Editor, Commonwealth:
Over the last two weeks, I have placed ads in The Greenwood Commonwealth to inform its readers that the reason they worship on Sunday is because the Roman Catholic Church changed the Sabbath. As a result, the pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church wrote a letter to the editor (Oct. 5) stating that the Catholic Church did not change the Sabbath, and gave several reasons to justify his belief.
I thought this was interesting, seeing that every reason he gave was in direct conflict with what the Church believes. So instead of addressing these arguments myself, I thought it would be best to allow the Catholic Church to give us another “history lesson” to let us know where they stand on these issues.
The first argument made was that the Sabbath was just for the Jews. Yet the Catholic Church states, “You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath (God gave the Bible Sabbath to mankind 2,000 years before the first Jew existed), but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday; changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead? This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer” (“Why Don’t You Keep Holy the Sabbath Day?”, pages 3-15 in “The Clifton Tracts,” Volume 4, published by the Roman Catholic Church in 1869).
The next argument was that Sunday worship is found in the New Testament. Four texts were used to validate this argument. In regard to three of the texts, the Catholic Church says, “St. John speaks of the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10) but he does not tell us what day of the week that was, much less does he tell us what day was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandments. St. Luke speaks of the disciples meeting together to break bread on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). And St. Paul (1 Corinthians 16:2) orders that on the first day of the week the Corinthians should lay in store what they designated to bestow in charity on the faithful in Judea: but neither the one or the other tells us that this first day of the week was to be henceforth a day of worship, and the Christian Sabbath” (“Catholic Christian Instructed,” 17th edition, pages 272-273).
The third argument was that, because the early Church fathers wrote about keeping Sunday as the day of worship, their writings supersede the Bible. This belief is understandable, seeing that, “The (Catholic) Church is above the Bible, and this transference of the Sabbath observance is proof of that fact” (Catholic Record, Sept.1, 1923).
Also, “We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man 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. It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible” (Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society, 1975, Chicago, Illinois).
The final argument was that the Catholic Church did not change the Sabbath. That does not seem factual when we look at these quotes.
“Sunday is founded, not of scripture, but on tradition, and is distinctly a Catholic institution. As there is no scripture for the transfer of the day of rest from the last to the first day of the week, Protestants ought to keep their Sabbath on Saturday and thus leave Catholics in full possession of Sunday” (Catholic Record, Sept. 17, 1893).
“They (Protestants) deem it their duty to keep the Sunday holy. Why? Because the Catholic Church tells them to do so. They have no other reason. ... The observance of Sunday thus comes to be an ecclesiastical law entirely distinct from the divine law of Sabbath observance. ... The author of the Sunday law ... is the Catholic Church” (Ecclesiastical Review, February 1914).
“If Protestants would follow the Bible, they would worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church” (Albert Smith, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replying for the cardinal in a letter dated Feb. 10, 1920).
In closing, I want to make sure that readers understand that this is in no way condemning Catholics. There are millions of sincere Catholics around the world who love God and know nothing about the things that have been spoken about. These ads have been to inform Protestants and Catholics that Sunday, as a day of worship, has been ordained by the Catholic Church, not God.
Keenan West
Pastor
Shiloh Seventh-day Adventist Church
Greenwood
