21. What did this council, in its twenty-ninth canon, decree concerning the Sabbath and Christians
who continued to observe it ?
Answer
"Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [Sabbath], but shall work on that day. . . . If, however,
they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ. "-Hefele's "History of the Councils of the
Church," Vol. II, page 316.
NOTES-Some of the further steps taken by church and state authorities in bringing about this
change may be noted as follows:"In 386, under Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, it was decreed that all litigation and business
should cease [on Sunday] . . . .
"Among the doctrines laid down in a letter of Pope Innocent 1, written
in the last year of his papacy (416), is that Saturday should be observed as a fast-day. . . .
"In 425, under Theodosius the Younger, abstinence from theatricals and the circus [on Sunday]
was enjoined. . . .
"In 538, at a council at Orleans, it was ordained that everything previously permitted on Sunday
should still be lawful; but that work at the plough, or in the vineyard, and cutting, reaping, threshing,
tilling, and hedging should be abstained from, that people might more conveniently attend church. . . *
"About 590 Pope Gregory, in a letter to the Roman people, denounced as the prophets of
Antichrist those who maintained that work ought not to be done on the seventh day.' - "Law of Sunday," by
James T. Ringgold, pages 265-267.
The last paragraph of the foregoing quotation indicates that even as late as AD. 590 there were
those in the church who observed and who taught the observance of the Bible Sabbath, the seventh day.
To what extent has God magnified His Word?
Did Joshua think it immaterial what god Israel served?
What challenge is made by those who worship the beast?
How early was this sacrificial system known?
By what terms did Christ refer to the two resurrections?
What divine law of retroaction attends giving?
What will he receive who endures temptation?
Questions & Answers are from the book Bible Readings for the Home Circle