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Dear Jaiden,
Thanks for the follow-up.
You said:
I received a good answer but it did not have good biblical support.
It is safe to say that we should not believe any doctrine unless it is from the Bible. God says as much in Deuteronomy 4:2.
No, it is not safe to say this. Many, if not all non-Catholic Christian denominations base their faith on the Bible and only the Bible. This is the erroneous teaching called Sola Scriptura.
While the Bible contains the very Words of Jesus, Himself, and has good teachings that we should follow, the Bible is not a Catechism or all encompassing book of beliefs for the Christian faith.
The Bible is, and was intended to be, a liturgical book; meaning a book that was intended to be used during the Catholic Mass, our worship service.
Jesus did not found His Church on the Bible nor did He write any books of the Bible.
If the Bible were the pillar and foundation of the Truth, He would have said so, but did not.
He desired His Church, which He founded on St. Peter, to be the True Church.
Read Matthew 16:13-19 and 1 Timothy 3:15.
Though the Bible contains very helpful spiritual guides that can guide us in life, it should not be the foundation for our faith – the Catholic Church should be.
That said, we can still show that Catholic teachings are consistent with the Bible, like our belief in Oral Tradition — a spoken, not written, but binding Tradition which has been passed down from the Apostles to the bishops of the Catholic Church today by talking, preaching, and teaching:
25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.
John 21:25
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.
2 Thessalonians 2:15
2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
2 Timothy 2:2
16 He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”
Luke 10:16
15 1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:1-2
You said:
- If God does not change and His Commandments are forever, then why would He say to change the Sabbath?
Though God does not change, He offered the Jewish people a New Covenant of salvation through Jesus. Many, many Jews accepted this New Covenant and were baptized into the Catholic Church; others did not accept Our Lord's New Covenant Church at that time.
Later, because of scandalous examples in the Church and poor catechesis, Catholics (in 1517) left the Church during the Reformation and started their own man-made congregation, where they made their own rules of what Christianity was, and was not.
The founder of your group (Ellen Gould White) is one of them. She originated your religion in 1860, over 1820 years after Jesus ascended into Heaven. Before 1860, there were no Seventh Day Adventists on the face of the Earth!
You said:
- What does the Catholic Church think about the Seventh day Adventist church?
They view them as fellow Christians who differ on an array of teachings.
You said:
The issue of the Sabbath is a hot topic in the last days. Every other Catholic I have talked to about the Sabbath, or any other religious topic, will turn away and not have any proof on why the change was made and on what authority the decision was made. There is simply no Bible proof to show that God would have wanted His Commandments changed.
Again, God did not change but He offered a New Covenant to the Jewish people through Jesus, which issued in a New Incarnate Covenant of Salvation for mankind. I cannot prove what Christian history and all Christians have to take for granted based on History 101:
- That Jesus founded One Church, on St. Peter and his successors
- That one Church today is the Catholic Church, and
- That because Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, proving He was God-Incarnate, the Sabbath under the New Covenant was changed by the Church He founded on St. Peter from Saturday to Sunday, the Day He rose from the dead.
The Biblical proof you are looking for cannot be reduced to a set of Chapters and verses from the Bible.
The coming of Jesus the Messiah, the God-Man in the flesh, is our Biblical proof along with the establishment of His New Covenant Church found on St. Peter.
If one truly believes Jesus is True God and True Man and that God cannot deceive, nor be deceived, they should believe His New Covenant Church: the Catholic Church, and the decisions that divine Church makes for the eternal good of its own members.
I hope this helps,
Mike
[A few day's later Jaiden sent the following question.]
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