Catholic Agreement
Since the prophecy of Daniel predicted that the papacy would "think to change times and laws," let us ask her if she had anything to do with this change of the Sabbath. We want to be fair to everyone, and get authentic testimony from all. The next several quotations are taken from well-known Catholic authorities who express clearly the claims of the papacy about the attempted change. From the Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IV, p. 153: "The Church ... after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the third commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord's day."
Salvation History and the Commandments, p. 294, 1963 edition, by Rev. Leo. J. Trese and John J. Castlelot, S.S. describes it in these words: "Nothing is said in the Bible about the change of the Lord's day from Saturday to Sunday. We know of the change only from the tradition of the Church - a fact handed down to us from earliest times by the living voice of the Church. That is why we find so illogical the attitude of many non-Catholics, who say that they will believe nothing unless they can find it in the Bible and yet will continue to keep Sunday as the Lord's day on the say-so of the Catholic Church."
Another well-known Catholic writer gave this explanation of the change: "The Catholic Church transferred the observance from the seventh to the first day of the week. ... The Catholic Church deemed it more fitting to appoint this day, rather than Saturday, the festival day of Christians." This Is Catholicism, 1959 edition, John Walsh, S. J., p. 325.
A 1958 catechism by Killgallen and Weber entitled Life in Christ - Instructions in the Catholic Faith explained it thus: "Why did the Church change the Lord's day from the Sabbath to Sunday? The Church, using the power of binding and loosing which Christ gave to the Pope, changed the Lord's day to Sunday." Page 243.
Rev. Stephen Keenan's A Doctrinal Catechism has this to say: "Question - Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept? Answer - 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." Please note the word "substituted," a term we have used over and over to describe the activities of this power.
Cardinal Gibbons, in his book The Question Box, p. 179, makes this startling admission: "If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh-day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew. ... Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher, should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the Catholic Church?"
Rev. John A. O'Brien in the book Understanding the Catholic Faith, p. 13, 1955 edition, states: "The Bible does not contain all the teachings of the Catholic religion, nor does it formulate all the duties of its members. Take, for instance, the matter of Sunday observance, attendance at divine service, and abstention from unnecessary servile work on that day. This is a matter upon which our Protestant neighbors have for many years laid great emphasis; yet nowhere in the Bible is the Sunday designated as the Lord's day; the day mentioned is the Sabbath, the last day of the week. The early Church, conscious of her authority to teach in the name of Christ, deliberately changed the day to Sunday."
One of the greatest challenges ever cast into the face of Protestantism is contained in a statement by Father Enright, President of Redemptorist College in America: "It was the Holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week. And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but urged all persons to labor on the seventh day under pain of anathema. Protestants ... profess great reverence for the Bible, and yet by their solemn act of keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the power of the Catholic Church. The Bible says, Ԓemember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' But the Catholic Church says, ԎO: Keep the first day of the week' and lo, the entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church."
You must answer that challenge! Whom are you going to obey? Listen to these words by C. F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons, in answer to a letter regarding the change of the Sabbath: "Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters." Thus the issues become plain - God says that He is the true God: He has given the Sabbath as a seal of His authority as the Creator of all. By keeping the Sabbath we recognize His authority as the true God. But the Catholic Church appears and says in effect, "No, don't keep the Sabbath; keep the first day of the week. We changed it, and that change is a mark of our power to overrule God's law and authority."
The mark of the beast, then, is the counterfeit Sunday by which the beast power is trying to be recognized as an authority greater than the Creator Himself. The sign, or seal, of God's authority (Sabbath) is displaced by the papal institution of a substitute mark (Sunday) which she claims as her authority. Oh, that the world would see clearly the tremendous issue before us today! To whom will we yield our obedience - to God or to the beast? When we understand the issues we must make a tremendous decision either to keep the true Sabbath and recognize God's authority, or to take the false Sabbath and recognize the Catholic Church's claims. We must finally receive the seal of God or the mark of the beast. There are only two sides - God and the dragon, truth and error, Bible and tradition.
A book published in 1956 entitled The Faith of Millions and currently available from the Catholic Book Store as a textbook on the Catholic religion has this interesting statement on page 473: "But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn't it curious that non-Catholics who profess to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom, even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon an explicit text in the Bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away - like a boy running away from home, but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair." Long ago Cardinal Gibbons summarized the issue facing every individual on the Sabbath question: "Reason and 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." Catholic Mirror, December 23, 1893.