More PROOF of the Protestant Dilemma
Walter Drum, S. J., of Woodstock College, Maryland, challenges (on pp. 230-232 of The Ecclesiastical Review, Feb., 1914, Vol. 50, No. 2): "The OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY thus comes to be an ecclesiastical law entirely distinct from the divine law of the Sabbath observance. The prescriptions of Gen. 2:2, 3 in regard to the Sabbath have nothing whatever to do with the law of the church about Sunday, the Lord's day. Catholics should observe the law of the church, not by the Old Testament observances of the Sabbath, nor by the dictates of Protestants or of Jews, but by the prescription of the church herself. THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY LAW is the only one who has a right to interpret that law; and THAT AUTHOR IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH."
And on page 236 he states, "THEY (the Protestants) DEEM IT THEIR DUTY TO KEEP THE SUNDAY HOLY. Why? — Because the Catholic Church tells them to do so. THEY HAVE NO OTHER REASON."
Let me give you one more statement from the Catholics before turning to Protestant sources. I now quote from pages 3 and 4 of The Library of Christian Doctrine, by Burns and Oates of London, art. 'Why Don't You Keep the Sabbath Day?':
"You [Protestants] will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. CHANGED! But by whom? WHO HAS THE AUTHORITY TO CHANGE AN EXPRESS COMMANDMENT OF ALMIGHTY GOD? When God has spoken and said, 'Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day,' who shall dare to say, `Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead?' This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer. You are a PROTESTANT, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, YOU GO AGAINST THE PLAIN LETTER OF THE BIBLE, AND PUT ANOTHER DAY IN THE PLACE OF THAT DAY WHICH THE BIBLE HAS COMMANDED. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the Ten Commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding: WHO GAVE YOU AUTHORITY TO TAMPER WITH THE FOURTH? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered."
The above testimony amply shows how the Catholics feel on this subject of who changed the Sabbath. They believe that the Catholic Church has power to make laws and to change the Word of God. But the Protestants are supposed to believe in no authority but the Bible.
Shameful Protestant Admissions
Next, let us see what the Protestants have to say, or admit, on this important subject.
"Some BAPTISTS are fond of demanding a 'Thus saith the Lord' for everything and profess to accept nothing for which explicit authority cannot be produced from the word of God. Probably not a reader [meaning a Baptist] of this paragraph would be willing to follow this principle to its legitimate conclusion. It would involve the immediate return to Sabbath worship, the abolition of Sunday schools." Quoted from the Baptist 'Examiner,' January 4, 1894.
Quite a candid admission!
The following confession, by Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of "The BAPTIST MANUAL," was made before a New York Ministers' Conference, Nov. 13th, 1893. "To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false glosses, NEVER ALLUDED TO ANY TRANSFERENCE OF THE DAY; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated . . . Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian fathers and other sources. BUT WHAT A PITY THAT IT [Sunday] COMES BRANDED WITH THE MARK OF PAGANISM AND CHRISTENED WITH THE NAME OF THE SUN GOD, WHEN ADOPTED AND SANCTIONED BY THE PAPAL APOSTASY, AND BEQUEATHED AS A SACRED LEGACY TO PROTESTANISM!"
In this same article, read before this Baptist Conference, he went on to say: "Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, Where can the record of such a transaction (from seventh day to the first day) be found? NOT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, ABSOLUTELY NOT. THERE IS NO SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE OF THE CHANGE OF THE SABBATH INSTITUTION FROM THE SEVENTH TO THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK."
What an admission!
Now a quotation from the LUTHERAN CHURCH. "The observance of the Lord's day (meaning Sunday) is founded not on any command of God, but on the authority of the church," states the "Augsburg Confession," part 2, chapter 1, sec. 10. Also we discover the following statement in Aritcle 28 of the "Augsburg Confession": "They [Catholics] allege the sabbath changed into Sunday, the Lord's day, contrary to the decalogue, as it appears; NEITHER IS THERE ANY EXAMPLE MORE BOASTED OF THAN THE CHANGING OF THE SABBATH DAY. Great, say they, is the powel and the authority of the [Catholic] church since it dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments."
Next, let us hear from a PRESBYTERIAN source, The Christian at Work, April 19, 1883, and January, 1884. "Some have tried to build the observance of Sunday upon apostolic command, whereas the apostles gave no command on the matter at all . . . The truth is, as soon as we appeal to the LITERAL WRITING OF THE BIBLE, the Sabbatarians [Sabbath keepers] have the best of the argument."
Continuing: "We hear less than we used to about the apostolic origin of the present Sunday observance, and for the reason that while the Sabbath and Sabbath rest are woven into the warp and woof of Scripture, IT IS NOW SEEN, AS IT IS ADMITTED, THAT WE MUST GO TO LATER THAN APOSTOLIC TIMES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SUNDAY OBSERVANCE."
And what have the Methodists to offer? Notice!
From A Theological Dictionary, by Mr. Charles Buck, a METHODIST Minister, art., "Sabbath," page 403: "Sabbath in the Hebrew language signifies rest, and is the seventh day of the week . . . and it must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day."
Alexander Campbell (of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH) made the following statement in the Washington (Pennsylvania), Reporter, on October 8, 1821. "I do not believe that the Lord's Day came in the room of the Jewish Sabbath, or that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day, for this plain reason, that where there is no testimony, there can be no faith. Now there is no testimony in all the oracles of heaven that the Sabbath was changed, or that the Lord's day came in the room of it . . . There is no divine testimony that the Lord's day came in the room of it; therefore, there can be no divine faith that the Sabbath was changed or that the Lord's day came in the room of it."
Protestants Admit They Follow Tradition Instead of Bible
The CHURCH OF ENGLAND (in one of its catechisms) makes the following statements, "And where are we told in Scripture that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the FIRST DAY . . . The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church, has enjoined it." That is from Plain Sermons on the Catechism," by Mr. Isaac Williams, D.D., Vol. I, pp. 334-36. London: Rivingtons, 1882.
That is quite an admission!
But now what does "The Christian Sabbath," by N. W. Rice, D.D., (PRESBYTERIAN) p. 60, have to say about the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day? Dr. Rice says: "There is no record, no express command, authorizing this change."
Dr. Lyman Abbott in "Christian Union," Jan. 19, 1882, has to confess: "The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament."
This CONGREGATIONALIST writer, Dr, Abbott, is quite frank in his admission and so is this statement from another Congregationalist Minister, Mr. Orin Fowler, A.M. "There is no command in the Bible requiring us to observe the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath." — "Mode and Subjects of Baptism," by Mr. Orin Fowler.
William Prynne in his "Dissertation of the Lord's Day," pages 33, 34, 44 (1633) says, "The seventh-day sabbath was . . . solemnized by Christ, the apostles, and primitive Christians, till THE LAODICEAN COUNCIL DID IN A MANNER QUITE ABOLISH IT . . . The Council of Laodicea (about 364 A.D). . . first settled the observance of the Lord's day, and prohibited . . . the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath under an anathema."
"The Lord's day was merely an ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment, because they for almost three-hundred years together kept that day which was in that (the fourth) commandment."
The renowned preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, made the following statement: "There is no direct command on the subject [of observing Sunday]. The only obligation resting upon us to observe Sunday is that which comes up through our nature." From "Bible Studies," p. 242, by Henry Ward Beecher.
Here is also a final admission: "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic church to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday." From "The History of Christian Religion and Church," Neander, page 186, translated by Henry John Rose, D.D.
There are many more confessions which could be added to this list, both Catholic and Protestant. But the above list will suffice to prove that Sunday-observance was not instituted in the New Testament, but was instituted by Constantine the Great in 321 A.D., and enforced by the Catholic Church [at the Council of Laodicea — about 364 A.D] — and the Catholic Church bequeathed this pagan first day of the week, wrapped up in a Sunday wrapper, to the Protestant churches — her daughters!
Sometimes an atheist or agnostic dares to put in plain words the real reason why he cannot accept the teachings of the churches. Did you know why Ingersoll was an agnostic? Here is one reason — found in his book, "Some Mistakes of Moses", 1892, New York: C. P. Farrell, tenth ed., Chapter XIV, page 106. He says: "Since the establishment of the Christian religion, the day (the Sabbath) has been changed, and CHRISTIANS DO NOT REGARD THE DAY AS HOLY UPON WHICH GOD ACTUALLY RESTED, and which He sanctified. The Christian Sabbath, or the Lord's day was legally established by the murderer Constantine, because upon that day Christ was SUPPOSED to have risen from the dead. IT IS NOT EASY TO SEE WHERE CHRISTIANS GOT THE RIGHT TO DISREGARD THE DIRECT COMMAND OF GOD, to labor on the day He sanctifies, and keep as sacred, a day upon which He commanded men to labor. THE SAB-BATH OF GOD IS SATURDAY, AND IF ANY DAY IS TO BE KEPT HOLY, that is the one, AND NOT THE SUNDAY OF THE CHRISTIAN."
Do you now see WHY there are so many infidels? The veritable Babylon of hundreds of competitive religious bodies and conflicting teachings, has led many into rank atheism. If people Sunday Observance would only accept and obey the plain teachings of the Bible, including Sabbath keeping, INFIDELITY WOULD VANISH FROM THE EARTH!
How grateful are we for the knowledge of this TRUTH?