Chapter 16

They Boast the Fact

Can you use a thousand dollars? Over the years a number of people have offered to give away-free-$1000 to anyone who will show them just one verse of Scripture that tells that the sanctity of the Seventh-day Bible Sabbath has been changed to Sunday, the first day of the week.

They do it, obviously, because they want you to begin reading in the Bible on this important subject—and see for yourself that you should hallow the only weekly Sabbath in that sacred Book.

But the first one to offer $1000 for that missing Bible verse was a Jesuit priest.

He did it to convince Sunday-keepers that if they wanted to stay with Sunday sacredness, they needed to return to Rome.

Thomas Enright, former president of Redemptorist College in Kansas City, Missouri, issued a number of public statements in which he challenged anyone to produce just one text of Scripture stating that the Seventh-day Sabbath had been changed to Sunday. —And he promised to give them $1000 if they would show the Bible passage to him.

The Hartford (Kansas) "Weekly Call," of February 22, 1884, published his challenge:

" 'I will give $1,000 to any man who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep. . The observance of Sunday is solely a law of the Catholic Church ..The church changed the Sabbath to Sunday and all the world bows down and worships upon that day in silent obedience to the mandates of the Catholic Church." Hartford "Weekly Call," quoting Priest Thomas Enright, C.S.S.R., February 22, 1884.

But, try as they might, no one was ever able to claim that $1000 reward. Simply because there is no Bible proof of any kind for Sundaykeeping. Sunday sacredness just isn't in the Holy Scriptures. Enright knew it—and flaunted it—and for a reason.

For, you see, the attempted change of the Sabbath to Sunday marks the basic Roman Catholic "proof" that it is the "true church" that all Protestants should return to and obey. The Roman Catholic leaders declare that Protestants are still part of the Mother Church of Rome—because they keep the papal holy day—Sunday—as their sabbath!

"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.

"Ques. —Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept [command holy-days]?

"Ans. —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." -Stephan Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, 1846 edition, p. 176 {Keenan was a Scottish priest, whose catechism has been widely used in Roman Catholic schools and academies] .

"Ques. —Which is the Sabbath day?

Ans. —Saturday is the Sabbath day.

"Ques. —Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?

"Ans. —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 {Geiermann, (1870-1929) received the "apostolic blessing" of pope Pius X on this book, January 26, 1910} .

"It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodist, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church." Priest Brady, in an address at Elizabeth, N.J. on March 17, 1903, reported in the Elizabeth, N.J. News of March 18, 1903.

"Some theologians have held that God [in the Bible] likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the New Law, that He Himself has explicitly substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His [Catholic] Church the power to set aside whatever day, or days, she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days, as holy days." Vincent J. Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations, 1943, p. 2 [Kelly, a Catholic priest, prepared this at Catholic University of America}.

"The pope has authority and has often exercised it, to dispense with the commands of Christ. .The pope's will stands for reason. He can dispense above the law, and of wrong make right, by correcting and changing laws." from Pope Nicholas' time.

"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 accepting the Bible, in observing the Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope." Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950 [One of the largest U.S. Roman Catholic magazines}.

"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 [The Mirror is a Baltimore Roman Catholic weekly newspaper} .

"For ages all Christian nations looked to the Catholic Church, and, as we have seen, the various states enforced by law her ordinances as to worship and cessation of labor on Sunday. Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath. The State in passing laws for the due Sanctification of Sunday, is unwittingly acknowledging the authority of the Catholic Church, and carrying out more or less faithfully its prescriptions. The Sunday as a day of the week, set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God IS purely a creation of the Catholic church." John Gilmary Shea, in The American Catholic Quarterly Review, January, 1883, p. 139 [Shea (1824-1893) as an important Catholic historian of his time].

"It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest [from the Bible Sabbath] to the Sunday. .Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage that they pay in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic Church." Monsignor Louis Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, 1868, p. 213 [L.G. Segur (1820-1881) was a French Catholic prelate and apologist, and later a diplomatic and judicial official at Rome.]

"The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ Himself, hidden under veil of flesh." The Catholic National, July, 1895.

"The Catholic Church, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday." The Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1893 [The Mirror, a Baltimore-based Catholic weekly, was the official organ for Cardinal Gibbons].

"Ques. —When Protestants do profane work [regular employment] upon Saturday, or the seventh day of the week, do they follow the Scripture as their only rule of faith—do they find this permission clearly laid down in the Sacred Volume?

"Ans. —On the contrary, they have only the authority of [Catholic] tradition for this practice. In profaning Saturday, they violate one of God's commandments, which He has never abrogated,—'Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day."  Priest Steven Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, pp. 252, 254 , [The catechism of this Scottish priest is widely used in Catholic schools to instruct children into their beliefs] .

"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, vol. 1, p. 51 [J.J. Laux (1878-1939) was a Catholic priest, teacher, and author of many Catholic histories as well as biographies of their saints] .

"Some of the truths that have been handed down to us by tradition and are not recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, are It the following: That there are just seven sacraments; that there Is a purgatory; that, in the new law, Sunday should be kept holy instead of the Sabbath; that infants should be baptized, and that there are precisely seventy-two books in the Bible [66 that are inspired, plus 6 apocryphal] ." Francis J. Butler, Holy Family Catechism, No.3, p. 63 [Butler (1859-?) was a Catholic priest of Boston and an author of a series of catechisms.]

"It is worth while to remember that this observance of Sunday-in which after all, the only Protestant worship consists—not only has no foundation in the Bible, but it is in flagrant contradiction with its letter, which commands rest on the Sabbath, which is Saturday. It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday." Monsignor Louis Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, p. 213 [L.G. Segur (1820-1881), a French prelate, later was appointed as a diplomatic and judicial official in Rome].

"All the names which in the Scriptures are applied to Christ, by virtue of which it is established that He is over the church, all the same names are applied to the pope." Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, De Conciliorum Auctoriatate (On the Authority of the Councils), Bk 2, chap. 17 [Rellarmine (1542- 1621), a professor and rector at the Jesuit Gregorian University in Rome, is generally considered to have been one of the outstanding Jesuit instructors in the history of this organization].

On April 29, 1922, in the Vatican throne room, a throng of cardinals, bishops, priests, nuns, boys and girls, who had all fallen on their knees in reverence of the one before them, were then addressed from the throne by Pope Pius XI, who said: "you know that I am the Holy Father, the representative of God on the earth, the Vicar of Christ, which means I am God on the earth." Pope Pius XI, quoted in The Bulwark, October, 1922, p. 104 [Pius XI (1857-1939) was pope from 1922-1939, and was the one who signed the Treaty of the Lateran with Mussolini in 1929, whereby Vatican City was established. He consistently backed Mussolini's policies and government until he met with military reverses].

"The Pope can modify [change] the Divine Law." Lucius Ferraris, Ecclesiastical Dictionary [Ferraris (d. before 1763) was an Italian Catholic official of the Franciscan order, highly placed in the Church].

"We define that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff holds the primacy over the whole world." Philippe Labbe and Gabriel Cossart, The Most Holy Councils, val. 13, col. 1167, on "The Council of Trent. "  

"The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God. He is the divine monarch and supreme emperor, and king of kings. Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions." Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca, vol. 6, art. "Papa II" [Ferraris (d. prior to 1763) was an Italian Catholic canonist and consultor to the Holy Office in Rome].

"We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty." Pope Leo XIII, in an encyclical letter dated June 20, 1894, The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, p. 304 [Leo XIII  (1810-1903) was pope from 1878 until his death. He was one of the most forceful popes of the nineteenth century] .

"If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church:" Albert Smith, Chance//or of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replying for the Cardinal in a letter dated February 10,1920.

"Protestants often deride the authority of Church tradition, and claim to be directed by the Bible only; yet they, too, have been guided by customs of the ancient Church,  which find no warrant in the Bible, but rest on Church tradition only! A striking instance of this is the following:- The first positive command in the Decalogue is to 'Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy " ..But the Sabbath Day, the observance of which God commanded, was our Saturday. Yet who among either Catholics or Protestants, except a sect or two, ever kept that commandment now? None. Why is this? The Bible which Protestants claim to obey exclusively, gives I no authorization for the substitution of the first day of the week for the seventh. On what authority, therefore, have they done so? Plainly on the authority of that very Catholic Church; which they abandoned, and whose traditions they condemn." John L. Stoddard. Rebuilding a Lost Faith, p. 80 [Stoddard (1850-1931) was an agnostic writer most of his life,' who later was converted to Catholicism] .

"We Catholics, then, have precisely the same authority for keeping Sunday holy instead of Saturday as we have for every other article of our creed; namely, the authority of the ‘church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth'  (1 Timothy 3:15); whereas you who are Protestants have  really no authority for it whatever; for there is no authority for it in the Bible, and you will not allow that there can be authority for it anywhere else. Both you and we do, in fact, follow tradition in this matter; but we follow it, believing it to be a part of God's word, and the [Catholic] Church to be its divinely appointed guardian and interpreter; you follow it [the Catholic Church] , denouncing it all the time as a fallible and treacherous guide, which often 'makes the commandments of God of none effect' [quoting Matthew 15:6]" The Brotherhood of St. Paul, The Clifton Tracts, Vol. 4, tract 4, p. 15 [Roman Catholic]

"Now the [Catholic] Church. .instituted, by God's authority, Sunday as the day of worship. This same Church, by the same divine authority, taught the doctrine of Purgatory. . We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday." Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About, 1927, p. 236 [Jesuit theologian and writer] .

"The [Catholic] Church, by the power our Lord gave her, changed the observance of Saturday to Sunday:" The Catholic Canon, H. Cafferata, The Catechism Simply Explained, 1932 edition, p. 80.

"The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her Divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday. .But the Protestant says: 'How can I receive the teachings of an apostate Church?' How, we ask, have you managed to receive her teaching all your life, in direct opposition to your recognized teacher, the Bib/e, on the Sabbath question?" The Christian Sabbath, 2nd ed., published by the Catholic Mirror of Baltimore, Maryland. [The official paper of Cardinal Gibbons.]

"If you follow the Bible alone there can be no question that you are obliged to keep Saturday holy, since that is the day especially prescribed by Almighty God to be kept holy to the Lord." Priest F. G. Lentz, The Question Box, 1900, p. 98  [Lentz (d. 1917) was a Catholic priest and writer, based in the Illinois area].

"Prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says, No, By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy 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." Priest Thomas Enright, CSSR, President of Redemptorist College, Kansas City. Mo., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, February 18, 1884, and printed in the Hartford Kansas Weekly Call, February 22, 1884, and the American Sentinel, a New York Roman Catholic journal in June 1893, page 173.

"Of Course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act ..AND THE ACT IS A MARK of her ecclesiastical power:" from the office of Cardinal Gibbons, through Chancellor H.F. Thomas, November 11, 1895.

"Sunday is our MARK of authority! ..The Church is, above the Bible, and this transference of sabbath observance is proof of that fact." The Catholic Record, London, Ontario, Canada, September 1, 1923.

We have earlier seen that historians are in agreement on the fact that the attempt to change the Bible Sabbath to Sunday was made after the Bible was finished. And now we have found that the Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly admitted—even boasted—openly of the fact that the change was not made by God or the Bible writers—but by the Vatican.

Surely, in light of all this, there must be learned Protestants who have also admitted that the change is not Biblical but was made in later centuries! And there are—many of them.