More Sabbath Keeping History.

FACTS OF FAITH By Christian Edwardson

Chapter  18 Part One

Sabbath Reform in Scandinavia

     (178) There were many Sabbath-keepers in Norway even in the days of Catholicism. The Sabbath seems to have been brought to the Scandinavian countries partly by the Waldenses, and partly as a direct work of the Spirit of God. But Rome was no more favorable towards the Sabbath there than in other parts of the world. When the Inquisition of the twelfth century scattered the Waldenses, they were forced to flee to more obscure places and to countries lying on the outskirts of civilization, and as the persecution continued, they gradually drifted into Scandinavia. Then, too, in the "Catechism" that was used during the fourteenth century, the Sabbath commandment read thus: "Thou shalt not forget to keep the seventh day." We are told by Swedish historians that the Sabbath-keeping public claimed that angels had appeared to them, instructing them to keep the Sabbath on Saturday. Of the church council held at Bergen, Norway, August 22, 1435, we read:

     "The first matter concerned a superstitious keeping holy of Saturday. It had come to the ear of the archbishop that people in different places of the kingdom, 'partly from the weakness of nature, partly by the deceptions and promptings of the devil,' had ventured to adopt and keep holydays, which neither God nor the holy Church had ordained or sanctioned, but on the contrary is against the commands of both, 'namely the keeping holy of Saturday, which Jews and heathen used to keep, but not Christians.' It is strictly forbidden - it is stated - in the Church-Law, for any one to keep or to adopt holydays, outside of those which the pope, archbishop, or bishops appoint." - "The History of the Norwegian Church under Catholicism," R. Keyser, Vol. II, p. 488. Oslo: 1858.

     (179) At another church conference, held at Oslo, the next year, the same archbishop commanded:

     "It is forbidden under the same penalty to keep Saturday holy by refraining from labor." - Id., p. 491.

     In another old publication from nearly the same period we find this accusation against the priests:

     "Also the priests have caused the people to keep Saturdays as Sundays." - "Theological Periodicals for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway," Vol. I, p. 184. Oslo: P. T. Mallings, 1871.

     Sabbath-keepers continued to keep the Bible Sabbath in Norway, in spite of persecution, for we read of new laws made against them in 1544:

     "I, Christoffer Whitefeldt, [governor] over Bergenhus, Stavanger, and Vaardoem, greet all you peasants kindly and with good wishes, who live in the district of Bergen. Dear friends: Mr. Gieble Pederson, superintendent of the district of Bergen, related to me that some of you have kept Saturday holy, especially at Arendal in Sogen, contrary to the ordinance given you last year by Peter Ottesen, my brother, and Niels Bernsen, who had charge of the palace by my authority, in my absence, in which you have done very wrong, and would receive great damage if I would punish you. But, however, because of the solicitation of Mr. Gieble, the superintendent, I will still forbear with you. But now it has been determined at the public Parliament for these two districts, Bergen and Stravanger, that whoever is found keeping Saturday holy shall be fined ten mark in money. So now ye know what ye have to go by.

     "In the next place you are rebellious and disobedient in the Holydays you keep, and are not willing to be satisfied with those which the priest announces which are contained in the ordinance. We now command you in the name of His Majesty, the King, that you solemnly obey the ordinance of His Grace. And whoever disobeys, he shall by my sheriff be punished for his rebellion as a rebellious and disobedient citizen, and be fined ten mark." - "History of King Christian the Third," Niels Krag and S. Stephanius, Vol. II, 'Statutes and Ordinances," p. 379. Copenhagen: 1778.

IN SWEDEN AND FINLAND

     (180) Sabbath-keepers were also scattered over Sweden and Finland. Bishop L. A. Anjou says that there was a peaceful but continued movement on foot in these two countries for the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath, "one that required the sanctification of Saturday as Sabbath day. The first known origin of this goes back to the middle of the preceding century, when King Gustav I, in the year 1554, wrote a letter of warning to Finland against those who alleged that they through visions and dreams had come to the conviction that famine, etc., were God's punishments because people did not keep Saturday holy. In the beginning of the seventeenth century the same faith was found in Sweden, and even there it was founded on alleged revelations. It was zealously opposed in 1602 by Charles IX." - "Swedish Church History from the Meeting at Upsala, Year 1593," p. 353. Stockholm: 1866.

     "Segregated from any movements opposed to the church, we must consider those who kept Saturday holy, and on this day abstained from labor, but otherwise did not separate themselves from the church. We do not find that those who held this view...observed any other Jewish habits or customs....Had this movement been connected with anything that could be considered apostasy from Christianity, then without doubt the accusations against it would have been stronger and the laws more stringent.

     "Independent of older influences, the inculcation of Sabbath-keeping could easily bring up the question of keeping Saturday holy, by questioning whether the Sabbath law had any validity if it was not applied to the Sabbath day previously appointed in the Old Testament....The customary reading of the Bible, and the appeal to the law of God...could attract the attention to the commandment which required Saturday to be kept holy." - Id., p. 355.

     (181) "This keeping of Saturday holy did not stand alone, at least in most cases, but was part of the Pietism [pious worship] of that age, and was connected with sermons on repentance and warnings against prevailing sins and vices." - Id., p. 355.

     Theodore Norlin, another important Swedish Church historian, says of these Sabbath-keepers:

     "We can trace these opinions over almost the whole extent of Sweden of that day - from Finland and northern Sweden, Dalarne, Westmanland, Nerike, down to West-Gotland and Smaland.

     "In the district of Upsala the farmers kept Saturday in place of Sunday....At several places they pressed their requests so vehemently upon the priests, that they yielded to their wishes to the extent of beginning to hold services on Saturday. At the time of Gustaf Adolphus we see this peculiar faith arising at different places in the country.

     "About the year 1625...in West-Gotland, Smaland, and Nerike, revelations and visions of angels were related in which the necessity of keeping Saturday holy was strictly commanded, and in which warnings were given against the sins that were secretly practiced. This religious tendency became so pronounced in these countries, that not only large numbers of the common people began to keep Saturday as the rest day, but even many priests did the same, which gave occasion for no small schism." - "History of the Swedish Church," Vol. I, part 2, chap. 3, p. 256.

     But the enemy of souls could not endure this revival of primitive Christianity, and Sabbath-keeping in Sweden and Finland was finally suppressed. But when the work of the Holy Spirit was suppressed in these Scandinavian churches, the same dire fruit of spiritual declension was seen, as formerly in the apostolic church. Whenever the warning voices are hushed up, spiritual darkness sets in. Dr. Scharling, Lutheran Professor of Theology, says:

     "Luther's great work of Reformation was still far from having been accomplished, it was followed by a continual retrogression, a deeper sinking of the religious consciousness, until it at last reached its zero point in Ritualism....Little by little the Evangelical church becomes chilled,...and it takes on an unpleasant similarity to the Romish church." - "Menneskehad og Kristendom," Vol. 2, p. 248.

     (182) A church in a lukewarm condition does not usually concern itself with spiritual reforms. But in the early part of the nineteenth century, when the great spiritual revival passed over almost every country, and affected nearly all denominations, Sabbath reform came to the front again, and deeply impressed the honest in heart. We find leading men in different denominations reaching out to find Bible proof for the change of the Sabbath, and when this could not be found, they either accepted the Bible Sabbath, or gave up their former faith in the immutability of the Ten Commandments.