BEYOND
PITCAIRN
Vance Ferrell
APPENDIX
D
LETTER
FROM ROME
We all like to receive mail. Here is a letter from the Roman Catholic
Church. And it is a thought-provoking one. The message is forceful and
to-the-point, with lots of Scriptural proofs for its position.
And what is the message from Rome? Simply this: Protestants are
half-baptized Catholics and ought to return to the Mother Church of Rome, unless they are going to become genuine Protestants and keep the Bible
Sabbath, the Seventh-day Sabbath! Protestantism finds its basis in the
Bible. Roman Catholicism is founded on the traditions and sayings of
Roman Catholic Church leaders in times past. The Bible Sabbath has no
reason for existence apart from definite commands of God given
in the Holy Bible. Sunday has no reason for sacredness, except for
earlier Roman Catholic official decrees.
Yes, the message is a clear one: either come back to Rome and stop
calling yourself a "Protestant," or obey the commands of the God
of Heaven and return to His worship on His day, the Lord's Day, the
Seventh-day Sabbath.
LETTER FROM ROME
Be thankful every day that you have the precious Scriptures. Let them
guide you to the end of your earthly days. On the next page begins this
Letter from Rome:
I
am going to propose a very plain and serious question, to those who follow
'the Bible and the Bible only' to give their most earnest attention. It is
this: Why do you not keep holy the Sabbath Day?
The command of Almighty God stands clearly written in the Bible in these
words: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor,
and do all thy work,' but the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work' (Exodus xx 8, 9). And again,
'Six days shall work be done; but on the Seventh day there shall be unto
you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whoso- ever doeth work
therein shall be put to death. (Exodus xxxv 2, 3). How strict and
precise is God's commandment upon this head! [In this matter!] No work
whatever was to be done on the day which He had chosen to set apart for
Himself and to make holy. And, accordingly, when the children of Israel
'found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day " 'the Lord
said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death; all the
congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp' (Numbers
xv.35). Such being God's command then, I ask again, Why do you not obey
it? Why do you not keep holy the Sabbath day?
You
will answer me, perhaps, that you do keep holy the Sabbath day; for that
you abstain from all worldly business and diligently go to church, and say
your prayers, and read your Bible at home, every Sunday of your lives.
But Sunday is not the Sabbath day. Sunday is the first day of the
week," the Sabbath day is the seventh day of the week. Almighty God
did not give a commandment that men should keep holy one day in seven, but
He named His own day, and said distinctly: Thou shalt keep holy the
seventh day, and He assigned a reason for choosing this day rather than
any other-a reason which belongs only to the seventh day of the week, and
cannot be applied to the rest.
He
says, 'For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all
that in them is, and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it' [Genesis 2:1-3] . Almighty God
ordered that all men should rest from their labor on the seventh day,
because He too had rested on that day: He did not rest on Sunday, but
on Saturday. On Sunday, which is the first day of the week, He began the
work of creation, He
did not finish it; it was on Saturday that He 'ended His work which He had
made, and
He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made; and God
blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He had
rested from all His work which God created and made' (Genesis ii. 2, 3). Nothing
can be more plain and easy to understand than all this,. and there is
nobody who attempts to deny it, it is acknowledged by everybody that the
day which Almighty God appointed to be kept holy was Saturday, not Sunday.
Why do you then keep holy the Sunday, and not Saturday?
You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the
Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday: Changed! but by whom? Who
has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God?
When
God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall
dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business
on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead?
This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer.
You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible
only, and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in
seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put
another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. The
command to
keep holy the seventh day is one of the Ten Commandments,. you believe
that the other nine are still binding," who
gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent
with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible
only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in
which this fourth commandment is expressly altered. Let us see whether
any such passages can be found. I will look for them in the writings of
your own champions, who have attempted to defend your practice in this
matter.
1.
The first text which I find quoted upon the subject is this: 'Let
no man judge you in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the
sabbath days' (Colossians ii. 16) [the ceremonial-sacrificial-yearly
sabbaths of Leviticus 23, which were done away at the Cross] .I could
understand a Bible Christian arguing from this passage, that we ought to
make no difference between Saturday, Sunday, and every other day of the
week; that under the Christian dispensation all such distinctions of days
were done away with; one day was as good and as holy as another; there
were to be no Sabbaths, no holy days at all. But not one syllable does
it say about the obligation of the Sabbath being transferred from one day
to another.
2.
Secondly, the words of St. John are quoted, 'I was in the Spirit on
Lord's day (Apocalypse [Revelation] 1:10). Is it possible that anybody
can for a moment imagine that here is a safe and clear rule for changing
the weekly feast from the seventh to the first day? This passage is
utterly silent upon such a subject; it does not but [only] give us
Scriptural authority for calling some one day in particular (it does not
even say which day) 'the Lord's day.'
3.
Next we are reminded that St. Paul bade his Corinthian converts,
'upon the first day of the week, lay by them in store, that there might be
no gatherings' when he himself came (1 Corinthians xvi. 2). How is this
supposed to affect the law of the Jewish Sabbath? It commands a
certain act of alms- giving [at home] to be done on the first day of the
week. It says absolutely nothing about not doing certain other acts of
prayer and public worship on the seventh day.
4.
But it was 'on the first day of the week' when the disciples were
assembled with closed doors for fear of the Jews, and Jesus stood
in the midst of them' (John xx.19). What is there in these facts to do
away with the obligation of keeping holy the seventh day? Our Lord
rose from the dead on the first day of the week, and on the same day at
evening He appears to many of His disciples. Let Protestants, if they
will, keep holy the first day of the week in grateful commemoration of
that stupendous mystery, the Resurrection of Christ, and of the evidences
which He vouchsafed to give of it to His doubting disciples; but this
is no scriptural authority for ceasing to keep holy another day of the
week which God had expressly commanded to be kept holy for another and
altogether different reason.
5.
But lastly, we have the example of the Apostles themselves. 'Upon
the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break
bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and
continued his speech until midnight' (Acts xx.7). Here we have clear proof
that the disciples heard a sermon on a Sunday. But is that not proof
they had not done the same on the Saturdays also ? [Acts 13:14, 42-44,16:12-13, 17:1-2, 18:1-4,11]. Is it not expressly written
concerning those early Christians, that they 'continued daily with one
accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house?' (Acts ii:46).
As a matter of fact, do we not know from other sources that, in many parts
of the Church, the ancient Christians were in the habit of meeting
together for public worship, to receive Holy Communion, and to perform the
other offices, on Saturdays? Again, then, I say, let Protestants keep
holy, if they will their first day of the week, in order that they may
resemble those Christians who were gathered together on that day in an
upper room in Troas; [a Troas meeting on Sunday in Acts 20:7, just prior
to a Miletus meeting on Tuesday in Acts 20:17-38-although no one today
keeps Tuesday sacred because of it]; but let them remember that this
cannot possibly release them from the obligation of keeping holy another
day which Almighty God has ordered to be kept holy, because on that day He
rested from all His work.'
I do not know of any other passages of holy Scripture which protestants
are in the habit of quoting to defend their practice of keeping holy the
first day of the week instead of the seventh,' yet,
surely those which I have quoted are not such as should satisfy any
reasonable man, who looks upon the written word of God as they profess
to look upon it, namely, as the only appointed means of learning God's
will, and who really desires to learn and to obey that will in all
things with humbleness and simplicity of heart, For in spite of all
that anyone might say to the contrary, it is fully and absolutely
impossible that a reasonable and thoughtful person should be satisfied, by
the texts that I have quoted, that Almighty God intended the obligation of
Saturday to be transferred to Sunday. And yet Protestants do so
transfer it, and never seem to have the slightest misgivings lest, in
doing so, they should be guilty of breaking one of God's commandments, Why
is this? Because, although they talk so largely about following the Bible
and the Bible only, they are really guided in this matter by the voice of
[Roman Catholic] tradition. Yes,
much as they may hate and denounce the word (tradition), they have in
fact no other authority to allege for this most important change. The
present generation of Protestants keep Sunday holy instead of Saturday,
because they received it as part of the Christian religion from the
last generation, and that generation received it from the generation
before, and so on backwards from one generation to another, by a continual
succession, until we come to the time of the (so-called) Reformation,
when it so happened that those who conducted the change of religion (from
Catholicism to Protestantism) left
this particular portion of Catholic faith and practice untouched.
But,
had it happened otherwise, had some one or other of the 'Reformers
taken it into his head to denounce the observance of Sunday
as a Popish corruption and superstition, and to insist upon it that
Saturday was the day which God had appointed to be kept holy, and that He
had never authorized the observance of any other, all Protestants
would have been obliged, in obedience to their professed principle of
following the Bible and the Bible only, either to acknowledge this
teaching as true, and to return to the observance of the ancient Jewish
Sabbath (the Bible Sabbath given by God at the Creation, Genesis 2:1-3,2000 years before there was a Jew] , or else to deny that there is
any Sabbath at all. And so, in like manner, anyone at the present
day who should set about, honestly and without prejudice, to draw
up for himself a form of religious belief and practice out of the written
Word of God, must needs come to the same conclusion: he must either
believe that the seventh-day Sabbath is still binding upon men's
consciences, because of the Divine command, 'Thou shalt keep holy the
seventh day.' or he must believe that no Sabbath at all is binding upon
them. Either one of these conclusions he might honestly come to; but he
would know nothing whatever of a 'Christian sabbath' distinct from the
Biblical Sabbath [that is] celebrated on a different day, and observed in
a different manner,-simply because Holy Scripture itself nowhere speaks of
such a thing.
Now,
mind, in all this you would greatly misunderstand me if you
supposed I was quarrelling with you for acting in this matter on a true
and right principle, in other words, a Catholic principle (viz.,
the acceptance, without hesitation, of that which has been handed down to
you by an unbroken tradition). I would not [then] tear from you a single
one of those shreds and fragments of Divine truth [Catholic truth], which
you have retained. God forbid! They are the most precious things you
possess, and by God's blessing may serve as clues to bring you out of that
labyrinth of [Protestant] error in which you find yourselves involved, far
more by the fault of your forefathers three centuries ago [when in the
Reformation they left Rome] than by your own.
What I do quarrel with you for, is not your inconsistency in occasionally
acting on a true principle [such as Roman Catholic Sunday-keeping] ,
but your adoption, as a general rule of a false one [your Protestant
refusal to accept the rest of Roman traditional teachings]. You keep
the Sunday, and not the Saturday; and you do so rightly, for this was
the practice of all Christians when Protestantism began [in the sixteenth
century, as Catholics think], but you have abandoned other
Catholic observances which were equally universal at that day,
preferring the novelties introduced by the men who invented Protestantism,
to the unvarying tradition of above 1500 years [of Catholic teaching] .We
blame you not for making Sunday your weekly holyday instead of Saturday, but
for rejecting tradition [the sayings of Rome] , which is the only
safe and clear rule by which this observance [of Sunday] can be justified.
In outward act we do the same as yourselves in this matter; we too no
longer observe the Sabbath, but Sunday in its stead; but then there IS
this important difference between us, that we do not pretend, as you do, to
derive our authority for so doing from a book [the Bible], but we
[Catholics] derive it from a living teacher, and that teacher is the
[Roman Catholic] church. Moreover, we believe that not everything which
God would have us to know and to do is written in the Bible, but that
there is also an unwritten word of God [the sayings of popes and councils
and saints], which we are bound to believe and to obey.. .
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, and ground of
truth' (1
Timothy iii. 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 [Catholic] 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, denouncing it all the time as a fallible and treacherous
guide which often 'makes the commandment of God of none effect' (Matthew 15:6).
'Why Don't You Keep Holy the Sabbath Day?" pages 3.15,
in The Clifton Tracts, Volume 4, published by the Roman Catholic
Church. Originally released in North America in 1869 through the
T. W: Strong Publishing Company of New York City, so that those outside the
papal fold might know the pathway back to the authority of the Mother
Church of the Vatican.
BEYOND PITCAIRN
APPENDIX E
ENTERING THE REST
"For He spake in a certain place of the Seventh day on this wise,
And God did rest the Seventh day from all His works. .There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Let us
labour therefore to enter into that rest. " Hebrews 4:4,
9-11.
The Sabbath rest is something special between you and your God. And if
kept faithfully now, you will continue to worship Him on it through all
eternity to come. He is faithful who hath promised. And the blessing you
will realize by obeying His command to keep His Sabbath-will be yours
through all time to come.
Keeping
the Sabbath changes us. For so our heavenly Father intended it. "Six
days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the Seventh day is the
Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work. .for. .the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:9-10,11.
All
through the first six days of the week, we work and rest; buy and sell.
But the Seventh day is special. On that day we cease from our worldly
cares and labors, that we may have more time to visit with God, to study
His Word and pray, and to fellowship with like believers.
It
is a day to live the Enoch life more fully. Enoch lived to draw closer to
God, and to tell others how they might experience that closer walk also.
And that is what we want, is it not? What is life for, if all we do is work seven days a week like the beasts and fish?
But
our Father, knowing our deeper needs, says: "Come ye apart and
rest."
We
prepare for the Sabbath all week long. But the most preparation takes
place just before it begins. In the Bible, Friday is called the
"preparation day" (Matt 27:62; Mk 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:41,
31, 42). The house is cleaned, and the cooking and baking for the Sabbath
is completed. (Some mothers tidy their homes on Thursday afternoon, in
order to simplify the Friday activities.)
Baths
are taken, boots and shoes are polished, and the children's Sabbath
clothes are laid out. All of Friday's work should be planned with
reference to the Sabbath.
"Oh,
Mama," said the little boy, as he helped her in the kitchen on
Friday. "Someone special must be coming tomorrow." "Yes, my
son," answered Mother, "We will be visiting with God."
The
holy hours of the Sabbath begin and end at sunset. For it is at sunset
that each day begins and ends, according to the Bible. We first learn this
in the first chapter of Genesis, where we discover that each day of
Creation Week began and ended at sunset (Gen 1:5, 8, 13, etc.). "From
even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbaths." Leviticus 23:32.
The evening begins with the setting of the sun.
Late
Friday afternoon, as sunset draws near, the family gathers together to
sing hymns, to pray, and to read from His Inspired Word. The time of
Sabbath evening worship has come. Also called Vespers, it is a time in
which we receive far more than we give. The peace of the Sabbath is a
blessing, known and felt all through its holy hours.
There
will be those who find it necessary to worship God alone each Sabbath.
This is unfortunate, but we realize that many things will not be perfect
in this life. But God's wonderful tomorrow will be glorious indeed, when we
enter the golden gates of heaven and rejoice in all that He has prepared
for us. At that time every tear will be wiped away and the trials and
perplexities of this earthly life will be seen to have been preparing us
for the happier life above.
In
the winter months, Friday evening supper often comes after the sun sets.
One family that we know, frequently eat the Friday evening meal by subdued
lighting, for their children are thus reminded that the special hours of
the Sabbath have begun.
Friday
evening is also a good time to retire to sleep a little earlier than
usual, so that all will be bright and fresh the next morning.
So
much has been prepared the day before, that soon the family is ready to
leave for Sabbath school, and the church service that follows it. A
precious experience may be found in fellowship with like believers in the
God of the Sabbath, the Creator God.
After
the Church service, the dinner is quickly prepared. It was made the day
before and now only a brief reheating is needed in order to be placed on
the table. Often a little "Sabbath treat" has been made:
something at the noon meal that the children will see as special.
And
then comes the Sabbath afternoon. This can be a most interesting and happy
part of the day.
Some
ask, "What is there to do on the Sabbath?" Here are some
thoughts and suggestions:
First,
the Sabbath (including the Friday evening that began it) provides time to
be with God. And those who love Him will be thankful for such an
opportunity. Time to leave the cares of the workaday week and quietly
commune with their Father in the study of His Written Word. And time to
walk with Him out amid the scenes of nature.
Second,
the Sabbath provides time to be with your family. Throughout the week,
many children hardly see the face of their father. So many are the duties,
the perplexities, the necessities. But God's hand is over the Sabbath. To
the work of the week, He says, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no
farther."
The
Sabbath affords an opportunity for the father and mother to be with their
children. It is a day to shut out the world and read God's Word together.
There is time to read Bible stories and mission stories with the children,
and to study the deeper truths of Scripture.
And
the Sabbath provides time for the family to walk together out in nature,
and find "nature nuggets"-little discoveries in nature, to share
with one another. The Sabbath began at Creation, and it is when we are out
amid His created works that we can best return to the Garden of Eden
experience.
The
Sabbath is a day to visit shut-ins, the elderly, and those who would
appreciate a visit filled with encouragement and words about Jesus. This
is a day for heavenly things. Read to or with one another from Scripture
or other spiritual books.
If
there is no one in your family to share the Sabbath blessing with, then
read and pray alone. And go out and visit with those who desire
encouragement, Scripture reading, and prayer. And so many need it. Or, if
you cannot easily leave the house, write a letter filled with
encouragement, cheer and heavenly things to a loved one. Telling them
about God's care for His children will rebound with renewed courage to
your own heart.
Many
years ago I knew a saint of God, an elderly lady, who was, herself, a
shut-in. She was not only alone nearly all of the week, but she was alone
most of the Sabbath also. But she sang her little songs of gladness, read
in her Father's book, and tried to scatter sunshine on the paths of those
around her.
But
how can that be done, when one is a shut-in, alone most of the day in the
house by himself? This humble Sabbathkeeper solved that problem: She wrote
letters to encourage others. Who did she write to? Oh, there was always
someone who needed a letter. And frequently she would open the phone book
at random and select a name she did not know, and write them a letter of
encouragement!
This
went on for years. Eventually Mrs. Bell died, and I, her pastor, preached
her funeral sermon. She was deeply missed when she was gone. Many attended
her funeral and they seemed to be crying for themselves more than for her.
Never
imagine that you are all alone, or that you are not needed, or that you
are in such a circumstance that you cannot help and encourage another. The
world is filled with people who need your help. You are not a shut-in.
And
if you are, now, or if you later may become one: Remember Mrs. Bell, and
set to work. You have people to help. Your best days are just ahead.
Here
are some more Sabbath pointers: Driving long distances in cars is a poor
way to spend the Sabbath. Try not to keep yourself and your children
within the four walls of meeting houses all through the Sabbath. And do
not think your duty is done when you spend all Sabbath afternoon visiting
with friends, while your children are outside running and playing. If you
have children or youth in your home, center a big part of your Sabbath
around them. Remember Jacob: "I will lead on softly, according as
the. .children be able to endure." Genesis 33: 14. Find interesting
Sabbath afternoon activities that you can do with your little ones, and
those in your home who are older.
Do
not use the Sabbath hours to plan, discuss or carry out weekly activities.
There will be time enough for the six working days, and its many cares, in
a few hours. Must you return to it prematurely? Follow God's plan for your
life, and you will always be happier.
Acts
of mercy are in perfect harmony with the intent of the Sabbath. And there
are necessary things that must be done during its hours; we do not crawl
into a cocoon and stay there until it is past. "The Sabbath was made
for man; not man for the Sabbath." Mark 2:27. God tests people on how
they keep the Sabbath, for there are so many ways in which we can keep it
better, or worse.
Sabbath
is not for business transactions, or for planning them. And it is not for
regular school studies or attendance. We should not converse on common or
worldly topics during its holy hours. Do not crowd into the Sabbath the
work that could be done earlier. If your own work could not be done before
Sabbath began; then wait till the Sabbath is past to do it. Whether it be
harvest time or any other time: Give God the special time He asks of you.
Give Him the Sabbath hours, and He will give you a lot more than that in
return.
Be especially careful to guard the edges of the Sabbath--those hours that
usher it in and that mark its departure. Many are lax at such times.
Friday Evening vespers opened the Sabbath, and now, as the Sabbath draws
near its end, another vesper service (evening worship) concludes it. Like
a beloved friend it departs, but we are thankful that within a week it
will be back again.
At
this point, it would be well to mention Saturday evening: Many err in so
centering their. Sabbath afternoon thoughts on the recreation of Saturday
night, that they really lose much of the Sabbath blessing. Not only the
edges, but the middle of the Sabbath needs to be guarded. And, of course,
we should avoid Saturday night activities that require preparations on
the Sabbath itself.
Many
wonder what to do with their young people on Saturday night, after the
Sabbath is past. I recall one place we lived, in which there were four or
five Sabbath keeping families with teenage youth. What to do with them on
Saturday night? They
solved the problem beautifully: They gathered together in one home,
finished the supper off with popcorn, and then, standing by the piano,
they sang Christian songs together. Time to sing and time to talk, and they never tired of it.
And
so we have come to the end of a Sabbath with God. "You have given one
day out of seven to Him. Now you will
have additional strength to meet the stern
duties of life and the harassments of Satan, to be contended with in the
coming
days.
But you can know that in just a few more, and It will be another
strengthening Sabbath.
The
idea that we should keep the seventh-day Sabbath was His plan. Never
forget that. And in spite of all that the devil can do to disrupt our
efforts to obey God, we must cling to God's plans, all of them, as the
best for our lives. Don't let Satan steal your crown. Cling to God and to
His precious Sabbath, more than to any earthly treasure or companion,-and
you will be safe throughout the coming years, and the eternity of years
that will follow it.
If
you would like, I can send you more information on living
a life close to God. And tell me that it was because you were reading this
book that you wrote. May our heavenly Father bless and keep you in the
days ahead. -Vance Ferrell
THE
LAW OF GOD
I
Thou
shalt have no other gods before Me.
II
Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor
serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of
them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me,
and keep My commandments.
III
Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not
hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
IV
Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all
thy work; but the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. ln it
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maid. servant nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested the Seventh day: Wherefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
V
Honor
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee.
VI
Thou
shalt not kill.
VII
Thou
shalt not commit adultery-
VIII
Thou
shalt not steal.
IX
Thou
shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
X
Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass,
nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
-Exodus
20:3-17.
THE
LAW OF GOD AS CHANGED BY MAN
I
I
am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods
before
me.
[The
Second Commandment has been left out]
II
[actually Ill]
Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
III
[IV]
Remember
that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
[The
Sabbath Commandment has been changed]
IV
[V]
Honor
thy father and thy mother.
V
[VI]
Thou
shalt not kill.
VI
[VII]
Thou
shalt not commit adultery.
VII
[VIII]
Thou
shalt not steal.
VIII
[IX]
Thou
shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
IX
[X- First Part]
Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
X
[X- Second Part]
Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.
The
General Catholic Catechism. "Q.-Have you any other way of proving
that the [Catholic] Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
"A.-Had she not such power. .she could not have substituted the
observance of Sunday, the first day of the week for Saturday, the seventh
day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority. "-Doctrinal
Catechism, p. 174
[Roman Catholic] .
"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." Thomas
Enright, CSSR, President, Redemptorist College, Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 18,
1884. [Roman Catholic] .
THE
LAW OF GOD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
I
"Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Matthew 4:10.
II
"Little
children, keep yourselves from idols." "Forasmuch then as we
are the offspring of God. we ought not to think that the Godhead is like
unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device." 1 John
5:21; Acts 17:29.
III
"That
the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed." 1 Timothy 6:
1.
IV
"Pray
ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:'
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore
the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." "For He spake in a
certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the
seventh day from all His works." "There remaineth therefore a
keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God. For he that is entered into His
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His."
"For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are
in earth." Matthew 24:20; Mark 2:27-28; Hebrews 4:4,
9, 10 margin; Colossians 1:16.
V
"Honor
thy father and thy mother." Matthew 19: 19.
VI
"Thou
shalt not kill." Romans 13:9.
VII
"Thou
shalt not commit adultery." Matthew 19:18.
VIII
"Thou
shalt not steal." Romans 13:9.
IX
"Thou
shalt not bear false witness." Romans 13:9.
X
"Thou
shalt not covet." Romans 7: 7.
RETURN TO INDEX
Home |
Bookstore |
Links | Comments
BIBLE SABBATH
PO BOX 300
ALTAMONT, TN.
37301 |