Commandments. National apostasy will be followed by national
ruin.”¹
Satan himself will appear as a majestic being of dazzling brightness,
performing false miracles and commanding Sunday worship. The true
Sabbath-keepers who resist will be put to death.
Our Lord Jesus Christ declared that He was Lord of the Sabbath and that its
observance was at His disposal: St. Matthew 12:1-8; St. Mark 2:24-26; St.
Luke 6:5; St. John 5:10-11. As a consequence, the early Church, in order to
distinguish itself from the worship of the Synagogue, was free to depart
from the Jewish Sabbath and worship God on another day of the week. This
is evident from the words of St. Paul to the Colossians: “Therefore do not
let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing
festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to
come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (2:16-17). There is no command
or injunction in the New Testament that the followers of Christ must
continue to observe Saturday.
If Christ Himself had the power to “dispose” of the Sabbath, so too does
His Church which is His Body.
The power of the Church to make such a
change is specifically found in Our Lord’s words to St. Peter: “I will give
you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven” (St. Matt. 16:19).
From the outset of the Church’s history Christians replaced the Sabbath day
with a new day of public worship in commemoration of Christ’s
resurrection from the dead––the Day of the Lord. This day is Sunday, the
first day of the week:
“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb,
taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away
from the tomb” (St. Luke 24:1-2).
1
Eternity Publications, Grenfell, NSW, Australia, 1986.
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