Even though the Bible nowhere states explicitly that the ancient house of Israel kept Sunday, it is very clear from the implicit record that they did. It is also clear that God punished them severely for this practice. We know that they abandoned the weekly Sabbath–the seventh day of the week (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset). This was one reason why they went into slavery. We also know that they were guilty of idolatry, e.g., Baal worship. And historical records prove that Baal–the sun god–was worshipped on his day, Sunday, the first day of the week. In fact, Baal, the pagan sun god, was worshipped under many different names throughout man’s history.
For instance, we find the following comments in “Funk and Wagnall’s New Encyclopedia,” under “Baalbek,” a town in Eastern Lebanon: “The name, which means ‘City of Baal,’ is derived from the early association of the town with the worship of Baal, a local sun deity whom the ancient Greeks identified with their sun god, Helios; the Greeks and Romans called the town Heliopolis, ‘City of the Sun.'”
Pagans worshiped the sun on Sunday (Sun’s day). It was a heathen festival in honor of the sun god. Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary says that Sunday was so “called because the day was anciently dedicated to the sun or to its worship.” The North British Review, Vol. 18, p. 409, calls Sunday “the wild solar holiday of all Pagan times.” The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia points out that Sunday–the Dies Solis of the Roman calendar–was the day of the sun because it was dedicated to the sun.
Webster writes in his book “Rest Days,” on page 270: “What began, however, as a Pagan ordinance, ended as a Christian regulation…” Schaff’s Church History states on page 375: “Not a few pagan habits crept into the church concealed by new names. This is conceded by the most earnest of the Fathers. Leo the Great speaks of Christians in Rome who worshiped the sun… In the celebration of Sunday, as it was introduced by Constantine, and still continues on the whole continent of Europe, the cultus of the old Sun god Apollo mingles with the remembrance of the resurrection of Christ.”
The Persians worshipped the sun god Baal under the name of “Mithra” or “Mithras,” and through Persian and Roman influence, nominal confessing “Christians” adopted Sunday worship in lieu of the Sabbath. They simply replaced Sunday worship of Baal or Mithra with Sunday worship of “Christ.”
Note the following excerpts from our free booklet, “Don’t Keep Christmas“:
“The German ‘P.M.’ magazine published a few years ago an article, entitled, ‘Can You Imagine to Believe on Mithras?’ It began this way: ‘An early day in the year 180 A.D. A usual Sunday in the harbor town of Ostia in front of the gates of Rome. Commotion in the different parts of town. Everywhere we see groups of men moving through the narrow village quarters… But no one takes note of them… Everyone knows where the men go to: It is Sunday, the day of the Sun – the men are going to services. Are they Christians? Do we experience here a typical scene from the early days of this religion? No – the men worship another god. Mithras is the name of that transcendent being from whom they expect salvation… Mithras was the main god of the Roman legions… It was Emperor Constantine who was pushing in the Council of Nice (which is in Turkey today) in 325 to unite his subjects under one faith… Although the emperor himself belonged to the cult of the sun worship (he was only baptized on his deathbed), he decided on Christianity as the common confession for all the Romans. In order to make the new religion acceptable for the followers of Mithras, he declared Sunday as the common day of rest for all of his empire…
“Listen to this additional explanation from Esme Wynne-Tyson’s ‘Mithras, The Fellow in the Cap,’ as stated on pp. 22 and 24: ‘From the first, Mithras was equated with the Sun and with light… In brief, he is a pagan Christ… Mithras was… the Sun-God… Sunday… was consecrated to him, and known as the Lord’s Day long before the Christian era’…
“John M. Robertson wrote in ‘Pagan Christs, Studies in Comparative Hierology,’ on pp. 305, 306, 327: ‘The first day of the week,Sunday, was apparently from time immemorial consecrated to Mithra…’
“Listen to this remarkable quote from H.G. Well’s, author of fictitious novels such as ‘The Time Machine,’ and ‘The Invisible Man.’ He also wrote, ‘The Outline of History,’ pointing out on page 543: ‘It would seem the Christians adopted Sunday as their chief day of worship instead of the… Sabbath, from the Mithraic cult.'”
Returning to the ancient house of Israel, we find that under King Jeroboam, they began to worship Baal. We read in 1 Kings 12:28 that the king “made two calves of gold,” telling the people that they were “your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
Later, in 2 Kings 17:16-17, we find this revealing statement:
“So they left ALL the commandments of the LORD their God [including the Sabbath commandment and the injunction against committing idolatry], made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshipped all the host of heaven, AND SERVED BAAL. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD…”
The fact that they turned to Baal worship is proof in itself that they began to observe his day–the first day of the week, i.e., Sunday. Some 200 years later, God rebuked the house of Israel through the prophet Hosea, comparing it with a fallen or unfaithful woman: “‘I will punish her For the DAYS of the Baals to which she burned incense… But Me she forgot,’ says the LORD” (Hosea 2:13).
The commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explains the expression “DAYS of BAALS” as follows: “the days consecrated to the Baals, or various images of Baal in different cities, whence the names Baal-gad, Baal-hermon, etc.” These “days” included Sunday, as well as other pagan holidays.
Returning to King Jeroboam, note what else is revealed about him in 2 Kings 17:21-23:
“Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD, and made them commit a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the LORD removed Israel out of His sight… So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria…”
It appears, therefore, that Jeroboam’s GREAT sin, as well as ALL THE SINS which he did and which were adopted by the house of Israel, included the abolishment of the Sabbath and the adoption of Sunday worship. The Bible says that they continued with that practice, until God punished them severely by carrying them away–into Assyrian slavery (compare Ezekiel 20:12-13, 18-20, 23-24).
God is the same yesterday, today and forever. As He had commanded ancient Israel to worship Him on the Sabbath, and to reject the pagan practice of worshipping false gods on Sunday, so He requires the same of us today. As we show in our free booklet, “The Fall and Rise of Britain and America,” the modern house of Israel can be found today in the United States of America, Great Britain and other Commonwealth countries, such as Canada and Australia. As God punished the ancient house of Israel for their sins, including the breaking of His Sabbath commandment and replacing it with Sunday worship, so He has prophesied that He will do the same in the near future to the modern house of Israel, unless they repent.
Lead Writer: Norbert Link
