Sabbath Confessions - insurmountable proof that the Sabbath is not Sunday

This booklet is Published by The Eternal Church of God. It is provided free as an educational service in the public interest. It is not to be sold.

Just which day is the Christian Sabbath? While the vast majority of professing Christians believe Sunday is the new covenant Sabbath, your Bible declares otherwise.

Does it matter which day is kept by those who embrace Christianity and the Bible? Which day did Jesus keep? What about the apostle Paul and the gentile churches he raised up?

To those who believe God changed the Sabbath to Sunday, this booklet will present from the very words of leaders in both the Catholic and Protestant worlds a case for the Biblical Sabbath against which there is no rebuttal.

The following is a compilation of compelling quotes, questions and facts regarding the Sabbath and how many professing Christian denominations came to adopt Sunday as their day of worship. These quotes clearly demonstrate that despite its absence in most churches, the seventh day Sabbath is alive and well in the pages of your Bible.
Consider what the scriptures clearly state about God’s Sabbath as well as what those who reject this command clearly admit. The quotes you are about to read contain both the Biblical injunction regarding the Sabbath as well as the words of various religious communities concerning the Sabbath and Sunday. These quotes have been arranged in the following categories.

Part 1:	The Sabbath throughout the Bible
Part 2:	The Sabbath and God’s Church
Part 3:	Confessions Regarding the Sabbath
Part 4:	The Catholic Church Changed Sabbath to Sunday
Part 5:	Protestant Denominations and the Sabbath
Part 6:	Protestants Honor "the Mother Church"
Part 7:	Sunday Worship Originated in the Pagan World
Part 8:	The Sabbath through the Centuries
Part 9:	Sabbath Questions
Part 10:	Sabbath Facts
Part 11:	First Day Facts
Part 12:	Can You Find One Scripture?
Part 13:	The Sabbath Has Never Been Lost

And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made (Gen. 2:2-3).

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Ex. 20:8-11).

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord That doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. ‘Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.’ Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed (Ex. 31:13-17).

Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord That sanctify them (Ezk. 20:12).

I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God (Ezk. 20:19-20).

But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness: they walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My Sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them (Ezk. 20:13).

... they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols (Ezk. 20:16).

Notwithstanding the children rebelled against Me: they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My Sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness (Ezk. 20:21).

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day... (Mt. 24:20).

And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord (Isa. 66:23).

And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day He entered into the synagogue, and taught (Mk 1:21).

And He said unto them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.’ (Mk. 2:27-28).

And when the Sabbath day was come, He began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing Him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? (Mk. 6:2).

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read (Lk 4:16).

And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished at His doctrine: for His word was with power (Lk. 4:31-32).

But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down (Acts 13:14).

And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God (Acts 13:42-44).

For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day (Acts 15:21).

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures (Acts 17:2).

The gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath (Gieseler’s Church History, Vol. 1, ch. 2, p. 93).

Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church (Ancient Christianity Exemplified, Ch. 26, sec. 2, p.527, Lyman Coleman).

The seventh-day Sabbath was... solemnized by Christ, and primitive Christians, till the Laodicean Council did in a manner quite abolish the observations of it (Dissertation on the Lord’s Day, pp. 33, 34).

The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday, or the seventh-day... It is plain that the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival... Anthanasius likewise tells us that they held religious assemblies on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath... (Antiquities of the Christian Church, Vol. II, Book XX).

The Primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the Day in Devotion and Sermons. And ‘tis not to be doubted but they derived this Practice from the Apostles themselves (A Discourse in Six Dialogues on the Name, Notion, and Observation of the Lord’s Day, p. 189).

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 Roman Catholic Church] never sanctify (Faith of Our Fathers, pg. 111, James Cardinal Gibbon).

Nor can we imagine any one foolhardy enough to question the identity of Saturday with the Sabbath or seventh day, seeing that the people of Israel have been keeping Saturday from the giving of the Law (The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 9, 1893).

...the Redeemer, during His mortal life, never kept any other day than Saturday (The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 2, 1893).

We deem it necessary to be perfectly clear on this point... The Bible - the Old Testament - confirmed by the living tradition of weekly practice for 3383 years by the chosen people of God, teaches, then, with absolute certainty, that God had, Himself, named the day “to be kept holy to Him”- that the day was Saturday, and that any violation of that command was punishable with death (The Catholic Mirror, Sept.9, 1893).

There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday... into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters... The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday (The Ten Commandments, Canon Eyton).

The Bible commandment says on the seventh day thou shalt rest. That is Saturday. Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday (Toronto Daily Star, October 26, 1949, Philip Carrington).

There was never any formal or authoritative change from the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath to the Christian first-day observance (The Lord’s Day in Our Day, William Owen Carver).

The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday (The History of the Christian Religion and Church, 1843, Dr. Augustus Neander).

But they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the seventh day had to be kept by the children of Israel... These churches err in their teaching, for Scripture has in no way ordained the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect (Sabbath or Sunday, John Theodore Mueller).

Take the matter of Sunday. There are indications in the New Testament as to how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day of worship, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or to transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day (Christian Advocate, July 2, 1942, Harris Franklin Rall).

But, the moral law contained in the ten commandments, and enforced by the prophets, he [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of his coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken... Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other (The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, John Wesley).

The Sabbath instituted in the beginning and confirmed again and again by Moses and the Prophets, has never been abrogated (New York Herald, 1874).

The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember,’ showing that the Sabbath already existed when God Wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away when they will admit that the other nine are still binding? (Weighed and Wanting, Dwight L. Moody).

It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labor. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of the week (The Church in Scotland, pp140, Professor James C. Moffat, D.D., Professor of Church History at Princeton).

There is much evidence that the Sabbath prevailed in Wales universally until AD 1115, when the first Roman bishop was seated at St. David’s. The old Welsh Sabbath-keeping churches did not even then altogether bow the knee to Rome, but fled to their hiding places (Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, Vol. 1, p. 29, Lewis).

It was the practice generally of the Eastern Churches; and some churches of the west... For in the church of Millaine [Milan];... it seems Saturday was held in farre esteeme... Not that the Eastern churches, or any of the rest which observed that day, were inclined to Iudaisme [Judaism]; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Iesus [Jesus] Christ the Lord of the Sabbath (History of the Sabbath Part 2, pp. 73,74, London: 1636).

The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews... therefore the Christians for a long time together, did keep their conventions on the Sabbath, in which some portion of the Law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council ( The Whole Works of Jeremey Taylor, Vol. IX, p. 416).

Note: In 363, the local Council of Laodicea passed the following decree: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, resting rather on Sunday. But if any man be found to be judaizing, let them be anathema from Christ” (Percival Translation, Canon XXIX).

It will surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first (Sabbath Literature, pp. 46-54, John Milton).

I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to anyone who can 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 holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ The Catholic Church says: ‘No. 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 a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church (Roman Catholic Priest T. Enright, C.S.S.R., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18, 1884).

And on the seventh day God rested from the work he had done. ... He blessed the seventh day and hallowed it’. The ‘shabbat’, the biblical Sabbath, is tied to this mystery of God’s rest. If we Christians celebrate the Lord’s day on Sunday, it is because on that day the Resurrection of Christ occurred (Pope John Paul II, July 12 1998).

Is Saturday the seventh day according to the Bible and the Ten Commandments? I answer yes. Is Sunday the first day of the week and did the Church change the seventh day - Saturday - for Sunday, the first day? I answer yes. Did Christ change the day? I answer no!” Faithfully yours, James Cardinal Gibbons – in a letter written by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore 1877-1921, recorded in The Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, Aug. 25, 1900).

...Nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the [Roman Catholic] church outside the Bible (Catholic Virginian, Oct. 3, 1947).

Examining the New Testament from cover to cover, critically, we find the Sabbath referred to sixty-one times. We find too, that the Savior invariably selected the Sabbath (Saturday) to teach in the synagogues and work miracles. The four Gospels refer to the Sabbath fifty-one times. In one instance , the Redeemer refers to Himself as ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ as mentioned by Matthew and Luke, but, during the whole record of His life, while invariably keeping and utilizing the day, (Saturday), He never once hinted at a desire to change it (The Catholic Mirror, Nov. 25 1893, James Cardinal Gibbons).

...with the Bible alone as the teacher and guide in faith and morals. This teacher most emphatically forbids any changes in the day for paramount reasons. The command calls for a ‘perpetual covenant’. The day commanded to be kept by the teacher (the Bible) has never once been kept (by the Protestant or Catholic churches), thereby developing an apostasy from an asumedly fixed principle, as self-contradictory, self-stultifying, and consequently as suicidal as it is within the power of language to express (The Catholic Mirror, Nov. 25, 1893, James Cardinal Gibbons).

Everyone knows that Sunday is the first day of the week, while Saturday is the seventh day, and the Sabbath, the day consecrated as a day of rest. It is so recognized in all civilized nations, I have repeatedly offered $1,000 to any one who will furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money (Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO).

Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The fact is that the Church was in existence for several centuries before the Bible was given to the world. The Church made the Bible, the Bible did not make the Church (Things Catholics Are Asked About, p. 136, Martin J. Scott, 1927 edition).

Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined Sunday as the day of worship in the New Law, that He Himself has explicitly substituted Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days (A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies,1936, John Laux).

Question: "Which is the Sabbath day?"
Answer: "Saturday is the Sabbath day."
Question: "Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?"
Answer: "We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church in the Council of Laodicea, transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."
(The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, Third Edition, Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R.).

We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws (Catholic Church Extension Society, 1975, Chicago, Illinois, Peter R. Kraemer).

Sunday is our mark of authority. The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact (The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923).

Because the Third Commandment (which is really the fourth commandment but Catholicism does away with the second commandment so they do not have to acknowledge their idolatry, which to them makes the Sabbath the third) depends upon the remembrance of God’s saving works and because Christians saw the definitive time inaugurated by Christ as a new beginning, they made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day on which the Lord rose from the dead (Pope John Paul II, May 31, 1998).

They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day as having been changed into the Lord’s Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments! (Augsburg Confession of Faith, Article 28, approved by Martin Luther, 1530).

Question: "Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?"
Answer: "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 Scriptural authority (A Doctrinal Catechism Third Edition, p. 174, Stephen Keenan).

Question: "How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?"
Answer. "By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of, and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church."
(Manual of Christian Doctrine, 1916, p. 67, Daniel Ferres).

Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observation can be defended only on Catholic principles . . . From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first (The Catholic Press).

The Catholic Church, . . . by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday (The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893).

If any person in this town will show any scripture for it, I will tomorrow evening publicly acknowledge it and thank him for it. It was the Holy Catholic church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the first day of the week. And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 363, anathematized those who kept the Sabbath and urged all persons to labor on the seventh day under penalty of anathema (Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO).

My brethren, look about you upon the various wrangling sects and denominations. Show me one that claims or possesses the power to make laws binding on the conscience. There is but one on the face of the earth, the Catholic Church, that has the power to make laws binding upon the conscience, binding before God, binding under pain of hell fire. Take, for instance, the day we celebrate Sunday. What right have the Protestant churches to observe that day? None whatever. You say it is to obey the commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ But Sunday is not the Sabbath, according to the Bible and the record of time (Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO).

And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day... The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it (Plain Sermons on the Catechism, Isaac Williams, Vol. 1, pp. 334, 336).

We have made the change from the seventh day to the first day, from Saturday to Sunday, on the authority of the one holy Catholic Church (Why We Keep Sunday, Bishop Seymour).

The Lord’s day was merely of ecclesiastical institution. It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment (Jeremy Taylor).

To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years’ intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question... never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated... (Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, New York ministers’ conference, Nov. 13, 1893).

...But what a pity [Sunday worship] comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism! (Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, New York ministers’ conference, Nov. 13, 1893).

The Lord’s Day is not sanctified by any specific command or by any inevitable inference. In all the New Testament there is no hint or suggestion of a legal obligation binding any man, whether saint or sinner, to observe the Day. Its sanctity arises only out of what it means to the true believer (The Sabbatic Question, p. 72, J. J. Taylor).

...it is quite clear that however rigidly or devotedly we may spend Sunday, we are not keeping the Sabbath... the Sabbath was founded on a specific Divine command. We can plead no such command for the obligation to observe Sunday... There is not a single sentence in the New Testament to suggest that we incur any penalty by violating the supposed sanctity of Sunday (The Ten Commandments, p. 127-129, Dr. R. W. Dale).

...the Christian sabbath [Sunday] is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the primitive Church called the Sabbath (Theology: Explained and Defended, 1823, Ser. 107, Vol. 3, p. 258, Timothy Dwight).

‘But,’ say some, ‘it was changed from the seventh to the first day.’ Where? When? And by whom? No man can tell. No; it never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation was to be gone through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed! It is all old wives’ fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that August personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio - I think his name is Doctor Antichrist (The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824, Vol. 1, No. 7, p. 164, Alexander Campbell, Founder, Disciples of Christ).

The first day of the week is commonly called the sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change (First Day Observance, pp. 17, 19).

We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish Sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the first three centuries never confused one with the other... (The Sunday Problem, 1923, p. 36).

There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week... Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament – absolutely not.. (Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, New York ministers’ conference, Nov. 13, 1893).

The reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on no positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from the seventh day to the first (Ten Rules For Living, Methodist, Clovis G. Chappell).

It is true there is no positive command for infant baptism... Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week (Methodist Episcopal Theological Compend, Amos Binney, pp. 180, 181).

The Sabbath is a part of the decalogue - the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution... Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand... The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath (Theology Condensed, pp. 474, 475, T. C. Blake, D.D.).

Which church does the whole civilized world obey? Protestants call us every horrible name they can think of , anti-Christ, the scarlet colored beast, Babylon, etc. and at the same time profess great reverence for the Bible, and yet by their solemn act of keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the power of the Catholic Church (Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO).

The Bible says, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ But the Catholic church says, ‘No, keep the first day of the week,’ and the whole world bows in obedience (Father T. Enright, Roman Catholic Priest, Kansas City, MO).

... Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man (Catholic Church Extension Society, 1975, Chicago, Illinois, Peter R. Kraemer).

It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible (Catholic Church Extension Society, 1975, Chicago, Illinois, Peter R. Kraemer).

The observance of Sunday by Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] church (Plain Talk About The Protestantism of Today, p. 213).

Thus we see Daniel 7:25 fulfilled, the little horn changing ‘times and laws’. Therefore it appears to me that all who keep the first day for the Sabbath are Pope’s Sunday-keepers and God’s Sabbath-breakers (T.M. Preble, Feb 13 1845).

Incidently, there is no proof in scripture that God willed the Sabbath to be changed from Saturday to Sunday, so that those non-Catholics who do not accept the value of tradition as a source of faith should logically still observe Saturday as the Sabbath (This is the Faith; Catholic Theology for Laymen, Francis J. Ripley, p. 176).

According to the Assyrian-Babylonian conception, the particular stress lay necessarily on the number seven...The whole week pointed prominently towards the seventh day, the feast day, the rest day, in this day it collected, in this day it also consummated. ‘Sabbath’ is derived from both ‘rest’ and ‘seven’. With the Egyptians it was the reverse...for them on the contrary, the sun-god was the beginning and origin of all things. The day of the sun, Sunday, became necessarily for them the feast day... The holiday was transferred from the last to the first day of the week (Daglige Liv i Norden, Vol. XIII, pp. 54, 55).

The seven planetary names of the days were at the close of the second century A.D. prevailing everywhere in the Roman Empire... This astrology originated in Egypt, where Alexandria now so loudly proclaimed it to all... ‘The day of the sun’ was the Lord’s day, the chiefest and first of the week. The evil and fatal Saturn’s day was the last of the week on which none could celebrate a feast... (Daglige Liv i Norden, Vol. XIII, pp. 91, 92).

This Sunday law constituted no real favoritism to Christianity... It is evident from all his statutory provisions that the Emperor during the time 313-323 with full consciousness has sought the realization of his religious aim: the amalgamation of heathenism and Christianity (Kirken og Romerstaten (The Church and the Roman State, p. 256).

They despise our sun-god. Did not Zoroaster, the sainted founder of our divine beliefs, institute Sunday one thousand years ago in honor of the sun and supplant the Sabbath of the Old Testament? Yet these Christians had divine services on Saturday (The Syriac Church and Fathers, pp. 83, 84, O’Leary).

There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come!
Josephus

The First Century
Then the spiritual seed of Abraham fled to Pella, on the other side of Jordan, where they found a safe place of refuge, and could serve their Master and keep His Sabbath (Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, book 3, chap. 5).

The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the Apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to that purpose (Dialogues on the Lord’s Day, p. 189. London: 1701, by Dr. T.H. Morer).

The Second Century
The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews . . . therefore the Christians, for a long time together, did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council (The Whole Works of Jeremy Taylor, Vol. IX, p. 416, R. Heber’s Edition, Vol. XII, p. 416).

From the Apostles’ time until the council of Laodicea, which was about the year 364, the holy observation of the Jews’ Sabbath continued, as may be proved out of many authors: yea, not withstanding the decree of the council against it (Sunday a Sabbath, John Ley, p. 163. London: 1640).

The Third Century
Except ye make the Sabbath a real Sabbath [sabbatize the Sabbath, Greek], ye shall not see the father (The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, pt. L, p. 3, Logion 2, verse 4-11 [London: Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898] THIRD CENTURY EGYPT, OXYRHYNCHUS PAPYRUS – 200-250 A.D.).

Thou shalt observe the Sabbath, on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation, but ceased not from His work of providence: it is a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of the hands (The Anti-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, p. 413. From Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, a document of the 3rd and 4th Centuries).

The Fourth Century
Ambrose, the celebrated bishop of Milan, said that when he was in Milan he observed Saturday, but when in Rome observed Sunday. This gave rise to the proverb, “When you are in Rome, do as Rome does” (Heylyn, The History of the Sabbath 1612).

Canon 16 – On Saturday the Gospels and other portions of the Scripture shall be read aloud.Canon 29 – Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day (Hefele’s Councils, Vol. 2, b. 6. COUNCIL OF LAODICEA – A.D. 365).

The Fifth Century
Augustine shows here that the Sabbath was observed in his day “in the greater part of the Christian world,” and his testimony in this respect is all the more valuable because he himself was an earnest and consistent Sunday-keeper (See Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, lst Series, Vol. 1, pp. 353, 354).

SIDONIUS (speaking of King Theodoric of the Goths, A.D. 454-526) It is a fact that it was formerly the custom in the East to keep the Sabbath in the same manner as the Lord’s day and to hold sacred assemblies: while on the other hand, the people of the West, contending for the Lord’s day have neglected the celebration of the Sabbath (Apollinaris Sidonii Epistolae, lib. 1, 2; Migne, 57).

The Sixth Century
In this latter instance they seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early monastic church of Ireland by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours (W.T. Skene, Adamnan Life of St. Columba, 1874, p. 96).

Having continued his labours in Scotland thirty-four years, he clearly and openly foretold his death, and on Saturday, the ninth of June, said to his disciple Diermit: “This day is called the Sabbath, that is, the rest day, and such will it truly be to me; for it will put an end to my labours.” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints, Vol. 1, A.D. 597, art. "St. Columba," p. 762).

The Seventh Century
Professor James C. Moffatt, D.D., Professor of Church History at Princeton says: “It seems to have been customary in the Celtic Churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labour. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of the week.” (The Church in Scotland, p. 140).

Gregory I wrote against Roman citizens [who] forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XIII, p. 13, epist. 1). Gregory, bishop by the grace of God to his well-beloved sons, the Roman citizens: It has come to me that certain men of perverse spirit have disseminated among you things depraved and opposed to the holy faith, so that they forbid anything to be done on the day of the Sabbath. What shall I call them except preachers of anti-Christ? (Epistles, b. 13:1).

The Eighth Century
We command all Christians to observe the Lord’s day to be held not in honour of the past Sabbath, but on account of that holy night of the first of the week called the Lord’s day. When speaking of that Sabbath which the Jews observe, the last day of the week, and which also our peasants observe... (Mansi, 13, 851).

Widespread and enduring was the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath among the believers of the Church of the East and the St. Thomas Christians of India, who never were connected with Rome. It also was maintained among those bodies which broke off from Rome after the Council of Chalcedon namely, the Abyssinians, the Jacobites, the Maronites, and the Armenians (Schaff-Herzog, The New Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, art. "Nestorians"; also Realencyclopaedie fur Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, art. "Nestoriane").

The Ninth Century
Bulgaria in the early season of its evangelization had been taught that no work should be performed on the Sabbath (Responsa Nicolai Papae I and Con-Consulta Bulgarorum, Responsum 10, found in Mansi, Sacrorum Concilorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio, Vol. 15; p. 406; also Hefele, Conciliengeschicte, Vol. 4, sec. 478).

Cardinal Hergenrother says that they stood in intimate relation with Emperor Michael II (821-829) and testifies that they observed the Sabbath (Kirchengeschichte, 1, 527).

The Tenth Century
The Nestorians eat no pork and keep the Sabbath. They believe in neither auricular confession nor purgatory (Schaff-Herzog, The New Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, art. "Nestorians").

And because they observed no other day of rest but the Sabbath daYes; they called them Insabathas, as much as to say, as they observed no Sabbath [i.e., did not observe Sunday] (Luther’s Fore-Runners [original spelling] pp. 7, 8).

The Eleventh Century
They held that Saturday was properly the Sabbath on which they abstained from work (Celtic Scotland, Vol. 2, p. 350). Her next point was that they did not duly reverence the Lord’s day, but in this latter instance they seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early Church of Ireland, by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours (Skene, Celtic Scotland, Vol. 2, p. 349).

Because you observe the Sabbath with the Jews and the Lord’s Day with us, you seem to imitate with such observance the sect of Nazarenes (Migne, Patrologia Latina, Vol. 145, p. 506; also Hergenroether, Photius, Vol. 3, p. 746).

The Twelfth Century
Robinson gives an account of some of the Waldenses of the Alps, who were called Sabbati, Sabbatati, Insabbatati, but more frequently Inzabbatati. “One says they were so named from the Hebrew word Sabbath, because they kept the Saturday for the Lord’s day.” (General History of the Baptist Denomination, Vol. 2, p. 413).

The papal author, Bonacursus, wrote the following against the "Pasagaini": Not a few, but many know what are the errors of those who are called Pasagini. . . . First, they teach that we should obey the Sabbath. Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church (D’Achery, Spicilegium I, f. 211-214; Muratory, Antiq. Med. aevi. 5, f. 152, Hahn, 3, 209).

The Thirteenth Century
They say that the blessed Pope Sylvester was the Antichrist of whom mention is made in the Epistles of St. Paul as having been the son of perdition. [They also say] that the keeping of the Sabbath ought to take place (Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont, p. 169 [by prominent Roman Catholic author writing about Waldenses]).

Thousands of God’s people were tortured to death by the Inquisition, buried alive, burned to death, or hacked to pieces by the crusaders. While devastating the city of Biterre the soldiers asked the Catholic leaders how they should know who were heretics; Arnold, Abbot of Cisteaux, answered: "Slay them all, for the Lord knows who is His (History of the Inquisition, p. 96).

The Fourteenth Century
In 1310, two hundred years before Luther’s theses, the Bohemian brethren constituted one-fourth of the population of Bohemia, and that they were in touch with the Waldenses who abounded in Austria, Lombardy, Bohemia, north Germany, Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Moravia. Erasmus pointed out how strictly Bohemian Waldenses kept the seventh-day Sabbath (Armitage, A History of the Baptists, p. 318; Cox, The Literature of the Sabbath Question, Vol. 2, pp. 201-202).

We wrote of the sabbatarians in Bohemia, Transylvania, England and Holland between 1250 and 1600 A.D (Wilkinson, p. 309).

The Fifteenth Century
The first matter concerned a keeping holy of Saturday. It had come to the ear of the archbishop that people in different places of the kingdom had ventured the keeping holy of Saturday. It is strictly forbidden – it is stated – in the Church-Law, for any one to keep or to adopt holy days, outside of those which the pope, archbishop, or bishops appoint (The History of the NorwegianChurch Under Catholicism, R. Keyser, Vol. II, p. 488. Oslo: 1858).

Louis XII, King of France (1498-1515), being informed by the enemies of the Waldenses, inhabiting a part of the province of Provence, that several heinous crimes were laid to their account, sent the Master of Requests, and a certain doctor of the Sorbonne, to make inquiry into this matter. On their return they reported that they had visited all the parishes, but could not discover any traces of those crimes with which they were charged. On the contrary, they kept the Sabbath day, observed the ordinance of baptism, according to the primitive church, instructed their children in the articles of the Christian faith, and the commandments of God. The King having heard the report of his commissioners, said with an oath that they were better men than himself or his people (History of the Christian Church, Vol. II, pp. 71-72, third edition. London: 1818).

The Sixteenth Century
In the reign of Elizabeth, it occurred to many conscientious and independent thinkers (as it previously had done to some Protestants in Bohemia) that the fourth commandment required of them the observance, not of the first, but of the specified ‘seventh’ day of the week (Chambers’ Cyclopaedia, article "Sabbath," Vol. 8, p. 416, 1887).

The Sabbatarians teach that the outward Sabbath, i.e., Saturday, still must be observed. They say that Sunday is the Pope’s invention (Refutation of Sabbath, by Wolfgang Capito, published 1599).

The Seventeenth Century
We can trace these opinions over almost the whole extent of Sweden of that day – from Finland and northern Sweden. In the district of Upsala the farmers kept Saturday in place of Sunday. About the year 1625 this religious tendency became so pronounced in these countries that not only large numbers of the common people began to keep Saturday as the rest day, but even many priests did the same (History of the SwedishChurch, Vol. I, p. 56).

It will surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to express commandment of God, than on the authority of mere human conjecture to adopt the first (Sab. Lit. 2, 46-54, John Milton).

The Eighteenth Century
He himself says: "It cannot be shown that Sunday has taken the place of the Sabbath (p. 366). The Lord God has sanctified the last day of the week. Antichrist, on the other hand, has appointed the first day of the week (K1. Auszug aus Tennhardt’s Schriften, p. 49 [printed 1712].

AMERICA, 174l (Moravian Brethren after Zinzendorf arrived from Europe). As a special instance it deserves to be noticed that he is resolved with the church at Bethlehem to observe the seventh day as rest day (Id., pp. 5, 1421, 1422). But before Zinzendorf and the Moravians at Bethlehem thus began the observance of the Sabbath and prospered, there was a small body of German Sabbath-keepers in Pennsylvania (See Rupp’s History of Religious Denominations in the United States, pp. 109-123).

The Nineteenth Century
But the majority moved to the Crimea and the Caucasus, where they remain true to their doctrine in spite of persecution until this present time. The people call them Subotniki, or Sabbatarians (Sternberg, Geschichte der Juden in Polen, p. 124).

Besides, they maintain the solemn observance of Christian worship throughout our Empire, on the seventh day (Christian Researches in Asia, p. 143).

The Twentieth Century
It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church (Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, NJ ‘News’ on March 18, 1903).

The evaluation of Sunday, the traditionally accepted day of the resurrection of Christ, has varied greatly throughout the centuries of the Christian Era. From time to time it has been confused with the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath. English speaking peoples have been the most consistent in perpetuating the erroneous assumption that the obligation of the fourth commandment has passed over to Sunday. In popular speech, Sunday is frequently, but erroneously, spoken of as the Sabbath (F. M. SETZLER, Head Curator, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institute, from a letter dated Sept. 1, 1949).

Did the Creator rest on, bless and hallow the Sabbath? Yes; Genesis 2:3, Exodus 20:11. Did He rest, bless or at any time hallow Sunday? No!

Does God command the keeping of Sabbath? Yes; Exodus 20:8-11. Does He command the keeping of Sunday? No!

Did God call the Sabbath His Holy Day and offer great reward to those who keep holy the Sabbath? Yes; Isaiah 58:13-14. Did He call Sunday His Holy Day and offer reward to those who keep holy Sunday? No!

Will the Sabbath be kept in the New Earth? Yes; Isaiah 66:23. Will Sunday be kept in the New Earth? No!

Is keeping the Sabbath holy a sign that we worship the one and only living God? Yes; Ezekiel 20:20. Is keeping Sunday holy a sign that we worship the true God? No!

Should the saints pray about the Sabbath? Yes; Matthew 24:20. Should the saints pray about Sunday? No!

Did holy women keep the Sabbath according to the commandments? Yes; Luke 23:56. Did holy women keep Sunday according to any commandment? No!

Was it Jesus Christ’s custom to keep the Sabbath? Yes; Luke 4:16. Was it the Savior's custom to keep Sunday? No!

Was it Paul's "manner" to worship on Sabbath? Yes; Acts 17:2. Was it Paul's "manner" to worship on Sunday? No!

Were people punished by God for Sabbath breaking? Yes; Jeremiah 17:27, Nehemiah 13:17-18. Were people punished by God for Sunday breaking? No!

Are those who keep the commandments of the Almighty blessed? Yes; Revelation 22:14. Are those who keep the traditions of men blessed? No; Matthew 15:3.

Do scriptures say that the Law would NOT be abolished by the Messiah? Yes; Matthew 5:17. Will God ever change His way? No; Malachi 3:6.

Are there six working days? Yes; Ezekiel 46:1. Did Paul make tents on the six working days? Yes; Acts 18:3. Is the Sabbath one of these working days? No; Exodus 20:8-11. Did Paul make tents on the Sabbath? No; Acts 18:4.

Is the Sabbath a sign of our sanctification? Yes; Ezekiel 20:12. Is Sunday a sign of our sanctification? No!

Does scripture say that the Savior is the Ruler, Master, Owner of the Sabbath? Yes; Mark 2:28. Do they say that the Savior is the Ruler or Master of Sunday? No!

Is teaching for doctrines the commandments of men vain worship? Yes; Matthew 15:9. Is teaching for doctrines the commandments of the Almighty vain worship? No; Matthew 19:17.

No Christian of the New Testament, either before or after the resurrection, ever did ordinary work upon the seventh day. Why should modern Christians do differently from Bible Christians?

Are we not under the Law, but under Grace? Yes; Romans 6:14. Does Grace allow us to transgress the Law? No; Romans 6:15, 3:20.

Did Jesus say that we should not only observe, but teach others to observe the Law? Yes; Matthew 5:19. Did He say that we should teach others to break the Law? No!

Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it the "Sabbath day" about A.D. 45 (Acts 13:27). Did Paul not know? Or shall we believe modern teachers who affirm that it ceased to be the Sabbath at the resurrection of Christ?

In all their accusations against Paul, they never charged him with disregarding the Sabbath day. Why did they not, if he did not keep it? Paul himself expressly declared that he had kept the law. "Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all" (Acts 25:8). How could this be true if he had not kept the Sabbath?

Is Saturday still called 'Sabbath' (Sabato) in the Greek language as well as in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and others? Yes!

When the Son of God came, He kept the seventh day all His life on earth (Luke 4:16, John 15:10). Thus He followed His Father's example from creation. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son?

The evidence is insurmountable, so what are you personally going to do about it?

After working the first six days of the week in re-creating this earth, the great God rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:1-3). This stamped that day as God's rest day. Therefore the seventh day must always be God's Sabbath day. Can you change your birthday from the day on which you were born to one on which you were not born? No. Neither can you change God's rest day to a day on which He did not rest. Hence the seventh day continues to be God's Sabbath day.

God sanctified the seventh day (Exodus 20:11) from the beginning of man, (Genesis 2:1-3) before man had sinned. Thus it was never a type or symbol introduced after the fact.

Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27) that is, for mankind, hence for the Gentile as well as the Jew.

The Sabbath is also a memorial of creation (Exodus 20:11, 31:17). Every time we rest upon the seventh day, as God did at creation, we commemorate that grand event.

The Sabbath is not Jewish because it was made 2,300 years before there was ever a Jew.

The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath, but always "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God (Men should be cautious how they stigmatize God's holy rest day.

Evident reference is made to all Sabbaths and the seven-day week throughout the patriarchal age (Genesis 26:5). It was kept by all the men and women of God down through the ages. All those things are examples for us (1 Corinthians 10:11).

It was a part of God's law before delivering the Ten Commandments at Sinai (Exodus 16:4, 27-29).

The Sabbath was placed within God’s Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). Why did He put it there if it was not like the other nine precepts, which all agree to be immutable?

The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God (Deuteronomy 4:12, 13), and then He wrote the commandment with His own finger (Exodus 31:18).

The Sabbath was engraved in the enduring stone (Deuteronomy 5:22), which was sacredly preserved in the Ark of the Covenant, within the holy of holies (Deuteronomy 10:1-5), thus signifying its imperishable nature.

God destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness because they walked not in His Statutes, despised His judgments and greatly polluted His Sabbaths (Ezekiel 20:12, 13).

The Sabbath is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know him from false gods (Exodus 31:13-17, Ezekiel 20:20).

God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if they would keep the Sabbath, but alas they did not so He destroyed Jerusalem for its violation (Jeremiah 17:24-27).

God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep it (Isaiah 56:6-7).

The Sabbath is part of the prophecy which refers wholly to the New Covenant period and God has promised to bless all who keep it (Isaiah 56).

The Lord instructs us to take delight in the Sabbath and to call it honorable (Isaiah 58:13). Beware ye who take delight in calling it a yoke of bondage and the like.

All of the great men and women of faith, the holy prophets, the apostles, Jesus Christ and the New Testament Church kept the seventh day.

The seventh day is the Lord's day (Revelation 1:10, Isaiah 58:13, Exodus 20:10). Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28) that is, to love and protect it, as the husband is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her (I Peter 3:6).

Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, Jesus carefully taught how it should be observed (Matthew 12:1-13).

Jesus taught His disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was "lawful" (Matthew 12:12) and that they it should be prayerfully regarded (Matthew 24:20).

The pious women who had been with Jesus carefully kept the seventh day Sabbath when He was in the grave (Luke 23:56).

Thirty years after Christ's resurrection, the apostles continued to observe and call it "the Sabbath day" (Acts 13:14).

Luke, the inspired Christian historian, writing as late as A.D. 62 calls it the “Sabbath day.” In addition the Gentile converts kept the Sabbath (Acts 13:42-44).

In the great Christian council, A.D. 49, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James explained that Gentiles were expected to keep the Sabbath day (Acts 15:21).

Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings as was his custom to preach on the Sabbath day (Acts 17:2-3, 13:14, 44).

There was never any dispute between the Christians of the Bible and the Jews about the Sabbath day. This is proof that Christians still observed the same day that the Jews did.

The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament nearly sixty times, and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament "the Sabbath day."

Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath's being abolished, done away, changed, or anything of the kind.

The seventh day Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from His own mouth, and was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai, Exodus 20. When Jesus began His work, He expressly declared that He had not come to destroy any part of the law (Matthew 5:17).

Jesus severely condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God and making void one of the Ten Commandments by their tradition. The keeping of Sunday is only a tradition of men does likewise.

The very first thing recorded in the Bible is work done on Sunday, the first day of the week (Genesis 1:1-5). This was done by the Creator Himself. If God worked on Sunday, can it be wrong for us to work on Sunday?

God tells us to work on the first day of the week (Exodus 20:8-11). God Himself calls it a "working" day (Ezekiel 46:1). Is it wrong to obey God?

God did not rest upon Sunday, He never blessed it. Christ did not rest upon it and never blessed it. The apostles never rested on it. It has never been sanctified nor blessed by any divine authority.

No law was ever given to enforce the keeping of Sunday. Hence, it is no transgression to work upon it (Romans 4:15, I John 3:4).

No regulation is given as to how Sunday ought to be observed. Would this be so if the Lord wished us to keep it?

It is never called, or even insinuated that Sunday is the Lord’s Day, a rest day, or the Sabbath day at all in the Scriptures. No sacred title whatever is applied to it. Neither God, nor inspired men ever said one word in favor of Sunday as a holy day. It is simply called "first day of the week."

The first day of the week is mentioned only eight times in all the New Testament (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:2). None of these utterances refer to it as a holy day.

Paul directed the saints to look over their secular affairs on the first day (I Corinthians 16:2).

The Bible nowhere says that the first day of the week commemorates the resurrection of Christ. This is a tradition of men, which contradicts the law of God (Matthew 15:1-9). It is baptism commemorates the burial and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 6:3-5).

The entire Bible is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath day or any sacredness for the first day of the week.

Telling man to keep the first day of the week holy or to worship or rest on the first day of the week?
That shows any of the apostles keeping the first day of the week as the Sabbath?
Declaring that the seventh day is no longer the Eternal's Sabbath day?
That calls the seventh day the “Jewish” Sabbath or one calling the first day the “Christian” Sabbath?
Calling the first day a holy day?
That says the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day to the first day of the week?
That says the Sabbath has been done away?
That tells us to keep the first day in honor of the resurrection of the Savior?
Authorizing anyone to set aside the Fourth Commandment and observe any other day of the week?
Where an apostle taught the keeping of the first day of the week as the Sabbath?
Where Sunday is now appointed to be kept as the New Testament Sabbath or holy day?