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History reveals that it was centuries after the death of the apostles that the Roman Catholic political-religious system emerged, which officially repudiated the seventh-day Sabbath of Scripture and substituted the observance of the first day of the week in its place. Roman Emperor Constantine, working with the Roman Catholic Church, altered the Sabbath commandment issued by God as recorded in Exodus 20:8, which states, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Catholicism reworded the fourth commandment to say, “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.” The Catholic Church then changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week.
Catholic Church authorities, by their own admission, without any direction from Scripture, intended to change the Sabbath day from the seventh day of the week to the first day.
The Catholic Church has cited a few reasons defending why they intended to change the seventh-day Saturday Sabbath to Sunday:
1. Christ rose on Sunday, and this somehow gave the Catholic Church the justification to change the perpetual Sabbath day from the seventh day to Sunday.
2. The Sabbath change was part of the Catholic Church’s ‘divine mission,’ an act of their ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.
There are several nefarious reasons why the Catholic Church intended to change the seventh-day Sabbath to Sunday, the first day:
1. Sunday worship is the traditional pagan day of worship.
2. The Catholic Church wanted to differentiate itself from the Jews, refusing to worship on the same day that the Jews did.
3. Catholicism is actively rebellious against many of God’s laws.
Catholicism’s incorrect stated belief that Jesus rose on Sunday morning is not a valid reason to change the Sabbath day to Sunday, the first day of the week. No man can change God’s perpetual times and laws. Catholics, Protestants (protesting Catholics), and most mainstream Christians honor Sunday as the Sabbath day incorrectly in place of God’s perpetual seventh-day Saturday Sabbath.
DANIEL 7:25 (NKJV) [WITH INTERPRETATION]:
He [CATHOLIC POPES PAST AND PRESENT] shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.
Catholic popes (all of them) have fulfilled the Daniel 7:25 prophecy. All Catholic popes have either intended to change God’s times and laws or have upheld the intended changes of Catholic popes who preceded them.
Notice how Scripture states, “He shall intend to change times and law.” Catholic popes cannot change God’s times and laws, though that is their intention. God’s times and laws remain as God originally commanded them. Therefore the seventh-day Sabbath remains, no matter how many Christian churches and people observe Sunday as the Sabbath day.
CATHOLIC STATEMENTS ON THE SABBATH
The Catholic Church, in statements through the centuries, freely admits that it is responsible – without any direction from Scripture, for intending to change God’s Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday.
“But 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.”
– James Cardinal Gibbons, “The Faith of our Fathers,” 88th ed., p. 89, 1876.
“The Catholic Church, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.”
– The Catholic Mirror, the official publication of James Cardinal Gibbons, Sept. 23, 1893.
“Prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ The Catholic Church says, No! By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And lo, the entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church!”
– Thomas Enright, C.S.S.R. President of the Redemptoral College, Kansas City, MO, “History of the Sabbath,” p. 802, February 18, 1884.
“She (THE CATHOLIC CHURCH] took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder (Baal, a pagan god) became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus.”
– Catholic World, p. 809, March, 1894.
“Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles. From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.”
– Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, 1900.
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.”
– Stephen Keenan, “A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed.,” p. 174, 1916.
QUESTION:
Which is the Sabbath day?
ANSWER:
Saturday is the Sabbath day.
QUESTION:
Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
ANSWER:
“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.”
– Peter Geiermann, “The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine,” p. 50, 1957.
“Sunday is our mark of authority. The [CATHOLIC] Church is above the Bible. and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.”
– Catholic Record, Sept. 01, 1923.
“It was the Catholic Church that decided Sunday should be the day of worship for Christians, in honor of the Resurrection.”
– Karl Keating, “Catholicism and Fundamentalism,” p. 38, 1988.
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the [CATHOLIC] church ever did happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Catholic Church’s sense of its own power.”
– Saint Catherine Catholic Church, Sentinel, May 21, 1995.
THE SABBATH WAS INSTITUTED AT CREATION
GENESIS 2:2-3 (NKJV):
And on the seventh day God ended His work, which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work, which God had created and made.
THE SABBATH DAY IS PERPETUAL; IT CAN NOT BE CHANGED
EXODUS 31:13,16-17 (NKJV):
And YHWH (the Lord) spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am YHWH (the Lord) who sanctifies you. …
Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days YHWH (the Lord) made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
LUKE 23:56 (NKJV):
And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
THE SABBATH: A SIGN AND AN ETERNAL COVENANT
MAN HAS BROKEN THE EVERLASTING SABBATH COVENANT
ISAIAH 24:5 (NKJV):
The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
CHOOSE THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE
JOSHUA 24:15 (NKJV – CONDENSED):
Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, …
As for me and my house, we will serve YHWH (the Lord).
Sunday Sabbath observing Christian believers should ask themselves the following question:
Who is it that I honor and serve, Roman Emperor Constantine and the Roman Catholic Church or Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ), as Lord of the Sabbath?
YESHUA (JESUS) IS LORD OF THE SABBATH
MATTHEW 12:8 (NKJV):
“The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
*See also: Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5.
