Seventh-day Adventists claim that Sabbath observance was practiced in the early church, and "the first ecclesiastical writer known to have taught that Sabbath keeping was carried over by Christ to Sunday was Eusebius of Caesarea... in the second quarter of the fourth century" 400. They also quote Augustine of Hippo, who spoke of Christians fasting on the seventh day. How did the change from Saturday to Sunday happen? "We Adventists believe that there has been a wholly unauthorized, unlawful, and unauthorized change of the Sabbath by the Catholics or by Great Rome, the apostasy foretold in the prophecies of Daniel..." 401

There are a large number of historical documents indicating that Sunday was celebrated from the earliest times. To the end of the first century belongs the Epistle of the Apostle Barnabas (more precisely, 70-100 A.D.), in which he says: "See how He says: The present Sabbaths are displeasing to me, but those which I have determined, and which will come when, having put an end to all things, I make the beginning of the eighth day, or the beginning of another world. For this reason we spend in joy the eighth day, on which Jesus also rose from the dead" (402). To the same period belongs the document known as the "Teachings of the 12 Apostles" (c. 100-135 A.D.), in chapter 14 of which we read: "On the Sunday of the Lord, when you are assembled, break bread and give thanks, having previously confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure." By the fourth decade of the second century, we already have more or less detailed descriptions of the celebration of Sunday. In the Apology of Justin the Philosopher, relating to the year 138-139 A.D., the following is written: "On the so-called day of the sun (Sunday) we have a gathering in one place of all those who live in cities or villages; and the sayings of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as time permits... On the day of the sun, we all hold a meeting in general, because this is the first day on which God, having changed darkness and matter, created the world, and Jesus Christ, our Saviour, rose from the dead on the same day. They crucified Him on the eve of Saturn's day (Saturday), and on the day after Saturn's day, i.e. on the day of the sun, He appeared to His apostles and disciples and gave them what we had presented... "404 From the last sentence it is clear that the Christians of the beginning of the second century considered the celebration of Sunday to be a commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The fact that the church celebrated divine services on this day was widely known and was not disputed. During the reign of Emperor Trajan, the governor of the province of Bithynia, as a result of judicial investigations (c. 111-114 AD), established that Christians "claimed that all their guilt or error consisted in the fact that on a fixed day (Sunday) they gathered before dawn, glorified Christ as God in turn, and swore not to commit crimes, but to refrain from theft, robbery, adultery, violation of the word, refusal to give up what was trusted..." 405

Having analyzed the above texts from the turn of the first and second centuries A.D., we can conclude that the assertion of the Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses that the celebration of Sunday in the early Church was unknown and arose only under Constantine the Great does not correspond to reality.

Moreover, already from the Holy Scriptures we see that the meetings were held on this day. Describing the Apostle Paul's sojourn in Troas, his disciple Luke gives the following details: "On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul, intending to depart the next day, conversed with them and continued his discourse until midnight. In the upper room where we were gathered there were plenty of lamps" (Acts 20:7-8). It is evident that out of all the seven-day stay in this city, the Apostle Paul chose the Sunday on which the service took place. For the newly founded churches, the Chief Apostle established the periodicity of meetings on Sunday: "On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay aside and save as much as his wealth allows, so that he may not make collections when I come" (1 Corinthians 16:2).

The Sabbath sects claim that by honoring the Sabbath, they keep the eternal covenant given by God. It was already revealed to the prophet David that in the future there would be a new day instead of the Sabbath: "For it is not written anywhere about the seventh day thus: And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. ... then he also determines a certain day "today," speaking through David, after so long a time..." (Hebrews 4:4-7) And indeed, history testifies that the feast of Sunday replaced the reverence of the Sabbath rest, just as the Old Testament was replaced by the New. By the way, Sabbath-keepers, very often, beginning with the commandment about the Sabbath, evolve in their teachings to the full acceptance of the Mosaic Law. This is evidenced by the history of Russian sectarianism in the 19th century.

The question of the Church's acceptance of the Mosaic Law in general and the teaching on the Sabbath in particular arose very early. This problem was discussed at the first Apostolic Council in Jerusalem. The Apostles in 51 A.D. decided that from the ceremonial law for Christians it is obligatory only "to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication" (Acts 15:5-6). Thus, circumcision, Sabbath veneration, etc., ceased to exist in the life of the church. Saturday was replaced by Sunday. Divine services on this day almost immediately became widespread in all churches. Even being in exile and persecution, the Apostles celebrated this day, being transported in it to the Age to come, which we read in the most mysterious book of Holy Scripture: "I was in the Spirit on the Sunday day (on the day of the Lord - ejn th[/ kuriakh[/ hJme; ra/), and heard a loud voice behind him, as if it were a trumpet (Rev. 1:10).

In the Old Testament there was a large annual circle of holidays dedicated to various events in Holy History. During the celebration of these days, it was prescribed to observe rest and not to work. All the people were to gather in a "holy assembly" (ejpi; klhtow aJgi; a), (klhth’ aJgi; (a) And to offer sacrifices of atonement, which reminded people of their sins. Moreover, the Greek text has the connotation of a call to the holy judgment, the court session, as a reminder of the Lord's judgment. On the first day of the seventh month, the Feast of Trumpets (Hebrew Rosh HaShaia) was celebrated - "the day of the trumpet sound" (Lev. 23:24; Num. 29:1). Eight days later, "on the ninth day of the seventh month of this month," the "day of atonement" was appointed (Lev. 23:27; Num. 29:7). The people were commanded: "Humble your souls and offer sacrifice to the Lord," as a call to repentance and remembrance of sins. A week later, the Feast of Tabernacles (Hebrew Sukkot) began. Perhaps it was one of the most colorful Old Testament holidays. The Lord Himself commanded Moses to say: "... To the children of Israel, from the fifteenth day of the same seventh month, the feast of tabernacles, seven days unto the Lord..." (Lev. 23:34) The whole altar was decorated with greenery, and the rite of drawing water was performed. The church was not locked in the evening, as usual, but people remained in it all night. The courtyard of the temple was lit by high-set bulbs. There were so many of them that according to some reports, they illuminated all the courts of Jerusalem. Of course, all activity ceased (Numbers 29:12). This feast was blessed by the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ: "The feast of the Jews drew nigh, the setting up of tabernacles... But when His brethren came, then He also came to the feast, not openly, but as if secretly" (John 7:2,10). The last rite of this festival was the pouring of water from the spring of Siloam into two silver pipes fixed on the western side of the altar. Taking the pretext from this custom, Christ delivered a miraculous sermon about living water. Those who saw the water of Siloam flowing into the silver pipes became more comprehensible to the words of the Lord: "Whosoever believes in Me, as it is said in the Scriptures, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). In general, this seventh month of Tishri was very full of holidays, at the same time being the first month of the new year according to the civil calendar.

The Lord Jesus Christ honored with His presence the much later feast of the Dedication. "And then came the feast of dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch" (John 10:22-23). Two hundred years earlier, Simon Maccabee had instituted this celebration and "established to spend this day every day with gladness" (1 Maccabees 13:52).

The main Old Testament feasts, without a doubt, were the Feast of the Passover and Unleavened Bread. In the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month of Nisan, they began to celebrate the Passover of the Lord, and the next day came the Feast of Unleavened Bread, after which it was necessary to eat unleavened bread for seven days (Lev. 23:5-6; Num. 28:16-17). In these days, the salvation of the people from slavery in Egypt was commemorated. All pious Israelites celebrated these days. "Every year His parents went up to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover" (Luke 2:41). From the age of twelve, the Lord also went there (for example, John 2:13). When the time of His Passion drew near, "a multitude of people who had come to the feast, hearing that Jesus was coming up to Jerusalem" (John 12:12), went out with branches to meet the Lord. This was the last Old Testament Passover, "... for our Passover, Christ, was slain for us. Therefore let us celebrate not with the old leaven, but with unleavened bread of purity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8), as the Apostle Paul said. That Easter was a type. In it the same sacrifices were offered every year, which could not "make perfect those who come with them" (Hebrews 10:1). In this same New Pascha, celebrated by the Church, "we are sanctified by the single offering of the body of Jesus Christ" (Hebrews 10:10). Easter is celebrated by almost all Christian denominations. Many sects also celebrate it. That the divine services of the early Church centered around Sunday has already been pointed out above. Each Sunday was a reflection of the Main Resurrection - Easter. The Watch Tower Society believes that "Passover was not celebrated by the early Christians" but "originated in non-Christian celebrations."406

The fact that the New Testament Passover became the main feast of the Church is evidenced by the sources of the pre-Constantine era. "We strictly observe this holiday: we do not add anything, we do not subtract anything. In Asia lie the great luminaries of faith, who will arise on the day of the Lord's coming... They all celebrated the Passover...", we read in a letter from Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, to Victor, bishop of Rome, which dates from 190-192 A.D. 407 There are several sects that celebrate the Passover at the same time as the Jews on the 14th of Nisan. These are "Jehovah's Witnesses", "Right Hand Brothers", some interpretations of the Molokans, etc. Of course, this stems from other false ideas of the sects under consideration, for example, the teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses, who deny the bodily Resurrection of the Savior, is also flawed in the celebration of Easter. And this is a general law - a false theological opinion creates a false rite.

The Watch Tower Society also believes that "early Christianity did not know the feast of the Nativity of Christ . . . The first Christians did not celebrate the birth of Christ... In the Gospels there is not a word about the date of Christ's birth... According to the New Encyclopedia Britannica, the church decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25, the birthday of the ancient Iranian god of light Mithras... and on the day of honoring the invincible sun, as well as on the day following the Saturnalia, in order to counteract the influence of these festivals" (408). As a matter of fact, the date of God's birth itself does not have any special significance. It is important that this event has taken place. As for the possibility of consciously borrowing the date of the pagan celebration, this hypothesis is unlikely. There are no specific references to such an event in the sources. In addition, taking into account the instruction of the Didache: "Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites. For they fast on the second and fifth day of the week. But you fast on Wednesday and Friday..." 409, it can be concluded that the early Church had a sharply negative attitude to the possibility of borrowing sacred dates from external ones. Information about the time of the Nativity of Christ is found already in Clement of Alexandria (II century A.D.) "Some of the historians extend chronological accuracy to the point that they indicate not only the year, but also the day of the birth of the Saviour, asserting that He was born in the 28th year of the reign of Augustus, on the 25th day of the month of Pahon." Thus, we see that the news of the Nativity is found much earlier than the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great.

To the year 180 A.D. belongs the seventh passage from the lost writings of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, which mentions Pascha and Pentecost: "It is not the bending of the knees on the (day) of the Lord that is a symbol of the resurrection, through which we have been freed from sins and from death by the grace of Christ, which He slain. This custom originated from the times of the Apostles... he also mentions Pentecost, on which we also do not kneel, because it is equal to the day of the Lord..." 411 Pentecost, mentioned by the Hieromartyr Irenaeus, is another holiday that completely changed the meaning in the New Testament Revelation. Previously, it was called the feast of weeks or harvest. When the first fruits appeared, their firstfruits were brought to the Lord in the assembly (Lev. 23:21; Num. 28:26). In the New Testament, the Apostles "At the coming of the day of Pentecost (th'n hJme; ran th[w penthkosth[w;) ... were with one accord together" (Acts 2:1). (Pentecost fell on Sunday John 19:31, Lev 23:15). Then there occurred the appearance of the Holy Spirit – the Third Hypostasis of the Most Holy Trinity. The apostles celebrated this event from the first years of their ministry. The Holy Apostle Paul tried to always be in Jerusalem for Pentecost and other feasts celebrated by the local Christian community, and his time calculation was based on the festive circle. "... for it was determined that Paul should pass by Ephesus, that he might not tarry in Asia; for he hastened, if possible, on the day of Pentecost (hJme; ran th[w penthkosth[w] to be in Jerusalem" (Acts 20:16). To his disciples in Corinth, the Apostle wrote about future plans: "In Ephesus I will abide until Pentecost..." (1 Corinthians 16:8) Therefore, the words of the sectarians about the uselessness of church holidays can be answered with his words: "Let no one, therefore, condemn you for food, or drink, or for any feast..." (Col. 2:16-17) The Apostle teaches us not to condemn those who deprive themselves of the fruits of spiritual celebrations: "One distinguishes day from day, and another judges every day equally. Everyone should act according to the testimony of his mind. He who discerns the days, discerns for the Lord; and he who does not distinguish the days for the Lord does not discern" (Romans 14:5-6).

Spiritual celebrations in the Church were performed in a certain order, although now it is difficult to say which one. It is known that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians: "... everything must be decently and orderly" (1 Corinthians 14:40), that is, according to order. And in St. Clement of Rome (end of the first century) we read in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "Being convinced of this and penetrating into the depths of divine knowledge, we must do in order everything that the Lord commanded us to do at certain times. He commanded that sacrifices and sacred acts (prowfora'w kai' leitourgi; a) were not performed randomly or without order, but at certain times and hours. Likewise, where and through whom this should be done, He Himself determined by His highest will, that everything should be done holy, and pleasing to His will. Therefore pleasing to Him and blessed are those who offer their sacrifices at the appointed times; for by following the commandments of the Lord they do not sin" (412).

Very early in the Church there appeared in the Church the veneration of the departed saints. "Remember your leaders who preached the word of God to you, and considering the end of their lives, imitate their faith" (Hebrews 13:7), wrote the Apostle Paul. And this was quite natural for the early Church, which lived in communion with the Church Triumphant. Several sources have been preserved, thanks to which we can judge how such celebrations were performed. According to the acts of martyrdom of Ignatius the God-bearer, dated between 107 and 115 AD, "... having spent several days over his grave singing hymns, the Christians decided to continue to sing of his life and sufferings, and in remembrance of him to glorify the Lord Jesus." "We have sung the praises of God, the giver of blessings, we have blessed the holy man, and we have marked for you the day and year (of his death), so that, gathering on the day of his martyrdom, we may have communion with the ascetic and valiant martyr of Christ," we read in these documents. Describing the martyrdom of Polycarp of Smyrna about 167 A.D., eyewitnesses wrote to the local churches: "So we then took his bones, which are more precious than precious stones and nobler than gold. And they put it where it should be. There, if possible, the Lord will grant us, gathered in joy and joy, to celebrate the day of his martyrdom, in memory of those who struggled (for the faith) before us and for the instruction and preparation for future (ascetics)."