DID YOU KNOW?
On Sunday, April 12th, 2026, in St Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV, elevated Sunday by tying it to Christ’s appearance to Thomas on the “eighth day.” On that basis, he said the Church gathers “every Sunday” and declared, “The Sunday Eucharist is indispensable to the Christian life.”

This matters because it is the same basic argument Rome has long used to exalt Sunday: the resurrection is treated as the authority for the day. But Scripture never does this. Christ’s resurrection is central to the gospel, yet God never sanctified Sunday in honour of it. The day God blessed and made holy was the seventh day at creation, and in the fourth commandment He identifies it as “the sabbath of the Lord thy God.” The Bible never says that holiness was transferred from the seventh day to the first.

And if the resurrection is to have a memorial, Scripture already gives one: baptism. We are buried with Christ and raised with Him through faith (Rom 6:4). The resurrection is remembered in baptism — not by changing God’s holy day.

This is why the pope’s words should not be dismissed as harmless devotional language. They reinforce the same line of thinking that has historically led from the exaltation of Sunday to the oppression of those who honour the Sabbath. Canon 29 of the Council of Laodicea declared: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day… But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.”

That is not merely a preference for Sunday. It is a rejection of Sabbath rest and a condemnation of those who remain loyal to God’s holy day. And that is exactly the direction Revelation 13 points us to: a final crisis in which false worship will not simply be taught, but enforced. History has already shown the pattern — exalt Sunday, oppose the Sabbath, and pressure conscience into submission.

So when Pope Leo XIV again uses the resurrection to elevate Sunday, Bible-believing Christians should recognise what is at stake. The resurrection did not create a new holy day. God sanctified the seventh-day Sabbath, not Sunday. Sunday sacredness rests on church authority. The Sabbath rests on the authority of God.