Sabbath-keeping in the Apostolic Era

Contrary to modern Catholic and Protestant revisionism, Sabbath-keeping in the Apostolic Era was an adhered core aspect of the Christian church throughout congregations of all cities except eventually Rome and Alexandria, the principal seats of occultist, Gnostic, pagan influences, as noted by Socrates Scholasticus in Church History:

“	For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.	”
—Church History, book V, ch. XXII

Before the process of paganization purging the Jewish roots of Christianity into a variety of unbiblical man-made traditions, the early church was recorded to have kept not only the seventh-day Sabbath, but also the Jewish feasts. Despite faithful efforts by apostolic Christians to preserve the seventh-day Sabbath, Leftist false teachers eventually subverted the church into paganism during the 4th century under the ecumenical direction of Constantine.

Ignatius of Antioch

Among the earliest of the church fathers was Ignatius, a pagan convert to Christianity and disciple of John the Apostle along with his friend Polycarp of Smyrna. He held the position of Bishop of Antioch, and his writings, harshly critical of the Judaizer sect within the church, are often mistranslated. The Epistle to the Magnesians has been incorrectly translated by both Catholics and Protestants as such:

“	If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death — whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master — how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, having come, raised them from the dead.	”
—standard translation

However, this rendition has been proven to be incorrect—even the non-Sabbatarian website Evidence Unseen noted that chapter 9 of the Epistle to the Magnesians rebuked not the keeping of the Sabbath itself, but its keeping in a Jewish manner. According to the Seventh-day Adventist–aligned Ministry Magazine in 1960 when responding to a claim by evangelistic activist Walter R. Martin:

“	If, therefore, those who walked in ancient customs came to a new hope, no longer sabbatizing, but living according to the Lord's life, in which also our life sprang up through him and his death...	”
—literal translation

Theophilus of Antioch

The Antiochian bishop Theophilus, speculated by some to have been a rare Jewish Christian among the Early Church Fathers, spoke positively of the seventh-day Sabbath in connection with the biblical account of creation:

“	Of this six days' work no man can give a worthy explanation and description of all its parts, not though he had ten thousand tongues and ten thousand mouths; nay, though he were to live ten thousand years, sojourning in this life, not even so could he utter anything worthy of these things, on account of the exceeding greatness and riches of the wisdom of God which there is in the six days' work above narrated. Many writers indeed have imitated [the narration], and essayed to give an explanation of these things; yet, though they thence derived some suggestions, both concerning the creation of the world and the nature of man, they have emitted no slightest spark of truth. And the utterances of the philosophers, and writers, and poets have an appearance of trustworthiness, on account of the beauty of their diction; but their discourse is proved to be foolish and idle, because the multitude of their nonsensical frivolities is very great; and not a stray morsel of truth is found in them. For even if any truth seems to have been uttered by them, it has a mixture of error. And as a deleterious drug, when mixed with honey or wine, or some other thing, makes the whole [mixture] hurtful and profitless; so also eloquence is in their case found to be labour in vain; yea, rather an injurious thing to those who credit it. Moreover, [they spoke] concerning the seventh day, which all men acknowledge; but the most know not that what among the Hebrews is called the "Sabbath," is translated into Greek the "Seventh" (ebdomas), a name which is adopted by every nation, although they know not the reason of the appellation. And as for what the poet Hesiod says of Erebus being produced from chaos, as well as the earth and love which lords it over his [Hesiod's] gods and men, his dictum is shown to be idle and frigid, and quite foreign to the truth. For it is not meet that God be conquered by pleasure; since even men of temperance abstain from all base pleasure and wicked lust.	”
—Theophilus of Antioch to Autolycus