Rome's
Arraignment of Sabbath-Breakers
by J. O'Keefe
The editors are pleased to share with you a centennial reprint of a sermon
by a J. O'Keefe. This sermon was first printed in the July 3, 1897, issue of the
Catholic Mirror and then reprinted that same month by the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in a tract entitled Bible Student Library, No. 150, July
1897. We believe our readers will find this sermon to be significant in the
light of the ongoing controversy regarding the Bible Sabbath. All emphasis
reflects that which appeared in the "Bible Student Library" tract. Any
additions made by the editors of Our Firm Foundation are indicated with
[square brackets], though some were in the original. The original footnotes on
page one of the "Bible Student Library" tract are as follows:
The gentleman referred to [J. O'Keefe] is a priest of prominence in the
Roman Catholic diocese of Baltimore, Md., and the paper that thus publishes the
sermon is the leading Catholic paper of America, the organ of Cardinal Gibbons.
The Scripture quotations are often [loosely quoted], sometimes from the
Catholic Douay-Rheims version, and sometimes from the King James version. The
reader will find no essential difference. We leave them unchanged, merely
correcting typographical errors, and punctuating in the ordinary way.
ON last Sunday Rev. J. O'Keefe delivered a sermon at St. John's Church, which
will be of interest to our readers to reproduce in full. He spoke as follows:
"But these men blaspheme whatever things they know not; and what things
soever they naturally know, like dumb beasts, in these they are corrupted."
See Jude 10.
The morning paper of last Monday spread before its readers a compendium
[collection] of seven sermons delivered the day before, by as many Baptist
preachers, on the topic of Sabbath desecration. This simultaneous concert of
action was the result of previous arrangement.
As it is the duty of every citizen who has at heart the public welfare to
aid, as far as possible, in promoting the diffusion of knowledge, and at the
same time in the correction of error, I feel I would be guilty of a gross
injustice to my fellow citizens were I not to furnish them with the exact truth,
especially since false ideas are being constantly promulgated [published] by men
either grossly and criminally ignorant of what they should know, and who,
assuming the office of public guides, convey false information derived either
from false premises, or inconsecutive conclusions from the same, or, knowing
better, maliciously and unscrupulously abuse the influence they accidentally
wield over simple and unsophisticated people, by deliberately impregnating their
ductile [easily molded] and plastic minds with erroneous views that practically
interfere with the rational exercise of their liberty in the ordinary routine of
life.
In the fifteenth chapter, tenth verse, of the Acts of the Apostles, we read
of a case in point. A sect of the Pharisees (converts to Christianity) gave much
annoyance to the primitive Christians by requiring circumcision and the full
observance of the Mosaic law. Peter arose in the assembly and asked, "Now
therefore, why tempt ye God, to put a yoke on the necks of the disciples which
neither our fathers, nor we have been able to bear?" See Acts 15:10. A sect
of the same order of modern Pharisees, in their self-righteousness, gave vent to
their mock solicitude for the spiritual welfare of their contemporaries by
denouncing most emphatically the practices of barrooms, cigars, tobacco, soda
water, bicycles, confectionery, parks, trolley cars, Sunday papers, reporters,
ice-cream saloons, etc., etc., on Sunday, with a highly commendable and virtuous
indignation; but it is my purpose to meet their crusade in the spirit of common
sense, and ask with St. Peter, "Why, therefore, tempt ye God to put a yoke
on the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able
to bear?" And this is precisely what these self-constituted guides of the
people undertake to do, when they assume to dictate into what is permitted and
what forbidden on the Sabbath.
And, just here, I boldly proclaim that this meddlesome interference with the
God-given liberties of our citizens is an assumption of authority that has no
warrant whatsoever in God's law, and amounts to what may be truthfully
designated an impertinent attempt at an unauthorized despotism [absolute power,
tyranny]. For whilst the American people are tolerant of every law, divine and
human, that appeals to their reason, yet they must be convinced that the
ordinance has a divine or human sanction for the enforcement of its obligations.
It is my purpose to submit to my fellow citizens the true grounds for
the obligation of cessation from labor one day of the week, and of the duty of
sanctifying the same day. The seven reverend gentlemen who on last Sunday
assumed to impose their views on their fellow citizens anent [concerning] the
question of Sabbath desecration, have no warrant whatsoever for such imposition
[a burdensome unfair demand], save what can be found in their acknowledged
teacher, the Bible. Let us then open the pages of this guide and teacher, and
learn from it the commands of God on this point. We are at least equally
intelligent with them in construing the expressed will of God, in drawing
rational conclusions, and in inferring conclusively the correctness or falsity
of their claim to impose their views on us.
The first intimation that reaches us of God's will on this important point is
found in Genesis 2:2: "And on the seventh day He [God] rested . . . from
all His work which He had made." And it is conclusive that the patriarchs
under the immediate direction of God, continued, by oral tradition, the same
observance of God's Sabbath, until He gave through Moses the same commandment by
written tradition (see Exodus 20:8-11), "Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy;" and the sacred text informs us He did so command for that
reason, viz. [namely]: "Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath
day, and sanctified it." See Exodus 20:11. Again, the Lord calls the
Sabbath "a perpetual covenant." See Exodus 31:16.
Once more, we will refer to the most positive repetition of this command (see
Deuteronomy 5:13-14): "Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy
work. The seventh is the day of the Sabbath, that is, the rest of the Lord thy
God. Thou shalt not do any work therein," etc.
On a careful examination of the Old Testament, we find this reference to the
Sabbath 126 times. And now it is incumbent on us to ascertain which is the
seventh day on which God rested, and which He blessed and sanctified: which
day, also, He designated as "a perpetual covenant." The answer to this
question is furnished by the Hebrew race, who all through the patriarchal age to
Moses' day, over 2,500 years, thence from Moses 2514 A.M. [B.C.] to A.D. 1897, a
period of 5,897 years, have scrupulously kept every Saturday, from the days of
Adam, who walked with God, through the days of the patriarchs, the law, and the
prophets, and through the full period of the New Law to yesterday [Saturday].
Thus the Hebrew race form a living historical chain of nearly 5,900 annual
links--a perpetual, living testimony of God's rest (His Sabbath) to today,
through oral and written tradition. Therefore, if the testimony of men could
ever be regarded as an infallible motive of credibility, it must be recognized
as such in the constant weekly [cycle] keeping of God's Sabbath synchronous
[having identical periods] with time itself.
The Old Testament is also, from the days of Moses, the living witness of this
undeniable fact, sustained by the oral living testimony of the Hebrew people to
the advent of the Messiah. To deny this effectively, it would be necessary to
destroy the Jewish people and the Old Testament.
Having placed beyond the reach of all successful denial; the grand historical
fact that up to the coming of the Messiah, the Lord's Sabbath--that of the
seventh day--was alone recognized and kept, from the last day of Creation
to the coming of the Messiah--this by the positive precept of God in the Old Law
and the ever-living testimony and practice of the Hebrew race, it now behooves
us to trace the history of this arrangement to date, or as far, at least, as the
apostolic records testify under the New Law. On approaching this period,
involving as it does an era of nearly nineteen full centuries, we naturally
inquire whether a divine statute, which God Himself was pleased to designate a
"perpetual covenant," continued to be observed by the people of Israel
and Christians collectively; that is, whether the day enjoined by God (Saturday)
has always been kept by Christians and Jews collectively for these nineteen
centuries, or, if not, where in the pages of the New Testament is found a
divine decree canceling the mandate of the Old Law, and at the same time
specifying the day to substitute [for] Saturday. For inasmuch as Saturday was
ordered to be kept by divine authority, so, also, divine authority, under the
form of a canceling decree, is absolutely necessary to do away with Saturday,
and another decree emanating from the same divine source is equally necessary to
appoint another Sabbath. A close and critical examination of the New Testament
is now necessary to discover these two decrees--the one canceling Saturday, the
other selecting another day to replace it.
The Hebrew Sabbath, or Saturday, is referred to in the New Testament 61
times. In the four Gospels the same Sabbath (Saturday) is mentioned 51 times. We
find that the Saviour during life constantly adopted the same day to teach in
the synagogues and to work miracles.
In one instance, quoted by Matthew and Luke [Mark]. He designated Himself the
"Lord of the Sabbath;" but to the last hour of His life He utilized
that day and gives no indication of a desire to change it. After His
crucifixion, His apostles and personal friends kept it (Saturday) strictly,
whilst yet [He was] in the tomb; that St. Luke informs us of (see 23:56):
"And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested on the
Sabbath day according to the commandment." And having strictly kept the
Sabbath, as St. Luke has just now described, they felt themselves free to
commence the new week with the corporal work of mercy, viz., embalming the body
of their Master.
This proceeding is quoted by St. Luke in the next verse (see 24:1): "And
on the first day of the week [Sunday], very early in the morning, they
came to the sepulchre, bringing the spices they had prepared." Can anything
be more conclusive than that up to the day of Christ's death, from St. Luke's
testimony?
Thus we are forced from all we read in the Gospels to conclude that the
"Lord of the Sabbath," as Christ calls Himself, never kept during
his mortal life any other Sabbath than Saturday, testifying His
respect for it on several occasions by His severe rebukes to the scribes and
Pharisees for their fanatical mode of keeping it; and after His death the
apostles, and the holy women, who were the best exponents [representatives] of
His will, followed His example by doing on Sunday what the commandment
forbade them to do on Saturday. It is then undeniable that the Jewish
Saturday was alone kept by the Saviour, His apostles, and friends up to the
period of His death, covering thirty-three years of the Christian era.
Come we now to examine the history of this interesting question for thirty
years more after Christ's death, as recorded by the evangelist St. Luke, in his
Acts of the Apostles. Surely we must find some trace of the canceling act during
this period involving a lifetime. But, alas! not a vestige of it can be
discovered; and what is worse, we find in the nine passages referred to in the
Acts of the Apostles that they invariably kept Saturday. I shall quote them:
"They . . . went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, . . . . And
after the reading of the law and the prophets," etc. See Acts 13:14-15.
Again, verse 27: "For they. . . because they knew Him not, nor yet the
voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath," etc. Behold
here the testimony of St. Paul to the practice of reading the Scriptures every
Sabbath. He does not say "were read," but "are read,"
thus bearing witness to a time-honored practice.
Again, verse 42: "And when the Jews had gone out, the Gentiles besought
that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath," not
the next Sunday. Observe next how the Greeks or Gentiles kept the Sabbath with
the Jews (see verse 44): "And the next Sabbath came almost the whole
city to hear the Word of God." Not Sunday, but the Sabbath still!
Once more (see Acts 15:13, 21): James, the apostle, publicly says: "Men
and brethren, hear now to me. . . . For Moses of old time hath in every city
them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day."
No vestige of a change to Sunday yet. Again (see Acts 17:2): "And Paul, as
his manner was, went unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with
them out of the Scriptures." And, to cap the climax and exhaust all
scriptural resources (see Acts 18:4): "And he [Paul] reasoned in the
synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks."
Thus it is absolutely certain that neither our Lord during His life of
thirty-three years, nor His apostles for thirty years subsequently, ever kept
any Sabbath save Saturday.
But, before I close my argument, I propose to answer the argument of the
apologists for the change of day not to be found in the New Testament.
Their arguments are grounded on the words "the Lord's day" and
"the day of the Lord," as the drowning man grasps a straw. The first
of these (see Acts 2:20): "The sun shall be turned into darkness and the
moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord shall come."
Is this Sunday? Again (see 1 Corinthians 1:8): "Who shall also confirm you
unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ." Who is silly enough to interpret these words [as being] of Sunday?
Again (see 1 Corinthians 5:5): "To deliver such a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus." Is this Sunday? Again (see 2 Corinthians 1:13-14): "And I
trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end . . . even as ye also are ours in
the day of the Lord Jesus Christ." Is this day Sunday or the day of
judgment? Whilst once more (see Philippians 1:6): "Being confident of this
very thing that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ." Until next Sunday, of course! Sixth text (see
Philipians 1:10): "That ye may be sincere and without offense till the day
of Christ." Till next Sunday, forsooth! Seventh text (see 2 Peter 3:10):
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night."
Sunday next! Eighth text (see 2 Peter 3:12): "Looking out for and hastening
unto the coming of the day of the Lord, wherein the heavens being on
fire, shall be dissolved." Look out for the fireworks on Sunday, if not too
late today [Sunday]!
I have thus disposed of eight of nine texts from the apostolic writings which
the apologists for the change of day grounded on the words, "the day of the
Lord," "the Lord's day," "the day of Christ," and shown
the absurdity of their application to Sunday, referring in each instance to the
day of judgment. There is a ninth, and the only one left which does not bear its
own interpretation like the others (see Revelation 1:10). St. John says, "I
was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." The rule of analogy, a certain motive
of judging whereby we are enabled to conclude with certainty of an unknown
quantity from the known, applies here unqualifiedly. Eight texts, of a similar
form and character to a ninth, have been shown to unite in one meaning
exclusively. Dialecticians [specialists in dialects] conclude that the ninth
must be so interpreted. Or, to present a more intelligible example from physical
laws: Eight stones thrown into the air fall by the law of gravity to the
surface; the ninth it is conclusive must obey the same law. Hence the words of
St. John admit of the same interpretation by analogy as the eight preceding
texts.
Any attempt to interpret the above texts, the day of the Lord or the Lord's
day, as meaning Sunday, is therefore absurd. And what will confirm this
reasoning beyond all doubt is the language of the same St. John in two passages
in his Gospels; speaking of Sunday (Easter) he does not say, "on the Lord's
day," But, "on the first day of the week" (see John 20:1): and
speaking of the following Sunday, he does not designate it "the Lord's
day," but (see chapter 20:19), "Now when it was late that same day,
the first of the week." This disposes forever of St. John's, "I
was in the spirit on the Lord's day," interpreted as Sunday.
A False Supposition
To conclude my proofs, I propose to call attention to and reply to an
argument that would suppose a change of day. Five times the first day of the
week is referred to as being the day substituted for the Sabbath in five
passages of the Gospel, Acts, and Epistles. St. Luke 24:3340 and St. John 20:19
both refer to the meetings of Jesus with the apostles on Easter Sunday. This
would appear to furnish a clue to the substitution of Saturday; but the texts
themselves record the motive of their meeting. It was not for
prayer, for exhortation, or reading of the Scriptures, but they were huddled
together in that room "for fear of the Jews," as St. John tells us.
The third occasion was the meeting of Christ arisen with the eleven
(including Thomas), for the purpose of confounding the incredulity of Thomas, as
St. John assures us (see chapter 20:2629). there is not a word to be found in
these texts of prayer, praise, or reading of the Scriptures. Again (see Acts
2:1), "The apostles were all of one accord in one place" on the feast
of Pentecost (Sunday). Nor can this fourth instance of meeting on Sunday afford
the slightest hope of finding an escape; for Pentecost was the fiftieth day from
the Passover, which was called the Sabbath of weeks, consisting of seven times
seven days; and the day after the seventh weekly Sabbath was the chief day in
the entire festival, necessarily Sunday, which had been kept by the Jews
annually for over 15 centuries before Christianity. This was over a festival,
and no comfort can be derived from its introduction in favor of a change of day,
from the sacred volume.
And the apologists for the change of day call attention to Acts 20:7:
"And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to
break bread," etc. the application of the axiom in logic, "Quod
probat nimis, probat nihil" (What proves too much, proves nothing), puts a
quietus [release from obligation] on this text when I introduce words from the
Acts (see 2:46): " And they continuing daily . . . in the temple,
and breaking bread from house to house," etc., which shows that this
was a daily practise which is claimed in this instance for Sunday.
Fifthly and finally, we are invited to 1 Corinthians 16:1-2: "Now
concerning the collection for the saints. . . . On the first day of the week,
let every one of you lay by him in store," etc. Presuming that this was
done as St. Paul requested, I will call your attention to what was regularly done
the day before (Saturday) and contrast the acts of each day. I have already
quoted St. Paul's testimony (see Acts 13:27) of the practise of reading the
Scriptures "every Sabbath day."
What more absurd conclusion than to infer that the reading of the Scriptures,
exhortation, and praying, which formed the routine duties of every Saturday, or
Sabbath, were overslaughed [passed over in favor of another], by a request to
take up a collection, on a particular occasion, another day of the week? Which
occupation was more in keeping with the service of the Lord's day?
The Summing Up
Having placed before you all the references in the sacred writings--Gospels,
Acts, and Epistles--I will now sum up the result of my examination of the
relative use of the Sundays and Saturdays from these same records, constituting
the New Testament, and covering a period of over 60 years. Every Sabbath, or
Saturday, was kept, according to the record, 3,276 times by Christ and His
apostles, whilst the beggarly record of the Sunday meetings by the apostles
number five within the same period, viz., Easter Sunday (finding Sunday)
comes first; next, Sunday (doubting Sunday) when Thomas was converted; but not a
prayer, nor reading of the Scripture, nor preaching on either occasion;
Pentecost Sunday, a part of the ceremonial law of the Jews kept for 1,500 years
before; the Sunday referred to in Acts 20:7, where the breaking of bread alone
is referred to, but which in Acts 2:46 is designated a daily work; and fifthly,
collection Sunday (1 Corinthians 16:1-2) has no vestige of prayer, reading of
Scripture, sermon, or any other act of divine worship connected with it. Add to
these, nine references to the "Lord's day;" "the day of the
Lord," "the day of Christ," mentioned nine times, each one of
which refers, as I have proved, to the day of judgment, and you have every
vestige of any claim that might be made of a change of day from Saturday during
the period of over 60 years from the dawn of Christianity.
With this truthful and exhaustive exposition before us, based in the Sacred
Writings, and against which I defy successful contradiction, let us apply our
valuable information practically to the existing position of Protestantism and
its relative bearing on Judaism, because they both acknowledge the same teacher,
the Bible, with this difference, however, whilst the Jew's teacher, the Old
Testament, closes with the Messiah's coming, the Biblical Christian has the New
Testament superadded to the Old, whilst he enjoys the teaching and practise of
the Saviour together with those of the apostles for over 60 years, and all these
in perfect conformity with the Old Testament. For whilst the Jewish
people--patriarchs, law, and prophets--have, after the example of God Himself,
kept "the Sabbath of the Lord" for nearly 6,000 years, up to yesterday
[Saturday], the New Testament, the supplemental teacher of Protestantism,
testifies to the positive teachings of the Saviour, "Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy;" and His life and those of the apostles, as we learn
from the Sacred Record, were in perfect keeping with the practise of the Jewish
people. Today, however, so-called followers of Christ, (who was Himself to the
hour of His death an obedient follower of the law of the Sabbath), in direct
contradiction of the law and the Gospel, have for over three centuries raised
the flag of revolt against this "perpetual covenant." as God Himself
is pleased to call it, and for fully 10 generations not one representative of
Protestant Christianity, with a feigned and hypocritical affection of respect
for his teacher, the Bible, has once kept the day ordered to be kept over
160 times by the Old Testament and over 60 times by the New.
A more transparent contradiction, involving millions of human beings,
does not exist in the earth today--a teacher, assumed to be of divine origin by
its disciples-- utterly ignored, and the voice of God Himself echoing in every
page, as they profess to believe, utterly disregarded by every Protestant
Christian on earth today, for not one1 of them has once
obeyed His command to keep His Sabbath, during life. Christ, as their teacher,
informs them, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,"
and the chief and most emphatic of these is, "Remember the Sabbath day."
Viewing the situation from a common-sense standpoint it is almost incredible
that men endowed with average intelligence could consent to occupy before the
world, for an hour, such a self-stultifying [ridiculous], self-contradictory
position as this. Professing to adore God, professing to obey His commands, yet
they stand today before heaven and earth, with His Written Word clasped to their
breast, and which they profess to obey, the most pronounced Sabbath-breakers on
earth.
The Jew is rational; he obeys his teacher, the Bible, pointing to the
command, "Keep holy the Sabbath;" the Catholic is ever rational, he
obeys the teacher [the Church] appointed him by Christ; but the Protestant obeys
neither God nor his teacher, the Bible. Thus I have in this sermon shown his
utter abandonment of his professed teacher, the Bible, and his public apostasy
from the positive injunctions of God, speaking to him through it; but he had
descended to a still lower depth of degradation. Having abandoned the teachings
of his Bible, and having poured out the vials of his apparently honest
indignation against the Catholic Church, all his life he is found today, after
having consummated his apostasy from his own religious principles and teacher,
knocking at the door of the Catholic Church to notify her that he is about to
borrow her day; thus this traitor to his professed teacher and guide throws
open the doors of his meetinghouse on each Sunday with a notice overhead, "OPEN
EVERY ROMAN SABBATH.' 'CLOSED EVERY BIBLE SABBATH,' whilst the notice on
every synagogue on Saturday reads, "OPEN TO-DAY, THE BIBLE SABBATH."
Nor does his unscrupulous treachery to his Bible end here; but with insolent
swagger [boasting] and cool effrontery [boldness], like Cain, addressing his
descendants on brotherly love, with the broad brand of murderer on his brow;
like Judas moralizing on deicide [the killing of a god]; like the squatter who
insolently intrudes himself; and like the robber glorying in his ill-gotten
goods; in a word, like Satan rebuking sin, he inveighs [vehemently attacks],
through his seven clerical drummers, against barrooms, cigars, tobacco, soda
water, bicycles, confectionery, parks, trolley cars, Sunday papers, reporters,
ice-cream saloons, etc., etc., whilst there is not a living representative of
these different avocations [one's regular work] whose records before the bar of
reason, religion, and God are not comparatively immaculate when contrasted with
the record of these very people who stand before God, reason, and religion as
the most inveterate [persistent] Sabbath-breakers on earth.
Before closing this discourse, I publicly invite those seven reverends, and
all their confederate Sabbath-breakers, to purge themselves from the above
imputation [attributing of personal guilt].
But I predict with absolute certainty that the seven eloquent orators of last
Sunday will be mute and dumb next and future Sundays on this subject.
EDITORIAL REMARKS
In the foregoing paper we do not adopt nor do we commend the harshness,
sharpness, or acerbity [sourness] of language in which Mr. O'Keefe has set forth
the two solemn facts: (1) That the only Bible Sabbath is the seventh day; and
(2) that for first-day sacredness or observance there is no Bible warrant. We
would that these facts had been told in a milder manner, in language which it
seems to us would be more consonant [alike in sound] with the Gospel of Christ;
but we beg the Protestant reader to forget the acidity of the writing, and
weight the solemn facts in the light of the Bible and the judgment.[--The
Editors of the Bible Student Library.]
FOOTNOTE:
1 The author had evidently overlooked, or else he does not
count as among Protestants, two influential though small bodies of
Christians--namely, Seventh-day Adventist, numbering 40,000 [now approximately
nine million] communicants, and Seventh-day Baptists, numbering 10,000 [now
approximately 30,000]--who observe, according to the commandment, the same
Sabbath instituted of God, and kept by prophet and apostle and by our Lord Jesus
Christ.
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