NOTE: By the “Lord’s Day” the writer means Sunday, not the true “Lord’s day,” which the Bible says is the Sabbath. This shows Sunday coming into use in the early centuries soon after the death of the Apostles. Paul foretold a great “falling away” from the Truth that would take place soon after his death.
THIRD CENTURY
EGYPT (Oxyrhynchus Papyrus, 200 – 250 AD )
“Except ye make the Sabbath a real Sabbath [literally ‘sabbatise the Sabbath,’ Greek], ye shall not see the Father.”
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, pt. l, p. 3, logion 2, verso 4-11 (London: Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898).
PALESTINE TO INDIA (Church of the East).
“As early as AD 225 there existed large bishoprics or conferences of the Church of the East [Sabbath-keeping] stretching from Palestine to India.” Mingana: Early Spread of Christianity, vol. 10, p. 460.
EARLY CHRISTIANS 3rd CENTURY.
“Thou shalt observe the Sabbath, on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation, but ceased not from His work of providence: it is a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of the hands.” The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, p. 413. From Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, a document of the 3rd and 4th Centuries.
INDIA (Buddhist Controversy, 220 AD).
“The Kushan Dynasty of North India called a famous council of Buddhist priests at Vaisalia to bring uniformity among the Buddhist monks on the observance of their weekly Sabbath. Some had been so impressed by the writings of the Old Testament that they had begun to keep holy the Sabbath.”
Lloyd: The Creed of Half Japan, p. 23
EARLY CHRISTIANS.
“The seventh-day Sabbath was… solemnised by Christ, the Apostles, and primitive Christians, till the Laodicean Council did in a manner quite abolish the observations of it.”
Dissertation on the Lord’s Day, pp. 33, 34, 44.
FOURTH CENTURY
ITALY AND THE EAST 4th Century.
“It was the practice generally of the Easterne Churches; and some churches of the west… For in the Church of Millaine [Milan] . . . it seemes the Saturday was held in a faire esteeme . . . Not that the Easterne