CHRISTIAN HISTORIAN 3

TURNING POINT MINISTRIES

BAHAMAS

In response to a letter to the editor from “A Christian Historian”.

"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.. (Daniel 7:25).

Historian, in my response to you last Thursday I showed where God’s Law is for all mankind, which includes the Christian believer. His seventh day Sabbath rest is apart of His Holy Law and the hands or decrees of man can never change what God has written.

However, let us fully examine history and see what both Catholic and Protestant leaders have to say about the Law, the Sabbath and Sunday worship:

· "The Pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine law". The pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts a vicegerent of God upon earth" Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca, art. Papa, II, Vol. VI, p. 29. (Catholic)

· The Pope is considered the man on earth who "takes the place" of the Second Person of the omnipotent God of the Trinity." John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 3, 1994 (Catholic)

· "Sunday is a Catholic institution, and... 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, Aug. 25, 1900 (Catholic)

· "Protestants ... accept Sunday rather than Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church made the change... But the Protestant mind does not seem to realize that . in observing Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the Church, the pope." Our Sunday Visitor, February 5th, 1950. (Catholic)

· "Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. ...! That is Saturday." P. Carrington, Archbishop of Quebec, Oct. 27, 1949. (Anglican)

· The observance of the Lord's Day (Sunday) is founded not on any command of God, but on the authority of the Church." Augsburg Confession of Faith. (Lutheran)

· But the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away.... The moral law stands on an entirely different foundation from the ceremonial or ritual law. ...Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages."-JOHN WESLEY, "Sermons on Several Occasions," 2-Vol. Edition, Vol. I, pages 221, 222. (Methodist)

· "This Fourth is not a commandment for one place, or one time, but for all places and times." D.L. Moody, at San Francisco, Jan. 1st, 1881. (Moody Bible Inst.)

· "The observance of the seventh-day Sabbath did not cease till it was abolished after the [Roman] empire became Christian," American Presbyterian Board of Publication, Tract No. 118 (Presbyterian)

· "To command...men...to observe...the Lord's day...is contrary to the gospel." - "Memoirs of Alexander Campbell," Vol. 1, page 528. (Church of Christ)

· Not once did the disciples apply the Sabbath law to the first day of the week, -- that folly was left for a later age, nor did they pretend that the first day supplanted the seventh.” Joseph Hudson Taylor, ‘The Sabbatic Question’, p. 14-17, 41. (Southern Baptist)

This is but a few historical quotes and sadly we see that it was that hand of man that has attempted to change what God has created. The Sabbath is not the whole Law, but rather a part of the Law that all Christians should lovingly obey through faith in Christ (John 15:9-11)., This is not an attack on Sunday keepers, but rather it show’s that the institutional leaders have not protected the flock and have indeed allowed error to creep in. I urge all reader to question your church leaders and see where they stand. Are they standing solidly on the rock that is God’s Word or do they stand elsewhere.