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Sunday, November 29, 2020
Saturday, November 28, 2020
THE WEEKLY SABBATH---- HISTORY #2
Seven Factors that Influenced the Sabbath in the Early Church
(Part 3 of 4)
By Kelly McDonald, Jr.
In the midst of the previous four factors, a fifth significant factor developed: syncretism.
Syncretism occurs when someone takes practices from the Holy Bible and mixes them with practices from other religions.
As some early Christians sought to avoid practices that appeared Jewish, they embraced practices from other religions. Sunday worship was one of them. Another writer of this period was Clement of Alexandria (180s AD). In his writings, we find the first legitimate reference to Sunday being called the Lord's Day. His justification for this view came from Plato and the number eight (Stromata, 5, 14). Plato was a heathen philosopher. Why would anyone use his writings to justify any Christian practice?
As the Old Testament was being devalued as the background source to the New Testament, these Gnostic writers found other sources that they could use as a derivative of Christian practice. Philosophy was one belief system syncretized with the New Testament to fill this void.
The theology of Clement was sometimes confusing and not always consistent. He called Sunday the "Lord's Day", which has no Scriptural evidence. He was an avowed gnostic and claimed that the true gnostic does not honor specific days (ibid, 6:15, 7:7). Among his other questionable statements, he proposed that philosophy was given to the Greeks to guide them towards righteousness (ibid, 1:5). He believed that we should pray with our faces towards the east to face the rising sun (ibid, 7:7). Lastly, he believed that the sun was created as an object of worship. "And he gave the sun, and the moon, and the stars to be worshipped..." (ibid, 6:14).
The second writer we will discuss as it relates to syncretism is Tertullian. He was a writer who lived in Carthage in the late 190s/early 200s AD. He was an avowed enemy of Marcionites, but he still advocated Sunday worship. We have some of his quotes below.
"Others with a greater show of reason take us for worshippers of the sun....This suspicion took its rise from hence, because it was observed that Christians prayed with their faces towards the east [towards the sun] but if we, like them [the pagans], celebrate Sunday as a festival and day of rejoicing, it is for a reason vastly distant from that of worshipping the sun; for we solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath, and devote it to ease and eating, deviating from the old Jewish customs, which they are now very ignorant of" (Apology, Chapter 16).
Tertullian admitted that the Sunday celebration was conducted "like them" - meaning like the pagans. He also acknowledged that there were Christians that still called Saturday the Sabbath.
"Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray towards the east or because we make Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this?...It is you [the pagans], at all events, who have even admitted the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have selected its day, in preference to the preceding day...For the Jewish feasts are the Sabbath and ‘the Purification’…all which institutions and practices are of course foreign from your [pagan] gods" (Against the Nations, 1:13).
In his work, Against the Nations (also called To the Nations), Tertullian addressed pagan worshippers. Once again, he admitted that some Christians made Sunday a festivity in the same way as the pagans. He then confessed that the Sabbath is foreign to other gods. He had to defend the syncretism he practiced.
Tertullian was the first person (to my knowledge) who defended Christianity against accusations of sun worship. In the New Testament, Christians never had to shield themselves against such allegations. Syncretism caused this to change - the outside world was confused by the Sunday festivity. Tertullian also confessed that Sunday worship was a tradition with no Scriptural authority. This is consistent with the Catholic writers we quoted in the introduction.
"We count fasting or kneeling in worship on the Lord's day to be unlawful....If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them" (De Corona, chapters 3 and 4).
As we read these primary source accounts, syncretism had a huge influence on the Sabbath in early Christianity. Some wanted to retain pagan practices, such as adoration of the sun and its rising, but still hold Christian principles. We are instructed in the Bible not to pray to the sun or adore its rising (see Deut. 4:19, Ezekiel 8:14-17). Also, the phrase "Lord's Day" became gradually attached to the first day of the week.
The next factor that influenced the Sabbath was the allegorizing of Scripture.
You may not be familiar with this concept, but allegorizing is a unique method of interpreting the Bible. It does not fully consider the literal meaning of verses. Instead, numbers and details in the Bible are treated as symbols. They are then reapplied in a way that is subjective to the interpreter. As a result, those who use this method usually come to conclusions that negate the literal meaning of the Bible.
Among the first writers to allegorize the Bible was Justin the Martyr. He especially used allegory as it related to the Sabbath and the resurrection. We have two excerpts below:
"For righteous Noah, along with the other mortals at the deluge, i.e., with his own wife, his three sons and their wives, being eight in number, were a symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose from the dead, forever the first in power" (Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 138).
"The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances: if there is any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so; if any adulterer, let him repent; then he has kept the sweet and true Sabbaths of God..." (ibid, chapter 12).
In the first quote, he allegorized the number eight from the story of Noah and used this number as a reason to transfer the Sabbath to the first day of the week (which he calls the eighth day of the week). In another chapter of the same work, he does the same thing with circumcision (see chapter 41).
His allegorical attack on the Sabbath has obvious problems with the literal meaning of the Scriptures.
First, God never described the week as having eight days.
Secondly, Jesus did not resurrect on Sunday. [A MISTAKE — JESUS WAS RESURRECTED SATURDAY EVENING, SO BEING THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. ALL PROVED IN STUDIES ON MY WEBSITE - Keith Hunt]
Third, no Bible writer ever connected circumcision or Noah to the Sabbath.
In the second quote above, Justin portrayed a sinless life as the true way to honor the Sabbath. Again, this is a problematic interpretation. The Sabbath is the weekly day of rest - keeping other commandments cannot replace its absolute requirements. If someone abstains from stealing, then they have done well and honored that specific commandment. However, if the same person works on Sabbath then he/she has violated the fourth commandment. If we use Justin's logic, we could justify breaking any commandment we want.
Two other authors that contributed greatly to allegorizing the Scriptures were Clement of Alexandria and his pupil Origen. Clement studied at the Alexandrian school of theology, which taught this method of interpretation. In other places, he and Origen decried honoring any specific day as special.
"Whence not in a specified place, or selected temple, or at certain festivals and on appointed days, but during his whole life, the Gnostic in every place, even if he be alone by himself, and wherever he has any of those who have exercised the like faith, honours God, that is, acknowledges his gratitude for the knowledge of the way to live" (Clement, Stromata, 1, 7).
"If it be objected to us on this subject that we ourselves are accustomed to observe certain days, as for example the Lord's day, the Preparation, the Passover, or Pentecost, I have to answer, that to the perfect Christian, who is ever in his thoughts, words, and deeds serving his natural Lord, God the Word, all his days are the Lord's, and he is always keeping Lord's day. He also who is unceasingly preparing himself for the true life, and abstaining from the pleasures of this life which lead astray so many — who is not indulging the lust of the flesh, but keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection,— such a one is always keeping Preparation day" (Origen, Against Celsus, 8:22)
Origen allegorized away any day with special significance and ranked them all the same. He thus contradicted the examples of Christ and then early Apostles, who clearly made distinctions between days that were holy and those that were not.
Allegorizing Scriptures would contribute to misunderstanding the Sabbath for centuries to come. A substantial number of Christians were influenced by the Alexandrian school of theology. This form of interpreting the Scriptures has existed in some form down to the present.
We will finish this series in the next edition.
Kelly McDonald, Jr.
President, Bible Sabbath Association (BSA) -significance and ranked them all the same. He thus www.biblesabbath.org
(This article was first published in the Nov/Dec 2018 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel magazine. It was reprinted with permission of the BSA)
Seven Factors that Influenced the Sabbath in the Early Church
(Part 4 of 4)
The last factor that influenced the Sabbath was the relationship between the Roman Church and Roman Emperors.
Beginning with the time of Constantine, the Roman Church became intertwined with the Roman Empire. Constantine de facto made the Roman Church an institution of the state. Roman Emperors in turn codified Roman Church practices as law.
In 321 AD, Constantine ruled that people could leave property to the Roman Church upon death (CT: 16.2.4). This allowed the Roman Church to become a large landowner in Italy. In 326 AD, he passed a law that granted the Roman Church special privileges. All other Christian groups were not allowed these privileges and were bound to public service (CT: 16.5.1). He regulated the number of clergy in Christianity (CT: 16.2.6 [326 AD]). Secular judges were even required to enforce the decisions of Christian Bishops (CS: 1 [333 AD]).
In 379. Theodosius became the Eastern Roman Emperor.
After hearing the perspectives of different Christian groups, he sided with the Roman Church. All houses of prayer run were given over to the Roman Church. The next year he passed a law, which forced all peoples under his rule to follow the Roman Catholic religion. We have an excerpt from this decree below:
"To the residents of Constantinople: It is our will that all the peoples whom the government of our clemency rules shall follow that religion which a pious belief from Peter to the present declares the holy Peter delivered to the Romans, and which it is evident the Pontiff Damascus and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity, follow; that is, that according to the apostolic discipline and evangelical doctrine we believe in the deity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit of equal majesty in a holy trinity. Those who follow this law we command shall be comprised under the name of Catholic Christians; but others, indeed, we require, as insane and raving, to bear the infamy of heretical teaching; their gatherings shall not receive the name of churches; they are to be smitten first with the divine punishment and after that by the vengeance of our indignation, which has divine approval" (CT: 16.1.2).
His laws relating to religion were sometimes fanatical. People were not allowed to discuss religious matters in public (CT: 16.4.1 [388 AD]). Non-Roman Catholic groups were forbidden from owning churches or meeting together to have services.
The Emperor's relationship with the Roman Church would pave the way for celebrations of the Roman Church, including Sunday, to be enshrined as enforced law. The first Sunday law in history with any mention of the Lord was issued in 386 AD by Theodosius (CT: 2.8.18). From 386 to 469, there were seven laws enacted that specifically regulated some aspect of Sunday rest or worship.
Other Roman celebrations were promoted, such as January New Years, Emperor's birthdays, and even Christmas (for Christmas, see: CT 15.5.5 [425 AD]).
Sunday became cemented as the day of rest in the Roman Empire. This would last for centuries to come and even transfer to other European monarchies that used Roman law (such as the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne).
In conclusion, the Sabbath was attacked and slandered for centuries through these seven factors: 1) Persecution of Christians, 2) Destruction of Jerusalem (twice), 3) Quartodeciman Controversy, 4) Anti-Semitism, 5) Syncretism, 6) Allegorizing Scripture, 7) The relationship between the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church.
As you ponder these details, consider that some of these same factors are used in arguments today to denigrate the seventh-day Sabbath. But now you know their origin. We will give some examples.
Example #1 - The Quartodeciman Controversy still affects the Sabbath. People often use the argument that the resurrection occurred on Sunday morning to justify changing the Sabbath to Sunday. This argument was never used by the first Apostles. It wasn't used by anyone until over 100 years after Christ was on earth.
Example #2 - Anti-Semitism influences people's view of the Sabbath. When you mention the seventh-day Sabbath, many will say "That's just for the Jews"; "You mean the Jewish Sabbath?"; or "We do not live like Jewish people". Yet not a single time in the Bible is the Sabbath ever called Jewish; it is called the Sabbath of the Lord our God (see Exodus 20:8-11 as an example). People who use these arguments may not be anti-Semites; but they are using an anti-Semite argument.
Example #3 - Allegorizing the Scriptures. Some today still allegorize when discussing the Sabbath. For instance, some people say "Jesus is my Sabbath" or "Rest is not a day, it is salvation in Christ" - yet none of these arguments are found in the Bible.
Consider this!
Despite these seven factors, most Christians still honored the Sabbath into the 400s AD. This completely negates the argument that the Sabbath was changed by the early Church!
[YES AS I’VE STATED THE BRITISH CHURCH WAS OBSERVING THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK WHEN THE ROMAN CHURCH ENTERED BRITAIN ABOUT 500 A.D. IT IS ALL RECORDED IN CHURCH HISTORY - Keith Hunt]
We will look at one writer who lived in the late 300s/ early 400s AD. His name is Socrates Scholasticus; he wrote a tremendous work on Christian history.
"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 Thebais, 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..." (ibid, bk 5, ch 22)
Pay close attention to the words of this historian. He recorded that Rome and Alexandria were the two cities that ceased to honor the Sabbath; this means at one time they did honor the Sabbath. He also noted that they did not stop honoring the Sabbath because of any Scripture, but because of a tradition. Jesus warned us about the traditions of man that contradict the commandments of God (Matthew 15:1-20).
Despite these seven factors, most Christians continued to honor the Sabbath. Thank you for reading and I hope you learned something new that will help you defend your faith!
Kelly McDonald, Jr.
President, Bible Sabbath Association (BSA) -
(This article was first published in the Nov/Dec 2018 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel magazine. It was reprinted with permission of the BSA)
…………………………
A CHILD WILL HAVE NO PROBLEM IN ACCEPTING THE 7TH DAY AS THE GOD GIVEN WEEKLY SABBATH. A CHILD NOT INFLUENCED BY FANCY THEOLOGY OF FALSE TEACHERS, WILL HAVE NO PROBLEM ACCEPTING THE 7TH DAY SABBATH—— I KNOW—— FOR I WAS ONE OF THOSE CHILDREN!
MY DAD SENT ME TO A CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOL WHEN I WAS 6. MOVING UP TO THE NEXT CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOL AT AGE 7, I WAS GIVEN ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, A BIBLE. THE LADY TEACHER TOLD US TO OPEN IT AND SHE READ GENESIS 1. IT WAS LIKE A LIGHT SWITCH WENT OFF IN MY HEAD. WOW…. I THOUGHT, IT IS A BEING CALLED GOD, WHO MADE EVERYTHING I SEE AROUND ME IN NATURE! I BELIEVED IN GOD FROM THAT DAY ONWARDS.
I WAS TAUGHT TO MEMORIZE THE 10 COMMANDMENT AS IN EXODUS 20, FULL VERSION, EVERY WORD AS IN THE KJV BIBLE.
I KNEW WHAT THE 4TH COMMANDMENT SAID.
I LEARNT ABOUT JESUS; I READ THE GOSPELS; I SAW JESUS OBSERVED AND TAUGHT SABBATH OBSERVANCE.
NOT ONE PRIEST OR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER EVER TALKED ABOUT THE SABBATH TO ME.
I SAW ALL CHRISTIANITY AROUND ME OBSERVING SUNDAY. I BELIEVED SUNDAY WAS THE 7TH DAY OF THE WEEK.
I NEVER LOOKED AT A CALENDAR; NO FANCY CALENDARS BACK THEN; WHY SHOULD I LOOK AT A CALENDAR, I KNEW MY WEEKLY SCHEDULE, IT WAS ALL PLANNED OUT WHAT I DID IN SCHOOL AND AFTER SCHOOL.
I WAS 19 YEARS OLD AND HAD BEEN IN CANADA ABOUT ONE YEAR. I WAS ATTENDING MY LANDLORD’S BAPTIST CHURCH. ONE DAY HE ASKED ME WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT SUCH AND SUCH A RADIO PREACHER. I SAID I LIKED LISTENING TO HIM. MY LANDLORD SAID, “HE’S A 7TH DAY KEEPER” AND I REPLIED, “WELL ARE WE NOT ALSO.” THEN HE REPLIED, “NO, SUNDAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK.”
I WAS HIT BETWEEN THE EYES, LIKE A 2 X 4 HAD HIT ME.
I WENT TO THE LOCAL LIBRARY AND FOUND THE BOOK “CHRISTIAN FEASTS AND CUSTOMS”—— THE BOOK I’VE UPLOADED ON MY WEBSITE AND THIS BLOG.
I WAS STUNNED! I WAS IN COMPLETE SHOCK!
ALL THE CHRISTIANITY I KNEW FROM AGE 7, WAS FILLED WITH FALSE DOCTRINE, FALSE CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS.
BUT THE TRUTH HAS NEVER BEEN EXTINGUISHED, IT HAS BEEN OUT THERE, DOWN THROUGH THE CENTURIES.
GOD’S TRUE CHILDREN HAVE LIVED AND DIED FOR IT.
THERE IS COMING AT THE END OF THIS AGE, ONE MORE HUGE RESURRECTION OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE; IT WILL RULE THE WESTERN WORLD. IT WILL PERSECUTE THE TRUE PEOPLE OF GOD; THEY WILL HAVE TO FLEE ONCE MORE INTO THE WILDERNESS; SOME WILL HAVE TO STAND UP TALL AND SUFFER MARTYRDOM FOR THE TRUTH OF GOD, AS MANY HAVE DONE IN THE PAST AGES.
THEN JESUS WILL RETURN AND STOP MANKIND FROM BLOWING THEMSELVES OFF THIS BLUE PLANET.
A NEW AGE WILL COME—— AN AGE FORETOLD FOR CENTURIES BY GOD’S CHOSEN PROPHETS AND TEACHERS; AN AGE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH.
IT WILL BE AN AGE THAT WILL HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND HIS WORD OF TRUTH, AS DEEP AS THE WATERS COVER THE SEAS.
ALL THE NATIONS OF EARTH WILL OBSERVE THE 10 COMMANDMENTS, INCLUDING THE ONE THAT IS THE TRUE WEEKLY SABBATH!
Keith Hunt
WEEKLY SABBATH IN HISTORY #1
January/February 2020
ACTS magazine
Seven Factors that Influenced the Sabbath in the Early Church
(Part 1 of 4)
By Kelly McDonald, Jr.
In this edition of the magazine, we will begin a four-part series on the history of the Sabbath. This series will help you understand the different factors that affected the Sabbath in the first few centuries of Christianity.
We know that Christ and His disciples honored the Sabbath (see Luke 4:16 and Acts 13:13-46 for some examples). Did the second generation of disciples continue to honor the Sabbath?
History will help us understand the factors that influenced the Sabbath in early Christianity. There are at least seven of them that I have identified. While these items are certainly interrelated, they can also be viewed individually. They are listed below:
Persecution of Christians
Destruction of Jerusalem (twice)
Quartodeciman Controversy
Anti-Semitism
Syncretism
Allegorizing Scripture
The Roman Church's Relationship to Roman Emperors
The first factor was persecution.
A series of persecutions affected the Sabbath in the early Church. From 64 AD to 324 AD, there were persecutions of Christians initiated by Roman Emperors or their magistrates. These persecutions hunted down the faithful. Believers had their property confiscated; they were tortured and even killed. Many leaders were targeted in these attacks.
The first Roman persecution was directed by the Emperor Nero in 64 AD. He desired to build a new city called Neronia (obviously named after himself). Part of the old city of Rome stood in the way of this project. Perhaps not coincidentally, a massive fire destroyed some of that section of the city. Some sources say that he purposefully set fire to the city to make room for his new city. One way or the other, the Roman people demanded that the implementer of this crime be revealed. In their minds, someone had to pay the price.
To divert the people's suspicion from himself, Nero blamed Christians. Believers were tortured in awful ways to appease the blood lust of the Roman people. Tacitus, a Roman historian who lived near this event, tells us about their awful treatment:
...Consequently, to get rid of the report (that he started the fire), Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate... Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted... Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed by the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.... Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed.... (Tacitus, The Annals, 15:44)
This account by Tacitus is among the first historical documents outside of the Bible that reference Christ and Christianity. Great harm was done to believers, but they pressed on to the high calling of the faith.
As these persecutions continued, two classes of people began to emerge in Christianity. The first class was composed of loyal and faithful believers who held firmly to the faith no matter the threat presented to them. The second class would publicly profess Christ, but they denied Him when threatened with punishment. This second class even sacrificed to the pagan gods of Rome.
One eyewitness of this development was Pliny the Younger. He was a magistrate during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98-117 AD. This is one of the Emperors that allowed Christians to be persecuted. A quote from him is found below:
"...An anonymous information was laid before me containing a charge against several persons, who upon examination denied they were Christians, or had ever been so. They repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered religious rites with wine and incense before your statue (which for that purpose I had ordered to be brought, together with those of the gods), and even reviled [cursing] the name of Christ: whereas there is no forcing, it is said, those who are really Christians into any of these compliances: I thought it proper, therefore, to discharge them... Some among those who were accused by a witness in person at first confessed themselves Christians, but immediately after denied it; the rest owned indeed that they had been of that number formerly, but had now (some above three, others more, and a few above twenty years ago) renounced that error. They all worshipped your statue and the images of the gods, uttering imprecations at the same time against the name of Christ... They affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they met on a stated (fixed) day before it was light, and addressed a form of prayer to Christ... I forbade the meeting of any assemblies.... For it appears to be a matter highly deserving your consideration, more especially as great numbers must be involved in the danger of these prosecutions... In fact, this contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only, but has spread its infection among the neighbouring villages and country. Nevertheless, it still seems possible to restrain its progress. The temples, at least, which were once almost deserted, begin now to be frequented; and the sacred rites, after a long intermission, are again revived... From all this it is easy to conjecture what numbers might be reclaimed if a general pardon were granted to those who shall repent of their error..." (Letter 97).
This primary source demonstrates the long-term effect of persecution. Some people denounced their profession of faith in Christ when confronted. Pliny also noted that the pagan temples were almost empty, but the persecutions caused them to be full again. In other words, many who had attended Christian fellowship later turned back to pagan worship. This behavior was repeated in subsequent persecutions, such as Decius in 250 AD and Diocletian in 303 AD.
In this quote, we also learn that Christians were observed to meet on a stated or fixed day; this would have been the Sabbath. Christian assemblies were forbidden by Pliny. Many of the strongest leaders and believers were martyred in these persecutions.
[A MORE DETAILED HISTORIC ACCOUNT IS PRESENTED BY DR. SAMUELE BACCHIOCCHI IN HIS BOOKS ON THE SABBATH ISSUE - Keith Hunt]
A second influence on the Sabbath in early Church history was the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred twice.
In the book of Acts, we learn that Jerusalem was the primary center of Christianity. The book of Acts mentions this city third-most of all books in the Bible. Within the city of Jerusalem, important matters were addressed. Councils were held, ministers reported to the Apostles, and ministers were sent out to help others. For some examples of this, see: Acts 1:4-8, 11:1-2, 11:19-22, 11:26-27, 12:24-25, 13:13, 15:2, 16:4, and Galatians. 2:1-2.
In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. The city was ransacked, and the Second Temple was destroyed. This was a tragedy for the Jewish people and it scattered some Christians. About forty years before, Jesus warned the early believers to flee to the mountains when the city was surrounded by armies (Luke 21:20-21).
[THE PROPHECY IN LUKE (ALSO MATTHEW AND MARK) HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 70 A.D. BUT THE VERY RETURN OF CHRIST TO EARTH; SEE THE CONTEXT IN ALL THREE GOSPELS - Keith Hunt]
Historical accounts tell us that the early believers fled to Pella and were protected.
[IT IS ONLY NATURAL FOR CHRISTIANS TO FLEE FROM PERSECUTION; THIS HAS BEEN THE CASE OVER THE LAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS - Keith Hunt]
Epiphanaus and Jerome are two ancient writers that describe this. Of them Epiphanaus wrote that these early Christians still honored the Sabbath (Panarion, Sec. 29).
While many may be familiar with this destruction of Jerusalem, they are usually not familiar with the destruction that occurred less than 70 years later.
A controversy arose during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (sometimes called Adrian), who ruled from 117-138 AD. According to the Roman historian Cassius Dio, Hadrian tried to build a temple dedicated to Jupiter on top of the ruins of the Second Temple (Book 69, sections 12-14). The Temple was and still is the holiest site to Judaism. This action by Hadrian caused a major war with the Jewish people. As many as 585,000 Jewish people died in the fighting alone.
Amid this conflict, Hadrian banned the celebration of the Sabbath and any other practice that appeared to be Jewish. After the Romans won, all the Jewish people were banned from Jerusalem. This included Jewish people who also believed in Jesus.
Eusebius [early 300s AD] wrote: "...until the siege of the Jews, which took place under Adrian, there were fifteen bishops in succession there, all of whom are said to have been of Hebrew descent, and to have received the knowledge of Christ in purity, so that they were approved by those who were able to judge of such matters..." (Eus, History, bk 4, 5:2, [NPNF: 176]).
The events during Hadrian's reign caused another long-term problem. When Jerusalem was destroyed the second time, the headquarters of Christianity was now in question. As Eusebius testified, the city no longer had bishops who held the knowledge of Christ in purity.
Over the next few centuries, other cities competed to be the successor of apostolic authority and doctrine. These cities included, but are not limited to: Rome, Alexandria, Carthage, and later Constantinople. This resulted in fragmentation in practice and doctrine.
During this time, heresies began to infiltrate Christianity. Hegessipus, who wrote about 150 AD, stated that the church was a virgin until the reign of Trajan [Fragments, ANF: 764). Clement of Alexandria, who wrote about 180 AD, asserted that heresies arose in the time of Hadrian (Stromata, bk 7, chp 17). Sulpicius Severus (400 AD) said that until the reign of Hadrian most Christians still obeyed the Law of God [Sacred History, bk 2, ch. 31).
What we can deduce is that during this general time period, the reigns of Trajan through Hadrian -Christianity began to change, but not for the better.
We will continue this series next time.
Kelly McDonald, Jr.
President, Bible Sabbath Association (BSA) -
(This article was first published in the July/August 2018 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel magazine. It was reprinted with permission of the BSA)
Seven Factors that Influenced the Sabbath in the Early Church
(Part 2 of 4)
The immediate consequence of the second destruction of Jerusalem was confusion as to when Passover should be celebrated. This is the third factor that had an influence on the Sabbath in the Early Church. It is also called the Quartodeciman Controversy.
In the 360s AD, Epiphanius wrote that the quarrel about Passover started during the reign of Hadrian (Panarion, 70). Up to his reign, there was no confusion about it.
Many Christians celebrated Passover on the fourteenth of Nissan, as Jesus himself celebrated it in this manner.
In approximately 155 AD, a controversy about Passover caused a stir within the Christian world. Polycarp, who was taught and trained by the first Apostles, was still alive. He celebrated Passover on the fourteenth of Nissan. Anicetus, who was the Bishop of Rome, refused to follow the same practice. Polycarp visited Rome to discuss this situation with him. The early church historian Eusebius wrote about this visit.
"At this time, while Anicetus was at the head of the church of Rome, Irenaeus relates that Polycarp, who was still alive, was at Rome, and that he had a conference with Anicetus on a question concerning the day of the paschal feast..." (Eusebius, Church History, bk 4,14:1- 7).
"For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe what he had always observed with John the disciple of our Lord, and the other apostles with whom he had associated; neither could Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe it..." (ibid, bk 5, 24:16-17).
The meeting between the two leaders came to a standstill. Polycarp held to the practice of Passover as he received it from the early Apostles. Anicetus decided not to celebrate Passover. Instead, he chose to celebrate it on the Sunday after the 14th of Nissan. They claimed that this practice was necessary because they believed the resurrection of Jesus occurred on Sunday. This is the first time such a controversy arose; the issue would persist for hundreds of years.
How did the Quartodeciman controversy affect the Sabbath?
From the position of an annual Sunday celebration to honor the resurrection, the Roman Church drifted towards the view that every Sunday should be celebrated by Christians in the place of the seventh-day Sabbath. The resurrection became their justification for this practice - even though such a justification is not found in the New Testament.
Sunday replacing Passover or the Sabbath cannot be an apostolic teaching because the earliest Apostles met on the Sabbath and taught about the resurrection. Their message of the resurrection never influenced when the Sabbath was honored.
The fourth factor that influenced the Sabbath in the early Church was anti-Semitism.
It was tightly bound up with the previous factors we reviewed.
By the reign of Hadrian, anti-Semitism was rooted in Roman culture. Some Roman writers called the Jewish people a cursed race. They were accused of following mere superstitions; sometimes attacks were made against them that specifically targeted the seventh-day Sabbath (For a few examples, see Jewish Encyclopedia 1905 article: Seneca, Lucius Annaeus; Tacitus, Histories, book 5:4-5; Quintilian Institutio Oratia, bk 3, sec 7:21).
Unfortunately, anti-Semitism infiltrated Christianity. During Hadrian's reign, a man named Aristides made a defense of the Christian faith to the Emperor. His goal was to somehow curtail the regional persecutions of Christians still taking place. In his speech called The Apology, he claimed that there were four classes of men: barbarians, Greeks, Jews, and Christians. Moreover, he claimed that Christians were the highest of the four classes and had the most truth. He claimed that the Jewish people worshiped angels and derived their practices from them. Among the practices he derided was the Sabbath. We have a quote from his work below:
"Nevertheless they too erred from true knowledge. And in their imagination they conceive that it is God they serve; whereas by their mode of observance it is to the angels and not to God that their service is rendered:— as when they celebrate Sabbaths..." (The Apology, Section 14).
To my knowledge, this is the first historical reference of a Christian attempting to separate himself from the practices held in common with Jewish people. But it was the beginning of others who would follow with similar arguments.
Just after the reign of Hadrian, several anti-Semitic teachers spread heresy in the Christian world. Marcion is considered the most influential of them; he began teaching around 144 AD. He taught that the God of the Old Testament was a separate God from that of the New Testament. According to Irenaeus, a contemporary of the time, this heretical teacher flourished under the Roman Bishop Anicetus; this is the same Anicetus from the Quartodeciman controversy (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, Book III, Chapter 4, Verse 3).
Marcion convinced many people to believe in his heresy (Justin, First Apology, Chapter 26). He had a special hatred for the seventh-day Sabbath. He taught that "Since that day is the rest of the God of the Jews, who made the world and rested the seventh day, we therefore fast on that day, that we may not do anything in compliance with the God of the Jews" (Epiphinaus, Panarion, Sec. 42). He advocated fasting on the Sabbath to dishonor the "God of the Jews."
Marcion was declared a heretic by the Roman Church, but in later centuries they adopted some of his teachings in one way or another. For instance, fasting on the Sabbath became a normal practice for the Roman Church by the 400s AD (Augustine -Letters 36, 82).
Justin the Martyr was another anti-Semitic writer of this period (150s-160s AD). Justin claimed that the Sabbath was given to the Jewish people due to their transgressions and hardness of hearts (Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 18).
However, Christ said that the Sabbath was given for all mankind, not just the Jewish people (Mark 2:27-28). It was also first given in Genesis, which was long before the Israelites became a nation, Justin claimed that Christians who observed things such as the Sabbath would "probably be saved" (ibid, 47).
The anti-Semitism that penetrated Christianity during the second century increased over time; it specifically targeted the Sabbath. Roman Church writers thought they could denigrate the Sabbath by labeling it a Jewish institution. In the late 300s AD, Augustine called people who honored the Sabbath "sons of the bondwoman" (letter 36, chapter 2). Around 600 AD, Pope Gregory called Sabbath keepers preachers of the anti-Christ (Registrum Epistolarum, Book 13, Letter 1).
This demeaning attitude towards the Sabbath observance was designed to divert people from it.
We will continue this series in the next edition.
Kelly McDonald, Jr.
President, Bible Sabbath Association (BSA) -
(This article was first published in the Sept/Oct 2018
edition of the Sabbath Sentinel magazine. It was
reprinted with permission of the BSA) …………………………
I HAVE SHOWN ON MY WEBSITE, FROM HISTORY, THAT TRUE CHRISTIANITY CAME TO BRITAIN SHORTLY AFTER JESUS HAD RETURNED TO HEAVEN.
WHEN THE ROMAN CHURCH CAME TO BRITAIN AROUND 500 A.D. LETTERS WERE SENT BACK TO THE POPE TELLING HIM THE BRITISH CHRISTIANITY WAS HERESY, AS THEY OBSERVED THE 7TH DAY SABBATH AND KEPT THE PASSOVER— LORD’S DEATH, WHEN THE JEWS WERE OBSERVING THEIR PASSOVER.
SO IT WAS FROM THEN THAT THE ROMAN CHURCH DID GIVE ALL DILIGENCE TO STAMP OUT THIS BRITISH HERESY CHRISTIANITY.
Keith Hunt
AMERICA'S OPIOID CRISIS!
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- 1 child in 8 lives with a parent who suffers from a substance abuse disorder in America, and every 15 minutes, a baby in America is born suffering from opioid withdrawal
- Prescription opioid use is a significant risk factor for subsequent heroin use; 1 in 3 people who misused opioids during their high school years ended up using heroin by age 35
- One of the most prominent drug companies involved in the creation of this opioid addiction crisis is Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. In October 2020, Purdue pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges relating to its role in the opioid crisis
- When it comes to children and teens, a major source of opioids are dentists, who wrote a staggering 18.1 million prescriptions for opioids in 2017. Opioids are frequently prescribed when extracting wisdom teeth, even though there’s no evidence to support this strategy. Children are also recklessly prescribed addictive opioids for minor surgical procedures
- Opioids have a very high rate of addiction and have not been proven effective for long-term use. Research shows opioids do not control moderate to severe pain any better than over-the-counter drugs such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen and naproxen
The featured 2019 BBC documentary, “Addicted: America’s Opioid Crisis,” explores the depth of the nation’s addiction to opioid painkillers and the role played by Purdue Pharma and other makers of the drug.
As noted in the film, opioids kill more people than any other drug on the market, and it’s the only type of drug that can condemn a person to a life of addiction after a single week of use.
According to the BBC, “1 in 8 American children live with a parent who suffers from a substance abuse disorder,” and “every 15 minutes, a baby in America is born suffering from opioid withdrawal.” Middle school-aged children interviewed also say they have easy access to drugs, should they want them.
Many now blame the drug companies that make these drugs and have falsely promoted them as safe and nonaddictive for patients of all kinds, including children.
That includes one of the former addicts followed in the film, who says he thinks the drug companies need to be held responsible for their role in creating this epidemic, and made to help pay for the solution.
Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty and Folds
One of the most prominent drug companies involved in the creation of this opioid addiction crisis is Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. At the end of October 2020, Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges relating to its role in the opioid crisis, including violating a federal anti-kickback law, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.1,2
To settle the charges, Purdue is supposed to pay $8.3 billion in fines, forfeiture of past profits and civil liability payments,3 but because it doesn’t have the cash, the company will instead be dissolved and its assets used to erect a “public benefit company” that both makes opioids and pays for addiction treatment.
Legal Painkillers Now the Gateway Drug to Heroin
While marijuana was long known as the gateway drug to other illicit drug use, that distinction now belongs to prescription opioids. According to data4 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, prescription opioid use is a significant risk factor for subsequent heroin use.
The incidence of heroin use is 19 times higher among those who have used opioids nonmedically than among those who have no history of opioid use, and 86% of young, urban injection drug users report using opioid pain relievers nonmedically before starting heroin. Overall, nearly 80% of heroin users now report using prescription opioids prior to heroin.
Similarly, data5 from the University of Michigan shows just under 1 in 3 people (31.8%) who misused opioids during their high school years ended up using heroin by age 35.
When it comes to children and teens, a major source of opioids are dentists, who wrote a staggering 18.1 million prescriptions for opioids in 2017.6 Opioids are frequently prescribed when extracting wisdom teeth, even though there’s no evidence to support this strategy.
This is especially true if you see a biological dentist who knows what they are doing. Earlier this year I had a periapical abscess and had to have the tooth extracted. I saw one of the best dentists in Florida, Dr. Carl Litano, just south of Tampa. He used platelet rich plasma (PRP) at the extraction site and I had zero pain and no swelling without any medication. Afterward, no one could tell I had an extraction the previous day.
Children are also recklessly prescribed addictive opioids for minor surgical procedures. For example, insurance claims data from 2016 and 2017 reveal 60% of children between the ages of 1 and 18 with private insurance filled one or more opioid prescriptions after surgical tonsil removal.7,8
Meanwhile, research9 shows opioids (including morphine, Vicodin, oxycodone and fentanyl) fail to control moderate to severe pain any better than over-the-counter drugs such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen and naproxen.
An Epidemic Caused by Greed
As noted in the film, this is an epidemic caused by greed within the medical system. Purdue Pharma was exceptionally skilled at marketing its product, cleverly disguising its advertisements as educational material. (The same can clearly be said about many other drug companies and their wares today.)
There can be no doubt that false advertising played a central role in the opioid epidemic,10 and for doctors, it highlights the importance of staying on top of published research rather than relying on drug company sales reps for their education.
The fraud has its roots in a short letter to the editor11,12 published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1980. The letter — which was simply commenting on a cursory examination of patient files in a Boston hospital — stated that narcotic addiction in patients with no history of addiction was very rare.
Purdue built its marketing of OxyContin on this letter, for years falsely claiming that opioid addiction affects less than 1% of patients treated with the drugs. According to Purdue’s marketing material, featured in the film, “the most serious risk with opioids is respiratory depression.”
In reality, opioids have a very high rate of addiction and have not been proven effective for long-term use.13 A number of court cases in recent years have demonstrated how Purdue systematically misled doctors about OxyContin’s addictiveness to drive up sales.
As noted by David Powell, a senior economist at Rand, to produce the most lethal drug epidemic America has ever seen “you need a huge rise in opioid access, in a way that misuse is easy, but you also need demand to misuse the product.”14
According to the documentary, Purdue made more than $1 billion a year from its sales of OxyContin. OxyContin’s success also quickly led to other drug companies mimicking Purdue’s tactics. Other companies being called to account include Allergan, Cephalon, Endo International, Egalet Corporation, Insys Therapeutics, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Mallinckrodt plc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
In the final analysis, it’s clear that unconscionably deceitful marketing tactics have resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Americans; 46,802 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2018 alone.15 As of June 2017, opioids became the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50.16
That said, the BBC also rightfully points out that we need stronger regulations and more effective checks and balances to prevent this kind of situation from happening again in the future. Merely making drug companies pay is not enough.
Purdue Lured in, Then Abandoned Doctors
Steven May, a former Purdue sales rep, also highlights yet another scandal. The company came up with a plan to help doctors to better document their treatment of pain. Sales reps were taught how to instruct doctors to use these tools.
When those same doctors eventually got in trouble for overprescribing opioids, using Purdue’s tools, the company walked away and offered no support. Many doctors lost their medical licenses. Some ended up doing jail sentences and some committed suicide. “And they were doing exactly what [Purdue] taught us to teach them to do,” May says.
No Remorse
Adding insult to injury, when it became clear that people were dying in droves from opioid overdoses, Purdue launched an extensive damage-control operation that included the suggestion that those dying from opioids were already addicts, and that this wouldn’t happen to patients who were not already addicted to drugs. It was basically just a variation on the original lie.
According to lawsuits filed against Purdue, the company knew as early as the 1990s that OxyContin was one of the most abused drugs in the country, yet they did nothing to change their marketing and sales strategies.
That the Sacklers, the owners of Purdue, had no remorse and didn’t care about the societal effects that overprescription of their drug was having is illustrated in a 2001 email exchange between then-Purdue president Richard Sackler and an acquaintance.
In the documentary, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong reads this exchange, which begins with the unnamed acquaintance stating: “[Drug] abusers die, well that is the choice they made. I doubt a single one didn’t know the risks,” to which Sackler replied, “Abusers aren’t victims; they are the victimizers.”
“It’s hard to stomach that someone would write that about people who are suffering, people who are in real distress and people who have died,” Tong says, “and that is the kind of thing that powered this company during a period and led to deceptive, fraudulent, misleading product development and marketing … [They] made money off people’s misery and I think that is what these emails show.”
Unemployment and Poverty Fuel Addiction
Many of the opioid and heroin abusers featured in “Addicted” live on the streets. Desperation and despair are evident in all. Several investigations seeking to gain insight into the causes fueling the opioid epidemic have been conducted in recent years.
Among them is a 2019 study17 in the Medical Care Research Review journal, which looked at the effects of state-level economic conditions — unemployment rates, median house prices, median household income, insurance coverage and average hours of weekly work — on drug overdose deaths between 1999 and 2014. According to the authors:18
“Drug overdose deaths significantly declined with higher house prices … by nearly 0.17 deaths per 100,000 (~4%) with a $10,000 increase in median house price. House price effects were … only significant among males, non-Hispanic Whites, and individuals younger 45 years …
Our findings suggest that economic downturns that substantially reduce house prices such as the Great Recession can increase opioid-related deaths, suggesting that efforts to control access to such drugs should especially intensify during these periods.”
Similarly, an investigation published in the International Journal of Drug Policy19 in 2017 connected economic recessions and unemployment with rises in illegal drug use among adults. Seventeen of the 28 studies included in the review found that the psychological distress associated with economic recessions and unemployment was a significant factor:20
“The current evidence is in line with the hypothesis that drug use increases in times of recession because unemployment increases psychological distress which increases drug use. During times of recession, psychological support for those who lost their job and are vulnerable to drug use (relapse) is likely to be important.”
Another 2019 study21 published in Population Health reviewed the links between free trade and deaths from opioid use between 1999 and 2015, finding that “Job loss due to international trade is positively associated with opioid overdose mortality at the county level.” Overall, for each 1,000 people who lost their jobs due to international trade — commonly due to factory shutdowns — there was a 2.7% increase in opioid-related deaths.
Trauma Raises Addiction Risk
Abuse-related trauma is also linked to unemployment and financial stress, and that too can increase your risk of drug use and addiction. As noted in The Atlantic,22 when the coal mining industry in northeastern Pennsylvania collapsed, leaving many locals without job prospects, alcohol use increased, as did child abuse.
Many of these traumatized children, in turn, sought relief from the turmoil and ended up becoming addicted to opioids. All of this is particularly pertinent today, as many parts of the U.S. have been shut down for extended periods of time over fears of COVID-19.
Not being allowed to work, being forced to stay at home for weeks or months on end, maintaining an unnatural distance even to your loved ones and not being able to see people’s faces when out in public — all of these things can contribute to fear, anxiety and, ultimately, despair that fuels addiction. Indeed, reports23 warn that substance abuse is on the rise as a result of pandemic measures, as is domestic violence.24
Struggling With Opioid Addiction? Please Seek Help
It's vitally important to realize that opioids are extremely addictive drugs that are not meant for long-term use for nonfatal conditions. If you've been on an opioid for more than two months, or if you find yourself taking a higher dosage, or taking the drug more often, you may already be addicted. Resources where you can find help include the following. You can also learn more in “How to Wean Off Opioids.”
- Your workplace Employee Assistance Program
- The Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration25 can be contacted 24 hours a day at 1-800-622-HELP
I also urge you to listen to my interview with Dr. Sarah Zielsdorf, which is being published in tomorrow’s newsletter. In it, she explains how low-dose naltrexone (LDN), used in microdoses, can help you help combat opioid addiction and aid in your recovery.26
Using microdoses of 0.001 milligrams (1 microgram), long-term users of opioids who have developed a tolerance to the drug are able to, over time, lower their opioid dose and avoid withdrawal symptoms as the LDN makes the opioid more effective.
For opioid dependence, the typical starting dose is 1 microgram twice a day, which will allow them to lower their opioid dose by about 60%. When the opioid is taken for pain, the LDN must be taken four to six hours apart from the opioid in order to not displace the opioid’s effects.
Nondrug Pain Relief
Many types of pain can be treated entirely without drugs. Recommendations by Harvard Medical School27,28 and the British National Health Service29 include the following. You can find more detailed information about most of these techniques in “13 Mind-Body Techniques That Can Help Ease Pain and Depression.”
Gentle exercise | Physical therapy or occupational therapy |
Hypnotherapy | Distracting yourself with an enjoyable activity |
Maintaining a regular sleep schedule | Mind-body techniques such as controlled breathing, meditation, guided imagery and mindfulness practice that encourage relaxation. One of my personal favorites is the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) |
Yoga and tai chi | Practicing gratitude and positive thinking |
Hot or cold packs | Biofeedback |
Music therapy | Therapeutic massage |
In “Billionaire Opioid Executive Stands to Make Millions More on Patent for Addiction Treatment,” I discuss several additional approaches — including helpful supplements and dietary changes — that can be used separately or in combination with the strategies listed above to control both acute and chronic pain.
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