The Catholic Church claims responsibility for the change from seventh-day to first-day Sabbath. Some of the following are from “their” publications … if one has a problem with them then talk to them about them …. not me.
Here is an explanation from The Catechism of the Catholic Church Section 2 Article 3 (1994):
Sunday – fulfillment of the Sabbath. Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath...
The Sabbath, which represented the completion of the first creation, has been replaced by Sunday which recalls the new creation, has been replaced by Sunday which recalls the new creation inaugurated by the Resurrection of Christ...
In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sundays and the Church’s holy days as legal holidays.
And here are various Catholic sources claiming the change was the doing of the Roman Catholic Church:
Cardinal James Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (Ayers Publishing, 1978): 108:
But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.
The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957): 50:
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.
Chancellor Albert Smith for Cardinal of Baltimore Archdiocese, letter dated February 10, 1920:
If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath day by God is Saturday. In keeping the Sunday, they are following a law of the Catholic Church.
Stephen Keenan, Catholic—Doctrinal Catechism 3rd Edition: 174:
Question: Have you any other way of proving the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the 1st day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the 7th day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.i
John A. O'Brien, The Faith of Millions: 472-473:
John A. O'Brien, The Faith of Millions: 472-473: "The third commandment is: 'Remember thou keep ...
Our Sunday Visitor (February 5, 1950):
Practically everything Protestants regard as essential or important they have received from the Catholic Church... The Protestant mind does not seem to realize that in accepting the Bible and observing the Sunday, in keeping Christmas and Easter, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope.
Louis Gaston Segur, Plain Talk about the Protestantism of To-Day (London: Thomas Richardson and Son, 1874): 213:
Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is a homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the (Catholic) Church.
The Catholic Mirror (September 23, 1893):
The Catholic Church, for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday...
The Adventists are the only body of Christians with the Bible as their teacher, who can find no warrant in its pages for the change of day from the seventh to the first. Hence their appellation, "Seventh-day Adventists."
Catholic Priest T. Enright, CSSR, Kansas City, MO:
It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the 1st day of the week. And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the Council of Laodicea, AD 364, anathematized those who kept the Sabbath and urged all persons to labor on the 7th day under penalty of anathema.
John Henry Newman
Public Domain
File:John Henry Newman by Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt.jpg - Wikipedia Catholic Priest T. Enright, CSSR, lecture at Hartford, KS, Feb 18, 1884:
I have repeatedly offered $1000 to any one who can furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep...The Bible says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” but the Catholic Church says, “No, keep the first day of the week,” and the whole world bows in obedience.
Cardinal John Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (London: Basil Montague Pickering, 1878): 373:
The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holy days and seasons…are all of pagan origin and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.
Catholic Record (September 1, 1923):
The [catholic] Church is above the Bible, and this transference of the Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.
Pope Leo XIII, Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae (The Reunion of Christendom), June 20, 1894:
We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.
“Pope,” Ferraris’ Ecclesiastic Dictionary:
The Pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God.
Our Sunday Visitor (April 18, 1915): 3:
The letters inscribed in the Pope’s miter are these: VICARIUS FILLII DEI, which is the Latin for, “Vicar of the Son of God.”
Letter from C.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons on October 28, 1895:
Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act…And the act is a MARK of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.
American Catholic Quarterly Review (January 1883):
Sunday...is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.
Catholic American Sentinel (June 1893):
Sunday...It is a law of the Catholic Church alone...
S.C. Mosna, Storia della Domenica (1969): 366-367:
Not the Creator of the Universe in Genesis 2:1-3, but the Catholic Church “can claim the honor of having granted man a pause to his work every seven days.”
“The Question Box,” The Catholic Universe Bulletin (August 14, 1942): 4:
The (Catholic) Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her Founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. In this matter, the Seventh-day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant.
Arthur Weigall, The Paganism in Our Christianity (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1928): 145:
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 to give them a Christian significance.
John A. O'Brien, The Faith of Millions: the Credentials of the Catholic Religion Revised Edition (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 1974): 400-401:
But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn't it curious that non-Catholics, who claim to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistent; 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 and explicit text in 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.
go read about Constantine
Sunday actually made very little headway as a Christian day of rest until the time of Constantine in the fourth century. Constantine was emperor of Rome from AD 306 to 337. He was a sun worshiper during the first years of his reign. Later, he professed conversion to Christianity, but at heart remained a devotee of the sun. Edward Gibbon says, “The Sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine.”i
Constantine's Conversion by Peter Paul Rubens Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Constantine's Conversion by Peter Paul Rubens
Constantine created the earliest Sunday law known to history in AD 321. It says this:
On the venerable Day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits: because it often happens that another Day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting: lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.ii
Chamber’s Encyclopedia says this:
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.
Following this initial legislation, both emperors and Popes in succeeding centuries added other laws to strengthen Sunday observance. What began as a pagan ordinance ended as a Christian regulation. Close on the heels of the Edict of Constantine followed the Catholic Church Council of Laodicea (circa 364 AD):
Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday (Sabbath), but shall work on that Day: but the Lord’s Day, they shall especially honour; and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.
Personal Note(s):
I find it very strange that most “christians” say to be a christian that one is to follow in Jesus footsteps …. that He is our example … Jesus kept the Sabbath … it IS the 4th commandment. It IS the 7th day of the week. Most “dismiss” this citing Jesus was a jew …… yet MORE importantly Jesus was/IS God.
Luke 6
5 And he (Jesus) said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2
27 And he (Jesus) said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Why would Jesus make these statements? If the day of worship was changed to the 1st day of the week (Sunday) don’t you think Jesus would have said so? Wouldn’t He Himself would have worshipped on Sunday? No He did not. Was He or Is he God or not?
Genesis 2
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
John 14:21
Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."
1 John
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Jesus helps us to keep his commandments through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We do stumble at times, but if we sincerely repent, we are forgiven. It is a process that happens over our earthly life as Satan is constantly bombarding us with lies and deception. Satans mission is to have as many as possible break Gods eternal law. So is not recognizing the Sabbath a deception? Absolutely!
Most christians agree with all the 9 of the commandments, yet not the 4th … what is that? Many christians believe that Jesus kept the commandments for us and all we have to do is “love Him” …. well … scripture teaches if we “love Him”, we will keep His commandments, how many? all of them.
John 14:21
Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."
Revelation 14
12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus
Want to be blessed? Keep the Lords Holy Sabbath.
Ok … now before many jump all over my case discounting any of the above … I say I AGREE TO DISAGREE.
