"O No" some might say, Not again! but as long as I chose to remain on this site I will write about what is important to many Christians,
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
We observe that in the book of John, Jesus tells us that in order to bear fruit we must abide in him. John 15:1-11,He goes on to tell us that the way we abide in him is to keep His commandments. The instruction to keep the Sabbath day holy is one of those commandments. Jesus said If you love Me keep My commandments,John 14:15,To Love Him is to abide in Him,To Obey His Word!
The Sabbath described in Genesis 2 is definitely the seventh day, Saturday, and not the first day, Sunday.
There is no way to avoid this truth.No way, because we can't decieve God, only ourselves!
The fourth commandment was established at the creation of the world as a memorial of honoring Yahveh God, as Creator and later reconfirmed to Moses in the wilderness by Jesus. Ex.20:8,
The Sabbath was very important to people of the Bible and even though calendars may have changed, it would be inconceivable for the Sabbath day to have been confused with any other day. Chronologist are in agreement that the order of days is the same today as at the beginning of history. In addition, Jesus recognized the Sabbath and would have certainly known which day He had commanded to be kept holy.
ONE MIGHT ASK: IS THE SABBATH REALLY THAT IMPORTANT? Be honest,Have you ever though that?
Is God really serious about the observance of the sabbath day? Numbers 15: 32-40 answers this question without any doubt. "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day, And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation, And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses."
We find in Nehemiah Chapter 13, that the people of Jerusalem and Tyre were profaning the Sabbath. Nehemiah contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, "What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day?"
Has something evil become good?
Let us heed the warning of Isaiah: 5:20,
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
Again, in Isaiah chapter 58, we are told that Israel forsook the ordinances of God. Verse 13 tells them how to correct their ways and honor God, "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
In chapter 66 we find that the Sabbath will be recognized in the future "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from on sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord."
There is no doubt that all flesh includes everyone, Jews (Judaean) by birth and Gentiles (nations). At the time of the new heaven and the new earth, a time when all things are made perfect, the sabbath will be universally recognized and observed.
THERE ARE SEVERE PENALTIES FOR DISOBEYING THE SABBATH COMMANDMENT.
In Jeremiah 17, the Lord says "hallow ye the Sabbath" He goes on to say "But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. He continues on to tell about the rewards for obeying Him and in verse 27, He warns, "But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched."
In 586 B.C. and in 70 A.D. Jerusalem was overthrown. Why? The Bible says it was because the people did not keep God's commandments.
History reveals that the New testiment Church during the first century A.D. rested on the Sabbath day, Saturday.including Paul and the Apostles, The question is not: "did the believers meet on Sunday" but rather: "what did believers do on Saturday, the Sabbath day"?
Your post would be good for the people of God who lived BEFORE Jesus.
You have given what a Seventh Day Adventist would say, and So now I will say what the Vast majority of Christians would say for the last two thousand years............
The law of God concerning the Sabbath is partly ceremonial and partly moral.
The ceremonial part of the law was done away with.
The Moral part can never be done away with. I agree most modern American Christians don't honor the Sabbath day command, and I noticed you never mentioned HOW to honor the Sabbath, just that the day never changed (according ONLY to the 7th Day Adventists)
Here is a quote:
Why do we keep the first day instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath day?" In answer to this question we can say, "Our basis for it is found in God Himself as Recreator."
For the first day of the week was ordained and sanctified by the Lord Himself as the day of triumph for His Son. On that day the Lord saw every thing that He had made in the realm of grace and redemption, and behold, it was very good! And God rested in the work of Christ. And Christ, as the reward upon His labor, rested with His church in God. Therefore the church of old already cried out, referring to the resurrection day, "This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."
He, Who is Lord of the Sabbath, has Himself, as the King of the church He has purchased, ordained and sanctified that day.
Upon that day He arose a victor from the grave, and by His resurrection He sanctified the day.
On that day He repeatedly revealed Himself to His disciples, and on that day He also sent His Holy Spirit, so that the church of the new covenant sings, "This is the day of full salvation, which God has made and sanctified. Come, let us voice our jubilation, and triumph in the grace supplied."
On the day of the Old Testament the Lord Jesus rested in the grave, and He in Whom all things would be recreated buried the Old Testament Sabbath in Himself and thus Christ made the first day of the week a day for commemorating the recreation.
Christians have always met together and worshiped on the first day, but since the ceremonial part of the law WAS FULFILLED by Jesus, it can be any day of the week, so long as it is one day in seven.
Now, that being said, the Christian should be concerned with HOW to honor the command.
In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE
Matt 13;14, Brother does this not describe the many church going professing Christians who by ther actions deny Gods Word for the traditions of men.Does the words of Christ mean nothing when it says in John 14;15 If you LOVE ME KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS?
....Hmm....well, I'd like to see this bible verse where God Himself changed one of His eternal laws. And as far as the "for the Jews/Old covenant" thing goes...God instituted the Sabbath at creation...warned the israelites about it before they agreed to the covenant(Don't gather manna on the 7th day). I think it's safer to stick with the one God recommended/blessed...the one Jesus rested on in the grave/said we be keeping it in the last days...and the one the apostles kept after His death. Sure, you can go to church on whatever day you want...but the 4th commandment is one of Gods commands. I believe we should try to obey all ten. I don't see any command from God to forget the 7th day, and I don't see any command to change the holiness of the day to the first day. I believe the "apostles meeting together", or "having sermons", or "taking up collections" on the first day is...very shallow "evidence"...to ignore one of God's commands and "do it the way people have done it for a long time". I'd need more than that to believe it was changed/doesn't matter anymore...
Matt 13;14, Brother does this not describe the many church going professing Christians who by ther actions deny Gods Word for the traditions of men.Does the words of Christ mean nothing when it says in John 14;15 If you LOVE ME KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS?
James replies:
I agree with you. The clearest expression of God's will for the Christians life is the Ten Commandments!
Christians in general flat out reject this today, and instead say, " Hey buddy! we are under GRACE not law!"
We remind them we are saved by Grace alone, through faith alone, but that does NOT mean that we should ignore the Ten commandments, it means we should meditate and STUDY them, and try and live them out.
But YOU, being Seventh Day adventist, SAID NOTHING about HOW to obey the command!
Just showing up at a building on Saturday has nothing to do with the commandment.
.Hmm....well, I'd like to see this bible verse where God Himself changed one of His eternal laws.
James replies:
Gal.4:9-11 How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again
to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years.
Eph. 2:15 Having ABOLISHED in His body the enmity, that is the law of commandments contained
in ordinances.
Col. 2:14,16.....Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us....Therefore let
no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths.
Here is a quote by the Early church father Ignatius, in the year 105:
"No longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day.
And this is important for Seventh Day Adventists to know, That the EARLY Christians called it "The Lord's Day".
And by that they meant the first day of the week, the Day Jesus rose from the Dead, Sunday.
And as far as the "for the Jews/Old covenant" thing goes...God instituted the Sabbath at creation
James replies:
Gen 2:2 - 3 (NIV) 2By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh
day he rested from all his work. 3And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he
rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Here is a quote from: www.truthorfables.com
"It was God who rested upon completion of that creation. He blessed and sanctified that seventh day
wherein he rested. The narrative does not say God sanctified and blessed every seventh day, nor does the
narrative say God invoked this rest for Adam and Eve. They did not work; God worked. Adam and Eve
were created the day before. To claim they were to rest from their labors the day after they were
created, and had not worked to begin with does not enter the mind of the Sabbatarian. This belief is not
subjected to any critical thinking or proper Biblical scholarship. What it says is not near as important as
what they think it says, where they read into the text what is not there.
It should also be noted that this day shows having no end to it. God is still �resting� from that work, and
the author of Hebrews mentions that it is this rest of God's that Christians can enter into while it is still
called, �To day� and it is a rest entered into through faith. Israel, who had the weekly sabbath, did not
enter into God's rest due to their faithlessness. Therefore, to equate the rest of God on that seventh day
with the recurring seventh day sabbath is unscriptural. See Heb 4."
...warned the israelites about it before they agreed to the covenant(Don't gather manna on the 7th day). I think it's safer to stick with the one God recommended/blessed...the one Jesus rested on in the grave/said we be keeping it in the last days...and the one the apostles kept after His death. Sure, you can go to church on whatever day you want
James replies:
We agree on that you can worship God on whatever day you want.
...but the 4th commandment is one of Gods commands. I believe we should try to obey all ten. I don't see any command from God to forget the 7th day, and I don't see any command to change the holiness of the day to the first day. I believe the "apostles meeting together", or "having sermons", or "taking up collections" on the first day is...very shallow "evidence"...to ignore one of God's commands and "do it the way people have done it for a long time". I'd need more than that to believe it was changed/doesn't matter anymore...
James replies:
The FACT is that Christians, from the VERY beginning (We can read about in Acts!) decided to meet together and worship on the day Jesus rose from the dead. Also what can't be denied is that Christians ALL stopped observing the Jewish Sabbath, AND the dietary laws, AND sacrificing animals at the Temple. Why? Because they believed that Jesus fulfilled ALL those things, and I agree with them as do 98% of ALL Christians for the last two THOUSAND YEARS.
"But YOU, being Seventh Day adventist, SAID NOTHING about HOW to obey the command!
Just showing up at a building on Saturday has nothing to do with the commandment."
I thought God's commands were pretty clear and I guess I assumed Christians should know them...but here you go...sheesh:ribbit:. I believe it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. I believe it is supposed to be a day dedicated to "remember God", and not to "seeking our own pleasure" or working for our own gain. I believe the 7th day IS "the Lord's day". Where does the bible refer to the first day of the week as the Lord's day?? Jesus is "the Lord of the Sabbath" right? And we're not talking about ceremonial Sabbaths, There were many ceremonial Sabbaths and feasts and new moons from the old covenant(looking at the context would tell you which "sabbaths" the bible authors were talking about) and then there is the "7th day" in the 10 commandments. The ceremonial sabbaths point to prophecy and to Christ, the commandment points out sin. The bible says to "remember the 7th day to keep it holy". Not to "remember any sabbath day to keep it holy". There are many more examples of New Testament Jews and Gentiles meeting on "Sabbath" after the death of Jesus, than of them meeting on the first day to "break bread"...which they did every day.
So you're claiming "the apostles met together on the first day", "people have done it for 2,000 years", and "98% of Christians do it" as the basis for you beliefs? Ok. That's fine as long as you're fully convinced, but to me it sounds more like a "tradition"....and I'm not sure how you got that out of Hebrews 4...
Hebrews 4:1Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
6Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
8For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day?
9There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Ok, so lets enter into the same rest that God did? On the 7th day? Anyway...I see no command or instruction or even a simple suggestion to keep Sunday holy in the bible. Lets see what the "early church" has to say...and I don't think it's any coincidence that this "early church" was the same one that was influenced by a massive influx of freshly ex-pagan believers that worshiped idols and the "day of the sun"...AND you'd think that the "early church" that "compiled the bible" would have put something in there from one of the apostles that said "oh, we keep the first day now", if it was really one of their beliefs. Guess they didn't think about it.
�Most Christians assume that Sunday is the biblically approved day of worship. The Catholic Church protests that it transferred Christian worship from the biblical Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday, and that to try to argue that the change was made in the Bible is both dishonest and a denial of Catholic authority. If Protestantism wants to base its teachings only on the Bible, it should worship on Saturday.� Rome�s Challenge www.immaculateheart.com/maryonline Dec 2003
�Is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.� James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (1917 edition), p. 72-73 (16th Edition, p 111; 88th Edition, p. 89).
�For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed 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 [Roman Catholic] church outside the Bible.� Catholic Virginian, October 3, 1947, p. 9, article �To Tell You the Truth.�
Who Made Sunday Holy?
�Written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, this Divine code (ten commandments) was received from the Almighty by Moses amid the thunders of Mount Sinai...Christ resumed these Commandments in the double precept of charity--love of God and of the neighbour; He proclaimed them as binding under the New Law in Matthew 19 and in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5)...The (Catholic) Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord�s Day...He (God) claims one day out of the seven as a memorial to Himself, and this must be kept holy...�The Catholic Encyclopaedia, vol. 4, �The Ten Commandments�, 1908 edition by Robert Appleton Company; and 1999 Online edition by Kevin Knight, Imprimatur, John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
�Question: How prove you that the church had power to command feasts and holydays?
�Answer: By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of and therefore they fondly contradict themselves by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.
�Question: Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?
�Answer: Had she not such power, she could not a done that in which all modern religionists agree with her; -she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day of the week, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.� Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism On the Obedience Due to the Church, 3rd edition, Chapter 2, p. 174 (Imprimatur, John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York).
�Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. �The day of the Lord� was chosen, not from any direction noted in the Scriptures, but from the (Catholic) Church�s sense of its own power...People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.� St. Catherine Church Sentinel, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995.
�Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday...Now the Church...instituted, by God�s authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday.� Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About, 1927 edition, p. 136.
�Question - Which is the Sabbath day?
�Answer - Saturday is the Sabbath day.
�Question - Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
�Answer - We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.� Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R., The Convert�s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, p. 50, 3rd edition, 1957.
�Is Saturday the seventh day according to the Bible and the Ten Commandments? I answer yes. Is Sunday the first day of the week and did the Church change the seventh day - Saturday - for Sunday, the first day? I answer yes. Did Christ change the day�? I answer no!�
�Faithfully yours, J. Card. Gibbons.� James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, Md. (1877-1921), in a signed letter.
�Question. - How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
�Answer. - By the very act of changing Sabbath into Sunday which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church.
�Question. - How prove you that?
�Answer. - Because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the Church�s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin: and by not keeping the rest by her commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.� An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, composed by Henry Tuberville, p. 58.
�Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the New Law, that He Himself has explicitly substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The (Roman Catholic) Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days.� John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies, 1936 edition, vol. 1, p. 51.
�Question. What warrant have you for keeping Sunday preferably to the ancient sabbath which was Saturday?
�Answer. We have for it the authority of the Catholic church and apostolic tradition.
�Question. Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?
�Answer. The Scripture commands us to hear the church (St.Matt.18:17; St. Luke 10:16), and to hold fast the traditions of the apostles. 2 Thess 2:15. But the Scripture does not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath.
�St John speaks of the Lord�s day (Rev 1:10) but he does not tell us what day of the week that was, much less does he tell us what day was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandments. St.Luke speaks of the disciples meeting together to break bread on the first day of the week. Acts 20:7. And St. Paul (1 Cor.16:2) orders that on the first day of the week the Corinthians should lay in store what they designated to bestow in charity on the faithful in Judea: but neither the one or the other tells us that this first day of the week was to be henceforth a day of worship, and the Christian Sabbath; so that truly the best authority we have for this ancient custom is the testimony of the church. And therefore those who pretend to be such religious observers of Sunday, whilst they take no notice of other festivals ordained by the same church authority, show that they act more by humor, than by religion; since Sundays and holidays all stand upon the same foundation, namely the ordinance of the (Roman Catholic) church.� Catholic Christian Instructed, 17th edition, p. 272-273.
�Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the (Roman Catholic) Church, has no good reasons for its Sunday theory, and ought logically to keep Saturday as the Sabbath.� John Gilmary Shea, American Catholic Quarterly Review, January 1883.
�The Catholic church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday...The Protestant World at its birth found the Christian Sabbath too strongly entrenched to run counter to its existence; it was therefore placed under the necessity of acquiescing in the arrangement, thus implying the (Catholic) Church�s right to change the day, for over three hundred years. The Christian Sabbath is therefore to this day, the acknowledged offspring of the Catholic Church as spouse of the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant World.� James Cardinal Gibbons in the Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1983.
Whose Day of Worship is Sunday?
�They [the Protestants] deem it their duty to keep the Sunday holy. Why? Because the Catholic Church tells them to do so. They have no other reason...The observance of Sunday thus comes to be an ecclesiastical law entirely distinct from the divine law of Sabbath observance...The author of the Sunday law...is the Catholic Church.� Ecclesiastical Review, February 1914.
�The Sunday...is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.�American Catholic Quarterly Review, January 1883.
�Sunday...is the law of the Catholic Church alone...� American Sentinel (Catholic), June 1893.
�Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles...From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.� Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August 1900.
�It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church.� Priest Brady, in an address reported in The News, Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 18, 1903.
Who Do We Reverence and Pay Homage to by Keeping Sunday Holy?
�From this we may understand how great is the authority of the church in interpreting or explaining to us the commandments of God - an authority which is acknowledged by the universal practice of the whole Christian world, even of those sects which profess to take the holy Scriptures as their sole rule of faith, since they observe as the day of rest not the seventh day of the week demanded by the Bible, but the first day. Which we know is to be kept holy, only from the tradition and teaching of the Catholic church.� Henry Gibson, Catechism Made Easy, #2, 9th edition, vol. 1, p. 341-342.
�It was the Catholic church which...has transferred this rest to Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Therefore 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 the Protestantism of Today, p. 213.
�Sunday is our mark or authority...the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.� Catholic Record of London, Ontario, September 1, 1923.
�Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change (Saturday Sabbath to Sunday) was her act...And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things.� H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons.
�I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who can 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 a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church.� father T. Enright, C.S.S.R. of the Redemptoral College, Kansas City, in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, February 18, 1884, printed in History of the Sabbath, p. 802. Hover here for a document clip or select for full original image.
�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 observing the Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope.� Our Sunday Visitor, February 15, 1950.
Conclusion and the Challenge.
�The (Roman Catholic) Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday.� The Catholic Universe Bulletin, August 14, 1942, p. 4.
�Sunday is founded, not of scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday and thus leave Catholics in full possession of Sunday.� Catholic Record, September 17, 1893.
�Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts:
�1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man.
�2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws...
�It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible.� Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Magazine, USA (1975), Chicago, Illinois, �Under the blessing of the Pope Pius XI�
�I am going to propose a very plain and serious question to those who follow �the Bible and the Bible only� to give their most earnest attention. It is this: Why don�t you keep holy the Sabbath day?...
�The command of the Almighty God stands clearly written in the Bible in these words: �Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.� Exodus 20:8-10...
�You will answer me, perhaps, that you do keep the Sabbath; for that you abstain from all worldly business and diligently go to church, and say your prayers, and read your Bible at home every Sunday of your lives...
�But Sunday is not the Sabbath day. Sunday is the first day of the week: the Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week. Almighty God did not give a commandment that men should keep holy one day in seven; but He named His own day, and said distinctly: �Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day�; and He assigned a reason for choosing this day rather than any other - a reason which belongs only to the seventh day of the week, and cannot be applied to the rest. He says, �For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it�, Exodus 20:11, Genesis 2:1-3. Almighty God ordered that all men should rest from their labor on the seventh day, because He too had rested on that day: He did not rest on Sunday, but on Saturday. On Sunday, which is the first day of the week, He began the work of creation; He did not finish it. It was on Saturday that He �ended His work which he had made: and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.� Genesis 2:2-3...
�Nothing can be more plain and easy to understand than all this; there is nobody who attempts to deny it. It is acknowledged by everybody that the day which Almighty God appointed to be kept holy was Saturday, not Sunday. Why do you then keep holy the Sunday and not Saturday?
�You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! But by whom? Who has the authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, �Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day�, who shall dare to say, �Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day: but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead?� This is a most important question, which I know not how you answer...
�You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet, in so important a manner as the observance of one day in seven as the holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the Ten Commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding. Who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible, and the Bible only you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered.� Excerpts from �Why Don�t You Keep Holy the Sabbath Day?�, pages 3-15 in The Clifton Tract, vol. 4, published by the Roman Catholic Church 1869.
�The arguments...are firmly grounded on the word of God, and having been closely studied with the Bible in hand, leave no escape for the conscientious Protestant except the abandonment of Sunday worship and the return to Saturday, commanded by their teacher, the Bible, or, unwilling to abandon the tradition of the Catholic Church, which enjoins the keeping of Sunday, and which they have accepted in direct opposition to their teacher, the Bible, consistently accept her (the Catholic Church) in all her teachings. Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicism and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.� James Cardinal Gibbons, in Catholic Mirror, December 23, 1893.
Anyway...I believe the Jews were observing the right day in the wrong way. They had twisted it to be all about "works", when God wanted it to be about rest, remembrance, and selflessness. I believe God rested on the 7th day, and I believe He wants us to do the same thing or He would have told us otherwise....and even if it's not "required" any more? Why not do what "God wants" instead of what "we want"? So...I know I'm a little hard-lined on this subject....but what would you do if someone got on here and started telling us, "it's ok to worship idols now! Jesus never said not to! It must be ok!". Wouldn't you get on'em a bit? I think you would, Mr. James...
One Question I would have for you is how many Quotes do you want from the Early church fathers saying that Christians don't keep the Jewish Sabbath, and instead worship on the Lord's Day?
I have about 35 quotes which start with apostolic church fathers, meaning men who were actually taught by one of more of the apostles.
You and I would agree that Christian do not take the command seriously, and it needs to be taken seriously.
the only thing we don't agree on is that you say it must be saturday, and I say it does not have to be any particular day, just one day in seven. It just so happens that church is almost always held on the Lord's Day, but it does not HAVE to be that day.
I would really hope that we could come to agree that Christians taking it seriously would be more important that demanding that it be Saturday. I would rather talk about HOW to obey the command rather than following the strange ideas of Ellen White.
Jonathan Edwards on the Christian Sabbath
"Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." I Corinthians 16:1-2.
We find in the New Testament often mentioned a certain collection, which was made by the Grecian churches, for the brethren in Judea, who were reduced to pinching want by a dearth which then prevailed, and was the heavier upon them by reason of their circumstances, they having been from the beginning oppressed and persecuted by the unbelieving Jews. This collection or contribution is twice mentioned in the Acts, chap. 11:28-30, and 24:17. It is also noticed in several of the epistles; as Rom. 15:26 and Gal. 2:10. But it is most largely insisted on, in these two epistles to the Corinthians; in this first epistle, chap. 16 and in the second epistle, ch. 8 and 9. -- The apostle begins the directions, which in this place he delivers concerning this matter, with the words of the text; -- wherein we may observe,
1. What is the thing to be done concerning which the apostle gives them direction, -- the exercise and manifestation of their charity towards their brethren, by communicating to them, for the supply of their wants; which was by Christ and his apostles often insisted on, as one main duty of the Christian religion, and is expressly declared to be so by the apostle James, chap. 1:27. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction."
2. We may observe the time on which the apostle directs that this should be done, viz. "on the first day of the week." By the inspiration of the Holy Ghost he insists upon it, that it be done on such a particular day of the week, as if no other day would do so well as that, or were so proper and fit a time for such a work. -- Thus, although the inspired apostle was not for making that distinction of days in gospel times, which the Jews made, as appears by Gal. 4:10, "Ye observe days, and months," etc., yet, here he gives the preference to one day of the week, before any other, for the performance of a certain great duty of Christianity.
3. It may be observed, that the apostle had given to other churches, that were concerned in the same duty, to do it on the first day of the week: "As I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye." Whence we may learn, that it was nothing peculiar in the circumstances of the Christians at Corinth, which was the reason why the Holy Ghost insisted that they should perform this duty on this day of the week. The apostle had given the like orders to the churches of Galatia.
Now Galatia was far distant from Corinth; the sea parted them, and there were several other countries between them. Therefore it cannot be thought that the Holy Ghost directs them to this time upon any secular account, having respect to some particular circumstances of the people in that city, but upon a religious account. In giving the preference to this day for such work, before any other day, he has respect to something which reached all Christians throughout the wide world.
And by other passages of the New Testament, we learn that the case was the same as to other exercises of religion; and that the first day of the week was preferred before any other day, in churches immediately under the care of the apostles, for an attendance on the exercises of religion in general. Acts 20:7. "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them." -- It seems by these things to have been among the primitive Christians in the apostles' days, with respect to the first day of the week, as it was among the Jews, with respect to the seventh.
We are taught by Christ, that the doing of alms and showing of mercy are proper works for the sabbath day. When the Pharisees found fault with Christ for suffering his disciples to pluck the ears of corn, and eat on the sabbath, Christ corrects them with that saying, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice," Matt. 12:7. And Christ teaches that works of mercy are proper to be done on the sabbath, Luke 13:15-16, and 14:5. -- These works used to be done on sacred festivals and days of rejoicing, under the Old Testament, as in Nehemiah's and Esther's time; Neh. 8:10 and Esther 9:19, 22. -- And Josephus and Philo, two very noted Jews, who wrote not long after Christi's time, give an account that it was the manner among the Jews on the sabbath, to make collections for sacred and pious uses.
Doctrine. It is the mind and will of God, that the first day of the week should be especially set apart among Christians, for religious exercises and duties.
That this is the doctrine which the Holy Ghost intended to teach us, by this and some other passages of the New Testament, I hope will appear plainly by the sequel. This is a doctrine that we have been generally brought up in by the instructions and examples of our ancestors; and it has been the general profession of the Christian world, that this day ought to be religiously observed and distinguished from other days of the week. However, some deny it. Some refuse to take notice of the day, as different from other days. Others own, that it is a laudable custom of the Christian church, into which she fell by agreement, and by appointment of her ordinary rulers, to set apart this day for public worship. But they deny any other original to such an observation of the day, than prudential human appointment. -- Others religiously observe the Jewish sabbath, as of perpetual obligation, and that we want a foundation for determining that that is abrogated, and another day of the week is appointed in the room of the seventh.
All these classes of men say, that there is no clear revelation that it is the mind and will of God, that the first day of the week should be observed as a day to be set apart for religious exercises, in the room of the ancient sabbath; which there ought to be in order to the observation of it by the Christian church, as a divine institution. They say, that we ought not to go upon the tradition of past ages, or upon uncertain and far-fetched inferences from some passages of the history of the New Testament, or upon some obscure and uncertain hints in the apostolic writings; but that we ought to expect a plain institution; which, they say, we may conclude God would have given us, if he had designed that the whole Christian church, in all ages, should observe another day of the week for a holy sabbath, than that which was appointed of old by plain and positive institution.
So far it is undoubtedly true, that if this be the mind and will of God, he hath not left the matter to human tradition; but hath so revealed his mind about it, in his word, that there is to be found good and substantial evidence that it is his mind: and doubtless, the revelation is plain enough for them that have ears to hear; that is, for them that will justly exercise their understandings about what God says to them. No Christian, therefore, should rest till he has satisfactorily discovered the mind of God in this matter. If the Christian sabbath be of divine institution, it is doubtless of great importance to religion that it be well kept; and therefore, that every Christian be well acquainted with the institution.
