But there is something still wanting to a full statement of the untenable position taken up by those sticklers for “Sabbath” observance. What right, anyhow, have these gentlemen as Protestants to lay down the law as to what is to be done or not done on Sunday? Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles. If the “Bible and the Bible only is the religion of Protestants,” if “whatever is not read therein nor maybe proved thereby” has no claim on their faith or observance, what scrap of title can they show for all their dogmatic insistence as to the requirements of the Lord’s Day? 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. Thus Sunday observance is an incongruous adjunct of the Protestant faith, utterly out of keeping with its fundamental principle, and strongly suggests a religion that suffered sadly from too much hurry in the making.
If any Sabbatarian wants to know the proper method of spending the Sunday, the Catholic Church is the natural source to apply to for information. Under her direction the Sunday supplanted the Jewish Sabbath, and she is, therefore, the best fitted to settle any dispute as to its claims. Source: The Bible Echo, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Vol. 15, No. 42, Oct. 15, 1900, page 674, quoting The Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, Aug. 25, 1900.
“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. Nov. 11, 1895
“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 Sept 1,1923.
“Aiphonse, king of Aragon, etc., to all archbishops, bishops, and to all others…We command you that heretics, to wit, the Waldeneses and Insabbathi (those who keep the Sabbath), should be expelled away from the face of God and from all Catholics and ordered to depart from our kingdom.” – Marianae Praefatio in Lucam Tudensem and quoted in Macima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum Vol 25 p 190
Justin Martyr, a popular “mainstream Christian “of the second century (around 150 AD) believed that the Sabbath was an outdated mosaic law which God placed on the Jews as ” a mark to single them out for punishment they so well deserve for their infidelities.”– Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho. Catholic acknowledges change of Sabbath dares others to follow Bible
Canons against Sabbath-keepers from the French Council Toulouse in 1229: “Canon 3.- The lords of the different districts shall have the villas, houses, and woods diligently searched, and the hiding-places of the heretics destroyed. Canon 14.- Lay members are not allowed to possess the books of either the Old or the New Testaments.” – Hefele. 5, 981, 962
Council, Moscow, 1503 : “The accused (Sabbath-keepers) were summoned; they openly acknowledged the new faith, and defended the same. The most prominent of them,…were condemned to death, and burned publicly in cages, at Moscow, Dec 17.1503- H. Sternberfi, Geschichte der Juden
“This zeal for Saturday-keeping continued for a long time: even little things which might strengthen the practice of keeping Saturday were punished.” – Bishop Anjou, Svenska Kirkans Historia after Motet i Upsala.
“The famous Jesuit, Francais Xavier, called for the Inquisition, which was set up in Goa, India, in 560, to check the ‘Jewish wickedness’ (Sabbath-keeping).” – Adney, The Greek and Eastern Churches p 527,528.
Pope Gregory I, 590-604 AD, Epistles b. 13:1- “Gregory, bishop by the grace of God to his well-beloved sons, the Roman citizens: It has come to me that certain men of perverse spirit have disseminated among you things depraved and opposed to the holy faith, so that they forbid anything to be done on the day of the Sabbath. What shall I call them except preachers of anti-Christ.”
“Moreover, this same Pope Gregory had issued an official pronouncement against a section of the city of Rome itself because the Christian believers there rested and worshipped on the Sabbath.”- Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Biblical proof that Saturday is the Sabbath
“Some have suffered torture because they would not rest when others kept Sunday, for they declared it to be the holiday and law of Antichrist.” – Sebastian Frank, AD 1536. By this time in history the Seventhday Sabbath was severely under attack.
In Eithiopia, 1604 AD, the Jesuits influenced King Zadenghel to propose to submit to the Papacy ” Prohibiting all his subjects, upon severe penalties, to not observe Saturday any longer.”- Gedde’s Church History of Eithiopia p 311 and also in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall chapter 47. (There go those Jesuits again!)
Catholic Provincial Council at Bergen -” We are informed that some people in different districts of the kingdom, have adopted and observed Saturday-keeping. It is severely forbidden- in holy church canon- one and all to observe days excepting those which the holy Pope, archbishop, or the bishops command. Saturday-keeping must under no circumstances be permitted hereafter further than the church canon commands. Therefore, we counsel all the friends of God throughout all of Norway who want to be obedient towards the holy church to let this evil of Saturday-keeping alone; and the rest we forbid under penalty of severe church punishment to keep Saturday holy.” – Dip, Norveg, 7, 397. Shocking Catholic claim; Priests have MORE POWER than God Himself
“The inquisitors…(declare) that the sign of a Vaudois (Waldeneses of France, Sabbathkeepers) deemed worthy of death, was that he followed Christ and sought to obey the commandments of God” – History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, H.C. Lea, Vol 1.
“The Pope has the power to change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ.” “The Pope has the authority and often exercised it, to dispense with the command of Christ.” Decretal, de Tranlatic Episcop. Cap. (The Pope can modify divine law.) Ferraris’ Ecclesiastical Dictionary.
“The Sunday…is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.” American Catholic Quarterly Review, January 1883
“Sunday…It is the law of the Catholic Church alone…” American Sentinel (Catholic) June 1893
“The Catholic church,” declared Cardinal Gibbons, “by virtue of her divine mission changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.” Catholic Mirror Sept. 23 1983. (Official organ of Cardinal Gibbons)
“The Pope is of great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws… The Pope can MODIFY divine law, since his power is not of man, But of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth.” -Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Ribliotheca, “Papa,” art. 2, translated.
“The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed the Sabbath into Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority.” Canon and Tradition, p. 263
“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 ed.), pp. 72, 73.
“The Catholic church,” declared Cardinal Gibbons, “by virtue of her divine mission changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.” Catholic Mirror Sept. 23 1983. (Official organ of Cardinal Gibbons)
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.” The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, p. 50, 3rd ed.
“The Bible says, Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. The Catholic church says, No! By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep 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!” Father Enright, C.S.S.R. of the Redemptoral College, Kansas City, History of the Sabbath, p. 802
“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 Church’s sense of its own power …. People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become Seventh-day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.” (Saint Catherine Church Sentinel, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995.)
“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, 1990.)
“The Adventists are the only body of Christians with the Bible as their teacher, who could find no warrant in its pages for the change of day from the seventh to the first. Hence their appellation,” Seventh-day Adventists. “They’re cardinal principle consists in setting apart Saturday for the exclusive worship of God, in conformity with the positive command of God Himself, repeatedly reiterated in the sacred books of the Old and New testaments, literally kept by the children of Israel for thousands of years to this day, and endorsed by the teaching and practice of the Son of God while on earth.” –Rome’s Challenge, (Why do Protestants keep Sunday?) page two
“Is not yet too late for Protestants to redeem themselves. Will they do it?… will they indeed take the written word only, the Scripture alone, as their sole authority and their sole standard? Or will they still hold the indefensible, self contradictory, and suicidal doctrine and practice of following the authority of the Catholic church and wear the SIGN of her authority? Will they keep the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, according to Scripture? Or will they keep the Sunday according to the tradition of the Catholic church, -Ibid, page 31
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