ORIGINS OF SUNDAY OBSERVANCE 

-by Robert L. Rael

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn their ears away from the truth, and shall be turned into fables."  
II Timothy 4:3-4

“…Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by man.”  
Isaiah 29:13 (NIV)

"Touch not, taste not, handle not, Which all are to perish with the using; after the commandments and doctrines of men..."  Colossians 2:21-22

...For as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of man.”   Isaiah 29:13

"Her priests have violated my law,  ...and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them."  Ezekiel 22:26

"He will speak against the most high and oppress His saints and try to change the set times and laws."  
Daniel 7:25 (NIV) 

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who apposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."  II Thessalonians 2:3-4   

  The history of the early church testified to the fulfillment of our Lord’s prophesies foretelling the path of humiliation, reproach and suffering that the followers of Christ would experience following His ascension (Matthew 24:9, 21-22).  Consider the following reference:  

“These persecutions, beginning under Nero about the time of the martyrdom of Paul, continued with greater or less fury for centuries…  They were condemned as rebels against the empire, as foes of religion and pests to society…  Wherever they sought refuge, the followers of Christ were hunted like beasts of prey…  Thousands were imprisoned, tortured and slain…  (But) under the fiercest persecution these witnesses for Jesus kept their faith unsullied… they rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the truth…  A voice came down to them from the throne of God:  ‘Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.’  Revelation 2:10. 

 “The sufferings which they endured brought Christians nearer to one another and to their Redeemer.  Their living example and dying testimony were a constant witness for the truth; and where least expected, the subjects of Satan were leaving his service and enlisting under the banner of Christ.

“Satan therefore laid his plans to war more successfully against the government of God by planting his banner in the Christian church.  If the followers of Christ could be deceived and led to displease God, then their strength, fortitude and firmness would fail, and they would fall an easy prey.

” (Pagan) Idolaters were led to receive a part of the Christian faith, while they rejected other essential truths.  With some concessions on their part they proposed that Christians should make concessions, that all might unite on the platform of belief in Christ. 

 “Some of the Christians stood firm…  Others were in favor of yielding or modifying some features of their faith and uniting with those who had accepted a part of Christianity, urging that might be the means of their full conversion…  Satan was insinuating himself into the church, to corrupt their faith and turn their mind from the word of truth.

“Most of the Christians at last consented to lower their standard, and a union was formed between Christianity and Paganism.  Although the worshipers of idols professed to be converted, and united with the church, they still clung to their idolatry, only changing the objects of their worship to images of Jesus, and even of (the mother of Jesus) Mary and the saints…  Unsound doctrines, superstitious rites, and idolatrous ceremonies were incorporated into her faith and worship.  As the followers of Christ united with idolaters, the Christian religion became corrupted, and the church lost her purity and power.  There were some, however, who were not misled by these delusions.  They still maintained their fidelity to the Author of truth and worshiped God alone.

“…None understood so well how to oppose the true Christian faith as did those who had once been its defenders; and these apostate Christians, uniting with their half-pagan companions, directed their warfare against the most essential features of the doctrines of Christ.  …Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror.  Her spirit controlled the church.  Her doctrines, ceremonies and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ.”  REFERENCE:  “The Great Controversy,” Ellen G. White, pp. 40-42

II Thessalonians 2:3-7:  Here the apostle Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians, foretold the great apostasy which would result with the insidious encroachment of paganism into the church of God.

“In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians.  They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts.”  REFERENCE:  Ibid., pg. 21

“The nominal conversion of Constantine (the then Roman Emperor), in the early part of the fourth century, caused great rejoicing; and the world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church.  Now the work of corruption rapidly progressed.  Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror.  Her spirit controlled the church.  Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ…  To secure worldly gains and support of the great men of earth; and having thus rejected Christ, she was induced to yield allegiance to the representatives of Satan…”

“The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further disregard of Heaven’s authority…  Unconsecrated leaders of the church, tampered with the fourth commandment also, and essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2:2-3), and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as the venerable day of the sun.” REFERENCE:  “Ibid”, pp. 49-52

“(Constantine) never placed himself under the direction of Christian teachers or bishops.  But Constantine reserved the right to determine his own religious practices, and even to intervene in the life of the church, for he considered himself bishop of bishops; Repeatedly, even after his conversion, he took part in pagan rites in which no Christian would participate, and the bishops raised no voice of condemnation…  (Constantine) was not technically a Christian, for he had not been baptized.  …(Constantine) while inclined to become a Christian, was not one of the faithful.

“Constantine’s faith is supported by his own statements, which reveal a sincere man whose understanding of the Christian message was meager.

“In A.D. 324, an imperial edict ordered all soldiers to worship the supreme God on the first day of the week… it was the day of the Unconquered Sun, and therefore pagans saw no reason to oppose such an edict.

“In spite of all this, almost to his dying day Constantine continued functioning as the High Priest of paganism.”  
REFERENCE:  “The Story of Christianity”, Justo L. Gonzalez, pp. 122-123

“The policy of Constantine was one of toleration.  He did not make Christianity the sole religion of the state.  He continued to support both paganism and Christianity…  The subservient Roman Senate followed the long established custom and classed him among the gods.

“As time passed, Constantine came out more and more pronouncedly in favor of Christianity…  The Christian Sunday was ordered placed in the same legal position as the pagan feasts."  REFERENCE:  “A History of Christianity Beginnings to 1500”, Kenneth Scott LaTourette, pp. 92-93

“(Constantine) had recently come over to the side of the Christians, and after a long struggle had united the Empire under his rule.”       
REFERENCE:  Ibid., pg. 153

Constantine, who obviously “saw no contradiction between the Unconquered Sun and the Christian God”, was also a shrewd politician.

Consider the following reference:                                                                                                                                                                 “It was the emperor’s policy to unite the conflicting interests of heathenism and Christianity.  He was urged to do this by the bishops of the church, who, inspired by ambition and thirst for power, perceived that if the same day was observed by both Christians and heathen, it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by the pagan community and thus advance the power and glory of the church.  But while many God-fearing Christians were gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness, they still held the true Sabbath as the holy day of the Lord and observed it in obedience to the fourth commandment. 

“The first public measure enforcing Sunday observance was the law enacted by Constantine (A.D. 321); This edict required townspeople to rest on ‘the venerable day of the sun,’ but permitted countrymen to continue their agricultural pursuits.  Though virtually a heathen statute, it was enforced by the emperor after his nominal acceptance of Christianity. 

“The royal mandate not proving a sufficient substitute for divine authority, Eusebius, a bishop who sought the favor of princes, and who was the special friend and flatterer of Constantine, advanced the claim that Christ had transferred the Sabbath to Sunday.  Not a single testimony of the Scriptures was produced in proof of the new doctrine.  Eusebius himself unwittingly acknowledges its falsity and points to the real authors of the change.  ‘All things’, he says, ‘whatever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s Day.’  - Robert Cox, “Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties”, pg. 538

“As the papacy became firmly established, the work of Sunday exaltation was continued.  For a time the people engaged in agricultural labor when not attending church, and the seventh day was still regarded as the Sabbath.  But steadily a change was effected.  Those in holy office were forbidden to pass judgment in any civil controversy on the Sunday.  Soon after, all persons, of whatever rank, were commanded to refrain from common labor on pain of a fine for freemen and stripes in the case of servants.  Later it was decreed that rich men should be punished with loss of half of their estates; and finally, that if still obstinate they should be made slaves.  The lower classes were to suffer perpetual banishment.

“Miracles also were called into requisition.  Among other wonders it was reported that as a husbandman who was about to plow his field on Sunday cleaned his plow with an iron, the iron stuck fast in his hand, and for two years he carried it about with him, ‘to his exceeding great pain and shame’. – Francis West, “Historical and Practical Discourse on the Lord’s Day”, pg. 174

“Later the pope gave directions that the parish priest should admonish the violators of Sunday and wish them to go to church and say their prayers, lest they bring some great calamity on themselves and neighbors.  An ecclesiastical counsel brought forward the argument, since so widely employed, even by Protestants, that because persons had been struck by lightning while laboring on Sunday, it must be the Sabbath.  ‘It is apparent’, said the prelates, ‘how high the displeasure of God was upon their neglect of this day’.  An appeal was then made that priests and ministers, kings and princes, and all faithful people ‘use their utmost endeavors and care that the day be restored to its honor, and, for the credit of Christianity, more devoutly observed for the time to come’.  – Thomas Morer, “Discourse in Six Dialogues on the Name, Notion, and Observation of the Lord’s Day”, pg. 271

“The decrees of councils proving insufficient, the secular authorities were besought to issue an edict that would strike terror to the hearts of the people and force them to refrain from labor on Sunday.  At a synod held in Rome, all previous decisions were reaffirmed with greater force and solemnity.  They were also incorporated into the ecclesiastical law and enforced by the civil authorities throughout nearly all Christendom.  – Hylyn, “History of the Sabbath”, pt. 2; ch. 5 sec. 7

“Still the absence of Scriptural authority for Sunday keeping occasioned no little embarrassment.  The people questioned the right of their teachers to set aside the positive declaration of Jehovah, ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,’ in order to honor the day of the sun.  To supply the lack of Bible testimony, other expedients were necessary.  A zealous advocate of Sunday, who about the close of the twelfth century visited the churches of England, was resisted by faithful witnesses for the truth; and so fruitless were his efforts that he departed from the country for a season and cast about him for some means to enforce his teachings.  When he returned, the lack was supplied, and in his after labors he met with greater success.  He brought with him a roll purporting to be from God Himself, which contained the needed command for Sunday observance, with awful threats to terrify the disobedient.  This precious document – as base a counterfeit as the institution it supported – was said to have fallen from heaven and have been found in Jerusalem, upon the alter of St. Simeon, in Golgotha.  But, in fact, the pontifical palace at Rome was the source whence it proceeded.  Frauds and forgeries to advance the power and prosperity of the church have in all ages been esteemed lawful by the papal hierarchy.

“It was reported that persons laboring beyond the appointed hour were stricken with paralysis.  A miller who attempted to grind his corn, saw, instead of flour, a torrent of blood come forth, and the mill wheel stood still, notwithstanding the strong rush of water.  A woman who placed dough in the oven found it raw when taken out, though the oven was very hot.  Another who had dough prepared for baking at the ninth hour, but determined to set it aside till Monday, found, the next day, that it had been made into loaves and baked by divine power.  A man who baked bread after the ninth hour on Saturday found, when he broke it the next morning, that blood started therefrom.  By such absurd and superstitious fabrications did the advocates of Sunday endeavor to establish its sacredness (See Roger de Hoveden, Annals, vol. 2, pp. 528-530).”  REFERENCE:  “The Great Controversy”, Ellen G. White, pp. 576-577

“The effort was made to keep Sundays and other holy days free from the ordinary occupations of the week.  Stories were told of the dire calamities which descended upon those who persisted in laboring or in holding or going to markets and fairs on these days.”                
REFERENCE:  “A History of Christianity”, Kenneth Scott LaTourette, pg. 560

“So far as our records enable us to determine, Jesus gave little thought to a continuing organization and did not put the heart of his teaching in any single verbal formula which was to be binding upon his followers.  To be sure, the word ‘church’ is twice in the sayings of His which were remembered.  Yet this is only in one of the Gospels, that according to Matthew, and it is not so much as mentioned in the other three.  The one of these two sayings on which greatest stress had since been placed is that in which after Peter’s declaration that Jesus was ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ Jesus is reported as saying: ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’  Whatever else this passage may mean, it does not so much as hint that there was to be a series of successors to whom Peter was to have authority to transmit the ‘power of the keys.’  In the final chapter of The Gospel according to John we have the command of Jesus to Peter to tend and feed his sheep, but there is no indication that he meant this exclusively for Peter or that he gave Peter the authority to transmit the responsibility to others.

“In still another passage, also in the Gospel according to John, the risen Christ is recorded as saying to ‘the disciples’, presumably although not explicitly the eleven who survived the betrayal and suicide of Judas:  ‘As the Father hath sent me, even so I send you…  Receive ye the Holy Ghost:  Whosever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.’  Yet here again there is not the slightest suggestion that the disciples to whom these words were uttered were given the right to hand on that dread power to successors.  Here was no clear word of an organization which was to continue across the centuries.  It did not specify what visible structure, if any, that fellowship was to take.  For this, however he outlined no detailed structure nor did he sketch even its general outlines.”       
REFERENCE:  “A History of Christianity Beginnings to 1500”, Kenneth Scott LaTourette, pp. 112-113

“Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.”  John 20:23

“The key to understanding this verse is found in verse 21 of this chapter ‘… as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.’ 

“How had the Father sent the Son into the world?  To speak His own words?  Jesus said, ‘For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak (John 12:49).’  Again Christ said, ‘… I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things (John 8:28).’  ‘… I do nothing of myself, but as my father hath taught me, I speak these things (John 8:28).’  ‘… My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me (John 7:16).’  ‘… I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me (John 6:38).’”

“Clearly then, Jesus sent His disciples as the Father had sent Him.  They were not to speak their own words, but His.  Paul said that he was only an ambassador for Christ.  An ambassador does not speak his own words, but words of the one he represents.  Now we will read the entire text of Paul’s words to see what Christ’s ambassadors will speak for Him:  ‘… God … hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God’ (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

“Please notice that, as an ambassador for Christ, one can carry only His Word to the people.  And that word of reconciliation which He has given for the people is that their trespasses are not imputed to them.  This is the only way anyone can remit sins.  He can pass along Christ’s word about forgiveness and assure them of acceptance as they meet the requirements of that word.”  REFERENCE: “Answers to Difficult Bible Texts” (New Revised Edition), Joe Crews, pp. 48-49

“…Eusebius, the most famous of the early historians of the church, gave the lists of the bishops of several churches.  …That they existed is evidence of the conviction which lay back of their compilation and preservation, that a succession of bishops from the apostles was assurance that the gospel had been conserved and handed down and that it was one of the marks of the Catholic Church.”  REFERENCE:  Ibid., pg. 132

In John 1:40-42, Peter was called Cephas (Greek “Kephas”, from the Aramaic “Kepha”).  The apostle Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, found Peter and brought him to Jesus.  “And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona:  thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone” (verse 42).  The English word stone is translated from the Greek word petros, meaning “a single stone” or “loose stone.”

But when Jesus said “upon this rock I will build my church (Matthew 16:18), the Greek word, as written originally by Matthew, was not either “Kephas”, or “petros”, but “petra” which means “a large, massive rock.”  In plain language, then, that “petra” or “kephas” was Christ Himself – but the smaller stone, “petros” or “kephas” was Simon Peter.

How did Peter himself describe Christ in I Peter 2:6-8?  The word “rock”, in verse 8, is translated from the Greek “petra”, meaning a massive stone.  This therefore pictures Christ as the foundation of the church, on which it is built.  God’s church was built on the “rock” (its foundation), Christ – not on the stone, Peter.

Who does the Word say is the true living Head of the Church?  Read Ephesians 1:22, 4:15, 5:23 and Colossians 1:18 and 2:19.

“The Epistle to the Ephesians declares that Christ is the head of the Church and dreams of the Church as ultimately being without spot, wrinkle or blemish.”  REFERENCE:  Ibid., pg. 114

”The council of Laodicea, A.D. 364 passed a law (Canon XXIX) which decreed:  ‘Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and as possible, do not work on that day.  If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.’”  REFERENCE:  “A History of Christian Councils”, Charles J. Hefele, vol. 2, pg. 316

By the beginning of the fourth century, the church was involved in theological wars.  Consider the following reference:

“One theological battle in particular came to the center stage.  It’s generally known today as the Arian controversy.  It concerned the begetting of the Son.  The scriptures merely tell us that Jesus is the ‘only begotten of the Father’ and that He existed as the word ‘in the beginning’ (John 1:1, 14).

“The disputes …threatened the disruption of what, along with the Empire, was the institution in the Mediterranean world, the Catholic Church.”  REFERENCE:  Ibid., pg. 153

“Constantine, the official protector of the church, was sole emperor.  His first care was to secure the unity and harmony of his vast empire, and he realized at once how dangerous religious dissensions might prove to this ideal…  On the advice of Hosius, and with the active concurrence of Pope Sylvester, Constantine then summoned a synod of all the bishops of the church in the imperial palace at Nicea in Bithynia.”  REFERENCE:  “Church History”, Fr. John Laux, M.A., pg. 108

This then became the first Ecumenical Council in church history.  It was convened on May 20, 325 A.D.  The number of bishops attending totaled 318.

Constantine saw that the majority of the delegates were now supporting Alexander (bishop of Alexandria), so in exasperation he himself gave up on the goal of achieving unity among all the delegates.  He himself now proposed a statement of belief… (and) had to insert language in the creed that is not found in Scripture.  Constantine’s proposal won the day, and it was accepted by nearly everyone at the council… This creed is known today as the Nicene Creed”, and it reads:

“’We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and on one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of His Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Lights, true God of true God, begotten, not made, being of the same substance with the Father; by whom all things were made, both that are in heaven and in earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate and was made man.  He suffered and the third day he rose again, and ascended into heaven.  And he shall come again to judge both the living and the dead. And we believe in the Holy Spirit,’”  REFERENCE:  “Will The Theologians Please Sit Down”, David Bercot, pg. 71-72

“So the council was now saying that to be a Christian you now had to subscribe to a theological term that nowhere appears in the Bible… .

“The strong message that came from the council is that God’s grace will cover all manner of wicked living, but it will not cover theological errors.

“…One was still accepted as a Christian and was quite welcome in the church – so long as he held to the Nicene Creed.”                         
 REFERENCE:  Ibid., pg. 73-74

“Please note that Jesus did not tell His disciples that some of you will put your fellow Christians to death, thinking you are doing an act of service.  Rather, He said, ‘The time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service’ (John 16:2).  So it is never the disciples of Christ who do the killing.  They are the ones being killed…  On the same note, Jesus said, ‘When they persecute you in this city, flee to another’ (Matthew 10:23).  Real Christians are the ones who are persecuted.  They are never the ones who do the persecuting (Philippians 1:29).

“Accordingly, when professing Christians kill and persecute others, they have taken themselves out of God’s kingdom (if they were ever there to start with) and have included themselves among ‘them’.  They have become outsiders – people who no longer belong to Christ.  And that is precisely what the Christian theologians did from the fourth century on.  Just like the Jewish theologians, the Christians murdered – not only genuine heretics – but also some true children of the kingdom.  And they imagined they had done an act of service in the process.  They dreamed they were honoring God.

                                                Jesus did not tell His disciples that  "some of                                                  you will put your fellow Christians to death!"

“So, according to Augustine (an esteemed and prodigious writer, and Bishop of Hippo), so long as you ‘love’ the people you are killing, there is no objection to killing others in war… the end result of such teaching is that Christians are to behave no differently that the pagan Romans.  They will war against and kill one another just as the pagans had…  And like the pagans, they will return evil for evil…  They imagine that they are doing these things… in ‘love’ out of honor for the real God.

“In his eagerness to magnify the deity of Christ, Athanasius, the most vocal defender of the Nicene Creed, gave Christ’s mother the title ‘Mother of God.’  After this, the fourth century witnessed an explosion in the veneration of Mary, and it was the Nicene theologians… who took the lead in this.  Augustine, the foremost defender of the Nicaea in the West, gave his support to the false teachings that Mary… lived a sinless life.

"Imagine!  With their lips the Nicene theologians exalted Jesus as highly as possible.  But in reality, they did not hesitate to contradict His very own words.  They gutted His teachings, corrupted His kingdom, murdered others, and altered the historic faith handed down to them.  But – like the Jewish theologians before them – they imagined that God was beaming down at them with eyes of delight.”                             
REFERENCE:  Ibid., pg. 89 

“In the sixth century the papacy had become firmly established.  Its seat of power was fixed in the imperial city, and the bishop of Rome was declared to be the head over the entire church.  Paganism had given place to the papacy.  …Christians were forced to choose either to yield their integrity and accept  the papal ceremonies and worship, or to wear away their lives in dungeons or suffer death by the rack, the fagot, or the headsman’s ax.  Now were fulfilled the words of Jesus:  ‘Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.’”  Luke 21:16, 17.

“The accession of the Roman Church to power marked the beginning of the Dark Ages.  Faith and the atonement was transferred from Christ, the true foundation, to the pope of Rome.

“…They were taught not only to look to the pope as their mediator, but to trust to works of their own to atone for sin.

“…Notwithstanding that vice prevailed, even among the leaders of the Roman Church, her influence seemed steadily to increase.  …some means must be employed to give it a show of authority; and this was readily suggested by the father of lies.  Ancient writings were forged by monks.  Decrees of councils, before unheard of were mysteriously ‘discovered’, establishing the universal supremacy of the Pope from the earliest times.  REFERENCE:  “The Great Controversy”, Ellen G. White, pp. 51-53

“…In the 11^th century, Pope Gregory VII proclaimed the ‘perfection’ of the Roman Church declaring the church and its leaders ‘infallible’, and further openly claiming the power of ‘creating God, the Creator of all things.’”  “The Real Presence of The Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ in The Blessed Eucharist, Proved From Scripture”, Cardinal Wiseman, lecture 8, sec. 3 para. 26  REFERENCE:  “Ibid”, pp. 54-60

“Beyond claiming infallibility, it is the boast of Rome that she never changes.  Rome asserts that ‘the Church never erred’ nor will it, according to the Scriptures, ever err… .’”  REFERENCE:  “Institutes of Ecclesiastical History”, J.L. von Mosheim, book 3, Century II, part 2, ch. 2, sec. 9, note 17.

In the 16^th century a papal council plainly declared:  “Let all Christians remember that the 7^th day was consecrated by God, and hath been received and observed not only by the Jews, but by all others who pretend to worship God.  Though we Christians have changed their Sabbath into the Lord’s Day.”  REFERENCE:  “Discourse in Six dialogues on The Name, Notion and Observation of The Lord’s Day”, Thomas Morer, pp. 281-282

“…by observing the Sunday change (the Protestants) are recognizing her power.”  REFERENCE:  “Plain Talk About The Protestantism of Today”, Mgr. Segur

“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the (Sunday) change was her act.  And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastic power and authority in religious matters.”  REFERENCE:  “Faith of Our Fathers”, C.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons, pg. 14

“…Isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion seriously and directly from the Bible …observe Sunday instead of Saturday?...  The change was made about 15 centuries before Protestantism was born.  The Protestants have continued to observe custom – even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the Bible."  REFERENCE:  “The Faith of Millions,” pp. 421-422

“The Bible says ‘Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.’ The Catholic church says ‘No! By my divine power, I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep holy the first day of the week,’ and lo, the entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the Holy Catholic Church." REFERENCE: American Sentinel," Father Enright (June 1, 1893): 173. 

 In 1512 Christopher Marcellus said this to Pope Julius II:                                                                                                                             "Take care that we lose not that salvation, that life and breath which thou hast given us, for thou art our shepherd, thou art our physician, thou art our governor, thou art our husbandman, thou art finally another God on earth."

Cardinal Sarto, who became Pope Pius X, said this:                                                                                                                                           "The Pope represents Jesus Christ Himself..."

 In 1302 Pope Boniface said this in a letter to the Catholic Church:                                                                                     "Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

 Pope Leo XIII made the following statements about the role of the Papacy and the Roman Church:                                         "Our thoughts went out towards the immense multitude of those who are strangers to the gladness that filled all Catholic hearts: some because they lie in absolute ignorance of the Gospel; others because they dissent from the Catholic belief, though they bear the name of Christians.

"This thought has been, and is, a source of deep concern to us; for it is impossible to think of such a large portion of mankind deviating, as it were, from the right path, as they move away from Us, and not experience a sentiment of innermost grief. But since we hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty...

"But the supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff. Union of minds, therefore, requires, together with a perfect accord in the one faith, complete submission and obedience of will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff, as to God Himself."  

II Thessalonians 2:3-4:  "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who apposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."                                                            

The Jesuit Order (to which Pope Francis is a member of) "4th Degree Blood Oath" reads as follows:                                   "I furthermore promise and declare that I will, when opportunity present, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am directed to do, to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth; and that I will spare neither age, sex or condition; and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics, rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants' heads against the walls, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race. That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use the poisoned cup, the strangulating cord, the steel of the poniard or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity, or authority of the person or persons, whatever may be their condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agent of the Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Faith, of the Society of Jesus."

Here are the Catholic Ten Commandments:

1. I am the LORD your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

4. Honor your father and your mother.

5. You shall not kill.

6. You shall not commit adultery.

7. You shall not steal.

8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

“And he shall speak great words against the most high, and shall wear out the saints of the most high, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand…"  (Bold/italics added for emphasis.)  Daniel 7:25  

"Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."  Matthew 5:19

The following editorial was taken from www.jesus-is-lord.com/tencomma.htm:                                                                             "The Catholic religion's 'traditional way' of enumerating the ten commandments takes away the second commandment (against making images unto ourselves) and makes the 10th commandment into two commandments.  If you follow them all the way down from the second commandment you'll see the Catholic religion is always one ahead of the King James. Finally at the tenth commandment they break it into two and make it the 9th and 10th commandments. What deception! What deceit! What guile! I tell no lies here--just get out the Bible and compare. They contradict their own unauthorized Bible by taking away the second commandment! They reject the commandment of God so that they can keep their own tradition."

“Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept silently into use, and then climbed the rank of divine institutions.  Officers for whom the primitive disciples could have found no place, and titles which to them would have been altogether unintelligible, began to challenge attention, and to be named apostolic.”  REFERENCE:  “The Ancient Church,” William D. Killen, D.D. pg. 26

Ellen G. White in her enlightening book "The Great Controversy" chronicles the introduction of idol worship in early Church history during the reign of Constantine (306-337 A.D.):  “Most of the Christians at last consented to lower their standard, and a union was formed between Christianity and Paganism.  Although the worshipers of idols professed to be converted, and united with the church, they still clung to their idolatry, only changing the objects of their worship to images of Jesus, and even of (the mother of Jesus) Mary and the saints…  Unsound doctrines, superstitious rites, and idolatrous ceremonies were incorporated into her faith and worship.  As the followers of Christ united with idolaters, the Christian religion became corrupted, and the church lost her purity and power..." 

Exodus 20:4: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:”

Isaiah 45:16:  "They shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols." 

Revelation 9:20-21: "And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:"  

Leviticus 26:1: "Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up [any] image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I [am] the LORD your God."

Deuteronomy 5:22:  “These are the words spake unto all your assembly in the Mount…with a great voice and He added no more.”

Luke 16:17:  “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the law.”

Matthew 5:18:  “…not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.” (NIV)

Revelation 12:17:  “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which kept the Commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”  (Also read I John 5:3.)

Isaiah 24:5:  “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.”   (Italics added for emphasis.)  (Also read Isaiah 59:13 & 14, Hebrews 3:15, Psalms 89:30-34 & Romans 16:17.)                               

II Corinthians 11:13-15:  “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.”   
Matthew 24:24:  "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."  

II Timothy 3:16-17:  "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 

I have many wonderful Catholic friends who are dedicated Christians.  I also have many sincere Christian friends who are Sunday-keeping Protestants.  I do not agree with either group about the Sabbath issue, but neither God, nor any carnal authority appointed me to pass judgment on any of them.

 This document was written not with the intent to judge, offend or condemn.  But rather it was written with the sole and sincere purpose of extending the challenge to all who would, with the divine blessing of the Holy Spirit be diligent in seeking God's will for mankind, through the study of His Holy Scriptures.  May God bless you in the reading of His Word.

 -Robert L. Rael

 The following are quotes from the editor of the “Catholic Mirror:”                                          
“In the Old Testament, reference is made 126 times to the Sabbath, and all these texts conspire harmoniously in voicing the will of God commanded the Seventh Day to be kept, because God Himself first kept it, making it obligatory on all as ‘a perpetual covenant.’  Nor can we imagine anyone foolhardy enough to question the identity of Saturday with the Sabbath or seventh day, seeing that the people of Israel have been keeping the Saturday from the giving of the law, A.M. 2514 to A.D. 1893, a period of 3383 years…”    

· “Examining the New Testament from cover to cover, critically, we find the Sabbath referred to 61 times.  We find, too, that the Savior invariably selected the Sabbath (Saturday) to teach in the synagogues and work miracles.  The 4 Gospels refer to the Sabbath (Saturday) 51 times…”      

·  “The Redeemer refers to Himself as ‘The Lord of the Sabbath’… He never once hinted at a desire to change it… …Thus the Sabbath (Saturday) from Genesis to Revelation!!!”     

· “Hence the conclusion is inevitable… that of those who follow the Bible as their guide, the Israelites and Seventh-day Adventists have the exclusive weight of evidence on their side, whilst the Biblical Protestant has not a word in self-defense for his substitution of Sunday for Saturday…”

· “…Whilst the Pharisees of old kept the true Sabbath, our modern Pharisees have never once in their lives kept the true Sabbath which their Divine Master kept to His dying day, and which His apostles kept, after His example, for 30 years afterward, according to the sacred record…”

·  “The Bible and the Sabbath constitute the watchword of Protestantism; but we have demonstrated that it is the Bible against their Sabbath…  We have that no greater contradiction ever existed than their theory and practice!  We have proved that neither their Biblical ancestors nor themselves have ever kept one Sabbath day in their lives…”   

·  The Catholic Church for over 1,000 years before the existence of a protestant, by virtue of Her Divine mission, changed the day from  Saturday to Sunday…”

·  “We say by virtue of Her Divine mission, because He who called Himself the ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ endowed her with His own power to teach, ‘he that heareth you, heareth me’…  And promised to be with Her to the end of the world.  She holds her charter from Him – a charter as infallible as perpetual…”

·  “The Protestant world at its birth found the Christian Sabbath (Saturday) too strongly entrenched to run counter to its existence… it was therefore placed under the necessity of acquiescing in the arrangement, thus implying the Church right to change the day, for over 300 years…”

· “The Israelites and Seventh-day Adventists are witnesses of this weekly desecration of the day named by God so repeatedly…”

· “The history of the world cannot present a more stupid, self-stultifying specimen of dereliction of principle that this…  That immense concourse of Bible Christians, the Methodists, have declared that the Sabbath has never been abrogated, whilst the followers of the Church of England, together with Her Daughter, the Episcopal Church of the United States, are committed by the 20^th article of religion that the Church cannot lawfully ordain anything ‘contrary to the God’s Written Word,’ yet God’s Written Word enjoins His worship to be observed on Saturday absolutely, repeatedly, and most emphatically…   All Biblical sects occupy the same self-stultifying position which no explanation can modify, much less justify.”

· “They have ignored and condemned their teacher, the Bible… and they have adopted a day kept by the Catholic Church… the ‘mother of abominations’…”

· “Their pretense for leaving the bosom of the Catholic Church was for apostasy from the truth as taught in the Written Word.  The adopted the written word as their sole teacher, which they had no sooner done than they abandoned it as these articles have abundantly proved…”

Thomaston Georgia                                                                                                                                                             
May 22, 1954                                                                                                                                                                      
Pope Pius XII, Rome, Italy

Dear Sir:                                                                                                                                                                                       
 Is the accusation true, that Protestants accuse you of?  They say you changed the Seventh Day Sabbath to the, so called Christian Sunday:  Identical with the First Day of the week.  If so, when did you make the change, and by what authority?

Yours very truly,                                                                                                                                                                       
 J. L. Day

The Reply:

THE CATHOLIC EXTENSION MAGAZINE                                                                                                                            
180 Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois                                                                                                                                           
(Under the Blessing of Pope Pius XII)

Dear Sir:                                                                                                                                                                                      
Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw you attention to the facts:

That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath.  The fact that they do don’t, but on the contrary observe Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man.

We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith.  Besides the Bible we have the living Church, as a rule to guide us.  We say, this Church instituted by Christ, to teach and guide men through life, has the right to change the Ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday.  We frankly say, “yes,” the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday Abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages, and a thousand other laws.

We also say that of all Protestants, the Seventh-day Adventists are the only group that reason correctly and are consistent with their teachings.  It is always somewhat laughable to see the Protestant Churches, in pulpit and legislature, demand the observance of Sundays of which there is nothing in the Bible.

With best wishes                                                                                                                                                                 
Peter R. Tramer, Editor

The Mary Online+editors wrote the following passages:

“…The challenge issued by Rome over 100 years ago remains:  Either the Catholic Church is right, or the Seventh-day Adventist are right.  There can be no other choice.

“And if one choose neither, then the whole doctrine of Sola Scriptura collapses, and with it, the pillar upon which all of Protestantism stands.  What one has left is an invented religion, an invented God, and an invented set of beliefs that suits man’s purpose, and not the Creator’s.

“Like Satan and Luther before them, Protestants have spoken the creed, in action and in thought, if not in word, ‘I Will Not Serve.’  The challenge remains – yet, you will find no response, not from any Evangelical, Fundamentalist, or mainline Protestant denomination anywhere.  Ultimately, it is the clear authority of the Catholic Church as vested in her by God Himself, that rules the day…”

The following statement was taken from the book, “The Faith of Millions,” p. 437:     “But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistency but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text from the Bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.”

The following page appears in the Catholic Publication “The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine:”

                                                                     THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

Q.  What is the Third Commandment?

A.  The Third Commandment is:  Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day.

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 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 a Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on 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.

The great Baptist leader, Dr. E. T. Hiscox, authored the “Baptist Manuel.”  Here is what he had to say about the Sabbath: 

“There was and is a command to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday.  It will however be readily said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges and sanctions.

“Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, where can the record of such a transaction 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.”

In a sermon at the Baptist Minister’s Convention, Dr. Hiscox made these statements:

“To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years discussion with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false (Jewish traditional) glosses, never alluded to any transference of the day:  also, that during the forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated.

“Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that He had said unto them, deal with this question.  Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach the subject.

“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’s Fathers’ and other sources.  But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun-god, then adopted and sanctified by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as sacred legacy to Protestantism” (New York Examiner, Nov. 16, 1893).

D. L. Moody, of the Moody Bible Institute, wrote the following:

“The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since.  This forth commandment begins with the word ‘remember,’ showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the table of stone at Sinai.  How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?”  (Weighed and Wanting, page 47).

“I honestly believe that this commandment (the forth, or Sabbath commandment) is just as binding today as it ever was.  I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated, but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it.  When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place.  ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’  It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was – in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age” (Id., page 46).

Southern Baptist Joseph Taylor had this to say on the Sabbath question:

COMMENTARY

Matthew 1:21 From the moment of the original sin in the Garden, the great controversy between Christ and Satan became a raging reality; the conflict between truth and error, obedience and disobedience.  Every book and chapter in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, was God’s great plan to bring men back that original position of obedience from which he fell.  Sin, of course, is disobedience to God’s law.

Genesis 3:3 & John 14:15 From the very beginning God has made obedience the grand test of love and loyalty.

Revelation 14:12, 17 & 22:14 The focus of heaven’s program is to save men from breaking God’s law by instilling an agape love into the hearts of His true believers.  The very last book of the Bible distills the issue down to the same basic question of obedience.  Every soul will receive either the seal of God or the “mark of the beast” according to his works.  Again the test will be over obedience to the law.  The major characteristics of the redeemed, according to the book of Revelation, is that they keep the commandments of God.  The very condition that God set up for man to remain in Eden becomes the condition for man to return to paradise.

Romans 6:16 You become a servant of whoever you obey.  The enemy’s plan is to cause you to obey him and become his servant. 

Matthew 7:22-23 & Matthew 15:9 The devil does not care why you disobey God as long as you do it.  You can even do it in the name of religion, and some of the most religious people have done it down through history.  In fact, they can think up the most religious reasons for disobedience.  Jesus spoke repeatedly of those who would be guilty of this paradoxical conduct.  How could it ever be wrong to worship God, and why would it be counted in vain and worthless?  Jesus explained that He could not accept it because they had set aside His commandments in favor of the commandments of men.  Christ recognizes obedience as the highest form of worship and anything less is unacceptable in His sight.

I Samuel 15:1-26 Has anyone ever been able to find an acceptable excuse for disobeying God?  Certainly men of the past have fabricated some that sounded good in their own ears.  Saul tried to rationalize his decision and tried to make it seem that it was a trifling matter, because “the rest” of God’s word had been fulfilled.  Only one little deviation was made, so why make such a big deal out of it?  Besides, these animals were not for them; they were to be used for worshiping God!

Don’t miss the significance of Saul’s explanation.  He was disobeying God in order to worship Him!  But God looks upon total obedience as the highest form of worship.  Even though Saul probably had the most persuasive religious reason for disobeying, God dramatically rejected it and, at the same time, ejected Saul from being the king over Israel. 

Is the same practice in existence today?  Look around you as the sacred hours of the Sabbath are introduced week by week to a world in need of rest.  In the very heart of His handwritten moral law of God was inscribed the longest and most detailed of all the Ten Commandments.  Yet it was so simply expressed that no possibility of confusion existed.  “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work (Exodus 20:10).”  Even a child can understand these words!

Who are theses who dare defy the explicit and unmistakable written orders of their Creator?  Many of them are religious people who will be in church on Sunday mornings singing hymns, praying, giving offerings, and kneeling to worship God whose law they transgress every week.  Some perhaps do not realize that they are honoring a pagan tradition above the commandment of God, but large numbers are well aware that they are disobeying one of the eternal laws of God.  Of such, Jesus spoke with alarming candor:  “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

Many of these worshippers actually sound pious and sincere and profess great love for God.  But do they really love Him?  The problem today is that there is such a superficial, sentimental definition of love.  All of us have seen the popular stickers which boldly demand, “Honk if you love Jesus.”  But that is not what Jesus said!  He said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  Now that is authentic!  That is genuine.  The shallow froth of many modern religions reflects anything except love.

Exodus 4:3-5 “The author’s purpose seems to be to use the narrative of Cain and Able to teach a lesson on the kind of worship that is pleasing to God.”  REFERENCE:  “The Expositor’s Bible Commentary”, Frank E. Gaebelein, pg.60

"Men cannot with impunity trample upon the word of God.  The meaning of this fearful denunciation is set forth in the closing of the Revelation. 'I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophesy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add him the plagues that are written in this book:  If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophesy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.'  Revelation 22:18-19

"Such are the warnings which God has given to guard men against changing in any manner that which He has revealed or commanded.  These solemn denunciations apply to all who by their influence lead men to regard lightly the law of God.  They should cause those to fear and tremble who flippantly declare it a matter of little consequence whether we obey God’s law or not.  All who exalt their own opinions above divine revelation, all who would change the plain meaning of Scripture to suit their own convenience, or for the sake of conforming to the world, are taking upon themselves a fearful responsibility.  The written word, the law of God, will measure the character of every man and condemn all whom this unerring test shall declare wanting."  REFERENCE:  “The Great Controversy”, Ellen G. White, pg. 146

The observance of the seventh day was not discontinued by the early Christians for a considerable time after Christ’s ascension.  Hundreds of years had elapsed before the might and power of the Papacy were able to drive it out of the church.  As a matter of fact, it has never been entirely discontinued, as there have always been a remnant few who have demonstrated unfailing allegiance to God’s holy Sabbath.

It is no great mystery, early Church historians and Bible scholars tell us how the Lord's Holy Day was changed to Sunday.  Consider the following historical references:

1.  “Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept silently into use, and then climbed the rank of divine institutions.  Officers for whom the primitive disciples could have found no place, and titles which to them would have been altogether unintelligible, began to challenge attention, and to be named apostolic.”  “The Ancient Church,” William D. Killen, D.D. pg. 26

2. “Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath …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.  Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin.”  “History of the Christian Religion and Church”, Wilhelm August Johann Neander, pg. 186 (Neander was a highly esteemed German theologian and historian of Heidelberg, who has gained the title, “Prince of Church Historians”)

3.  “…the primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons.  And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the apostles themselves.”  “Dialogue on the Lord’s Day,” Mr. Morer, pg. 189, (Morer is a learned clergyman from the Church of England)

4.  “The ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed… by the Christians of the East Church, about three hundred years after our Savior’s death.”  “A Learned Treatise of The Sabbath,” Edward Brerewood, pg.77 (Brerewood was professor at Gresham College, London)

5.  “Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian Church, but with a rigor and solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued.”    “Ancient Christianity Exemplified,” Lyman Coleman, ch. 26, sec. 2, pg. 527 (Coleman is a candid theologian and church historian)

6.  “Almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.”  “Ecclesiastical History”, V. 22, pg.21, 22, in “A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers”, Socrates, 2^nd series, vol. II, pg. 132 (Socrates was a Greek church historian of the fifth century, whose work was a continuation of that of Eusebius)

7.  “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assembled together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.”  “Ecclesiastical History”, V. 22, pg.21, 22, in “A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers”, Sozomen, 2^nd series, vol. II, pg. 390 (Sozomen was a church historian of the fifth century)

8.  “The notion of a formal substitution by apostolic authority of the Lord’s day for the Jewish Sabbath, and the transfer to it, perhaps in a spiritualized form, of the Sabbatical obligation established by the promulgation of the fourth commandment, has no basis whatever, either in Holy Scripture or in Christian antiquity…  The idea afterwards embodied in the title of the ‘Christian Sabbath’, and carried out in ordinances of Judaic rigor, was, so far as we can see, entirely unknown in the early centuries of Christianity.” Article “Sabbath,” “Smith and Cheetham’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities,” pg. 1823

9.  “The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven-day week with its numbered week days, but by the close of the third century A.D. this began to give way to the planetary week; and in the fourth and fifth centuries the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western half of Christendom.  The use of the planetary names by Christians attests to the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by converts from paganism. …During these same centuries the spread of oriental solar worships, especially that of Mithra (Persian sun worship) in the Roman world, had already led to the substitution by pagans of ‘dies Solis’ for ‘dies Saturni’ as the first day of the planetary week.  …Thus gradually a pagan institution was engrafted onto Christianity.”    “Rest Days”, Hutton Webster, Ph.D., pp. 220-221

10.  "It would be an error to attribute (the sanctification of Sunday) to a definite decision of the Apostles.  There is no such decision mentioned in the Apostolic documents (that is, the New Testament)."  -Antoine Villien, "A History of the Commandments of the Church," 1915, p. 23

11.  "It must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day."  -McClintock and Strong, "Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature," Vol. 9. p. 196

12.  "Modern Christians who talk of keeping Sunday as a 'holy' day, as in the still extant 'Blue Laws,' of colonial America, should know that as a 'holy' day of rest and cessation from labor and amusements Sunday was unknown to Jesus... It formed no tenet (teaching) of the primitive Church and became 'sacred' only in the course of time.  Its observance was legalized for the Roman Empire through a series of decrees starting with the famous one of Constantine in 321."  -W.W. Hyde, "Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire," 1946, p. 257

13.  "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 apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday."  -Augustus Neander, "The History of the Christian Religion and Church", 1843, p. 186

14.  "There is scarecely anything which strikes the mind of the careful student of ancient ecclesiastical history with greater surprise than the comparatively early period at which many of the corruptions of Christianity, which are embodied in the Roman system, took their rise."  -John Dowling, "History of Romanism," 13th Edition, p. 65  

15.  "The Church made a sacred day of Sunday largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; --for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition and give them a Christian significance."  -Authur Weigall, "The Paganism in Our Christianity," 1928, p. 145

16.  "The (Catholic) Church took the pagan buckler of faith against the heathen.  She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple to all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day.  She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday... The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom.  'Balder the beautiful: the White God,' the old Scandinavians called him.  The sun has worshipers at this very hour in Persia and other lands...  Hence the Church would seem to have said, 'Keep that old pagan name.  It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.'  And thus the Pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus.  The sun is a fitting emblem of Jesus.  The fathers often compared Jesus to the sun as they compared Mary to the moon." -William L. Gildea, "'Paschale Gaudium,' in the Catholic World," p. 58, March 1894 

17.  "Remains of the struggle (between the religion of Christianity and the religion of Mithrasm) are found in two institutions adopted from its rival by Christianity in the fourth century, the two Mithraic sacred days:  December 25, 'dies natilis solis' (birth of the sun), as the birthday of Jesus, and Sunday, 'the venerable day of the Sun,' as Constantine called it in his edict of 321."  Walter Woodburn Hyde, "Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire," p. 60

18.  "Is it not strange that Sunday is almost universally observed when the Sacred Writings do not endorse it?  Satan, the great counterfeiter, worked through the 'mystery of iniquity' to introduce a counterfeit Sabbath to take the place of the true Sabbath.  Sunday stands side by side with Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Whitsunday, Corpus Christi, Assumption Day, All Souls' Day, Christmas Day, and a host of other ecclesiastical feast days too numerous to mention.  This array of Roman Catholic feast and fast days are all man-made.  None of them bear the divine credentials of the Author of the inspired word."  -M.E. Walsh, "The Wine of Roman Babylon," p. 208

19.  "Sun worship was the earliest idolatry."  "Fauset Bible Dictionery," p. 666

20.  "Sun worship was one of the oldest components of the Roman religion."  -Gaston H. Halsberge, "The Cult of Sol Invictus,"  1972, p. 26  

21.  "This (Constantine's Sunday decree of March 7, 321) is the 'parent' Sunday law making it a day of rest and release from labor.  For from that time to the present there have been decrees about the observance of Sunday which have profoundly influenced European and American society.  When the Church became a part of State under the Christian emperors, Sunday observance was enforced by civil statutes, and later, when the Empire was past, the Church in the hands of the papacy enforced it by ecclesiastical and also civil enactments."  -Walter W. Hyde, "Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire," 1946, p. 261  

22.  "Constantine's decree marked the beginning of a long, though intermittent series of imperial decrees in support of Sunday rest."  -Vincent J. Kelly, "Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations," 1943, p. 29 ("History of Councils of the Church, " Vol. 2, p. 316)  

The Pope Trumpets Sunday!

August, Pope Benedict XVI made Germany the destination of his first trip abroad. On Sunday, August 21, as part of the World Youth Day celebration, the pontiff conducted a mass with over 1 million people where he stressed the importance of Sunday worship: “Sunday is a free day .… Yet this free time is empty if God is not present,” he said. “Sometimes our initial impression is that having to include time for mass on a Sunday is rather inconvenient. But if you make the effort, you will realize that this is what gives a proper focus to your free time” (International Herald Tribune, August 22).

These comments came just a few months after similar statements at a mass celebrating the closing of the 24th National Eucharistic Congress on May 29. In front of 200,000 in the Italian city of Bari, Benedict declared that the reinforcement of Sunday worship is fundamental to his mission. To students of history, this focus represents a return to the papacies of old, the papacies of that ever-recurring imperial European power, the Holy Roman Empire.  

Pope Benedict perceives the secularist moral vacuum that has plagued Europe since the time of the Enlightenment. Now, after resounding rejections of the European Constitution by both France and the Netherlands in referenda earlier this year, European unification appears to be in disarray.

But it seems Benedict wants to fill that vacuum—the old Roman way. That way was never sympathetic to the idea of the public voluntarily accepting its tenets. Rather, as even a cursory study of history will reveal, it was imposed by force.  This pope’s dream coincides with that of his predecessor, John Paul II. It is a huge vision—a vision of a Europe united from the North Sea in the west to the Ural Mountains in the east.

But here is the trouble: The only times throughout history this vision has been fully realized is when Rome imposed its religion. Since Charlemagne’s “conversion” in the eighth century, the Roman Empire, with its common religious ideology, was able to hang together in repeated resurrections and wreak havoc on those who resisted it.  As Texas-based think tank Stratfor said, “Europe, for geopolitical reasons, cannot be unified except beneath the heel of a conqueror” (June 2).  

Pope Benedict is committed to reinstating the active observance of the Roman Catholic Church’s chief icon: SUNDAY. He knows that to popularize religion in Europe, he has to reintroduce a means of promoting what marketers call brand loyalty. The most historic brand the pope can offer to bond the people together is the ancient day of worship, fashionable since Babylon, the old day of the sun--Sunday.  Hence his promotion of that old Roman brand in his recent addresses.  

If we understand how the church has enforced this day in its past history, we should be very alarmed!

The phrase on the crown (MITRE) that the Pope
wears is believed by some to be equal to 666.

The legislation inaugurated by Constantine for the establishment of Sunday observance is thus referenced by two leading encyclopedias:

“The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty 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.”  --Encyclopaedia Britannica 11^th ed.) art. “Sunday.”

“Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the Sabbatical observance of that day is known to have been ordained, is the edict of Constantine, 321 A.D.”  --Chambers’ Encyclopedia (1882 ed.), Vol. VIII, p. 401, art. “Sabbath.”

That this Sunday legislation had no connection with Christianity is clearly seen when the facts contained in the following quotation are considered:

“The legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity as Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar.”  --Hutton Webster, Ph.D., Rest Days, pp. 122, 123.

Disclaimer:  We take the word of God seriously including the eighth Commandment: “Thou shalt not steal,” Exodus 20:15.  All of the images, videos and music contained herein have been posted to this site after extensive efforts in locating copyrights where such rights exist, and to obtain permission when possible from original sources.  If you believe that any of these images, videos, music, or related content is inappropriate and/or subject to copyright laws, or otherwise has not conformed to fair-use, please report to www.4thCommandment.com immediately, and we will remove it as necessary.  Thank you for your help and consideration.