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| Event 2 - World Polarized |
| The Breach |
Key Text
"For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous
wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your
own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw
away disciples after them."
Acts 20:29-30
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The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further disregard of Heaven's authority. Satan, working through unconsecrated leaders of the church, tampered with the fourth commandment also, and essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2:2, 3), and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as "the venerable day
of the sun." This change was not at first attempted openly. In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians. They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts. But with great subtlety Satan worked through his agents to bring about his object. That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ. Religious services were held upon it; yet it was regarded as a day of recreation, the Sabbath being still sacredly observed.
To prepare the way for the work which he designed to accomplish, Satan had led the Jews, before the advent of Christ, to load down the Sabbath with the most rigorous exactions, making its observance a burden. Now, taking advantage of the false light in which he had thus caused it to be regarded, he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish institution. While Christians generally continued to observe the Sunday as a joyous festival, he led them, in order to show their hatred of Judaism, to make the Sabbath a fast, a day of sadness and gloom.
A.D. 365 "Christians
shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that
day; but the Lord's day they shall especially honor, and as being
Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day." Council
of Laodicea Canon 29 (See
the Roman Catholic New Advent website Canon 29) |
In the early part of the fourth century the emperor Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a public festival throughout the Roman Empire. (See
Appendix.) The day of the sun was reverenced by his pagan subjects and was honored by Christians; it was the emperor's policy to unite the conflicting interests of heathenism and Christianity. He was urged to do this by the bishops of the church, who, inspired by ambition and thirst for power, perceived that if the same day was observed by both Christians and heathen, it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by pagans and thus advance the power and glory of the church. But while many God-fearing Christians were gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness, they still held the true Sabbath as the holy of the Lord and observed it in obedience to the fourth commandment.
The archdeceiver had not completed his work. He was resolved to gather the Christian world under his banner and to exercise his power through his vicegerent, the proud pontiff who claimed to be the representative of Christ. Through half-converted pagans, ambitious prelates, and world-loving churchmen he accomplished his purpose. Vast councils were held from time to time, in which the dignitaries of the church were convened from all the world. In nearly every council the Sabbath which God had instituted was pressed down a little lower, while the Sunday was correspondingly exalted. Thus the pagan festival came finally to be honored as a divine institution, while the Bible Sabbath was pronounced a relic of Judaism, and its observers were declared to be accursed.
The great apostate had succeeded in exalting himself "above all that is called God, or that is worshiped." 2 Thessalonians 2:4. He had dared to change the only precept of the divine law that unmistakably points all mankind to the true and living God. In the fourth commandment, God is revealed as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and is thereby distinguished from all false gods. It was as a memorial of the work of creation that the seventh day was sanctified as a rest day for man. It was designed to keep the living God ever before the minds of men as the source of being and the object of reverence and worship. Satan strives to turn men from their allegiance to God, and from rendering obedience to His law; therefore he directs his efforts especially against that commandment which points to God as the Creator.
Protestants now urge that the resurrection of Christ on Sunday made it the
Christian Sabbath. But Scripture evidence is lacking. No such honor was
given to the day by Christ or His apostles. The observance of Sunday as
a Christian institution had its origin in that "mystery of lawlessness" (2
Thessalonians 2:7, R.V.) which, even in Paul's day, had begun its work.
Where and when did the Lord adopt this child of the papacy? What valid reason
can be given for a change which the Scriptures do not sanction?
"There
was and is a command to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath
day was not Sunday. It will however be readily said, and with some
show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh
to the first day of the week, with all its duties, privileges and
sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I
have studied for many years, I ask, where can the record of such a
transaction be found: Not in the New Testament – absolutely
not. There is no scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath
institution from the seventh to the first day of the week.
To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus, during three years' discussion
with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question,
discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false
[Jewish traditional] glosses, never alluded to any transference of the
day; also, that during the forty days of His resurrection life, no such
thing was intimated. Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was
given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that He had said
unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles,
in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instructing
those founded, discuss or approach the subject.
Of course I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian
history as a religious day as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other
sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of Paganism,
and christened with the name of the sun-god, then adopted and sanctified
by the Papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism."
Dr. E. T. Hiscox, author of the ‘Baptist Manual’.,
a report of his sermon at the Baptist Minister's Convention, in 'New York
Examiner,' November 16, 1893 |
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