Critic #3: Steve Rudd

Notice: This is only a section of our study called “Why you need to do your own research.” Please read the introduction first.

At Steve Rudd’s website (click HERE) he says:

“Christians always worshipped on the first day (Sunday).”

To prove his case he quotes numerous quotes from first century Christians to prove that they always kept Sunday as the sabbath and “never” kept the seventh day Sabbath. Notice:

“They [the quotes] state that they stopped keeping the Sabbath to worship on Sunday started with the apostles. None of say they kept the seventh day Sabbath. The only mention of Sabbath keeping was by Eusebius in 300 AD by a cult-sect known as the Ebionites, who Eusebius says also worshipped on the first day. (Ebionites were a cult of Judaizers who enforced circumcision, rejected Apostle Paul’s teachings, denied Jesus’ virgin birth and his deity.)”

Again he says:

“The record of history, from the Resurrection of Christ, Christians have always worshipped on the first day of the week (Sunday) and never on the Sabbath (7th day).”

In other words… the quotes he is about to share with his audience prove that the first century Christians “never” kept the seventh day Sabbath, but they “only” kept Sunday. Could this true? Well here is an analysis done by our friends at pickle-piblishing.com on those same quotes. You tell us if those quotes actually prove what he is saying:

Here is one of those quotes:

90AD DIDACHE: …every Lord’s day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice: for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord’s day, being the day of the resurrection… (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 7, pg. 449)
Our friends have found that this quote is actually found in “Apostolic Constitutions” and that the fact that other anti-SDA websites have this quote posted on their website exactly as Steve Rudd quoted it, with this error, suggests that they plagiarized Steve Rudd without giving him proper credit.

Now here is the original quote, compare:

[c. 250-300 AD Apostolic Constitutions:] We enjoin you to fast every fourth day of the week, and every day of the preparation, and the surplusage of your fast bestow upon the needy; every Sabbath-day excepting one, and every Lord’s day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice: for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord’s day, being the day of the resurrection, or during the time of Pentecost, or, in general, who is sad on a festival day to the Lord. For on them we ought to rejoice, and not to mourn.—bk. 5, sec. 3, xx.

The way that Steve Rudd quoted it on his web page certainly gives the impression that the early Christians regarded the first day as the day of assembly and not the Sabbath day. However, if quoted in “context,” notice it says, “every Sabbath-day excepting one, and every Lord’s day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice.”

Steve Rudd quotes another one:

“90AD DIDACHE: And on the day of our Lord’s resurrection, which is the Lord’s day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection…? (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 7, pg. 423)”

Now here it is quoted in context… with the correct book and page:

[c. 250-300 AD Apostolic Constitutions:] . . . but assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the Lord’s house: in the morning saying the sixty-second Psalm, and in the evening the hundred and fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath-day. And on the day of our Lord’s resurrection, which is the Lord’s day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection . . . ?—bk. 2, sec. 7, lix.

What’s going on here? We thought these quotes were supposed to prove Christians never meet on the Sabbath day? Instead, the very same quote, in context, says to assemble yourselves, “principally on the Sabbath-day.”

In fact, the early Christians knew full well that the seventh day Sabbath has never changed, and they were warned to pray that their Sabbath-keeping were not interrupted by the foretold destruction which was prophesied to come upon Jerusalem (Matthew 24:20).

In his attempt to prove that Christians in the first century gathered for worship on the first day of the week, Steve never quotes the New Testament. When at one point he tried to at another page at his website, he failed miserably, because its evident that Christians in the first century, according to our first-century inspired history book (the New Testament), actually observed the seventh day Sabbath, even after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 23:56)!

In our investigation we have found some anti-SDA websites plagiarizing Steve Rudd’s “out-of-context” quotes. Here’s one of them:

From culthelp.info:

“What day did early Christians worship on?

Let them speak for themselves…

90AD DIDACHE: And on the day of our Lord’s resurrection, which is the Lord’s day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection…? (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 7, pg. 423)

… So by the time Constantine ratified it into civillian law it had been kept as the Christian day of worship for 300 years!”

Shouldn’t those at culthelp.info have honestly investigated for themselves rather then simply quoting some other websites without giving them credit?

We found another website caught plagiarizing Steve Rudd. However, this one is even more interesting, because this plagiarizes Steve’s very own words! Notice (compare the red test):

From Steve Rudd’s site:

“They state that they stopped keeping the Sabbath to worship on Sunday started with the apostles. None of say they kept the seventh day Sabbath. The only mention of Sabbath keeping was by Eusebius in 300 AD by a cult-sect known as the Ebionites, who Eusebius says also worshipped on the first day. (Ebionites were a cult of Judaizers who enforced circumcision, rejected Apostle Paul’s teachings, denied Jesus’ virgin birth and his deity.)”

From exitsupportnetwork.com:

“The historical record shows that the only mention of Sabbath keeping was by Eusebius in 300 AD by a cult-sect known as the Ebionites, who Eusebius says also worshipped on the first day. Ebionites were a cult of Judaizers who enforced circumcision, rejected Apostle Paul’s teachings, denied Jesus’ virgin birth and his deity.”

Now it’s interesting to note that right under this section where he plagiarizes Steve Rudd’s website, just before the next section, he has a link to another page on this site called “Be sure and read: Did Herbert W. Armstrong Distort Historical Church Documents?” At this page, exitsupportnetwork.com begins their document with the following words:

“Did Herbert Armstrong take words out of context from historical church documents, slanting, misquoting and distorting history in order to try and prove he taught the true gospel? Let us examine the facts.”

Now soon after these words they go on to provide proof that Armstrong misquoted historical documents. Yet… little do they realize, that they themselves plagiarized from a gentlemen (Steve Rudd) who also misquotes and distorts historical documents. Are you by now seeing what we’re seeing about all these anti-SDA sites? Plagiarisms? Misquotes? Lack of research?

Yes, lack of research… and lack of study! For example, at one point Steve Rudd tries to teach that Jeremiah 3:14-13 is supposed to prove that God through Jeremiah predicted that he was going to abolish the 10 Commandments when Jesus came. However, if read in CONTEXT (uh oh, the critics hate when we say this dreaded word), one will notice that it was “not” a messianic prophecy, rather, it was a prophecy against Israel and Judah, warning them of the “king of the north” –Babylon, which was on its way to destroy them. Read the study HERE.

We are not sure… but we have found some interesting things in our investigation. We will share it with you here, and you decide who plagiarized who.

At a page on Steve’s website called “Prophecy Blunders of Ellen G. White their inspired prophet!” we noticed the very first Ellen White quote he shares. Here it is exactly as he quoted it:

“I have seen that the 1843 chart (Wm. Miller’s) was directed by the hand of the Lord and that it should not be altered that the figures were as he wanted them.” EARLY WRITINGS p. 64 edition 1882

Now there are a couple of things we want you to notice here:

-The page is wrong. Rather then being on page 64, it’s on page 74.
-The part “(Wm. Miller’s)” is not in the original, it was added by someone else.
-The original quote has a comma , after the word “Lord” and before the word “and.”
-The original also has a semi-colon ; after the word “altered” and before the word “that.”

Now, notice how the following websites has “the same quote” quoted the “same way” Steve Rudd quotes it:

(heres a hint to quickly find the quote on these sites, simply copy this: “(Wm. Miller’s)” and do a ctrl+F at the site, paste it, and hit Enter):

–caic.org
–cultureshocksolution.org

Notice, cultureshocksolution.org seems to have plagiarized caic.org’s entire webpage! Only they left out the last part at the bottom, which speaks about a transfer of ownership of the site.

–macgregorministries.org

Does this page look exactly as the ones above, or is it just me?

–culthelp.info

This site also has this same quote.

Interestingly enough, some of these websites are focusing more on their idea that Ellen was a plagiarist. Some, towards the bottom say, “Compiled by the late Wm. Cetnar, R.D. 3, Kunkletown,PA, 18058.” Others, like Steve Rudd’s, are missing this comment.