The Attempted Change of the Sabbath
By H.
1. What did Peter prophesy would come among God’s people? “There shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies.” 2 Peter 2:1. 2. When the belief crept in that Christ was coming in Paul’s day, what message did he bear? The coming of the Lord will not be “except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” “The mystery of lawlessness DOTH ALREADY WORK.” 2 Thess. 2:3, 4, 7. 3. In exalting himself “against all that is called God,” what will this power do, according to the prophet? “He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; AND HE SHALL THINK TO CHANGE THE TIMES AND THE LAW.” Dan. 7:25. The power represented by the fourth beast, as seen by Daniel, which was Rome. In the days of Paul the papal head was just arising, as he says. 5. In what way has Rome thought to change God’s laws? “It has reversed the fourth commandment, doing away with the Sabbath of God’s word, and instituting Sunday as a holy day.”—N. Summerbell, in History of the Christians, p. 418. 6. Does history bear any record to prove this? “The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in 321 A.D., enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday (venerabili die Solis), with an exception in favor of those engaged in agricultural labor.”—Encyclopedia Britannica. 7. When did the church herself take this action? “The Council of Laodicea [A. D. 364] first settled the observation of the Lord’s day, and prohibited the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath under an anathema.”—Prynne’s Dissertation on the Lord’s Day Sabbath. 8. By whose authority was the change made? “The pope has power to change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ.”—Decretal de Translat. Episcop. Cap. “Ques.— Has the church power to make any alterations in the commandments of God? “Ans.—Instead of the seventh day and other festivals appointed by the old law, the church has prescribed the Sundays and holy days to be set apart for God’s worship; and these we are now obliged to keep in consequence of God’s commandment, instead of the ancient Sabbath.”—Catholic Christian Instructed. 9. How do they regard the matter? “They 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. NOTE.— The prophet Daniel foretold the attempted change of the law of God, Paul saw the beginning of the power which did it, history records it, Rome boasts of the deed, and Protestants abjectly worship at the man-made shrine. But Christ has said, “Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law.” And again, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.” H.