October 18, 1633. This curious production formally authorizes and commends the desecration of the evening of the Lord's day by dancing, leaping, fencing, and other 'lawful recreation, on condition of observing the earlier part by strict outward conformity to the worship of the Church of England. The professed object of this indulgence to the common people was to check the progress of the Papists and Puritans (or Precisians'), and to make 'the bodies more able for war' when his majesty should have 'occasion to use them.' The court set the example of desecration by balls, masquerades, and plays on Sunday evening; and the rustics repaired from the house of worship to the alehouse or the village green to dance around the Maypole and to shoot at butts. To complete the folly, King James ordered the book to be read to every parish church, and threatened clergymen who refused to do so with severe punishment. King Charles repeated the order. But in both cases it became the source of great trouble and confusion. Several bishops

disapproved of it. Archbishop Abbott (the Puritan predecessor of Laud) flatly forbade it to be read at Croydon.... Those who refused to read the royal 'Book of Sports' were suspended from office and benefice, or even excommunicated by Laud and his sympathizing fellow bishops....

"This persecution of conscientious ministers for obeying God rather than men gave moral strength to the cause of Sabbath observance, and rooted it deeper in the affections of the people. It was one of the potent causes which overwhelmed Charles and Laud in common ruin. The sober and serious part of the nation were struck with a kind of horror that they should be invited by the highest authorities in church and state to destroy the effect of public worship by a desecration of a portion of the day consecrated to religion.

"Ort the Sunday question Puritanism achieved at last a permanent triumph, and left its trace upon the Church of England and Scotland, which reappeared after the licentious period of the Restoration. For, although the Church of England, as a body, never committed itself to the Puritan Sabbath theory, it adopted at least the practice of a much stricter observance than had previously obtained under Elizabeth and the Stuarts, and would never exchange it for the Continental laxity, with its disastrous effects upon the attendance of public worship and the morals of the people.

"The Westminster Confession, without entering into details or sanctioning the incidental excesses of the Puritan practice, represents the Christian rest day under its threefold aspect. (1) as a divine law of nature (jus divinum naturale), rooted in the constitution of man, and hence instituted (together with marriage) at the creation, in the state of innocence, for the perpetual benefit of body and soul. (2) as a positive moral law (jus divinum positivum), given through Moses, with reference to the primitive institution ('Remember') and to the typical redemption of Israel from bondage. (3) as the commemoration of the new creation and finished redemption by the resurrection of Christ; hence the change from the last to the first day of the week, and its designation 'the Lord's day' (dies Dominica). And it requires the day to be wholly devoted to the exercises of public and private worship and the duties of necessity and mercy.

"To this doctrine and practice the Presbyterian, Congregational, and other churches in Scotland, England, and America have faithfully adhered to this day. Yes, twenty-seven years before it was formulated by the learned divine of Westminster, the Pilgrim Fathers of America had transplanted both theory and practice, first to Holland, and, finding them unsafe there, to the wild soil of New England. Two days after their landing from the 'Mayflower' (December 22, 1620), forgetting the pressing necessities of physical food and shelter, the dreary cold of winter, the danger threatening from wild beasts and roaming savages, they celebrated their first Sunday in America." The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 1, pp. 776-782 (4th ed. in 3 volumes, Harper & Brothers).

Sixteenth Century Reformers' Sabbath Views

The attitude of the sixteenth century Reformers toward the Sabbath is well illustrated by quotations from two of the most authoritative confessions of that century-the Augsburg Confession, AD. 1530; and the Second Helvetic Confession, AD. 1566:

Augsburg Confession, AD. 1530

Part II, Article VII - Of Ecclesiastical Power

"The Scripture, which teaches that all the Mosaical ceremonies can be omitted after the gospel is revealed, has abrogated the Sabbath. And yet, because it was requisite to appoint a certain day, that the people might know when they ought to come together, it appears that the [Christian]* Church did for that purpose appoint the Lord's day: which for this cause also seemed to have been pleasing, that man might have an example of Christian liberty, and might know that the observation, neither of the Sabbath nor of another day, was of necessity." - Ibid., vol. 3, p. 69.

*Christian* is placed in brackets, Schaff explains, to indicate that the word is not in the original Latin text of the Confession, though it is in the German text.

Second Helvetic Confession, AD. 1566

Chapter XXIV - Of Holidays, Fasts, and Choice of Meats

"Although religion be riot tied unto time, yet can It not be planted and exercised without a due dividing and allotting out of time. Every church, therefore, does choose unto itself a certain time for public prayers, and for the preaching of the gospel, and for the celebration of the sacraments: and it is not lawful for any one to overthrow this appointment of the church at his own pleasure. For except some due time and leisure were allotted to the outward exercise of religion, without doubt men would be quite drawn from it by their own affairs.

"In regard hereof, we see that in the ancient churches there were not only certain set hours in the week appointed for meetings, but that also the Lord's day itself, ever since the apostles' time, was consecrated to religious exercises and to a holy rest; which also is now very well observed by our churches, for the worship of God and the increase of charity. Yet herein we give no place unto the Jewish observation of the day, or to any superstitions. For we do not account one day to be holier than another, nor think that mere rest is of itself acceptable to God. Besides, we do celebrate and keep the Lord's day, and not the Jewish Sabbath, and that with a free observation." - Ibid., p. 899.

Later Views Regarding the Sabbath Command

The doctrine of the Sabbath as set forth in the Irish Articles of Religion and in the Westminster Confession, to which Schaff refers in the preceding historical sketch is revealed in the following quotations from these creeds: 10

Irish Articles of Religion, AD. 1615

Paragraphs 46-56-Of The Service of God

"56. The first day of the week, which is the Lord's day, is wholly to be dedicated unto the service of God; and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business, and to bestow that leisure upon holy exercises, both public and private." - Ibid., p. 536.

Westminster Confession, AD. 1647

Chapter XXI - Of Religious Worship and The Sabbath Day

"VII. As it is of the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God. So in His word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, He bath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him. [1] Which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week. And, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, [2] which in Scripture is called the Lord's day, [3] and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath. [4]" - Ibid., pp. 648,649.

1. Ex. 20:8,10,11; Isa 56:2,4,6,7 [American Edition Isa. 56:6]. 2. Gen. 2:2,3; 1 Cor. 16:1,2; Acts 20:7.
3. Rev. 1:10
4. Ex. 20:8,10, With Matt. 5:17,18.

Schaff s Comment on the Augsburg Confession Sabbath Doctrine

The foregoing statements from Protestant creeds reveal clearly what Schaff means when he speaks of the changing views of Protestantism toward the authority of the fourth commandment. In a footnote in comment on the Sabbath doctrine statement (Article VII) in the Augsburg Confession, Schaff remarks:

"This view of the Christian Sabbath, which was held by all the Reformers, and still prevails on the Continent of Europe, overlooks the important fact that the Sabbath has a moral as well as a ceremonial [?] aspect, and is a part of the Decalogue, which the Lord did not come 'to destroy, but to fulfill' (Matt. 5:17, 18; comp. 22:37-40; Rom. 3:31; 10:4). As a periodical day of rest for the body, and worship for the soul, the Sabbath is founded in the physical and moral constitution of man, and reflects the rest of God after the work of creation (Gen. 2:3). Under this view it is of primitive origin, like the institution of marriage, and of perpetual obligation, like the other commandments of the Decalogue. A lax theory of the Sabbath naturally leads to a lax practice, and tends to destroy the blessing of this holy day. The Anglo-American churches have an unspeakable advantage over those of the Continent of Europe in their higher theory and practice of Sabbath observance, which dates from the close of the sixteenth century. Even Puritan rigor is better than the opposite extreme." - Ibid., p. 69, footnote.

In our day in the United States that active force for Sunday sacredness, the Lord's Day Alliance, which has the blessing and endorsement of most Protestant bodies, rests its conviction as to the importance of a weekly holy day on the ground that the fourth commandment is still in force. The following quotation makes this clear:

The Lord's Day Alliance on the Sabbath Doctrine

"The Alliance holds that the fourth commandment is still in full force and effect. It believes that the Sabbath was given, not merely for one nation, but for all people, and that the world needs it today more than ever, both as a day of rest from excessive activity and as a day for religious inspiration in an age of worldliness and doubt. It holds that Christ did not abolish the fourth commandment, as some have held, but rather that in freeing the Sabbath from narrow and

technical interpretations He strengthened and spiritualized the holy day. He said He came not to destroy, but to fulfill the law.

"The change of the observance of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week did not end an old institution or begin a new one, but added new life and significance to the divine command. Thus not only was the day of the resurrection of Jesus celebrated, but the Sabbath was cleansed from the technicalities and traditions by which its free sanctities had been obscured." - Supplement to the January-February, 1921, Lord's Day Leader, official publication of the Lord's Day Alliance.

The Proposition Narrowed Down

Thus in English-speaking countries when the Sabbath is discussed with those who subscribe to this generally accepted view of a fourth-commandment basis for Sunday, the proposition is narrowed down to this simple question: Where is the Bible text to prove that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week?

When we deal with those who hold to the so-called Continental view of the Sabbath, as set forth in the. Augsburg Confession, etc., the question is: Where is the Bible proof that the fourth commandment deals with merely a ceremonial requirement, when the whole Ten Commandments is admittedly the binding moral code for Christians?

In no case should it be logically necessary to meet a thousand and one quibbles about grace and the abolition of the law before coming to the central question of the Sabbath. The evidence from the Protestant creeds reveals beyond all controversy that a man repudiates one of the most basic beliefs of Protestantism when he discards the Ten Commandments.

8. Antiquity and Unbroken Sequence of Weekly Cycle

The Agitation for calendar revision, which first became really active in the United States about the year 1928, served the useful purpose of placing eminent astronomers on record concerning the antiquity and the unbroken sequence of the weekly cycle. Never before in the Christian Era has a proposition turned so directly on the question of the validity of the week as an ancient, unbroken time cycle. Much money has been spent to promote the proposed new calendar, and arguments ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous have been employed in an attempt to break down the opposition.

The most significant fact that stands out of the whole discussion is that the proponents of calendar revision have not included in their varied arguments any claim that the weekly cycle has been broken or that time has been lost. If they could have made and supported such a claim, it would have demolished with one stroke all the appeals of Jews or Seventh day Adventists for the preservation of the unbroken week; for why be zealous to preserve the week of today if it has been broken in the past? This silence of the calendar advocates on the question of the weekly cycle must ever stand as one of the eloquent proofs that the weekly cycle has not been broken. The fact may properly be stressed in discussing "Lost Time" with anyone.

But more than that, various astronomers, when asked to express their scientific opinion as to the wisdom of a new calendar which included a feature that broke the weekly cycle, opposed the change on the ground that this cycle should not be tampered with. Their comments are found in the official League of Nations document entitled Report on the Reform of the Calendar, Submitted to the Advisory and Technical Committee for Communications and Transit of the League of Nations by the Special Committee of Enquiry Into the Reform of the Calendar. This document was published at Geneva, August 17, 1926. The following are quotations from their statements, with the page number of this calendar report noted at the end of each quotation:

Testimony of Astronomers

"The reform would break the division of the week which has been followed for thousands of years, and therefore as been hallowed by immemorial use." - M. Anders Donner, formerly professor of astronomy at the University of Helsingfors, p. 51.

"One essential point is that of the continuity of the week. The majority of the members of the Office of Longitudes considered that the reform of the calendar should not be based on the breaking of this continuity. They considered that it would be highly undesirable to interrupt a continuity which has existed for so many centuries." M. Emile. Picard, permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences [France], president of the Office of Longitudes, p. 51.

"I have always hesitated to suggest breaking the continuity of tile week, which is without a doubt the most ancient scientific institution bequeathed to us by antiquity." - M. Edouard Baillaud, director of the Paris Observatory, p. 52.

'It is very inadvisable to interrupt by means of blank days the absolute continuity of the weeks- the only guaranty in the past, present, and future of an efficient control of chronological facts." - Frederico Oom, director of the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon, Portugal, p. 74.

Testimony Before a Congressional Committee

Between December 20, 1928, and January 21, 1929, hearings were held by the Committee on Foreign Affairs of tile House of Representatives at Washington, D.C., on a bill (H.I. Res. 334) that called for an international conference for the simplification of the calendar. One of the witnesses who appeared before the Committee was W. S. Eichelberger, of the U.S. Naval Observatory, whose chief work was the preparation of the annual Nautical Almanac, the bible of all mariners. Here is a part of the testimony of Eichelberger in response to questions from Congressmen Sol Bloom and Cyrenus Cole:

"Mr. Bloom. ... Is it not a fact that the dates are changed [in the calendar changes that have been made] but never the days? Do you know one time in the history of any calendar from the beginning of the early Egyptian calendar, that the day of the week has been changed?

"Mr. Eichelberger. No; I do not.
"Mr. Bloom. The dates have been changed?

"Mr. Eichelberger. Yes.

"Mr. Bloom. You can change any date of the calendar if you wish, as when Pope Gregory left off 10 days in 1582 and then the British left off 11 days in their calendar, which is the Gregorian calendar that we are operating under. The dates have been changed but never has the day been changed.

"Mr. Eichelberger. As far as I know, that is right....

"Mr. Cole. ... Is there any foundation for the idea that the Sabbath or the other days of the week have come down in unbroken continuity from the earliest times? They may have changed the dates, but Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday-those days have come in regular 6uccession from the earliest times so far as we know.

"Mr. Eichelberger. So far as we know they have.' - "Simplification of the Calendar," a Congressional Report, pp. 68, 71.

Nature, the leading scientific journal of Great Britain, in an editorial department entitled "Our Astronomical Column," carried an item "Calendar Reform," in which the proposed blank-day calendar was discussed. In part it reads as follows:

"The interruption of the regular sequence of weeks, which have now been running without a break for some three thousand years, excites the antagonism of a number of people. Some of these (the Jews, and also many Christians) accept the week as a divine institution, with which it is unlawful to tamper. Others, without the scruples, still feel that it is useful to maintain a time unit that, unlike all others, has proceeded in absolutely invariable manner since what may be called the dawn of history. This view found support at the meeting of the International Astronomical Union at Rome in 1922." - June 6, 1931.

Different Calendars Agree on Week

A very strong proof that the count of the week has not been lost during the Christian Era is the fact that although Jews, Christians, and Moslems keep different calendars, they all agree on the order of the days of the week. On this point, Samuel M. Zwemer, D.D., long known as an authority on Mohammedanism, and for some years a professor at Princeton University, writing under the title "An Egyptian Government Almanac," said in part:

"Some years ago I wrote an article on 'The Clock, the Calendar, and the Koran,' showing that the religion which Mohammed founded bears everywhere the imprint of his life and character. The connection between the clock, the calendar, and the Koran may not appear obvious to the Western reader, but to those living in Egypt and the Orient the connection is perfectly evident. Both the clock and the calendar are regulated by the book of the Prophet. The Moslem calendar ... is fixed according to the laws of the Koran and orthodox tradition, based upon the practice of Mohammed himself.

"This connection and confusion of the clock, the calendar, and the Koran brings about the result that the only time reckoning on which Christians, Moslems, and Jews agree in the Orient is that

of the days of the week. These are numbered and called by their numbers, save Friday and Saturday, which are known as the 'day of the assembling,' and the 'day of the Sabbath." - The United Presbyterian, Sept. 26, 1929.

On the opposite page is a reproduction of the calendar year AD. 1582, in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, the countries that complied immediately with the calendar revision decree of Pope Gregory XIII. The light-face type indicates the Julian calendar, and the bold-face, the Gregorian. The calendar change called for the dropping of ten days. This was effected by causing October 4, Julian reckoning, immediately by October 15, Gregorian reckoning. But there was no break in the weekly cycle. The people retired Thursday night, October 4, Julian reckoning, and awakened next morning to find it Friday, October 15, Gregorian reckoning.

Julian and Gregorian Calendars

The relation of the calendar change-Julian to Gregorian to the weekly cycle is stated briefly in the Catholic Encyclopedia. It is most appropriate to quote from this Catholic work, for the calendar change was made by a pope. This is the only calendar change in the Christian Era. The quotation follows:

"It is to be noted that in the Christian period the order of days of the week has never been interrupted. Thus, when Gregory XIII reformed the calendar, in 1582, Thursday, 4 October, was followed by Friday, 15 October. So in England, in 1752, Wednesday, 2 September, was followed by Thursday, 14 September." - Volume 3, p. 740, art. "Chronology."

Correspondence With an American Astronomer

Still further evidence that time has not been lost, and that the weekly cycle has in no way been affected by any calendar change, is contained in letters received from two eminent astronomers. Under date of February 25, 1932, a letter was sent to Dr. A. James Robertson, at that time director, American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, at the Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.

The astronomer who is the director of the Nautical Almanac, or the American Ephemeris, as it is generally known, to distinguish it from the British Nautical Almanac, must always be a man in the very first rank of his profession. For it is the computations found in this weighty volume, published annually, that govern navigation for all American ships. Following is the major part of the letter to him:

'Dear Dr. Robertson:

"I have just been reading statements by various astronomers of Europe to the effect that the weekly cycle has come down to us unbroken from very ancient times. In other words, that the seventh day of our present week, for example, is identical with the seventh day of the week of Bible times. I write therefore to inquire:

1. Do you concur in these statements regarding the antiquity and unbroken sequence of the week? Or, to state the matter negatively, Have any of your investigations of past time given you any reason to doubt these statements?

'2. Have the changes in our calendar in past centuries affected in any way the cycle of the week?

"3. To make my inquiry very concrete: According to the Bible record and the universal belief of Christians, Christ was crucified on a Friday and lay in the tomb on Saturday, which was 'the Sabbath day according to the commandment' (Luke 23:56). My question is this: Is the Saturday of our present time the lineal descendant in unbroken cycles of seven from that Saturday mentioned in the record of the crucifixion?"

Correspondence With a British Astronomer

On February 25,1932, a letter of inquiry concerning the weekly cycle and its relation to calendar change was addressed also to Sir Frank W. Dyson, Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, who at that time was in charge of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London.

It will be noted that astronomers and others speak with certainty concerning the continuity of the weekly cycle "since long before the Christian era," to borrow the words of Dr. Robertson of the U.S. Naval Observatory. There is no need that we carry the question of 1ost time" back before the beginning of our era, for the following reasons. All agree that the weekly cycle was employed in Palestine at that time, and all Sunday keeping peoples believe that Christ arose on the first day of the week. Now, the Bible plainly states that the day preceding that first day was "the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:56. Thus the seventh day of the weekly cycle in the first century of the Christian Era was the "seventh day" of the Sabbath command. Accordingly, it is quite unnecessary to present evidence against lost time" for the centuries preceding Christ.