Sabbath in seventh-day churches

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A Seventh-day Adventist church.

The seventh-day Sabbath, observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, is an important part of the beliefs and practices of seventh-day churches. These churches emphasize biblical references such as the ancient Hebrew practice of beginning a day at sundown, and the scriptural account of creation in Genesis wherein an "evening and morning" established a day, predating the giving of the Ten Commandments (thus the command to "remember" the sabbath). Seventh-day Sabbatarianism was the practice of all or most of the early Christian church through the 4th century.[1][2] The seventh day of the week is recognized in many languages and calendars as Sabbath, and is still observed as such in modern Judaism.

Christian seventh-day Sabbatarians seek to reestablish the practice of the early apostolic Christians who kept the sabbath. They usually believe that all humanity is obliged to keep the Ten Commandments, including the sabbath, and that keeping all the commandments is a moral responsibility that honors, and shows love towards God as creator, sustainer, and redeemer. The majority of Christians do not observe the sabbath on the seventh day, believing it to be superseded, and instead they honor Sunday, the first day of the week, as the Lord's Day and the day of Christ's resurrection, and (in some traditions) as the Christian Sabbath.[3]

The sabbath is one of the defining characteristics of seventh-day denominations, including Seventh Day Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, the Seventh-Day Evangelist Church, the Church of God (7th Day) headquartered in Salem, West Virginia and the Church of God (Seventh Day) conferences, and the United Church of God, among many others.


Contents
1 Biblical Sabbath
2 History
2.1 Early church
2.2 Middle ages
2.3 Reformation
3 Modern churches
3.1 Seventh Day Baptists
3.2 Seventh-day Adventism
3.2.1 History
3.2.2 Eschatology
3.3 Armstrongism
3.4 Other groups
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Biblical Sabbath
Main articles: Biblical Sabbath and Shabbat
See also: Paul the Apostle and Judaism

The sabbath was first described in the biblical account of the seventh day of creation. Observation and remembrance of the sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (the fourth in the Eastern Orthodox and most Protestant traditions, the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions). Most people who observe first-day or seventh-day sabbath regard it as having been instituted as a perpetual covenant: "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." (Exodus 31:13-17) (see also Exodus 23:12, Deuteronomy 5:13-14)) This rule also applies to strangers within their gates, a sign in respect for the day during which God rested after having completed creation in six days (Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11).

History
Early church
See also: Sabbath in Christianity

According to R. J. Bauckham, the post-apostolic church contained diverse practices regarding the sabbath.[4]

Early Christian observance of both spiritual seventh-day sabbath and Lord's Day assembly is evidenced in Ignatius's letter to the Magnesians ca. 110.[4][5] The Pseudo-Ignatian additions amplified this point by combining weekly observance of spiritual seventh-day sabbath with the Lord's assembly.[6] If Pseudo-Ignatius dates as early as 140, its admonition must be considered important evidence on 2nd-century sabbath and Lord's Day observance.[7] According to classical sources, widespread seventh-day sabbath rest by gentile Christians was also the prevailing mode in the 3rd and 4th centuries.[1][2]

On March 7, 321, the Roman emperor Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a day of rest from labor, stating:[8]

All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable day of the sun. Country people, however, may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently happens that no other days are better adapted for planting the grain in the furrows or the vines in trenches. So that the advantage given by heavenly providence may not for the occasion of a short time perish.

Ellen G. White states that ecumenical councils generally each pressed the sabbath down slightly lower and exalted Sunday correspondingly, and that the bishops eventually urged Constantine to syncretize the worship day to promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by pagans. But "while many God-fearing Christians were gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness, they still held [seventh-day] Sabbath."[9] Bauckham also states some church authorities continued to oppose this as a judaizing tendency.[4]

In the 4th century, Socrates Scholasticus (Church History, Book V) stated:[1]

For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebaïs, hold their religious assemblies on the sabbath, but do not participate of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in general: for after having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening making their offerings they partake of the mysteries.

In the 5th century, Sozomen (Ecclesiastical History, Book VII), referencing Socrates Scholasticus, added to his description:[2]

Assemblies are not held in all churches on the same time or manner. 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. There are several cities and villages in Egypt where, contrary to the usage established elsewhere, the people meet together on Sabbath evenings, and, although they have dined previously, partake of the mysteries.

Thus both early church historians, Socrates and Sozomen, cite the seventh day as the Christian day of rest and corporate worship, with the exception of the Christians in Rome and Alexandria.[10]

Middle ages

See also: Sabbath in Christianity#Africa

The "Sabbath in Africa Study Group" (SIA), founded by Charles E. Bradford in 1991,[11] holds that the sabbath has existed in Africa since the beginning of recorded history.[12][13] Taddesse Tamrat has argued that this practice predates Saint Ewostatewos's advocacy of observing both Saturday and Sunday as days of sabbath, which led to his eventual exile from Ethiopia around 1337.[14] Emperor Zara Yaqob convened a synod at Tegulet in 1450 to discuss the sabbath question.[15][16][17]

In Bohemia, as much as one quarter of the population kept seventh-day the sabbath in 1310. This practice continued until at least the 16th century, when Erasmus wrote about the practice.[18]

The Unitarian Church condemned Sabbatarianism as innovation (forbidden by the Transylvanian law on religious toleration) in 1618. The last Sabbatarian congregation in Transylvania disappeared in the 19th century and the remaining Sabbatarians, who were known as "Somrei Sabat" (the Hungarian transliteration of the Hebrew words for "Sabbath observers") joined the existing Jewish communities, into which they were eventually absorbed. Sabbatarianism also expanded into Russia, where its adherents were called Subbotniks, and, from there, the movement expanded into other countries. Some of the Russian Subbotniks maintained a Christian identity doctrinally, while others formally converted to Judaism and assimilated within the Jewish communities of Russia. Some of the latter, however, who had become Jewish, although they and their descendants practiced Judaism and had not practiced Christianity for nearly two centuries, still retained a distinct identity as ethnic Russian converts to Judaism until later.[citation needed]

A small number of the anti-Trinitarian Socinian churches of Eastern Europe and the Netherlands adopted the seventh day as the day of worship and rest.

Reformation

Sects such as the Waldenses, Albigenses, and Leonists appear to have retained sabbath observance in Europe during the Middle Ages. A report of an inquisition, before which were brought some Waldenses of Moravia in the middle of the 15th century, declares that among the Waldenses "not a few indeed celebrate the Sabbath with the Jews."[19] The Taiping Rebellion kept the sabbath in China. The Goa Inquisition attacked Sabbatarian Saint Thomas Christians.

At the time of the Protestant Reformation some Anabaptists, such as Oswald Glait, argued that the seventh day should be observed as the sabbath and that Sunday sabbath was an invention of the Pope.[20]

Seventh-day Sabbatarianism was revived in 17th-century England. Early advocates included the Elizabethan Seventh-Day Men, the Traskites (after John Traske, 1586–1636), and Thomas Brabourne. The majority of seventh-day Sabbatarians were part of the Seventh Day Baptist church and experienced harsh opposition from Anglican authorities and Puritans. The first Seventh Day Baptist church in the United States was established in Rhode Island in 1671.[20]


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