Can You Answer This?
George Burnside
On the 24th day of October, 1895, a great mass meeting of ministers of all denominations was called to meet in the Methodist Episcopal church in Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S.A. The purpose of this meeting was to endeavor to call a halt in the matter of Sunday law violations.
Among the invitations to attend this mass meeting, one was extended to a Roman Catholic priest, Father M. O’Keefe, pastor of a Roman Catholic church at Towson, Maryland. But the Roman Catholic priest declined the invitation, and refused to attend the mass meeting on the basis that the so-called Protestant clergymen were endeavoring to bring about a more strict observance of Sunday in the name of religion. The priest took vigorous exception to the claims made for Sunday, as set forth by Protestant ministers, from which we make the following very interesting quotation:
"Reverend Sirs, let me admonish you that no Protestant true to the principles of his religion and conscientiously obedient to his teacher, the Bible, need ever have misgivings as regards the freedom of Sunday; nay, more, his teacher is consistent in impressing on him in every page of the New Testament as well as of the Old that God has appointed the Sabbath, or Saturday, as the day set apart by Him for His worship. "Our Savior, while on earth, kept no other day; and we learn that for over thirty years after his death, the Acts of the Apostles record the fact that the apostles consistently kept their divine Master's Sabbath (the Sabbath which the Jews have kept ever since for over eighteen centuries, they having the same teacher, the Bible, as you have) according to the practice and teachings of Christ and His apostles, without modification, as testified by the New Testament from Matthew's Gospel to the Revelation.
This statement is absolutely true and unsusceptible of successful contradiction; imagine, then, my surprise on reading the city papers yesterday of the anomalous and self-stultifying position occupied by you, as accredited ministers of the Christian religion, laying snares and traps to inveigle the unwary that you might drag them before the civil courts for violation of a purely civil law, forbidding the sale of liquor on the first day of the week. On what grounds, may I ask, can you justify such proceedings? How were these people interfering with you in the practice of your religious acts? Place your finger on any page of your acknowledged divine teacher, the Bible, and show the world the proof that, on your own principles, they had violated any ordinance of the Christian religion. I hereby denounce your conduct in this matter as not only highly reprehensible, but as being in direct violation of the revealed will of God as taught by your Bible.
"You had succeeded in getting a verdict against them before the civil courts for transgression against the civil law. I now in the presence of the public pronounce you, on your principles, guilty of the grossest misdemeanor, thousands of times over, against the divine law.
"When, let me ask you, have you even once, in your lifetime, kept the commandment of God: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy"? Which day is the Sabbath? 1 answer: "The last day of the week, the day kept by God Himself and for that reason assigned by Him for observance by man, the Sabbath, or the day kept by the Redeemer and His apostles whilst they lived on earth." "You pose before the world as models of Christian morality, and behold, every week of your lives you are guilty of gross violation of one of God's most positive precepts, 'Remember the Sabbath,' etc. Let me illustrate in order to prove God's earnestness in this respect: 'And it came to pass when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and had found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day; and they brought him to Moses and Aaron, and the whole multitude. And they put him into prison, not knowing what they should do with him and the Lord said to Moses: 'Let that man die, let all the multitude stone him without the camp. And when they had brought him out, they stoned him and he died as the Lord commanded.' Numbers 15:32-36. Such, Reverend Sirs, was the punishment meted out by the command of God to a man who was guilty but once of an infraction of the law of the Sabbath, whilst each one of you is guilty of a similar desecration of the Sabbath (Saturday) each Saturday of his life - and this on the unerring testimony of your own teacher, the Bible. 'Out of thy mouth 1 judge thee, thou wicked servant.'
"Nor have God's counsels changed by the exercise of infinite patience. He can afford to bide his time for the vindication of His authority and contempt of His commands. The precept, 'Remember the Lord's day to keep it holy,' is as obligatory now as it was in the old law, as in the instance above quoted. Can you offer the slightest pretext or palliation for your abandonment of your teacher, the Bible, which enjoins absolutely the keeping of that day, kept by God Himself first, after the creation? You pursued the violation of the civil law unrelentingly and did not cease, until you secured a conviction. How, may I ask, will you fare when cited before the divine tribunal, and compelled to answer from the pages of the Divine Record, which you boast of as your guide, and the truth is you have never once obeyed the Sabbath precept, and that you stand today before heaven and earth as the most unmitigated Sabbath breakers on earth? Do 1 exaggerate in the slightest degree the unscrupulous antagonism to the law of the Sabbath evinced by you, every week of your lives? Not in the least. I have already designated you, amongst the champion Sabbath breakers on earth, as God's Word, your guide, proves you to be."
1. You shall have no other gods before me.
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:6
Acts 24:14 Acts 27:23 Romans 1:21-32 Romans 1:9
Romans 3:30 Romans 3:18 1 Corinthians 14:25 1 Corinthians 8:4,6
1 Corinthians 10:20,21 2 Corinthians 6:15 Ephesians 4:6 Philippians 3:19
Philippians 3:3 Colossians 2:18 1 Thessalonians 1:9 2 Thessalonians 2:4
1 Timothy 1:17 1 Timothy 2:5 1 Timothy 1:3 2 Timothy 3:4
Hebrews 12:28 Hebrews 9:14 Hebrews 3:12
2. You shall not make any graven images
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. Acts 17:29
Acts 15:20,29 Acts 19:35 Acts 17:16,29 Acts 21:25
Romans 2:22 Romans 11:4 Romans 1:23 Romans 11:4
1 Corinthians 10:7,14 1 Corinthians 6:9 1 Corinthians 10:20,21 1 Corinthians 10:19
1 Corinthians 5:10,11 2 Corinthians 6:16 Galatians 5:20 Ephesians 5:5
Colossians 3:5 Colossians 5:21 1 Thessalonians 1:9
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD in vain
To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not
blasphemed. Titus 2:5
Acts 18:6 Acts 26:11 Romans 2:24 Colossians 3:8
1 Timothy 1:13 1 Timothy 6:1 1 Timothy 1:20 2 Timothy 3:2
Titus 2:5
4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy
For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all
his works. There remains therefore a rest [Greek - Sabbath] to the people of God. Hebrews 4:4, 9.
Acts 13:42 Acts 18:4-11 Acts 17:2 Acts 16:13
Acts 13:44 Acts 13:27 Acts 13:14 Acts 15:21
Hebrews 4:4, 9
5. Honor your father and mother
Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise.
Ephesians 6:2
Romans 1:30 Ephesians 6:2 Colossians 3:20 1 Timothy 5:4
1 Timothy 3:12 1 Timothy 3:4 2 Timothy 3:2
6. You shall not kill
For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, Thou shall not bear false
witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Romans 13:9.
Romans 3:15 Romans 11:3 Romans 1:29 Romans 13:9
Galatians 5:21 1 Thessalonians 2:15 1 Timothy 1:9
7. You shall not commit adultery
For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, Thou shall not bear false
witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Romans 13:9.
Acts 15:20 | Acts 15:29 | Romans 1:29 | Romans 2:22 |
Romans 7:2,3 | 1 Corinthians 5:11 | 1 Corinthians 6:13 | 1 Corinthians 6:18 |
1 Corinthians 7:2 | 1 Corinthians 10:8,10 | 1 Corinthians 5:9 | 1 Corinthians 5:1 |
1 Corinthians 5:10 | 1 Corinthians 6:15 | 1 Corinthians 10:34,36,39 | 1 Corinthians 6:9 |
1 Corinthians 10:11,13 | 2 Corinthians 11:2 | Galatians 5:19 | Ephesians 5:3,5 |
Ephesians 5:23,33 | Colossians 3:18,19 | Colossians 3:5 | 1 Thessalonians 4:3 |
1 Timothy 3:2 | 1 Timothy 1:10 | 1 Timothy 3:12 | 2 Timothy 3:6 |
Titus 2:4,5 | Titus 1:6 | Hebrews 13:4 | Hebrews 12:16 |
8. You shall not steal
For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, Thou shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Romans 13:9.
Romans 13:9 Romans 2:21 Romans 2:22 1 Corinthians 6:8
1 Corinthians 7:5 1 Corinthians 6:10 2 Corinthians 11:8 Ephesians 4:28
1 Thessalonians 4:6 1 Timothy 1:10
9. You shall not bear false witness
For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, Thou shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Romans 13:9.
Acts 13:6 Romans 3:4 Romans 3:13 Romans 13:9
Romans 1:25 1 Corinthians 6:8 2 Corinthians 11:13 2 Corinthians 11:31
2 Corinthians 11:3 Galatians 1:20 Galatians 1:6-8 Ephesians 5:6
Ephesians 4:25 Ephesians 4:14 Colossians 3:9 1 Thessalonians 2:3
1 Thessalonians 4:6 2 Thessalonians 2:11 1 Timothy 2:7 1 Timothy 4:2
1 Timothy 6:10,21 1 Timothy 1:10 2 Timothy 2:18 2 Timothy 4:4
2 Timothy 3:13 2 Timothy 3:3 Titus 1:2 Titus 2:3
Hebrews 6:18
10. You shall not covet
For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, Thou shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Romans 13:9.
Romans 13:14 Romans 7:7 Romans 13:9 Romans 1:24
Romans 6:12 1 Corinthians 10:6 Galatians 5:16,24 Ephesians 2:3
Ephesians 4:19,22 Colossians 3:5 1 Thessalonians 2:5 1Timothyothy 3:3,8
1 Timothy 6:10 1 Timothy 6:9 2 Timothy 4:3 2 Timothy 3:6
2 Timothy 2:22 2 Timothy 3:2 Titus 2:12 Titus 3:3
Hebrews 13:5