“Ques. What warrant have you for keeping the Sunday preferable to the ancient Sabbath, which was the Saturday?”
“Ans. We have for it the authority of the Catholic church and apostolic tradition.”
“Ques. Does the Scripture anywhere command the Sunday to be kept for the Sabbath?”
“Ans. The Scripture commands us to hear the church (Matt. 18:17, Luke 10:16), and to hold fast the traditions of the apostles. 2 Thess. 2:15. But the Scriptures do not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath. John speaks of the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10); but he does not tell us what day of the week this was, much less does he tell us that this day was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandment; ... so that truly the best authority we have for this, is the testimony and ordinance of the church. And, therefore, those who pretend to be so religious of the Sunday, whilst they take no notice of the festivals ordained by the same church authority, show that they act by humor, and not by reason and religion, since Sundays and holy days all stand upon the same foundation, viz., the ordinance of the church.”—Cath. Christian Instructed, pp. 209-211.
“Ques. Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?”
“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 scripture authority.”—Doctrinal Catechism.
“Ques. If keeping the Sunday be a church precept, why is it numbered in the decalogue, which are the commandments of God and the law of nature?”
“Ans. Because the substance, or chief part of it, namely, that the day be set apart for the service of God, is of divine right and of the law of nature; though the determining this particular day, Sunday, rather than Saturday, be a church ordinance and precept.”—Abridgment of Chris. Doc., pp. 57, 59.
Thus much for the connection of the papacy with the change of the Sabbath. The reader, repudiating the claim for apostolical tradition, which is of no value with Protestants, and rejecting as fallacious the assumed antiquity of the Roman Catholic church, will discover that there still remains the bold assumption of the ability on the part of that church to change the Sabbath, and also of the historic fact that it has done so. Mr. Gilfillan, while, of course, from his standpoint rejecting the notion that the pope has either in reality changed, or even possessed the ability to change, the divinely appointed day of rest, frankly acknowledges that he arrogates to himself the power so to do, in the following language:—
“Rome, professing to retain, has yet corrupted every doctrine, institution, and law of Jesus Christ, recognizing for example, the mediator between God and man, but associating with him many other intercessors; avowing adherence to the Scripture, but the Scripture as supplemented and made void by the writings and traditions of men; and, in short, without discarding the Lord’s day, adding a number of encumbering holidays, giving them in many instances an honor equal and even superior to God’s own day, and claiming for the ‘Vicar of Christ’ lordship even of the Sabbath.”—The Sabbath, p. 457.