Does The Catholic Church
"follow Christ fully and keep his commandments exactly as he
instructed"?
An Answer To Karl Keating.
If you are on the email list for Catholic Answers, then in December of 2009 you have received a fundraising email from Karl Keating, several times, that included the following rather remarkable excerpt:
|
From the desk of ... As you and I know, only the Catholic Church possesses the fullness
of truth as revealed by God. Other faith communities have some
of the truth. And some have more than others.
Not True
The fact is that, for anyone who wants to follow Christ fully
and keep his commandments exactly as he instructed us, the Catholic
Church is the answer. ... |
Now that's a claim that demands a response. The 10 Commandments clearly specify the seventh day (Saturday) be kept as the sabbath, the day of rest, yet it is not the seventh day Catholics observe, but the first day (Sunday). There is not even a single verse in the Bible that instructs Sunday is to be kept holy on a weekly basis:
"... is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But, you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify."
Source: 
The Faith of
Our Fathers, by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore,
88th edition, page 89. Originally published in 1876, republished and Copyright
1980 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., pages 72-73.
But the Church of God has in her wisdom ordained that the celebration of the Sabbath should be transferred to "the Lord's day:" as on that day light first shone on the world, so by the resurrection of our Lord on the same day, by whom was thrown open to us the gate to eternal life, we were called out of darkness into light; and hence the Apostle would have it called "the Lord's day."
Source: The Catechism of the Council of Trent, published by
command of Pope Pius the Fifth, translated into English by Rev. J. Donovan,
published by Lucas Brothers, Baltimore, 1850, page 267.
2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ:107 Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the sabbath, but the Lord's Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death.108
...
2177 The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church."110
Source:
Catechism of the Catholic Church, published by Liguori
Publications, English translation copyright 1994 by the United States Catholic
Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana, bearing the Imprimi Potest of
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, page 524.
How then can Mr. Keating's claim be true? It can't be. The Roman Catholic Church does not keep the commandments exactly as instructed by Christ, and neither do they "possess the fullness of truth" if they claim to have replaced the biblical seventh day sabbath, Saturday, with Sunday, the first day of the week.
The true church will:
Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For 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.
As Christ said:
John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
This the Catholic Church does NOT do. On Sunday they are actually keeping a Tradition of men, laying aside the Commandment of God. That's rebellion, not obedience.
Then there is this Commandment that defines and prohibits idolatry:
Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exo 20:6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Note that John 14:15 is essentially a quote of Exodus 20:6. This commandment
Catholics are also taught to routinely
violate.
See:
So, no, the Catholic Church does not "follow Christ fully and keep his commandments exactly as he instructed", they are not even close.
1 John 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1 John 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1 John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
