Messianic History

[visionary]

Norway, Catholic Provincial Council at Bergen, 1435: "We are informed that some people in different districts of the kingdom, have adopted and observed Sabbath-keeping. It is severely forbidden -- in holy church canon -- one and all to observe holy days excepting those which the holy Pope, archbishop, or bishops command. Saturday-keeping must under no circumstances be permitted hereafter further than the church canon cornmands. Therefore we counsel all the friends of God throughout Norway who want to be obedient towards the holy church to let this evil of Saturday-keeping alone; and the rest we forbid under penalty of severe church punishment to keep Saturday holy." Dip. Norveg., 7, 397.

 

[visionary]

Norway: "Also the priests have caused the people to keep Saturdays as Sundays." Theological Periodicals For the Evangelical Church in Norway," vol.1, p. 184.

 

[visionary]

Norway, 1544: "Some of you, contrary to the warning, keep Saturday. You ought to be severely punished. Whoever shall be found keeping Saturday must pay a fine of ten marks." Krag and Stephanius, History of King Christian III.

 

[visionary]

Liechtenstein: "The Sabbatarians teach that the outward Sabbath, i.e., Saturday, must still be observed. They say that Sunday [as the weekly day of worship] is the Pope's invention." Wolfgang Capito, Refutation of the Sabbath, c. 1590.

 

[visionary]

India: "The famous Jesuit, Francis Xavier, called for the Inquisition, which was set up in Goa, India. in 1560, to check 'the Jewish wickedness, Sabbath-keeping."' Adeney, The Greek and Eastern Churches, pp. 527, 528.

 

[visionary]

Abyssinia: "It is not in imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ and His holy apostles, that we observe that day [the Sabbath]." From an Abyssinian legate at the court of Lisbon, 1534, quoted in Geddes's Church History of Ethiopia, pp. 87, 88.

 

[visionary]

Germany: "Tennhardt of Nuremberg holds strictly to the doctrine of the Sabbath, because it is one of the ten commandments." J.A. Bengel, Lehen und Wirken, p. 579.

 

[visionary]

"Before Zinzendorf and the Moravians at Bethlehem [Pennsylvania] thus began the observance of the Sabbath and prospered, there was a small body of German Sabbath-keepers in Pennsylvania." Rupp, History of the Religious Denominations in the United States.

 

[visionary]

"The Abyssinians and many continental Europeans, especially in Romania, Bohemia, Moravia, Holland and Germany continued to keep the Sabbath. Wherever the church of Rome predominated these Sabbatarians suffered confiscation of property, fines, imprisonment and execution." Coltheart, p. 26.

 

[visionary]

China: "The Taipings when asked why they observed the seventh-day Sabbath, replied that it was, first, because the Bible taught it, and second, because their ancestors observed it as a day of worship." "A Critical History of Sabbath and Sunday."

 

[visionary]

1ST CENTURY AD
"For almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [Lord's supper] on the Sabbath of every week." Socrates Scholasticus, Eccl. History

 

[visionary]

"Then the spiritual seed of Abraham [Christians] fled to Pella, on the other side of Jordan, where they found a safe place of refuge, and could serve their Master and keep His Sabbath." Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

1ST CENTURY AD
"For almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [Lord's supper] on the Sabbath of every week." Socrates Scholasticus, Eccl. History

Can you give the specific reference in the Ecclesiastical history?

 

[visionary]

"The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria." —Socrates, "Ecclesiastical History," Book 7, chap.19.

 

[visionary]

Can you give the specific reference in the Ecclesiastical history?

"For although almost all churches throughout The World celebrated the sacred mysteries (the Lord's Supper) on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Allexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, refuse to do this." The footnote which accompanies the foregoing quotation explains the use of the word "Sabbath." It says: "That is, upon the Saturday. It should be observed, that Sunday is never called "the Sabbath' by the ancient Fathers and historians." Socrates, "Ecclestical History," Book 5, chap. 22, p. 289.

 

[visionary]

"The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria." Sozomen, "Ecclesiastical History," Book 7, chap. 19.

 

[visionary]

Augustine shows here that the Sabbath was observed in his day "in the greater part of the Christian world," and his testimony in this respect is all the more valuable because he himself was an earnest and consistent Sunday-keeper. See "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," 1st Series, Vol.1, pp. 353, 354.

 

[visionary]

Pope Sylvester (314-335) was the first to order the churches to fast on Saturday, and Pope Innocent (402-417) made it a binding law in the churches that obeyed him, (In order to bring the Sabbath into disfavour.) "Innocentius did ordain the Saturday or Sabbath to be always fasted." Dr. Peter Heylyn, "History of the Sabbath, Part 2, p. 44.

 

[visionary]

Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church. "Ancient Christianity Exemplified," Lyman Coleman, ch. 26, sec. 2, p. 527.

In Jerome's day (420 A.D.) the devoutest Christians did ordinary work on Sunday. "Treatise of the Sabbath Day," by Dr. White, Lord Bishop of Ely, p. 219.

 

[visionary]

"Wherefore, except Vespers and Nocturns, there are no public services among them in the day except on Saturday (Sabbath) and Sunday." John Cassian, A French monk, "Institutes," Book 3, ch. 2.