FLASH UPDATE
Pope John Paul II has written a letter.
APOSTOLIC LETTER
DIES DOMINI
OF THE HOLY FATHER
JOHN PAUL II
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY AND FAITHFUL
OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON KEEPING THE LORD’S DAY HOLY
This letter was written May 31, 1998. Let’s see if it agrees with what we have been learning in this series. Does the pope have biblical authority to stand on? This letter is 39 pages long. It is numbered for easy referencing. Beginning with number 1, the first sentence reads:
“The Lord’s Day – as Sunday was called from Apostolic times.”
Well now, wait just a moment, was Sunday called “The Lord’s Day” from Apostolic times? No. Not one apostle calls Sunday “The Lord’s Day”. It was Ignatius who started calling Sunday the “Lord’s Day”. He did not have authority from God!
Again, as we have already learned, “The Lord’s Day” in the Bible is always in reference to the 7th day, Saturday, Sabbath. Jesus said, “I am Lord of the Sabbath”. That is His day. He created it, He blessed it, He sanctified it, He rested in the tomb on it and He made it holy. Never was the 1st day, Sunday, given any of those designations from God. Never!!!
Does the pope agree that the Sabbath, the 7th day, is the Lord’s Day? Absolutely. On page 22 number 63 states, “He (Jesus) performed many healings on the Sabbath, certainly not to violate the Lord’s Day.” This is in reference to the 7th day Sabbath, Saturday. That was the only Sabbath Jesus knew. The pope calls that day, “The Lord’s Day” in this section. Why does He call Sunday the Lord’s Day in the first sentence of this letter? Is he confused? I think so. Since there is no scripture to show a transfer of the Sabbath from the 7th day to the 1st day, he has to try to equate them as one in your mind. Don’t be brainwashed.
The second paragraph starts out, “Rightly, then, the Psalmist’s cry is applied to Sunday.” Wait, wait just a minute. Do you mean to say, Mr. Pope, that David in his Psalms was writing about Sunday, the 1st day of the week? The 1st day was the pagan day to the devil and the sun-god? It was the day to worship Baal and Tammuz and all those gods of the devil. Those were the gods, and that was the day, that God put a curse on and condemned the people of Israel for worshiping. David wasn’t talking about Sunday at all. Mr. Pope, you need to read your Bible.
Number 2 begins, “The Resurrection of Jesus is the fundamental event upon which Christian faith rests.” Really? If it was the “fundamental event” upon which our faith rests, why didn’t Jesus teach it? Why is it not the theme of the Bible? It isn’t. The theme of Jesus’ teaching is: Stop sinning, Be perfect and Keep the Ten Commandments to get into heaven. That is what our faith rests on. Read Hebrews 11. It is all about faithfulness in obedience and nothing about the resurrection.
But the pope is right. The resurrection is the fundamental event upon which the PAGAN “Christian” world’s faith rests. The pope goes on to say in number 6, “In doing this, we follow in the footsteps of the age-old tradition of the Church.” You bet. Easter is a demonic, age-old tradition of the pagan church that was never sanctioned by the writers of the Bible, both Old or New Testaments Jesus hates tradition. Read Mark 7:6-13 and see how much Jesus thinks of tradition. Nowhere in all of the Bible are we to follow tradition. True Christians follow the commands of Jesus. The pagan “Christians” follow the pagan traditions of the Church. The pope is absolutely correct in that statement.
Number 7 states: “The duty to keep Sunday holy…” The what? Would you please find in the Bible for me where it says that I have “the duty” to keep Sunday holy? It isn’t there. Who has placed that duty on me? Only the pope and the Catholic Church. Every church that keeps Sunday as a holy or rest day, is paying homage to the devil and his servant: the Catholic Church.
Number 8 states: “For the Christian, Sunday is above all an Easter celebration…”. Yep, that is correct for the pagan “Christian”. As stated earlier, Easter comes straight out of paganism. You can refresh your memory by reading those sections in this work book.
Continuing on in this section we read, “According to the Priestly writer of the first biblical creation story, then was born the “Sabbath”, so characteristic of the first Covenant, and which in some ways foretells the sacred day of the new and final Covenant.” Now wait a minute. Let’s see here. We have the true Sabbath being recognized in the first Covenant which God Himself proclaimed. Now, since God does not change, and the Ten Commandments haven’t changed (we are still not allowed to murder or commit adultery are we?), what happened to the Sabbath? Where in all the Bible do you find God Himself changing the covenant from the “first” to the “final”? If God doesn’t do it, it hasn’t been done. Just because human wisdom takes some texts of some of the writers of the Bible and twist them to make it sound like God changed, He didn’t change. They don’t know what they are talking about. Again, to refresh your memory, go back to volume I and read about the Old and New Covenants.
Continuing on we read, “The People of God are called to enter into this same rest by persevering in Christ’s example of filial obedience…”. Oh Mr. Pope, I couldn’t agree more with you. But Mr. Pope, Christ’s example, “filial obedience” was always to keep and teach the importance of the 7th day Sabbath, not the 1st day pagan day. (Luke 4:16) Mr. Pope, why are you not following in the example, custom and teaching of Jesus?
Number 14 reads: “In the first place, therefore, Sunday is the day of rest because it is the day ‘blessed’ by God and ‘made holy’ by Him, set apart from the other days to be, among all of them, ‘the Lord’s Day’”. Mr. Pope, please show me where in all the Bible God “blessed”, “made holy” the 1st day Sunday. Why do you work so hard to change that which God has already blessed and made holy, the 7th day of the week, Saturday, the true and only Sabbath of God.
Number 18 reads: “Because the Third Commandment…” “Third Commandment”? The pope here is talking about the Sabbath. Check out your Bible and see which commandment talks about the Sabbath. It is not the “Third” but the Fourth Commandment. Why does the pope talk about it being the “Third”? Because, like everything else, he thinks he has the right to change what God doesn’t want changed. The Catholic Church changed the Ten Commandments. They took out the 2nd commandment and split the 10th commandment. That was so they could worship idols and still keep “Ten” Commandments. Where did you get that authority Mr. Pope? Oh yes, you claim to be “God on earth” and can change God and His Commandments.
By the way, all you Sunday keepers, if you keep Sunday, then you can worship idols. The same person who said it was okay to keep Sunday said it was okay to worship idols. If it is not okay to worship idols, then it is not okay to keep Sunday. It is time to stop honoring the devil and get back to honoring God.
Here we see the pope explaining that the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath. It wasn’t God who changed it. Listen to the pope as we continue with number 18. “Christians … made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day.” Okay, let’s give them that. Let’s say that Christians decided to make Sunday a “festive day”. What does that have to do with changing the Sabbath? Nothing!!! It gets better yet. The pope says, “We move from the ‘Sabbath’ to the ‘first day after the Sabbath’, from the seventh day to the first day: the dies Domini becomes the dies Christi!” Really? And who authorized this move? The Catholic Church!!!
When you, Mr. And Mrs. Sunday keeper keep Sunday, you are honoring the pope, not God. The Catholic Church will tell you that.
Number 19 says, “testifying to an already well established practice which had evolved from the early years…”. I don’t care how well “established” the practice was, I want a “Thus saith the Lord”. Where does God say to change His Sabbath? And what about this “evolved” business. Are we talking evolution? Is God evolving His theology? I don’t think so. My God doesn’t change.
And now the Catholic Church agrees that Sunday is a pagan ritual. Listen to what the pope says in number 27. “Wise pastoral intuition suggested to the Church the christianization of the notion of Sunday as ‘the day of the sun’, which was the Roman name for the day and which is retained in some modern languages. This was in order to draw the faithful away from the seduction of cults which worshiped the sun, and to direct the celebration of the day to Christ, humanity’s true ‘sun’. Writing to the pagans, Saint Justin (who?) uses the language of the time to note that Christians gather together ‘on the day named after the sun’, but for believers the expression had already assumed a new meaning which was unmistakably rooted in the Gospel.”
Let me see if I have this right. The pagans worshiped the sun-god on Sunday, just as I have been explaining to you. The pope agrees with true history. So, in order to bring the pagans out of paganism, we will continue to use their pagan day of worship but just make it “Christian”. Remember, the church also kept their idols and just “Christianized” them. Knock, knock; anybody home?
Why not bring them out of paganism by bringing them to the true God of the universe as Paul did, by bringing them to the true Sabbath of the true God, the 7th day, Saturday worship? But since the church adopted the pagan sabbath, Sunday, it also adopted pagan idol worship. They just changed the names, as we have learned, and as you can see, the pope agrees. And by the way, who is this “Saint Justin”. Never read of him in my Bible. Have you?
Number 30 states: “The identity of this day must be protected and above all must be lived in all its depth. An Eastern writer of the beginning of the third century recounts that as early as then the faithful in every region were keeping Sunday holy on a regular basis. What began as spontaneous practice later became a juridical sanctioned norm.”
Let’s see, God commanded us to protect and “Remember” the 7th day Sabbath. The pope says we are to protect the 1st day, Sunday. Who will you follow? Just because “so called” Christians were apostatizing and joining the pagans in their Sunday worship doesn’t give us the right to transfer our worship from God’s 7th day to the pagan 1st day. (Remember, these “Christians” turned to Sunday keeping to avoid persecution.)
Number 32 states, “Significantly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that ‘the Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church’s life’”. That is correct. God does not teach it, but the Catholic Church in their pagan Catechism teaches it. Sunday worship is and always has been at the heart of all pagan church worship.
Now notice how sly the pope is. You see, he has changed the Sabbath from the 7th day to the 1st day. Sounds good. But now see how it keeps going. Listen to number 39. “In Masses of Sunday and holy days of obligation…”. And what? “Holy days”? Oh, now not only are we changing the Sabbath, but we now are going to add more “holy days” that are our “obligation” to keep holy. Okay all you Sunday Protestants, now you must keep all the other days holy that the Catholic Church has made holy. If you keep one of its days, you might as well keep them all. Picking and choosing which of its days you want won’t cut it. You are already lost by breaking God’s Sabbath, so go ahead and go all the way and start keeping all the other “holy days” of the Catholic Church.
You see, once the church starts changing God, then it must make it “obligatory” and must use force. No longer are we allowed to worship God as He commanded us, now we must be forced to follow the devil and his 1st day sabbath. Therefore, number 47 reads, “The Church has not ceased to confirm this obligation of conscience, that the Church had to make explicit the duty to attend Sunday Mass: more often than not, this was done in the form of exhortation, but at times the Church had to resort to specific canonical precepts.” Canonical precepts? That is the same as saying they instituted the Inquisition. Remember it? That is not of God.
It goes on to say, “The Code of Canon Law of 1917…reiterates this, saying that ‘on Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to attend Mass.’ …How vital Sunday is for the Christian life.” Oh, I see, it isn’t God who commands the keeping of Sunday, it is “The Code of Canon Law of 1917”. How nice. Oh yes, and of course, all you Sunday going Protestants, you must also keep those other holy days. They are “vital” to your life. Thank God I am not bound by all those man-made holy days nor the pagan 1st day worship. I obey God and keep His 7th day Sabbath very plainly and simply as God commands us to.
Number 52 says, “This rather traditional way of keeping Sunday holy…”. This what? Traditional way? What happened to Scripture and Scripture only? Where are the Scripture proofs to show us the “traditional way” of keeping Sunday holy? This pope is not a Christian (Christ like). But it gets better.
Not only are we now to keep the pagan 1st day holy, but we are to keep the other pagan holy days holy. And, “The faithful take advantage of Sunday rest to visit a Shrine, in a more intense experience of faith.” What was that? Oh, I see, now I must go visit a shrine on Sunday to get a “more intense experience of faith”. Wow, you Sunday keeping Protestants really have a lot to do on Sunday and the other “holy days”. You keep the devil’s 1st day sabbath, you keep his other pagan holy days and you worship at his shrines. All the things that the Old and New Testaments condemn. But who cares, you are not doing anything God tells you to do. You are only doing what the pope tells you to do.
Number 55 says, “Blessed be he who has raised the great day of Sunday above all other days.” Excuse me, but that is not found anywhere in my Bible. If you can find it in any accurately translated Bible, please let me know and I will personally give you $1,000. (Since June of 1997, not one person has shown me the change in the Bible.)
Number 58: “This vision of faith shows the Christian Sunday to be a true ‘time for celebration’, a day given by God to men and women for their full human and spiritual growth.” Is that so? Again, show me where you find that in the Bible and I’ll give you $1,000. In fact, just show me where Sunday is called, “Christian”. The only Christian Sabbath has always been the 7th day Sabbath of God. And by the way, Mr. Pope, are you telling me that Abraham, Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophets had not met their “full human and spiritual growth” because they condemned Sunday worship?
Here is a real doozer. Number 62 says, “It is the duty of the Christians therefore to remember that, the underlying reasons for keeping ‘the Lord’s Day’ holy – inscribed solemnly in the Ten Commandments – remain valid, though they need to be reinterpreted in the light of the theology and spirituality of Sunday.”
How was that? Oh, yes, the 7th day Sabbath is “inscribed solemnly in the Ten Commandments” and “remain valid”, but needs to be “reinterpreted”? Who gave them that authority to “reinterpret” that which God said was not to be added to or subtracted from? (Deuteronomy 4:2.)
Who has that authority? Apparently the pope thinks that he does. He says in number 63, “This is why Christians, called as they are to proclaim the liberation won by the blood of Christ, felt that they had the authority to transfer the meaning of the Sabbath to the day of the Resurrection.” Oh I get it, the blood of Christ does not liberate me from sin, it liberates me from the Ten Commandments so I can go on sinning and still be free. So now I am free to change the meaning of the Sabbath to the day of the Resurrection even though Jesus never said to do it. Now that I am liberated, I can kill, commit adultery, lie and break all the other commandments. How stupid!!!
The blood of Jesus makes the Ten Commandments absolutely mandatory. Jesus is my example. He kept them unto death, and He commands us to keep them even unto death. Anyone who attempts to change any of God’s commands will be burned in hell. (Revelation 22:18, 19.)
The pope tells us plainly who gave the pagan Sunday legitimacy. Number 64 says, “Only in the fourth century did the civil law of the Roman Empire recognize the weekly recurrence, determining that on ‘the day of the sun’ the judges, the people of the cities and the various trade corporations would not work”. Oh, let me see, the church had to wait for the civil law of the pagan Roman Empire to say it was okay. Nothing here to do with our obligation to God.
“Even after the fall of the Empire, the Councils did not cease to insist upon the arrangements regarding Sunday rest…it is still Sunday which remains the Lord’s Day.” Okay, so it is not God who insists upon Sunday, but the Church, following after the pagan Roman Empire. And again, who are you following? Are you following Jesus and the God of the universe by keeping His 7th day Saturday Sabbath holy, or are you following the pagan Roman Empire’s example of Sunday worship?
Here again the pope recognizes that it must force pagan Sunday worship because the true Christians will follow the example and command of Jesus to keep His 7th day Sabbath. The pope says, “When, through the centuries, she has made laws concerning Sunday rest, the Church has had in mind above all the work of servants and workers…”. Of course, not God. “It needed greater regulation.” “Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical Rerum Novarum spoke of Sunday rest as a worker’s right which the State must guarantee.” The state must guarantee? “Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy.”
Wow Pope, you really have it all backwards. One, it is not the state’s duty. Two, you have the wrong day, biblically. As the pope says, “In the words of Saint Ambrose…”. Saint who? I don’t remember a book in the Bible being written by Saint Ambrose? The Catholic Church is made up of pagan, demonic rules, regulations and traditions. Is that who you follow? Remember, all churches follow the Roman Catholic Church if they keep its Sunday sabbath holy or teach its doctrines. That includes yours!
The pope goes on to say in number 73, “The Christian Sunday is a ‘prophecy inscribed on time itself, a prophecy obliging the faithful to follow in the footsteps of the One who came ‘to preach good news to the poor…’”. Right statement pope, wrong day. If we follow in the footsteps of “the One”, we will be keeping His 7th day, Saturday, Sabbath as Jesus did. If you keep Sunday holy, you are following in the footsteps of the one who was thrown out of heaven and put Jesus on the cross, the devil. As the pope says in number 76, Sunday “is rooted in the most ancient tradition of the Church…”. The pagan church always is based on and continues the traditions of ancient paganism.
The pope goes on to say, “The holy Church venerates with special love the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God…”. I don’t remember that verse in the Bible. I do think, though, that there were Catholics in the New Testament. Luke says that one yelled out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” Sounds Catholic. But listen to what Jesus said. “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.” Luke 11:27, 28. That is the problem with the Catholic Church and all the Protestant Churches who follow the Catholic Sunday. They are not obeying the Word of God to keep His 7th day, Saturday, Holy. Therefore, none of them are blessed, but will be thrown into hell.
Again the pope makes it very clear that it gets its authority not from God, but “firmly they are established in tradition, and how well they are supported by civil legislation.” How demonic. Nothing Christian about that! He goes on to say, “It should not be forgotten that these traditions…”. That is right, let us never forget that Sunday is a demonic tradition and has nothing to do with Christianity. Christianity is “Christ like” and Christ never kept Sunday holy, nor ever commanded it. He did command that we keep His 7th day Holy. Are you listening? Are you willing to give up your demonic past and follow the true God?
As a final note, the pope says, “As they listen to the word proclaimed in the Sunday assembly, the faithful look to the Virgin Mary… From Sunday to Sunday, the pilgrim people follow in the footsteps of Mary.”
I thought that as the Word was proclaimed we were to look to Jesus. I thought that we were to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Come on people. Wake Up!!! The Bible says to come out of all these pagan churches that are giving homage to the devil and his 1st day, Sunday, worship. Come out and stand up for God. Start keeping His 7th day, Saturday, Sabbath and see what blessings will come upon you.
After all, Mary kept the 7th day Sabbath holy. Let us remember that text. “So the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee, following close behind, saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they went back and prepared spices and perfumes, and on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.” Luke 23:55, 56. Let’s follow the example of Mary who obeyed Jesus and let’s keep the 7th day Sabbath holy.