Here are the AMAZING facts about how the world's churches attempt to
justify "Sunday observance" — how they have forsaken God's Sabbath!
It is written by the Evangelist in charge of God's churches in Britain.
ONE of the most difficult things for one to do is to admit it when shown to be wrong! The most difficult thing for one to do, is to change when proven wrong!
The Test Commandment
God has made the fourth command a test command. Obedience to it is the one great distinguishing sign separating true Christians from heretics.
Here, published in the Good News for the first time, are the candid admissions of Protestant and Catholic clergymen. These confessions bring to light the doubts and frank admissions of the clergy regarding their utter LACK OF BIBLE AUTHORITY FOR THE OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY.
Most Christians profess that one must obey God. But they do not agree as to just what constitutes obedience to God. Yet Jesus explained exactly what obedience means.
Jesus Christ specifically said that He didn't come to abolish or destroy the law or the prophets — He came to fulfill, that is, to do to the fullest, to "fill full." He told the rich young ruler: "If thou wilt enter into life, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS" (Matt. 19:16-19). The verses following show that He referred to the ten commandments.
The New Testament plainly shows that we are still to keep the Ten Commandments. Where, then, do men get the authority to change the fourth commandment by substituting Sunday in the place of the original Sabbath which Christ and the Apostles kept?
The answer to this question will astound you!
How MEN Thought to Change God's Sabbath
Here are the theologians confessions. You will be amazed!
What was the first law made to enforce Sunday?
Chamber's Encyclopedia, 1882 ed., Vol. VIII, p. 401, art "Sabbath," declares: "By none of the Fathers before the fourth century is it [the first day] identified with the Sabbath; nor is the duty of observing it grounded by them either on the fourth commandment or on the precept or example of Christ or His apostles. Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the Sabbatical observance of that day [Sunday] is known to have been ordained, is the edict of Constantine, 321 A.D., of which the following is a translation: let all judges, inhabitants of the cities, and artificers, rest on the venerable day of the sun. But in the country, husbandmen may freely and lawfully apply to the business of agriculture; since it often happens that the sowing of corn and the planting of vines cannot be so advantageously performed on any other day.' "
Notice what the world-famous Britannica admits:
"The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty," admits the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. 26, p. 95, art. "Sunday," "is a constitution of Constantine in 321 A.D., enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday (venerabili die solis), with an exception in favor of those engaged in agricultural labor."
There is the first law made to enforce Sunday!
Here is what the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IV, pp. 2259-60, art. "Sunday" says: "SUNDAY (dies solis, of the Roman calendar, 'day of the sun', because dedicated to the sun), the first day of the week, was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship . . . It was called the `Lord's Day' . . . No regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor indeed, is its observance even enjoined. In the second century its observance was universal . . . The Lord's Day (Sunday) was not a continuation of the Jewish (or God's) Sabbath, which was also at first observed, but a substitute for it."
So it was not until the second century after Christ that Sunday observance became general, and it was not until 321 A.D. that it was enforced by State decree!
Most Catholics and Protestants would like to assume that the Sabbath law was changed either by command or by example in the New Testament. But this is not true! You will not find one single verse authorizing such a change from Saturday to Sunday.
HOW Sunday Observance Began
If, then, the New Testament Scriptures do not explicitly abolish or change the fourth commandment (as given in Exodus 20:8-11), then just when and where did the Christian-professing world begin to observe Sunday? When was Sunday substituted for the anciently observed Sabbath of Almighty God?
Yes, just who changed (or at least, claimed to change) the fourth commandment? Who thought to change the Sabbath from Saturday (the seventh day) to Sunday (the first day)?
The answer is shockingly clear to those who aren't afraid of the truth. History, as we have seen, reveals that it was the Emperor Constantine the Great, who made the first law which actually began to FORCE THE WORLD TO KEEP SUNDAY, and to break the Sabbath of God. And remember, Constantine was an unbaptized pagan sun-worshipper until the time of his death. On his death-bed he supposedly "embraced the Catholic faith," and received the pagan rite of "pouring" — often (but erroneously) called "baptism"!
But HOW DID CHRISTIAN-PROFESSING CHURCHES OF THIS WORLD COME TO ADOPT SUNDAY as their Sabbath instead of the Sabbath of God?
Here's how!
Satan, the Devil, the Great Deceiver, has DECEIVED THE WHOLE WORLD (Rev. 12:9). This was quite easy for him to do for, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9). The Devil, then, has played upon the deceptive heart-strings of human nature in order to trick mankind into accepting a counterfeit day in the place of the Holy Sabbath of God.
Here, then, is how the CHRISTIAN-PROFESSING churches of this world came to observe Sunday. Admittedly, the Catholic Church existed before the Protestant churches. And it was the Catholic Church which bowed to Constantine's dictum to observe Sunday in the place of the Sabbath, and she later bequeathed this day to her protesting daughters. Just listen to the following compelling testimonies to this historically proven fact!
First, let us go to the Catholic Church to see what she has to say on this subject: In the August 26, 1900, issue of the Catholic Press, of Sydney, Australia, we read: "SUNDAY IS A CATHOLIC INSTITUTION, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles . . . From beginning to end of the Scriptures there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day (Saturday) of the week to the first (Sunday)."
Here is an interesting comment from Cardinal Gibbon's book, Faith of Our Fathers, 110th ed., p. 89: "You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and YOU WILL NOT FIND A SINGLE LINE AUTHORISING THE SANCTIFICATION OF SUNDAY. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify."
On September 23, 1893, Cardinal Gibbons also made this statement in the Catholic Mirror: "The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, CHANGED THE DAY FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY. The Christian Sabbath (Sunday) is, therefore, to this day, the acknowledged offspring of the Catholic Church as the spouse of the Holy Ghost, without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant world."
The Protestant Churches Follow Mother Rome
On page 15, Vol. IV of Clifton Tracts (a Catholic work) we read, "We Catholics, then have precisely the same authority for keeping Sunday holy, instead of Saturday, as we have for every other article of our creed; namely, the authority of 'the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth'; whereas, YOU WHO ARE PROTESTANTS HAVE REALLY NO AUTHORITY FOR IT WHATEVER; for there is no authority for it in the Bible, and you will not allow that there can be authority for it anywhere else. BOTH YOU AND WE DO, IN FACT, FOLLOW TRADITION in this matter; but we follow it, believing it to be part of God's Word, and the church to be its divinely appointed guardian and interpreter; you (Protestants) follow it, denouncing it (tradition) all the time as a fallible and treacherous guide, which often makes the commandment of God of none effect."
T. Enright, a Catholic Priest, while president of Redemptorist Fathers' College made the following statement in 1893 in a lecture delivered at Des Moines, Iowa: "There is but one church on the face of the earth which has the power, or claims power, to make laws binding on the conscience, binding before God, binding under pain of hell fire. For instance, the institution of Sunday. What right has any other church to keep this day? You [Protestants] answer by virtue of the third [according to old editions of the Douay Bible] commandment, which says, 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day!' But SUNDAY IS NOT THE SABBATH.
Any school boy knows that Sunday is the first day of the week. I have repeatedly offered one thousand dollars to anyone who will prove by the Bible alone that SUNDAY is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. IT WAS THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH THAT CHANGED THE DAY OF REST FROM SATURDAY, the SEVENTH DAY, to SUNDAY, the first day of the week. Which church does the whole civilized world obey? The Bible says: 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day,' but the Catholic Church says, 'No, keep the first day of the week,' and all the world bows down in reverent obedience to the mandates of the Catholic Church."
And now I quote from the Catholic "Doctrinal Catecism," pages 101, 174, 351-355: "Question — Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept? Answer — 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.
Question — When Protestants do profane work upon Saturday, or the seventh day of the week, do they follow the Scripture as the only rule of their faith? — do they find this permission clearly laid down in the Sacred Volume? Answer — On the contrary, THEY HAVE ONLY THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION FOR THIS PRACTICE. In profaning Saturday, they violate one of God's commandments, which HE HAS NEVER CLEARLY ABROGATED, 'Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.' "