CALVIN ON THE WEEKLY CHRISTIAN SABBATH
Luther started the Protestant Reformation in 1517. However, in the
year before his death
¾
the Romish Council of Trent started giving its
reply, in 1545.
This resulted in the 1562 Catechism of Trent, which is still Rome's
official doctrine even today. There, it is wrongly alleged that the
weekly sabbath was not "a natural principle" alias a creation ordinance.
Instead, the weekly sabbath is averred to have existed only "from the
time the people of Israel were liberated from the bondage of Pharaoh."
Furthermore, Rome there even claims that the obligation to keep the
weekly sabbath was destined "to cease together with the abrogation of
other Jewish[!] rites and ceremonies
¾
namely at the death of Christ."
For "it has pleased the Church[!]...that the religious celebration of
the sabbath day shall be transferred to the Lord's day" and the
"other[!] days."1
These "other days" are not the Old Testament Feasts instituted for
Israel by God in His Word. These "other days" are Romish festivals
instituted for Romanists by the Deformed Church only millenia later. As
the 1542-1621 Cardinal Archbishop Bellarmine of Capua stated in his own
Catechism anent the 'Third[!] Commandment': "Remember the festivals, to
keep them holy."
Thereby, the Christian Sabbath of Holy Scripture
¾
was ignored. Matt.
28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 53:56 to 24:6; John 20:1,19,26; Acts 2:1; 20:6-
7; I Cor. 16:1-2; Heb. 4:8-11 cf. 10:25; Rev. 1:10. Thereby, the Lord's
day was, and is, degraded to the level of the saints' days
¾
appointed
by Mediaeval Romanism. Thereby, Jesus Christ the only-begotten Son of
God the Father
¾
was, and is, rather is demoted to the standing of mere
mortals like "St." Teresa!
This then was, and is, Rome's answer to the Reformation. This was,
and is, the reply to the Reformed Church of the Deformed Church
¾
alias
that part of the Church that refused to reform (and still refuses to
reform) according to God's Word. After the light of Luther at the dawn
of the sixteenth century, there followed the darkness of Trent. Post
lucem, tenebrae. But in the merciful providence of Almighty God, the
Lord's day was again destined to be illuminated by the Sun of
Righteousness (Mal. 4:2-4f). Post tenebras, Lux!
1
H.J.W. Legerton: The Church of Rome and the Lord's Day, Lord's Day
Observance Society, London, 1957, pp 5-9.