Ominous sounds are coming out of Europe. In a weekly British newspaper called The European, dated October 17, 1991, the following report is found: "Millions of Europeans could lose the right to work on Sundays and thousands more face the sack [losing their jobs] if EC bureaucrats succeed in making the seventh day [?] one of COMPULSORY REST."

The report goes on to say that "Countries with widely different social and working customs would have to CONFORM TO STRICT RULES if the Sunday proposals become law. All but essential services would be banned. Even lorries [trucks] could be stopped from using motorways."

This plan, which has been pushed through the European Commission with the minimum of publicity, is backed by the Germans, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Denmark who already have STRICT LAWS preventing almost any sort of work being carried out on Sundays. Germany, the MAIN BACKER of this bill, has constitutionally enshrined the ban on Sunday trading; and 82 percent of its workers DO NOT work on this day.

These moves are NOT new. The Roman Catholic Church has been pushing for Sunday laws, within the confines of the European Common Market, for decades. Why? Because the VATICAN considers the Common Market to be the work of Divine Providence! Notice this AMAZING statement from a news release dated March 24, 1962:

The VATICAN... considers the COMMON MARKET the WORK OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. Not since the times of Spain's Charles V., has a ROMAN CATHOLIC POLITICAL FORCE been so strongly welded. Not since the end of the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE has the Holy See been offered A CATHOLIC RALLYING POINT like the Common Market. If the 'PACT OF ROME,' which created the Common Market, had been signed within the Vatican walls, IT COULD NOT HAVE FAVOURED THE CHURCH MORE....Small wonder then that the Roman Church is smiling benignly over the formation of what Vatican officials defined as the greatest CATHOLIC SUPER-STATE the world has ever known! Topic, England's weekly news magazine.

This startling news release brings into sharp focus the ULTIMATE GOAL of the Roman Catholic Church in world affairs. The POWER, then, behind the Common Market, and the moves to introduce SUNDAY LAWS, is the VATICAN itself! Why should the Catholic Church be so concerned, and so involved with, the introduction of laws to sanctify Sunday above all other days? Because this is the one TEST of obedience or submission to the AUTHORITY of the Church!

If you read the BIBLE from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation, you will not find a SINGLE verse, statement, phrase or word condoning the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath! There is, in fact, NO BIBLE AUTHORITY for setting aside Sunday as the day of rest.

Even CATHOLIC and Protestant scholars understand this! Notice what author H. Reisenfeld says:

In ACTUAL FACT there is NOTHING which indicates that the first weekday [which is assumed to be Sunday] in the life of the early church was a "holy day" on an analogy with the Sabbath in the life of the Jewish people....neither in the cited passages [of the Bible] nor elsewhere is anything said about the apostles or later Christians in general gathering together on that day....any suggestion in the texts in question that the early church consciously selected a weekday for their gatherings IS ABSENT. -- The Gospel Tradition, pp. 123-124.

Methodist Clovis G. Chappell, in his book Ten Rules For Living, states that "the reason we observe the first day instead of the seventh is based on NO positive command. One will search the Scriptures in vain for authority for changing from the seventh day to the first" (p. 61).

The Lutheran Church makes this FRANK ADMISSION: "The observance of the Lord's day [meaning Sunday] is founded NOT on any COMMAND OF GOD, but on the AUTHORITY OF THE [CATHOLIC] CHURCH." (Augsburg Confession, 1530. Part 2, chapter 1, sec.10).

Samuele Bacchiocchi, the consummate researcher into the Sabbath question, totally agrees with the Lutheran confession:

Traditionally the adoption of Sunday observance in place of the seventh-day Sabbath has been attributed to ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY RATHER THAN TO BIBLICAL PRECEPT OR MANDATE. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), for example, states CATEGORICALLY: "In the New Law the observance of the Lord's day TOOK THE PLACE of the observance of the Sabbath, NOT BY VIRTUE OF THE PRECEPT [FOURTH COMMANDMENT], BUT BY THE INSTITUTION OF THE [CATHOLIC] CHURCH." The same view was reiterated three centuries later in the CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT (1566), which states, "It PLEASED THE CHURCH OF GOD [CATHOLIC CHURCH] that the religious celebration of the Sabbath day should be TRANSFERRED to 'the Lord's day'" During the theological controversies of the sixteenth century, Catholic theologians often appealed to the ECCLESIASTICAL ORIGIN of Sunday in order to prove the POWER OF THEIR CHURCH TO INTRODUCE NEW LAWS AND CEREMONIES. The echo of such a controversy can be detected even in the historical Lutheran Augsburg Confession (1530), which states: "They [the Catholics] refer to the Sabbath-day as having been CHANGED into the Lord's Day, CONTRARY TO THE DECALOGUE [TEN COMMANDMENTS], as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the CHANGING of the Sabbath day. Great, say they, is the POWER OF THE CHURCH, since it has DISPENSED with one of the Ten Commandments!"

The monumental symposium (about 700 pages) sponsored by the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical Research in Cambridge, England and written by Professors D.A. Carson, Harold H.P. Dressler, C. Rowland, M.M.B. Turner, D.R. deLacy, A.T. Lincoln, and R.J. Bauckham, [comments] that "it is BARELY IMAGINABLE that first day Sabbath observance commenced before the Jerusalem council [Acts 15]. NOR CAN WE STOP THERE; we must go on to maintain that first day Sabbath observance CANNOT EASILY BE UNDERSTOOD as a phenomenon of the apostolic age or of apostolic authority AT ALL." -- Divine Rest for Human Restlessness, pp. 229, 231.

Not to be outdone, the CHURCH OF ENGLAND, in one of its catechisms, makes this following FRANK CONFESSION regarding Sunday: "And WHERE are we told in Scripture that we are to keep the first day [assumed Sunday] at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are NOWHERE COMMANDED to keep the FIRST DAY...The reason WHY we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh is for the same reason that WE OBSERVE many other things, not BECAUSE the Bible, but because the [CATHOLIC] CHURCH, HAS ENJOINED IT." (Plain Sermons on the Catechism, by Isaac Williams. Vol. I, pp. 334-336).

What an admission!

There is a CONFESSION, made by Dr. Edward T. Hiscox (author of The Baptist Manual) before a New York Minister's Conference on Nov.13, 1893, that reads as follows:

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 [CATHOLIC] fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it [Sunday] came branded with the MARK OF PAGANISM AND CHRISTENED WITH THE NAME OF THE SUN GOD, when adopted and sanctioned by the PAPAL APOSTASY, and BEQUEATHED as a sacred legacy TO PROTESTANTISM!

What an incredible statement!

The Bible Advocate of February, 1992 notes that "A large number of Sunday-keeping clergy HAVE LONG BEEN AWARE that the Puritan polemic for sabbatizing the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK HAS NOT WITHSTOOD MODERN INVESTIGATION" (p. 5).

How very true! But this being the case, WHY do so-called "Christians" still CONTINUE TO KEEP the "Day of the Sun" instead of the day set aside and ordained by YEHOVAH God? The answer lies in CHURCH AUTHORITY!

If we turn to The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, and look under the word "Sunday," we learn the following: "Sunday (dies solis, of the Roman Calendar, 'DAY OF THE SUN,' because DEDICATED TO THE SUN), the first day of the week, was adopted by the early [apostatizing] Christians as a day of worship...It was called the 'Lord's Day'...NO REGULATIONS for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor indeed, is its observance EVEN ENJOINED...." (Vol.IV, pp. 2259-60).

In 321 A.D. Sunday observance began to be ENJOINED by Roman state decree! A study of history reveals that it was the Roman Emperor CONSTANTINE "THE GREAT" who made the DECREE to force the Roman world to keep the Day of the Sun instead of YEHOVAH God's TRUE SABBATH.

The DECREE of Constantine reads as follows: "On the venerable DAY OF THE SUN [SUNDAY] let the magistrates and PEOPLE residing in cities REST, and let ALL workshops BE CLOSED." (Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12:3; translated in History of the Christian Church, by Schaff, Vol.III, p. 380).

Why did Constantine make this decree turning Sunday into the Sabbath? Because it was his way of HARMONIZING the various bickering religions of the Roman Empire under ONE COMMON UNIFYING INSTITUTION. He also saw it as an effective way to gain absolute control of the empire.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Hasn't the Roman Catholic Church been trying to "harmonize" and reconcile to itself the various "Christian" religions of today? History repeats itself!

Not only that, but isn't the WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD doing exactly the same thing? Under the guise of FAMILY togetherness and UNITY in the Church, an APOSTATE LEADERSHIP is WATERING DOWN THE TRUTH OF YEHOVAH GOD to make it more palatable to the world at large. How far will Joseph Tkach, Jr. (under the leadership of SATAN THE DEVIL) go? Will this so-called Church of God, too, start observing the DAY OF THE SUN?

In Lesson 30 of the OLD Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, this question was posed:

What was RESPONSIBLE FOR the later WIDE-SPREAD RISE OF SUNDAY or "day of the Lord" worship which prevails today?

CONSTANTINE, a civil -- NOT ecclesiastical -- ruler of the Roman Empire, HAD THE MOST TO DO WITH THE ASCENDANCY OF SUNDAY as the day of worship. "CONSTANTINE'S famous EDICT (321 A.D.) definitely enrolled Sunday among the holidays of the Roman State religion. The change from Saturn's day to Sunday must have further commended the planetary week in Christian circles, where the Lord's day...beginning the week, had long been observed as the day on which Christ, the Son [Sun] of Righteousness rose from the dead. THUS A PAGAN INSTITUTION [Sunday observance] WAS ENGRAFTED ON CHRISTIANITY." (Webster's Rest Days, p. 222).

Do you grasp this? A HUMAN civil ruler -- NOT GOD -- established the custom of observing Sunday as a time of "Christian" worship instead of observing God's key test SABBATH DAY! Here are the words of powerful Constantine's famous edict of 321 A.D.: "ON THE VENERABLE DAY OF THE SUN LET ALL magistrates and PEOPLE...REST." -- 1963 edition, p. 7.

It didn't end here. Within a few years (325 A.D.) Constantine issued another decree FORCING SUNDAY-KEEPING UPON THE ROMAN WORLD with armed MILITARY MIGHT! History plainly tells us that DEATH RESULTED for those who upheld the laws of YEHOVAH God and OPPOSED THE SUNDAY OBSERVANCE dictates of Constantine and his government.

This PAGAN ROMAN EMPEROR warned the TRUE people of God -- the SABBATH-KEEPING CHRISTIANS who refused to keep Sunday -- "To speak of your criminality as it deserves [Constantine inferred that it was CRIMINAL to keep YEHOVAH's Sabbath] demands more time and leisure than I can give...Why not at once STRIKE, as it were, at the root of so great a mischief [keeping YEHOVAH God's true Sabbath day] by a PUBLIC MANIFESTATION OF DISPLEASURE? Forasmuch, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors [of obeying the Fourth Commandment], we give WARNING by this present statute that NONE OF YOU henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be DEPRIVED OF ALL THE HOUSES in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies: and [WE] FORBID the holding of your SUPERSTITIOUS AND SENSELESS MEETINGS [on YEHOVAH's true Sabbath day], not in public merely, BUT IN ANY PRIVATE HOUSE OR PLACE WHATSOEVER...We have COMMANDED...that you be POSITIVELY DEPRIVED of every gathering point for your superstitious meetings, I mean ALL the houses of prayer...that any other places be CONFISCATED to the public service, and NO FACILITY WHATEVER be left for any future gathering [on the Sabbath] in order that from this day forward none of your unlawful [in the sight of Constantine] assemblies may presume to appear in any public or private place." (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book III).

By 365 A.D. there were still many Sabbath-keeping Christians who were loyal to YEHOVAH God and His commandments; but the pressure was beginning to mount. By this time the Catholic Church, aided and abetted by Constantine, had gained considerable influence in the CIVIL AFFAIRS of the Roman Empire. This resulted in the SABBATH becoming a FOCUS FOR ATTACK.

The CATHOLIC COUNCIL OF LAODICEA was called to settle -- among other things -- the Sabbath question! Out of this assembly came a CANON -- the twenty-ninth -- which put this issue to rest: "CHRISTIANS MUST NOT JUDAIZE BY RESTING ON THE SABBATH, but must WORK ON THAT DAY...and, if they can, resting then [on Sunday] as Christians. BUT if any be found to be JUDAIZERS [TRUE SABBATH KEEPERS], let them be ANATHEMA from Christ." (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XIX, p. 148).

It was the CATHOLIC CHURCH which sanctioned the PAGAN Roman Sunday as a day of rest and worship. Not only that, but it was the CATHOLIC CHURCH which "changed" a law of YEHOVAH God by CLAIMING IT HAD AUTHORITY FROM YEHOVAH TO "OFFICIALLY" TRANSFER THE TRUE SABBATH FROM A LUNAR CONFIGURATION TO SUNDAY of the planetary week! This Roman Sunday law now had the POWER of an ecclesiastical law.

The Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course summarizes these events:

The force of the Roman State had already been utilized in 325 A.D. by Emperor Constantine to confiscate the property and destroy the lives of any who obeyed God's commandments. But now, IN 365 A.D., the HEAVY HAND OF THE ROMAN CHURCH-INFLUENCED STATE really began to FALL HARD upon those who continued to BE FAITHFUL in RESTING ON THE SABBATH as God commanded.

A little later, around 400 A.D., Augustine declared: "The holy doctors of the church have decreed [NOT a decree of the Bible, but of MEN] that all glory of the Jewish [YEHOVAH's] Sabbath is TRANSFERRED to it [SUNDAY!!]. Let us therefore keep the Lord's Day [THEIR "lord's" day] as the ancients [the TRUE worshippers of YEHOVAH God] were commanded [by YEHOVAH] to do the Sabbath." (Sabbath Laws, p.284). Yes, MEN presumptuously TRANSFERRED YEHOVAH God's commanded set time to worship Him on the SABBATH to ANOTHER day -- SUNDAY!

Pope Gregory of Rome, in the West, anathematized [cursed] "Those who taught that it was NOT LAWFUL to do work on the day of the Sabbath" (History of the Popes, Vol.II, p.378). Sabbath keeping was completely OBLITERATED from Rome by the sixth century (Andrews, History of the Sabbath, p.375). And the Eastern churches extirpated [rooted out] Sabbath observance in another four hundred years, about 1000 A.D. -- 1963. Lesson 31, pp. 7-8.

This church-state combine PUT TO DEATH all those who would not WORSHIP AND OBEY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, whose GOVERNMENT was formed, or patterned, after that of the Roman CIVIL government.

Realize that this great FALSE CHURCH did not kill those loyal to YEHOVAH God itself, but USED THE MIGHTY POWER OF THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT to kill them! History clearly shows that the military might of the CIVIL Roman government MARTYRED NEARLY 50,000,000 -- READ THAT AGAIN, FIFTY MILLION -- people who were declared to be "anathema from Christ."

Those 50,000,000 martyrs were put to death because they WOULD NOT worship the Roman Catholic Church. They WOULD NOT conform to its IDOLATRY; its PAGAN BELIEFS; its CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS; or worship the so-called "Holy" Roman Empire! Many were put to death because they REFUSED to keep the DAY OF THE SUN!

So SATAN, through HIS religious and political instrumentalities -- NAMELY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH -- successfully STAMPED OUT all known SABBATH OBSERVANCE, and ENFORCED SUNDAY KEEPING in the Roman Empire. As the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course puts it: "No wonder these were called the "DARK AGES," for GOD'S TRUTH was all but COMPLETELY STAMPED OUT!"

What sort of man was this Constantine, this emperor who was instrumental in FORCING Sunday-worship upon the masses of the Roman Empire?

According to Edward Gibbon, the eminent historian of the Roman Empire, "Constantine...persevered till he was near 40 years of age in the practice of the ESTABLISHED RELIGION [OF PAGANISM]. But the DEVOTION OF CONSTANTINE was more peculiarly DIRECTED TO THE GENIUS OF THE SUN...the SUN was universally celebrated as the invincible GUIDE AND PROTECTOR of Constantine." (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I, pp. 636-38).

Constantine is famous for the story of his VISIONARY EXPERIENCE just prior to entering battle at the Milvian Bridge of Rome in 312 A.D.

Ernest L. Martin relates this event that had such a profound effect on the life of Constantine:

The start of his trust in the supernatural happened at a momentous time in Constantine's life. Just before the battle at Milvian Bridge outside Rome which gained for him the mastery of the western part of the Roman Empire, he witnessed (along with his troops) a parahelion of the sun which appeared to him as a cross in the heavens. He noticed with the cross the Greek letters (Chi Rho) accompanied with the words "by this sign conquer." That evening he said that in his sleep "the Christ of God" came and told him to adopt the sign of the "Chi Rho" as a symbol to protect him and his armies and that he would ever be victorious (Life of Constantine, I. 29). Constantine immediately had his army portray on their shields this sign of the "Chi Rho" which became the Labarum (a Roman shield symbol) for his conquering armies. And, amazingly, Constantine from that time forward never lost a decisive battle but BLAZED FORTH with victory after victory until he became emperor of the whole Roman Empire. He came to believe that this "Chi Rho" symbol represented the first two letters in Greek of "Christ." And he felt it symbolized the Christ of the Christians. It was this extraordinary "SUPERNATURAL SIGN" (as Constantine believed it was) that prompted the emperor to think he had been divinely selected to bring in a universal kingdom that would recognize the deity of Christ Jesus and that it was through Christ (and his servant Constantine) that divine salvation and peace would finally be brought to the world. -- Secrets of Golgotha. ASK Publications, Alhambra, CA. 1988, p. 98.

From this year (312 A. D.) forward, visions and dreams became an integral part of the emperor's life; and EVERY DECISION he made reflected his trust in these "SUPERNATURAL" revelations. He began to believe that he was the "divinely" chosen instrument of YEHOVAH God to bring in the UNIVERSAL (CATHOLIC) KINGDOM to the entirety of the world.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Isn't the VATICAN committed to the SAME goal today?

Not long after the vision of the cross at Milvian Bridge, Constantine began to think of himself as a NEW MOSES to lead the "true" people of YEHOVAH God into a NEW WORLD KINGDOM with -- naturally -- Constantine as its head. In his VAIN IMAGININGS he saw himself as the instrument to inaugurate the "NEW JERUSALEM" of the prophets.

And to accommodate Constantine's identification with Moses, he had a special tent constructed in the form of a cross which he, like Moses, placed "outside the camp" (alluding to Exodus 33:7). Into this tent only he and his trusted advisors would enter before any engagement with the enemy. It was there that he sought divine counsel to direct him in what he should do. -- Secrets of Golgotha, p. 99.

What happened while the emperor was ensconced in the tent is recorded by the church historian Eusebius:

And making earnest supplications to God, he was ALWAYS honored after a little while with a MANIFESTATION of His [God's] presence. And then, as if moved by a DIVINE IMPULSE, he would RUSH from the tent, and SUDDENLY give orders to his army to move AT ONCE WITHOUT DELAY, and on the INSTANT to draw their swords. On this they would IMMEDIATELY commence the attack, fight VIGOROUSLY, so as with incredible CELERITY to secure the victory, and raise trophies of victory over their enemies. -- Life of Constantine, II. 12.

Does this sound like the way a man would act -- or react -- after receiving a GENUINE communication from YEHOVAH God? NOT AT ALL!! These "visionary" experiences have all the trappings of DEMON POSSESSION!

The very fact that Constantine continued in his PAGAN BELIEFS is revealed by coins he had minted during his administration. According to Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, "Constantine also RETAINED the traditional PAGAN TITLE of Pontifex Maximus, and his coins STILL BORE THE FIGURES AND NAMES OF THE OLD GODS." (Vol. 6, p. 448).

Constantine saw himself as a protege of APOLLO, and according to a Panegyrist (one who eulogizes) he received a vision of Apollo in Gaul -- on his way south to Marseille in 310. According to the story "Constantine made a short detour to visit 'the most beautiful temple in the entire world' -- at a place that has been variously identified, but was probably, since the god worshipped there was Apollo, the shrine of Apollo Grannus at Grannum (Grand, southeast of Joinville on the Marne). There, the speaker declared, Constantine experienced a vision of Apollo, attended by Victory, offering him four laurel wreaths, each of them signifying thirty years of success. In Apollo, it would seem, Constantine recognized not only the protector of his family (the Second Flavian House), but HIS OWN SELF: youthful, handsome, happy, a bestower of salvation, the ruler of the world WHOSE COMING WAS PROPHESIED in Virgil's Fourth Eclogue. And so Constantine, after he had won his victory over Maximian's son Maxentius in 312, fulfilled the vows he had made at that point on his southward journey, and presented generous gifts to the shrine of Apllo" (Constantine the Great: The Man and His Times, by Michael Grant. Charles Scribner's Sons, N.Y. 1993, pp. 131-132).

Constantine was no more a Christian than Ghengis Khan!

Ernest Martin reveals that "VERY FREQUENT indeed were the MANIFESTATIONS that Constantine received from his celestial [demon] advisors. Eusebius said that Constantine's visions and other SUPERNATURAL ENCOUNTERS became such a REGULAR PART of his career that 'a THOUSAND such acts as these were FAMILIARLY and HABITUALLY done by the emperor.' Constantine's life was REPLETE with visions, dreams and SUPERNATURAL WONDERS and they were a DOMINANT FACTOR in all his major decisions." (Secrets of Golgotha, p. 100).

An inscription on the triumphal Arch of Constantine (built 315) in Rome, attests to the emperor's ERRATIC BEHAVIOR after receiving these "spiritual" visitations prior to a battle. The inscription on the arch attributes Constantine's victory over Galerius Valerius Maximinus to an "INSTINCTU DIVINITATIS" -- an IMPULSE OF DIVINITY! (See Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, Vol.6, p. 448).

THIS, then, was the man who took it upon himself to throw the Fourth Commandment out the window, and to introduce the "DAY OF THE SUN" in its place! Constantine's pagan background made it very easy for him to amalgamate the apostatizing Roman Catholic Church with the practices of sun-god worship and persecute the TRUE CHRISTIANS who were still keeping YEHOVAH's true Sabbath-day!

Constantine, of course, was not the first to foist the Day of the Sun upon an unsuspecting humanity. It all goes back to LUCIFER, or Satan!

Satan, in his former position as Lucifer, was a BRIGHT AND SHINING cherub -- RADIANT like the morning star! The very name Lucifer means "LIGHT-BRINGER" -- in Latin lux = "light," and fero = "to bring." After his creation by YEHOVAH God (see Ezekiel 28) he became known as the "son of the morning" -- that is, a herald or harbinger of LIGHT like the morning star. He brought LIGHT to the earth when he was sent by YEHOVAH to rule here before his rebellion. His spirit body RADIATED LIGHT to all those around him; and eventually he RECEIVED A DEGREE OF ADORATION! Because of his wisdom and beauty (Ezekiel 28:12) and brightness, he began to be worshipped -- and this went to his head! Then, in Revelation 12:3, after he REBELLED against YEHOVAH God, he LOST his brightness and came to possess a DULL RED SERPENTINE BODY! As a result, at this point on, Satan ASSOCIATED HIMSELF WITH THE SUN!

Notice what the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course says about this:

Satan wanted to be like God -- to RADIATE with God's glory which is brighter than the sun. So Satan had himself IDENTIFIED AS THE SUN and palmed himself off as the SUN GOD. That's how the sun, from the beginning of this earth, became a favorite OBJECT OF WORSHIP. Because of the light and heat it gives and for its beneficial action on food-producing vegetation, it was regarded as "the giver of all good gifts." That the SERPENT was with the FIRST of mankind was well known to the people of the early world. Satan the serpent SUPERNATURALLY INFLUENCED the leaders, and their followers, already possessed of a CARNAL mind which "is [at] enmity against [or toward] God" (Rom.8:7; Jer.17:9) to believe that he, the SERPENT in the Garden of Eden, was the TRUE FRIEND of man. It was HE that gave to the woman the advice that man acted upon. Thus the sun and the serpent, the two "ENLIGHTENERS," became associated TOGETHER. That's why ONE OF THE COMMONEST SYMBOLS of the SUN or sun-god was a disk (the SUN) WITH A SERPENT AROUND IT. (Bunsen's Hieroglyphics, Vol. I.) -- Lesson 30, p. 5.

Hislop, in The Two Babylons, concurs with this:

Along with the sun, as the great fire-god, and, in due time, IDENTIFIED WITH HIM, was the SERPENT worshipped. "In the mythology of the primitive world," says Owen, "the SERPENT is universally the SYMBOL OF THE SUN." In Egypt, one of the COMMONEST symbols of the sun, or SUN-GOD, is a disc with a SERPENT AROUND IT. The ORIGINAL REASON of that identification seems just to have been that, as THE SUN WAS THE GREAT ENLIGHTENER OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD, so THE SERPENT was held to have been THE GREAT ENLIGHTENER OF THE SPIRITUAL, by giving mankind the "knowledge of good and evil." This, of course, implies TREMENDOUS DEPRAVITY on the part of the ringleaders in such a system, considering the period when it began; but such appears to have been the REAL MEANING of the identification. At all events, we have evidence, both Scriptural and profane, for the fact, that the WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT BEGAN SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE WORSHIP OF FIRE AND THE SUN. -- Loizeaux Brothers, Neptune, N.J. 1959, p. 227.

Of this APOSTASY the Bible says: "Because, although they [the people of early times] KNEW God [archaeological records SHOW that the world did know YEHOVAH God immediately after the flood -- and they also knew of the Garden of Eden], they...changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man -- and birds and four-footed beasts and CREEPING THINGS [the SERPENT mainly -- for it had Satan's SUPERNATURAL influence on man to make it seem MORE ATTRACTIVE than the others]....and worshipped and served the creature [the thing created -- the SUN, for it has Satan's backing] rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." (Romans 1:21-25, NKJV).

In this PERVERTED FASHION Satan, the great serpent, second-handedly received the WORSHIP AND ADORATION he craved. But most of all, through this means, he INCREASED THE IMPORTANCE of the great, fiery lifeless SUN in the eyes of early mankind! Right here, Lucifer -- Satan -- was GRADUALLY AND STEALTHILY laying the FOUNDATION for the INTRODUCTION OF THE DAY OF THE SUN -- SUNDAY!!

Notice how this occurred: Sanchuniathon the Phoenician, who is believed to have lived about the time of Joshua, says --

THOTH first attributed something of the DIVINE NATURE to the SERPENT and the serpent tribe, in which he was followed by the Phoenicians and Egyptians. For this animal was esteemed by him [Thoth] to be the MOST SPIRITUAL of all the reptiles, and of a FIERY nature, inasmuch as it exhibits an incredible celerity, MOVING BY ITS SPIRIT, without either hands or feet....Moreover, it is long-lived, and has the quality of RENEWING ITS YOUTH....as Thoth has laid down in the sacred books [of Egypt]; upon which accounts this animal is introduced in THE SACRED RITES AND MYSTERIES." -- Sanchuniathon, lib. i. pp. 46-49.

If we study early Egyptian history, we will find that THOTH was the counsellor of THAMUS, who was none other than NIMROD -- the great hunter AGAINST the LORD (see Gen.10:8-9). From the statement of Sanchuniathon, then, we must come to the conclusion that SERPENT-WORSHIP was a part of the PRIMEVAL APOSTASY of Nimrod!

Let's see how SATAN, through the AGENCY OF NIMROD, went about changing YEHOVAH God's Sabbath Day to Sunday -- the Day of the Sun!

The SABBATH -- which word means "REST" -- depicts the kind of eternal REST FROM SIN which YEHOVAH has in mind for man. But ironically Satan, by DELUDING man into keeping the FIERY DAY OF THE SUN -- SUNDAY, causes man to COMMEMORATE THE KIND OF "REST" SATAN HAS IN MIND FOR MAN -- the "rest" of ETERNAL DEATH brought about by SIN.

As far as YEHOVAH God is concerned, this world actually has SIX ORDINARY DAYS. These are ONLY SIMPLY NUMBERED -- "the FIRST day," "the SECOND day," etc. (Gen.1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 -- last two words in each case). AND, set apart from these, YEHOVAH has His HOLY SABBATH, the SEVENTH DAY -- which is both NUMBERED AND NAMED (Gen. 2:2). In this manner YEHOVAH DOUBLY points out the extreme importance of the SABBATH DAY to man! Also, and most people fail to understand this, YEHOVAH God's week is tied to the phases of the moon -- NOT to the planetary week of the present Gregorian calendar!

Because of the GREATNESS of YEHOVAH God, YEHOVAH has set apart one-seventh of man's TIME to keep especially in man's mind the true, real, living, all-supreme God!! An EXACT time -- the SEVENTH day, and an EXACT name, the SABBATH. Woe to those who allow themselves to be deceived into OBSERVING ANOTHER DAY OF THE WEEK on which to worship another "god" which is NO GOD AT ALL !!

How, then, did "this present evil world" come to RENAME all SEVEN DAYS of the week -- with NO MENTION OF GOD'S HOLY SABBATH DAY? Clearly, it is NOT from God. He NEVER CHANGED HIS WEEK with its Sabbath. This NEW WEEK WITH ITS FIRST DAY -- CALLED SUNDAY -- originates from elsewhere. It is FROM SATAN himself with the intent to CONFUSE AND TRICK man to suffer the penalty of ETERNAL DEATH! -- Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. 1963. Lesson 30, p. 5.

Let us now UNDERSTAND how Satan, through the AGENCY and efforts of his human representative -- NIMROD -- gradually brought his COUNTERFEIT WEEK into being, with HIS all-important day, SUNDAY, completely obliterating YEHOVAH God's lunar week in the minds of men! It is VITAL for your very salvation that you read and understand this, for Satan is NOW working through his end-time agent -- THE POPE AT ROME -- to change times and seasons to confuse and MASK YEHOVAH's Holy Sabbath Day! News releases out of Europe are already highlighting Satan's efforts as the ECC attempts to make up for the extra day added to the calendar every leap year. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!

Basically, Sunday came into being through a series of mighty world empires, starting with the Babylon of Nimrod. The Bible clearly shows that Satan, the dragon (serpent), has given, AND IS GIVING, great power and military authority to these empires. Satan HAS SEEN TO IT that HIS AGENTS have the MILITARY MIGHT to make sure that SUNDAY is accepted by this world!

The ancient heathen countries of Babylon and Assyria KNEW of YEHOVAH God's seven-day week with its alignment with the phases of the moon and of the SEVENTH DAY -- the Holy SABBATH DAY. But Nimrod's Babylon was the very place where SATAN STARTED HIS PERVERSION OF YEHOVAH'S TRUE WEEK!

With the same STEALTH AND CUNNING that we now see coming out of the VATICAN -- and also the WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD -- Satan, the great serpent, began to COUNTERFEIT the week YEHOVAH had introduced at creation. In ancient Babylon YEHOVAH God's Sabbath days were observed on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days of the month (in accordance with the moon's phases), but were GRADUALLY set apart as being "evil days." (see Webster's Rest Days, p. 230). "The seventh day of EACH Babylonian week was called a SHABATTUM -- the PAGAN CORRUPTION OF THE SABBATH. Thus the Sabbaths of YEHOVAH God -- times when men might ENJOY SPIRITUAL PURSUITS -- were SOON CALLED PERIODS OF "ILL OMENS" or "EVIL DAYS" (Rest Days, p. 232). We can see that right from the very beginning Satan -- through Nimrod -- was giving YEHOVAH's Holy Sabbath Day a bad reputation!

On these so-called "evil days" the Babylonians had to AFFLICT THEMSELVES, that is, they had to do PENANCE. They could not eat flesh cooked upon coals, nor change garments, nor could the physician lay hands upon the patient. Doesn't this sound like CATHOLICISM to you? What did Yeshua the Messiah say about encumbering his Father's Sabbath day with the customs and ordinances of man? At night (on these "evil days") the king was to bring his gifts before the images [of pagan gods] and offer sacrifice to them (Rest Days, p. 232).

AT THIS EARLY DATE SATAN HAD ALREADY CORRUPTED YEHOVAH GOD'S TRUE SABBATH DAY, and thereby the true week YEHOVAH had set up.

How did the Babylonians -- under Satan's influence -- formulate SATAN'S WEEK which he uses to HIDE YEHOVAH God's true week from unsuspecting mankind? How did they introduce SUNDAY to HIDE YEHOVAH's KEY test Sabbath day from man? By introducing the PLANETARY OR ASTROLOGICAL WEEK which the world still retains today!

Notice Webster's explanation of this:

The PLANETARY WEEK presents itself as a CURIOUS AMALGUM [MIXTURE] of ideas derived from different sources. BABYLONIA, the motherland of DIVINATION, provided the doctrine of the influence of the STARS [remember, "stars" are SYMBOLIC of angels -- Rev.1:20. Stars worshipped in paganism are FALLEN ANGELS -- Satan's demons!] upon human destinies. GREECE furnished the mathematical astronomy which groups the planets according to their distance from the earth...upon these foundations ASTROLOGERS of the Hellenistic (Greek) era, familiar with the CULT OF SEVEN and with the division of days into twenty-four hours, built up what was, at the outset, an entirely PAGAN institution.

Notice from the above that the ORIGIN of the PRESENT WEEK was ENTIRELY PAGAN! Webster continues:

This seven-day week, in its astrological form...probably first appeared...[in] SYRIA, certainly not before the second century B.C. had passed...thence to Alexandria (Egypt)...and about the age of Augustus (31 B.C. - 14 A.D.) ...into the Occidental (ROMAN) land. -- Rest Days, pp. 218-19.

So the PAGAN WEEK of today was born in MOTHER BABYLON, appeared in PAGAN SYRIA in its astrological form, and was transplanted by Satan into the Roman Empire -- the birthplace of modern Catholicism!

It remains, now, to discover HOW the names of THE DAYS OF THIS COUNTERFEIT WEEK were arrived at: As we have seen, old BABYLONIA provided the false doctrine of the influence of the stars on human destinies.

Guided by old Babylonian influences, the pagans of a LATER TIME named the days of this NEW PLANETARY WEEK for ancient heroes who became honored as gods: SUNDAY was at first SET APART FOR THE SUN, THE "GOD" OF THIS WORLD -- SATAN, the SUN-GOD. Monday was set apart for the moon; Friday for Venus or Frigga; and Saturday for Saturn.

The other days of the week received their names in similar fashion. Each received its name from a heavenly body which had been associated with some old BABYLONIAN GOD OR GODDESS. THIS IS NOT THE WEEK THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US -- a week with ONLY the seventh day bearing a name, THE SABBATH, and its other days bearing only NUMBERS." (Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, 1963. Lesson 30, p. 6).

We have learned that the present week is a STRANGE WEEK -- a week whose days bear the names of pagan gods! YEHOVAH God's Holy "Sabbath Day" nowhere appears in our strange week of today; but SUNDAY does! Sunday, the day of the SUN -- the sun around which the ancient pagans symbolically entwined the SERPENT (Satan) -- is the one day which is MOST OBSERVED by all the world today. How successful Satan has been in palming off HIS DAY!

After the Messiah came, "The EARLY [TRUE] CHRISTIANS had at FIRST ADOPTED the seven-day week [YEHOVAH's lunar week] with its NUMBERED WEEK DAYS, but by the CLOSE OF THE THIRD CENTURY A.D. this began to give way to THE PLANETARY WEEK [of Satan]. The use of planetary names [Monday, Tuesday, etc.] attests to the growing influence of astrological speculations introduced by the converts from paganism." (Webster's Rest Days, p. 252).

By the end of the third century the Babylonian-Samaritan conspiracy, or MYSTERY RELIGION, had changed the week and introduced SUNDAY WORSHIP. The use of the PLANETARY WEEK by the early Christians was a YARDSTICK which measured HOW MUCH they were being affected by paganism. "Satan's plan was beginning to bear REAL FRUIT for him -- the professing Christian world was SWITCHING from God's SABBATH week to SATAN'S SUNDAY WEEK!" (A.C.B.C.C., p. 7).

And WHO was responsible for the LATER wide-spread RISE of SUNDAY, or the "DAY OF THE LORD" worship, which still persists today? CONSTANTINE the so-called "great"!

Notice, now, what was NEXT in the sequence of events:

Once Sunday was established as the day of worship by Constantine, a RELIGIOUS POWER -- a CHURCH, a church OTHER than the TRUE CHURCH OF YEHOVAH GOD Yeshua the Messiah had established -- TOOK OVER the FURTHERANCE OF SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. This "great" church continued to be the CHAMPION of this day [SUNDAY] on down through the centuries into our times today. It is a tremendous ecclesiastical power which is prophesied to VIGOROUSLY restore the doctrine of Sunday-keeping AT THE END OF THIS AGE.

This church -- THE CATHOLIC CHURCH -- became RESPONSIBLE FOR CAUSING the CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF THE EMPIRE of Rome to even PUT PEOPLE TO DEATH IF THEY REFUSED TO KEEP SUNDAY.

This great FALSE church made the laws SO STRICT that no man could even HOLD A JOB, or engage in any kind of business -- UNLESS he RESTED ON SUNDAY. And when the Church declared a TRUE CHRISTIAN "anathema" -- accursed as a heretic -- the STATE POLICE of the now CATHOLIC DOMINATED Roman Empire began torturing him. Unless the unfortunate soul RECANTED of his alleged "heretical Sabbath keeping," HE WAS TORTURED TO DEATH!

During the MIDDLE AGES untold numbers of the people of YEHOVAH God were put to death for OBEYING YEHOVAH's Fourth Commandment -- for observing YEHOVAH'S TRUE SABBATH and refusing to keep SATAN'S SUNDAY. While YEHOVAH's people today are not put to death for observing His true Sabbath day, millions in the so-called Christian churches cling to Satan's Sunday perversion -- not realizing they are adhering to the dictates of the pagan Catholic Church and its Roman and Babylonian forebears.

Will you heed this warning and divorce yourself from apostacizing "Christianity" and begin obeying YEHOVAH God? Your very life in the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God could depend upon it!

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Preparing the Way for the Return of YEHOVAH God and His Messiah!

Hope of Israel Ministries P.O. Box 853 Azusa, CA 91702, U.S.A. www.hope-of-israel.org

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