Christ and the Sabbath

THE PAPACY CLAIMS SAVING POWER

The fact that the papacy claims to exercise the saving power of God, is evident from the following extract from De Harbe’s “Full Catechism of the Catholic Religion,” approved by Catholic authorities, and published in New York by the Catholic Publishing Association, in 1883. The extract is from page 145: “Every one is obliged, under pain of eternal damnation, to become a member of the Catholic Church, to believe her doctrine, to use her means of grace, and to submit to her authority. Hence the Catholic Church is justly called the only saving church. To despise her is the same as to despise Christ, namely, his doctrine, his means of grace, and his powers. To separate from her is the same as to separate from Christ, and to forfeit eternal salvation. Therefore St. Augustine and the other bishops of Africa pronounced, a. d. 412, at the council of Zirta, this decision: “Whosoever is separated from the Catholic Church, however commendable, in his opinion, his life may be, he shall, for this very reason, that he has at some time separated from the unity of Christ, not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” CAS 32.1

The Catholic Church, the papacy,-that organization through which this spirit of Satan has been manifested, in opposing itself against God, in exalting itself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped,-that church claims to have the authority to control the saving grace and power of God. But what is the saving power of God?-It is creative power. We have learned that. What is the sign of God’s creative power, that he is the true God, and that our worship belongs to him because he is the Creator?-It is the true Sabbath. CAS 32.2

But here comes another power, the papacy, claiming that it controls saving grace, and that there can be no salvation outside of the authority of the Catholic Church. And one of the charges made against Luther was that he had invented a new means of justification, so that the sinner could come to God and receive pardon without the intervention of church or priest. We have found that God, who is the Creator, and who in Jesus Christ dispenses his saving power freely to all who believe, has established the Sabbath as the sign of that power. Since the Catholic Church, the agency of Satan, claims to have saving power, and to dispense that power, the very logic of the situation demands that she should have a rival sign as a sign of her pretended power, and so she has it in the rival Sabbath. And as she claims that “to separate from her is the same as to separate from Christ and to forfeit eternal salvation,” thus putting herself in the place of Christ, so she demands that the sign of her power should be accepted instead of the true Sabbath, and says: “The keeping holy the Sunday is a thing absolutely necessary to salvation.”-“A Sure Way to Find out the True Religion,” by Rev. T. Baddeley, p. 95; published by P. J. Kennedy, Catholic Publisher, etc., New York. CAS 33.1