Christ, the Papacy, and the Sabbath
By R. C. P.
Did Christ Change the Sabbath?—Did the Papacy Attempt It? Bible Testimony and History on the Subject This is the first of three articles by Elder Porter on the question of the change of the Sabbath from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the first day of the week. In this article he presents what Christ Himself taught in regard to the law of God, also what the historian says concerning the change by which the mass of mankind are now keeping Sunday. In the succeeding articles, Elder Porter will quote what leading Protestant authorities have admitted and affirmed on the subject, also what the Catholics have taught and are teaching. It will be interesting to study the strong array of evidence as to who is responsible for the existing conditions and sentiments in reference to the sacred day of rest. The Sabbath was instituted at creation, before the fall of man; and there is positive evidence that there has been no revision or repeal of the Sabbath statute by divine authority. Yet we are confronted by the fact that the majority to-day regard the first day of the week as the Sabbath or Lord’s day. How was this change of custom established? It should be remembered, in studying the Bible, and the lack of agreement in the world upon the divine precepts, that two great powers are at work in the earth, Christ and antichrist. Two great mysteries are being worked out, “the mystery of godliness” and “the mystery of iniquity.” Christ is working out the mystery of godliness by the pathway of love and loyalty to law and righteousness. Satan is working out the mystery of iniquity by hatred and disloyalty to the law and government of God. These two principles are from first to last in direct conflict with each other. To Magnify the Law Predicted of Him
Two texts speak of the relation of these two powers to the law of God. In Isa. 42: 1-4 we read of Christ: “Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall267wait for His law.” In verse 21 the Lord says of Him: “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” This is a prophecy of Christ. The Attempted Change Predicted
In Dan. 7: 25 we read of antichrist: “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Paul, speaking of this power, says: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2 Thess. 2: 3, 4, 7, 8. We have plainly before us the conflict between Christ and antichrist. The battle is over the law of God. The prophet foretells an act of high treason against the government of God. There has been an unauthorized attempt to change the law of the government. Who is guilty of the charge, Christ or antichrist? Christ is loyal to the law. He obeyed all its requirements in man’s stead, and bowed beneath its penalty in death—a witness to its justice and majesty. He thus magnified the law, and made it honorable, while at the same time He stooped to the lowest depths of earth’s woe and sorrow, to lift man up to the standard of the law, and save him from its death penalty. Did Christ Revise or Abolish It?
Before Christ came, the prophet said, “He will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” Does that mean that He will revise or abolish it? Let Him answer: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5: 17-19. Christ emphatically repudiates the charge that He came to destroy or revise the law. He says, “I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.” The text is translated by Drs. George Campbell, James MacKnight, and Philip Doddridge, thus: “Think not that I am come to subvert the law or the prophets. I am not come to subvert, but to ratify.” To ratify is to establish. Another translation reads: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I am not come to abolish, but to accomplish.” “For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle of the law shall not pass till all be accomplished.”—Ostervald, French Bible. “Ye shall not think that I am come to unloose the law and the prophets. I am not come to unloosen but to fulfill.”—Dr. Luther’s German Bible. “Think not I am come to unloosen the law or the prophets. I am not come to unloosen, but to complete.”—Danish Bible. So we find that Christ did not come to do away with the law, but to ratify, confirm, and establish it. Of what law is He speaking? Verses 21 and 27 show that it is the Ten Commandments. In the seventeenth verse He mentions the law for the first time, when He says: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill,” or to ratify—to set a perfect example of obedience to the law for His followers. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass”—that is the first “till”—“one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Here we have the second “till” used. The first “till” reaches to the passing away of heaven and earth. The next “till” goes beyond that: “till all be fulfilled.” He is speaking of the law and the prophets. There are prophecies reaching through the eternal ages: and till the last prophecy that reaches into eternity is fulfilled, the law cannot pass away. So there is no possibility that the law can be abrogated. Again, note the conclusion from His statement as it is recorded in the next verse: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” The American Tract Society, in its New Testament with notes, gives the following upon this text: “Destroy the law; set aside either the principles or the moral precepts of the Old Testament. To fulfill; rightly to explain the nature, and perfectly to enforce the precepts, of the moral law, as well as perfectly to obey them in His own person, bear the curse which was prefigured in the ceremonial law, and thus fulfill the predictions of the prophets concerning the Messiah.” Eighteenth verse: “One jot; no part of the moral law or of the obligations to obey it shall be done away.” Would It Abolish All Righteousness?
These notes were compiled by the leading ministers of the different orthodox denominations. They were designed to be undenominational and unbiased in their comments. They agree perfectly with Christ’s own definition of the word “fulfill” in Matt. 3: 15. Jesus came to be baptized by John, but John refused Him. “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered Him.” He did not do away all righteousness, but established it. If “fulfill” means to do away, then Christ, at His baptism, in fulfilling all righteousness, set it aside, and caused it forever afterwards to cease. This is unthinkable of Christ. Does Magnifying Mean Destruction?
This text is therefore a fair rendering of Christ’s statement about the law. He has made it honorable. He has magnified it. To illustrate: Place any object under a magnifying glass. Does magnifying change or destroy it?—No; it makes it appear larger, and brings to view things in it before unseen. So in His life “the law appears, drawn out in living characters.” He placed the magnifying glass over the commands “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and showed that the violation of these commands was not only in the overt act, but as well in the thought of the heart. Why the warning against the breaking of this law (verse 19), or the admonition to do and teach it, if by His coming He abolished it? Why were the disciples admonished to teach it to all nations, if it was abolished? Matt. 28: 19, 20. Were they to teach an abolished law? What had He commanded to be taught with reference to the law of His kingdom, the Ten Commandments?—That it should never pass, and every precept of it must be heeded and taught by those who would be subjects of the eternal kingdom. The gospel commission instructs that ministers who go forth to carry the gospel to all men must teach them all things commanded by Christ. We can therefore never look to Christ to abolish or revise the law of His kingdom. Did the Papacy Try to Change It?
Did the papacy attempt to change the times and the law of God? Does it bear the following marks of identification recorded in the prophecy, Dan. 7: 24, 25? - Among the ten kingdoms of western Rome, “another shall arise after them, . . . and he shall subdue three kings.”
- “He shall speak great words against the Most High.”
- He “shall wear out the saints of the Most High.”
- He shall “think to change times and laws” of the Most High.
- “They shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
Does this apply to the papacy? The answer of history is plain. Let the following witnesses testify. The extracts from Catholic and other works present some of the “great words” and “blasphemies” of this power, as foretold in Scripture: “Marcellus, referring to Pope Julius, in the Lateran General Council, called him ‘God on earth.’”—Labbeus, in his “Concilia,” volume 19, page 731. “The bull of Clement XI, dated at Madrid, March 18, 1718, refers to the pope as ‘most holy father.’”—Quoted by Anthony268Gavin, formerly priest at Saragossa, Spain, in “The Great Red Dragon,” page 77. “Prince of the world.”—Labbeus’s “Concilia,” volume 19, page 700. “Pope Martin V, in the dispatches which he sent to Constantinople, called himself ‘the arbiter of heaven and the lord of the earth, the successor of St. Peter, the anointed of the Lord, the master of the universe, the father of kings, the light of the world.’”—Giustiniani’s “Rome as It Is,” page 181, quoted in “Facts for the Times,” edition of 1893, pages 47, 48. “The pope occupies the place, not of a mere man, but of the true God.”—Jacobatius, in his “De Concilia,” volume 1, page 7. “The pope is the supreme judge of the law of the land. . . . He is vicegerent of Christ, who is not only a Priest forever, but also King of kings, and Lord of lords. . . . The pope, by virtue of his high dignity, is at the summit of both powers.”—From the Civiltà Cattolica, the official organ of Pope Pius IX, March 18, 1871; quoted in “The Vatican Council,” by Leonard Woolsey Bacon, American Tract Society edition, page 229. The Dictatus Papae, Pope Gregory VII, epistle 55, book 2, among others has the following propositions: “Prop. 9. All princes should kiss the feet of the pope.” “Prop. 18. His judgment no man can reverse, but he can reverse all other judgments.” “Prop. 19. The pope can be judged by no man.” “Prop. 22. The Roman Catholic Church never erred, nor will she ever err.”—Bower’s “History of the Popes,” London edition, 1761, volume 5, page 292. “The pope can dispense with any law.”—“Notes on the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore,” by Smith, preface, page 17, quoted in “Papacy and Civil Power,” by the Hon. R. W. Thompson, secretary of the navy under President Hayes’s administration, edition of 1876, Nelson and Philips, page 609. “None may reopen the judgment of the apostolic see, than whose authority there is no greater, nor can any lawfully review its judgment.”—“First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ,” chapter 3, paragraph 4, adopted by the Vatican Council at Rome in 1871; quoted in “The Vatican Council,” by Bacon, page 203, American Tract Society edition. Thus the papacy has spoken great words against the Most High.