EARLY CHURCH HISTORY
From the multi-volume work of Schaff
FIRST PERIOD. A. D. 1-100.
THE LORD'S SUPPER.
The commentaries on Matt.26:26 sqq., and the parrallel passages
in Mark and Luke; 1 Cor.10:16,17; 11:23 sqq.; John 6:47-58; 63.
The sacrement of the holy Supper was instituted by Christ under
the most solemn circumctances, when he was about to offer himself
a sacrifice of the world. It is the feast of thankful remembrance
and approoriation of his atoning death, and of the living union
of believers with him, and their communion among themselves. As
the Passover kept in lively remembrance the miraculous
deliverance from the land of bondage, and at the same time
pointed forward to the Lamb of God; so the eucharist represents,
seals, and applies the now accomplished redemption from sin and
death until the end of time. Here the deepest mystery of
Christianity is embodied ever anew, and the story of the cross
reproduced before us....Here Christ, who sits at the right hand
of God, and yet is truly present in his church to the end of the
world, gives his own body and blood, sacrificed for us, that is,
his very self, his life and the virtue of his atoning death, as
spiritual food, as the true bread from heaven, to all who, with
due self-examination, come hungering and thirsting to the
heavemly feast.....
(Oh how well Schaff starts out, giving indeed the foundational
meaning of what most have come to call "The Lord's Supper" -
which is IN-corrected so-called. It is the Passover, but New
Testament institution. Yes Schaff starts out well, but that is
about as far as "well" as he gets. For someone who studies church
history in the depth as Schaff did is blows the mind as to how
deceptive the human mind can be, and as to the truth of the
matter. It is like the true old joke, "You can not see the truth
even if it came up and bit you on the nose."
What church history records in the SECOND century AD about the
Passover/Easter debate between the East (Asia Minor churches) and
the church at Rome, you'd think people like Schaff would have
seen the truth, but they stumble over it and pick themselves up
and march on with their falsehood teachings and practices - Keith
Hunt)
In the apostolic period the eucharist was celebrated daily in
connection with a simple meal of brotherly love (agape), in which
the Christians, in communion with their common Redeemer, forgot
all distinctions of rank, wealth, and culture, and felt
themselves to be members of one family of God.
(Again Schaff just tells you it was so. He gives no specific
proof the apostolic church celebrated DAILY the Passover service.
A few throw out a few verses in Acts to back up this idea....the
"breaking of bread from house to house" which does not say "the
Passover from house to house" or "the Lord's supper from house to
house." People read into verses what they want to read into them
to maintain their false traditions and ideas. If the so-called
"Lord's Supper" was being observed DAILY from house to house,
then why did not the Holy Spirit just inspire the writer of Acts
to simply say, "observing the Lord's supper daily from house to
house." Such simple language could then never be twisted to mean
any thing but "observing the Lord's supper daily from house to
house." But God did not say that anywhere in the NT, for it was
simply just NOT true. I have a study on this website called
"Breaking of bread - what does it mean" - Keith Hunt)
But this childlike exhibition of brotherly unity became more and
more difficult as the church increased, and led to all sorts of
abuses, such as we find rebuked in the Corinthians by Paul. The
lovefeasts, therefore, which indeed were no more enjoined by law
than the community of goods at Jerusalem, were gradually severed
from the eucharist, and in the course of the second and third
centuries gradually disappeared.
(Mixing the love feasts with the Passover is another of
Schaff's false ideas, which the NT is silent on. The Passover was
always the Passover. A love feast could be ANY time Christians
got together among themselves to rejoice in Christ, be it any day
of the week, be it any time they desired to come together to have
loving fellowship - Keith Hunt)
The apostle requires the Christians' to prepare themselves for
the Lord's Supper by self-examination, or earnest inquiry whether
they have repentance and faith, without which they cannot receive
the blessing from the sacrament, but rather provoke judgment from
God. This caution gave rise to the appropriate custom of holding
special preparatory exercises for the holy communion.
(Yes the apostle Paul did teach such [1 Cor.11:28] an examination
before taking of the Passover service, but the last sentance of
Schaff is towards man made customs that came into the Roman
Catholic church and has no bearing on any custom from Christ or
the first apotles - Keith Hunt)
In the course of time this holy feast of love has become the
subject of bitter controversy, like the sacrament of baptism, and
even the Person of Christ himself. Three conflicting theories -
transubstantiation, consubstantiation, and spiritual presence of
Christ - have been deduced from as many interpretations of the
simple words of institution ("This is my body," etc.), which
could hardly have been misunderstood by the apostles in the
personal presence of their Lord, and in remembrance of his
warning against carnal misconception of his discourse on the
eating of his flesh. The eucharistic controversies in the middle
ages and during the sixteenth century are among the most
unedifying and barren in the history of Christianity. And yet
they cannot have been in vain. The different theories represent
elements of truth which have become obscured or perverted by
scholastic subtleties, but may be purified and combined. The
Lord's Supper is: (1) a commemorative ordinance, a memorial of
Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross; (2) a feast of living
union of believers with the Saviour, whereby they truly, that is
spiritually and by faith, receive Christ, with all his benefits,
and are nourished with his life unto life eternal; (3) a
communion of believers with one another as members of the same
mystical body of Christ; (4) a eucharist or thank-offering of our
persons and services to Christ, who died for us that we might
live for him.
(Here Schaff first reports on the Passover service as it became
and evolved in the Roman Catholic church, which the reader can
find in the Roman Catholic Encyclopedia, i.e. the "host"
literally becoming the literal body of Christ as it enters the
mouth and stomach, and etc. The 4 points Schaff gives are correct
as the basic meaning of the Passover - Keith Hunt)
Fortunately, the blessing of the holy communion does not depend
upon the scholastic interpretation and understanding of the words
of institution, but upon the promise of the Lord and upon
childlike faith in him. And therefore, even now, Christians of
different denominations and holding different opinions can unite
around the table of their common Lord and Saviour, and feel one
with him and in him.
(How nice for Schaff to know that with all the denominations
having all differences on just about every Bible topic, they can
for him, some how come in unity under the Passover service. Nope,
it just does not work that way with God or His Son's NT church,
which He is head of. As Paul said, "Is Christ DIVIDED?" The
answer is a RESOUNDING NO!! The true people of God will be in
UNITY on ALL the foundational doctrines of the Lord, all the
foundational doctrines of the Lord are given in Hebrews 6. They
are all explained and expounded on this Website. Be out of sink
with them as you find them on this website and you are out of
sink with Christ. Strong words I speak, yes they are, but we live
in perilous spiritual deceptive times, so I need to speak strong
words at times. You then must prove if I speak the truth by
searching the Scriptures daily. You CAN know the truth, Jesus
said the Spirit would lead you into ALL truth, so there is no
excuse for not being able to find the truth on all the basic
doctrines of the Lord - Keith Hunt)
I John 6:63: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing, the words that I have spoken unto you are
spirit, and are life." This passage furnishes the key for the
understanding of the previous discourse, whether it refers to the
Lord's Supper, directly or indirectly, or not at all. That the
(Greek) in the words of institution may indicate a figurative or
symbolical (as well as a real) relation, is now admitted by all
critical exegetes; that it must be so understood in that
connection is admitted by those who are not under the control of
a doctrinal bias. See my annotations to Lange's Com. on Matthew,
26:26, pp.470 sqq.
(Yes the words of Jesus, what He said in the four Gospels and
inspired in the writings of all the rest of the NT, they are
spirit and life, the actual flesh per se of Christ is no where
in it, except He did give His flesh for a scarifice on the cross
for the sins of the world. His physical blood was shed to blot
out our sins. Yet the Passover service is only the start for the
Christian and the road they must walk, and that road is the words
of God and Christ. It is then Matthew 4:4 - man shall not live by
bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
The Passover doctrine of Jesus as in the NT CAN BE UNDERSTOOD!!
It is expounded fully and in depth for you on this website, under
the section "Sabbath and Feasts of God," then under "Passover" -
Keith Hunt)
SACRED PLACES.
Although, as the omnipresent Spirit, God may be worshipped in all
places of the universe, which is his temple, yet our finite,
sensuous nature, and the need of united devotion, require special
localities or sanctuaries consecrated to his worship. The first
Christians, after the example of the Lord, frequented the temple
at Jerusalem and the synagogues, so long as their relation to the
Mosaic economy allowed. But besides this, they assembled also
from the first in private houses, especially for the communion
and the love feast. The church itself was founded, on the day of
Pentecost, in the upper room of an humble dwelling.
The prominent members and first converts, as Mary, the mother of
John Mark in Jerusalem, Cornelius in Caesarea, Lydia in Philippi,
Jason in Thessalonica, Justus in Corinth, Priscilla in Ephesus,
Philemon in Colosse, gladly opened their houses for social
worship. In larger cities, as in Rome, the Christian community
divided itself into several such assemblies at private houses,
which, however, are always addressed in the epistles as a unit.
That the Christians in the apostolic age erected special houses
of worship is out of the question, even on account of their
persecution by Jews and Gentiles, to say nothing of their general
poverty; and the transition of a whole synagogue to the new faith
was no doubt very rare. As the Saviour of the world was born in a
stable, and ascended to heaven from a mountain, so his apostles
and their successors down to the third century, preached in the
streets, the markets, on mountains, in ships, sepulchres, caves,
and deserts, and in the homes of their converts. But how many
thousands of costly churches and chapels have since been built
and are constantly being built in all parts of the world to the
honor of the crucified Redeemer, who in the days of his
humiliation had no place of his own to rest his head!
SACRED TIMES -- The Lord's Day.
(Like all Protestant teachers Schaff really goes off the deep end
into the swirling waters of mixed up theology and a carnal human
mind-set that tries to uphold the 1st day of the week as the
Christian Sabbath, and the abolition of the 7th day Sabbath. I
will comment as we go - Keith Hunt)
As every place, so is every day and hour alike sacred to God, who
fills all space and all time, and can be worshipped everywhere
and always. But, from the necessary limitations of our earthly
life, as well as from the nature of social and public worship,
springs the use of sacred seasons. The apostolic church followed
in general the Jewish usage, but purged it from superstition and
filled it with the spirit of faith and freedom.
(Now read that again from Schaff! Yes you read it correctly....he
admits the apostolic church followed in general the Jewish usage.
AND SO THEY DID! Simple, debate should be over, but with the
Catholics and Protestants the debate has only just begun - Keith
Hunt)
1. Accordingly, the Jewish use of daily prayer, particularly
in the morning and evening, were observed as a matter of habit,
besides the strictly private devotions which are bound to no
time.
(Well David said he prayed three times a day, morning, noon, and
evening. Paul said to pray without ceasing. It all means as the
basic, you should be in a prayer type attitude of mind at all
times, in all places, be it a very short prayer of seconds, to
longer prayers of minutes, to longer still, as like when Jesus
went off to pray by Himself, to recharge the batteries as we say,
which prayer may have been for an hour or more, with times of
just listening to God, meditating on spiritual things, then
talking again to the Father - Keith Hunt)
2. The LORD's DAY took the place of the Jewish Sabbath as the
weekly day of public worship. The substance remained, the form
was changed. The institution of a periodical weekly day of rest
for the body and the soul is rooted in our physical and moral
nature, and is as old as man, dating, like marriage, from
paradise. This is implied in the profound saying of our Lord:
"The Sabbath is made for man."
(Note, Schaff just tells you the "Lord's day" took the place of
the, note it, he says, "Jewish Sabbath." There were no Jews in
Genesis 2 when the 7th day Sabbath was sanctified and made holy,
see Genesis 2 with the 4th commandment of Exodus 20. But people
like Schaff want you to believe the 7th day Sabbath is somehow
"Jewish" - if you can label it with a man's label, it is easier
to then "abolish it" or move it over to another of the days of
the week. Schaff does go on to say the Sabbath has a benefit for
body and soul - Keith Hunt)
It is incorporated in the Decalogue, the moral law, which Christ
did not come to destroy, but to fulfil, and which cannot be
robbed of one commandment without injury to all the rest.
(Interesting, the Sabbath cannot be abolished from the decalogue
or moral law. Most commentators of Schaff's period and before,
fully agreed! They did NOT teach you could just blow out one of
the Ten Commandments. What they strongly taught was that the 4th
commandment still applied but it applied now to the 1st day of
the week, and to them the 1st day was to be kept holy, no secular
work, or secular entertainment like playing soccer games, opening
your business etc. was to be done on the 1st day of the week
which was now in their theology the holy Sabbath day. You might
remember the movie "Chariots of Fire" and the man who was on the
British Olympic team for the 100 yard dash, was to run his heat
on the 1st day [to him the Sabbath], and would not do so, even
refusing the request from the King of Britain at a personal
meeting with him [this was way back in the early 20th century]
They put him in the 440 yard race which he won and received his
gold medal for Britain - Keith Hunt)
At the same time the Jewish Sabbath was hedged around by many
national and ceremonial restrictions, which were not intended to
be permanent, but were gradually made so prominent as to
overshadow its great moral aim, and to make man subservient to
the sabbath instead of the sabbath to man. After the exile and in
the hands of the Pharisees it became a legal bondage rather than
a privilege and benediction. Christ as the Lord of the Sabbath
opposed this mechanical ceremonialism and restored the true
spirit and benevolent aim of the institution.
(I agree with Schaff here - Keith Hunt)
Gen.2:3. This passage is sometimes explained in a proleptic
sense; but religious rest-days, dies feriati, are found among
most ancient nations, and recent Assyrian and Babylonian
discoveries confirm the pre-Mosaic origin of the weekly Sabbath.
See Sayce's revision of George Smith's Chaldean Account of
Genesis, Lond. and N. York, 1881, p.89: "If references to the
Fall are few and obscure, there can be no doubt that the Sabbath
was an Accadian [primitive Chaldaean] institution, intimately
connected with the worship of the seven planets. The
astronomical tablets have shown that the seven-day week was of
Accadian origin, each day of it being dedicated to the sun, moon,
and five planets, and the word Sabbath itself, under the form of
Sabattu, was known to the Assyrians, and explained by them as 'a
day of rest for the heart.' A calendar of Saints' days for the
mouth of the intercalary Elul makes the 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st,
and 28th days of the lunar months, Sabbaths on which no work was
allowed to be done. The Accadian words by which the idea of
Sabbath is denoted, literally mean: 'a day on which work is
unlawful,' and are interpreted in the bilingual tablets as
signifying 'a day of peace or completion of labors.'" Smith then
gives the rigid injunctions which the calendar lays down to the
king for each of these sabbaths. Comp. also Transactions of Soc.
for Bibl. Archeol, vol. V., 427.
When the slavish, superstitious, and self-righteous sab-
batarianism of the Pharisees crept into the Galatian churches and
was made a condition of justification, Paul rebuked it as a
relapse into Judaism.
(Incorrect here by Schaff. See my expounding of Galatians and
article on the specific verses of Galatians regarding the
supposed "Sabbath question" by Paul, on this websaite - Keith
Hunt)
The day was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the
week, not on the ground of a particular command, but by the free
spirit of the gospel and by the power of certain great facts
which lie at the foundation of the Christian church.
(Note the free admittance by Schaff - no Scriptural authority to
move the weekly Sabbath from the 7th day to the first day of the
week. Somehow for Schaff it was "Christian liberty or freedom" to
do so. But this is against all common logic of the church in the
apostles time. Most will admit the first NT church was from out
of Judaism, or looked upon as another Jewish sect. In Judaism
there was FOUR VERY IMPORTANT INSTITUTIONS: 1. The weekly 7th day
Sabbath 2. Physical circumcision 3. The Temple 4. The Priesthood
and all its sacrifices and rites.
The Jewish Temple and Priesthood is dealt with in depth by Paul
in the book of Hebrews. Circumcision was so important an issue
there needed to be a church conferance on the matter to decide if
it was required for salvation - Acts 15. The Sabbath was such a
part of life with Judah beginning with Moses, and reclaimed again
after the Jews returned from their 70 year captivity in Babylon,
it would be against all common logic to suppose, moving the
weekly Sabbath from the 7th day to the first day of the week, as
Schaff and others would like us to believe was the case, that it
would not have been done without a MAJOR church debate, as like
over circumcision, and so would have had its OWN chapter in Acts
as did the debate over circumcision.
But common logic was thrown out the window when it came to
ministers of Schaff's day and before, in teaching that the 1st
day was now the holy Sabbath day, and should be kept holy. Today
ministers of the Roman Catholic and Protestant faiths do NOT try
and teach the 1st day is holy and the Sabbath, and should be kept
holy, for they know the weak and silly reasoning of their
arguments to abolish the 7th day Sabbath, would apply to their
1st day Sabbath teaching; hence they do not teach it anymore
(maybe a few try to here and there but 99% do not). So today the
1st day observing ministers are quite content to have people come
to church, give money, get a pay-check, and let the people do
whatever they like before and after the few hours spent "at
church" - Keith Hunt)
It was on that day that Christ rose from the dead; that he
appeared to Mary, the disciples of Emmaus, and the assembled
apostles; that he poured out his Spirit and founded the church;
and that he revealed to his beloved disciple the mysteries of the
future. Hence, the first day was already in the apostolic age
honorably designated as "the Lord's Day."
(True Jesus did rise in the first hours of the 1st day, what we
call Saturday evening today. True Pentecost is on the 1st day of
the week - a Sunday. But it is Schaff's words that he puts in
your mind, that the first day was already in apostolic age
honorably designated as "the Lord's day." Nothing could be
further from the truth. For not ONE WORD in the NT says the 1st
day was called the "Lord's day" by the apostles. You can look in
the NT, spend months looking, and you will not find one word from
the apostles as designating the 1st day of the week as the Lord's
day. John in Revelation uses the phrase "Lord's day" but there
are no words "first day" to be found there along with "Lord's
day." If John was in spirit and was meaning a day of the week
[which he was not] then letting the Bible interpret the Bible,
Jesus talking about the Sabbath in the Gospels, said He was Lord
over the Sabbath. All agree Jesus there was meaning the 7th day
Sabbath, or as some want to call it, the "Jewish Sabbath."
Not one verse in the NT designates the 1st day as now a holy day,
or the NT Christian Sabbath. Ministers today know this is true
hence the reason they willingly allow their church members to
participate in anything they like before or after "church
services." They know logic does not back them up in trying to
establish the 1st day as a holy day, with 4th commandment rules
to obey. They also want to still receive a pay-check for
themsleves and their family - Keith Hunt)
On that day Paul met with the disciples at Troas and preached
till midnight. On that day he ordered the Galatian and Corinthian
Christians to make, no doubt in connection with divine service,
their weekly contributions to charitable objects according to
their ability. It appears, therefore, from the New Testament
itself, that Sunday was observed as a day of worship, and in
special commemoration of the Resurrection, whereby the work of
redemption was finished.
(Not so by any long-shot!! Schaff's arguments are all answered in
full detail in studies on this website. Remember Schaff was
living in a time when the Sunday ministers taught that Sunday was
a holy day, and the rules of the 4th commandment of the 10
commandments still applied - no secular work, and no secular
activities like soccer games [certainly not pro sports games of
any kind] on the now Sunday weekly Sabbath - Keith Hunt)
The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the
......
2 Gal. 4 : 10; comp. Rom.14:5; Col.2:16. The spirit of the
pharisaical sabbatarianism with which Christ and St. Paul had to
deal may be inferred from the fact that even Gamaliel. Paul's
teacher, and one of the wisest and most liberal Rabbis, let his
ass die on the Sabbath because he thought it a sin to unload him;
and this was praised as an act of piety. Other Rabbis prohibited
the saving of an ass from a ditch on the sabbath, but allowed a
plank to be laid so as to give the beast a chance to save
himself. One great controversy between the schools of Shammai and
Hillel turned around the mighty question whether it was lawful to
eat an egg which was laid on the sabbath day, and the wise Hillel
denied it. Then it would be still more sinful to eat a chicken
that had the misfortune to be born, or to be killed, on a
sabbath.
......
(The above by Schaff shows the silly Pharisaical ideas of Sabbath
keeping. Jesus blew away with no uncertain words the traditions
of the scribes and Pharisees and told his disciples to be aware
of the doctrines of the Sadducees and Pharisees. In a simular way
I must tell you to be aware of the doctrines of the Roman
Catholics and the Protestants - Keith Hunt)
second century can only be explained by the fact that it had its
roots in apostolic practice.
(Again all logic leaves the mind of Schaff with this last comment
of his. He obviously does not see in the NT all the verses to do
with false teachers that were rising even before the apostle Paul
and Peter and Jude were dead, and certainly long before John was
dead near the end of the first century. Schaff with all of his
study never studied the matter as the late Dr.Samuele Bacchiocchi
did, which he gave to us in his books on the Sabbath question. Recorded
history shows the Christians and Jews worshipped together for a
time. Recorded history shows the Christians at Rome and other
towns gradually moved away from wanting to be associated with
anything "Jewish" or to be though of as "Jews." Recorded history
tells us that the 7th day Sabbath and 1st day were kept by many
Christians for a while, at the end of the first century and into
the beginning of the second century AD. Yes, history records that
the majority of Christians moved to observing only the 1st day of
the week as the weekly Sabbath as the second century AD moved
along. Church history records that Rome moved into observing
Easter and not Passover during the second century. History
records how Polycarp and Polycrates came to debate with the Roman
bishops, the issue of Easter/Passover, during the second century
AD. If Schaff had done a little more homework, he would have
discovered that when the Roman church came into Britain in 500 AD
it discovered the British were observing the 7th day of the week
and Passover. If Schaff had done a little more homework, he would
have seen how history records that the WELSH were observing the
7th day Sabbath till about 1100 AD when Rome finally crushed it
out. Truly Babylon Mystery Religion has not only been drunk on
the blood of the saints, but has also decieved all nations with
her spiritual fornications, just as the book of Revelation said
she would - Keith Hunt)
Such observance is the more to be appreciated as it had no
support in civil legislation before the age of Constantine, and
must have been connected with many inconveniences, considering
the lowly social condition of the majority of Christians and
their dependence upon their heathen masters and employers.
(Oh for sure, many Sunday, Easter, Christ-mass, etc. observing
Christians, have died at the hands of civil governments down
through the centuries. Dying for what one believes in is not new.
Many of different religions, or of a different political mind-
set, have died for their particular beliefs. Dying for your
belief does not make your belief correct or holy or righteous or
God inspired, it just means your willing to die for what is
important to you - Keith Hunt)
Sunday thus became, by an easy and natural transformation, the
Christian Sabbath or weekly day of rest, at once answering the
typical import of the Jewish Sabbath, and itself forming in turn
a type of the eternal rest of the people of God in the heavenly
Canaan.
(Well Sunday did become a transformation for sure, and was for
centuries, including the days of Schaff, taught as the holy
weekly Sabbath of God, in which no civil work, or fluffy pleasure
time of seeking your own fluffy pleasures was to be done during
the Sunday hours. Only in the last 60/70 years has Christian
religion seen it has no legal Biblical authority to teach its
church members that Sunday is God's holy day. So as we see today
most Christians "go to church" and then "do their own thing" be
it secular work or physical fluffy pleasures - Keith Hunt)
In the gospel dispensation the Sabbath is not a degradation, but
an elevation, of the week days to a higher plane, looking to the
consecration of all time and all work. It is not a legal
ceremonial bondage, but rather a precious gift of grace, a
privilege, a holy rest in God in the midst of the unrest of the
world, a day of spiritual refreshing in communion with God and in
the fellowship of the saints, a foretaste and pledge of the
never-ending Sabbath in heaven.
(Such was the teaching of people like Schaff back in his day and
before - Sunday was the holy day of the Lord, and should be so
honored and observed - Keith Hunt)
The due observance of it, in which the churches of England,
Scotland, and America, to their incalculable advantage, excel the
churches of the European continent, is a wholesome school of
discipline, a means of grace for the people, a safeguard of
public morality and religion, a bulwark against infidelity, and a
source of immeasurable blessing to the church, the state, and the
family. Next to the Church and the Bible, the Lord's Day is the
chief pillar of Christian society.
(Ah, do you see how it was back in Schaff's day? Many young
people today will find the words of Schaff and his company back
in the few centuries before the middle of the 20th century,
rather odd, if not laughable, and certainly strange and out of
step, with modern popular Christianity, who know better than to
try and say the Bible teaches Sunday to be observed holy and as
with the rules of the 4th commandment as in Exodus 20. Schaff, if he
could see the Sunday Christianity as it is today, would probably
turn over in his grave as we say, in disbelief, and sadness -
Keith Hunt)
Besides the Christian Sunday, the Jewish Christians observed
their ancient Sabbath also, till Jerusalem was destroyed. After
that event, the Jewish habit continued only among the Ebionites
and Nazarenes.
(So much for Schaff's historical research on the truth of the
matter on Sabbath observance in many countries, and especially in
Britain and the Celtic people of Wales. I give Schaff a big fat
"F" for Sabbath research - Keith Hunt)
As Sunday was devoted to the commemoration of the Savionr's
resurrection, and observed as a day of thanksgiving and joy, so,
at least as early as the second century, if not sooner, Friday
came to be observed as a day of repentance, with prayer and
fasting, in commemoration of the sufferings and death of Christ.
(Another big fat .... oh no .... from Schaff, the Roman/Anglican
fellow with a lot of Roman traditions still running through his
blood - Keith Hunt)
3. ANNuAL festivals.
There is no injunction for their observance, direct or indirect,
in the apostolic writings, as there is no basis for them in the
Decalogue. But Christ observed them, and two of the festivals,
the Passover and Pentecost, admitted of an easy transformation
similar to that of the Jewish into the Christian Sabbath. From
some hints in the Epistles, viewed in the light of the universal
and uncontradicted practice of the church in the second century,
it may be inferred that the annual celebration of the death and
the resurrection of Christ, and of the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit, originated in the apostolic age. In truth, Christ
crucified, risen, and living in the church, was the one absorbing
thought of the early Christians; and as this thought expressed
itself in the weekly observance of Sunday, so it would also very
naturally transform the two great typical feasts of the Old
Testament into the Christian Easter and Whit-Sunday. The Paschal
controversies of the second century related not to the fact, but
to the time of the Easter festival, and Polycarp of Smyrna and
Anicet of Rome traced their customs to an unimportant difference
in the practice of the apostles themselves.
(Schaff stumbles on some truth but never sees the tree for the
forest, just does not get it as we say. The blind lead the blind,
and both fall into the ditch. While trying to dance around
"festivals" per se [so that those in Leviticus 23 are not obeyed]
he has to admit TWO [actually three if we include the weekly
Sabbath now changed into Sunday] were continued to be observed -
Passover/Lord's Supper and Pentecost. Only that the debate
between Rome and Asia Minor [Polycrates/Polycarp] was over WHEN
they should be observed, NOT IF they should be observed - Keith
Hunt)
Of other annual festivals, the New Testament contains not the
faintest trace. Christmas came in during the fourth century by a
natural development of the idea of a church year, as a sort of
chronological creed of the people The festivals of Mary, the
Apostles, Saints, and Martyrs, followed gradually, as the worship
of saints spread in the Nicene and post-Nicene age, until almost
every day was turned first into a holy day and then into a
holiday. As the saints overshadowed the Lord, the saints' days
overshadowed the Lord's Day.
(Schaff has to kind of admit Rome went way too far, while getting
in a kick that Old Testament "festivals" were forgotten about in
the New Testament. Again nothing could be further from the truth
of the matter, as brough out in many studies on this website and
as church history also records.
Schaff forgets that a Christian is to live by EVERY WORD of God
[Mat.4:4] not just the New Testament, and the Father has no
obligation to repeat His laws over and over again in both
Testaments. You as His child are to live by the Father's words
form Genesis to Revelation. I have on this website a study called
"Living by Every Word of God - How?" You need to study it and
know the HOW! Keith Hunt)
....................
To be continued
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