WHERE, WHEN AND HOW THIS GOD’S TRUE SIGN WAS CHANGED

Do you also know that God did not hide from His called children where, when and how this change of His Sign could be effected? The Prophet Daniel was made to disclose this diabolic plan of Satan in one of his prophetic writings to the world at large. The prophecy touches on the change by way of tampering with God’s times and Laws. God through His prophet Daniel pointed out that it is during the time of the fourth (4th) world Empire (Kingdom) that the CHANGE would be in effect.

(17) "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. (18) But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. (19) Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; (20) And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. (21) I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; (22) Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. (23) Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. (24) And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. (25) 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.” DAN.7:17-25

To be precise, the Lord through this prophecy above declared that it is the fourth beast or kingdom under whose power God’s laws governing His children shall be tampered with to adversely affect His worship (DAN.8:11,12). So after the Babylonian, Medo-Persian and Grecian Empires, the Roman Empire came as the successful fourth Empire. It was during such time the fulfillment of the prophecy started with Emperor Constantine in the year 321AD.

Undoubtedly, it came as a shock when the enactment of the Roman Emperor Constantine in AD321 for Sun’s day worship was applauded and confirmed by the Roman Catholic Church clergy in the year AD337 during the Council of Laodicea. Kindly take your time to analyse the following extracts from some writers who took their time to pinpoint certain facts about the change of God’s SABBATH SIGN.

{Here is the first Sunday law in history, a legal enactment by Constantine I (reigned 306-337): "On the Venerable Day of the Sun ["Venerable die Solis"-the sacred day of the Sun] let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost-given the 7th day of March [A.D. 321], Crispus and Constanstine being consuls each of them for the second time."-The First Sunday Law of Constantine I, in "Codex Justianianus," lib. 3, tit. 12,3; trans. in Phillip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3, p. 380. 

"This [Constantine’s Sunday decree of March 321] is the ‘parent’ Sunday law making it a day of rest and release from labor. For from that time to the present there have been decrees about the observance of Sunday which have profoundly influenced European and American society. When the Church became a part of State under the Christian emperors, Sunday observance was enforced by civil statutes, and later when the Empire was past, the Church in the hands of the papacy enforced it by ecclesiastical and also by civil enactments."-Walter W. Hyde, Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire, 1946, p. 261.

"Constantine’s decree marked the beginning of a long, though intermittent series of imperial decrees in support of Sunday rest."-Vincent J. Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations, 1943, p. 29.

"Constantine labored at this time untiringly to unite the worshipers of the old and the new into one religion. All his laws and contrivances are aimed at promoting this amalgamation of means melt together a purified heathenism and a moderated Christianity . . Of all his blending and melting together of Christianity and heathenism, none is more easy to see through than this making of his Sunday law: The Christians worshiped their Christ, the heathen their sun-god [so they should now be combined]."-H. G. Heggtveit, Illustreret Kirkehistorie, 1895, p. 202.

"If every Sunday is to be observed by Christians on account of the resurrection, then every Sabbath on account of the burial is to be regarded in execration [cursing] of the Jews."-Pope Sylvester, quoted by S. R. E. Humbert, "Adversus Graecorum Calumnias," in J. P. Migne, Patrologie, p. 143 [Sylvester (A.D. 314-337) was the pope at the time Constantine I was Emperor].

"All things whatsoever that were prescribed for the [Bible] Sabbath, we have transferred them to the Lord’s day, as being more authoritative and more highly regarded and first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath."-Bishop Eusebius, quoted in J. P. Migne, "Patrologie," p. 23, 1169-1172 [Eusebius of Caesarea was a high-ranking Catholic leader during Constantine’s lifetime].

"As we have already noted, excepting for the Roman and Alexandrian Christians, the majority of Christians were observing the seventh-day Sabbath at least as late as the middle of the fifth century [A.D. 450]. The Roman and Alexandrian Christians were among those converted from heathenism. They began observing Sunday as a merry religious festival in honor of the Lord’s resurrection, about the latter half of the second century A.D. However, they did not try to teach that the Lord or His apostles commanded it. In fact, no ecclesiastical writer before Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century even suggested that either Christ or His apostles instituted the observance of the first day of the week.

"These Gentile Christians of Rome and Alexandria began calling the first day of the week ‘the Lord’s day.’ This was not difficult for the pagans of the Roman Empire who were steeped in sun worship to accept, because they [the pagans] referred to their sun-god as their ‘Lord.’ "-E. M. Chalmers, How Sunday Came into the Christian Church, p. 3.

The following statement was made 100 years after Constantine’s Sunday Law was passed: "Although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this."-Socrates Scholasticus, quoted in Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, chap. 22 [written shortly after A.D. 439].

"Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church, but with a rigor and solemnity gradually diminishing until it was wholly discontinued."-Lyman Coleman, Ancient Christianity Exemplified, chap. 26, sec. 2, p. 527.

"Contantine’s [five Sunday Law] decrees marked the beginning of a long though intermittent series of imperial decrees in support of Sunday rest."-A History of the Councils of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 316.

"What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as a Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the fourth, fifth, and sixth, centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency abstinence from labor on Sunday."-Hutton Webster, Rest Days, pp. 122-123, 270.

Here is the first Sunday Law decree of a Christian council, given about 16 years after Constantine’s first Sunday Law of A.D. 321: "Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday [in the original: ‘sabbato’-shall not be idle on the Sabbath], but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour, and as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall by shut out [‘anathema,’ excommunicated] from Christ."-Council of Laodicea, c. A.D. 337, Canon 29, quoted in C. J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 316.

"About 590, Pope Gregory, in a letter to the Roman people, denounced as the prophets of Antichrist those who maintained that work ought not to be done on the seventh day."-James T. Ringgold, The Law of Sunday, p. 267.}

At the moment we have ascertained the truth about how the change came about even to the extent of knowing when and where it happened. So we have to know that God is not a liar so far as His prophecies are concerned. For that much we should all agree that the removal of God’s SABBATH DAY and replaced with SUN’S DAY WORSHIP, connects also the Holy Feasts of God. I know you will say that you did not see anything concerning the yearly Sabbaths (the Feasts of God) in those extracts above concerning the change, and that you won’t agree with me here, when I assert that the change covers all the Sabbaths scripturally specified. Please be patient enough to meditate on this important topic we are dealing with so as to enable you grasp the real meaning of whatever is being discussed about this issue. As such I would like you to know that the weekly Sabbath is the mother of all the biblical Sabbaths, hence the connection between the weekly and the yearly Sabbaths in most of the scriptures we have already used in this regard. Remember that I explained it in the early stages of this study that at any time God talks about SABBATHS in the scriptures, He means both the weekly and the yearly Sabbaths. Thus He declared in Exodus that, the SABBATHS are His SIGN.

"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.” EX. 31:13 

Surprisingly, this same empire during its tenure of office, many ungodly things crept into Christianity unaware, are the very people who have encouraged different PAGAN FESTIVALS to outwit the true festivals of God Almighty. This also proves that the ensuing of SUN’S DAY WORSHIP gave birth to all these Pagan festivals and has therefore become the SIGN OF PERDITION for Christians today. Take Christmas, Easter, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day, and many Saints days in use now, you will realize that they have no biblical support. Rather these Christ’s-Tagged festivities are all now being portrayed as Christian Festivals. May be space and time would not permit me to give you details of what I am trying to put across at this juncture, I would only entreat you to explore more about such well known Christian festivals from many other sources including the internet, while I present to you a few facts I have here. 

Firstly, I would like you to know that the word EASTER, found in many translations of the Holy Bible in ACTS12:4 and associated with Christ’s resurrection is not the original word visa vis its meaning. The correct word is PASSOVER or the Hebrew PESACH or Greek PASCHA. The name EASTER is rather ‘EOSTRE’ and pagan in origin which festival also occurs around the same month of April during which time the biblical Passover is observed. So as I have already explained concerning the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord as something to fulfill the scripture of truth that, Jesus is our PASSOVER LAMB (1COR.5:7), thus it happened on that occasion. JN. 19:14-16,31. This is why Satan cunningly used every possible means to beguile people to observe this pagan festival of the goddess Eostre. Almost all the Bible Commentators attest to this very fact that Easter (Eostre) is the name of a goddess of the Saxons, and Tyndale in his translation of the Bible first applied it to Acts 12:4. Let us hear what Easton’s Bible Dictionary has to say about the word Easter in the following passage. 

"Easter:- originally a Saxon word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in honour of whom sacrifices were offered about the time of the Passover. Hence the name came to be given to the festival of the Resurrection of Christ, which occured at the time of the Passover. In the early English versions this word was frequently used as the translation of the Greek pascha (the Passover). When the Authorized Version (1611) was formed, the word "passover" was used in all passages in which this word pascha occurred, except in Ac 12:4. In the Revised Version the proper word, "passover," is always used.” 

This is another one from American Tract Society Dictionary about Easter: 

Easter- "Is improperly put for PASSOVER, Ac 12:4; Passover being the name of the ancient Jewish festival here referred to; while Easter, from the Saxon goddess Eostre, is the modern name of a Christian festival, in commemoration of the events of Passover-week, and fixed at the same period of the year.”

This is the whole truth about the so called Easter which has captured many devout Christians for so long a time since time immemorial from the day of its inception. You see how pity it is to be deceived with lies? 

Anyway let us also consider something on CHRISTMAS, another major festival in Christendom today. Even though this word is not biblical, many people including the learned have been caught in its web of deception. By the grace of God I found some information on internet about Christmas. It was in a pictorial form and it was all about how the word ‘MASS’ was added to CHRIST’S name to get the noun CHRISTMAS. In fact, if one critically examines the inscription on that picture, it will be seen that every secret as to the way Jesus Christ’s name originally had something to do with this pagan festival is rightly exposed. I wish I could paste it on this document for you to see with your naked eyes: But due to some technicalities that confronted me, I decided to copy it verbatim to help make some understanding here. Below are the contents from that picture:

{Origin of the word – Christmas ## Let us start off with the origin of the word Christmas: 

"The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ, first found in 1036, and Cristes-messe, in 1131” :– Christmas, Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm)

#The word "Christmas” is just a contraction of "Christ’s Mass” or "Mass of Christ”, which was a special Catholic Mass to celebrate Christ’s birth.

# I wonder if Christmas Eve communion services in the protestant churches today also stem from this practice?}

I hope this also gives you the fair view that the origin of Christmas is based on fallacy and must be totally discarded from our Christian calendar. For instance it is evidently clear that when some people wanted to do away with the celebration of Christmas in the early centuries, it was Pope Liberius VI who later brought it back for people to observe it till this day. CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Login form
Calendar
«  March 2024  »
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31
Entries archive
Our poll
Rate my site
Total of answers: 12
Statistics

Total online: 1
Guests: 1
Users: 0