Best way to refute these claims by a Protestant?

[Rand_Al_Thor]

Peace be with you!

I’ve got a Protestant on another site arguing against Sunday worship. I can’t even cite the New Covenant as evidence because in his first post he said “and don’t cite some verse about a new covenant with man”. So he won’t accept any of that anyway.

He posted these quotes from publications I’ve never heard of before. This is supposed to disprove Sunday worship (and he says these are all written by Catholics):

“Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claim to observance 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”.- Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August, 1900.

"Ques.- Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
"Ans.- 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- Stephen Keenan, Doctrinal Catechism, p.176.

“Not the Creator of the Universe, in Genesis 2:1-3, - but the Catholic Church can claim the honor of having granted man a pause to his work every seven days”.- S.C. Mosna, Staria della Domenica, 1969, p.366-367.

I looked at Doctrinal Catechism on this site: biblelight.net/keenan.htm and that quote does not appear on page 176.

I believe this person got his quotes from this site: seventh-day.org/historians.htm I guess I’ll probably just call him on posting from a biased second hand source, but does anyone know of, or has read, any of the publications that contain these quotes?

In Christ,
Rand

 

[Liberian]

Rand,

Well, first of all it appears that his sources–at least the one from Doctrinal Catechism–are fictitious. So that should blow most of his argument out of the water. And saying “don’t bother with any Bible verses about a new covenant” is like telling me to prove that the Earth goes around the Sun and saying “and don’t bother with any of that Isaac Newton stuff.” Ask why the new covenant is irrelevant to the question of Sunday worship.

There are a few places in the New Testament in which the Lord’s Day is mentioned. I don’t think there is anything specifically about worshipping on that day, but it is mentioned. And you may want to check “Sabbath” in the Catechism: as Catholics we are supposed to observe the Sabbath in some way. (I just found that myself, and am starting to try to find out how we are supposed to observe the Sabbath.)

Another thing to bring up is the difference between observing the Sabbath Day (which is supposed to be a day of rest) and worshipping (which is not necessarily resting).

Hope this helps.

• Liberian

 

[PhilNeri]

I thought that there wasn’t anything in the Bible telling us to switch to Sunday. That made it another proof of the authority of the Church, as the Church has always taught that we are to worship on Sunday to celebrate the Resurrection. Most Protestants hold their services on Sunday without realizing why. It’s not in the Bible, it’s because the Church said so. That is what these sources are saying, though he is trying to use them out of context.

I have also heard that the early Christians still went to the synagogue on Saturday, so they had Mass on Sunday. A practical reason to go with the spiritual one.

 

[NotWorthy]

In Acts, Paul celebrates the Mass on Sunday (I can’t locate the passage by memory, though).

The Early Christians considered themselves Jews who had witnessed the arrival of the Messiah. And yes, the Messiah was supposed to bring a new covenant.

But as Jews, they shared the synagogues with the rest of the Jews, who felt the Messiah still hadn’t come. They couldn’t use the synagogue on Saturday. They had to wait til Sunday to celebrate it.

NotWorthy

 

[mercygate]

NotWorthy:

In Acts, Paul celebrates the Mass on Sunday (I can’t locate the passage by memory, though).

The Early Christians considered themselves Jews who had witnessed the arrival of the Messiah. And yes, the Messiah was supposed to bring a new covenant.

But as Jews, they shared the synagogues with the rest of the Jews, who felt the Messiah still hadn’t come. They couldn’t use the synagogue on Saturday. They had to wait til Sunday to celebrate it.

NotWorthy

Acts 20:7. Also, in Acts, the Holy Spirit comes in tongues of fire on Pentecost – wasn’t that on the first day of the week? Somebody – do the math; I’m pooped.