In Defense of the Faith

Foretold By Prophets

Now, to all this agree the words of the Bible prophets, for this whole matter is clearly foretold by them. In Daniel 7:25 the prediction is made that an apostate power, represented in the prophecy by a “1ittle horn,” would attempt to change God’s times and laws. “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 until a time and times and the dividing of time.” DOF 191.1

This power was to continue forty-two months, or one thousand two hundred sixty days. (Revelation 13:5; 12) A day for a year, according to Biblical interpretation of prophetic time, gives us 1260 years during which this power would hold sway in the world. DOF 191.2

There is general agreement among students of prophecy that this power is papal Rome. The papal supremacy was fully established in 538 (the very year the Council of Orleans made its famous edict that people. in the rural communities should not work, but attend church on Sunday) and received its deadly wound in 1798 (see Revelation 13), after a period of just 1260 years. DOF 191.3

During this time the special efforts of this power were to be directed against the Most High. He would speak great words against the Most High, ‘Wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws evidently the laws of the Most High, as the change of human laws would not be worthy of notice in prophecy nor peculiar to this power. DOF 191.4

Now, the law of the Most High contains ten distinct precepts. Nine of these precepts are acknowledged by all Protestant Christians to be binding. The other one, the fourth, is in dispute, and strange to say, it is the only one that relates in any way to time. It commands the observance of a specific day in each week, because that day is declared to be holy, and to belong to the Lord God. The first three commands and the last six are silent on the subject of time, but the fourth is based on it. It deals with God’s time, commanding man to remember it and not desecrate it by secular labor. DOF 191.5

The prophecy asserts that this apostate power will seek to change times and laws, and the only way God’s law could be altered so far as to affect God’s time would be by a change in the Sabbath command. Here, then, is a definite charge made by God Himself through His prophets that this little-horn power, the Papacy, would attempt to change His Sabbath. But does the Catholic Church admit responsibility for having changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? DOF 192.1

When an individual is charged with a crime (as God here charges the Papacy), the case is greatly strengthened if he makes a confession. When a defendant admits his own guilt, further testimony is scarcely necessary. Let us, then, bring leading representatives of this church onto the stand and hear their testimony on this point. In a Catholic work called Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, page 58, is the following: DOF 192.2

“Question.—How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days? DOF 192.3

“Answer.—By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday.” DOF 192.4

We have this further testimony: DOF 192.5

“Question.—Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept? DOF 193.1

“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 first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”—Doctrinal Catechism, p. 174. DOF 193.2

Another catechism, The Catholic Christian Instructed, 1 page 209, says: DOF 193.3

“Question. What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday, preferably to the ancient Sabbath, which was Saturday? DOF 193.4

“Answer. We have for it the authority of the Catholic Church, and apostolic tradition. DOF 193.5

“Question. Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath? DOF 193.6

“Answer. The Scripture commands us to hear the church, ... but the Scripture does not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath.” DOF 193.7

On page 15 of volume 4 of Clifton Tracts (Catholic), in an article on “A Question for All Bible Christians,” this question is thus dealt with: DOF 193.8

“We Catholics, then, have precisely the same authority for keeping Sunday holy, instead of Saturday, as we have for every other article of our creed; namely, the authority of the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Whereas, you who are Protestants have really no authority for it whatever, for there is no authority for it in the Bible, and you will not allow that there can be authority for it anywhere else. Both you and we do, in fact, follow tradition in this matter. But we follow it, believing it to be a part of God’s word, and the church to be its divinely appointed guardian and interpreter; you follow it, denouncing it all the time as a fallible and treacherous guide, which often makes the commandment of God of none effect.” Cardinal Gibbons, in his book Faith of Our Fathers, edition of 1893, page 111, says: DOF 193.9

“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.” DOF 194.1

Thus it will be seen that the Roman Church deliberately confesses to the crime of tampering with the divine law in changing the observance of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. History as clearly and definitely testifies that the charge is true. And thus the Roman Church stands before the world convicted by her own testimony of laying impious hands upon the Sabbath of the Lord, and tearing from its place in the very heart of the law of God, the fourth commandment, substituting instead a spurious and counterfeit Sabbath, which is no Sabbath at all, since it rests solely on the traditions of that church, and not in any sense upon the Word of God. DOF 194.2

But let it be noticed, the Roman Church is more consistent in the observance of Sunday than are the Protestant churches. As was shown in the preceding chapter, the Roman Church does not base its teachings on the Bible alone, but on the Bible and tradition, holding that tradition is the safer guide of the two. But the Protestant belief is that the Bible and the Bible alone is the foundation of true faith. The Sunday institution can be found only in tradition. It cannot be found in the Bible. DOF 194.3

It is evident, therefore, that the Protestant churches, in observing Sunday, have left the true ground and basis of Protestantism, and are following the Roman Church in accepting a doctrine and practice which are not founded on the Bible. DOF 194.4