Discovering the New Covenant by Greg Taylor - exAdventist Outreach

DISCOVERING THE NEW COVENANT
disciples, five were on the first day, and in the other appearances,
there is no specific mention of which day they took
place. Also that year, the feast of Pentecost was on the first
day of the week. The Christian Church was born on a
Sunday. 4 But this did not mean they attached sacredness or
Sabbath qualities to that day. There were no appeals to the
Ten Commandments attached to Sunday. Even much later
when Constantine made the first Sunday Law, it was just a
law to forbid work on that day, and it was a law that would
benefit everyone. Pagans did not take Sunday off before that
time. It was not a blending of Paganism and Christianity at
all. It was a Christian day that Constantine used to benefit his
empire. It was welcomed by Christians and Pagans alike as a
break from work. It made worship more convenient, but it
was not a law based on Sabbath law at all. In fact, the
farmers were exempt. They could continue their work. This,
of course, was strictly forbidden in the Old Covenant
Sabbath laws, especially in the Ten Commandments. There
was no changing of Sabbath to Sunday by Constantine as I
had been taught.
There was some anti-Jewish sentiment at that time.
Some have suggested that since the Jews were in trouble
with the government, the Christians tried to distance themselves
from the Jews by getting away from Sabbath so as to
avoid persecution. But the records from that era do not
indicate a people who did anything because they were trying
to avoid persecution for the cause of Christ. The examples
are myriad of Christians standing boldly for their faith in
spite of the threat of death. If this had been a conviction for
them, they would have stood for it. But they were not
convicted about the Sabbath, as is clearly evident in their
literature.
It was not until Augustine in the fifth century that any
connection was made between the Ten Commandments and
4 Ibid, pp. 142-143.
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