The Latest Thousand-Dollar Offer for Bible Authority for Sunday Observance by K. C. RUSSELL

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 25, 1910

The Latest Thousand-Dollar Offer for Bible Authority for Sunday Observance

By K. C. RUSSELL

K. C. RUSSELL

The Winnipeg (Manitoba) Free Press of April 21, 1910, contains the climax of a newspaper discussion between Dr. Frederic B. Duval, a prominent Protestant minister, and A. Gerritsma, P. P., a prominent Roman Catholic priest, both of Winnipeg. The controversy was concerning the claim of Catholics that theirs is the true church, over and, further, regarding their assumed authority, etc. The climax was finally reached when “Father” A. Gerritsma concluded his closing article with an offer of a thousand dollars for a text of Scripture proving Sunday observance. His exact words are as follows:—

“If Dr. Duval denies the church the right to legislate, why does he, contrary to the teaching of the Bible, obey her in regard to the observance of the Sunday? The Protestant Bible says plainly: ‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day,’ and in hundreds of other places both in the Old and New Testaments the Bible insists on the observance of the Sabbath day. Now, every child in school knows that the Sabbath day is Saturday, the seventh day of the week; yet, with the exception of the Seventh-day Adventists, all Protestant denominations keep the Sunday instead of the Sabbath day, because the Catholic Church made this change in the first ages of Christianity. I hereby offer Dr. Duval one thousand dollars if he will show me one passage either in the Protestant or Catholic Bible, in the Old or New Testaments, where it tells us to observe the Sunday.”

It is needless to say that Dr. Duval has not yet produced a text of Scripture in proof of Sunday observance, or claimed the one thousand dollars offered by “Father” Gerritsma. It is now over twenty-six years since “Father” Enright made his celebrated offer of a thousand dollars for a text of Scripture proving Sunday-keeping, but no person has as yet brought forward the text and claimed the money. The failure on the part of Protestants to produce a text of Scripture for Sunday observance stands as a tacit admission that they know there is no divine authority for the Sunday institution. What people need most to-day is the Holy Spirit’s presence to convict them of their duty, and not more evidence as to which day is the Sabbath.

Takoma Park, D. C.