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The
true position taught in the Bible and this website that
the Sabbath was abolished at the cross and Christians have worshipped since
the cross, on the first day (Sunday).
The false position taught by Sabbatarians that Saturday is the
day Christians worship.
The false position taught by the Catholic Church that the
Pope changed the day Christians worship from Saturday to Sunday.
The false position taught by most Protestant churches that
Sunday is the Christian Sabbath.
Also see: Exposing the Sabbatarian practice of
quoting Sunday worshipping churches to prove we should keep the Sabbath
(Saturday) holy. (Quotes commonly used by Sabbatarians from various churches
are examined for their value.)
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Reading the "Frequently Asked Questions"
will help you learn MUCH faster!
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#1. THE TRUTH: (The position
defended at this website)
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The Truth:
The universal 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). Sunday is not a
Christian Sabbath or a day of rest, or a holy day to be kept.
This quote is used by Sabbatarians, but in fact refutes their position.
Campbell, for example, taught that the Sabbath was abolished!
"The first day of the week is commonly called the
Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just
preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never
called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to
talk about the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in
any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change." (Alexander Campbell, First Day Observance, pp. 17, 19)
The 10 commandment law including the requirement to keep the Sabbath day
were abolished at the cross along with all the rest of the law of Moses. God
gave a covenant at Mt. Sinai through Moses to the Jews. It is called the
first/old covenant/testament. The ten commandments are the foremost visible
representation of this first/old covenant was replaced by a new covenant
called, among other things "the law of Christ". 100% of the old
covenant was abolished. No part of the Old Covenant remains in force. No one
prior to Moses (Abraham or Adam) ever heard of the Sabbath law much less kept
it. The very first time that anyone was commanded to keep the Sabbath was in
Exodus 16. The word "Sabbath" is not even found in the book of
Genesis. Gen 2:2-3 was written by Moses to tell Jews at Sinai the meaning
behind WHY they were to keep the Sabbath, NOT WHEN the Sabbath was
instituted. The universal meeting day of Christians after the resurrection
was Sunday, and so has been to this very day. Sunday is not a Christian
Sabbath or a day of rest, or a holy day to be kept. It is the day God
requires all Christians to gather together to worship and eat the Lord's
Supper (communion, break bread) Acts 20:7. Christians do not keep the ten
commandment law of Moses. This is not to say that Christians are free to
steal, murder and commit adultery, just because the 10 commandments have been
abolished. No! Christians are under a new law, a better Law, the law of
Christ, (Gal 6:2) a better covenant (Heb 8:6-7). Paul stated, "If anyone
thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which
I write to you are the Lord's commandment." (1 Corinthians 14:37)
Apostle Peter said at the beginning of the establishment of the church,
"Moses said, 'THE LORD GOD SHALL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM
YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED in everything He says to you. 'And
it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly
destroyed from among the people.'" Thus we listen to Christ in all
things and Moses in nothing. This is New Testament Christianity!
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#2. The Seventh-day Adventist
position:
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80 questions Sabbatarians don't like to be
asked
False Sabbatarian view:
Christians originally kept the Sabbath right from the time of the
apostles, but due to the influence of the devil, Christians went into
universal apostasy for over 1600 years until, of course the arrival of Ellen
G. White, the Adventist prophet, who saw, contrary to what the Bible says in
Col 2:16, that the Sabbath law was not nailed to the cross.
Historically, it was in 1844 the first Adventists (known then as
Millerites) started keeping the Sabbath, introduced to them by Joseph Bates
(a member of the same restoration church Barton W. Stone was a member: Christian
Connextion Church), who convinced their Methodist minister that the Bible
teaches us to keep the Sabbath. Joseph Bates learned the Sabbath from some
articles from a man named Pribie who learned it from Fredrick Wheeler of the
church at New Hampshire. Wheeler, a Millerite preacher at the time (early
1844) accepted the Sabbath after a study which was due to a challenge from
Rachel Oaks (Preston),a Seventh Day Baptist. Rachel's daughter was attending
this church, and so did Rachel when she moved into the area to live with her
daughter. Bates was of the Christian Connextion Church like James White. He
published his findings in three versions. The first version was given in
1846, to James White and Ellen Harmon on their way to get married. They
accepted the Sabbath doctrine. Bates also preached to a small group in New
York where the Sabbath was accepted (Hiram Edson). This was the nucleus of
the Sabbatarian Adventists who would later become Seventh-day Adventists. The
Millerites for the most part never accepted the Sabbath or the 1844
experience. Those who remained "Adventists" formed the Church of
God (Abrahamic Faith), the Advent Christian (1861) and the Evangelical
Adventist who are now defunct. It is the Advent Christian Church (Sunday
keepers) who taught 17 year old Charles T. Russell that Christ came
spiritually and then with Barbour (another Advent Christian) wrote the book,
The Three Worlds. Later forming an independant group which would become the
Jehovah's Witnesses
Two active Anabaptist leaders, Andreas Fisher and Oswald Glait, became the
pioneer and promoters of the Sabbath in 1527 AD. Both were former priests who
had sacrificed the priesthood to become first Lutherans, and then
Anabaptists. Glait and Fischer were astonished to read in the Bible that the
weekly day God wanted men to keep holy was not Sunday, the first day of the
week, but Saturday, the seventh day. When they began to teach this,
theologians were sent to persuade them to abandon what they called the
"Jewish Sabbath." Both of them suffered a martyr death, largely due
to their Sabbatarian views. Sabbatarians owe a debt of gratitude to these
Sabbath pioneers whose work later influenced the origin of the Seventh-day
Baptist church. The latter (Joseph Bates) has been instrumental in helping
the early Adventists promote the Sabbath. But God, they say, chose Ellen
White and the modern Seventh-day Adventist movement as the medium through
which to reveal and confirm this "truth" through direct inspiration
and revelation. Although Adventists believe that a tiny unknown remnant has
always kept the Sabbath day, (like the Seventh-day Baptist preacher mentioned
above) only in the 19th century did God, through the Seventh-day Adventist
church, restore in any measurable way, by direct revelation, the truth that
the day Christians worship was Saturday. Adventists openly teach that early
Christians borrowed Sunday as the day of worship from the pagan religion of
Mithraism in about 140 AD. Gradually Sunday replaced the Sabbath day
(Saturday) so that today the worship on Sunday is an almost universal
Christian practice of apostasy and totally contrary to the will of God.
"Sunday keepers", as Sabbatarians call them, have been deceived by
the devil. SDA's interpret "The Seal of God" to be "Saturday
Sabbathkeeping" vs "The Mark of the Beast" which they
interpret to mean "Sunday Sabbathkeeping" - not now, but AFTER an
assumed national Sunday law is passed so all must choose between the two. Of
course these interpretations are apostate in themselves.
80 questions Sabbatarians don't like to be
asked
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#3. The Catholic Position
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False Catholic view:
Catholics teach that the Pope changed the Sabbath to Sunday. Catholics
worship God on the right day (1st Day) for the wrong reasons. Catholic
theology is often confused within itself. Having observed that Christians
have always met on Sunday, they figured that God must have transferred the
significance of the Sabbath commandment to Sunday. This is simply untrue. The
Sabbath is abolished. Sunday is not a day of rest. The resurrection of Christ
is the primary reason why Christians meet on Sunday. Catholics flatter
themselves into thinking they made the change. Yet even Catholics have always
taught that Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:1-2 and Rev 1:10 are clear Biblical
references supporting the practice of worshipping on Sunday. Although some
Catholics have suggested that the pope changed the Sabbath well after
Christians had an established practice of Sabbath keeping, this point has
been strongly rejected by the highest Catholic authorities today. Notice
these quotes:
"If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should
worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a
law of the Catholic Church," (Albert Smith,
Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore replying for the Cardinal in a
letter dated February 10, 1920)
"The Catholic Church of its own infallible authority
created Sunday a holy day to take the place of the Sabbath of the old
law," (Kansas City Catholic, February 9, 1893)
In reality, what the Catholic church believes is that apostle Peter was
the first pope (the first pope was in 606 AD not Peter) and that the very
earliest Christians, in apostolic times "transferred the solemnity from
Saturday to Sunday", by the will of God. Officially Catholics have
always taught that the universal practice of the earliest Christians was to
meet every Sunday. Seventh-day Adventists actually misrepresent the official
teaching of the Catholic church. Yes the Catholic church does teach that it,
by authority given to it by God, made the change, but that change was
realized early in the Apostolic age. (33-96AD). So Catholics mistakenly call
the 1st day, the Sabbath, borrowing the term from the Old Testament, rather
than abolishing it with animal sacrifices. Catholics, however, do a lot of
judaizing (bring Mosaic practices into the church).
Notice that Catholics DO NOT say that Christians once kept the Sabbath,
(Saturday) then CHANGED the day of worship to Sunday. Rather they actually
teach that this change took place at the time when Christians first started
to worship on Sunday in 33 AD. It is critical to keep in mind that the
Catholic church claims direct apostolic authority from the present Pope in
Rome right back to Peter.
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#4. The General Protestant
Position
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False Protestant view:
The universal practice of Christians has always been Sunday, similar to
the Catholic position, the meaning of the Sabbath was transferred to Sunday,
to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. but some are doing the right thing
for the wrong reason. When Protestants today wrongly apply the 4th Sabbath
commandment as the reason why they worship on Sunday, they are not only
mistaken, but are making themselves very vulnerable to manipulation by the
various Sabbatarian groups. Any church that claims to keep the 10
commandments or the Sabbath day are highly vulnerable to any preying
Sabbatarian group.
Here are some typical quotes from Protestant churches:
"The Sabbath is a part of the decalogue — the Ten
Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of
the institution ... Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral
law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand ... The teaching of Christ
confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath." (T. C.
Blake, D.D., Theology Condensed, pp. 474, 475, Presbyterian)
As it is the law of nature, that in general a proportion
of time, by God's appointment, be set apart for the worship of God, so by his
Word, in a positive moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men, in all
ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a sabbath to be
kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection
of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ
was changed into the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's day:
and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the
observation of the last day of the week being abolished. (Exod. 20:8; 1 Cor.
16:1, 2; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10) (Reformed Baptist
Church, The Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689 AD, Chapter 22, Article 7)
Such churches will be hard pressed to justify their practice of
worshipping on Sunday, while quoting the 4th commandment. "Six days you
shall labour, but the seventh is the Sabbath." A simple kitchen calendar
showing that Saturday is the "seventh" day of the week (just count
them off) is the only evangelistic tool Sabbatarians need to convert these Christians
to their Saturday keeping churches. Of course, not all Protestant churches
take this position, but it is the majority view.
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Reading the "Frequently Asked Questions"
will help you learn MUCH faster!
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These quotes fall into two categories. First Adventists merely point out the
false doctrine of other churches, like the false doctrine that the Pope changed
the day (False Catholic view) or that the sanctity of the Sabbath was
transferred to Sunday (The False Protestant view). Second, they quote a number
of churches, like the church of Christ, Congregationalists and who actually
teach the truth! They fail to tell you that these groups teach that the Sabbath
was not changed to Sunday, it was abolished! Adventist's always leave that
important fact out to trick you into thinking they teach that we should really
be keeping the 7th day Sabbath!
Church of Christ
Same as Truth taught at this website
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These churches teach the truth! Sabbatarians misrepresent these churches
who actually teach the Sabbath was abolished and
quote Col 2:16 as proof! Further, these churches reject the Sabbath was
changed to Sunday and reject the idea that Sunday is a Christian Sabbath.
They teach that Christians began worshipping on the first day (Sunday) since
resurrection day and quote Acts
20:7 as weekly communion and 1 Cor 16:1-2 as
proof of Christians gave and worshipping every Sunday with apostolic
approval.
Adventists quote Campbell as if he agrees with them, but they are not
honest enough to tell you that Campbell's central point in this article is
exactly what we have been saying all along, namely that the Sabbath was not
changed to Sunday, it was abolished! Adventist's always leave that important
fact out to trick you into thinking the Church of Christ teaches that we
should really be keeping the 7th day Sabbath!
- "I do not believe that the Lord's day came in the
room of the Jewish Sabbath, or that the Sabbath was changed from the
seventh to the first day." (Alexander
Campbell, Washington Reporter, October 8, 1821) Our Comment:
Absolutely true! I believe the Sabbath was abolished, not changed to
Sunday! But this quote doesn't help Sabbatarians at all!
- "'But,' say some, 'it was changed from the seventh
to the first day.' Where? when? and by whom? No man can tell. No; it
never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation was to be gone
through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the
observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed! It is all old
wives' fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to
the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it
who changes times and laws 'ex officio' -- I think his name is Doctor
Antichrist" (Alexander Campbell, The
Christian Baptist, February 2, 1824, vol. 1, no. 7, p. 164) Our
Comment: If you read the quote, Campbell is actually defending the
fact that the Sabbath was never changed to Sunday. Of course in the very
same article Campbell says the Sabbath was abolished, but Adventist's
don't want you to see that part of the article. They just engage in
selective quoting! We also wonder why Sabbatarians would use this quote,
when Campbell's conclusion was that no one changed the day! His comment
about Constantine refers to the fact that he started calling it the
Sabbath, not that the day was change. Read the whole article and
Sabbatarians will never use this quote again if they are honest!
- "The first day of the week is commonly called the
Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just
preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never
called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an
error to talk about the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change."
(Alexander Campbell, First Day Observance, pp.
17, 19) Our Comment: We completely agree! This is what I
say! As in the above quote, Campbell is merely pointing out that
Constantine was wrong when he started calling Sunday the Sabbath! Again
Adventists quote Campbell as if he agrees with them, but they are not
honest enough to tell you that Campbell's central point in this article
is exactly what we have been saying all along, namely that the Sabbath
was not changed to Sunday, it was abolished! Adventist's always leave
that important fact out to trick you into thinking the Church of Christ
teaches that we should really be keeping the 7th day Sabbath!
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Anglican, Episcopal
Same as false Catholic view
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Click here to learn more about the false
Catholic claim to have changed the day to Sunday.
Click here to learn that Sunday is not a
Christian Sabbath.
- "Is there any command in the New Testament to
change the day of weekly rest from Saturday to Sunday? - None." (Manual of Christian Doctrine, p 127)
- "And where are we told in the Scriptures that we
are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh;
but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day .... The reason why
we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the
same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible,
but because the church has enjoined it." (Isaac
Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism, vol. 1, pp.334, 336)
- "There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament
about abstaining from work on Sunday .... into the rest of Sunday no
divine law enters.... The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands
exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday." (Canon Eyton, The Ten Commandments, pp. 52, 63, 65)
- We have made the change from the seventh day to the
first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy
Catholic Church." (Bishop Seymour, Why We
Keep Sunday.)
- "The Bible commandment says on the seventh-day thou
shalt rest. That is Saturday. Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that
worship should be done on Sunday," (Philip
Carrington, Anglican Archbishop of Quebec, quoted in Toronto Daily Star,
October 26, 1949.)
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Baptist
False Protestant view
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Click here to learn that The Sabbath did not
exist in Eden.
Click here to learn that The Ten commandments are
the abolished first covenant.
Click here to learn that Sunday is not a
Christian Sabbath.
- As it is the law of nature, that in general a proportion
of time, by God's appointment, be set apart for the worship of God, so
by his Word, in a positive moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all
men, in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a
sabbath to be kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world
to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the
resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which
is called the Lord's day: and is to be continued to the end of the world
as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week
being abolished. (Exod. 20:8; 1 Cor. 16:1, 2; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10) (Reformed Baptist Church, The Baptist Confession of
Faith, 1689 AD, Chapter 22, Article 7)
- "I honestly believe that this commandment [the
Sabbath commandment] is just as binding today as it ever was. I have
talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated [abolished],
but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where
God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it
aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees
had put it, and gave it its true place. The Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). It is just as practicable and
as necessary for men today as it ever was -- in fact, more than ever,
because we live in such an intense age. (Moody
Bible Institute: "Sabbath was before Sinai")
- The Sabbath was binding in
Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment
begins with the word 'remember,' showing that the Sabbath already
existed when God Wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can
men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they
will admit that the other nine are still binding?" (D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, Fleming H. Revell
Co.: New York, pp. 47, 48)
- "The Lord's Day is not sanctified by any specific
command or by any inevitable inference. In all the New Testament there
is no hint or suggestion of a legal obligation binding any man, whether
saint or sinner, to observe the Day. Its sanctity arises only out of
what it means to the true believer," (J.J.
Taylor, The Sabbatic Question, p. 72)
- "There was and is a command to keep holy the
Sabbath day: but the Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said,
however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred
from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties,
privileges and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this
subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask: Where can the
record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament,
absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the
Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week."
(Dr Edward T Hiscox, author of the Baptist
Manual)
- "Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come
into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from
the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes
branded with the mark of Paganism, and christened with the name of the
sun-god, then adopted and sanctified by the Papal apostasy, and
bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism," (Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, paper read August 20, 1893, at a
Baptist ministers' meeting at Saratoga, New York)
- "There was never any formal or authoritative change
from the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath to the Christian first-day
observance." (William Owen Carver, The
Lord's Day in Our Day, p. 49)
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Chambers Encyclopedia
Same as Truth taught at this website
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click here to learn more about why this
edict did not change the day Christians worshipped.
- "Unquestionably the first law, either
ecclesiastical or civil, by which the sabbatical observance of that day
[Sunday] is known to have been ordained, is the edict of Constantine.
321 AD." (Chambers Encyclopedia 1882 ed. Vol. VIII, p.401, art.
"Sabbath")
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Congregationalist
Same as Truth taught at this website
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These churches teach the truth! Sabbatarians misrepresent these churches
who actually teach the Sabbath was abolished and
quote Col 2:16 as proof! Further, these churches reject the Sabbath was
changed to Sunday and reject the idea that Sunday is a Christian Sabbath.
They teach that Christians began worshipping on the first day (Sunday) since
resurrection day and quote Acts
20:7 as weekly communion and 1 Cor 16:1-2 as
proof of Christians gave and worshipping every Sunday with apostolic
approval.
- "It is quite clear that however rigidly or devoutly
we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath ... The Sabbath was
founded on a specific, divine command. We can plead no such command for
the obligation to observe Sunday. There is not a single sentence in the
New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the
supposed sanctity of Sunday." (Dr R W Dale,
Ten Commandments, page 127-129)
- "The current notion that Christ and His apostles
authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh, is absolutely
without any authority in the New Testament," (Dr. Lyman Abbott, Christian Union, June 26, 1890)
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Lutheran
False Protestant view
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Click here to learn that The Ten commandments
are the abolished first covenant.
Click here to learn that Sunday is not a
Christian Sabbath.
- "But they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the
place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the
seventh day had to be kept by the children of Israel ... These churches
err in their teaching, for Scripture has in no way ordained the first
day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the
New Testament to that effect." (John
Theodore Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday, pp. 15, 16)
- "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals,
was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of
the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from
them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the
Sabbath to Sunday." (Dr. Augustus Neander,
The History of the Christian Religion and Church Henry John Rose, tr.,
1843, p. 186)
- "The observance of the Lord's day (Sunday) is
founded not on any command of God, but on the authority of the
church." (Augsburg Confession of Faith,
quoted in Catholic Sabbath Manual, part 2, chapter 1, Section 10)
- "They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day, a
shaving been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as
it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than
concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the
power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten
Commandments!" (Augsburg Confession of
Faith art. 28; written by Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, 1530;
as published in The Book of Concord of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
Henry Jacobs, ed. 1911, p. 63)
- "We have seen how gradually the impression of the
Jewish sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how
completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day
took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the
first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time
celebrated both." (The Sunday Problem, a
study book of the United Lutheran Church, 1923, p. 36)
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Methodist, Pentecostal
False Protestant view
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Click here to learn that The Ten commandments
are the abolished first covenant.
Click here to learn that Sunday is not a
Christian Sabbath.
- "Take the matter of Sunday. There are indications
in the New Testament as to how the church came to keep the first day of
the week as its day of worship, but there is no passage telling
Christians to keep that day, or to transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that
day." (Harris Franklin Rall, Christian
Advocate, July 2, 1942, p.26)
- "But, the moral law contained in the ten
commandments, and enforced by the prophets, he [Christ] did not take
away. It was not the design of his coming to revoke any part of this.
This is a law which never can be broken .... Every part of this law must
remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending
either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change,
but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable
relation to each other." (John Wesley, The
Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., John Emory, ed., New York: Eaton
& Mains, Sermon 25,vol. 1, p. 221)
- "It is true there is no positive command for infant
baptism . . . . Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the
week. Many believe that Christ changed the Sabbath. But, from His own
words, we see that He came for no such purpose. Those who believe that
Jesus changed the Sabbath based it only on a supposition," (Amos Binney, Theological Compendium,1902 edition, pp.
171, 180-181)
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Presbyterian
False Protestant view
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Click here to learn that The Ten commandments
are the abolished first covenant.
- "It being expedient to overthrow superstition, the
Jewish holiday was abolished and as a thing necessary to retain decency,
order, and peace in the church . . . the early Christians substituted
what we call the Lord's Day for the Sabbath," (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I,
p. 343)
- "The Christian Sabbath (Sunday) is not in the
Scriptures, and was not by the primitive church called the
Sabbath." (Dwight's Theology, volume 4, p.
401)
- "The Sabbath is a part of the decalogue — the Ten
Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the
perpetuity of the institution ... Until, therefore, it can be shown that
the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand ... The
teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath." (T. C. Blake, D.D., Theology Condensed, pp. 474, 475)
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Roman Catholic
Catholic False view
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Click here to learn more about the false
Catholic claim to have changed the day to Sunday.
- "All of us believe many things in regard to
religion that we do not find in the Bible. For example, nowhere in the
Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles changed [the day of
worship] from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given
to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is the 7th day of the week,
Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed
to us by the Church outside the Bible," (Article,
"To Tell You The Truth," The Catholic Virginian, October 3,
1947, p. 9)
- "For ages all Christian nations looked to the
Catholic Church, and, as we have seen, the various states enforced by
law her ordinances as to worship and cessation of labor on Sunday.
Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good
reason for its Sunday theory, and ought logically, to keep Saturday as
the Sabbath. The State in passing laws for the due Sanctification of
Sunday, is unwittingly acknowledging the authority of the Catholic
Church, and carrying out more or less faithfully its prescriptions. The
Sunday as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship
of Almighty God is purely a creation of the Catholic Church," (John Gilmary Shea, American Catholic Quarterly,
January 1883, p. 139)
- "From this same Catholic Church you [Protestants]
have accepted your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord's day, she has
handed down as a tradition; and the entire Protestant world has accepted
it as a tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish
it. Therefore that which you have accepted as your rule of faith,
inadequate as it of course is, as well as your Sunday you have accepted
on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church," (D.B. Ray, The Papal Controversy, p. 179)
- "If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should
worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday they are following
a law of the Catholic Church," (Albert
Smith, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore replying for the
Cardinal in a letter dated February 10, 1920)
- "It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority
of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest [from the Bible Sabbath] to
Sunday . . . . Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an
homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the
[Catholic] Church," (Monsignor Louis Segur,
Plain Talk About Protestantism of Today, 1868, p. 213)
- "Protestants . . . accept Sunday rather than
Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church made
the change . . . . But the Protestant mind does not seem to realize that
in accepting the Bible, in observing the Sunday, they are accepting the
authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope," (Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950)
- "Prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound
to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of
the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says 'Remember the Sabbath day
to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says, No. By my divine power I
abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of
the week. And lo! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent
obedience to the command of the Holy Catholic Church," (Priest Thomas Enright, CSSR, President of Redemptorist
College, Kansas City, Missouri, in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas,
February 18, 1884)
- "Question -- By what authority did the Church
substitute Sunday for Saturday? Answer -- The Church substituted Sunday
for Saturday by the plentitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ
bestowed upon her," (Peter F. Geiermann,
The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1923 edition, p. 59)
- "Question -- How prove you that the Church hath
power to command feasts and holy days? Answer -- By the very act of
changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of [by observing
it]; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday
strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same
church," (Priest Henry Tuberville, An
Abridgement of the Christian Doctrine, p. 58)
- "Question -- What Bible authority is there for
changing the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week? Who
gave the Pope the authority to change a command of God? Answer -- If the
Bible is the only guide for the Christian, the Seventh-day Adventist is
right, in observing the Saturday with the Jew . . . . Is it not strange
that those who make the Bible their only teacher, should inconsistently
follow in this matter the tradition of the Catholic Church?" (Bertrand Conway, The Question Box, 1903 edition, pp.
254-255, 1915 edition, p. 179)
- "Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of
one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the
keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday.
Compromise is impossible," (Catholic
Mirror, September 2 and December 23, 1893)
- "The Catholic Church . . . by virtue of her divine
mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday," (The Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1893)
- "The Catholic Church of its own infallible
authority created Sunday a holy day to take the place of the Sabbath of
the old law," (Kansas City Catholic,
February 9, 1893)
- "We Catholics, then, have precisely the same
authority for keeping Sunday holy instead of Saturday as we have for
every other article of our creed; namely, the authority of the
[Catholic] Church . . . whereas you who are Protestants have really no
authority for it whatever; for there is no authority for it in the
Bible, and you will not allow that there can be authority for it
anywhere else. Both you and we do, in fact, follow tradition in this
matter; but we follow it, believing it to be a part of God's word, and
the [Catholic] Church to be its divinely appointed guardian and
interpreter; you follow it [the Catholic Church] denouncing it all the
time as a fallible and treacherous guide, which often 'makes the
commandments of God of none effect' [Matthew 15:6]," (The Brotherhood of St. Paul, The Clifton Tracts, Vol.
4, tract 4, p. 15)
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