Subject: Whats the major reson for sunday worship |
Bible Note: Some of you may be interested in these historical records taken from the teachings of several Christian denominations: Note the following quotes from the Catholic Church: "Question: Have you any other way of proving that 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 first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority." A Doctrinal Catechism, by Rev. Stephen Keenan, page 174. "Question: What day was the Sabbath? "Answer: Saturday "Question: Who changed it? "Answer: The Catholic Church." From Rev. Dr. Butler’s Catechism, Revised, Page 57. "It was the Catholic Church which, ...has transformed this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church." Plain Talk About the Protestants of Today, by Msgr. Segur, Page 213. The first Sunday law ever made was that issued by the Emperor Constantine, March 7, A.D. 321, which reads as follows: "Let all judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun; but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty, attend to the business of agriculture; because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest the critical moment being let slip men should lose the commodities granted by heaven." Corpus Juris Civilis Cod.: lib. 3, tit.12,3 In A.D. 364 the council of Laodicea forbade the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath: "Sabbath, Change of, Action of Council of Laodicea on A.D. 364 – Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [Sabbath, original] but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, 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." A History of the Councils of the Church: from the Original Documents, Rt. Rev. Charles Joseph Hefele, D.D., Bishop of Rottenburg, book 6, sec. 93, canon 29 (Vol. II, page 316). Edinburgh: T and T Clark, 1896. What do Protestants say?: Baptist: "There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath Day, but that Sabbath Day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week... "Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!" Dr. Edward T. Hiscox author of The Baptist Manual, in a paper read before a New York Ministers' Conference held in Nov. 13, 1893. Lutheran: "They [the Catholics] allege the Sabbath changed into Sunday, the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it appears; neither is there any example more boasted of than the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power and authority of the church, since it dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments." Auxsburg Confession, art. XXVIII. |