Basic HTML Version
HY
Churches Observe
Sunday
by
Herbert W. Armstrong
When d id the New Testament Lord 's Day start? By what authority?
T
HE ANSWER
is shock–
ing.
r
was shocked 58
years ago--at age
34. 1 was challenged!
1 felt my marriage was m
jeopa rd y. My wife an–
nou nced she was goi ng to
sta rt keeping the Sabbath–
Saturday! To me, that was
religious fanaticism!
"My wife turning to religious
fana ticism!" 1 exclaimed. I could
never stand for that! What would
my business friends think?
" The Bible says Sunday is the
day to keep,"
l
argued. "AII the
churches observe Sunday, and they
get their religion from the Bible,"
1
contended.
" Do they? " she asked. "Show it
to me in the Bible, and
1'11
go back
to Sunday."
1
responded
I
didn ' t know much
about the Bible, but to prove she
was wrong
l
would go into an in–
depth study of the Bible and of his–
tory on the subject.
Evidence f rom
Hist o ry
Checking history first , [ went to
the
Catholic Encyclopedía
and var–
ious writings. Here is what
1
found,
to my amazement, from the book
Faith of Our Fathers
by Cardinal
Gibbons, 1l th edition, page 89:
November/ December 1984
"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 sanctified."
From the
Catholíc Doctrinal
Catechísm,
taught members and
chil dren of members:
"Question:
Have you any other way of proving
that the church has power to insti–
tute festivals or precept?
Answer:
Had she not such power, she should
not have done that in which all
modern religionists agree with
her- she could not have subst i–
tuted the observance of Sunday,
the first day of the week, for the
observance of Saturday, the sev–
enth day, a change for which there
is no scriptural authority.
"Questíon:
When Protestants do
profane work upon Saturday, the
seventh day of the week, do they
follow the scripture as the only rule
of their faith? Do they find this
permission clearly laid down in the
sacred volume?
Answer:
On the
contrary, they have only the
authority of tradition for this prac–
tice. In profaning Saturday, they
violate one of God's command–
ments, which He has never abro–
gated, ' Remember that thou keep
holy the Sabbath day.' "
From the Council of Laodicea,
A.D. 363, carne this decree, quoted
from the
Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers,
volume XIV: "Christians
must not Judaisc by resting on the
Sabbath, but must work on that day,
rather honouring the Lord's day."
When the Church found anyone
keeping the Sabbath, that person
was declared "anatbema from
Chr ist." This caused the civil gov–
ernment to arrest andjor put to
death the one so branded. Many
Sabbath-keeping Christians were
thus martyred.
For the acknowledgment of the
Sabbath and what the Bible says
about the first day of the week,
here is what is found in the
Theo–
logical Díctionary
by Charles
Buck, a Methodist minister: "Sab–
bath in the Hebrew language sig–
nifies rest, and is the seventh day of
the week ... and it must be con–
fessed that there is no law in the
New Testament concerning the
first day. "
And what have the Presbyterians
acknowledged? You find from " The
Christian at Work," April
19,
1883,
and January 1884: " Sorne have tried
to build the observance of Sunday
upon Apostolic command, whereas
the apostles gave no command on the
matter at all .. . the truth is, as soon
as we appeal to the literal writing of
the Bible, the Sabbatarians have the
best of the argument."
The Church of E ngland's
Plain
Sermons on the Catechism
by
13