Withering Grass vs. Eternal Truth
The Sapphire Review Vol. 3 | No. 10 • March 27, 2026
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: Because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: But the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Isaiah 40:7–8, KJV
INTRO
The prophet Isaiah writes that people are as the grass that withers and their beauty as the flower that fades.
He contrasts this with the “word of God” which stands forever. The word which comes forth from His mouth is pure,1 and as silver that has been purified seven times.2
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways and His thoughts higher than man’s.3
They are higher in wisdom, for what man can grasp the full measure of them.4
They are higher in perfection and without any filtration or taint that comes from the finite minds of men.5
They are higher in authority and thus override and overrule all which man has sought to change, neglect, excuse, or disannul.6
THE WORD OF GOD IN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Perhaps the greatest example that we have of this is found in the ten commandments, as the delivery of these precepts were unique and distinct from all others.7
These words were literally spoken by God from Mt. Sinai.8 Even Moses trembled at the hearing of them.9
They were then written by the finger of God upon tables of stone to portray their binding, enduring, and unalterable condition.10
They were placed inside the ark, under the mercy seat, to show that it is the sin of breaking of any one of these ten commandments that men must then obtain mercy and forgiveness for.11
Lastly, they still reside in the heavenly ark today,12 with all the authority of heaven behind them. They reside here where Jesus now ministers as our great high priest,13 showing their continued application to the New Covenant Christian and their jurisdiction over the realm of the Earth.
Breaking any one of the ten commandments is still a sin for which the Christian must obtain forgiveness and mercy.
THE WORD OF MEN
Yet, what do men say? Man has said that these words were not fully pure, holy, just, and good in that they have needed modification. (Rom 7:12) Man has claimed that his authority is greater than that of heaven’s in that he is able to overrule that which the God and creator of all things instituted at the foundation of our sinless world, spoke from His very own mouth, wrote with His very own finger, and preserved in His high heaven.
Man has taken the fourth commandment, regarding the seventh day sabbath and has neglected it, removed it, trampled over it, and in many cases replaced it.
In our generation, this is done largely as a work of blind ignorance and tradition by simply carrying on with things as they have been for one century after another. This ceases to be an excuse, however, when light comes to our hearts.14
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for holding up the traditions of men over the ten commandments of God.15 Would He not issue a similar rebuke to the churches today to bring them out of an erroneous path that has been taken regarding the Sabbath commandment?
“And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” (Mark 7:9, KJV)
ROME
Have you ever wondered where this change started to take place and how the commandment of God became so replaced with tradition that it is now an accepted way of life for the majority of Christians? We don’t find its origins in the Bible.
The Roman emperor Constantine, who blended Christianity with paganism, was the first to give the backing of a state government to Sunday observance as a civil day of rest. He said the following on March 7, 321 AD:
“Emperor Constantine Augustus to Helpidius. All judges and the people in the city should rest, and the work in all crafts should cease, on holy Sunday. But the people in the country may freely and lawfully apply themselves to cultivating their fields…”
Codex Justinianus, Book 1, Title 12, Constitution 2
This paved the way for an official adoption of Sunday over Saturday at the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD, where we find the following from Canon 29:
Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.
Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., “The Canons of the Synod Held in the City of Laodicea, in Phrygia Pacatiana,” in The Seven Ecumenical Councils, trans. Henry R. Percival, vol. 14, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1900), 148.
During the time of this council in Laodicea the church age had reached the period of Pergamos, as found in Revelation 2:12-17. To this church era, Jesus issued a rebuke regarding a toleration of false doctrines that had begun taking root.
Neither Constantine nor the council of Laodicea based their proclamations upon the word of God, but rather the withering, passing, and transitory words and traditions of men. These things, which grew out of both pagan and papal Rome, set in motion a course which would eventually push the seventh day Sabbath observance and worship almost entirely out of the Christian church, and replaced it with what Constantine called the “venerable day of the Sun” (Sunday).
PROPHECY
We need not be surprised by these things, for the Bible, through the prophet Daniel, spoke long ago of a church-state power that would rise in the future and “think to change times and laws.”16
“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” (Daniel 7:25, KJV)
Indeed, such a power did rise and did “think” to change the time of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and the laws of the second, fourth, and tenth commandments. One needs only to compare the ten commandments of the Catholic Catechism with those of the Bible to see these changes.
Though the changes have appeared to be enforced and accepted by nearly all of Christendom, this power (Roman Catholic Church) could only “think” to change them because the God of heaven has not altered one jot or tittle17 from His original, as He spoke them, wrote them, and preserved them.
Let us close by simply letting this power, which would “think” to change God’s ten commandments speak for itself. May God grant us all that we may have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart for truth.
Please consider the following quotes with prayer and careful study:
QUOTES FROM ROME
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
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.
https://usccb.cld.bz/Catechism-of-the-Catholic-Church2/545/
2184 Just as God “rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done,” human life has a rhythm of work and rest. the institution of the Lord’s Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives.
Cardinal James Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (Ayers Publishing, 1978): p77-78:
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.
The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957): p65:
Q: Which is the Sabbath day?
→ A: Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Q: Why Do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
→ A: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
https://archive.org/details/converts-catechism/page/n63/mode/2up?q=Sunday
John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools and Academies, Book 1: Chief Truths of the Faith, 1936
If we consulted the Bible only, we should still have to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday, with the Jews, instead of Sunday.
Some of the truths that have been handed down to us by tradition and are not recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, are the following: That there are just seven sacraments; that there is a purgatory; that, in the new law, Sunday should be kept holy instead of the Sabbath; that infants should be baptized, and that there are precisely seventy-two books in the Bible.
Stephen Keenan, Catholic-Doctrinal Catechism 3rd Edition: 174
Question: Have you any other way of proving the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
Answer: 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 1st day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the 7th day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.
https://archive.org/details/doctrinalcatechi01keen/page/174/mode/2up?q=authority
Our Sunday Visitor (February 5, 1950):
Practically everything Protestants regard as essential or important they have received from the Catholic Church ... The Protestant mind does not seem to realize that in accepting the Bible and observing the Sunday, in keeping Christmas and Easter, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope.
https://archive.org/details/20211124114413112-1/mode/2up?q=Sunday
Patrick Donahoe, Plain Talk about the Protestantism of To-Day (1868): p225:
Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is a homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the (Catholic) Church.
https://archive.org/details/plaintalkaboutp01sggoog/page/n228/mode/2up?q=Protestants
The Christian Sabbath (Catholic Mirror, September, 1893):
The Catholic Church, for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.
https://archive.org/details/christian-sabbath-or-sunday/page/28/mode/2up?q=Saturday)
Catholic Priest Father Enright (The Industrial American, Harlan, Iowa, December 19, 1889):
It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday to Sunday, the 1st day of the week. And it not only compelled all to keep Sunday, but at the Council of Laodicea, AD 364, anathematized those who kept the Sabbath and urged all persons to labor on the 7th day under penalty of anathema.
I have repeatedly offered $1000 to any one who can furnish any proof from the Bible that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep ... The Bible says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” but the Catholic Church says, “No, keep the first day of the week,” and the whole world bows in obedience.
https://adventistdigitallibrary.org/adl-368114/american-sentinel-february-6-1890
Catholic Record (September 1, 1923) p4:
The [catholic] Church is above the Bible, and this transference of the Sabbath observance is proof of that fact. Deny the authority of the Church and you have no adequate or reasonable explanation or justification for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday…
https://archive.org/details/catholic-record-full/page/n3/mode/2up
→ “Sabbath Observance” section, thirteenth paragraph (last in the second column)
Thomas, C. F. (1893). Letter to Cardinal James Gibbons (reprinted). The Messenger of the Sacred Heart, 33, 137–138:
Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. It could not have been otherwise, as none in those days would have dreamed of doing anything in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical and religious without her. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.
American Catholic Quarterly Review (January 1883) p139:
Sunday ... is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.
“The Question Box,” The Catholic Universe Bulletin (August 14, 1942): 4:
The (Catholic) Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her Founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday.
Arthur Weigall, The Paganism in Our Christianity (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1928): 145:
The Church made a sacred day of Sunday ... largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.
https://archive.org/details/paganisminourchr0000unse/page/144/mode/2up?q=policy
John A. O’Brien, The Faith of Millions: the Credentials of the Catholic Religion Revised Edition (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 1974):
But since Saturday, not Sunday, is specified in the Bible, isn’t it curious that non-Catholics, who claim to take their religion directly from the Bible and not from the Church, observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Yes, of course, it is inconsistent; but this change was made about fifteen centuries before Protestantism was born, and by that time the custom was universally observed. They have continued the custom even though it rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church and not upon any explicit text in the Bible. That observance remains as a reminder of the Mother Church from which the non-Catholic sects broke away-like a boy running away from home but still carrying in his pocket a picture of his mother or a lock of her hair.
https://archive.org/details/faithofmillionsc0000obri_r8n5/page/400/mode/2up?q=custom
Startling and solemn words. I urge every reader to commit the matter to earnest prayer and diligent study prior to dismissing the weight of evidence. This is the journey that I too had to take a few years ago. In the end, I chose to uphold the teaching of the Bible over the traditions of men.
God Bless,
Charles
SCRIPTURE INDEX
