This article is intended for those who may think that Sunday is the seventh day, or sabbath day, that the Bible designates to be set aside for the worship of God. It is quite surprising how many people actually think this. They generally assume that since Saturday and Sunday are the "weekend", that Monday must be the first day of the week because it is their first work day of the week. Today, confusion on this point is compounded by the practice, particularly in Europe for the last thirty years, of arranging calendars with Monday as the first day, and Sunday as the seventh day of the week (See Date and Time by Country). This would then lead you to believe that Sunday is indeed the seventh day sabbath.
Also contributing somewhat to the confusion is that the numbering of the Ten Commandments is not uniform. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish Historian of the 1st century, listed the Sabbath Commandment as the fourth*, while the Catholics and Lutherans consider it to be the 3rd Commandment, as numbered in the 5th century by St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D).
*5. The first commandment teaches us that there is but one God, and that we ought to worship him only. The second commands us not to make the image of any living creature to worship it. The third, that we must not swear by God in a false matter. The fourth, that we must keep the seventh day, by resting from all sorts of work. The fifth, that we must honor our parents. The sixth that we must abstain from murder. The seventh that we must not commit adultery. The eighth, that we must not be guilty of theft. The ninth, that we must not bear false witness. The tenth, that we must not admit of the desire of any thing that is another's. — Josephus, Antiquities, Book 3, Chapter 5, 5.
Reading the following papal encyclical, you may even think that Sunday is the Sabbath:
Making Sunday Holy
248. Allied to what We have said so far is the question of the Sunday rest.
249. To safeguard man's dignity as a creature of God endowed with a soul in the image and likeness of God, the Church has always demanded a diligent observance of the third Commandment: "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day." (52) God certainly has the right and power to command man to devote one day a week to his duty of worshipping the eternal Majesty. Free from mundane cares, he should lift up his mind to the things of heaven, and look into the depths of his conscience, to see how he stands with God in respect of those necessary and inviolable relationships which must exist between the creature and his Creator.
250. In addition, man has a right to rest a while from work, and indeed a need to do so if he is to renew his bodily strength and to refresh his spirit by suitable recreation. He has also to think of his family, the unity of which depends so much on frequent contact and the peaceful living together of all its members.
251. Thus, religion and moral and physical well-being are one in demanding this periodic rest, and for many centuries now the Church has set aside Sunday as a special day of rest for the faithful, on which they participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the memorial and application of Christ's redemptive work for souls.
252. Heavy in heart, We cannot but deplore the growing tendency in certain quarters to disregard this sacred law, if not to reject it outright. This attitude must inevitably impair the bodily and spiritual health of the workers, whose welfare We have so much at heart.
253. In the name of God, therefore, and for the sake of the material and spiritual interests of men, We call upon all, public authorities, employers and workers, to observe the precepts of God and His Church and to remember their grave responsibilities before God and society.
Source: Pope John XXIII, encyclical
MATER ET MAGISTRA, ON CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS, MAY 15, 1961.Some Catholic Catechisms will even give one the impression that Sunday is the sabbath. The following quotation is from the Catholic Baltimore Catechism #1, popular in the United States for the last century or so, intended for the instruction of children. It blurs the distinction between the Sabbath and Sunday:
Q. What is the third Commandment?
A. The third Commandment is: Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
Q. How are we to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation?
A. We are to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation by hearing Mass, by prayer, and by other good works.
Source:
A Catechism of Christian Doctrine (No. 1), prepared and enjoined by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, bearing the Imprimatur of the Catholic Church, Copyright 1885, by J. L. Spalding, published by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, printers to the Holy Apostolic See, 44 Barclay St., New York, page 36.
The following Catholic catechisms also boldly state that Sunday is the day commanded to be kept holy:
Q. Say the Third Commandment.
A. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
Q. What is commanded by the Third Commandment?
A. To sanctify the Sunday.
Q. Which is the chief duty by which we are commanded to sanctify the Sunday?
A. Assisting at the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
Source:
The Most Rev. Dr. James Butler's Catechism, revised, enlarged, improved, and recommended by the four R. C. Archbishops of Ireland, published in New York by P. J. Kenedy, 1886, page 34.
[pg. 276]
...
II. THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD
Q. Why are the Ten Commandments called the commandments of God?
A. Because they were given to us by God himself on Mount Sinai.
[pg. 277]
Q. Which are these Ten Commandments?
A. They are contained, in substance, in the following verses, which may easily be committed to memory:
1. One God alone, for evermore
By faith, and hope, and love, adore.
2. Thou shalt not take his name in vain.
3. The Lord's day thou shalt not profane.
4. Honor thy father, and thy mother.
5. Thou shalt not hurt nor hate thy brother.
6. Thou shalt do no adultery.
7. Thou shalt not steal.
8. Thou shalt not lie.
9. Thou shalt have no impure desire,
10. Nor to thy neighbor's goods aspire.
...
[pg. 278]
Q. What does the Third Commandment require?
A. It requires us to attend divine service on Sundays and Holydays, and to spend those days in devotion and good works.
Q. What does it forbid?
A. It forbids all servile labor done without strong reasons of necessity, charity or devotion.
Source:
The Mission Book, A Manual of Instructions and Prayers, drawn chiefly from the works of St. Alphonsus Liguori, published circa 1861 by the Missionary Fathers of St. Paul, James B. Kirker, New York, pages 276-278.
[pg. 112]
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT
Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath Day.
Q. When was the Sabbath instituted?
A. From the creation of the world; for then God blessed the seventh day, and on it rested from all his works.
Q. When was this commandment renewed?
A. In the old law, when God gave the commandments of Moses on Mount Sinai.
Q. Why was the Jewish Sabbath changed into the Sunday?
A. Because Christ rose from the dead, and the Holy Ghost descended on a Sunday.
Q. By whom was it changed?
A. By the church in the Apostle's time.
[pg. 113] ... O Christian soul, God, as Lord and Creator of all things has a sovereign right to demand our service at what time, and in what place he shall ordain, remember, that as your God and Creator, he has appointed one day in the week to his service, and this day is Sunday, or the Sabbath day.
Source:
The Poor Man's Catechism: or The Christian Doctrine Explained, with short admonitions by John Mannock, O.S.B. Published in 1859 by Edward Dunigan & Brother, James B. Kirker, 371 Broadway, New York, pages 112, 113.
Note the abbreviation of the Sabbath commandment in each of the above catechisms which declare that Sunday is the day to be kept holy. But the commandment declares the seventh-day of the week (Saturday) to be the Sabbath day, not Sunday the first day (See below Exo. 20:8-11). Rather than explain how the church has changed a commandment of God, some Catholic catechisms simply abbreviate the commandment, and then teach erroneously that Sunday is the Sabbath day intended by the commandment. Others attribute the change to the Apostles, or, in the case of The Poor Man's Catechismcited above, boldly state that God has Himself appointed Sunday to be Sabbath day.
And then there are also some people who will suggest that somehow we have lost track of the days of the week, and that today, no one can be sure just what day is the seventh day of the week. Those who wish to cling to this notion have never actually researched the issue to discover the facts. So then, when was the sabbath begun? When was the first sabbath observed, on which day, and who was it intended for?
The First Sabbath Keepers
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested.
The very first sabbath was the seventh day of creation. Look up Saturday in most any dictionary and it will tell you that it is the seventh day of the week. So who observed the first sabbath day?
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Both Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day, before the sabbath day, and so were present to observe the day of rest God created for them. Some will try to claim that the sabbath was a Jewish festival, part of the Mosaic law that was done away with at the cross. Since sabbath was established at creation as a memorial of that event, would that notion then make Adam and Eve Jews? Actually not a single Jew existed until the covenant made with Abraham, thousands of years later. The sabbath predates Jews!
Mark 2:27 And he [Jesus] said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
Mark 2:28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
So the seventh-day sabbath was created for Adam and Eve, and all of humanity, not just for the Jews. Adam lived for 930 years (Gen 5:5), and undoubtedly was a sabbath keeper his entire life. Adam was not the only one of the first millennium to keep the sabbath. The same can be said for Enoch, who was born within the lifetime of Adam. Enoch was so in harmony with God that he was taken up to heaven and never died (Gen 5:24).
Butler's Catechism, previously cited, gives the following information about the Sabbath later in a different section:
Q. What divine traditions existed before Moses wrote the first books of the Old Testament?
A. The duty of sanctifying the Sabbath (Gen. ii. 3); the prohibition of eating the blood of animals (Gen. ix. 4); the rite of circumcision (Gen. xvi. 10); and generally, the whole history of religion before the time of Moses, during twenty-five hundred years.
Q. What traditions of the Christian religion existed before the several books of the New Testament were promulgated or written?
A. The substitution of the Sunday, as a holy day, for the Sabbath, or Saturday; the abrogation of the necessity of circumcision, and generally, the whole system of the Christian religion.
Source:
The Most Rev. Dr. James Butler's Catechism, revised, enlarged, improved, and recommended by the four R. C. Archbishops of Ireland, published in New York by P. J. Kenedy, 1886, page 58.
So in this instance, a Catholic catechism not only admits the change from the Sabbath to Sunday, but it even claims that it was the duty of mankind to keep the Saturday Sabbath beginning with the seventh day of creation!
Sabbath Keeping After the Flood.
The Patriarch Abraham, who was born some 1000 years after the death of Adam, and 300 years after the flood, can also be shown to have kept the seventh-day sabbath:
Gen 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Clearly since Abraham kept God's laws he must also have faithfully kept the seventh day sabbath of the Lord.
Moses and the Jews BeforeMount Sinai.
While Israel was captive in Egypt, Pharaoh was not pleased with them, and gave this reason:
Exo 5:5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.
The word rest is H7673, shabath. The same word is used in Genesis 2:2-3 with the seventh day of creation. Israel was observing a sabbath rest in Egypt, and this angered Pharaoh who then commanded them to also gather their own straw to make bricks, but the quota of bricks was to remain the same. Pharaoh's attempt to force work on Israel such that they could not rest on the sabbath, led to the plagues falling on the Egyptians.
After leaving Egypt, but before the commandments of God were given on stone tablets atop mount Sinai, God had already shown Israel precisely which day was His sabbath:
Exo 16:23 And he [Moses] said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD:
Some may think that any old day will satisfy God, but the Lord left no doubt about the day he wanted observed, he told Moses and the Israelites exactly which day was the sabbath. For 40 years a double portion of manna fell on Friday, and no manna fell on sabbath. Note that this began BEFORE the Ten Commandments were given to Moses on Sinai. The manna continued until the Israelites entered the promised land (Exodus 16:35, Joshua 5:12). With 52 weeks a year, that means God made the seventh day sabbath plain to them for over 2000 weeks. It is a day that does matter to God.
Mount Sinai.
Note that at Sinai the following was said with regard to the sabbath-
Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy
God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Deu 5:15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
When Moses came up on Sinai, God commanded that the Jews were to REMEMBER the sabbath day. The sabbath was not first revealed to Israel on Sinai, they were told to remember what they already knew in no uncertain terms.
Will Just Any Seven Day Cycle of Rest Satisfy God?
Some may ask, one day in seven? Well, why can't I pick my seventh day? Sunday is more convenient for me, or perhaps Monday, etc., so thatwill be my day of sabbath rest to the Lord. I will keep every seventh day holy, but that day will be a day of my choosing. The notion that God allows one to pick their seventh day has even been taught by Catholics:
1157. Did not God command us to observe Saturday, and not Sunday at all?
No. The command as given by Moses in the Name of God to the Jews was that the Sabbath, and not Saturday, should be kept holy. The word Sabbath means rest. The law includes two elements; one essential, that one day in seven should be dedicated to God; the other ceremonial, that the particular day should be chosen. The Jews selected Saturday. ...
1159. ...
... The Jews decided to observe Saturday, while Christians decided to observe Sunday. The seventh day as God's day was not changed. The Sabbath, God's rest day, was transferred from Saturday to Sunday.
Source:
Radio Replies, First Volume, by Rev. Dr. Leslie Rumble, M.S.C. and Rev. Charles Mortimer Carty, Copyright 1938, printed by Radio Replies Press, St. Paul 1, Minn., U.S.A., #1157 & 1159, page 235.
The problem with the choosing-one-day-in-seven theory is that it has no foundation in scripture. As we noted above with the 40 years in the wilderness, God clearly designated a specific day as His Sabbath. Israel was never given a choice in what day they wanted to keep holy as the Sabbath day. The entire community was to keep God's designated day in unison as a memorial to creation week. No one had the prerogative or authority to decide to start keeping some other day as their Sabbath. Note the reaction when some of Israel decided to look for manna on the seventh day Sabbath:
Exo 16:27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
Exo 16:28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
By not resting on God's designated Sabbath day, the law and commandments of God had been broken!
Exo 16:29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Exo 16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
Note that it is emphasized that the Lord God had given the Sabbath. Neither Moses or Israel had picked the day they wanted to observe, they were told specifically which day of the week to keep holy. Keeping it is a sign of loyalty and love for our creator. Breaking it is the sin of rebellion, because it is breaking the law of God. No one has the authority to choose the day they will observe as the seventh day. God did not just institute a seven day cycle, He blessed and sanctified a specific day as holy. But there is a choice involved. Either you choose to keep God's seventh day Sabbath, or you choose to break His commandment by not keeping it, (although this choice may indeed have been made by many in ignorance.)
So, just how do we know which day is the Sabbath of the Lord?
Has The Seventh Day Sabbath Been Lost?
Ask most any Christian what day of the week Jesus rose from the grave and they would answer that it was a Sunday, but when the issue of the seventh day Sabbath is raised, some Sundaykeepers will express doubt about which day is the Sabbath. The following is an excerpt from a sermon (Program C4029) given by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel - Costa Mesa on Sunday, July 2nd, 2000, which tries to maintain this uncertainty:
"What is the Sabbath day? Well, in our calendar the Sabbath Day is Saturday. Sunday is the first day of the week, Saturday would be the seventh day, or the Sabbath day in our calendar. We cannot be certain, however, with all of the changes that have been made in the calendars through the years, that what we acknowledge today as Saturday, or the Sabbath day, is the same that they observed in the time of Moses, or thereafter. We're not certain, as far as what day of the week actually is the seventh day." - Pastor Chuck Smith
Excerpt:
Doubt About The Sabbath - ( � 2000 Chuck Smith)Since this is coming from a relatively well known pastor, the question has to be asked, just who is the "we" spoken of. What reputable authority can be cited that will confirm that "we" cannot be certain which is the sabbath day? And exactly which calendar change is responsible for losing the seventh day of the week? When did this happen? On what verifiable information is this based? He does not say. No facts are offered, only an unsupported assertion. Just because Pastor Chuck Smith does not know which day is really the seventh day sabbath, does not mean that "we", and he, cannot be absolutely certain about the day. If some effort to study the matter is at least attempted, the true seventh day can indeed be known. If there is uncertainty about one day, are not all similarly in doubt, including Sunday? For nearly 20 centuries the resurrection of Jesus has been celebrated on Sunday. How do we know that resurrection day was on a Sunday? Can we be certain of that day?
Was Sunday The Resurrection Day?
Mat 28:1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
Mark 16:2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
Luke 24:1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
Luke 24:2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
Jesus lay in the tomb on the sabbath, and the sabbath ended at sundown, (as does every day according to the Bible). The women came to the tomb at dawn the following day (the first day of the week) and discovered that the tomb was already empty. Clearly then, the resurrection occurred after the close of the Sabbath at sundown, yet prior to sunrise on the first day of the week. Sunday was indeed the day of the resurrection.
Now, Sundaykeepers seem to have no doubts or problems when it comes to their keeping the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection. Catholics in particular, will assert that Sunday was kept by the Apostles in the first century, and maintained by their church faithfully as a holy day ever since. However, when it comes to the previous day, the seventh-day sabbath, suddenly there is talk of calendar changes and doubt that we can really know the correct seventh day? How does one lose track of the seventh day of the week while strictly keeping the next, the first day of the week?
Jesus Knew And Kept The Sabbath Day.
Since Jesus was God, he knew exactly which day was the genuine seventh-day sabbath -
Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Jesus Himself was a keeper of the seventh-day sabbath. Now, if the Jews had somehow lost track of the sabbath day since the time of Moses, Jesus would have certainly corrected them, but this was notnecessary, since they were already observing the right day. As this establishes a firm reference point in history, it remains for the skeptic to try and prove that the Jews, and the rest of the world, somehow collectively lost track of the seventh day Sabbath in the 2000 years since the time of Christ, a period which is very well documented.
The Gregorian Calendar Reform
Sometimes people will say the calendar reform in the Middle Ages must have altered the weekdays as we know them, so we cannot be sure which day is the seventh day. Again people that think this have not researched the issue.
The calendar reform of 1582 was initiated by Pope Gregory XIII because the calendar established by Julius Caesar, was not accurate and stable. This was due to the fact that the Julian calendar added a leap day every 4 years, without exception, and this resulted in adding too many days than required for an accurate solar calendar. The Julian calendar had commenced the 1st of January of the 46th year before the birth of Christ (the 708th from the foundation of Rome). At that time the Spring equinox fell on March 25th, but because of the Julian calendar's inaccuracy, it had gradually drifted earlier over the years to March 10th or 11th by 1582. This error was important to the Catholic church, because under the solar Julian calendar, the date of Easter (the most important date to the church), was gradually creeping farther and farther (earlier and earlier) away from the time of year set by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., when the equinox fell about March 21st. Easter was then to be observed by Roman Catholics on the first Sunday after the full moon occurring after the Spring equinox, except when that coincided with the Jewish Passover, in which case Easter was delayed to the following Sunday.
To correct this perceived Easter problem, Pope Gregory XIII (Inter Gravissimas) returned the Spring equinox to March 21st by decreeing that Thursday, October 4th, 1582, would be followed not by the 5th, but by Friday, October 15th. He jumped the calendar 10 days numerically, but did not change the weekly cycle of days.
So that this correction would be maintained, the Pope then decreed that leap years would occur only when the year was divisible by four, and only the centennial years that were divisible by 400 would be leap years. During a leap year, one day is added to the month of February (the 29th), as a correction. This method of calendar keeping was gradually adopted across Europe, and the world, and is nearly universal today.
England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752. By that time, eleven days had been gained so Wednesday, September 2, was followed by Thursday, September 14. The eleven days were skipped, but the weekly cycle of days, Sunday through Saturday, remained unchanged throughout the Middle Ages. (The French Revolution was a notable exception, when for a period of 14 years (1792-1806) a ten day week was adopted, the tenth day being the day of rest).
Inquiries made in 1932 to theUnited States Naval Observatory,in Washington D.C., and the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, England, have also confirmed that the weekly cycle of 7 days as observed today has not been altered, and remains as it has been since before the time of Christ.
So both history and the Bible make it quite clear that Sunday is the first day of the week and Saturday is indeed the seventh day, which has been kept by the Jews for millennia, even to the present day. The true seventh-day sabbath of God has notbeen lost. Our Saturday is the sameday of the week today as the seventh-day sabbath of creation.
Who Authorized the Switch to Sunday Keeping?
So what rationale exists for worshipping on Sunday, the first day of the week, instead of Saturday, the biblical seventh day?
"It is the day of Christ's resurrection and Christians have transferred the solemnity of Sabbath to Sunday to honor that event."
That sounds terrific, but where exactly does the Bible authorize that change? You see, I really do adhere to the Protestant claim of "the Bible and the Bible only" as the authoritative Word of God on the matter. The sabbath was made by God as a memorial to the creation, and that event was not overshadowed by or done away with by either the crucifixion or the resurrection.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: herefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Exo 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
The seventh day was sanctified (dedicated to a holy use) for ever as a day of rest from all work, as a memorial to the completion of creation.
If God himself declared the seventh day to be sanctified and holy for ever, then where in his Word, the Bible, does He rescind the keeping of the seventh day? Better yet, where in the Bible is the first day of the week declared to be a holy day to be observed in perpetuity, as a replacement for the sabbath? So just who made this change to Sunday?
"Concerning the Authority of the Church. — The Scripture teaches: Remember that you keep the Saturday; six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, etc. However, the church has transferred the observance from Saturday to Sunday by virtue of her own power, without Scripture, without doubt under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."
"Concerning Holidays and Fast-Days. — The Sabbath is commanded in various places in the Scriptures. But there is no mention of the cessation of the Sabbath and the institution of Sunday in the Gospels, or in Paul's writings, or in all the Bible; therefore this has taken place by the apostolic church instituting it without Scripture."
"If, however, the church has had power to change the Sabbath of the Bible into Sunday and to command Sunday- keeping, why should it not have also this power concerning other days, many of which are based on the Scriptures — such as Christmas, circumcision of the heart, three kings, etc. If you omit the latter, and turn from the church to the Scriptures alone, then you must keep the Sabbath with the Jews, which has been kept from the beginning of the world." 12
12 Dr. Eck's Enchiridion, 1533, pp. 78, 79. [Johann Eck was the principle adversary of Andreas Carlstadt and Martin Luther at the disputation at Leipzig in 1519]
Source: History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week by John Nevins Andrews and L. R. Conradi,Review and Herald Publishing, pg. 587.
Enchiridion. Handb�chlinn gemayner stell v(o)n Artickel, der yetz schwebenden neuwen leeren,Johannes Eck, 1530 edition in German. See pages 46 and 195-196 in the .pdf file.
The Lord's Day Is The Seventh Day
A second century writer applied "the Lord's day" to the seventh day Sabbath:
And on the seventh day, it being the Lord's day, he said to them: Now it is time for me also to partake of food. And having washed his hands and face, he prayed, and brought out the linen cloth, and took one of the dates, and ate it in the sight of all.
Source: Acts of John(Apocryphal).
The Presumed Authority of the Church
... They (those who assert church authority) also refer to the example of the Apostles, who commanded to abstain from blood and from things strangled, Acts 15, 29. They refer to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalog, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath-day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!
Source: The Augsburg Confession, edited by Philip Melanchthon (1530), Article 28: Of Ecclesiastical Power.
"He changeth the tymes and lawes that any of the sixe worke dayes commanded of God will make them unholy and idle dayes when he lyste, or of their owne holy dayes abolished make worke dayes agen, or when they changed ye Saterday into Sondaye. . . . They have changed God's lawes and turned them into their owne tradicions to be kept above God's precepts."
Source: The Exposition of Daniel the Prophete, Gathered out of Philipp Melanchthon, Johan Ecolampadius, Chonrade Pellicane, and out of Johan Draconite etc., by George Joye, 1546, Geneve, p. 119.
Pope Sylvester I (314-335 A.D.) Decrees the Transfer of Sabbath Rest to Sunday:
Rabanus Maurus (776-856), abbot of Fulda and later archbishop of Mainz, Germany, was rated one of the greatest theologians of his age and probably the most cultured man of his time, and exceptionally learned in patristics. Besides, he was a zealous defender of the papacy and its teachings. In one of his works, he says,
Pope Sylvester instructed the clergy to keep the feriae. And, indeed, from an old custom he called the first day [of the week] the "Lord's [day]," on which the light was made in the beginning and also the resurrection of Christ is celebrated.6
Rabanus Maurus does not mean to say that Sylvester was the first man who referred to the days of the week as feriae or who first started the observance of Sunday among Christians. He means that, according to the testimony of Roman Catholic writers, Sylvester confirmed those practices and made them official insofar as his church was concerned. Hence Rabanus says elsewhere in his writings:
Pope Sylvester first among the Romans ordered that the names of the days [of the week], which they previously called after the name of their gods, that is, [the day] of the Sun, [the day] of the Moon, [the day] of Mars, [the day] of Mercury, [the day] of Jupiter, [the day] of Venus, [the day] of Saturn, they should call feriae thereafter, that is the first feria, the second feria, the third feria, the fourth feria, the fifth feria, the sixth feria, because that in the beginning of Genesis it is written that God said concerning each day: on the first, "Let there be light:; on the second, "Let there be a firmament"; on the third, "Let the earth bring forth verdure"; etc. But he [Sylvester] ordered [them] to call the Sabbath by the ancient term of the law, [to call] the first feria the "Lord's day," because on it the Lord rose [from the dead], Moreover, the same pope decreed that the rest of the Sabbath should be transferred rather to the Lord's day [Sunday], on order that on that day we should rest from worldly works for the praise of God.7
Note particularly, he says that "the same pope [Sylvester I] decreed that the rest of the Sabbath should be transferred rather to the Lord's day [Sunday]."8 According to this statement, he was the first bishop to introduce the idea that the divinely appointed rest of the Sabbath day should be transferred to the first day of the week. This is significant, especially in view of the fact that it was during Sylvester's pontificate that the emperor of Rome [Constantine] issued the first civil laws compelling men to rest from secular labor on Sunday, and that Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, was the first theologian on record to present arguments, allegedly from the Scriptures, that Christ did transfer the rest of the Sabbath day to Sunday.
6 Rabanus Maurus, Liber de Computo(A book Concerning Computation), Chap. XXVII ("Concerning Festivals"), as translated by the writer from the Latin text in Migne's Patrologia Latina, Vol. CVII, col. 682.
7 ------------, De Clericorum Institutione(Concerning the Instruction of the Clergymen), Book II, Chap. XLVI, as translated by the writer from the Latin text in Migne's Patrologia Latina, Vol. CVII, col. 361.
8 The wording in the Latin text reads: "Statuit autem idem papa ut otium Sabbati magis in diem Dominicam transferretur, ut ea die a terrenis operibus ad laudandum Deum vacaremus."
Source: Sabbath and Sunday in Early Christianity, by Robert L. Odom, � 1977 by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, pages 247-248.
See also: Exactly Which Pope Changed The Sabbath To Sunday?
Saturday no longer the liturgical day, but Sunday.
Sunday was created because the Lord was raised and entered the community of the Apostles to be with them. And thus, they also understood that Saturday was no longer the liturgical day, but Sunday, on which the Lord wants to be with us physically again and again, and wants to nourish us with his Body, so that we ourselves may become his Body in the world.
Source: Meeting with Diocesan Clergy of Aosta, Address of Pope Benedict XVI, Parish Church at Introd (Aosta Valley), Monday, July 25, 2005.
Christians "felt" they had the authority.
63. Christ came to accomplish a new "exodus", to restore freedom to the oppressed. He performed many healings on the Sabbath (cf. Mt 12:9-14 and parallels), certainly not to violate the Lord's Day, but to reveal its full meaning: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mk 2:27). Opposing the excessively legalistic interpretation of some of his contemporaries, and developing the true meaning of the biblical Sabbath, Jesus, as "Lord of the Sabbath" (Mk 2:28), restores to the Sabbath observance its liberating character, carefully safeguarding the rights of God and the rights of man. This is why Christians, called as they are to proclaim the liberation won by the blood of Christ, felt that they had the authority to transfer the meaning of the Sabbath to the day of the Resurrection.
Source: Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini.
The Church assimilated the meaning of the Sabbath to Sunday.
... The early Christians celebrated the first day of the week as the Lord’s day, because it was the day of the resurrection. Yet very soon, the Church also came to realize that the first day of the week is the day of the dawning of creation, the day on which God said: “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3). Therefore Sunday is also the Church’s weekly feast of creation – the feast of thanksgiving and joy over God’s creation. At a time when creation seems to be endangered in so many ways through human activity, we should consciously advert to this dimension of Sunday too. Then, for the early Church, the first day increasingly assimilated the traditional meaning of the seventh day, the Sabbath. We participate in God’s rest, which embraces all of humanity. Thus we sense on this day something of the freedom and equality of all God’s creatures.
Source: Homily of Pope Benedict XVI, Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, Sunday, 9 September 2007.
Nothing is said in the Bible about the change of the Lord's day from Saturday to Sunday. We know of the change only from the tradition of the Church—a fact handed down to us from earliest times by the living voice of the Church. That is why we find so illogical the attitude of many non-Catholics, who say that they will believe nothing unless they can find it in the Bible and yet will continue to keep Sunday as the Lord's day on the say-so of the Catholic Church.
Source: The Faith Explained, Third Edition, by Leo J. Trese, 1965, Fides/Claretian, 14th printing, 2005, ISBN 1 889334 29 4, pg. 246.
Doctors of the Church Decreed the Change to Sunday
... we find St. C�sarius of Arles in the sixth century teaching that the holy Doctors of the Church had decreed that the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been transferred to the Sunday, and that Christians must keep the Sunday holy in the same way as the Jews had been commanded to keep holy the Sabbath Day.
Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia, entry on Sunday, Volume XIV, Copyright � 1912 by Robert Appleton Company, Online Edition Copyright � 1999 by Kevin Knight, Nihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
12. Why did the Church change the Lord's Day from the Sabbath to Sunday?
The Church, using the power of binding and loosing which Christ gave to the Pope, changed the Lord's day to Sunday because it was on Sunday (the first day of the week) that Christ rose from the dead and that the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.
Source: Life in Christ: Instructions in the Catholic Faith, Reverends James Killgallon, Gerard Weber, 1958, pg. 243.
Cardinal Gibbons on Sunday
"... is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But, you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify."
Source: The Faith of Our Fathers, by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, 88th edition, page 89. Originally published in 1876, republished and Copyright 1980 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., pages 72-73.
Baltimore Catechism #2
10. Q. What are we commanded by the third Commandment?
A. By the third Commandment we are commanded to keep holy the Lord's day and the holy days of obligation, on which we are to give our time to the service and worship of God.
11. Q. How are we to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation?
A. We are to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation by hearing Mass, by prayer, and by other good works.
12. Q. Are the Sabbath day and the Sunday the same?
A. The Sabbath day and the Sunday are not the same. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, and is the day which was kept holy in the old law; the Sunday is the first day of the week, and is the day which is kept holy in the new law.
13. Q. Why does the Church command us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath?
A. The Church commands us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath because on Sunday Christ rose from the dead, and on Sunday He sent the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.
14. Q. What is forbidden by the third Commandment?
A. The third Commandment forbids all unnecessary servile work and whatever else may hinder the due observance of the Lord's day.
Source: A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, prepared and enjoined by the order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, New Edition, No. 2, Imprimatur by John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, and approved by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, published in 1885 by Broadway Church Goods House, 719 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, page 64.
Advanced Catechism
354. What are we commanded by the third Commandment?
By the third Commandment we are commanded to keep holy the Lord's day and the holy days of obligation, on which we are to give our time to the service and worship of God.
Which is now the Lord's Day?
The Lord's day now is Sunday, in memory of the Resurrection of Christ and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost.
355. How are we to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation?
We are to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation by hearing Mass, by prayer, and by other good works. ...
356. Are the Sabbath day and the Sunday the same?
The Sabbath day and the Sunday are not the same. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, and is the day which was kept holy in the old law; the Sunday is the first day of the week, and is the day which is kept holy in the new law.
Who made the change from Saturday to Sunday?
The change from Saturday to Sunday was made by the Apostles, though the Bible does not clearly teach Sunday observance.
357. Why does the Church command us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath?
The Church commands us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath because on Sunday Christ rose from the dead, and on Sunday He sent the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.
358. What is forbidden by the third Commandment?
The third Commandment forbids all unnecessary servile work and whatever else may hinder the due observance of the Lord's day.
Source: Advanced Catechism Of Catholic Faith And Practice, based upon the Third Plenary Council Catechism for use in the higher grades of Catholic Schools, compiled by Rev. Thomas J. O'brien, inspector of Parochial Schools, Diocese of Brooklyn, published by John B. Oink, Chicago Ill., copyright 1929, pages 180-182.
Great is the authority of the Church
You will have noticed, my dear children, that the day on which we keep the Sabbath is not the same as that on which it was observed by the Jews. They kept and still keep the Sabbath upon Saturday, we upon Sunday; they on the seventh day, we on the first day of the week. Hence the Jews close their shops and attend their synagogues upon Saturday, but Sunday is observed as the day of rest by all Christians, even by those sects who are separated from the Catholic Church. You will ask, what is the reason of this? It is because the Apostles, who were the first pastors of the Church, by the authority which [p. 107] they had received from our Blessed Lord to regulate all that regards his public worship, changed the day appointed for the keeping of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday — from the seventh to the first day of the week. And why did they do so? To honour the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, both of which mysteries were accomplished on the first day of the week. From this we may understand how great is the authority of the Church in interpreting or explaining to us the commandments of God — an authority which is acknowledged by the universal practice of the whole Christian world, even of those sects who profess to take the Holy Scriptures as their sole rule of faith, since they observe as the day of rest not the seventh day of the week commanded by the Bible, but the first day, which we know is to be kept holy, only from the tradition and teaching of the Catholic Church.
Source: Catechism Made Easy, Being A Familiar Explanation Of The Catechism Of Christian Doctrine, by the Rev. Henry Gibson, Vol. II., Liverpool: printed by Rockliff Brothers, 44 Castle Street. London: R. Washbourne, 18, Paternoster Row, 1874, pgs. 106-107.
Cardinal Gasparri's Catholic Catechism
Article 3. The Third Commandment of the Decalogue.
(203) What does God command in the Third Commandment--"Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day"?
In the Third Commandment-"Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day"--God commands that festival days--that is, days dedicated to Him--should be kept with divine worship, business and bodily toil being laid aside. 190
(204) What were the festival days in the Old Testament?
In the Old Testament there were many festival days, but the chief one was the Sabbath, the very name of which signifies the rest needful for the worship of God, whence it is called "the day of rest."
(205) Why is the Sabbath day not observed under the New Testament?
The Sabbath day is not observed under the New Testament, because in its place the Church keeps Sunday in honor of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the coming
[pg. 121]
down of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; the Church also adds other festival days. 191
(206) To what, then, are we bound nowadays as regards keeping festival days holy?
As regards keeping festival days holy we are to-day bound to sanctify, in the manner proscribed by the Church, the Sundays and other Feast Days appointed by her 192
190 Exod. xx, 8; xxxi, 13; Deut. v, 12-15.
191 The commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy was not, if we consider only the day actually stated, a fixed and constant one, but a variable one, nor was it so much a moral as a ceremonial precept. If, however, we consider the commandment itself, it will be evident that it has its moral aspect and forms part of the natural law. Moreover the date at which the keeping of the Sabbath was removed was precisely that at which the rest of the Hebrew cult and ceremonial was to cease―namely the day of Christ's death. See the Catechism of the Council of Trent, III, iv, 4ff.
Source: The Catholic Catechism, by Peter Cardinal Gasparri, translated by the Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., second printing, copyright 1932 and printed by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, Typographi Pontificii, 12 Barclay Street, New York, questions 203-206, pages 120-121.
THE SABBATH, WHY CHANGED TO SUNDAY
But the Church of God has in her wisdom ordained that the celebration of the Sabbath should be transferred to "the Lord's-day:" as on that day light first shone on the world, so by the resurrection of our Lord on the same day, by whom was thrown open to us the gate to eternal life, we were called out of darkness into light; and hence the Apostle would have it called "the Lord's-day."
Source: The Catechism of the Council of Trent (The Roman Catechism), translated into English by the Rev. J. Donovan, Professor, &c., Royal College, Maynooth, 1829, Baltimore: Published by Fielding Lucas, Jr., pg. 267.
The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord's Day. The Council of Trent (Sess. VI, can. xix) condemns those who deny that the Ten Commandments are binding on Christians."
Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Commandments of God, Volume IV, � 1908 by Robert Appleton Company - Online Edition� 1999 by Kevin Knight, Nihil Obstat - Remy Lafort, Censor Imprimatur - +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York, page 153.
Summa Theologica
In the New Law the observance of the Lord's day (Sunday) took the place of the observance of the Sabbath (Saturday), not by virtue of the precept (of God) but by the institution of the Church and the custom (Tradition) of Christian people.
Source: St. Thomas Aquinas:Summa Theologica - SS Q[122] A[4] Reply to Objection 4.
Deharbe's Large Catechism
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD
"Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day."
1. What does God command by this Third Commandment?
By this Third Commandment God Commands us to keep holy one day of the week, which is thence called the "Lord's Day."
Note. The Jews kept the Sabbath or the seventh day, Christians keep the Sunday or the first day of the week.
�2. Why do Christians keep the Sunday instead of the Sabbath?
Because the Apostles appointed it so in memory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, which events took place on Sunday.
Source: Deharbe's Large Catechism, translated by a father of the Society of Jesus from the German edition, prepared for the United States, copyright 1882 and published by Benzinger Brothers, New York, Cincinnati and Chicago, and blessed in writing by Pope Leo XIII on January 3rd, 1883, page 58.
A Convert's Catechism
Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
Q. Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on a Sunday.
Q. By what authority did the Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her.
Q. What does the Third Commandment command?
A. The Third Commandment commands us to sanctify Sunday as the Lord's Day.
Source: The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, by Reverend Peter Geiermann, C.S.R., Copyright 1910 by Joseph Gummersbach, blessed by Pope Pius X on the 25th of January 1910 via Cardinal Merry Del Val, published by B. Herder Book Co, 15 and 17 South Broadway, St. Louis, Mo., and London, W. C. 33 Queen Square, in 1937, Twelfth Edition, page 50.
... in 336 A.D., the Catholic Church, at the Council of Laodicea, made the ecclesiastical law obliging the faithful to attend Mass and to abstain from servile works on Sundays. And all Christians accepted that law in virtue of the divine authority Christ gave to His Church when He said, "Whatsoever you bind upon earth shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatsoever you loose upon earth shall be loosed also in Heaven" (Matt., xviii, 18).
What does all this mean? It means that the Seventh Day Adventists are wrong in saying that the Jewish Sabbath still obliges, for there is clear authority in the Bible for its abrogation.
Seventh Day Adventists are right, however, in accusing other Protestants of inconsistency who speak of any obligation of Sunday observance whilst rejecting the authority of the Catholic Church. It is not that there is no authority in the Bible for Sunday observance. But there is no direct authority for it as an obligation. The only direct authority for it is that of the Catholic Church; but that involves the authority of the Bible at least indirectly in so far as the Bible itself teaches clearly that the Catholic Church is directly authorized by Christ to legislate in His name.
Source: Seventh Day Adventists, by Rev. Dr. L. Rumble. M.S.C., published by The Australian Catholic Truth Society Record, February 10, 1950, pamphlet No. 446, printed by The Advocate Press, 143-151 o'Beckett St., Melbourne, pg. 24.
The Council of Laodicea in Phrygia Pacatiana, was a local, Eastern, Greek-speaking synod, and the canons referring to the Sabbath or Sunday/Lord's day are listed here:
LAODICEA, CANON 16. - The Gospels are to be read on Sabbath, with the other Scriptures [apparently at Communion services; see canon 49, below].
LAODICEA, CANON 29. - Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.
LAODICEA, CANON 49. - During Lent, the Bread must not be offered except on the Sabbath Day and on the Lord's Day only.
LAODICEA, CANON 51. - The nativities of Martyrs [actually, the death days, on which martyrs were considered to have been born to eternal life] are not to be celebrated in Lent, but commemorations of the holy Martyrs are to be made on the Sabbaths and Lord's days.
A Catholic Catechism
THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD
"THOU SHALT NOT DO UNNECESSARY SERVILE WORK ON THE
LORD'S DAY, BUT PERFORM WORKS PLEASING TO GOD."
...
227. Which is the Lord's Day?
The Lord's Day is Sunday.
...
The LAW of keeping Sunday holy, instead of the Sabbath, was made by the Church, probably by the apostles.
Source: A Catholic Catechism for the Parochial and Sunday Schools of the United States, Rev. James Groenings, Priest of the Society of Jesus, translated by Very Rev. James Rockliff, of the same Society, Benzinger Brothers, Printers to the Holy Apostolic See, copyright 1900, Nihil Obstat: Theodore Van Rossum, S.J., Censor Deputatus, Imprimatur: Michael Augustine, Archbishop of New York, page 65.
Faerber's Catechism
THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD
Thou shalt keep holy the Lord's day.
209. Which is the Lord's day?
Sunday, the first day of the week, is the Lord's day.
On Sunday, God the Father began creation, God the Son arose from the dead, and the Holy Ghost descended from Heaven.—The Jews observed the last day of the week, the Sabbath, and the Apostles, commissioned by our Lord Jesus Christ, substituted for it the first day, the Sunday.
Source: Catechism for the Catholic Parochial Schools of the United States, by Rev. W. Faerber, 36th edition, Revised, published by B. Herder Book Co., 17 South Broadway, St. Louis, Mo., and 33 Queen Square, London, W. C., copyright 1935, page 41.
The Sunday Sabbath flagrantly contradicts the Bible:
It is worth its while to remember that this observance of the [Sunday] 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 [7th day] 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 the Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church.
Source: Plain Talk About The Protestantism Of Today, from the French of Monsignor Louis Gaston de Segur, Boston: Patrick Donahoe, 1868, Imprimatur Joannes Josephus, Episcopus Boston, pg. 225.
CATECHISM OF POPE PIUS X
The Third Commandment
1 Q. What does the Third Commandment: Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day, command us to do?
A. The Third Commandment: Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day, commands us to honour God by acts of worship on festivals.
2 Q. What are festivals?
A. In the Old Law they were Saturdays and certain other days regarded as specially solemn by the Jews; in the New Law they are Sundays and other festivals instituted by the Church.
3 Q. Why is Sunday sanctified instead of Saturday in the New Law?
A. Sunday, which means the Lord's Day, was substituted for Saturday, because it was on that day that our Lord rose from the dead.
St. Paul Family Catechism
[pg. 249]
629. Which is the third commandment?
The third commandment is: Remember to keep holy the Lord's day (cf. Ex. 20:8).
[pg. 250]
630. What are we obliged to do by the third commandment?
By the third commandment we are obliged to worship God on Sundays and on holy days of obligation by participating in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
...
[pg. 253]
640. Why was Sunday set aside as the Lord's day in place of the Sabbath of the Old Testament?
Sunday was set aside as the Lord's day in place of the Sabbath of the Old Testament because of an apostolic tradition which took its origin from the day of Christ's resurrection. (Acts 20:7)
Source: St. Paul Family Catechism, Third Edition, Copyright 1992, by the Daughters of St. Paul, published by St. Paul Books & Media, 50 St. Paul's Ave., Boston MA 02130, pp 249, 251, 253.
A New Catechism
What day was the Sabbath?
The seventh day, our Saturday.
Do you keep the Sabbath?
No: we keep the Lord's Day.
Which is that?
The first day: Sunday.
Who changed it?
The Catholic Church.
Source: A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine and Practice for School and Home Use, American Edition, Authorized, by James Bellord, published in Notre Dame, Indiana, by The Ave Maria, 1902,pages 86-87. (Also published in London in 1901 by the Catholic Truth Society.)
Keenan's Catechism
[pg. 53]
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?
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 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, that we should rest on Thursday, because Christ ascended to heaven on that day, and rested in reality from the work of redemption.
[ pg. 54]
Q. What do you conclude from all this?
A. That Protestants have no Scripture for the measure of their day of rest; that they abolish the observance of Saturday without warrant of Scripture; that they substitute Sunday in its place without scriptural authority; consequently, that for all this, they have only traditional authority. Yet Protestants would look upon a man who would do profane work after five o'clock on Sunday, or keep the Saturday, and profane the first day, as a victim of perdition. Hence we must conclude, that the Scripture, which does not teach these things clearly, does not contain all necessary truths; and, consequently, cannot be the only rule of faith.
[ pg. 108]
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 done that in which all modern religionists agree with her - 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.
Source: Controversial Catechism, by the Rev. Stephen Keenan, Second Edition revised and enlarged, published in 1849 by John Doyle, 22 Leith Street, Edinburgh, & J. Chalmers, Castle Street, Dundee, and in 1851 by C. Dolman, 13 South Hanover Street, Edinburgh; and 61, New Bond Street, London, pages 53, 54, and 108.
A Doctrinal Catechism, by Rev. Stephen Keenan, Imprimatur by John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, Third American Edition, Copyright 1876 by T. W. Strong, published by P. J. Kenedy, pages 352-355, 174.
By what authority did the Church change the observance of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?
The Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant, claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. In this matter the Seventh-day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant.
Source: The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, Ohio, August 14, 1942.
Anglican Archbishop Declares Tradition as Sunday's Origin
TORONTO, Oct. 27 (BUP).—Rev. Philip Carrington, Anglican Archbishop of Quebec, sent local clergymen into a huddle today by saying outright that there was nothing to support Sunday being kept holy. Carrington defiantly told a church meeting in this city of straight-laced protestantism that tradition, not the Bible, had made Sunday the day of worship. He quoted the biblical commandment which said the seventh day should be one of rest, and then stated: “That is Saturday.” “Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday,” the Archbishop told a hushed, still audience. Local parsons read his comments today with set, determined looks. They refused comment.
Source: News Item, Albertan(Calgary, Alberta, Canada), Oct. 28, 1949.
Sunday Holy By Habit Not By Scripture Says Anglican Leader
TORONTO, Oct. 27 (BUP).—Rev. Philip Carrington, Anglican Archbishop of Quebec, sent local clergymen into a huddle Wednesday by saying outright that there was nothing to support Sunday being kept holy.
Archbishop Carrington defiantly told a church meeting in this city of straight-laced Protestantism that tradition, not the Bible, had made Sunday the day of worship.
He quoted the Biblical commandment which said the seventh day should be one of rest, and then stated: “That is Saturday.”
“Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday,” the archbishop said.
Source: News Item, Winnipeg Free Press, Manitoba, Thursday, October 27, 1949, page 16.
Sundaykeeping is not founded on Scripture
"It is a matter of wonderment to us to see Catholic clergymen using the word ' Sabbath ' for ' Sunday. ' We protest energetically against the Protestant mode of speech. It does not look well for Catholics to knuckle to such Protestant fantastic notions. Sunday is founded, not on Scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no Scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday, and thus leave Catholics in full possession of Sunday." — Catholic Record, Sept. 17, 1891.
The Catholic Christian Instructed.
[p. 202]
Q. What are the days which the Church commands to be kept holy?
A. 1st, The Sunday, or the Lord’s day, which we observe by apostolical tradition, instead of the Sabbath. …
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 apostolical tradition.
Q. Does the scripture any where command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?
A. The scripture commands us to hear the Church, St. Matt. xviii. 17. St. Luke x. 16, and to hold fast the traditions of the Apostles, 2 Thess. ii. 15, but the scripture does not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath. St. John speaks of the Lord's day, Rev. i. 10; but he does not tell us what day of the week this was, much less does he tell us that this day was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandments: St. Luke also speaks of the disciples meeting together to break bread on the first day of the week, Acts xx. 7. And St. Paul, I Cor. xvi 2, orders that on the first day of the week the Corinthians should lay by in store what they designed to bestow in charity on the faithful in Judea: but neither the one nor the other tells us, that this first day of
[p. 203]
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 and ordinance of the 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 holydays all stand upon the same foundation, viz, the ordinance of the Church. ...
[p. 204]
Q. What was the reason why the weekly Sabbath was changed from the Saturday to the Sunday?
A. Because our Lord fully accomplished the work of our redemption by rising from the dead on a Sunday, and by sending down the Holy Ghost on a Sunday: as therefore the work of our redemption was a greater work than that of our creation, the primitive Church thought the day, in which this work was completely finished, was more worthy [of] her religious observation than that in which God rested from the creation, and should be properly called the Lord’s day.
Q. But has the Church a power to make any alterations in the commandments of God?
A. The commandments of God, as far as they contain his eternal law, are unalterable and indispensable; but as to whatever was only ceremonial, they cease to oblige, since the Mosaic law was abrogated by Christ's death. Hence, as far as the commandment obliges us to set aside some part of our time for the worship and service of our Creator, it is an unalterable and unchangeable precept of the eternal law, in which the Church cannot dispense: but for as much as it prescribes the seventh day in particular for this purpose, it is no more than a ceremonial precept of the old law, which obligeth not Christians. And therefore, instead of the seventh day, and other festivals appointed in the old law, the Church has prescribed the Sundays and holydays 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.
Source: The Catholic Christian Instructed in the Sacraments, Sacrifice, Ceremonies, and Observances of the Church, by the Right Rev. Dr. Richard Challoner,published in Baltimore in 1852 by John Murphy & Co., pp. 202 - 204.
No Scriptural Warrant for Baptizing Infants or Observing Sunday
It is true, Catholics do not hold, as Protestants profess to do, that nothing can possibly be matter of divine revelation which is not contained in holy Scripture, nor do Protestants themselves in fact, though they do in words; for they believe the inspiration of holy Scripture to be matter of Divine revelation, yet this, from the very nature of the [pg 10] case, cannot rest on the testimony of Scripture itself. So, too, with the duty of baptizing infants, and of observing Sunday instead of Saturday as the Christian holiday, on which points Protestants believe and act as Catholics do, while yet they would be puzzled to find Scripture warrant for so doing. ...
Source: Library of Controversy - The Clifton Tracts, by the Brotherhood of St. Vincent of Paul, Volume 1, How Do We Know What The Bible Means?, published about 1854 in New York by P. J. Kenedy, Excelsior Catholic Publishing House, 5 Barclay Street, pages 9, 10.
Rebuilding A Lost Faith
Protestants often deride the authority of Church tradition, and claimed to be directed by the Bible only; yet they, too, have been guided by customs of the ancient Church, which find no warrant in the Bible, but rest on Church tradition only! A striking instance of this is the following:—The first positive command in the Decalogue is to “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” and this precept was enforced by the Jews for thousands of years. But the Sabbath Day, the observance of which God commanded, was our Saturday. Yet who among either Catholics or Protestants, except a sect or two, like the “Seventh Day Baptists,” ever keep that commandment now? None. Why is this? The Bible, which Protestants claim to obey exclusively, gives no authorisation for the substitution of the first day of the week for the seventh. On what authority, therefore, have they done so? Plainly on the authority of that very Catholic Church which they abandoned, and whose traditions they condemn.
Source: Rebuilding a Lost Faith By An American Agnostic, John L. Stoddard, published in New York by P. J. Kenedy and Sons, circa 1922, p. 80.
The Observance of Sunday and Civil Laws for its Enforcement
[pg. 139]
Strange as it may seem, the State, in passing laws for the due sanctification of Sunday, is unwittingly acknowledging the authority of the Catholic Church, and carrying out more or less faithfully its prescriptions.
The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God, to be sanctified by a suspension of all servile labor, trade, and worldly avocations and by exercises of devotion, is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.
It is not the Jewish Sabbath; it is, in fact, entirely distinct from it, and not governed by the enactments of the Mosaic law. It is part and parcel of the system of the Catholic Church, as absolutely as Christian marriage is or any other of her sacraments, her festivals and fasts, her days of joy and mourning, her indulgences and her jubilees.
[pg. 149]
The Catholic Church created the Sunday and made the very regulations which have come down on the statute-books, and she still constantly, from her pulpits, her catechists' chairs, and the confessional, calls on her faithful to obey them, to sanctify the day, and refrain from all that desecrates it.
[pg. 152]
For ages all Christian nations looked to the Catholic Church, and, as we have seen, the various states enforced by law her ordinances as to worship and cessation of labor on Sunday. Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath, with the Jews and the Seventh-Day Baptists. For their present practice Protestants in general have no authority but that of a Church which they disown, and there cannot be a greater inconsistency than theirs in asking the state to enforce the Sunday laws.
If it be a mere state holiday, most of the legislative provisions are a mere tyrannical interference with the liberty of a citizen; and it is a strange holiday on which people are forbidden to enjoy themselves, under penalty of fine and imprisonment. If it were merely this, it would be more sensible to punish the man who wore a long face on a public holiday than the man who laughed.
It is not a mere legal holiday; it is the Lord's day, set apart by the Catholic Church. It is a religious holiday, and so long as it is maintained by law it is therefore only a sorry farce to tell us that in this country there is no union of church and state.
The state, in referring to the Sunday laws, does it as a religious duty, acknowledging the Divine supremacy, and enforcing laws made known through the instrumentality of the Church.
Source: The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. VIII, No. 29, January 1883, The Observance of Sunday and Civil Laws for its Enforcement, John Gilmary Shea, LL.D., published in Philadelphia by Hardy and Mahony Publishers and Proprietors, pages 139, 149, 152.
Not one scintilla of scriptural proof that Sunday is divinely appointed:
And now we would ask upon what religious grounds these earnest advocates for a more strict observance of Sunday [Protestants] base their claims to make Sunday a day of worship. If all the new law is contained in the Scripture, there is not one scintilla of proof that it is the divinely appointed day. Their citadel is not built upon sand—its condition is worse, it has no foundation at all. It is said in Holy Writ that "on the first day of the week the disciples were gathered for prayer and the breaking of bread." It is also said that on "another occasion, they were gathered for the same purpose on the first day of the week to hear St. Paul, who preached until midnight." St. John, it is said, was in the spirit on "the Lord's day." But this is a mere recital of facts, it is not the promulgation of a law. It is not the language, nor does it carry the sanction of a law. Who then, made Sunday, the first day of the week, the newly appointed day of worship? The divine organism that traces its history through the centuries back to Christ, that received the commission, "Go and teach all nations;" that received from the hands of Christ, the divine founder of the new covenant, the new law of worship, in whose hands was placed the gift of infallible truth. To that divine organization, the Catholic Church, was given the law of worship, and she alone decreed and she alone had the right to decree that Sunday, the first day of the week, should be the future day of religious worship. The substance remained as St. Paul says and the victim of her altars was to be worshipped. So the substance was preserved; she, therefore, decreed the law, the day of worship and all the ordinances of that worship. All outside of her [Protestants] are fighting from a religious point view for a cause which does not belong to them. The Christian Sunday rests solely upon the teachings of tradition, which they reject.
Source: Western Watchman, a Catholic journal devoted to the interests of the Catholic Church in the West, published in St. Louis, Mo., September 19, 1895, front page article: "Christian Sunday", synopsis of a sermon presented at St. Andrews Cathedral by Dr. Callaghan, on Sunday Sept. 1st., 1895.
Not An Iota Of Scripture To Establish Sunday
From this same Catholic Church you have accepted your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord’s day, she has handed down as a tradition; and the entire Protestant world has accepted it as tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish it. Therefore that which you have accepted as your rule of faith, inadequate as it of course is, as well as your Sunday, you have accepted on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
Source: The Papal controversy involving the claim of the Roman Catholic Church to the church of God, by David Burcham Ray, National Baptist Publishing Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1892, p. 179.
To Tell You the Truth.
All of us believe many things in regard to religion that we do not find in the Bible. For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the Church outside the Bible.
Source: The Catholic Virginian, "To Tell You The Truth,” Vol. 22, No. 49 (Oct. 3, 1947).
The New Question Box
A few weeks ago I saw a reference to the obligation of hearing Mass on Sunday, tying it to the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day. Is this really a law that not even the pope could change?
The commandment to "keep holy the Sabbath day" could never be interpreted as a commandment referring to Sunday Mass. For one thing, the Mass was still many centuries in the future when Moses received the Ten Commandments. For another, the Sabbath day - from the Hebrew verb "sabat," rest - was Saturday, the seventh day of the week, not Sunday.
Christians have, of course, celebrated Sunday as the Lord's Day from the earliest centuries, but the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday, as we know it, is comparatively recent. That obligation, as it now exists in church law, could be removed or modified by the church itself.
Sabbath changed to Sunday?
Why was the Sabbath changed from Saturday to Sunday, and is there a chance it might be changed back someday? The Seventh Day Adventists are passing out pamphlets dealing with this subject, and they are so convincing that I've decided to go to Saturday evening Mass until this is explained.
[pg. 119]
The very early Christians changed the "Sabbath" day to Sunday for a variety of reasons. First, the fact that the resurrection of Jesus is recorded in Scripture as occurring on the first day of the week certainly had much to do with the fact that this seemed the most appropriate day to celebrate the Eucharist to commemorate that event. The first Christians also made a point of changing their days of observance (including fast days) from those proscribed by Jewish law to emphasize their departure from traditions and customs of the people of Israel.
When the Seventh Day Adventist Church was formed about the middle of the last century, the four men and one woman who became its nucleus were somehow convinced that Saturday, not Sunday, should still be the "holy day" of the week. It is one of the lesser ways the teachings of that church depart from general Christian tradition. There's no reason whatsoever to suspect this Sunday tradition will ever change.
Which day is the Sabbath?
We commonly refer to the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week. The Bible does not say this. It does say many times that the Sabbath is the seventh day after six days of work.
There is a big difference in these two sevens. The seventh day of the calendar week is one set date each week, but the seventh day after the beginning of the first day of work can be any day of the week.
The Bible does not speak of any consecutive seven-day cycles up to the time of the Israelites' first Sabbath. Therefore, we know that before this time, there was no standard weekly calendar used such as the one in use at Christ's time.
Though God commanded a Sabbath rest day, he did not necessarily mean the seventh day. Thus, Sunday-keeping saints have not gone to hell for not keeping Saturday.
You may be right. I'm not sure how practical your suggestion is, however. No matter how theoretically correct you are, I don't believe the argument will carry much weight with people who believe we must observe the Sabbath on Saturday.
I believe you would find it difficult to discover evidence that [pg. 120] observance of a seven-day week came after the Jewish regulation of rest on the seventh day. Long before the observance of the Sabbath rest was an established regulation among the Hebrews, a seven-day week was not all uncommon in several Near Eastern cultures, including that of the Jews. Apparently this resulted from the division of the lunar month (28 days) into four sections, though other cultures, such as the Greeks and Romans, divided the lunar month into three sections of roughly 10 days each.
It is entirely possible that the Hebrew Tradition of six days work and one day rest developed out of the context of the seven-day week, the last day of which would be a day or recuperation from labor. In other words, the history of the Sabbath may be a fascinating study, but it doesn't offer much ammunition against Sabbatarians (those who insist on Saturday as the holy day). Our reasons for observing Sunday as the Christian holy day arise from entirely different sources.
Source: The New Question Box, by John J. Dietzen, M.A., S.T.L., copyright 1988, published by Guildhall, Peoria, Illinois, ISBN 0-940518-01-5, pages 118, 119, 120.
For 25 Years Father Enright Offers $1,000 For A Bible Verse Commanding Sunday Observance:
... Christ gave the church the power to make laws binding upon the conscience. Show me one sect that claims or possesses the power to do so save the Catholic church. There is none, and yet all christendom acknowledges the power of the church to do so, as I will prove to you. For example, the observance of Sunday. How can other denominations keep this day? The Bible commands you to keep the Sabbath day. Sunday is not the Sabbath day; no man dare assert that it is, for the Bible says as plainly as words can make it that the seventh day is the Sabbath, i.e., Saturday, for we all know Sunday to be the first day of the week. Besides, the Jews have been keeping the Sabbath unto the present day. I am not a rich man, but I will give $1,000 to any man who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep. No, it cannot be done, it is impossible. The observance of Sunday is solely a law of the Catholic church, and therefore is not binding upon others. The church changed the Sabbath to Sunday and all the world bows down and worships upon that day in silent obedience to the mandates of the Catholic church. Is this not a living miracle? That those who hate us so bitterly obey and acknowledge our power every week and DO NOT KNOW IT! ...
Source: The True Church of the Bible, a lecture by Father Enright, delivered in the Hartford opera house on Monday, February 18th, 1884, and published in The Hartford Weekly Call, Friday, February 22, 1884, Volume V, No. 20, Hartford, Lyon County, Kansas, page 1.
Father Enright, a noted Catholic priest of Iowa, has this to say about the Sabbath and Sunday: "Every one knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, Saturday is the seventh day, and the Sabbath, the consecrated day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations. I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to any one who will give proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep and no one has called for the money. If any person in this town will show me any scripture for it I will publicly acknowledge it, and thank him for it. 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 to labor under penalty of anathema."
Source: Woodland Daily Democrat, California, Wednesday, November 26, 1890, page 2.
(Extracts from a lecture delivered by Father Enright at Harlan, Iowa, December 15, 1889. Reported by the Harlan American.)
The attendance at the Catholic Church on Sunday evening was unusually large, many being unable to gain admittance. The subject treated on that evening was "The Power and Authority of the Catholic Church". Father Enright claimed that the authority and existence of his church antedated that of the Bible. His remarks upon Sunday observance created something of a sensation. He said:
“My brethren, look about you upon the various wrangling sects and denominations. Show me one that claims or possesses the power to make laws binding on the conscience. There is but one on the face of the earth—the Catholic Church—that has the power upon the conscience, binding before God, binding under pain of hell fire. Take, for instance, the day we celebrate—Sunday. What right have the Protestant churches to observe that day? None whatever. You say it is to obey the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." But Sunday is not the Sabbath according to the Bible and the record of time. Everyone knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, while Saturday is the seventh day, and the Sabbath, the day consecrated as a day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations. I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who will furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. If any person in this city will show me any scripture for it, I will tomorrow evening publicly acknowledge it and thank him for it. 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 the penalty of anathema.
“Which church does the whole civilized world obey? Protestants call us every horrible name they can think of — AntiChrist, the scarlet colored beast, Babylon, etc., and at the same time profess great reverence for the Bible, and yet by their solemn act of keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the power of the Catholic Church. The Bible says: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." But the Catholic Church says, "No, keep the first day of the week’ and the whole world bows in obedience.”
Sources: The American Sentinel,Vol. 5, February 6, 1890, No. 6, pg. 46, and Lake Union Herald, Vol. 1, Berrien Springs, Mich., Dec. 1, 1909, No. 57, pgs. 2-3, quoting theIndustrial American, of Harlan, Iowa, December 19, 1889.
I have offered & still offer $1,000 to any one who can prove to me, from the Bible alone, that I am bound under grievous sin to keep Sunday holy.
2. It was the Catholic church that made the law obliging us to keep Sunday holy. This law was made long after the Bible was written; hence said law is not in the Bible.
Source: Letter from 1909 by Father Enright.
Things Catholics Are Asked About
Some non-Catholics object to Purgatory because there is no specific mention of it in Scripture. There is no specific mention of the word Sunday in Scripture. The Sabbath is mentioned, but Sabbath means Saturday. Yet Christians of almost all denominations worship on Sunday, not Saturday. The Jews observe Saturday. Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The fact is that the Church was in existence for several centuries before the Bible was given to the world. The Church made the Bible, the Bible did not make the Church.
Now the Church which gave us the Bible, instituted, by God's authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday.
Source: Things Catholics Are Asked About, Martin J. Scott, S.J., Litt.D., p. 136, Copyright 1927 by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York.
Basic Catholic Catechism
Third Commandment: "Remember to keep holy the Lord's day."
1. Sundays and Holy Days: Mass Obligation
In Old Testament times, this commandment required keeping the Sabbath (Saturday), holy and a day of rest. The day was moved to Sunday by the authority Christ gave to His Church, to commemorate the Resurrection of Our Lord and Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles.
Source: Basic Catholic Catechism, By Fr. William G. Most, Copyright 1990.
Catholicism and Fundamentalism
After all, fundamentalists meet for worship on Sunday, yet there is no evidence in the Bible that corporate worship was to be made on Sundays. The Jewish Sabbath, or day of rest, was, of course, Saturday. It was the Catholic Church that decided Sunday should be the day of worship for Christians, in honor of the Resurrection.
Source: Catholicism and Fundamentalism, by Karl Keating, copyright 1988 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco, bearing the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur of the Catholic Church, page 38.
Curiously, the Catechism of the Catholic Church today correctly states clearly that the 10 Commandments cannot be changed by anyone:
2072 Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart.
2076 By his life and by his preaching Jesus attested to the permanent validity of the Decalogue.
2079 The Decalogue forms an organic unity in which each "word" or "commandment" refers to all the others taken together. To transgress one commandment is to infringe the whole Law (cf. Jas 2:10-11).
But this current magesterial catechism of the highest authority freely admits that Sunday is not the biblical Sabbath, and then proceeds to contradict itself on the fundamentally immutable, permanently valid Ten Commandments, by asserting that Sunday has replaced the biblical Sabbath for the Christian:
2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ.
So dear reader, you should no longer have any doubt that Sunday is the first day of week, and that nowhere in the Bible is Sunday blessed, sanctified or commanded by God as a day of weekly worship. If you claim to be Protestant, and acknowledge that the Bible is your only ruler of truth, then on what basis do you worship on Sunday? You have only the Tradition of the Catholic Church, and it's claim of authority to change the laws of God to rest your case on. In spite of your claim of Protestantism, you are casting aside the only day the Bible sanctifies in perpetuity by the Word of God and you are replacing it with a day authorized ONLY by the word of Roman Catholic Tradition. If you hallow Sunday, then you are essentially Catholic on that matter, not a "Bible Only" Protestant.
So which authority do you acknowledge, the Word of God that commands seventh day Sabbath worship or the Tradition of the Catholic Church which commands Sunday, first day worship?
There is no other choice.
So that this correction would be maintained, the Pope then decreed that leap years would occur only when the year was divisible by four, and only the centennial years that were divisible by 400 would be leap years. During a leap year, one day is added to the month of February (the 29th), as a correction. This method of calendar keeping was gradually adopted across Europe, and the world, and is nearly universal today.
England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752. By that time, eleven days had been gained so Wednesday, September 2, was followed by Thursday, September 14. The eleven days were skipped, but the weekly cycle of days, Sunday through Saturday, remained unchanged throughout the Middle Ages. (The French Revolution was a notable exception, when for a period of 14 years (1792-1806) a ten day week was adopted, the tenth day being the day of rest).
Inquiries made in 1932 to the
United States Naval Observatory,in Washington D.C., and the 
Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, England, have also confirmed that the weekly cycle of 7 days as observed today has not been altered, and remains as it has been since before the time of Christ.
So both history and the Bible make it quite clear that Sunday is the first day of the week and Saturday is indeed the seventh day, which has been kept by the Jews for millennia, even to the present day. The true seventh-day sabbath of God has notbeen lost. Our Saturday is the sameday of the week today as the seventh-day sabbath of creation.
Who Authorized the Switch to Sunday Keeping?
So what rationale exists for worshipping on Sunday, the first day of the week, instead of Saturday, the biblical seventh day?
"It is the day of Christ's resurrection and Christians have transferred the solemnity of Sabbath to Sunday to honor that event."
That sounds terrific, but where exactly does the Bible authorize that change? You see, I really do adhere to the Protestant claim of "the Bible and the Bible only" as the authoritative Word of God on the matter. The sabbath was made by God as a memorial to the creation, and that event was not overshadowed by or done away with by either the crucifixion or the resurrection.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: herefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Exo 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
The seventh day was sanctified (dedicated to a holy use) for ever as a day of rest from all work, as a memorial to the completion of creation.
If God himself declared the seventh day to be sanctified and holy for ever, then where in his Word, the Bible, does He rescind the keeping of the seventh day? Better yet, where in the Bible is the first day of the week declared to be a holy day to be observed in perpetuity, as a replacement for the sabbath? So just who made this change to Sunday?
"Concerning the Authority of the Church. — The Scripture teaches: Remember that you keep the Saturday; six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, etc. However, the church has transferred the observance from Saturday to Sunday by virtue of her own power, without Scripture, without doubt under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."
"Concerning Holidays and Fast-Days. — The Sabbath is commanded in various places in the Scriptures. But there is no mention of the cessation of the Sabbath and the institution of Sunday in the Gospels, or in Paul's writings, or in all the Bible; therefore this has taken place by the apostolic church instituting it without Scripture."
"If, however, the church has had power to change the Sabbath of the Bible into Sunday and to command Sunday- keeping, why should it not have also this power concerning other days, many of which are based on the Scriptures — such as Christmas, circumcision of the heart, three kings, etc. If you omit the latter, and turn from the church to the Scriptures alone, then you must keep the Sabbath with the Jews, which has been kept from the beginning of the world." 12
12 Dr. Eck's Enchiridion, 1533, pp. 78, 79. [Johann Eck was the principle adversary of Andreas Carlstadt and Martin Luther at the disputation at Leipzig in 1519]
Source:
History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week by John Nevins Andrews and L. R. Conradi,Review and Herald Publishing, pg. 587.Enchiridion. Handb�chlinn gemayner stell v(o)n Artickel, der yetz schwebenden neuwen leeren,Johannes Eck, 1530 edition in German. See pages 46 and 195-196 in the .pdf file.
The Lord's Day Is The Seventh Day
A second century writer applied "the Lord's day" to the seventh day Sabbath:
And on the seventh day, it being the Lord's day, he said to them: Now it is time for me also to partake of food. And having washed his hands and face, he prayed, and brought out the linen cloth, and took one of the dates, and ate it in the sight of all.
Source:
Acts of John(Apocryphal).The Presumed Authority of the Church
... They (those who assert church authority) also refer to the example of the Apostles, who commanded to abstain from blood and from things strangled, Acts 15, 29. They refer to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalog, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath-day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!
Source:
The Augsburg Confession, edited by Philip Melanchthon (1530), Article 28: Of Ecclesiastical Power."He changeth the tymes and lawes that any of the sixe worke dayes commanded of God will make them unholy and idle dayes when he lyste, or of their owne holy dayes abolished make worke dayes agen, or when they changed ye Saterday into Sondaye. . . . They have changed God's lawes and turned them into their owne tradicions to be kept above God's precepts."
Source: The Exposition of Daniel the Prophete, Gathered out of Philipp Melanchthon, Johan Ecolampadius, Chonrade Pellicane, and out of Johan Draconite etc., by George Joye, 1546, Geneve, p. 119.
Pope Sylvester I (314-335 A.D.) Decrees the Transfer of Sabbath Rest to Sunday:
Rabanus Maurus (776-856), abbot of Fulda and later archbishop of Mainz, Germany, was rated one of the greatest theologians of his age and probably the most cultured man of his time, and exceptionally learned in patristics. Besides, he was a zealous defender of the papacy and its teachings. In one of his works, he says,
Pope Sylvester instructed the clergy to keep the feriae. And, indeed, from an old custom he called the first day [of the week] the "Lord's [day]," on which the light was made in the beginning and also the resurrection of Christ is celebrated.6
Rabanus Maurus does not mean to say that Sylvester was the first man who referred to the days of the week as feriae or who first started the observance of Sunday among Christians. He means that, according to the testimony of Roman Catholic writers, Sylvester confirmed those practices and made them official insofar as his church was concerned. Hence Rabanus says elsewhere in his writings:
Pope Sylvester first among the Romans ordered that the names of the days [of the week], which they previously called after the name of their gods, that is, [the day] of the Sun, [the day] of the Moon, [the day] of Mars, [the day] of Mercury, [the day] of Jupiter, [the day] of Venus, [the day] of Saturn, they should call feriae thereafter, that is the first feria, the second feria, the third feria, the fourth feria, the fifth feria, the sixth feria, because that in the beginning of Genesis it is written that God said concerning each day: on the first, "Let there be light:; on the second, "Let there be a firmament"; on the third, "Let the earth bring forth verdure"; etc. But he [Sylvester] ordered [them] to call the Sabbath by the ancient term of the law, [to call] the first feria the "Lord's day," because on it the Lord rose [from the dead], Moreover, the same pope decreed that the rest of the Sabbath should be transferred rather to the Lord's day [Sunday], on order that on that day we should rest from worldly works for the praise of God.7
Note particularly, he says that "the same pope [Sylvester I] decreed that the rest of the Sabbath should be transferred rather to the Lord's day [Sunday]."8 According to this statement, he was the first bishop to introduce the idea that the divinely appointed rest of the Sabbath day should be transferred to the first day of the week. This is significant, especially in view of the fact that it was during Sylvester's pontificate that the emperor of Rome [Constantine] issued the first civil laws compelling men to rest from secular labor on Sunday, and that Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, was the first theologian on record to present arguments, allegedly from the Scriptures, that Christ did transfer the rest of the Sabbath day to Sunday.
6 Rabanus Maurus, Liber de Computo(A book Concerning Computation), Chap. XXVII ("Concerning Festivals"), as translated by the writer from the Latin text in Migne's Patrologia Latina, Vol. CVII, col. 682.
7 ------------, De Clericorum Institutione(Concerning the Instruction of the Clergymen), Book II, Chap. XLVI, as translated by the writer from the Latin text in Migne's Patrologia Latina, Vol. CVII, col. 361.
8 The wording in the Latin text reads: "Statuit autem idem papa ut otium Sabbati magis in diem Dominicam transferretur, ut ea die a terrenis operibus ad laudandum Deum vacaremus."
Source: Sabbath and Sunday in Early Christianity, by Robert L. Odom, � 1977 by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, pages 247-248.
See also: Exactly Which Pope Changed The Sabbath To Sunday?
Saturday no longer the liturgical day, but Sunday.
Sunday was created because the Lord was raised and entered the community of the Apostles to be with them. And thus, they also understood that Saturday was no longer the liturgical day, but Sunday, on which the Lord wants to be with us physically again and again, and wants to nourish us with his Body, so that we ourselves may become his Body in the world.
Source:
Meeting with Diocesan Clergy of Aosta, Address of Pope Benedict XVI, Parish Church at Introd (Aosta Valley), Monday, July 25, 2005.Christians "felt" they had the authority.
63. Christ came to accomplish a new "exodus", to restore freedom to the oppressed. He performed many healings on the Sabbath (cf. Mt 12:9-14 and parallels), certainly not to violate the Lord's Day, but to reveal its full meaning: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mk 2:27). Opposing the excessively legalistic interpretation of some of his contemporaries, and developing the true meaning of the biblical Sabbath, Jesus, as "Lord of the Sabbath" (Mk 2:28), restores to the Sabbath observance its liberating character, carefully safeguarding the rights of God and the rights of man. This is why Christians, called as they are to proclaim the liberation won by the blood of Christ, felt that they had the authority to transfer the meaning of the Sabbath to the day of the Resurrection.
Source: Pope John Paul II,
Dies Domini.The Church assimilated the meaning of the Sabbath to Sunday.
... The early Christians celebrated the first day of the week as the Lord’s day, because it was the day of the resurrection. Yet very soon, the Church also came to realize that the first day of the week is the day of the dawning of creation, the day on which God said: “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3). Therefore Sunday is also the Church’s weekly feast of creation – the feast of thanksgiving and joy over God’s creation. At a time when creation seems to be endangered in so many ways through human activity, we should consciously advert to this dimension of Sunday too. Then, for the early Church, the first day increasingly assimilated the traditional meaning of the seventh day, the Sabbath. We participate in God’s rest, which embraces all of humanity. Thus we sense on this day something of the freedom and equality of all God’s creatures.
Source:
Homily of Pope Benedict XVI, Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, Sunday, 9 September 2007.Nothing is said in the Bible about the change of the Lord's day from Saturday to Sunday. We know of the change only from the tradition of the Church—a fact handed down to us from earliest times by the living voice of the Church. That is why we find so illogical the attitude of many non-Catholics, who say that they will believe nothing unless they can find it in the Bible and yet will continue to keep Sunday as the Lord's day on the say-so of the Catholic Church.
Source: The Faith Explained, Third Edition, by Leo J. Trese, 1965, Fides/Claretian, 14th printing, 2005, ISBN 1 889334 29 4, pg. 246.
Doctors of the Church Decreed the Change to Sunday
... we find St. C�sarius of Arles in the sixth century teaching that the holy Doctors of the Church had decreed that the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been transferred to the Sunday, and that Christians must keep the Sunday holy in the same way as the Jews had been commanded to keep holy the Sabbath Day.
Source:
The Catholic Encyclopedia, entry on Sunday, Volume XIV, Copyright � 1912 by Robert Appleton Company, Online Edition Copyright � 1999 by Kevin Knight, Nihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor, Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.12. Why did the Church change the Lord's Day from the Sabbath to Sunday?
The Church, using the power of binding and loosing which Christ gave to the Pope, changed the Lord's day to Sunday because it was on Sunday (the first day of the week) that Christ rose from the dead and that the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.
Source: Life in Christ: Instructions in the Catholic Faith, Reverends James Killgallon, Gerard Weber, 1958, pg. 243.
Cardinal Gibbons on Sunday
"... is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But, you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify."
Source:
The Faith of Our Fathers, by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, 88th edition, page 89. Originally published in 1876, republished and Copyright 1980 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., pages 72-73.
Baltimore Catechism #2
10. Q. What are we commanded by the third Commandment?
A. By the third Commandment we are commanded to keep holy the Lord's day and the holy days of obligation, on which we are to give our time to the service and worship of God.
11. Q. How are we to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation?
A. We are to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation by hearing Mass, by prayer, and by other good works.
12. Q. Are the Sabbath day and the Sunday the same?
A. The Sabbath day and the Sunday are not the same. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, and is the day which was kept holy in the old law; the Sunday is the first day of the week, and is the day which is kept holy in the new law.
13. Q. Why does the Church command us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath?
A. The Church commands us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath because on Sunday Christ rose from the dead, and on Sunday He sent the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.
14. Q. What is forbidden by the third Commandment?
A. The third Commandment forbids all unnecessary servile work and whatever else may hinder the due observance of the Lord's day.
Source:
A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, prepared and enjoined by the order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, New Edition, No. 2, Imprimatur by John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, and approved by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, published in 1885 by Broadway Church Goods House, 719 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, page 64.
Advanced Catechism
354. What are we commanded by the third Commandment?
By the third Commandment we are commanded to keep holy the Lord's day and the holy days of obligation, on which we are to give our time to the service and worship of God.
Which is now the Lord's Day?
The Lord's day now is Sunday, in memory of the Resurrection of Christ and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost.
355. How are we to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation?
We are to worship God on Sundays and holydays of obligation by hearing Mass, by prayer, and by other good works. ...
356. Are the Sabbath day and the Sunday the same?
The Sabbath day and the Sunday are not the same. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, and is the day which was kept holy in the old law; the Sunday is the first day of the week, and is the day which is kept holy in the new law.
Who made the change from Saturday to Sunday?
The change from Saturday to Sunday was made by the Apostles, though the Bible does not clearly teach Sunday observance.
357. Why does the Church command us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath?
The Church commands us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath because on Sunday Christ rose from the dead, and on Sunday He sent the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.
358. What is forbidden by the third Commandment?
The third Commandment forbids all unnecessary servile work and whatever else may hinder the due observance of the Lord's day.
Source:
Advanced Catechism Of Catholic Faith And Practice, based upon the Third Plenary Council Catechism for use in the higher grades of Catholic Schools, compiled by Rev. Thomas J. O'brien, inspector of Parochial Schools, Diocese of Brooklyn, published by John B. Oink, Chicago Ill., copyright 1929, pages 180-182.
Great is the authority of the Church
You will have noticed, my dear children, that the day on which we keep the Sabbath is not the same as that on which it was observed by the Jews. They kept and still keep the Sabbath upon Saturday, we upon Sunday; they on the seventh day, we on the first day of the week. Hence the Jews close their shops and attend their synagogues upon Saturday, but Sunday is observed as the day of rest by all Christians, even by those sects who are separated from the Catholic Church. You will ask, what is the reason of this? It is because the Apostles, who were the first pastors of the Church, by the authority which [p. 107] they had received from our Blessed Lord to regulate all that regards his public worship, changed the day appointed for the keeping of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday — from the seventh to the first day of the week. And why did they do so? To honour the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, both of which mysteries were accomplished on the first day of the week. From this we may understand how great is the authority of the Church in interpreting or explaining to us the commandments of God — an authority which is acknowledged by the universal practice of the whole Christian world, even of those sects who profess to take the Holy Scriptures as their sole rule of faith, since they observe as the day of rest not the seventh day of the week commanded by the Bible, but the first day, which we know is to be kept holy, only from the tradition and teaching of the Catholic Church.
Source:
Catechism Made Easy, Being A Familiar Explanation Of The Catechism Of Christian Doctrine, by the Rev. Henry Gibson, Vol. II., Liverpool: printed by Rockliff Brothers, 44 Castle Street. London: R. Washbourne, 18, Paternoster Row, 1874, pgs. 106-107.Cardinal Gasparri's Catholic Catechism
Article 3. The Third Commandment of the Decalogue.
(203) What does God command in the Third Commandment--"Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day"?
In the Third Commandment-"Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day"--God commands that festival days--that is, days dedicated to Him--should be kept with divine worship, business and bodily toil being laid aside. 190
(204) What were the festival days in the Old Testament?
In the Old Testament there were many festival days, but the chief one was the Sabbath, the very name of which signifies the rest needful for the worship of God, whence it is called "the day of rest."
(205) Why is the Sabbath day not observed under the New Testament?
The Sabbath day is not observed under the New Testament, because in its place the Church keeps Sunday in honor of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the coming
[pg. 121]
down of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; the Church also adds other festival days. 191
(206) To what, then, are we bound nowadays as regards keeping festival days holy?
As regards keeping festival days holy we are to-day bound to sanctify, in the manner proscribed by the Church, the Sundays and other Feast Days appointed by her 192
190 Exod. xx, 8; xxxi, 13; Deut. v, 12-15.
191 The commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy was not, if we consider only the day actually stated, a fixed and constant one, but a variable one, nor was it so much a moral as a ceremonial precept. If, however, we consider the commandment itself, it will be evident that it has its moral aspect and forms part of the natural law. Moreover the date at which the keeping of the Sabbath was removed was precisely that at which the rest of the Hebrew cult and ceremonial was to cease―namely the day of Christ's death. See the Catechism of the Council of Trent, III, iv, 4ff.
Source:
The Catholic Catechism, by Peter Cardinal Gasparri, translated by the Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., second printing, copyright 1932 and printed by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, Typographi Pontificii, 12 Barclay Street, New York, questions 203-206, pages 120-121.
THE SABBATH, WHY CHANGED TO SUNDAY
But the Church of God has in her wisdom ordained that the celebration of the Sabbath should be transferred to "the Lord's-day:" as on that day light first shone on the world, so by the resurrection of our Lord on the same day, by whom was thrown open to us the gate to eternal life, we were called out of darkness into light; and hence the Apostle would have it called "the Lord's-day."
Source:
The Catechism of the Council of Trent (The Roman Catechism), translated into English by the Rev. J. Donovan, Professor, &c., Royal College, Maynooth, 1829, Baltimore: Published by Fielding Lucas, Jr., pg. 267.The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord's Day. The Council of Trent (Sess. VI, can. xix) condemns those who deny that the Ten Commandments are binding on Christians."
Source:
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Commandments of God, Volume IV, � 1908 by Robert Appleton Company - Online Edition� 1999 by Kevin Knight, Nihil Obstat - Remy Lafort, Censor Imprimatur - +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York, page 153.Summa Theologica
In the New Law the observance of the Lord's day (Sunday) took the place of the observance of the Sabbath (Saturday), not by virtue of the precept (of God) but by the institution of the Church and the custom (Tradition) of Christian people.
Source: St. Thomas Aquinas:
Summa Theologica - SS Q[122] A[4] Reply to Objection 4.Deharbe's Large Catechism
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD
"Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day."
1. What does God command by this Third Commandment?
By this Third Commandment God Commands us to keep holy one day of the week, which is thence called the "Lord's Day."
Note. The Jews kept the Sabbath or the seventh day, Christians keep the Sunday or the first day of the week.
�2. Why do Christians keep the Sunday instead of the Sabbath?
Because the Apostles appointed it so in memory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, which events took place on Sunday.
Source:
Deharbe's Large Catechism, translated by a father of the Society of Jesus from the German edition, prepared for the United States, copyright 1882 and published by Benzinger Brothers, New York, Cincinnati and Chicago, and blessed in writing by Pope Leo XIII on January 3rd, 1883, page 58.
A Convert's Catechism
Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
Q. Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on a Sunday.
Q. By what authority did the Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her.
Q. What does the Third Commandment command?
A. The Third Commandment commands us to sanctify Sunday as the Lord's Day.
Source:
The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, by Reverend Peter Geiermann, C.S.R., Copyright 1910 by Joseph Gummersbach, blessed by Pope Pius X on the 25th of January 1910 via Cardinal Merry Del Val, published by B. Herder Book Co, 15 and 17 South Broadway, St. Louis, Mo., and London, W. C. 33 Queen Square, in 1937, Twelfth Edition, page 50.... in 336 A.D., the Catholic Church, at the Council of Laodicea, made the ecclesiastical law obliging the faithful to attend Mass and to abstain from servile works on Sundays. And all Christians accepted that law in virtue of the divine authority Christ gave to His Church when He said, "Whatsoever you bind upon earth shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatsoever you loose upon earth shall be loosed also in Heaven" (Matt., xviii, 18).
What does all this mean? It means that the Seventh Day Adventists are wrong in saying that the Jewish Sabbath still obliges, for there is clear authority in the Bible for its abrogation.
Seventh Day Adventists are right, however, in accusing other Protestants of inconsistency who speak of any obligation of Sunday observance whilst rejecting the authority of the Catholic Church. It is not that there is no authority in the Bible for Sunday observance. But there is no direct authority for it as an obligation. The only direct authority for it is that of the Catholic Church; but that involves the authority of the Bible at least indirectly in so far as the Bible itself teaches clearly that the Catholic Church is directly authorized by Christ to legislate in His name.
Source:
Seventh Day Adventists, by Rev. Dr. L. Rumble. M.S.C., published by The Australian Catholic Truth Society Record, February 10, 1950, pamphlet No. 446, printed by The Advocate Press, 143-151 o'Beckett St., Melbourne, pg. 24.
The
Council of Laodicea in Phrygia Pacatiana, was a local, Eastern, Greek-speaking synod, and the canons referring to the Sabbath or Sunday/Lord's day are listed here:LAODICEA, CANON 16. - The Gospels are to be read on Sabbath, with the other Scriptures [apparently at Communion services; see canon 49, below].
LAODICEA, CANON 29. - Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.
LAODICEA, CANON 49. - During Lent, the Bread must not be offered except on the Sabbath Day and on the Lord's Day only.
LAODICEA, CANON 51. - The nativities of Martyrs [actually, the death days, on which martyrs were considered to have been born to eternal life] are not to be celebrated in Lent, but commemorations of the holy Martyrs are to be made on the Sabbaths and Lord's days.
A Catholic Catechism
THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD
"THOU SHALT NOT DO UNNECESSARY SERVILE WORK ON THE
LORD'S DAY, BUT PERFORM WORKS PLEASING TO GOD."
...
227. Which is the Lord's Day?
The Lord's Day is Sunday.
...
The LAW of keeping Sunday holy, instead of the Sabbath, was made by the Church, probably by the apostles.
Source:
A Catholic Catechism for the Parochial and Sunday Schools of the United States, Rev. James Groenings, Priest of the Society of Jesus, translated by Very Rev. James Rockliff, of the same Society, Benzinger Brothers, Printers to the Holy Apostolic See, copyright 1900, Nihil Obstat: Theodore Van Rossum, S.J., Censor Deputatus, Imprimatur: Michael Augustine, Archbishop of New York, page 65.
Faerber's Catechism
THIRD COMMANDMENT OF GOD
Thou shalt keep holy the Lord's day.
209. Which is the Lord's day?
Sunday, the first day of the week, is the Lord's day.
On Sunday, God the Father began creation, God the Son arose from the dead, and the Holy Ghost descended from Heaven.—The Jews observed the last day of the week, the Sabbath, and the Apostles, commissioned by our Lord Jesus Christ, substituted for it the first day, the Sunday.
Source:
Catechism for the Catholic Parochial Schools of the United States, by Rev. W. Faerber, 36th edition, Revised, published by B. Herder Book Co., 17 South Broadway, St. Louis, Mo., and 33 Queen Square, London, W. C., copyright 1935, page 41.
The Sunday Sabbath flagrantly contradicts the Bible:
It is worth its while to remember that this observance of the [Sunday] 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 [7th day] 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 the Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church.
Source:
Plain Talk About The Protestantism Of Today, from the French of Monsignor Louis Gaston de Segur, Boston: Patrick Donahoe, 1868, Imprimatur Joannes Josephus, Episcopus Boston, pg. 225.
CATECHISM OF POPE PIUS X
The Third Commandment
1 Q. What does the Third Commandment: Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day, command us to do?
A. The Third Commandment: Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day, commands us to honour God by acts of worship on festivals.
2 Q. What are festivals?
A. In the Old Law they were Saturdays and certain other days regarded as specially solemn by the Jews; in the New Law they are Sundays and other festivals instituted by the Church.
3 Q. Why is Sunday sanctified instead of Saturday in the New Law?
A. Sunday, which means the Lord's Day, was substituted for Saturday, because it was on that day that our Lord rose from the dead.
St. Paul Family Catechism
[pg. 249]
629. Which is the third commandment?
The third commandment is: Remember to keep holy the Lord's day (cf. Ex. 20:8).
[pg. 250]
630. What are we obliged to do by the third commandment?
By the third commandment we are obliged to worship God on Sundays and on holy days of obligation by participating in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
...
[pg. 253]
640. Why was Sunday set aside as the Lord's day in place of the Sabbath of the Old Testament?
Sunday was set aside as the Lord's day in place of the Sabbath of the Old Testament because of an apostolic tradition which took its origin from the day of Christ's resurrection. (Acts 20:7)
Source:
St. Paul Family Catechism, Third Edition, Copyright 1992, by the Daughters of St. Paul, published by St. Paul Books & Media, 50 St. Paul's Ave., Boston MA 02130, pp 249, 251, 253.
A New Catechism
What day was the Sabbath?
The seventh day, our Saturday.
Do you keep the Sabbath?
No: we keep the Lord's Day.
Which is that?
The first day: Sunday.
Who changed it?
The Catholic Church.
Source: A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine and Practice for School and Home Use, American Edition, Authorized, by James Bellord, published in Notre Dame, Indiana, by The Ave Maria, 1902,pages 86-87. (Also published in London in 1901 by the Catholic Truth Society.)
Keenan's Catechism
[pg. 53]
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?
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 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, that we should rest on Thursday, because Christ ascended to heaven on that day, and rested in reality from the work of redemption.
[ pg. 54]
Q. What do you conclude from all this?
A. That Protestants have no Scripture for the measure of their day of rest; that they abolish the observance of Saturday without warrant of Scripture; that they substitute Sunday in its place without scriptural authority; consequently, that for all this, they have only traditional authority. Yet Protestants would look upon a man who would do profane work after five o'clock on Sunday, or keep the Saturday, and profane the first day, as a victim of perdition. Hence we must conclude, that the Scripture, which does not teach these things clearly, does not contain all necessary truths; and, consequently, cannot be the only rule of faith.
[ pg. 108]
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 done that in which all modern religionists agree with her - 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.
Source: Controversial Catechism, by the Rev. Stephen Keenan, Second Edition revised and enlarged, published in 1849 by John Doyle, 22 Leith Street, Edinburgh, & J. Chalmers, Castle Street, Dundee, and in 1851 by C. Dolman, 13 South Hanover Street, Edinburgh; and 61, New Bond Street, London,
pages 53, 54, and 108.
A Doctrinal Catechism, by Rev. Stephen Keenan, Imprimatur by John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, Third American Edition, Copyright 1876 by T. W. Strong, published by P. J. Kenedy, pages 352-355, 174.By what authority did the Church change the observance of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?
The Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant, claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. In this matter the Seventh-day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant.
Source:
The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, Ohio, August 14, 1942.
Anglican Archbishop Declares Tradition as Sunday's Origin
TORONTO, Oct. 27 (BUP).—Rev. Philip Carrington, Anglican Archbishop of Quebec, sent local clergymen into a huddle today by saying outright that there was nothing to support Sunday being kept holy. Carrington defiantly told a church meeting in this city of straight-laced protestantism that tradition, not the Bible, had made Sunday the day of worship. He quoted the biblical commandment which said the seventh day should be one of rest, and then stated: “That is Saturday.” “Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday,” the Archbishop told a hushed, still audience. Local parsons read his comments today with set, determined looks. They refused comment.
Source: News Item, Albertan(Calgary, Alberta, Canada), Oct. 28, 1949.
Sunday Holy By Habit Not By Scripture Says Anglican Leader
TORONTO, Oct. 27 (BUP).—Rev. Philip Carrington, Anglican Archbishop of Quebec, sent local clergymen into a huddle Wednesday by saying outright that there was nothing to support Sunday being kept holy.
Archbishop Carrington defiantly told a church meeting in this city of straight-laced Protestantism that tradition, not the Bible, had made Sunday the day of worship.
He quoted the Biblical commandment which said the seventh day should be one of rest, and then stated: “That is Saturday.”
“Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday,” the archbishop said.
Source: News Item, Winnipeg Free Press, Manitoba, Thursday, October 27, 1949, page 16.
Sundaykeeping is not founded on Scripture
"It is a matter of wonderment to us to see Catholic clergymen using the word ' Sabbath ' for ' Sunday. ' We protest energetically against the Protestant mode of speech. It does not look well for Catholics to knuckle to such Protestant fantastic notions. Sunday is founded, not on Scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no Scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday, and thus leave Catholics in full possession of Sunday." — Catholic Record, Sept. 17, 1891.
The Catholic Christian Instructed.
[p. 202]
Q. What are the days which the Church commands to be kept holy?
A. 1st, The Sunday, or the Lord’s day, which we observe by apostolical tradition, instead of the Sabbath. …
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 apostolical tradition.
Q. Does the scripture any where command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?
A. The scripture commands us to hear the Church, St. Matt. xviii. 17. St. Luke x. 16, and to hold fast the traditions of the Apostles, 2 Thess. ii. 15, but the scripture does not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath. St. John speaks of the Lord's day, Rev. i. 10; but he does not tell us what day of the week this was, much less does he tell us that this day was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandments: St. Luke also speaks of the disciples meeting together to break bread on the first day of the week, Acts xx. 7. And St. Paul, I Cor. xvi 2, orders that on the first day of the week the Corinthians should lay by in store what they designed to bestow in charity on the faithful in Judea: but neither the one nor the other tells us, that this first day of
[p. 203]
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 and ordinance of the 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 holydays all stand upon the same foundation, viz, the ordinance of the Church. ...
[p. 204]
Q. What was the reason why the weekly Sabbath was changed from the Saturday to the Sunday?
A. Because our Lord fully accomplished the work of our redemption by rising from the dead on a Sunday, and by sending down the Holy Ghost on a Sunday: as therefore the work of our redemption was a greater work than that of our creation, the primitive Church thought the day, in which this work was completely finished, was more worthy [of] her religious observation than that in which God rested from the creation, and should be properly called the Lord’s day.
Q. But has the Church a power to make any alterations in the commandments of God?
A. The commandments of God, as far as they contain his eternal law, are unalterable and indispensable; but as to whatever was only ceremonial, they cease to oblige, since the Mosaic law was abrogated by Christ's death. Hence, as far as the commandment obliges us to set aside some part of our time for the worship and service of our Creator, it is an unalterable and unchangeable precept of the eternal law, in which the Church cannot dispense: but for as much as it prescribes the seventh day in particular for this purpose, it is no more than a ceremonial precept of the old law, which obligeth not Christians. And therefore, instead of the seventh day, and other festivals appointed in the old law, the Church has prescribed the Sundays and holydays 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.
Source:
The Catholic Christian Instructed in the Sacraments, Sacrifice, Ceremonies, and Observances of the Church, by the Right Rev. Dr. Richard Challoner,published in Baltimore in 1852 by John Murphy & Co., pp. 202 - 204.
No Scriptural Warrant for Baptizing Infants or Observing Sunday
It is true, Catholics do not hold, as Protestants profess to do, that nothing can possibly be matter of divine revelation which is not contained in holy Scripture, nor do Protestants themselves in fact, though they do in words; for they believe the inspiration of holy Scripture to be matter of Divine revelation, yet this, from the very nature of the [pg 10] case, cannot rest on the testimony of Scripture itself. So, too, with the duty of baptizing infants, and of observing Sunday instead of Saturday as the Christian holiday, on which points Protestants believe and act as Catholics do, while yet they would be puzzled to find Scripture warrant for so doing. ...
Source:
Library of Controversy - The Clifton Tracts, by the Brotherhood of St. Vincent of Paul, Volume 1, How Do We Know What The Bible Means?, published about 1854 in New York by P. J. Kenedy, Excelsior Catholic Publishing House, 5 Barclay Street, pages 9, 10.
Rebuilding A Lost Faith
Protestants often deride the authority of Church tradition, and claimed to be directed by the Bible only; yet they, too, have been guided by customs of the ancient Church, which find no warrant in the Bible, but rest on Church tradition only! A striking instance of this is the following:—The first positive command in the Decalogue is to “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” and this precept was enforced by the Jews for thousands of years. But the Sabbath Day, the observance of which God commanded, was our Saturday. Yet who among either Catholics or Protestants, except a sect or two, like the “Seventh Day Baptists,” ever keep that commandment now? None. Why is this? The Bible, which Protestants claim to obey exclusively, gives no authorisation for the substitution of the first day of the week for the seventh. On what authority, therefore, have they done so? Plainly on the authority of that very Catholic Church which they abandoned, and whose traditions they condemn.
Source: Rebuilding a Lost Faith By An American Agnostic, John L. Stoddard, published in New York by P. J. Kenedy and Sons, circa 1922, p. 80.
The Observance of Sunday and Civil Laws for its Enforcement
[pg. 139]
Strange as it may seem, the State, in passing laws for the due sanctification of Sunday, is unwittingly acknowledging the authority of the Catholic Church, and carrying out more or less faithfully its prescriptions.
The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God, to be sanctified by a suspension of all servile labor, trade, and worldly avocations and by exercises of devotion, is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.
It is not the Jewish Sabbath; it is, in fact, entirely distinct from it, and not governed by the enactments of the Mosaic law. It is part and parcel of the system of the Catholic Church, as absolutely as Christian marriage is or any other of her sacraments, her festivals and fasts, her days of joy and mourning, her indulgences and her jubilees.
[pg. 149]
The Catholic Church created the Sunday and made the very regulations which have come down on the statute-books, and she still constantly, from her pulpits, her catechists' chairs, and the confessional, calls on her faithful to obey them, to sanctify the day, and refrain from all that desecrates it.
[pg. 152]
For ages all Christian nations looked to the Catholic Church, and, as we have seen, the various states enforced by law her ordinances as to worship and cessation of labor on Sunday. Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath, with the Jews and the Seventh-Day Baptists. For their present practice Protestants in general have no authority but that of a Church which they disown, and there cannot be a greater inconsistency than theirs in asking the state to enforce the Sunday laws.
If it be a mere state holiday, most of the legislative provisions are a mere tyrannical interference with the liberty of a citizen; and it is a strange holiday on which people are forbidden to enjoy themselves, under penalty of fine and imprisonment. If it were merely this, it would be more sensible to punish the man who wore a long face on a public holiday than the man who laughed.
It is not a mere legal holiday; it is the Lord's day, set apart by the Catholic Church. It is a religious holiday, and so long as it is maintained by law it is therefore only a sorry farce to tell us that in this country there is no union of church and state.
The state, in referring to the Sunday laws, does it as a religious duty, acknowledging the Divine supremacy, and enforcing laws made known through the instrumentality of the Church.
Source:
The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. VIII, No. 29, January 1883, The Observance of Sunday and Civil Laws for its Enforcement, John Gilmary Shea, LL.D., published in Philadelphia by Hardy and Mahony Publishers and Proprietors, pages 139, 149, 152.
Not one scintilla of scriptural proof that Sunday is divinely appointed:
And now we would ask upon what religious grounds these earnest advocates for a more strict observance of Sunday [Protestants] base their claims to make Sunday a day of worship. If all the new law is contained in the Scripture, there is not one scintilla of proof that it is the divinely appointed day. Their citadel is not built upon sand—its condition is worse, it has no foundation at all. It is said in Holy Writ that "on the first day of the week the disciples were gathered for prayer and the breaking of bread." It is also said that on "another occasion, they were gathered for the same purpose on the first day of the week to hear St. Paul, who preached until midnight." St. John, it is said, was in the spirit on "the Lord's day." But this is a mere recital of facts, it is not the promulgation of a law. It is not the language, nor does it carry the sanction of a law. Who then, made Sunday, the first day of the week, the newly appointed day of worship? The divine organism that traces its history through the centuries back to Christ, that received the commission, "Go and teach all nations;" that received from the hands of Christ, the divine founder of the new covenant, the new law of worship, in whose hands was placed the gift of infallible truth. To that divine organization, the Catholic Church, was given the law of worship, and she alone decreed and she alone had the right to decree that Sunday, the first day of the week, should be the future day of religious worship. The substance remained as St. Paul says and the victim of her altars was to be worshipped. So the substance was preserved; she, therefore, decreed the law, the day of worship and all the ordinances of that worship. All outside of her [Protestants] are fighting from a religious point view for a cause which does not belong to them. The Christian Sunday rests solely upon the teachings of tradition, which they reject.
Source:
Western Watchman, a Catholic journal devoted to the interests of the Catholic Church in the West, published in St. Louis, Mo., September 19, 1895, front page article: "Christian Sunday", synopsis of a sermon presented at St. Andrews Cathedral by Dr. Callaghan, on Sunday Sept. 1st., 1895.
Not An Iota Of Scripture To Establish Sunday
From this same Catholic Church you have accepted your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord’s day, she has handed down as a tradition; and the entire Protestant world has accepted it as tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish it. Therefore that which you have accepted as your rule of faith, inadequate as it of course is, as well as your Sunday, you have accepted on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
Source:
The Papal controversy involving the claim of the Roman Catholic Church to the church of God, by David Burcham Ray, National Baptist Publishing Co., St. Louis, Mo., 1892, p. 179.To Tell You the Truth.
All of us believe many things in regard to religion that we do not find in the Bible. For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the Church outside the Bible.
Source:
The Catholic Virginian, "To Tell You The Truth,” Vol. 22, No. 49 (Oct. 3, 1947).
The New Question Box
A few weeks ago I saw a reference to the obligation of hearing Mass on Sunday, tying it to the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day. Is this really a law that not even the pope could change?
The commandment to "keep holy the Sabbath day" could never be interpreted as a commandment referring to Sunday Mass. For one thing, the Mass was still many centuries in the future when Moses received the Ten Commandments. For another, the Sabbath day - from the Hebrew verb "sabat," rest - was Saturday, the seventh day of the week, not Sunday.
Christians have, of course, celebrated Sunday as the Lord's Day from the earliest centuries, but the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday, as we know it, is comparatively recent. That obligation, as it now exists in church law, could be removed or modified by the church itself.
Sabbath changed to Sunday?
Why was the Sabbath changed from Saturday to Sunday, and is there a chance it might be changed back someday? The Seventh Day Adventists are passing out pamphlets dealing with this subject, and they are so convincing that I've decided to go to Saturday evening Mass until this is explained.
[pg. 119]
The very early Christians changed the "Sabbath" day to Sunday for a variety of reasons. First, the fact that the resurrection of Jesus is recorded in Scripture as occurring on the first day of the week certainly had much to do with the fact that this seemed the most appropriate day to celebrate the Eucharist to commemorate that event. The first Christians also made a point of changing their days of observance (including fast days) from those proscribed by Jewish law to emphasize their departure from traditions and customs of the people of Israel.
When the Seventh Day Adventist Church was formed about the middle of the last century, the four men and one woman who became its nucleus were somehow convinced that Saturday, not Sunday, should still be the "holy day" of the week. It is one of the lesser ways the teachings of that church depart from general Christian tradition. There's no reason whatsoever to suspect this Sunday tradition will ever change.
Which day is the Sabbath?
We commonly refer to the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week. The Bible does not say this. It does say many times that the Sabbath is the seventh day after six days of work.
There is a big difference in these two sevens. The seventh day of the calendar week is one set date each week, but the seventh day after the beginning of the first day of work can be any day of the week.
The Bible does not speak of any consecutive seven-day cycles up to the time of the Israelites' first Sabbath. Therefore, we know that before this time, there was no standard weekly calendar used such as the one in use at Christ's time.
Though God commanded a Sabbath rest day, he did not necessarily mean the seventh day. Thus, Sunday-keeping saints have not gone to hell for not keeping Saturday.
You may be right. I'm not sure how practical your suggestion is, however. No matter how theoretically correct you are, I don't believe the argument will carry much weight with people who believe we must observe the Sabbath on Saturday.
I believe you would find it difficult to discover evidence that [pg. 120] observance of a seven-day week came after the Jewish regulation of rest on the seventh day. Long before the observance of the Sabbath rest was an established regulation among the Hebrews, a seven-day week was not all uncommon in several Near Eastern cultures, including that of the Jews. Apparently this resulted from the division of the lunar month (28 days) into four sections, though other cultures, such as the Greeks and Romans, divided the lunar month into three sections of roughly 10 days each.
It is entirely possible that the Hebrew Tradition of six days work and one day rest developed out of the context of the seven-day week, the last day of which would be a day or recuperation from labor. In other words, the history of the Sabbath may be a fascinating study, but it doesn't offer much ammunition against Sabbatarians (those who insist on Saturday as the holy day). Our reasons for observing Sunday as the Christian holy day arise from entirely different sources.
Source:
The New Question Box, by John J. Dietzen, M.A., S.T.L., copyright 1988, published by Guildhall, Peoria, Illinois, ISBN 0-940518-01-5, pages 118, 119, 120.
For 25 Years Father Enright Offers $1,000 For A Bible Verse Commanding Sunday Observance:
... Christ gave the church the power to make laws binding upon the conscience. Show me one sect that claims or possesses the power to do so save the Catholic church. There is none, and yet all christendom acknowledges the power of the church to do so, as I will prove to you. For example, the observance of Sunday. How can other denominations keep this day? The Bible commands you to keep the Sabbath day. Sunday is not the Sabbath day; no man dare assert that it is, for the Bible says as plainly as words can make it that the seventh day is the Sabbath, i.e., Saturday, for we all know Sunday to be the first day of the week. Besides, the Jews have been keeping the Sabbath unto the present day. I am not a rich man, but I will give $1,000 to any man who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep. No, it cannot be done, it is impossible. The observance of Sunday is solely a law of the Catholic church, and therefore is not binding upon others. The church changed the Sabbath to Sunday and all the world bows down and worships upon that day in silent obedience to the mandates of the Catholic church. Is this not a living miracle? That those who hate us so bitterly obey and acknowledge our power every week and DO NOT KNOW IT! ...
Source: The True Church of the Bible, a lecture by Father Enright, delivered in the Hartford opera house on Monday, February 18th, 1884, and published in
The Hartford Weekly Call, Friday, February 22, 1884, Volume V, No. 20, Hartford, Lyon County, Kansas, page 1.
Father Enright, a noted Catholic priest of Iowa, has this to say about the Sabbath and Sunday: "Every one knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, Saturday is the seventh day, and the Sabbath, the consecrated day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations. I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to any one who will give proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep and no one has called for the money. If any person in this town will show me any scripture for it I will publicly acknowledge it, and thank him for it. 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 to labor under penalty of anathema."
Source:
Woodland Daily Democrat, California, Wednesday, November 26, 1890, page 2.
(Extracts from a lecture delivered by Father Enright at Harlan, Iowa, December 15, 1889. Reported by the Harlan American.)
The attendance at the Catholic Church on Sunday evening was unusually large, many being unable to gain admittance. The subject treated on that evening was "The Power and Authority of the Catholic Church". Father Enright claimed that the authority and existence of his church antedated that of the Bible. His remarks upon Sunday observance created something of a sensation. He said:
“My brethren, look about you upon the various wrangling sects and denominations. Show me one that claims or possesses the power to make laws binding on the conscience. There is but one on the face of the earth—the Catholic Church—that has the power upon the conscience, binding before God, binding under pain of hell fire. Take, for instance, the day we celebrate—Sunday. What right have the Protestant churches to observe that day? None whatever. You say it is to obey the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." But Sunday is not the Sabbath according to the Bible and the record of time. Everyone knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, while Saturday is the seventh day, and the Sabbath, the day consecrated as a day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations. I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who will furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. If any person in this city will show me any scripture for it, I will tomorrow evening publicly acknowledge it and thank him for it. 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 the penalty of anathema.
“Which church does the whole civilized world obey? Protestants call us every horrible name they can think of — AntiChrist, the scarlet colored beast, Babylon, etc., and at the same time profess great reverence for the Bible, and yet by their solemn act of keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the power of the Catholic Church. The Bible says: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." But the Catholic Church says, "No, keep the first day of the week’ and the whole world bows in obedience.”
Sources:
The American Sentinel,Vol. 5, February 6, 1890, No. 6, pg. 46, and Lake Union Herald, Vol. 1, Berrien Springs, Mich., Dec. 1, 1909, No. 57, pgs. 2-3, quoting theIndustrial American, of Harlan, Iowa, December 19, 1889.I have offered & still offer $1,000 to any one who can prove to me, from the Bible alone, that I am bound under grievous sin to keep Sunday holy.
2. It was the Catholic church that made the law obliging us to keep Sunday holy. This law was made long after the Bible was written; hence said law is not in the Bible.
Source:
Letter from 1909 by Father Enright.
Things Catholics Are Asked About
Some non-Catholics object to Purgatory because there is no specific mention of it in Scripture. There is no specific mention of the word Sunday in Scripture. The Sabbath is mentioned, but Sabbath means Saturday. Yet Christians of almost all denominations worship on Sunday, not Saturday. The Jews observe Saturday. Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The fact is that the Church was in existence for several centuries before the Bible was given to the world. The Church made the Bible, the Bible did not make the Church.
Now the Church which gave us the Bible, instituted, by God's authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory long before the Bible was made. We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday.
Source:
Things Catholics Are Asked About, Martin J. Scott, S.J., Litt.D., p. 136, Copyright 1927 by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York.
Basic Catholic Catechism
Third Commandment: "Remember to keep holy the Lord's day."
1. Sundays and Holy Days: Mass Obligation
In Old Testament times, this commandment required keeping the Sabbath (Saturday), holy and a day of rest. The day was moved to Sunday by the authority Christ gave to His Church, to commemorate the Resurrection of Our Lord and Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles.
Source:
Basic Catholic Catechism, By Fr. William G. Most, Copyright 1990.Catholicism and Fundamentalism
After all, fundamentalists meet for worship on Sunday, yet there is no evidence in the Bible that corporate worship was to be made on Sundays. The Jewish Sabbath, or day of rest, was, of course, Saturday. It was the Catholic Church that decided Sunday should be the day of worship for Christians, in honor of the Resurrection.
Source:
Catholicism and Fundamentalism, by Karl Keating, copyright 1988 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco, bearing the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur of the Catholic Church, page 38.
Curiously, the Catechism of the Catholic Church today correctly states clearly that the 10 Commandments cannot be changed by anyone:
2072 Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart.
2076 By his life and by his preaching Jesus attested to the permanent validity of the Decalogue.
2079 The Decalogue forms an organic unity in which each "word" or "commandment" refers to all the others taken together. To transgress one commandment is to infringe the whole Law (cf. Jas 2:10-11).
But this current magesterial catechism of the highest authority freely admits that Sunday is not the biblical Sabbath, and then proceeds to contradict itself on the fundamentally immutable, permanently valid Ten Commandments, by asserting that Sunday has replaced the biblical Sabbath for the Christian:
2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ.
So dear reader, you should no longer have any doubt that Sunday is the first day of week, and that nowhere in the Bible is Sunday blessed, sanctified or commanded by God as a day of weekly worship. If you claim to be Protestant, and acknowledge that the Bible is your only ruler of truth, then on what basis do you worship on Sunday? You have only the Tradition of the Catholic Church, and it's claim of authority to change the laws of God to rest your case on. In spite of your claim of Protestantism, you are casting aside the only day the Bible sanctifies in perpetuity by the Word of God and you are replacing it with a day authorized ONLY by the word of Roman Catholic Tradition. If you hallow Sunday, then you are essentially Catholic on that matter, not a "Bible Only" Protestant.
So which authority do you acknowledge, the Word of God that commands seventh day Sabbath worship or the Tradition of the Catholic Church which commands Sunday, first day worship?
There is no other choice.
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