(Chapter 19) Forthright Admissions   Many of today's churches admit that, indeed, only Saturday is the true Sabbath. Let us take a look at just a few of the statements they have made.   Anglican   "Where are we told in Scripture 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." Isaac Williams, D.D., Plain Sermons on the Catechism, Volume 1, p. 334. 1   "We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of one holy Catholic Church." Bishop Seymour, Why We Keep Sunday, Article 12. 1 Baptist   "We believe that the Law of God is the eternal and imperishable rule of His moral government." Baptist Church Manual. 1   "We will now...show that the sanctification of the Sabbath has its foundation and its origin in a law which God at creation itself established for the whole world, and as a consequence therefore is binding on all men in all ages." Evangelisten, (The Evangelist), Stockholm, May 30 to August 15, 1863 ( organ of the Swedish Baptist Church). 2   "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....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." Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of The Baptist Manual, in a paper read at the New York Ministers' Conference, November 13,1893. 1   "The Sabbath was established originally in no special connection with the Hebrews, but as an institution for all mankind, in commemoration of God's rest after six days of creation. It was designed for all the descendants of Adam." Southern Baptist Convention series adult quarterly, August 15, 1937. 1 Congregationalist   "The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh is absolutely without authority in the New Testament." Dr. Lyman Abbott, Christian Union, January 19, 1882. 1 Lutheran   "...Scripture has in no way ordained the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect." John T. Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday? p. 16. 1   "God blessed the Sabbath and sanctified it to Himself. God willed that this command concerning the Sabbath should remain. He willed that on the seventh day the word should be preached." Dr. Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis, Volume 1, p. 138-140. 2   "They [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." Martin Luther, Augsburg Confession of Faith, Article 28, Paragraph 9. 1   "I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of Ten Commandments....Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also." Martin Luther, Spiritual Antichrist, p. 71, 72. 1 Methodist   "This ‘handwriting of ordinances' our Lord did blot out, take away, and nail to His cross. (Colossians 2:14.) 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 Volume Edition, Volume 1, p. 221, 222. 1   "The Sabbath was made for MAN; not for the Hebrews, but for all men." E. O. Haven, Pillars of Truth, p. 88. 1 Moody Bible Institute   "When Christ was on earth He did nothing to set it [the Sabbath] aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.' It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was—in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age." Dwight L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, p. 46. 1   "The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. The fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember,' showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?" ibid, p. 47. 1 Roman Catholic   "The Adventists are the only body of Christians with the Bible as their teacher,...Hence their appellation, ‘Seventh-day Adventists.' Their cardinal principle consists in setting apart Saturday for the exclusive worship of God, in conformity with the positive command of God Himself, repeatedly reiterated in the sacred books of the Old and New Testaments, literally obeyed by the Children of Israel for thousands of years to this day, and indorsed by the teaching and practice of the Son of God whilst on earth.   "Per contra, the Protestants of the world, the Adventists excepted, with the same Bible as their cherished and sole infallible teacher, by their practice, since their appearance in the sixteenth century,...have rejected the day named for His worship by God, and assumed, in apparent contradiction of His command, a day for His worship never once referred to for that purpose, in the pages of that Sacred Volume." Catholic Mirror, September 2, 1893. 3   "The Protestant world has been, from its infancy, in the sixteenth century, in thorough accord with the Catholic Church, in keeping ‘holy,' not Saturday, but Sunday....appealing to their common teacher, the Bible, the great body of Protestants,...have no other resource left than the admission that they have been teaching and practicing what is Scripturally false for over three centuries, by adopting the teaching and practice of what they have always pretended to believe an apostate church, contrary to every warrant and teaching of sacred Scripture." Ibid. 3   "It was upon this very point that the Reformation was condemned by the Council of Trent. The Reformers had constantly charged, as here stated, that the Catholic Church had apostatized from the truth as contained in the written word. ‘The written word,' ‘The Bible and the Bible only,'...this was the proclaimed platform of the Reformation and of Protestantism. ‘The scripture and tradition,' ‘The Bible as interpreted by the Church'...this was the position and claim of the Catholic Church. This was the main issue in the Council of Trent,...The question was debated day after day until the council was fairly brought to a standstill. Finally, after a long and intense mental strain, the Archbishop of Reggio came into the council with substantially the following argument...   "‘The Protestants claim to stand upon the written word only. They profess to hold the Scripture alone as the standard of faith. They justify their revolt by the plea that the Church has apostatized from the written word and follows tradition. Now the Protestants' claim that they stand on the written word only is not true. Their profession of holding the Scripture alone as the standard of faith is false. Proof: The written word explicitly enjoins the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath. They do not observe the seventh day, but reject it. If they do truly hold the Scripture alone as their standard, they would be observing the seventh day as is enjoined in the Scripture throughout. Yet they not only reject the observance of the Sabbath enjoined in the written word, but they have adopted and do practice the observance of Sunday, for which they have only the tradition of the Church....' (see the proceedings of the Council; Augsburg Confession; and Encyclopedia Britannica article: Trent, Council of)." Rome's Challenge, p. 25-27. 3 Presbyterian   "The Sabbath is part of the decalogue—the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution. ...Until therefore it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand....The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath." T. C. Blake, D. D., Theology Condensed, p. 474, 475. 1   "We must not imagine that the coming of Christ has freed us from the authority of the law; for it is the eternal rule of a devout and holy life, and must therefore be as unchangeable as the justice of God,...is constant and uniform." John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Gospels, Volume 1, p. 277. 1 Objective Researcher of Various Religions   "In Acts 20:7 we read that ‘upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.' However, this doesn't say that the Sabbath should be shifted from Saturday to Sunday, any more than the common habit of a Wednesday night prayer meeting or Bible study makes Wednesday the new day of rest and worship.   "...if one looks solely for biblical evidence, the theological argument is probably stronger for maintaining Saturday as the day of rest. Throughout mainstream Christianity, then, a major change rests more on tradition than on Scripture." The New Believers, David V. Barrett, p. 126. 4

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