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However, passages of Scripture
such as Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians
16:2, Colossians 2:16-17, and Revelation 1:10 indicate that,
even during New Testament times, the Sabbath is no longer binding
and that Christians are to worship
on the Lord's day, Sunday,
instead.
You also my be interested in my
Scripture passages page.
I am not trying to be hard to get
along with but these Scriptures do
not say that God Himself changed
His law. I have found this in the
Holy Scriptures and from my studies:
See the New
English Bible. It tells us that
this meeting was on Saturday night
and, from the context, Paul is
leaving the next day, so he is
meeting with them for the last
time.
It
speaks to collections (donations)
being stored and given to Paul for
the Church in Jerusalem. It speaks
nothing about a worship service.
(See Acts 17:2, Acts 18:1-4 and Acts 13:42-44)
Please see Ezekiel 45:17. It speaks directly
to the services connected to the
Old Testament Sanctuary. See also Leviticus 23: There were other
Sabbath days connected with the
Jewish Holy days other then the
seventh day Sabbath.
It says the
Lord's Day but, in its context,
it does not tell us what day that
is. If I go strictly by the Bible,
my conclusion would be the Sabbath,
the seventh day of the week because
Jesus claimed Lordship of the
Sabbath.
(See Mark 2:28, Luke 6:5 and Matthew 12:8)
Is Church authority above the
Bible?
I do not ask this question with an
arrogant spirit.
Thanks for your help. I look forward
to your reply.
God bless,
Dick
Mike
replied:
Hi, Dick —
You said: If I go strictly by the Bible,
my conclusion would be the Sabbath,
the seventh day of the week because
Jesus claimed Lordship of the
Sabbath.
(See Mark 2:28, Luke 6:5 and Matthew 12:8)
OK, if you go strictly by the Bible,
you, presuming you are a Christian and don't believe in:
the Trinity
the Incarnation
imputed righteousness
an altar call,
or
the Bible itself . . . because none
of those words are in the Bible!
You said:
Is Church authority
above the Bible?
Yes! No Christian even knew what books belonged in the Bible until 382 A.D. at the Council of Rome. Jesus' Divine Authority spoke to St. Peter 382 years earlier in these passages:
The following is from the Compendium
of the Catechism of the Catholic
Church and should address you question
completely. (Read Questions 11 to
16 to get the context . . .but especially number 17 below.)
11. Why and in what way is divine
revelation transmitted?
God desires all men to
be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4), that is, of Jesus
Christ. For this reason, Christ
must be proclaimed to all according
to his own command, Go
forth and teach all nations (Matthew 28:19). And this is brought
about by Apostolic Tradition.
12. What is Apostolic Tradition?
Apostolic Tradition is the transmission
of the message of Christ, brought
about from the very beginnings
of Christianity by means of preaching,
bearing witness, institutions,
worship, and inspired writings.
The apostles transmitted all they
received from Christ and learned
from the Holy Spirit to their
successors, the bishops, and through
them to all generations until
the end of the world.
13. In what ways does Apostolic
Tradition occur?
Apostolic Tradition occurs in
two ways:
through the living transmission
of the word of God (also simply
called Tradition) and
through
Sacred Scripture which is the
same proclamation of salvation
in written for
14. What is the relationship between
Tradition and Sacred Scripture?
Tradition and Sacred Scripture
are bound closely together and
communicate one with the other.
Each of them makes present and
fruitful in the Church the mystery
of Christ. They flow out of the
same divine well-spring and together
make up one Sacred Deposit of
Faith from which the Church derives
her certainty about revelation.
15. To whom is the deposit of
faith entrusted?
The Apostles entrusted the deposit
of faith to the whole of the Church.
Thanks to its supernatural sense
of faith the people of God as
a whole, assisted by the Holy
Spirit and guided by the Magisterium
of the Church, never ceases to
welcome, to penetrate more deeply
and to live more fully from the
gift of divine revelation.
16. To whom is given the task
of authentically interpreting
the deposit of faith?
The task of giving an authentic
interpretation of the deposit
of faith has been entrusted to
the living teaching office of
the Church alone, that is, to
the successor of Peter, the Bishop
of Rome, and to the bishops in
communion with him. To this Magisterium,
which in the service of the Word
of God enjoys the certain charism
of truth, belongs also the task
of defining dogmas which are formulations
of the truths contained in divine
Revelation. This authority of
the Magisterium also extends to
those truths necessarily connected
with Revelation.
17. What is the relationship between
Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium?
Scripture, Tradition, and the
Magisterium are so closely united
with each other that one of them
cannot stand without the others.
Working together, each in its
own way, under the action of the
one Holy Spirit, they all contribute
effectively to the salvation of
souls.
Finally, one of my colleagues, John,
replied to another question saying:
Scripture tells me Jesus Christ
established a Church. He sent
His Holy Spirit to lead and guide
the Church. He gave the Church
spiritual gifts in the form of offices. He
founded His Church on twelve
Apostles; Peter chief among them.
He promised Peter and the Apostles
that the Gates of Hell would not
prevail against the Church. In
doing so, He guaranteed
that the Church could not teach
error when defining a matter of
faith and morals. He gave Peter
special authority as chief of
the Apostles. He gave him the
keys of the Kingdom. (Matthew
16:13-20)
So behind the teachings of the
Church, stand the promise of our
Lord to protect the Church from
officially teaching an error in
matters of faith and morals. That
doesn't mean that Church leaders
wouldn't fail to follow those
teachings. One just needs to look
at the recent scandals. Better
yet, just look at Judas — you
can't fail to follow Christ's
teaching, much more than Judas.
St. Paul wrote to Timothy that
the pillar and foundation
of the truth is the Church(1
Timothy 3:15), so when I accept
a doctrine which emotionally is
hard to swallow, I'm fundamentally
relying on the promise of Christ.
Without that meaning of Christ's
Promise and the Holy Spirit, then
the Church is simply an organization
or a bunch guys wearing cool hats
telling us what to do. If that's
the case, we have no reliable
proof that Jesus:
It
speaks to collections (donations)
being stored and given to Paul for
the Church in Jerusalem. It speaks
nothing about a worship service.
(See Acts 17:2, Acts 18:1-4 and Acts 13:42-44)
Even today, collections are taken
during worship services.
Why would they go through
the effort of taking a collection
on Sunday when they just
met on Saturday to worship?
That doesn't make sense. What
makes sense is to take a collection
when you come together for worship.
The verses you mention refer to
Jewish worship. Note that usually
when the apostles are visiting
the synagogue, they are evangelizing
the Jews (Acts 17:2, 18:4, 13:45-46).
Obviously, the synagogues would
be empty on Sunday so the Apostles
went in on Saturday.
That being said, Jewish Christians,
up until the point they were expelled
from the synagogue in A.D. 70,
often worshiped both with the
other Jews in synagogue and with
the Christians on the Lord's Day.
Please see Ezekiel 45:17. It speaks directly
to the services connected to the
Old Testament Sanctuary. See also Leviticus 23: There were other
Sabbath days connected with the
Jewish Holy days other then the
seventh day Sabbath.
Yes, and so no one should judge
those who worship on Sunday.
It says the
Lord's Day but, in its context,
it does not tell us what day that
is.
Tradition and history tells us
that the early Christians understood the
Lord's Day to be Sunday.
This is why in languages such
as Spanish, Sunday is called Domingo,
a word related to the Latin word Dominus, Lord.
However, in this particular case, it
could also mean the Day
of Judgment, or it could mean
both.
You wrote: If I go strictly by the Bible,
my conclusion would be the Sabbath,
the seventh day of the week because
Jesus claimed Lordship of the
Sabbath.
(See Mark 2:28, Luke 6:5 and Matthew 12:8)
If Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath,
He could certainly move its observance
to Sunday.
I will also note that nothing
in the Old Testament compelled
Jews to worship on the Sabbath.
The Torah says nothing about it;
it just says do no work on the
Sabbath. The custom of going to
synagogue isn't even found in
the Old Testament. So if you want
to argue that the Bible compels
us to worship on Saturday, you'd
be mistaken.
I know that they are not spoken of
specifically in these terms in Scripture
but throughout the Scriptures, the
Law of God is held in high esteem
because it came from Him written
in stone with His Own Finger. If
it came from His Hand (and it did)
then He alone must rewrite it or
change it.
I believe I asked an honest question
and by no means am I trying to be
judgmental or antagonistic in my
attitude toward anyone. I am sorry
if I have offended you in anyway;
that is not my purpose. Truth is
what I seek. For you to convince
me, you have to give me a thus says
the Lord quote.
I would look forward to any Scripture
you might be able to forward that
would answer my question.
Eric has elaborated on the reasoning,
yet you are rationalizing that the Word is not
saying what it is saying. That's the best we can do — Give
you the Word.
Something, not to argue, but to ponder
on:
Is an acorn an Oak tree?
If not, why not?
At its infancy stages, in essence, yes, a acorn is an Oak tree. Nevertheless,
the acorn develops, but does not change in essence. The same is true
with the Church then and the Church now.
Did the Church back in 33 A.D.
look like the Catholic Church
today?
No — just like an acorn doesn't
look like an Oak tree.
