A Change In Time Series

Introduction – A Change No One Voted On

Some of the biggest changes in history happen so quietly that we only notice their results.

Languages drift, customs morph, recipes evolve, and one day we realize the original flavor has vanished.

That is how the Sabbath changed.

It was not a decision of Christ or the apostles, not something written in heaven’s decree.

It simply slipped through the cracks of culture and convenience until Sunday became sacred.

Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi—whose manuscript I once typed on a humming IBM Selectric—called it *“a change that came not by command but by custom.”*¹

Tonight we trace that change—not to find villains but to find vision; not to prove superiority but to rediscover rest.

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1. The Gift Misunderstood

Last week we unwrapped the Sabbath as God’s first love gift to humanity—a rhythm of grace that began in creation.

So how did a day God blessed, Christ honored, and the apostles observed end up replaced?

The answer lies in pressure, power, and pride.

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2. Pressure – Distancing from Judaism

The first believers were Jewish.

They met in synagogues on the seventh day and gathered again on the first for fellowship and mission.

But after Jerusalem fell in A.D. 70—and especially after the Bar Kokhba revolt in A.D. 135—Rome’s patience with Judaism ended.

Anything that looked Jewish was despised or punished.

Gentile Christians in Rome began to say, “We are not Jews.”

And the easiest proof was to worship on a different day.

Bacchiocchi wrote, “The earliest shift toward Sunday arose not from theology but from social survival.”²

It was less about faith than fear—less conviction than convenience.

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Illustration – The Accent That Betrays You

When I lived overseas, locals could identify me the moment I spoke.

My accent gave me away.

Early Christians had an accent too—the Sabbath.

To a suspicious empire it sounded Jewish, so they softened their speech.

The accent faded; identity followed.

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3. Power – The Empire of the Sun

The Roman world worshiped the sun. Temples to Sol Invictus—the Unconquered Sun—filled its cities.

Mithraism, a popular soldier’s religion, honored the rising light.

When Gentile Christianity spread across that culture, Sunday already carried spiritual prestige.

It was the first day, the day of the sun, the day of new beginnings.

Christians began saying, “Let us celebrate the resurrection—the rising of the true Sun of Righteousness.”

Beautiful words—but gradually symbol replaced Scripture.

By the second century, Justin Martyr wrote that Christians met “on the day of the sun” because Jesus rose that day.³

He described, not commanded. Yet custom soon hardened into conviction.

Bacchiocchi observed, “Sunday became the Christian day not by decree but by interpretation—the gospel clothed in solar language.”4

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4. Power – The Law of Constantine

Then came the law that sealed the shift.

In A.D. 321, Emperor Constantine—half-Christian, half-sun-worshiper—issued the first civil Sunday law:

> “On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.”

No mention of Christ. No reference to resurrection.

Only “the venerable day of the Sun.”

It was politics disguised as piety. Pagans could keep their festival; Christians could claim theirs.

Everyone rested—for different reasons.

Soon the Council of Laodicea (c. 364 A.D.) went further:

> “Christians shall not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but shall work on that day and rest on Sunday.”5

The Sabbath was demoted; Sunday was enthroned.

A civil ordinance became a church doctrine.

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Illustration – The Compass Needle

Tilt a compass needle just a few degrees and you still think you’re heading north—until miles later you find yourself far off course.

That’s what happened to early Christianity.

A few degrees of cultural pressure turned into centuries of tradition.

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5. Pride – The Authority of Tradition

As the church gained imperial favor, it began to see itself as heaven’s voice on earth.

To question its customs was to question God.

By the Middle Ages, theologians openly claimed the authority to change the day of worship.

One catechism boasted:

> “Sunday is our mark of authority… The Church is above the Bible, and this transference is proof of that fact.”6

Pride turned accommodation into tradition, and tradition into doctrine.

Yet through the ages, a remnant kept whispering, “Remember…”

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6. Personal Memory – Typing History

I still hear the hum of that Selectric in 1976.

I was a graduate assistant at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, helping Dr. Bacchiocchi type his dissertation—line by line, page by page.

In that Jesuit university, a Seventh-day Adventist scholar was calmly demonstrating that the shift from Sabbath to Sunday was historical, not biblical.

He wrote with respect, clarity, and courage.

Each page felt like a small act of reformation.

That experience taught me: truth never fears evidence.