3. What does the papacy regard as its mark of authority?
ANSWER: ‘Sunday is our mark of authority. The [Catholic] Church is above the Bible and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.’ Catholic Record, September 1, 1923.
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the [Catholic] Church ever did happened in the First Century.* The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power. People that think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority should logically become Seventh Day Adventists and keep Saturday holy.’ Saint Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel, May 21, 1995. *There is not a shred of evidence that the change from Sabbath to Sunday took place in the First Century.
NOTE: ‘It is the “mark” of this “beast” which is sought to be enforced upon all by “another beast” arising “out of the earth.” And the papacy has a mark, a sign of her authority. She affirms that she has this, and her own words tell us what it is. Looking in her doctrinal books, we find:
Q. How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
A. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of.
The commands of Rome as regards her feasts and “holy days” are put forth as of binding obligation upon the consciences of men. And the mark of her asserted authority in this respect is “the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday”! In another work we find:
Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
A. 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.’ A. T. Jones: The American Sentinel, October 10, 1895.
4. In contrast to the mark of the beast, what sign does God give to His people? Ezekiel 20:12. Consider Exodus 31:12-18.
NOTE: ‘For, speaking of Israel, He said, “I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them,” make them holy. Ezekiel 20:12. Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ’s power to make us holy. And it is given to all whom Christ makes holy. As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God.’ Desire of Ages, page 288.