"You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast to the tradition of men." -Jesus

Traditions of Men

When Jesus was teaching on the shores of Galilee, Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to observe. They soon found fault with Jesus, because He did not have His disciples observe certain of the traditions of the elders. Jesus answered that many of their traditions were contrary to the Word of God. He accused them of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Mark 7:7). He repeated the accusation in no uncertain terms: "For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, ... Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. ... Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition." (Mark 7:8-13).

For proof of His statement He used the fifth commandment as an illustration. He reminded them that God's Word, given to Moses, said, "Honor thy father and thy mother," but they had said that if one takes money which he should use to help his parents and brings it to the temple for a sacred offering, he is free from his obligation to his parents -- And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother, making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition.

The same accusation hangs over a large part of the Christian Church today, of the substitution of tradition of men for the Word of God; and the fourth commandment is the glaring illustration.

The Word of God says, "The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God;" but the Christian Church, as a rule, says: If you rest and worship on the first day of the week, you are free from your obligation to the seventh day of the week. Thus they, too, reject the commandment of God that they may keep their own traditions.

The Early Church

It will be seen that the practice of substituting tradition of men for the Word of God was not confined to the Pharisees, but has continued to the present. Let us follow the development of this practice with regard to the Sabbath.

The New Testament Church was a seventh day Sabbath Church. Jesus, as his custom was, ...went into the synagogue on the sabbath, (Luke 4:16). There is no question what day was the Sabbath at the synagogue.

Paul, the greatest influence in the Church in its beginning, worshipped on the Sabbath. At Antioch of Pisidia he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and preached (Acts 13:14). And the Gentiles asked that these words might be preached to them on the next Sabbath (Acts 13:42). And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God. (Acts 13:44) At Corinth he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and preached to the Jews and the Greeks (Acts 18:4). At Philippi, on the Sabbath he went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made (Acts 16:13). At Thessalonica Paul went into the synagogue and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures (Acts 17:2). It is evident that the early Christian Church and its branches started with the Bible Sabbath, among both the Jews and Greeks.

Pagan Influence

in the pagan world there was a worship of the sun, and a day sacred to the sun worship, The Venerable Day of the Sun, or Sunday. As the pagan world took on Christianity it retained many pagan customs, or pagan traditions. The survival of paganism in Christianity includes many things. Among other things, pagan converts brought over the custom of worshipping on their old Sun-day; as much as to say: If you Christianize the pagan Sunday, you are free from the fourth commandment Sabbath. This is but a continuation of that which Jesus disapproved: Ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition.

Constantine the Great

After three centuries of persecution of Christians by Roman pagan emperors, of whom Nero is the noted example, there arose Constantine the Great, who was favorably inclined toward Christianity. He favored Christianity above paganism and made it the religion of the empire. Though he was not baptized until near his death, he took a leading part in Christian affairs. In the year 321 he pronounced a decree legalizing The Venerable Day of the Sun as the official day of rest. Like the Pharisees, he claimed the power to establish a tradition, regardless of the Word of God.

So today Christianity largely rejects the commandment of God that she may keep the tradition of a half-Christian, half-pagan Roman Emperor.

The Catholic Church

Rome became the center of the Christian world. She claimed authority over the whole Christian world, claiming to be the one and only Church, the Roman Catholic (or universal) Church, having authority from Christ, through Peter. With such supposed authority to bind and loose, the Catholic Church declared Sunday to be the Sabbath instead of the seventh day Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Nothing is more applicable to the Roman Catholic Church than the word of our text: Ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. And oddly enough, it may be said to the Protestant Churches: Ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep the traditions of the Catholic Church.

The Reformation

With the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century began a period called the Dark Ages. The Catholic Church contended with rising empires for temporal and spiritual authority. She succeeded in being the unifying force in European history for centuries. But evil practices and traditions crept into the Church which made it Dark Ages for the Church also.

There came a time of awakening, and of changes in civilization. A spiritual awakening demanded a house cleaning in the Catholic Church. There were many reformers, some of whom lost their lives at the hand of the Church, but we think of Martin Luther as the great leader in the Protestant Reformation. His chief contentions centered around a demand for a return to the Bible alone as opposed to tradition of the Catholic Church; and he lost his argument as far as the Church was concerned, by claiming the authority of the Bible alone yet retaining the Catholic tradition of the Sunday sabbath.

Luthers contemporary, Carlstadt, urged him to include the Bible Sabbath in his reformation; but Luther thought Sunday would draw more people to the Protestant cause. Luther says of Carlstadt: If Carlstadt were to write further about the Sabbath, Sunday would have to give way, and the Sabbath - that is to say, Saturday - must be kept. -- Against the Celestial Prophets.

The Council of Trent, called by the Church to settle the Reformation question, made some changes within the Church, but condemned Protestantism on the following grounds:

The Protestants claim to stand on the written Word alone. ... They justify their revolt by the plea that the Church has apostatized from the written Word and follows tradition. Now the Protestants claim that they stand upon the written Word alone is not true. ... The written Word explicitly enjoins the observance of the seventh day as Sabbath. They do not observe the seventh day, but reject it ... but they have adopted and do practice the observance of Sunday for which they have only the tradition of the Church.

In these words the Archbishop of Reggio, in 1545, reiterated the words of Jesus, Laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men.

Luther stood in his own way in his attempt to re-form the united Church of his day. A split was inevitable and every split since which divides people today into innumerable sects, can be traced to some tradition. Certainly that is true of the Sabbath. Judaism rejected the fifth commandment through the practice of Corban, a tradition regarding gifts. Christianity rejects the fourth commandment through acceptance of Sunday, a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. And so the Christian Church today is condemned by the same words of the Master, For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men.