HOW THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DESTROYED SABBATH OBSERVANCE The historical transfer of Sabbath to Sunday was not an easy one. Dr Kenneth Strand notes: “until the second century there is no concrete evidence of a weekly Sunday celebration anywhere. The first specific references during that century come from Alexandria and Rome, places that also early rejected the observance of the seventh day Sabbath. When Sunday first emerged in Christian circles, it did not immediately replace Sabbath. For 200 years (100-300C.E) Sunday observances existed side by side with the true Sabbath observance. But the trend set by Constantine and others eventually did to the change of the Sabbath to Sunday on 321 C.E. This drift into compromise in order to win pagans was accented by the first civil Sunday law, passed by the Emperor of Rome, Constantine. It was one of his official acts following his nominal acceptance of Christianity …..” Despite the pressures that arose from the mainstream Christianity, faithful ones still resisted Sunday worship. The Roman Catholic Church cites the Council of Laodicea as the official voice which transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday. Note the Language of one Catechism: Question – Which is the Sabbath day? Answer – Saturday is the Sabbath day. Question – Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Answer - We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (336 C.E.) transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.” Pope Sylvester (314 – 335) was the first to order the Churches to fast on Saturday, and Pope Innocent (401 – 417) made a binding law in the churches that obeyed him. In order to bring Sabbath into disfavor, “Innocentius did ordain the Saturday or Sabbath to be always fasted”. Pope Gregory 1 (590 -604 C.E.) referred Sabbath keepers as men of perverse spirit and preachers of Anti- Christ. Council of Liftinae, Belgium (745C.E.) warns against the observance of the Sabbath, referring to the decree of the Council of Laodicea. In 1060, Queen Margaret urged the Scots not to continue doing servile works on Sunday. In the Council of Clermont (1095 C.E.) during the first Crusade, Pope Urban II decreed that the Sabbath be set aside in honor of the Virgin Mary. In the Council of Bergen, Norway (1435 C.E.), the observance of Saturday is strictly forbidden. In the Council of Russia, Moscow, 1503, the accused Sabbath keepers were summoned; they openly acknowledged the new faith and defended the same. There are other councils and pronouncements that posed threats which time and space would not allow us. The facts that there are documentary testimonies of Catholic Church for this lend support to this account. Catholic Church has boasted of her prevailing powers for which she was able to defeat the Authority of the Scriptures. You will see the testimonies she makes in this regard here under. 1”The observance of Sunday by the Protestants is the homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the Catholic Church.” (Plain Talk About Protestantism, by Father Segur. P. 213.) 2”If you look to the Bible as an authority for the observance of the day, you will not find it. It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and all other Christians outside the pale of the Mother Church, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in the observance of Sunday. The Seventh day Adventists are the only ones who properly apply the term “Sabbath,’ because they do observe the seventh day, and not the first day, as the day of rest.’ (Clifton Tracts, Vol. IV, p. 15). 3”Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought, logically, to keep Saturday with the Jews.’ (American Catholic Quarterly Review, Jan. 1883) 4”Now, every child in school knows that the Sabbath day is Saturday, the seventh day of the week; and yet, with the exception of the Seventh day Adventists, all Protestants keep Sunday instead of the Sabbath day, because the Catholic Church made this change in the first ages of Christianity.” (Father Gerritsma, in the Winnipeg (Manitoba) Free Press, April 21, 1884.) 5”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.” (Catholic Mirror, Sept. 1893.) 6”You are a Protestant, and profess to go by the Bible only; and yet you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of the Sabbath. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the Ten Commandments; who gave you the authority to tamper with the fourth?” (Library of Christian Doctrine, p. 3.) 7”Protestants have no Scripture for the measure of their day of rest- they abolish the observance of Saturday without warrant of Scripture- and substitute Sunday in its place without Scriptural authority- consequently they have for all this only traditional authority. (Keenan’s Doctrinal Catechism, P.354.) 8”If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew. Is it not strange that those (Protestants) who make the Bible their only teacher should inconsistently follow in this matter the Church?” (The Question Box, by Father Conway, P. 179.) 9”Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives; either Protestantism and the keeping of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.” (American Catholic Quarterly Review, Jan., 1883.) 10”But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation; 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. (Cardinal James Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, Ayes Publishing, 1978, p.108.) While I promise to bring out more points to support this post I will welcome more evidences from you because I will keep editing this post whenever I have more to add.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 17:22:55 +0000
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