“We deem it necessary to be perfectly clear on this point... The Bible - the Old Testament - confirmed by the living tradition of weekly practice for 3383 years by the chosen people of God, teaches, then, with absolute certainty, that God had, Himself, named the day “to be kept holy to Him”- that the day was Saturday, and that any violation of that command was punishable with death.” The Catholic Mirror, Sept.9, 1893

 

* * *  

 

    “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.” The Ten Commandments, Canon Eyton

 

* * *  

 

    “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.” Toronto Daily Star, October 26, 1949, Philip Carrington

 

* * *  

 

    “There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath to the Christian first-day observance.” The Lord’s Day in Our Day, William Owen Carver

 

* * *  

 

    “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.” The History of the Christian Religion and Church, 1843, Dr. Augustus Neander

* * *  

 

    “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.” Sabbath or Sunday, John Theodore Mueller

 

* * *  

 

    “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.” Christian Advocate, July 2, 1942, Harris Franklin Rall

 

* * *  

 

    “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.” The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, John Wesley

 

* * *  

 

    “The Sabbath instituted in the beginning and confirmed again and again by Moses and the Prophets, has never been abrogated.” New York Herald, 1874

* * *  

 

    “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 when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?” Weighed and Wanting, Dwight L. Moody

* * *  

 

    “It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labor. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of the week.” The Church in Scotland, pp140, Professor James C. Moffat, D.D., Professor of Church History at Princeton

* * *  

 

    “There is much evidence that the Sabbath prevailed in Wales universally until AD 1115, when the first Roman bishop was seated at St. David’s. The old Welsh Sabbath-keeping churches did not even then altogether bow the knee to Rome, but fled to their hiding places.” Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, Vol. 1, p. 29, Lewis

 

* * *  

 

    “It was the practice generally of the Eastern Churches; and some churches of the west... For in the church of Millaine [Milan];... it seems Saturday was held in farre esteeme... Not that the Eastern churches, or any of the rest which observed that day, were inclined to Iudaisme [Judaism]; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Iesus [Jesus] Christ the Lord of the Sabbath.” History of the Sabbath Part 2, pp. 73,74, London: 1636

* * *  

 

    “The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews... therefore the Christians for a long time together, did keep their conventions on the Sabbath, in which some portion of the Law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council.” The Whole Works of Jeremey Taylor, Vol. IX, p. 416

  

* * *

Note: In 363, the local Council of Laodicea passed the following decree: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, resting rather on Sunday. But if any man be found to be judaizing, let them be anathema from Christ.”

    “It will surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first.” Sabbath Literature, pp. 46-54, John Milton

 

* * *  

 

    “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.” Roman Catholic Priest T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18, 1884.

 

* * *  

 

    "And on the seventh day God rested from the work he had done. ... He blessed the seventh day and hallowed it’. The ‘shabbat’, the biblical Sabbath, is tied to this mystery of God’s rest. If we Christians celebrate the Lord’s day on Sunday, it is because on that day the Resurrection of Christ occurred.” Pope John Paul II, July 12 1998

 

* * *   

 

    “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, James Cardinal Gibbons – in a letter written by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore (1877-1921), recorded in The Catholic Press, (Sydney, Australia), Aug. 25, 1900.

 

* * *   

 

    “...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, Oct. 3, 1947

 

* * *  

 

    “Examining the New Testament from cover to cover, critically, we find the Sabbath referred to sixty-one times. We find too, that the Savior invariably selected the Sabbath (Saturday) to teach in the synagogues and work miracles. The four Gospels refer to the Sabbath fifty-one times. In one instance , the Redeemer refers to Himself as ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ as mentioned by Matthew and Luke, but, during the whole record of His life, while invariably keeping and utilizing the day, (Saturday), He never once hinted at a desire to change it.” The Catholic Mirror, Nov. 25 1893, James Cardinal Gibbons

 

* * *  

 

    “...with the Bible alone as the teacher and guide in faith and morals. This teacher most emphatically forbids any changes in the day for paramount reasons. The command calls for a ‘perpetual covenant’. The day commanded to be kept by the teacher (the Bible) has never once been kept (by the Protestant or Catholic churches), thereby developing an apostasy from an asumedly fixed principle, as self-contradictory, self-stultifying, and consequently as suicidal as it is within the power of language to express.” The Catholic Mirror, Nov. 25, 1893, James Cardinal Gibbons

 

* * *  

 

    “Everyone knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, while Saturday is the seventh day, and the Sabbath, the day consecrated as a day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations, I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to any one who will furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money.” (Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO)

 

Part 4: The Roman Catholic Church Changed Sabbath to Sunday

 

    "Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The fact is that the Church was in existence for several centuries before the Bible was given to the world. The Church made the Bible, the Bible did not make the Church." Things Catholics Are Asked About, p. 136, Martin J. Scott, 1927 edition

 

* * *

    "Sunday is our mark of authority. The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact." The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923

 

Note: It is interesting to note that God also has a mark. That mark, which is an identifying sign between Him and His people, is His Sabbath. See Exodus 31:17 and Ezekiel 20:12, 19, 20.

 

* * *   

 

    "Because the Third Commandment (which is really the fourth commandment but Catholicism does away with the second commandment so they do not have to acknowledge their idolatry, which to them makes the Sabbath the third) depends upon the remembrance of God’s saving works and because Christians saw the definitive time inaugurated by Christ as a new beginning, they made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day on which the Lord rose from the dead." Pope John Paul II, May 31, 1998

 

* * *   

 

    "They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day as having 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, Article 28, approved by Martin Luther, 1530

 

* * *   

 

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 have 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, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority."

A Doctrinal Catechism Third Edition, p. 174, Stephen Keenan

 

* * *  

 

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, and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church." Manual of Christian Doctrine, 1916, p. 67, Daniel Ferres

 

* * *  

 

    "Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observation 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." The Catholic Press

 

* * *   

 

    "The Catholic Church, . . . by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday." The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893

 

* * *   

 

    "If any person in this town will show any scripture for it, I will tomorrow evening publicly acknowledge it and thank him for it. It was the Holy Catholic church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week. And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 363, anathematized those who kept the Sabbath and urged all persons to labor on the seventh day under penalty of anathema." Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO

 

* * *   

 

    "My brethren, look about you upon the various wrangling sects and denominations. Show me one that claims or possesses the power to make laws binding on the conscience. There is but one on the face of the earth, the Catholic Church, that has the power to make laws binding upon the conscience, binding before God, binding under pain of hell fire. Take, for instance, the day we celebrate Sunday. What right have the Protestant churches to observe that day? None whatever. You say it is to obey the commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ But Sunday is not the Sabbath, according to the Bible and the record of time." Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO

 

Part 5: Protestant Denominations and the Sabbath

 

ANGLICAN / EPISCOPAL

    "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." Plain Sermons on the Catechism, Isaac Williams, Vol. 1, pp. 334, 336

 

* * *   

 

    "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." Why We Keep Sunday, Bishop Seymour

 

* * *  

 

    The Lord’s day was merely of ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment." Jeremy Taylor

 

* * *  

 

    The Primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the Day in Devotion and Sermons. And ‘tis not to be doubted but they derived this Practice from the Apostles themselves." A Discourse in Six Dialogues on the Name, Notion, and Observation of the Lord’s Day, p. 189

 

* * *  

 

BAPTIST

    "To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years’ intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question... never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated..." Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, New York ministers’ conference, Nov. 13, 1893

 

* * *   

 

    "...But what a pity [Sunday worship] comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!" Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, New York ministers’ conference, Nov. 13, 1893

 

* * *  

 

    "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." The Sabbatic Question, p. 72, J. J. Taylor

 

* * *   

    "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. E. T. Hiscox, report of his sermon at the Baptist Minister's Convention, in 'New York Examiner,' November 16, 1893
     

* * *  

     

CONGREGATIONALIST

    "...it is quite clear that however rigidly or devotedly 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." The Ten Commandments, p. 127-129, Dr. R. W. Dale

 

* * *  

 

    "...the Christian sabbath [Sunday] is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the primitive Church called the Sabbath." Theology: Explained and Defended, 1823, Ser. 107, Vol. 3, p. 258, Timothy Dwight

 

* * *   

    "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. Layman Abbot, in the Christian Union, June 26, 1890.

* * *   

 

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

    "‘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." The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824, Vol. 1, No. 7, p. 164, Alexander Campbell, Founder, Disciples of Christ

 

* * *   

 

    "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." First Day Observance, pp. 17, 19

 

* * *   

 

LUTHERAN

    "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..." The Sunday Problem, 1923, p. 36

 

* * *   

  

    "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." Sabbath or Sunday, pp. 15-16, John Theodore Mueller

                                                       * * *  

 

    “There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that 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... Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament – absolutely not...” Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, New York ministers’ conference, Nov. 13, 1893

                                                       * * *  

    "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.
   

                                                       * * *

    "They [the Catholics] allege the Sabbath changed into Sunday, the Lord's day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it appears, neither is there any example more boasted of than the changing of the Sabbath day. Great, say they, is the power and authority of the church, since it dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments." -Augsburg Confession of Faith, Art. 28, par. 9.

                                                        * * *

 
     "For up to this day mankind has absolutely trifled with the original and most special revelation of the Holy God, the ten words written upon the tables of the Law from Sinai."-"Crown Theological Library," page I78.
   

                                                        * * *

     "The Christians in the ancient church very soon distinguished the first day of the week, Sunday; however, not as a Sabbath, but as an assembly day of the church, to study the Word of God together, and to celebrate the ordinances one with another: without a shadow of doubt, this took place as early as the first part of the second century."-Bishop GRIMELUND, "History of the Sabbath," page 60.
   

                                                       * * *

     "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance."- AUGUSTUS NEANDER, "History of the Christian Religion and Church," Vol. 1, page 186.
 

                                                       * * *

    "I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of Ten Commandments...Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also."-MARTIN LUTHER, Spiritual Antichrist," pages 71, 72.
   

                                                       * * *

     "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 Christian of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both." The Sunday Problem, a study book by the Lutheran Church (1923) p.36
    

                                                      * * *

     "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

 

LUTHERAN FREE CHURCH

    “For when there could not be produced one solitary place in the Holy Scriptures which testified that either the Lord Himself or the apostles had ordered such a transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday, then it was not easy to answer the question: Who has transferred the Sabbath, and who has the right to do it?” George Sverdrup, ‘A New Day.’

* * *

METHODIST

    "The reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on no positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from the seventh day to the first." Ten Rules For Living, Methodist, Clovis G. Chappell

 

* * *  

 

    "It is true there is no positive command for infant baptism... Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week." Methodist Episcopal Theological Compend, Amos Binney, pp. 180, 181

 

PRESBYTERIAN

    "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." Theology Condensed, pp. 474, 475, T. C. Blake, D.D.

 

CHURCH OF CHRIST

    "But we do not find any direct command from God, or instruction from the risen Christ, or admonition from the early apostles, that the first day is to be substituted for the seventh day Sabbath." "Let us be clear on this point. Though to the Christian 'that day, the first day of the week' is the most memorable of all days ... there is no command or warrant in the New Testament for observing it as a holy day." "The Roman Church selected the first day of the week in honour of the resurrection of Christ. ..." Bible Standard, May, 1916, Auckland, New Zealand.

* * *

    "... If the fourth command is binding upon us Gentiles by all means keep it. But let those who demand a strict observance of the Sabbath remember that the seventh day is the ONLY sabbath day commanded, and God never repealed that command. If you would keep the Sabbath, keep it; but Sunday is not the Sabbath. The argument of the 'Seventh-day Adventists' is on one point unassailable. It is the Seventh day not the first day that the command refers to." G. Alridge, Editor, The Bible Standard, April, 1916.
"There is no direct Scriptural authority for designating the first day the Lord's day."-DR. D. H. LUCAS, Christian Oracle, Jan. 23, 1890.

* * *

    "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. There never was any change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change."-"First-Day Observance," pages 17, 19.

* * *

    "It has reversed the fourth commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God's Word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday." DR. N. SUMMERBELL, "History of the Christian Church," Third Edition, page 4I5.

* * *

    "To command...men...to observe...the Lord's day...is contrary to the gospel." - "Memoirs of Alexander Campbell," Vol. 1, page 528.

* * *

    "It is clearly proved that the pastors of the churches have struck out one of God's ten words, which, not only in the Old Testament, but in all revelation, are the most emphatically regarded as the synopsis of all religion and morality."-ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, "Debate With Purcell," page 214.

* * *

    "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, for this plain reason, where there is no testimony, there can be no faith. Now there is no testimony in all the oracles of heaven that the Sabbath was changed, or that the Lord's day came in the room of it."-ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Washington Reporter, Oct. 8, 1821.
   

Part 6: Protestants Honor "The Mother Church"

   

    "Which church does the whole civilized world obey? Protestants call us every horrible name they can think of , anti-Christ, the scarlet colored beast, Babylon, etc. and at the same time profess great reverence for the Bible, and yet by their solemn act of keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the power of the Catholic Church." (Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO)

 

* * *   

 

    "The Bible says, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ But the Catholic church says, ‘No, keep the first day of the week,’ and the whole world bows in obedience." Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO

 

* * *   

 

    "... 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 Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man." Catholic Church Extension Society, 1975, Chicago, Illinois, Peter R. Kraemer

 

* * *  

&nbs