(Chapter 4)
The Origin of Christian Sunday Worship
For approximately 300 years after Christ's death and resurrection, the seventh-day Sabbath was the only day on which Christians worshiped God. But as the pagan Roman Empire began to fall, her emperor, Constantine I,* was slowly gaining total sovereignty (which he fully attained in 324 A.D.) and hoping to re-solidify his dissimulating empire, professed to unite with the Christians. Thus pagan Rome became papal Rome—a religio-political power. While Constantine sought to revitalize his government, the Christians also sought to bring more people into the Church. Both of these goals were accomplished to some degree, but not without a high cost. That cost was the loss of sacred truths handed down from Christ and His apostles.
One of the very first of these holy oracles to be modified was the Sabbath. In 321 A.D. Constantine ordered that no work should be done on "the venerable day of the sun" (sun-day). Many tried vainly to serve both God and man by keeping both days as holy, but this became wearisome and soon they kept only Sunday. But as always, there were still those who would not be turned from duty by the threat of death. Their love for God far outweighed their fear of man. They would not compromise truth and right for convenience.
What religious power "officially" made Sunday the day of worship? They happily speak for themselves. It is no secret. In the following quotes I will let them tell you.
"The Catholic Church...by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday." The Catholic Mirror, September 23,1893. [The Mirror is a Baltimore-based Catholic weekly paper]
"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 transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday." Peter Geiermann, The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1957 edition, p 50. 1
"Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims 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, August 1900.
"If we consulted the Bible only, we should still have to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is Saturday." John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies, 1936 edition, Volume1, p 51.
"If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath day. In keeping Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church." Albert Smith, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replying for the cardinal in a letter dated February 10, 1920.
"Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible." The Catholic Mirror, December 23, 1893. 2
"...The Bible which Protestants claim to obey exclusively, gives no authorization for the substitution of the first day of the week for the seventh. On what authority have they done so? Plainly on the authority of that [same] Catholic Church which they abandoned, and whose traditions they condemn." John L. Stoddard, Rebuilding a Lost Faith, p 80.
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"Thus we see Daniel 7:25 fulfilled, the little horn changing ‘times and laws.' Therefore it appears to me that all who keep the first day for the Sabbath are the Pope's Sunday-keepers, and God's Sabbath breakers." Elder T. M. Preble, American Seventh-day Baptist, Feb.13, 1845. 3
* Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, ("The Great") A.D. 288?- 337. Roman emperor from 324-337. 4
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