Satan blinds the world to the real gospel for a personal reason. It describes the kingdom of God—God’s soon-coming world-ruling government. Of course, Satan seeks to block people from understanding this marvelous truth. He does not want light to shine on God’s incredible purpose for mankind. He wants humanity, collectively and individually, to think that it has no future.

The devil also recognizes that the arrival of God’s kingdom means he will be banished from his current position (Rev. 20:2-3) of enormous influence as the god this world unwittingly worships. He will no longer be permitted to deceive or weaken the nations (Isa. 14:12). He also understands that he can never have what God has offered to all men who obey Him.

In John 12:31, 14:30 and 16:11, Christ refers to Satan as “the prince of this world.” All these verses state that the “prince of this world” will one day be judged. Take time to read them! John 12:31 parallels the judgment of this world with Satan’s judgment.

Why? Because this world is his! He is its “god.” This is the plain truth from your Bible! Since Satan has deceived the entire world (Rev. 12:9), then this cannot be God’s world. And since the whole world is deceived, it is cut off from God (Isa. 59:1-2).

As the god of a completely deceived world, which must, therefore, include all the differing forms of Christianity and other religions, Satan has his own agents, using them to unwittingly spread his false doctrines. Yes, he has been able to achieve this because he has his own ministers! Of course, his ministers are themselves deceived into believing that they are God’s ministers. Some teach a few aspects of God’s truth, but none of His most important truths! Virtually all of them teach that God’s Law, including His Sabbath, is done away.

Paul warned of the cunning deception of Satan’s ministers: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (II Cor. 11:13-15).

Yes, Satan has his ministers! And they do not teach you that you must obey God—that the Fourth Commandment is still in effect!

Just a side note; the term “Lord’s Day” should not be confused with “Day of the Lord”.

There is no command in the New Covenant to observe or worship on any particular day, so it follows that there would not be a name given. Although the church was meeting on the first day of the week, the apostles never commanded it so the title of “Lord’s Day” came into use a little while later. The writings of the early church leaders make it clear that this title referred to the first (and eighth) day of the week; in remembrance of the resurrection and a new beginning, not the Sabbath.

The New Covenant Jesus made with the church does not contain a command to observe or worship on a particular day. This is why Paul said we should not allow others to judge us regarding festivals, new moons or Sabbaths, and why he addresses this in Romans 14. The New Testament tells us the church was meeting on the first day of the week, and the writings of the early church leaders confirm they continued that practice. Very early on it began to be referred to as the “Lord’s Day” because Sunday was the day recognized by the church as the day Jesus was first seen alive after rising from the dead.

Paul said if Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty and our faith is also empty; if He is not risen then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins! The resurrection is the focus of our faith because without it we have no hope.

I’m well aware of what your beliefs are concerning this subject, so I would say that if you prefer to observe the Sabbath because you see a command and believe it is for you, that is what you should do; you will receive neither argument nor judgment from me because you are accountable to God alone, not to me.

The quotes you shared only confirm that they believed the end would come in the seventh day, or 7,000th year. Many in the church believe that, too, but that doesn’t prove they believed it because of a teaching along the lines of what we see being taught by the COG splinters.

We both included quotes by Irenaeus, who obviously agreed with the other church leaders regarding observation of the Lord’s Day (Sunday). I agree the words of these leaders are not scripture, but they give us a glimpse of what was going on in the early church, and they show us that the church continues to follow the practice that has prevailed from the apostolic tradition until the present time.

The quotes you shared do not confirm that any churches were still observing the Sabbath; only what they saw in creation and in the Sabbath that they believe indicates God would rest on the seventh day, or 7,000th year.

Yes, we could go on discussing this endlessly, but here’s the thing; the teachers/teachings you’ve embraced seek to undermine the integrity and truths taught by the Christian church and should not be ignored. When you repeat the claims made by the COG splinters, that the church is corrupted, that Satan has blinded the church, that it is wrong to worship on Sunday, etc., you should expect to be challenged.