Men of God

Luther  started  the  Protestant  Reformation  in  1517.  However,  in  the year before his death¾the 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 ceremonies¾namely 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.”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 millennia later. Asthe 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 Scripture¾was 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’ days¾appointedby  Mediaeval  Romanism.  Thereby,  Jesus  Christ  the  only-begotten  Son  of God the Father¾was, 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 Church¾ 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,  theLord’s   day   was   again   destined   to   be   illuminated   by   the   Sun   of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2-4f).  Post tenebras, Lux!1H.J.W. Legerton:   The Church of Rome and the Lord’s Day, Lord’s Day Observance Society, London, 1957, pp 5-9.