The Prophet and the Catholic on the Sabbath Question
By R. C. P.
What the Prophet Foresaw — What the Catholic Admits and Affirms This is the last of three articles by Elder Porter on the subject of the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. In the preceding articles, he has shown Christ’s attitude to His Father’s law, and that no change in the Sabbath was made by either the Master or His apostles; he has presented the prophecy which foretells that an apostate power would attempt to change the law of God; he has shown, from Protestant scholars, that they find no authority in the Bible for any change in the weekly Sabbath law; he has presented some of the history which shows that the change in the observance of a rest day was brought about by church councils, apart from God; and this week the climax is reached by introducing testimony from the Catholics themselves, in which they boastfully claim the sole responsibility in this change in the day of rest and worship. Editor. In view of the statements of historians presented last week, read again Dan. 7:25: “And he [the papacy] 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.” History says that upwards of fifty million martyrs were slain during the supremacy of the papacy. The papacy has therefore fulfilled the prediction, “He . . . shall wear out the saints of the Most High.” But, says the prophet, while he is speaking great words against the Most High, assuming to be “Lord God the pope,” and “vicar of Christ upon earth,” and wearing out the saints, and exalting himself above God, he shall think to change God’s law. Has the papacy thought to do this? God, through His prophet, says he shall think to do it. The most reliable historians testify that the papacy has done it. What does the papacy answer to this charge? Does he plead guilty, or not guilty? Let the papacy answer. In their “Doctrinal Catechism,” page 352, they reply as follows: “Q. When Protestants do profane work upon Saturday, or the seventh day of the week, do they follow the Scripture as their only rule of faith,—do they find this permission clearly laid down in the sacred Volume?” “A. On the contrary, they have only the authority of tradition for this practice. In profaning Saturday they violate one of God’s commandments, which He has never clearly abrogated,—‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.’” “Q. Is the observance of Sunday, as the day of rest, a matter clearly laid down in Scripture?” “A. It certainly is not; and yet all Protestants consider the observance of this particular day as essentially necessary to salvation. To say we observe the Sunday because Christ rose from the dead on that day is to say we act without warrant of Scripture.” This testimony tells us plainly that there is no provision made in the Scriptures for a change of the Sabbath, and that the observance of Sunday is in violation of God’s plain command. The following is from “The Catholic Christian Instructed,” pages 202, 203: “Q. What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday, preferably to the ancient Sabbath, which was the Saturday?” “A. We have for it the authority of the Catholic Church, and apostolic tradition.” “Q. Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?”298 “A. The Scripture commands us to hear the church.” After referring to some Bible citations on that point, it continues: “But neither the one nor the other tell us that this first day of the week was to be henceforward the day of worship and the Christian Sabbath; so that truly the best authority we have for this is the testimony of the church. [What church?—The Catholic Church.] And therefore those who pretend to be so religious of the Sunday, whilst they take no notice of other festivals ordained by the same church authority, show that they act by humor, and not by reason and religion, since Sundays and holy days all stand upon the same foundation, viz., the ordinance of the church.” The “Douay Catechism,” page 58, says: “Q. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?” “A. 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.” Plain Talk About Protestants
Another Catholic book, “Plain Talk About the Protestantism of To-Day,” page 213, says: “It is worth while to remember that this observance of the Sabbath—in which, after all, the only Protestant worship consists—not only has no foundation in the Bible, but it is in flagrant contradiction with its letter, which commands rest on the Sabbath, which is Saturday. It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. [Who changed the Sabbath?] Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the church.” The prophet Daniel said that the papacy would think to change times and the law. It would at the same time both wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change the law of God. It does not say he will change it, but he shall think to change it. God never recognized the change. The Catholic power that did the work confesses itself guilty, and we find that its testimony agrees precisely with both prophecy and history. Cardinal Gibbons Says It Is Saturday
The Catholic Mirror, edited by Cardinal Gibbons, in its issue of September, 1893, says: “God’s written word enjoins His worship to be observed on Saturday, absolutely, repeatedly, and most emphatically, with a most positive threat of death to him who disobeys. All the Biblical sects occupy the same self-stultifying position which no explanation can modify, much less justify.” The same is found in “The Christian Sabbath,” published by the Catholic Mirror Publishing Company, pages 28–32. From the same work, page 30, the following statement is taken: “But the Protestant says, How can I receive the teachings of an apostate church? How, we ask, have you managed to receive her teachings all your life, in direct opposition to your recognized teacher, the Bible, on the Sabbath question? ‘Out of your own mouth I judge you,’ says Jesus Christ.” They charge it back to Protestants that Sunday is not the Bible Sabbath; and what can Protestants answer? Catholics Say It Is Not in the Bible
The same Catholic writer concludes with these words: “Let us now, however, take a glance at our second proposition, with the Bible alone as the teacher and guide in faith and morals. This teacher most emphatically forbids any change in the day for paramount reasons. The command calls for a ‘perpetual covenant.’ The day commanded to be kept by the teacher has never once been kept, thereby developing an apostasy from an assumedly fixed principle as self-contradictory, self-stultifying, and consequently as suicidal as it is within the power of language to express. Nor are the limits of demoralization yet reached. Far from it. Their pretense for leaving the bosom of the Catholic Church was for apostasy from the truth as taught in the written Word. They adopted the written Word as their sole teacher, which they had no sooner done than they abandoned it promptly, as these articles have abundantly proved, and by a perversity as willful as erroneous, they accept the teaching of the Catholic Church in direct opposition to the plain, unvaried, and constant teaching of their sole teacher in the most essential doctrine of their religion, thereby emphasizing the situation in what may be aptly designated ‘a mockery, a delusion, and a snare.’” Offers a Thousand Dollars Reward
Father Enright, in speaking on this question before large audiences, has repeatedly made this challenge, which is here taken from a lecture reported in the Hartford Weekly Call, Kansas, February 22, 1864: “Sunday is not the Sabbath day; no man dare assert that it is. . . . I will give one thousand dollars to any man who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep. . . . The observance of Sunday is solely a law of the Catholic Church. . . . The church changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and all the world bows down and worships on that day in silent obedience to the mandates of the Catholic Church.” Protestants have never accepted this challenge. On the change of the Sabbath, the Catholic Mirror adds: Catholic Church Changed the Day
“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 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.”—Issue of September 23, 1893. “Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.”—Ibid., December 23, 1894. The charge of an attempt to change the law of God without divine authority is thus expressly admitted and boasted of by the papacy. We have presented the facts from the word of God and the best historians with reference to the attempt of the papacy to revise the Sabbath statute. The papacy, not incidentally, but openly and generally, adds its testimony in corroboration of the statements of prophecy and history. Christ magnified the law, and observed and taught the sacredness of the Sabbath as instituted at creation. Antichrist, the “man of sin,” who has worn out the saints, and spoken great words against the Most High, has undertaken to revise the Sabbath statute. The foregoing facts are a sufficient answer as to when, how, and by whom the Sabbath command has been changed. God does not accept the change. He says the papacy shall think to change His law. The papacy has thought it, and has worked its plan to do so to its full limit by persecution, by flattery, and by every means at its command. But the end is not yet. That law will confront this power in the day of Judgment, when it shall answer before the divine Lawgiver299for its deeds. Christ came not to destroy the law, but to magnify and make it honorable. It is left with each of us to decide whom we will follow. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Rom. 6:16. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17.