Sun Worship and the Early Church

How did the venerable day of the sun replace God's Holy Day of Rest - the Sabbath?

Since the most ancient of days, peoples of all nations and cultures worshiped the sun as one of their favorite 'gods'. The Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all had their various sun gods. Not stopping on that side of the planet, we can discover that native people of North and South America as well as the Asians and Europeans were all heavily into sun worship. And as can be expected, many of the sun-god festivals mingled into the early church by the converts to Christianity. We see these today in the Easter sunrise services and the various elements of Christams.

The Calendar of YHVH and the Pagan Calendar

In ancient cultures, there were gods for absolutely everything - from naming the days of the week to gods for the agriculture seasons, elements of nature, birth and death.

The Transformation - From Sabbath to "Sun" day

The fourth commandment given by the finger of the Almighty was to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. All of the righteous people of the Bible, all those that called themselves children of YHVH, from Genesis to Revelation, including the one we call Jesus Christ (Yahshua HaMaschiach) observed the Sabbath. No where in the scriptures will you find any of the people who follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to worship on any day other than the seventh day Sabbath.

So how did the most holiest day of the Lord get so corrupted? Where and how did Sunday worship begin? Unfortunately, it is a seedy tale to be sure. The Roman empire that originally persecuted the early followers of the Way (as they were called) began to adopt Christianity - or rather its own version of what they called Christianity. It was a blend of politics and religion. It involved the worship of - or at least nominal sacrifices to - a pantheon of Roman deities.  Another religion, called Mithraism, a faith that involved the worship of a Persian God Mithra was very popular among the Roman civil service and military. The Roman religion and Mithraism had their day of religious observance on the first day of the week, Sunday.

During the period  in time between approximately 30 CE to 313 CE many converts to Christianity, as attested to us by the scriptures themselves, were prone to bring their pagan rituals and beliefs into their adopted religion. And as relations between the Jews and the Christians became more and more distant, the early members of the church wanted to separate themselves from anything 'Jewish'.  Finally, in 321 CE the Emperor Constantine declared that Sunday would be the official day of rest throughout the entire Roman Empire: "On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for gain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost."

Then the final break came in 364 CE when the Church Council of Laodicea ordered that religious observances were to be conducted on Sunday, not Saturday. Sunday became the new Sabbath. The council ruled: "Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day." Even though the ruling had been laid down as law, there were many Christians that continued the true Sabbath observance. As late as 1115 CE there are records that a Saturday Sabbath  was still observed in Wales. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, was so concerned about Christians who observed the Sabbath, that he actually called for the Inquisition to set up an office there to stamp out what he called "Jewish wickedness".

And from that early date - right up to today - the majority of those that say they follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and worship Jesus....continue to worship on the day of the Sun. No where has the true day of worship, the true day of rest, changed from Saturday to Sunday. Now that you know .... what shall you do?