THE EARLY CHRISTIAN SABBATH - Friends of the Sabbath Australia

The Early Christian Sabbath
Perhaps worse than this, the writings of Christians of influence were badly
interpolated and falsified. We have the complaint of Dionysius, a leader of the church in
Corinth about AD 175:
“As the brethren desired me to write epistles, 1 wrote. And these epistles the
apostles of the, devil have filled with tares, cutting out some things and adding others.
For them a woe is reserved. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at if some have attempted
to adulterate the Lord's writings also, since they have formed designs even against
writings which are of less account.”-The Church History of Eusebius, book 4, chapter 23,
paragraph 12, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, volume 1, pages 201,
202.
We can better understand from this the warning contained in the last chapter of
the book of the Revelation, verses 18, and 19: “If any man shall add unto these things,
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall
take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out
of the book of life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this
book.”
Tides of worldliness swept into the early church in an amazing flood. By the year
AD 250, Cyprian, a leader of the church in North Africa, was complaining:
“Each one was desirous of increasing his estate; and forgetful of what believers
had either done before in the times of the apostles, or always ought to do, they, with the
insatiable ardor of covetousness, devoted themselves to the increase of their property.
Among the priests there was no devotedness of religion; among the ministers there was
no sound faith: in their works there was no mercy; in their manners there was no
discipline. In men, their beards were defaced; in women, their complexion was dyed: the
eyes were falsified from what God's hand had made them; their hair was stained with a
falsehood. Crafty frauds were used to deceive the hearts of the simple, subtle meanings
for circumventing the brethren. They united in the bond of marriage with unbelievers;
they prostituted the members of Christ to the Gentiles. They would swear not only rashly,
but even more, would swear falsely. Would despise those set over them with haughty
swelling, would speak evil of one another with envenomed tongue, would quarrel with
one another with obstinate hatred.” - Treatise 3, “On the Lapsed,” par. 6, in The Ante-
Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, P. 438.
Furious persecutions which swept the church in Cyprian's day purified it
somewhat, but after about fifty years of comparative peace for the church, we find the
church historian Eusebius saying:
“On account of the abundant freedom, we fell into laxity and sloth, and envied
and reviled each other, and were almost. as it were, taking up arms against one another,
rulers assailing rulers with 'words like spears, and people forming parties against people,
and monstrous hypocrisy and dissimulation rising to the greatest height of wickedness,
the divine judgment with forbearance, as is its pleasure, while the multitudes yet
continued to assemble, gently and moderately harassed the episcopacy. This persecution
began with the brethren in the army. But as if without sensibility, we were not eager to
make the Deity favorable and propitious: and some, like atheists, thought that our affairs
were unheeded and ungoverned; and thus we added one wickedness to another. And
those esteemed our shepherds, casting aside the bond of piety, were excited to conflicts
with one another, and did nothing else than heap up strife and threats and jealousy and
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