Prophecy Unlocked Lessons

History's Greatest Cover-up

How man changed God’s law and why

The Lesson:

In our last study we unmasked the Antichrist power using the prophecies of the Bible. Without question we came to the conclusion that all Biblical identification marks fit the Roman Catholic church. Again we want to emphasis that we are not attacking individuals that are part of this church. There are many honest Christians in all denominations living up to the light they have.

Nevertheless the Bible gives us a wake up call to be aware of men’s teachings that are substituting God’s Word. Gradually we are seeing traditions taking the place of the plain Biblical principles that have been passed down to us throughout time.

We are going to look at some incredible truths through this study. The Bible reveals to us a wonderful truth that has been hidden and covered up by the Antichrist. What is it that the devil wants to hide from us? It must be important, and it must have to do with our relationship to Christ, and our decision concerning who we worship. Follow carefully as we together make some amazing discoveries in the Word of God.

The First Angel’s Message

We turn to the book of Revelation and the 14th chapter. This chapter is written with chapter 13 as its backdrop. We already discovered in our last study that chapter 13 is dealing with the Antichrist power. The Antichrist power is compelling the world to bow down to its claims. In striking contrast we arrive in chapter 14 and find quite a different message presented. Three angels are seen by John flying through the sky with specific messages from God.

In this study we want to look specifically at the first message and how it has been counterfeited by the enemy. It is a beautiful message that is presented to the entire world.

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:6-7

The angel is simply a symbol of a messenger. We know that the everlasting gospel is preached by men and women who preach and share the good news. The word everlasting indicates that the gospel is nothing new. From the very beginning, when sin entered the planet, God promised his Son to redeem and save humanity from sin and death. The promise of eternal life through Jesus is eternal. The good news of a Saviour and Friend is eternal. As Christians we have everlasting promises to hold on to. Take notice that the everlasting gospel is given to every nation in the world. With this in mind the message continues. The angel is pictured speaking with a loud voice indicating that something important is about to follow. “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of his judgment is come and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” What does it mean to fear God, and give glory to him?

Fear God and Give Glory to Him

“And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.” Exodus 20:18-20

The setting of the verse above is when the children of Israel received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. It is very interesting to note that Moses says to the people that they should not fear God, but a little further he says they must fear God. We are here looking at two types of fear. The first type of fear is the one we commonly understand as being afraid. We are not to be afraid of God for He is our Creator and Friend, and has the best in mind for us. Yet the second type of fear has to do with reverence. We are to reverence our Creator because He is holy and great. When Moses says “fear God” He means to reverence Him. When the first angel in Revelation chapter 14:7 cries with a loud voice: “Fear God and give glory to Him,” it means reverence and honor God.

How do we reverence and honor God? How do we fear and glorify Him? According to the situation of Israel at Mount Sinai there was a way they could do this by following and keeping the Ten Commandments that were given them. Their obedience would show that they loved, honoured, reverenced and followed God. How about us today?

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

For Our Good Always

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” I John 5:2-4

“And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.” Deuteronomy 6:24, 25

God gave His moral code of ethics, not as a curse or burden, but because He knew that it would be for our benefit if we kept this great law of love. Sometimes we are tempted to think that keeping God’s Law is some harsh burden that can barely be lifted, but it is quite the opposite. God’s Law is NOT a burden. It is one of the greatest gifts that God could have given to mankind, for everything that He asks us to do is for our own good—always. Anything that the Lord asks us to give up or not to do, is for our best good to give up, for “no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” By keeping God’s Law we are going to find happiness and contentment that we can find from no other source. God’s Law is the great “law of liberty” (James 2:12).

Old Fashioned?

“The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Psalm 111:7, 8

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Psalm 19:7-10

Does something that is perfect go out of date? Does it become old fashioned? If something is perfect, it cannot be improved upon, thus it could never and would never become obsolete. Man likes to think that the times have changed, but the sad state of society testifies that something is still wrong. Man’s desire to abolish the Law has not elevated man to a higher state, but simply degraded more and more. The Law of God stands fast forever and ever; it cannot be altered, changed or amended for the times, because it is perfect.

Loving Obedience

“If ye love me, keep my commandments… He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” John 14:15, 21

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” John 15:10

“Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.” Psalm 103:20

God has given the great gift of love in His Ten Commandment law, but this does not mean that forced obedience pleases Him. When man has tried to force obedience to their traditions or even to the portions of God’s law relating to our individual duty to God, disaster is the result. Thousands of innocent people have suffered persecution and martyrdom because their convictions have differed from the majority.

He desires His people to keep His Law not from fear or any other motive other than true love because they love Him and see that He only has their best interest in mind. The Lord does not want forced obedience, nor does He want us to attempt to appease Him as is done for the gods of all the heathen religions; the Lord wants our hearts. He wants to know that we love Him more than anything else. He wants us to keep His great Law of love because we love Him so much we would not want to do anything else. Jesus, speaking fifteen hundred years after the law was given, puts it as simply as you possibly can: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Jesus was the One who descended atop Mount Sinai and thundered His Holy Law, and it is Jesus who asks us to love Him enough to obey Him (John 8:58, 59; James 4:12; John 10:30). Even the angels show Jesus their love by keeping His commandments, and He is asking that each one of us show our love to Him by obedience to Him. Just as a child shows its love to its parents by obedience, so are we to show our love to God by lovingly obeying Him.

Simple Test of Love & Obedience

“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” I John 2:3, 4

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12

Keeping God’s Law does not save us. It has no power to save us. Only the power of Christ can save us and make us children of God. At the same time, keeping God’s Law is a simple test that shows how much we really love the Lord. If we love Him, we are going to do what He says. If we love Him, we are going to keep His Law. If we do not really love Him, we are going to do our own thing. If we do not really love Him, we are going to break His Law because it is more convenient to do so. We are saved solely by grace through faith; but if we truly have faith, we will keep God’s Law. Obedience to God’s Law is a simple test that God has given us so that we can know what is truly in our heart, and thus this simple test is given as a special mark of God’s people.

Throughout prophecy and particularly the book of Revelation, keeping the Commandments is the means of distinguishing between those who are following the God of heaven and those who are worshipping and following the Antichrist. Most people agree with most of the Law, but there is usually a point or two that tests the faith. We may not understand why God has been particular about a certain point. It may involve something we have to change. It was just a small test in the Garden of Eden, and it is just a small, simple test of our love and loyalty to Him today.

The Forgotten Commandment

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11

Searching through the commandments, there is one commandment that nearly the entire world is disregarding today. It is the commandment that says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” This commandment, commonly referred to as the fourth commandment, states exactly which day the Sabbath is on. It does not tell man that he can choose any day that he likes. It does not say that the majority can decide which day the Sabbath is. It does not say that God is not particular about which day is the Sabbath. It states all the opposite. God has told us in His Law that He, not we, has set aside a special day that we are to rest and spend in communion with the Lord. This day is the seventh day. Which day is the seventh day? “Saturday, n., the seventh day of the week, following Friday.” (Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1996, Barnes & Noble Books) Saturday, not Sunday as many people think, is the seventh day of the week. The Lord has specifically designated that Saturday is the day in which we are to rest from temporal labour and our own pleasure. So that we would not be confused about which day the Sabbath is, the Lord has given us undeniable evidence as to which day the seventh day is in His Word.

“And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.” Luke 23:54-56; 24:1

The inspired record states that Jesus was crucified on the preparation day, He rested in the tomb “on the Sabbath according to the commandment,” and He was raised again on the first day of the week. In order to find out what day the “Sabbath according to the commandment” is, all we have to do is ask ourselves, which day was Jesus resurrected on? There is almost universal agreement that it was Sunday. (This is the reason many give for worshipping on Sunday.) Every year in the springtime, a holiday comes around to remind us which day the Sabbath is. There is Good Friday, Saturday and then Easter Sunday. By comparing this with the Biblical record, it is easy to see that the “Sabbath according to the commandment” comes in between when Jesus was crucified and when He was raised. There is only one day in between, Saturday, the day that Jesus Himself rested in the tomb. There is no doubt that Saturday is the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Bible.

You might think; why is a day so important? The issue is more then just a day, it concerns our loyalty. Will we follow what God says? In the beginning God told Adam and Eve that they could eat of all the trees except for one, which was the tree of good and evil. Did it matter which tree? Oh yes, it definitely mattered! The devil wants to let us think that God is not so specific, He does not care. But throughout the Bible we see that when God says something, He means it. Would it not be the very purpose of the devil to counterfeit the truth of God? Remember that a counterfeit is very close to the truth.

The first angel’s message that we looked at calls us to fear God and give glory to Him. We have found out that to fear God and give glory to Him means to obey His commandments. We have seen that this is a natural result of our love for him. Amidst the commandments we find a specific one that has been covered up and hidden from many. This is the fourth commandment. There must be a great blessing and importance in this commandment since it has been attacked by the Antichrist. We will see exactly when and how this happened, but let us first look a little closer at this Sabbath truth.

A Memorial of Creation

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:1-3

When Jesus gave the fourth commandment, He prefaced it with the word “remember”. Why did God say “remember”? With His foreknowledge, did He see that man would forget God’s holy day? Undoubtedly, but there is more than that; the Sabbath had been instituted at the very beginning of Earth’s history, on the seventh day. God created this world in six days, but on the seventh day God gave to mankind the most wonderful gift imaginable, He gave them a special appointment with their Maker. The Lord said, “I am going to spend some special time with you. Every Sabbath day, I am going to come especially near you and bless you. It was to be a reminder of their Creator who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Every Sabbath, they were to REMEMBER what God had done for them. When man fell, the Sabbath became even more special. Now not only were they to remember what God had done for them, but they were to REMEMBER what God is doing in each of His children in recreating in them a new heart. The wonderful blessing of the Sabbath was not exclusively for the Jews or any other race, but was for all mankind.

The Sabbath Through the Centuries

“Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Genesis 26:5

“And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.” Exodus 16:23-30

As we scan the centuries between Adam and the cross, we see that the patriarchs, prophets, and holy men of God kept God’s commandments, including the Sabbath day. Abraham, who is the father of all the faithful, kept God’s commandments; so we know that he kept the seventh-day Sabbath, as well. Every week for forty years, the Lord taught the children of Israel the importance of the Sabbath, by giving a double portion of manna on Friday, the preparation day, and by giving none on the Sabbath. They were taught how the Lord wants His people to prepare for the Sabbath before it comes, so that we can enjoy the great blessings that the Lord has in store for His people.

Our Saviour & the Sabbath

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16

“But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day.” Matthew 24:20

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” John 15:10

Jesus, as our example, kept the Sabbath. It was His custom to keep the Sabbath. It was not just something that He did every now and then. It was something that He did every week—it was His custom. Jesus kept the Sabbath over 1700 times in His life. That is quite an example and should give us an idea of how important keeping the Sabbath really is to the Lord.

The Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, because they had made the Sabbath a burden with all their rules. Jesus came to show the delight and beauty of the Sabbath. Often He healed on the Sabbath to show the true meaning of the Sabbath to the narrow-minded Pharisees. Above all Jesus was an example for all humanity in keeping the fourth commandment of his Father. Not only did Jesus Himself keep the Sabbath, but He expected His disciples to be keeping the Sabbath many years after He left. He told them to pray that they would not need to flee from Jerusalem on the winter or the Sabbath day. This escape was over thirty-five years after His death, but He still expected them to keep His Holy Sabbath day.

The Apostles & the Sabbbath

“And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath… And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.” Acts 13:42, 44

“And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.” Acts 16:13

“And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” Acts 17:2

Did the apostles think that the Sabbath had been changed? Did the apostles think that the Sabbath was unimportant? Certainly not! On the contrary, the apostles sacredly kept the Sabbath day, as they had done with their Master. Even the apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, religiously kept the Sabbath day. It was His custom to worship God on the Sabbath day. It was not just because the Jews were in the synagogue on that day; but even when there was no synagogue Paul went outside the city and worshipped God by the river.

We have eighty-four recorded times of Paul keeping the Sabbath, and not one instance of him keeping Sunday. Paul was accused of many things, but never once was he accused of breaking the Sabbath. Why? Because he kept the Sabbath according to the commandment, the way that Jesus had taught His followers to keep it. Was the Sabbath still significant to the early church? Undoubtedly! Was it still to be kept by the Gentiles?

“Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil… For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” Isaiah 56:2, 4-7

The one commandment that man wants to say is “for the Jews only” is the only commandment that God has specifically stated is for the strangers as well. The Jews only kept the Sabbath because they were God’s people. When Gentiles joined themselves to God’s people, they likewise kept the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the mark or the seal that shows that we truly love God and that we want to follow Him all of the way. Even the beloved John was keeping the Sabbath over fifty years after Jesus death in AD 96.

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,” Revelation 1:10

The Lord’s Day, as Jesus explained in Mark, was the Sabbath. The Lord’s Day is not Sunday. Nowhere in the Bible is it referred to as such. The Sabbath is the day that especially belongs to the Lord. It is the Sabbath that Jesus made; and because He is the Lord of it, He is asking all of His people to keep it.

The Sabbath in the Earth Made New

“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 66:22, 23

All of the patriarchs kept the Sabbath. All of the prophets kept the Sabbath. Jesus Himself kept the Sabbath every week. All of the apostles kept the Sabbath. The church throughout the Bible kept the Sabbath, and God’s Word has even prophesied that we will be keeping the Sabbath in heaven. If the Sabbath was kept before paradise was lost and it will be kept in paradise restored, do you think that we should be keeping the Sabbath now? This is exactly what the Lord is asking of us today because the Sabbath is God’s special blessing for humanity. No wonder this was the very first thing introduced after creation.

The Sabbath For All Mankind

“Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” Isaiah 56:6, 7

“And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” Mark 2:27, 28

Sometimes it is promoted that the Sabbath was just for the Jews; that Jews need to keep it, but since we are Gentiles we do not need to keep God’s Sabbath day. It is true that the Jews kept the Sabbath day, but they kept the Sabbath because they were God’s people. God’s people have always kept the Sabbath from the beginning of time, and if we are going to be God’s people in the last days, we are going to be keeping the Sabbath, too. God instituted the Sabbath over two thousand years before there was ever a Jew. In the garden of Eden, God made Adam and Eve and then gave them the special gift of the Sabbath day. Adam and Eve are not just the ancestors of the Jews, but they are the ancestors of every man, woman, and child on the earth today. The Sabbath was not given to any group or any race of people; it was in the heart of the Ten Commandments, which is for the good of everyone. God’s Word also states that when the foreigners (non-Jews, Gentiles, us) join themselves to the Lord; they are to keep the Sabbath, as well. Then Jesus gave us the greatest declaration when He stated that the “Sabbath was made for man.” He did not say that the Sabbath was made for the Jews, or any other race, but for all mankind. God is so good. He did not just give His gifts to the Jews, but has given them to all mankind and to everyone of us, as members of the great web of humanity.

Now remember the first angel’s message that we looked at. According to the Bible this message of fearing God and bringing glory to Him (keeping His commandments) would go to the entire world. This message would be given to every person that inhabits planet earth.

The Sabbath blessing has been given to every one. It is a call to worship the Creator. This is the very message of the first angel in revelation. Worship Him that made! Well who made? God the Creator made the earth in six days and rested and sanctified the seventh as a memorial.

It is very clear that if the Antichrist would want to make an attack on the Creator and His law, then the Sabbath would be the very target of his attack. Now we have set the stage to actually understand the attack of the Antichrist on God’s holy unchangeable Sabbath law.

The Greatest Religious Cover-up

“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

As we have already identified in our last study, Daniel chapter 7 is showing us the rise of the Antichrist power. We saw that the little horn which grew resembled the ecclesiastical power of Rome. According to the prophecy this power, which came on the scene after pagan Rome fell, would speak pompous words against the Most High (which is God).

The most blasphemous of all the identifying points of the Antichrist is that he will intend to change “times and law.” What is the only commandment in God’s Law that deals with time? It is none other than the fourth—the Sabbath commandment. Of course the Antichrist cannot actually change God’s law as the Bible states it is unchangeable, just like Jesus Christ Himself (Hebrews 13:8). But prophecy stated that this power would “intend” to make this change. Has this happened today? Nearly every Christian thinks that the Sabbath is on Sunday, but this is not what God’s Word says.

How did this change occur? All the apostles safeguarded apostasy from coming in, and you do not find anywhere in the records of antiquity that the day of worship was changed while the apostles were alive; but shortly thereafter, just like Paul said in Acts chapter 20, wolves came in, not sparing the flock. There began to be just a little bit of compromise—compromise with the world—because all of the pagans worshipped the sun on the first day of the week.

Each year around the Passover there was a wild, solar festival. The compromising church leaders decided to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection once a year. Since He was resurrected on Sunday, they celebrated it on Sunday, calling it Easter. (Easter has no Christian origins. It originated from Ishtar, the goddess that the pagans worshipped at that time.) Every year the Christians had a festival just like the pagans, but they claimed it was in celebration of the resurrection.

Gradually, this yearly celebration came to be a weekly celebration. They would keep God’s holy Sabbath, but then they would have this celebration on the first day because they wanted to get more converts. They lowered the standards to attract a crowd. Then, to avoid the stigma of Judaism, they prohibited worshipping God on His holy day.

Since Rome was the seat of this compromise, gradually it became the place where the Sabbath was disregarded and Sunday was exalted. This switch from the plain Word of God to the pagan customs took years and centuries to accomplish; but it was finally brought about, until almost the entire world is paying homage to the Papacy in the place of God. Roman Catholic authorities acknowledge that they instituted the change and even use this it as proof of their authority. Just read these astonishing quotations taken from Catholic sources. The claims are amazing, and even though the change from Sabbath to Sunday is for many a cover-up, the evidence is undeniable plain.

“The church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season… The sun was a foremost God with heathendom. Hence, the Church, would seem to have said, ‘Keep that old pagan name. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.’ And thus, the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus.” Catholic World (March 1894), pages 58, 809.

“Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept? 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 first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority.” A Doctrinal Catechism, Stephen Keenan, pg. 174.

“Sunday is our mark of authority…. The Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.” Catholic Record, September 1, 1923.

“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act… And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.” Letter, October 28, 1895, from C. F. Thomas.

“The Bible says, remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. The Catholic Church says, No! By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And, lo! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church.” Father T. Enright, C.S.S.R., President of Redemptorist College, in a lecture given in Hartford, Kansas, February 18, 1884.

We see very clearly that the Catholic Church admits to the change they tried to make in the Law of God. Just as prophecy predicted, the little horn would attempt to do (Daniel 7:25). The devil used the ecclesiastical structure of Rome to attack the very law of God. But despite this attack we have seen in our study that the Bible calls us back to worship our Creator on His unchanged, holy, seventh day Sabbath. The first angel’s message is heard with a loud voice in all the world, calling men and women from all nations to fear God and give Him glory and to worship Him who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters (Revelation 14:6-7).

The Most Important Question

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14

The most important question that has ever been, or will ever be asked was simply, “What shall I do that I may have eternal life?” This question needs never be lost sight of. Which road are we on and how far down it are we? Are we headed to eternal life or going in the completely opposite direction? Jesus said that if we were going to enter into life, we have to keep the commandments.

The devil (and even many well meaning preachers and philosophers) may launch one assault after another upon God’s Law but it stands above them all. Through rationalism and relativism, the Ten Commandments have been attacked, but still Jesus points to His downtrodden Law and says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Society is a miserable wreck today because the majority has bought into the devil’s clever semantics justifying disobedience and we are reaping the whirlwind today, but you and I do not need to. We can choose to lovingly obey our God’s Ten Commandment Law and experience the blessings that follow obedience. What is your choice, to reap the whirlwind or the joys of obedience? Like the apostles we can say:

“We ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29

There is great joy in serving the Creator. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our needs, and has given us a very special day each week to rest and communicate with Him. The Sabbath is one of the greatest gifts given to humanity. Experience the joy of serving your Maker, and let the Sabbath become a special day for you. As you show your loyalty and trust in the Lord, He will pour His blessings upon you as He has promised.