All over the world, many
faithful Christians go to worship each and every Sunday. Yet, no
biblical command can be found for worshipping on that day. Aren’t
Christian’s commandment keeping Bible readers? How is it that major of
the Christian world are keeping something that the Bible does not
support? Who Changed the Bible’s Sabbath?
1. Did
God Change the Sabbath?
“For as the new heavens
and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith
the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come
to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one
Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith
the LORD.” “For I am the LORD,
I change not.”
(Isa. 66:22, 23; Mal. 3:6).
2. Did
Christ Change the Sabbath?
“And
he [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his
custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.”
“I have
kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”
(Luke 4:16;
John 15:10)
3. Did
the Apostle Paul Change the Sabbath?
“And when the Jews
were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words
might be preached to them the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath day
came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.” “And
he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath,
and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” (Acts
13:42, 44; Acts 18:4)
Father, like never
before, send the Holy Spirit. Let Him open our hearts and minds, so we
can walk in your statues and be blessed. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
4.
Who Changed It?
Daniel:
“And 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” (Dan.
7:25).
Ezekiel:
“Her
priests have violated my law, and
have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between
the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference
between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my
Sabbaths…her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter,
seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the
Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken”
(Eze. 22:26, 28).
Isaiah:
“To
the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according
to this word, it is because there is no light in them”
(Isa. 8:20).
NOTE:
Daniel said a power would come that would think to change the law.
Ezekiel described the power as a false system of
worship, whose
minister turn away from God’s Sabbath, saying God has said when He has
not. Finally, Isaiah said that if a system is not in harmony with the
law and the testimony of God, then there is no light in that system.
WHERE DID SUNDAY WORSHIP COME FROM?
5.
The Roman Empire adopted it.
In the year 321 A.D., Constantine issued
the first Sunday law edict. It read, “Let all the 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.”—Great
Controversy, p. 679, Italic Added.
6.
The Roman Catholic Church claims to have created it.
“We
observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church
transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.” Peter Geierman,
The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1951) p. 50.
“The
Catholic Church…by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from
Saturday to Sunday.” – The Catholic Mirror, official organ of
Cardinal Gibbons, Sept. 23, 1893.
“It
pleased the church of God, that the religious celebration of the
Sabbath day should be transferred to ‘the Lord’s day.’” – Catechism
of the Council of Trent (Donovan’s translation 1867), part 3,
chap. 4, p. 345. The same, in slightly different wording, is in the
McHugh and Callan translation (1937 et.), p. 402
They
proof of their power to change the day rest in the fact that the
Protestant churches have accepted the change. They say, “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.
7. Protestants
agree that there is no Bible Command for Sunday observance.
“The Lord’s day was merely
of ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the
fourth commandment. – Jeremy Taylor (Church of England), Ducar
Dubitantium, part 1, book 2, chap. 2 rule 6, secs. 51, 59 (1850
ed.), vol. 9, pp. 458, 464.
“The Lord’s Day is not
sanctified by any specific command or by any inevitable inference. In
all the New Testament there is no hint or suggestion a legal
obligation binding any man, whether saint or sinner, to observe the
Day. Its sanctify arises only out of what it means to the true
believer.” – J. J. Taylor (Baptist), The Sabbatic Question,
p.72.
“And where are we told in the
Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded
to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first
day…The reasons why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of
the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things,
not because the Bible, but because the church, has enjoined it.” –
Isaac Williams (Anglican), Plain Sermons on the Catechism, vol.
1, pp. 334, 336.
A CHOICE TO BE MADE
8.
How do you prove which side your on?
“Know ye not, that to
whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness?”
(Romans 6:16)
9.
What does Jesus call worship that is not
according to the Word of God?
“But
in vain
they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men” (Matt. 15:9).
10.
When faced with the choice of following man
or God, what should one do?
“Then Peter and the other
apostles answered and said, We ought to obey
God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
11.
Must you make a choice?
“No
servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one,
and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the
other”. “And if it seem evil
unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this
day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served…or the gods of the Amorites…but as for me and my house, we will
serve the LORD” (Luke 16:13; Joshua 24:15).
12.
What is the result of serving two masters?
“A double minded man is
unstable in all his ways” (James
1:18).
13.
Do you understand that neither the Bible nor Jesus changed the Sabbath
and that God still commandments true worship?
Answer _____________
