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IS IT TRUE?

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 22, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 38.

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IS IT TRUE?

By Ethan Lanphear

A Roman Catholic tells me that the Sunday sabbath, or Lord’s day, so called, belongs to their church; that the Protestant church has no right or title to it, as they profess to take their Bible for their faith and practise; and that “every intelligent Protestant knows that there is not a word or syllable in their Bible from Genesis to Revelation indicating that the seventh-day Sabbath was changed to Sunday, or the first day of the week; or that the term Sabbath, or Lord’s day, is or ever was applied to the first day of the week; or that Christ or any of the disciples ever used the word ‘Sabbath’ as applied to any other day but the seventh day of the week; nor did they ever indicate that such a change was indicated or needed.”
Another person has handed me the following statements in relation to this matter:—
1. Take the testimony of Eusebius, one of the most eminent fathers of the Catholic Church, the contemporary, the apologist, and the deifier of the corrupt Constantine. He says: “All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, them we have transferred to the Lord’s day (Sunday).” The “we” to whom he refers are Constantine, Pope Sylvester, and such bishops as Eusebius.
2. In Butler’s “Catechism,” a work used in Catholic schools, the first and second commandments are counted as one, and the fourth is counted the third. Upon the third, or Sabbath, commandment are the following questions and answers:—
“Question—Say the third commandment?
“Answer—Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
“Q.—What is commanded by the third commandment?
“A.—To spend the Sunday in prayer and other religious duties.”
But all know that that is not what is commanded by the Sabbath commandment.
3. The “Doctrinal Catechism,” pp. 174, 351–355, offers proof that Protestants are not guided by Scripture. We present two of the questions and answers:—
“Q.—Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?
“A.—Had she not such power, she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority.”
“Q.—When Protestants do perform 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 the practise. In profaning Saturday they violate one of God’s commandments, which He has never clearly abrogated,—‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.’”
4. In another Catholic work, called “Abridgment of Christian Doctrine,” the Catholic Church asserts its power to change the law, in the following manner:
“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.”
“Q.—How prove you that?”
“A.—Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and command them under sin; and by not keeping the rest by her commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.”
5. The following letter, written by the Rev. Father Enright, a Catholic priest in charge of the Redemptionists’ College, Kansas City, Mo., to Mr. E. F. Franke, 43 Bond Street, New York City, is to the point:—
“January 11, 1892.
“Dear Friend: Your letter reached me only a few days ago. The paper you speak of I’ve not seen. My words were: ‘I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to any one who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is the law of the holy Catholic Church alone. 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 holy 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.’ Excuse delays in answering. Yours respectfully,
“T. Enright, CSS. R.”
In the face of such direct testimony from the Catholic Church that they alone changed the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day of the week, and their statement that there was not a word of evidence in the Bible for the change, is it not an imposition upon God, Christ, and the apostles for Protestants and the Protestant church to still insist that the change was made by Christ and the apostles? Dear friends of the professed Protestant or apostolic church all over the land, is your Protestantism as far out of the Catholic Church as you imagined? Are you not still bowing down and worshiping Baal or the sun-god? “Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die?” “Ye can not serve God and mammon.” ETHAN LANPHEAR.
Plainfield, N. J.