SOME SEARCHING QUESTIONS.
By J. P. Henderson
EDITOR SIGNS: The questions below were prepared by a man, Mr. J. F. Snyder, who is searching for truth, but who is not as yet an Adventist. He wrote to Cardinal Gibbons, and received the reply referred to below. The questions were placed in the question box of the First Baptist Church in this city, but were passed by in silence. I thought perhaps they might contain points of interest to the readers of the SIGNS. Respectfully, J. P. HENDERSON. Why should Christians observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath, (1) when God distinctly declares in his word that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God (Ex. 20:10); (2) When he sanctified the seventh day (Gen. 2:3); and blessed and hallowed it (Ex. 20:11); (3) When he declares it to be a perpetual covenant (Ex. 31:16), and a sign forever between him and his people (Ex. 31:17); (4) When the Saviour, in his earthly ministry as a divine Teacher, observed the seventh day and taught the same (John 15:10), and declared for its perpetuity (Matt. 5:17-19); (5) When God has told us in prophecy that a power would arise in the world that would think to change times and laws of the Most High (Dan. 7:25), and when we have its complete fulfillment in that power which was the principal factor in making the history of the civilized world for thirteen centuries, and which is defined by all standard works of evangelical writers as apostate, namely, the Roman Catholic Church, who boasts that she changed the observance of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week by her own (assumed) authority, and independent of the plain teachings of the word of God, and defines it as the mark of her spiritual power, as reference to the following and many more of her authoritative declarations conclusively shows:— 1. See the “Doctrinal Catechism,” pp. 101, 174, 351, 355. 2. A Catholic work called the “Abridgment of Christian Doctrine”:— “Question—How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days? “Answer—By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of.” “It was the Holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week. And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the council of Laodicea, A.D. 364, anathematized those who kept the Sabbath, and urged all persons to labor on the seventh day under penalty of anathema.” So declares Father Enright, Kansas City, Mo., confirmed by Cardinal Gibbons. In answer to a letter addressed to the cardinal, under date of Oct. 28, 1895, asking the question, “Does the Roman Catholic Church claim the act of changing the observance of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, as a mark of her power?” the following was received:— Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. It could not have been otherwise, as none in those days would have dreamed of doing anything in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical and religious without her. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters. [Signed] H. F. THOMAS, Chancellor for the Cardinal. 1208 Garrison Ave., Bloomington, Ill.,