Mark 7:6-9
6. He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
WHO CHANGED THE SABBATH FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY?
Most Christian denominations today keep Sunday, the first day of the week, calling it the Christian Sabbath. The question arises then, who changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and how did it occur? The answer may amaze you!
Constantine the Great Made Sunday a Civil Rest Day instead of Saturday
When Emperor Constantine-1 a pagan sun-worshipper came to power in A.D. 313, he legalized Christianity as a state religion, Stopped Christian persecution and made the first Sunday-keeping law. His infamous Sunday enforcement law of March 7, A.D. 321, reads as follows:-
“On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.” (Codex Justinianus 3.12.3, trans. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 5th ed. (New York, 1902), 3:380, note 1)
The Sunday law was officially confirmed by the Roman Papacy. The Council of Laodicea in A.D. 364 decreed that; “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s Day they shall especially honour, and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ” (Strand, op. cit., citing Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, 2 [Edinburgh, 1876] 316)
Below are some of the evident articles showing the pride and arrogance of the Bishops of Rome from their official writings boasting about the change of the Sabbath to Sunday;-
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Cardinal Gibbons, (in Faith of Our Fathers, 92nd ed., p. 89), freely admits, “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we [the Catholic Church] never sanctify.”
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Again, “The Catholic Church,… by virtue of her divine mission, changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday” (The Catholic Mirror, official publication of James Cardinal Gibbons, Sept. 23, 1893).
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“Protestants and other religious denominations do not realize that by observing Sunday, they accept the authority of the spokesperson of the Catholic Church, the Pope” (Our Sunday Visitor, February 5, 1950)
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“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change [Saturday Sabbath to Sunday] was her act... And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things” (H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons).
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The Catholic Church claims that “the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact” (Catholic Record of London, Ontario Sept 1, 1923).
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“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 Catholic Church alone. The Catholic Church says, 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 [Roman Catholic], Kansas City, MO, Feb. 18, 1884).
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“The Pope has power to change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ. The Pope has authority and has often exercised it, to dispense with the command of Christ” (Decretal, de Tranlatic Episcop).
The change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday was a prophetic fulfillment
Daniel7:25
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
The Catholic Church under its ruthless Bishops with its overcoming operational policies has ruled the whole world ever since it came into existence in the third century after the fall of pagan Rome. The emperor of Rome (Pontifex Maximus) Constantine -1 by then became the first pontiff/ Pope/ Bishop of the Holy Roman Catholic Church who conferred and Christianized almost all the pagan rituals and practices into the church. He had both the religious and political power to alter, change, implement and institute any laws and rituals at will. Nevertheless popes advanced in wickedness and increased blasphemies against the Most High God by assuming His dominion by altering His word not once but many times. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than all the kings of the earth, which belongs only to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them! And they go against God when they give indulgences for sin. This is the worst of all blasphemies!
The Catholic Church invented and deployed special ruthless armies which waged its wars, crusades, massacres, inquisitions, and persecutions against those who tried to oppose their crooked innovations; the like of Crusaders, Jesuits, and Freemasons etc. They went ahead and invented new calendrical systems. They changed the times and feasts set by God for His people, they changed the ordinances and statues of God, they chose to change God’s laws and commandments where by the second commandment was completely erased from their teachings which is “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image” and they altered the fourth commandment which is “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy” to ‘’Remember the Lord’s day to keep it Holy”; they intendedly changed the Sabbath day from the seventh day of the week (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday) which was their day to worship their sun-god in the pagan times. They pretentiously created a new Christian Sabbath different from the Jewish Sabbath. God forbid.
Do you realize that the counting of days was also changed according the pagan Roman Gregorian calendar we follow today? The modern counting of the day begins from Midnight to Midnight which is absolutely against the rules of nature and God’s decrees. Genesis 1:14-19; the bible says that the Lord God created two great lights, the moon and the sun and the then the stars with which He separated the day(light) from the night(darkness) and He put them on the sky to determine days, weeks, months, seasons and years. The bible says that “And it was Evening and it was Morning; that was a full day” this meant that a full day according to God’s decrees begins at sun-set and ends at moon-rise; in simple terms from sun-set to sun-set (Twilight to twilight). The wicked idea that the day begins from midnight to midnight is absolutely blasphemy before God. The Catholic Church is chief answerable to all these great crimes.
Its Pontifex Maximus or Vicars or popes or Anti-Christ was given power over times and seasons to change them at pleasure and they have successfully done so deceiving the whole world and selling it into paganism and Idol worship. They went ahead and changed the holy convocations of God and replaced them for pagan festivals and the Christian world without question welcomed every pagan inventions like the celebration of Christmas festival, Easter festival, Valentine’s day (Lupercalia) festival, Lent period, Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), celebrating and Praying to the dead (Halloween), canonization of the dead into sainthood, granting pardons and indulgences for sins, etc.
Come out of her my people and don’t be a partaker of her iniquity, thus saith the Lord (Revelations 18:4-5)