Facts of Faith

“Think To Change Times And Law’

But Daniel 7:25 has still another prediction concerning the “little horn”; namely, that it should ” think to change times and laws,” or as the Revised Version has it: “times and the law.” James Moffatt’s translation reads: “He shall plan to alter the sacred seasons and the law.” Now, as the two preceding statements in this verse depict what the Papacy should do against the Most High, we must conclude that it is also the “times and the law” of the Most High which the Papacy should attempt to change. This could not refer to the ceremonial laws of the Jews, which were abolished at the cross (Ephesians 2:15; Hebrews 9:9, 10), but to the Ten Commandments, which are binding in the Christian era, to which dispensation this prophecy applies. (Matthew 5:17-19; 19:16-19; Luke 16:17; Romans 3:31; 7:7, 12, 14; James 2:10, 11.) From the prophecy of Daniel 7:25 it is therefore evident that the Papacy would attempt to make some changes in the moral law. FAFA 67.3

After the worship of images had crept into the church during the fourth to the sixth centuries, its leaders finally removed the second commandment from their doctrinal books, because it forbids us to bow down to images (Exodus 20:4, 5), and they divided the tenth, so as to retain ten in number. Thus the Catholic Church has two commandments against coveting, while Paul six times speaks of it as only one “commandment.” (Romans 7:7-13) Then, too, the Lord has purposely reversed the order of the supposed ninth and tenth commandments in Deuteronomy 5:21 to what they are in Exodus 20:17, so that the Catholics, following Deuteronomy 5:21, have “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife” as their ninth commandment, while the Lutherans, following Exodus 20:17, have it as part of their tenth commandment, and their ninth command is: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.” Thus we see how people get themselves into trouble when they attempt to change the law of God. FAFA 68.1

The Papacy was also to change times. But the only commandment of the ten that has to do with time is the fourth, which commands us to keep holy the seventh day, on which God rested at creation. (Exodus 20:10, 11; Genesis 2:1-3) It is a remarkable fact that Christ, His apostles, and their followers kept the seventh day in common with the Jews (Mark 6:2, 3; Luke 4:16, 31; 23:52-56; Acts 13:42, 44; 16:12, 13; 17:2; 18:1-4), and that the New Testament is entirely silent in regard to any change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. This would be natural enough if the original Sabbath, which they were then keeping, should continue. But if a new day was to take its place in the Christian church, its Founder would certainly have given explicit directions for its observance. Yet not a word was spoken by Christ or His apostles, either before or after His resurrection, as to such a change. FAFA 68.2

It is another remarkable fact that Sunday is never called by any sacred title in the New Testament, but always referred to as a weekday, never as a holy day. It is classed as one of the weekdays, being called “the first day of the week.” FAFA 68.3

And yet we find the Christian world generally keeping it. Who made this change, when it is not recorded in the Bible? When, how, and why was it made? Who dared to lay hands on Jehovah’s law, and change His Holy Sabbath, without any warrant of Scripture? FAFA 69.1

All Protestant denominations disclaim any part in this crime. But the Roman Catholic Church boasts of having made this change, and even points to it as an evidence of its authority to act in Christ’s stead upon earth. We shall therefore ask her two pointed questions: 1. Men did you change the Sabbath? 2. Why did you do it? Here are her answers: FAFA 69.2

“The first proposition needs little proof. 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 Christian Sabbath,” p. 29. Baltimore, Md.: “Catholic Mirror,” Sept. 23, 1898. FAFA 69.3

“Ques. - Which is the Sabbath day? Ans. - Saturday is the Sabbath day. FAFA 69.4

“Ques. — Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Ans. — We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the council of Laodicea (A. D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.... FAFA 69.5

“The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her. “The Convert’s Catechism of Christian Doctrine,” Rev. Peter Geiermann, C. SS. R., p. 50. St. Louis, Mo.: 1934. (This work received the “apostolic blessing” of Pope Pius X Jan. 25, 1910.) FAFA 69.6

“The Church ... took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday .... And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus.” — “Catholic World,” (New York), March, 1894, p. 809. FAFA 69.7

We shall enter into this subject more thoroughly in the following chapters. FAFA 69.8