B. Authoritative statements

Recently, the Adventist radio program "Voice of Prophecy" released a 31-page printed work, "Official Statements on the Old Testament Sabbath and Sunday Problem." In this edition, they quote from "mainstream" Protestant sources that "prove" that Sunday instead of Saturday is a pagan tradition introduced in 321 by Constantine the Great.

However, many of these sources actually state what Adventists flatly deny, namely that the Sabbath is not the Lord's Day or the first day of the week, but remains only the seventh day.

Since Adventists have mastered the practice of quoting official sources of information in order to find support for their position on this issue, we will offer for their consideration the sayings of the same sources, but expressing the opposite views of the Adventists:

1. "Sunday is not the successor of the Sabbath... Sunday is just a priestly institution... On Sunday, ordinary Christians did all kinds of work" (Bishop Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, Part 1, Book 2, Chapter 2, Canon 6, Sections 51, 59)

2. "The acceptance of Sunday as the Day of the Lord is not based on any commandment of God, but on the authority of the church" (Augsburg Confession of Faith, quoted in the Catholic Sabbath Manual, Part 2, Chapter 1, Section 10).

3. "They are mistaken in declaring that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and should therefore be revered as the seventh day observed by all the 'children of Israel' (J. T. Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday, pp. 15, 16).

4. "They (the Catholics) claim that Sunday (the Day of the Lord) is honored instead of the Sabbath, this is contrary to God's commandment and there is nothing to be proud of" (Martin Luter, Augsburg Confession of Faith, Art 28, Para7 9).

5. "Although Sunday was often called the Day of the Lord in early times, it was never the successor of the Sabbath - the seventh day, as this day is called in the works of the sacred writers." (Charles Buck, "A Theological Dictionary," 1830, p. 537).

6. "The opinion that the Apostles should formally replace the Jewish Sabbath with the Day of the Lord (Sunday), i.e. the seventh day first, and automatically transfer to that day all the necessary duties established for the fulfillment of the fourth commandment, has no basis either in the Holy Scriptures or in the Christian traditions" (Sir William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, "A Dictionary of Chistian Antiquities, vol. p. 182, article on the Sabbath).

7. "The point of view that Christian Sunday is a "Christian Sabbath", only transferred from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week, does not find support in the foreseeable period of time... The Council of Laodicea (364) forbade Christians as Jews to honor the Sabbath, prescribing to them the Christian veneration of Sunday." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1899, vol. 23, p. 654).

Thus, Adventists themselves shattered their arguments by resorting to official Protestant sources, which definitely state that the first day of the week is the Lord's Day and that the tradition of such Sunday observance has been going on since apostolic times.