Michelle Obama’s Commencement Address at UAPB – Don’t Be Fool – TV Evangelists vs. God’s Word
PINE BLUFF, Ark. – Michelle Obama told graduates Saturday to prepare to overcome adversity, building on Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1958 commencement address at the same university, when he told students to summon their courage to fight segregation.
The first lady gave an impassioned speech to 270 graduates of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff that referenced the legacy of their historically black school, which opened in 1873 with seven students, most of whom could barely read.
Full Speech
Thank you so much. I am so thrilled and so honored to be here today to help celebrate the extraordinary young men and women of the Class of 2010.
Thank you, Chancellor Davis, for that very kind introduction, and for continuing your family tradition of inspired leadership at this university.
I also want to recognize Governor Mike Beebe and Mrs. Ginger Beebe, Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, Representative Mike Ross, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and Mayor Carl Redus.
Thanks also to Carl L. Johnson, Vice Chairman of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, the members of the Board of Trustees and B. Alan Sugg, President of the University of Arkansas System.
And graduates, let’s all take a moment to thank the unsung heroes here today – your families: the folks who pushed you and believed in you, the folks who answered all those late night phone calls, even when you were just calling to ask for money, the folks whose love sustains you every single day.
Because today is their day too. So let’s give them a round of applause.
Finally, to the stars of today’s show, the class of 2010 – congratulations, we are all so proud of you.
You’ve worked so hard and invested so much of yourselves.
During your time here, your teachers have become mentors, your classes have become passions and career ambitions and your classmates have become lifelong friends.
From the day you arrived as freshmen, you have taken all this school has to offer and made it your own.
And in doing so, you’ve become part of a proud tradition – one that began 135 years ago, just a decade past slavery, on that September day when the Branch Normal College first opened its doors.
Things were very different back then.
There were no lecture halls or dorm rooms, no athletic facilities or libraries.
The first campus was little more than a run-down frame house in desperate need of repairs.
The first class consisted of just seven students, some of whom could barely read at a first grade level.
Life was full of uncertainty for these students.
There was no clear path to success – no guarantee of opportunity when they graduated.
Still, with hope in their hearts, and faith in their God-given potential, they came here anyway, they came to do the only thing they could – they came to learn.
Just imagine how those seven students would feel if they could see all of you here today?
If they could see how their tiny schoolhouse has become the Flagship of the Delta – a great university with a network of alumni across this country.
Imagine their pride in seeing all this institution has accomplished: the Vesper Choir performing at the Vatican; the ROTC program producing a U.S. Army General; the Golden Lions making it to the NCAA tournament; and generations of doctors, lawyers, educators and others who have gone on to improve the lives of millions.
And do you think they could ever have dreamed that their school band would be chosen to march at the inaugural parade of a United States President, and that President would be an African American man named Barack Obama?
Graduates, when you think about how far you’ve come, when you think about how far this university has come, it just once again reminds you that God is good.
And today, we celebrate not just your achievements, but the achievements of all those who came before you, those who poured everything they had into building this school and giving you opportunities they never could’ve imagined for themselves.
But even today, with all the progress that’s been made, and all that you’ve achieved, I know that for so many of you, the journey hasn’t been easy.
Many of you probably grew up like me in neighborhoods where few had the chance to go to college where being teased for wanting academic success was a fact of life, where well-meaning, but misguided folks questioned whether a girl with a background like mine could succeed at a school like Princeton.
But like me you knew you wanted something more.
Just like those first seven students at this school, something inside of you drove you to set your sights higher.
It was that internal drive that kept you focused, kept you out of trouble, and earned you admission to this University.
I’m sure you all remember the joy you felt when you opened those acceptance letters.
But I’m sure that some of you also remember the initial shock you experienced when you first arrived on campus – and realized that the expectations were perhaps a little higher and the work was harder than anticipated.
But that didn’t stop you instead, you dug deep, you stepped up your game – and ultimately earned yourself that diploma.
But now, after all you’ve done to get this far after all of your achievements and struggles a new set of challenges awaits.
Suddenly, you’re facing a future of debt in the form of tens of thousands of dollars of student loans – and you’ve got to find a job that will start paying the bills before the bill collectors come knocking.
I know the feeling. It wasn’t that long ago that my husband and I were still paying off our own loans.
It can start to feel like each time you overcome one obstacle and achieve something big, another obstacle is right there to take its place.
The bar is set, then you work as hard as you can to reach that bar, and just when you think you’ve finally reached it, the bar moves even higher – even farther out of reach.
And I know that can be frustrating – particularly for young people like you who’ve been raised in a popular culture that doesn’t always value hard work and commitment, a culture that instead glorifies easy answers and instant gratification, the fast food, the instant messaging, the easy credit.
Your generation has come of age in a culture that celebrates fleeting reality TV fame rather than the hard labors of lasting success.
It’s a culture that elevates today’s celebrity gossip over the serious issues that will shape our future for decades to come.
It’s a culture that tells us that our lives should be easy, that suffering and struggle should be avoided at all costs, and that we can have everything we want without a whole lot of effort.
But we all know that life really doesn’t work that way.
Despite all those promises of easy money and fast profits, how many businesses do you know that succeed without the hard work and serious investments to produce a quality product?
Despite all those expectations of instant progress and overnight change, how many leaders do you know that have made lasting contributions without major trials and setbacks along the way?
It took decades of struggle to end slavery, for women to earn the right to vote, and for us to free ourselves from the scourge of segregation.
And we all remember what happened to our economy when we succumbed to the lure of easy credit, too-good-to-be-true-mortgages, and assurances that it’s just fine to spend way beyond our means.
So graduates, I’d like to suggest that – contrary to what you might see on TV or in the tabloids -few things worth achieving happen in an instant, and there’s often great value in great struggle.
I’m here to suggest that it’s only by embracing, rather than shrinking from challenges, it’s only by setting and striving for our own ambitious bars that we become what we are truly meant to be.
Think for a moment about those first seven students at this school.
They arrived here at a time when newly freed people had few opportunities beyond sharecropping, when oppressive “black codes” still limited their freedom, and lynching and mob violence were facts of life.
They had been raised in a society that viewed them not as potential students, or professionals, or even citizens – but as property – unfit for, and undeserving of, an education.
But something inside of them rejected that notion.
Somehow, they were able to see beyond what they had been told.
Somehow, they held fast to their own vision of themselves – as scholars, as future teachers, as human beings with something worthy to contribute.
And that same defiant courage, that same spirit of self-determination, has fueled the success of countless students in every generation since.
Consider the example of Dr. Samuel Kountz, class of 1952.
He performed the first kidney transplant between people who weren’t identical twins.
And over the years, his pioneering research has made countless other transplants possible.
Believe it or not, back when he first applied to this school as a young man, he actually failed the entrance examination.
But he didn’t give up on his dream of an education.
He didn’t withdraw his application.
He simply decided that his test score didn’t reflect his true potential and he appealed straight to the university President, who agreed, and admitted him despite his scores.
And think about how many lives have been saved, and how much medical progress has been made, because Samuel Kountz believed more in himself than in some number on a page.
And people like Dr. Kountz are everywhere.
They are sitting among you here today.
Consider the journey of Quiana Childress who’s graduating today with a degree in biology.
Quiana grew up in a tiny town in a family that struggled just to keep the lights on and the water running – and at the age of 16, she became homeless.
In order to provide for herself, she found work as a nursing assistant.
And living out of a car, she’d go to school during the day, and she’d work late nights and weekends at her job, sometimes up to 16 hours a day.
Every day was hard. Every day was exhausting.
And one day at work, when she was just about ready to throw in the towel, Quiana thought for a moment, not about her own struggles, but about those of her patients.
She thought about how sick they were and how much pain they were in.
And at that moment she realized – as she put it, and I quote: “they needed me more than I needed to give up.”
At that moment, Quiana found herself, she found her true calling in life – to be a doctor.
And it’s not just her prestigious internships or her near-perfect GPA that will help her fulfill that dream.
It’s the compassion she has for others’ suffering that comes from having suffered so much herself.
It’s her burning desire to rise above her circumstances – her unrelenting belief that she can succeed despite all evidence to the contrary.
All of that will not just make Quiana a good doctor – but an extraordinary one.
And think for a moment about the improbable endeavor that was my husband’s campaign for President.
He’d be the first to tell you that he wasn’t the likeliest candidate for that office.
He didn’t start out with many connections or much money or name recognition.
And when he first began campaigning out in Iowa and New Hampshire, most folks whose hands he shook and homes he visited had no idea who he was.
But Barack Obama didn’t get discouraged.
He didn’t listen to the pundits who said that someone like him could never get elected.
Instead, he listened to his gut which told him that this country is less cynical, less divided, less selfish than some may think.
He listened to his heart, which told him he had an obligation to serve and to give back to this country that had given him so much.
And no matter how long those campaign days got, or how low his poll numbers dropped, that’s what motivated him, that’s what sustained him, that’s what saw him through to the end.
And ultimately, all those ups and downs, all those long hours on the campaign actually helped him build up the stamina that now serves him every day as President of the United States.
See that’s the thing about striving in the face of adversity – often, it’s the hardship and sacrifices that make you stronger.
Often, the harder you have to fight to achieve your goals, the more endurance you build up – not just physical and emotional, but spiritual as well.
Many of you know from experience that the moments of greatest trial and tragedy that shake our souls – those moments don’t shatter or weaken our faith, they strengthen and deepen it.
It’s easy to have faith when things are good – when everyone’s healthy, and you can pay the bills, and life is going according to plan.
But the faith that comes easy won’t always sustain you when times are hard.
The faith you need then – the bone-deep kind of faith that gets you through your darkest hours – that kind of faith is only earned when it’s tested.
Think about Dr. Martin Luther King, who spoke at this school’s commencement back in 1958.
He’d been arrested and put on trial for his work.
His house had been bombed, and his life had been threatened.
But he came here on a Spring day half a century ago and after all he had seen, and all he’d been through, Dr. King told that graduating class – and I quote: “Now we stand on the border line of the promised land.”
And he spoke of a day when “…all men can stand together, black and white, Jew and gentile, Protestant and Catholic and sing another song – ‘free at last, free at last’.”
Dr. King refused to let the world as it was dissuade him from his vision of the world as it should be.
And not just in spite of what he’d endured, but because of what he’d endured, Dr. King still had faith.
He still had, in the words of Scripture, the faith that is “…the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Now, I want to be clear: I’m in no way suggesting that hardship, injustice and inequality are somehow acceptable or justifiable because they can make people stronger.
And I’m certainly not suggesting that the only path to success requires overcoming obstacles thrust upon you.
Plenty of folks who’ve been raised in privilege have gone on to change the world because they had the discipline and drive to set high expectations for themselves, to use their resources to meet those expectations – and to pull others up along the way.
And I expect nothing less from those of you who’ve been fortunate in your lives.
My point is simply that life is complicated, human beings are imperfect and struggle and hardship will always be with us in some form or another.
But that has never been the end of our story – either as individuals or as a nation – but only the beginning.
For ours is a story of folks who traveled great distances to build a better life, folks who marched, and fought, and bled, folks who risked everything they had because they wanted something more for their children.
It’s the story of folks like your parents and grandparents who may not have had the chance to go to college themselves, but who saved, and sacrificed so that you could go, so that you could have opportunities they never imagined for themselves.
They didn’t do all that so that you could have it easy.
And they didn’t do all that so that you could spend your lives breathlessly reaching for whatever bars others set for you.
They did it so that you could set your own high bars.
They did it so that you could discover for yourselves that the things that truly matter in life are the bars that don’t move: families that love you, work that’s meaningful, a community that embraces you, the chance to make a contribution that is lasting.
Those are the bars that count.
I think that Dr. Dorothy Height – the godmother of the civil rights movement whose recent passing we mourn – put it best.
When discussing why she kept up the fight for civil and economic rights all throughout her life, she said, simply, “This is my life’s work. It is not a job.”
And that is what I wish for all of you graduates today.
I wish for you the kind of trials that help you discover your life’s work and give you the strength and faith to pursue it.
I wish for you a life lived not in response to the doubts or fears or desires of others, but in pursuit of passions, hopes and dreams that are your very own.
And whenever you get discouraged – and you will, when you start to lose heart and you want to give up – and you will, I want you to think about all those who came before you.
I want you to tell yourself that if Quiana Childress can go from being homeless to graduating with the highest GPA not just in the biology department, but in the entire School of Arts and Sciences then surely, you can overcome whatever adversity you face in your own life.
Tell yourself, if Dr. Samuel Kountz could appeal directly to this university’s President and insist that he deserved a place at this school, then surely you can see to it that your own gifts never go to waste.
And if those seven students could have the audacity to take their place here 135 years ago, if they could insist on fulfilling their God-given potential and staking their claim on the promise of this great nation, then surely, all of you can too.
May their legacy be your inspiration.
And I wish you Godspeed and every blessing on the road ahead. Thank you.
Don’t Be Fool – Is Sunday Really The Lord’s Day – History of the Sabbath
Remember the Sabbath day and Keep it Holy:
Charles Stanley Sabbath Sermon:
Does God want His children to Keep His Sabbath?
Does God want His children to Keep His Commandments?
Can God’s people worship Him the way they want to?
TV Evangelists vs. God’s Word – Who Is Right?
Who Do you Believe?
Charles Stanley Sabbath Sermon:
“The first four commandments set forth man’s obligations directly toward God…. But when we keep the first four commandments, we are likely to keep the other six….The fourth commandment sets forth God’s claim on man’s time and thought….The six days of labor and the rest on the Sabbath are to be maintained as a witness to God’s toil and rest in the creation…. No one of the ten words is of merely racial significance….The Sabbath was established originally (long before Moses) in no special connection with the Hebrews, but as an institution for all of mankind, in commemoration of God’s rest after the six days of creation. It was designed for all the descendants of Adam.” Adult Quarterly, Southern Baptist Convention series, Aug. 15, 1937.
“The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember,’ showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?”…..”I honestly believe that this commandment [the fourth, or Sabbath commandment] is just as binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated (canceled), but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the Scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. `The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’ It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was – in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age.” D.L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, pg. 47.
Bishop TD Jake Sabbath Sermon: “I Keep Every Day holy”
They [the Catholics] allege the Sabbath changed into Sunday, the Lord’s Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it appears, neither is there any example more boasted of than the changing of the Sabbath day. Great, say they, is the power and the authority of the church, since it dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments.” Martin Luther, Augsburg Confession of Faith, Art. 28, Par.9.
“But they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the seventh day had to be kept by the children of Israel. In other words, they insist that Sunday is the divinely appointed New Testament Sabbath, and so they endeavor to enforce the Sabbatical observance of Sunday by so called blue laws…These churches err in their teaching, for the Scripture has in no way ordained the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect.” John Theodore Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday, pp. 15,16
From Sabbath to Sunday – History of the Sabbath Through the Ages
God knew that man will forget about His Sabbath that is why He said remember..Before the children of Israel was given the Ten Commandment on MT. Sinai, they knew about Gods Sabbath. Before there was an Israel or Hebrew, or Egyptian, or Syrian or any nation, there was the 7th day Sabbath.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” Genesis 1:1;2:2, 3.
God made the Sabbath at the time of Creation, after He made the world and everything in it. God rested on the Sabbath and blessed and sanctified it (set it apart for a holy use).
“And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:” Mark 2:27
The Sabbath and the family were alike instituted in Eden, and in God’s purpose they are perpetually linked together. On this day more than on any other, it is possible for us to live the life of Eden. It was God’s plan for the members of the family to be associated in work and study, in worship and recreation, the father as priest of his household, and both father and mother as teachers and companions of their children. But the results of sin, having changed the conditions of life, to a great degree prevent this association. Often the father hardly sees the faces of his children throughout the week. He is almost wholly deprived of opportunity for companionship or instruction. But God’s love has set a limit to the demands of toil. Over the Sabbath He places His merciful hand. In His own day He preserves for the family opportunity for communion with Him, with nature, and with one another.
The Sabbath is a sign of creative and redeeming power; it points to God as the source of life and knowledge; it recalls man’s primeval glory, and thus witnesses to God’s purpose to re-create us in His own image. The Sabbath of the Lord bears His name and seal. “It is a sign,” He says, “between Me and you; . . . that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.” because “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 31:13; 20:11.
The Sabbath is the day above all others when we should acquaint ourselves with God through His works. In the minds of the children the very thought of the Sabbath should be bound up with the beauty of natural things. Happy is the family who can go to the place of worship on the Sabbath as Jesus and His disciples went to the synagogue–across the fields, along the shores of the lake, or through the groves. Happy the father and mother who can teach their children God’s written word with illustrations from the open pages of the book of nature; who can gather under the green trees, in the fresh, pure air, to study the word and to sing the praise of the Father above. By such associations parents may bind their children to their hearts, and thus to God, by ties that can never be broken..
Mark 7:7 said ” in vain do they worship Me teaching for doctrine the commandments of man. Yes beloved, the worship of many is in vain because they worship God according to tradition and the commandment of man.. In other words they worship the way the man of sin (Lucifer)want them to worship. They worship the Sun God or Baal on the first day of the week..(Sunday)Lucifer is using religious leaders to champion his cause of getting Gods people to forget the true day of worship (7Th day) and worship on the wrong day..Many books have been written, organizations such as the Lords Day Alliance have been formed, and church doctrines forged, sermons preached, to perpetrate the hoax of Sunday being the Sabbath. Pope Benedict XVI at the world youth day celebration in Germany told the people of his commitment to reinstating the active observance of the Roman Catholic Church’s chief icon: Sunday. He knows that to popularize religion in Europe, he has to reintroduce a means of promoting what marketers call brand loyalty. The most historic brand the pope can offer to bond the people together is the ancient day of worship, fashionable since Babylon, the old day of the sun—Sunday. Hence his promotion of that old Roman brand in his recent addresses. Look at the official Catholic document
Pope Benedict XVI, call himself the Shepherd of Truth. But is he?
Notable quotations from Pope Benedict XVI and official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church
“FERTILE FOUNDATION”
Sunday remains the fertile foundation and … the fundamental nucleus of the liturgical year which originated in Christ’s Resurrection, thanks to which the features of eternity were impressed on time. Thus, Sunday is … a fragment of time imbued with eternity, for its dawn saw the Crucified and Risen Christ enter victorious into eternal life.” He further stated “Finally, it is particularly urgent nowadays to remember that the day of the Lord is also a day of rest from work. It is greatly to be hoped that this fact will also be recognized by civil society, so that individuals can be permitted to refrain from work without being penalized. Christians, not without reference to the meaning of the Sabbath in the Jewish tradition, have seen in the Lord’s Day a day of rest from their daily exertions. … — Pope Benedict XVI, Apostolic Exhortation SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS, February 22, 2007. Pope Benedict XVI implies that Sunday, the first day of the week, (traditionally called Dies Domini, the Lord’s day) is the sanctified holy day of rest, “with regard to the work of creation.” This directly contradicts scripture: How can the Pope call himself the sheperd of truth when he contradicts Gods Word? Scripture never designates the first day of the week as the Lord’s day, however, God calls the sabbath “my holy day” (Isa. 58:13) and refers to Himself as Lord “of the Sabbath day” (Matt.12:8, Mk 2:28, Lk 6:5).
Beware of the lies that the apostate popes, bishops, evangelists, preachers, and teachers will tell you concerning Sunday sacredness.. Prove all things by the Word of God. Is.8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, its because there is no light in them.
“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:6
A special blessing is given to those who keep the Sabbath.
“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13-14
“the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” John 4:23
Leaders who are voicing their support for back to the Ten Commandments and their declaration are: Pastor T.D. Jakes ( The Potter’s House ), Dr. Paul Crouch of TBN, James Dobson (Focus on the Family)Richard Shakarian ( Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship ), Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty ( Tulsa Victory Christian Center ), Benny Hinn ( Benny Hinn Ministries ), Ted Haggard ( National Association of Evangelicals ), Dr. Mark J. Chironna ( The Master’s Touch International Church ), Richard Roberts ( Oral Roberts University ), Marilyn Hickey ( Marilyn Hickey Ministries ), Bishop Paul S. Morton ( Life Center Full Gospel Baptist Cathedral ), Dr. Jerry Horner ( Director of Doctoral Studies, Beacon University ), Dr. Charles Phillips ( Official Representative to the United Nations as a Non-Government Official to the Economic Concilias ), Bishop Harold Ray ( Redemptive Life Fellowship ), Bishop Eddie L. Long ( Bishop Eddie Long Ministries ), Billy Graham, Charles Stanly, Dr. Charles Green ( Faith Church of New Orleans ), Floyd Flake ( Pastor and former Congressman ), and Rabbi Yehuda David Greenberg and many more. . .
Ten Commandments Commission
We, the members of the Ten Commandments Commission and supporting people of faith, proclaim The Ten Commandments Day on the first Sunday in the month of May, commencing on Sunday, May Sixth of 2007.
Furthermore, we proclaim the Ten Commandments Day to be a day dedicated for the display, awareness, commemoration and celebration of the Decalogue which we know to be the divine foundation of the Judeo-Christian faith.
We, the members of the commission, serve as a cohesive group of spiritual leaders representing millions of followers who affirm the beauty and the uniqueness of our differences. We believe that rooted in the Ten Commandments is a Divine plan that transcends color and diversity in cultural expression, sanctions brotherhood of man and respects expressions in all of God’s children.
We, who serve as a council of leaders, are committed to utilizing our united passion to provide purpose and direction for reversing the enormous tide of immorality continuing to be released throughout the United States of America, and on all continents of the world. This unified voice will culminate annually on the Ten Commandments Day and provide for a united, global, spiritual platform based on the Ten Commandments. This platform will respond to the call echoed throughout creation for a true expression love, harmony and reconciliation among all nations, ethnic diversities and genders through education and rededication to the moral standard as given by our Loving Creator.
Therefore, we are calling on all community and spiritual leaders; churches, synagogues, fellowships, ministries, organizations and all who care about moral values, to celebrate the annual Ten Commandments Day by hosting local events in support of the Ten Commandments and what they represent.
Finally, we proclaim the need to heal the wounds of history through strategic and practical objectives, proactive love and obedience to the commands of God.
By signing this document, I hereby give my commitment of support to the ideals brought forth by the Ten Commandments Commission in the establishment of the annual Ten Commandments Day, and to the moral standard we acknowledge and seek to uphold by the grace of Almighty God.
Testimony From Leading Denominations on the Sabbath Issue
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” The current notion that Christ and His apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh, is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament.” Dr Lyman Abbot, in the “Christian Union,” June 26, 1890.
“There is no command in the Bible requiring us to observe the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath.” Orin Fowler, A.M., Mode and Subjects of Baptism
“The Christian Sabbath (Sunday) is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the Primitive Church called the Sabbath.” Dwight’s Theology, Vol. 4, pg. 401;
“The Bible commandment says on the seventh day thou shalt rest. That is Saturday. Nowhere in the Bible is it laid down that worship should be done on Sunday.” Philip Carrington, Toronto Daily Star, Oct. 26, 1949.
“Where are we told in Scripture that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day…… The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it.” Isaac Williams, D. D., Plain Sermons on the Catechism, Vol. 1, pp. 334-336.
“Sunday (Dies Solis, of the Roman calendar, ‘day of the sun,’ because dedicated to the sun), the first day of the week, was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship. The ‘sun’ of Latin adoration they interpreted as the ‘Sun of Righteousness.. No regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor, indeed, is its observance even enjoined.” Schaff Herzog, Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1891 Edition, Vol.4, art: ‘Sunday’
“The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them and from the early apostolic church to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.” Neander, History of the Christian Religion and Church, p.186
“There is no word, no hint in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday. The observance of Ash Wednesday, or Lent, stands exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday. Into the rest of Sunday no Divine Law enters.” Canon Eyton, in “The Ten Commandments”
“We must not imagine that the coming of Christ has freed us from the authority of the law; for it is the eternal rule of a devout and holy life, and must therefore be as unchangeable as the justice of God, which it embraced, is constant and uniform.” John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Gospels, Vol. 1, pg. 277.
“The Sabbath is a part of the Decalogue – the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution… Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand… The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath.” T.C. Blake, D.D., Theology Condensed, pp.474,475
“And where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are commanded to keep the first.” Isaac Williams, “Plain Sermons on the Catechism,” pp. 334, 336.
“There is no direct Scriptural authority for designating the first day ‘the Lord’s Day.” Dr. D.H. Lucas, in the “Christian Oracle,” January 23, 1890.
“It is true that there is no positive command for infant baptism. Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week. Many believe that Christ changed the Sabbath. But, from his own words, we see that He came for no such purpose. Those who believe that Jesus changed the Sabbath base it only on a supposition.” Amos Binney, “Theological Compendium,” pp. 180-181.
“No Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.” “The Sabbath was made for MAN; not for the Hebrews, but for all men.” Methodist Church Discipline (1904), p.23
“But the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of his coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which can never be broken…. Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other.”John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions, Vol. 1, Sermon XXV.
“There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday… It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week… Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament – absolutely not. There is no scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week…’To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, never alluded to any transference of the day; also, that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated…’Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism.” Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of the Baptist Manual, in a paper read before a New York minister’s conference held Nov.13, 1893
“The Scriptures nowhere call the first day of the week the Sabbath. There is no Scriptural authority for so doing, nor of course, any Scriptural obligation.” “The Watchman.”
“The first four commandments set forth man’s obligations directly toward God…. But when we keep the first four commandments, we are likely to keep the other six….The fourth commandment sets forth God’s claim on man’s time and thought….The six days of labor and the rest on the Sabbath are to be maintained as a witness to God’s toil and rest in the creation…. No one of the ten words is of merely racial significance….The Sabbath was established originally (long before Moses) in no special connection with the Hebrews, but as an institution for all of mankind, in commemoration of God’s rest after the six days of creation. It was designed for all the descendants of Adam.” Adult Quarterly, Southern Baptist Convention series, Aug. 15, 1937.
“Therefore God gave his law through Moses to the Israelites and which applies to all who want to do right, and the first in order and first in importance of his commandments or fundamental law is this, to wit.’ Exodus 20:1-6,”..”which is the first part of the Ten Commandment law…’The law of God never changes, because God never changes. (Malachi 3:6). His law points out the way to everlasting life. No creature will ever be given life everlasting who willfully, that is, intentionally, violates God’s law….For a man to violate the fundamental law of God means that that man puts himself on the side of the devil, who therefore leads him to destruction.” Enemies, Watchtower publications, 1937, pg. 94.
“Not any ecclesiastical writer of the first three centuries attributed the origin of Sunday observance either to Christ or to His apostles.” Sir WILLIAM DOMVILLE, Examination of the Six Texts,” pages 6, 7. (Supplement).
“There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday. . . into the rest of Sunday no divine law enters. . . The observance of Ash Wednesday or Lent stands exactly on the same footing as the observance of Sunday.” CANON EYTON, “The Ten Commandments,” pages 52, 63, 65
“Is there any command in the New Testament to change the day of weekly rest from Saturday to Sunday? None.” Manual of Christian Doctrine,” page 127
“The Lord’s day did not succeed in the place of the Sabbath … The Lord’s day was merely an ecclesiastical institution It was not introduced by virtue of the fourth commandment, because for almost three hundred years together they kept that day which was in that commandment…. The primitive Christians did all manner of works upon the Lord’s day even in times of persecution when they are the strictest observers of all the divine commandments; but in this they knew there was none.” BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR, “Ductor Dubitantium,” Part 1, Book II, Chap. 2, Rule 6 Sec.51,59.
“Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly adore that planet and called it Sunday, partly from its influence on that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body (as they conceived it), the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear causelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice than might be otherwise taken against the gospel.” T. M. MORER, “Dialogues on the Lord’s Day,” pages 22,23.
“Where are we told in Scripture that we are to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day…. The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it.” ISAAC WILLIAMS, B.D., “Plain Sermons on the Catechism,” Vol. 1, pages 334-336.
“Dear Madam:
“In reply to your letter of May 7th, I am asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury to say that from the first century onward the Christian church has observed the first day of the week as the weekly commemoration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the early Christians . . . deliberately substituted the first day of the week for the seventh on the ground that it was on the first day that our Lord rose from the dead. [Italics ours.]
“Yours faithfully,
“ALAN C. DON.”
“The Puritan idea was historically unhappy. It made Sunday into the Sabbath day. Even educated people call Sunday the Sabbath. Even clergymen do.
“But, unless my reckoning is all wrong, the Sabbath day lasts twenty-four hours from six o’clock on Friday evening. It gives over, therefore, before we come to Sunday. If you suggest to a Sabbatarian that he ought to observe the Sabbath on the proper day, you arouse no enthusiasm. He at once replies that the day, not the principle, has been changed. But changed by whom? There is no injunction in the whole of the New Testament to Christians to change the Sabbath into Sunday.” –D. MORSE- BOYCOTT, Davy Herald, London, Feb. 26, 1931.
“The Christian church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious transference of the one day to the other.” F. W. FARRAR, D.D., “The Voice From Sinai,” page 167.
“Take which you will, either of the Fathers or the moderns, and we shall find no Lord’s day instituted by any apostolical mandate; no Sabbath set on foot by them upon the first day of the week.” PETER HEYLYN, History of the Sabbath, page 410.
“Merely to denounce the tendency to secularize Sunday is as futile as it is easy. What we want is to find some principle, to which as Christians we can appeal, and on which we can base both our conduct and our advice. We turn to the New Testament, and we look in vain for any authoritative rule. There is no recorded word of Christ, there is no word of any of the apostles, which tells how we should keep Sunday, or indeed that we should keep it at all. It is disappointing, for it would make our task much easier if we could point to a definite rule, which left us no option but simple obedience or disobedience…. There is no rule for Sunday observance, either in Scripture or history.” DR. STEPHEN, Bishop of Newcastle, N.S.W., in an address reported in the Newcastle Morning Herald, May 14, 1924.
“It has reversed the fourth commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God’s Word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday.” DR. N. SUMMERBELL, “History of the Christian Church,” Third Edition, page 415.
NOTE: The current official position of the Church of Christ is that the Sabbath was abolished entirely and Christians need not keep either Saturday or Sunday as a day of worship.
“There is no direct Scriptural authority for designating the first day the Lord’s day.” DR. D. H. LUCAS, Christian Oracle, Jan. 23, 1890.
“The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake. The Sabbath of the Bible was the day just preceding the first day of the week. The first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in the entire Scriptures. It is also an error to talk about the change of the Sabbath. There never was any change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. There is not in any place in the Bible any intimation of such a change.” First-Day Observance, pages 17, 19.
“To command … men … to observe … the Lord’s day … is contrary to the gospel.” Memoirs of Alexander Campbell,” Vol. I, page 528.
“It is clearly proved that the pastors of the churches have struck out one of God’s ten words, which, not only in the Old Testament, but in all revelation, are the most emphatically regarded as the synopsis of all religion and morality.” ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, “Debate With Purcell,” page 214.
“I do not believe that the Lord’s day came in the room of the Jewish Sabbath, or that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day, for this plain reason, where there is no testimony, there can be no faith. Now there is no testimony in all the oracles of heaven that the Sabbath was changed, or that the Lord’s day came in the room of it.” ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Washington Reporter, Oct.8, 1821.
“During this indefinite time a considerable amount of a sort of theokrasia seems to have gone on between the Christian cult and the almost equally popular and widely diffused Mithraic cult, and the cult of Serapis-Isis-Horus. From the former it would seem the Christians adopted Sunday as their chief day of worship in- stead of the Jewish Sabbath.” H. G. WELLS, “The Outline of History” (New and Revised), page 543.
“The first who ever used it [the Sabbath to denote the Lord's day (the first that I have met with in all this search) is one Petrus Alfonsus-he lived about the time that Repurtus did (which was the beginning of the twelfth century)-who calls the Lord's day by the name of Christian Sabbath." PETER HEYLYN, "History of the Sabbath," Part 2, Chap. 2, Sec. 12.
"Bear in mind that the substitution [of the first for the seventh day] was not a coerced happening; it could not be a sudden, but only a very slow development, probably never anticipated, never even designed or put into shape by those chiefly interested, but creeping almost unconsciously into being.” WILLIAM B. DANA, “A Day of Rest and Worship,” page 174.
The first direct reference to Sunday as a day of rest from physical toil we find in Tertullian, in about A.D. 200 in his Liber de Oratione, chapter 23. “We, however ( just as we have received ), only on the day of the Lord’s resurrection ought to guard not only against kneeling, but every posture and office of solicitude; deferring even our businesses lest we give any place to the devil.” TERTULLIAN, “Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. 111, page 689.
“The early Christians had at first adopted the Jewish seven- day week with its numbered week days, but by the close of the third century A.D. this began to give way to the planetary week; and in the fourth and fifth centuries the pagan designations became generally accepted in the western half of Christendom. The use of the planetary names by Christians attests the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by converts from paganism. … During these same centuries the spread of Oriental solar worships, especially that of Mithra (Persian sun worship) in the Roman world, had already led to the substitution by pagans of dies Solis for dies Saturni, as the first day of the planetary week…. Thus gradually a pagan institution was ingrafted on Christianity.” HUTTON WEBSTER, Ph.D., Rest Days, pages 220, 221.
Eusebius, fourth-century bishop and friend of the wicked Emperor Constantine, whose Sunday law is the first on record, flatly says: “All things, whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day [as they had begun to call Sunday].” –”Commentary on the Psalms.”
“Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath…. The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin.” AUGUSTUS NEANDER, General history of the Christian Religion and Church” (Rose’s translation), Vol. 1, page 186.
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