The following excerpt was published by James White in 1854 while he was Editor of the Review and Herald periodical. It leads one to question which is better – being presumptuous as to arrogate to oneself the prerogative of changing what God says or being dishonest enough to claim that God said what He did not say?

Here is the excerpt, which the Editor reproduced from the Catholic Doctrinal Catechism, in which Rome refutes the Protestants’ claim that they are following the Bible:

“Q. Have you any other proofs that they are not guided by the Scriptures?

” A. Yes; so many that we cannot admit more than a mere specimen into this small work. They reject much that is clearly contained in scripture, and profess more that is nowhere discoverable in that Divine Book.

“Q. Give some examples of both?

“A. They should, if the Scripture were their only rule, wash the feet of one another, according to the command of Christ, in the 13th chap. of St. John; – they should keep, not the Sunday, but the Saturday, according to the commandment, ‘Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath-day;’ for this commandment has not, in Scripture, been changed or abrogated.

“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.

“Q. Do you observe other necessary truths as taught by the Church, not clearly laid down in Scripture?

“A. The doctrine of the Trinity, a doctrine the knowledge of which is certainly necessary to salvation, is not explicitly and evidently laid down in Scripture, in the Protestant sense of private interpretation.”

– The Review and Herald, August 22, 1854

In a series of articles published in the Catholic Mirror periodical, the Roman Catholics challenged the Protestants to show from the Bible that we should observe Sunday. They made it clear that there is no such teaching in the Bible; and that it was the Roman Catholic Church that made the change. So, Protestants who claim that the Bible teaches that are peddling lies. The Catholics even published a little poem in that series mocking the Protestants as follows:

“Halting on crutches of unequal size, one leg supported by truth, the other by lies.

Thus sidled to the goal at awkward pace, secure of nothing but to lose the race”

This poem is very profound because, if indeed the race referred to is the same race of which the Bible tells us to “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1), the implication is that losing the race means not making it to the kingdom. Indeed, the Bible is clear that no liars will be in the kingdom. So, peddling lies is no small matter. But is being presumptuous as to claim the authority to change what God has said any better?

So what are the lies that are being peddled? One is that the Bible teaches the observance of Sunday. To this, Sunday-keeping Protestants stand accused, because there are only eight places where the first day of the week is mentioned in the New Testament, and in none of these places there is any mention of the first day of the week, Sunday, being made a day to be observed.

What is the other lie? The other lie is that the Bible teaches that the one God is aTrinity. In this, most of Protestantism stands accused, including Seventh-day  Sabbath-keepers who claim that the Bible teaches that. Indeed, there is no record that anyone in the Bible ever conceived of such a notion. The notion that the one God of Scripture is three persons was only formulated between the Council of Nicea in 325 AD and the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. Every Bible scholar knows that. So, why are they claiming that the Bible teaches it? They know full well that there is nowhere in the Bible that says the one God is three persons. Yet, they insist that in order to be a member of their church, individuals must take an unscriptural vow and profess belief in one God, a unity of three co-eternal persons – something that the Bible does not teach; and which no Bible writer believed or articulated.

So, who is better, the one who is honest enough to declare that the Bible does not teach either Sunday observance or that the one God is a Trinity but who is presumptuous enough to claim that they have the authority to change what God said by instituting these beliefs, or the one who is barefaced enough to claim that the Bible teaches Sunday observance or that it teaches that the one true God is a Trinity, whereas the Bible does no such thing?

For those who care to know, the Bible is clear that the one true God is the Father of Christ. Jesus said it in His prayer to His Father. He said: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent” (John 17:3). It is clear that we must worship God and Christ. But what authority do Trinitarians have to worship a third person? It is time to repent.

“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15).

– Zerubbabel (Zech. 4:6)