THE MAKING OF THE
REMNANT
Lesson 24
Page
2 of 2
Counterfeit 5
Satan has led most
of the world to deny the
importance of the seventh-day
Sabbath. Friday is the day
of worship for more than 1
billion Moslems. About 20
million Jews recognize Saturday
as God’s holy day, and one
and a half billion Christians
(all Christians faiths combined
– Catholics, Protestants,
Greek Orthodox, Anglican.) Nearly
three billion people have no
regard for the sacredness of any
day of the week.
It should be
clear, that worshipping on
Saturday does not now, nor can it
ever bring salvation to a person.
If an illegal alien sneaks into
America and keeps all the laws,
he does not become an American by
obeying the laws. Rather,
an alien becomes an American by
submitting to the immigration
process of becoming an American.
Part of the process involves an
oath stating that he or she will
be loyal and obedient to the laws
of America! Salvation, in a
similar way, comes when we submit
our lives to Jesus. This
means we are willing to go, to be
and to do as He directs. The
doing part of the process
involves obedience to all Ten
Commandments. Thus the
remnant is identified as
“keeping the commandments of
God and having the faith of
Jesus.”
The change
The history of the
change from Sabbath to Sunday
worship by early Christians is
important reading for anyone
wanting to understand the
everlasting gospel. Each
person should look into this
matter and understand from a
historical perspective how it
came to be. A few
paragraphs follow to briefly
explain how it happened.
Since Christianity
was born in the cradle of
Judaism, Roman rulers did not see
much difference between
Christians and Jews. Consequently,
Romans persecuted Christians just
as they did the hated Jews.
Even more, early Christians were
soon forced to disassociate
themselves from the Jews because
the Jews persecuted them too!
When Rome
destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.,
the Christian Church was
dispersed. Christian
theology was in its formative
stages at the time and as
Christians scattered all over the
world, they took with them
“partial knowledge”
about the gospel. The
Apostles wrote a number of
letters over a period of 50 years
to establish the Christian faith.
However, it was inevitable that
Christian leaders would arrive at
different theological
conclusions. Without the
benefit of communication,
Christians in Alexander, Egypt
arrived at doctrines that were
different than Christians in
Rome. As a result of time
and distance, arguments broke out
between Christians over various
doctrines.
When Paul was
imprisoned at Rome, he
established the Christian faith
there. Since Rome was the
capital of the world, it was only
natural that the new Christian
Church in Rome should gain more
power and influence with Roman
leaders than others Christian
churches that were geographically
far away from the hub of
civilization. It was also a
well-known historical fact that
Christians in Rome soon
compromised their beliefs to
avoid the fierce anger of Caesar.
Christians in remote areas
however, remained less affected.
After three
hundred years, the undisputed
center of Christianity was Rome. Constantine
became the first Christian
emperor (he saw that Christianity
offered an expedient way to unite
the disintegrating Roman empire),
and he distinguished historically
for implementing the first Sunday
laws in March 321 A.D.
An early church
writer, Socrates, tells us that
Christians in Rome were
“feasting” on Sunday
(the weekly holiday of the Romans
honoring the Sun-god) by the
fourth century while the rest of
the Christian world still
worshiped on Saturday.
Socrates, Ecclesiastical History,
Book V, chapter 22, Ante-Nicean
Christian Library, Vol II,
(Boston, 1887) pg, 132.
As time passed,
the primacy of the head officer
of the Church (the pope) became
even greater. Eventually he
engineered the destruction of the
Heruli, Ostrogoths and Vandals.
These three tribes, followers of
Arius of Alexander, believed that
Christ was not eternal God but a
created being. When they
were finally destroyed, the
authority of the pope became
universal. (Remember the
three horns that were plucked up
by their roots in Daniel 7?)
Sunday observance
Early Christians
in Rome did not understand the
importance of God’s law.
To gain wider acceptance and
increase the number of converts
among the Romans, they adapted a
philosophical approach to worship
that reflected Roman practices.
Thus, Sunday the
“holiday,” became
Sunday, the “holy
–day.” Historically,
Sunday was transmitted throughout
the Christian world without any
Biblical support! It is
important to note that neither
history nor Roman Catholicism
offers any scriptural support for
Sunday worship or sacredness.
The following statement, given at
the Council of Trent,
appropriately places the
authority for the change in the
day of worship with the
“Roman Church”, not
with the scriptures. (The
Council of Trent, Italy, was held
from 1545 to 1563 to deal with
outrageous charges by
Protestants, that the Church was
disobeying the plain teachings of
the Scripture.) On January
18, 1562, the archbishop of
Reggio made a speech in which he
openly declared that tradition
stood above Scripture: “The
authority of the church could
therefore not be bound to the
authority of the Scripture
because the church had changed
Sabbath into Sunday, not by the
command of Christ, but by its own
authority” (Canon and
Tradition, Dr. J.H. Holtzman, pg
263).
In the late 19th
century, Dr Edward T.Hiscox,,
author of the Baptist Manuel,
said: “There was and
is a command to keep the Sabbath
Day, but that Sabbath day was not
Sunday. It will be said
however, 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 the 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 on the
Sabbath institution from the
seventh to the first day of the
week. I wish to say that
this Sabbath question, in this
aspect of it, is the gravest and
most perplexing question
connected with Christian
institutions which at the present
claims attention from Christian
people; and the only reason that
it is not a more disturbing
element in Christian thought and
in religious discussions, is
because the Christian world has
settled down content on the
conviction that somehow a
transference has taken place at
the beginning of Christian
history.” (A paper
read before a New York Ministers
Conference, November 13, 1893).
By denying the
requirements of God’s Ten
Commandments, Americans have
reaped a harvest of lawlessness.
Yes, most people will casually
agree with the validity and
importance of nine of the Ten
Commandments. But question
the validity of the fourth
commandment and the response will
likely be that all Ten
Commandments were nailed to the
cross.
It is clear that
the ceremonial laws were nailed
to the cross when Jesus, the
Passover Lamb, died. It is
also true that civil law which
related to Israel’s legal
economy in ancient times is not
applicable today. (However,
many of the principles found in
our civil laws today are taken
from the Jewish civil laws of the
Old Testament.)
But, Israel
received several types of laws
from God:
1.
Moral (Ten Commandments)
2.
Ceremonial (pertaining to the
sanctuary services)
3.
Civil (pertaining to the
theocratic government)
4.
Health / Lifestyle
Satan has led
Christians to erroneously combine
these four groups of laws into
one group and nail them to the
cross! The cunning and
sophistry of Satan is
unbelievable! By leading
the human race to abandon the
health and lifestyle laws, we see
unrestricted use of injurious
foods, alcohol, tobacco,
marijuana, crack, heroin and
drugs. Some say that the
drug problem is America’s
greatest problem. But is it?
Could our greatest problem be
lawlessness?
We see
homosexuality and other gross
sexual practices overtaking our
society. America has become
polluted with every vile and
imaginable sin because we have
received counterfeit teachings
from Satan. We have put our
faith in doctrines of the devil!
The road to
self-destruction doesn’t end
with the abandonment of health
and lifestyle laws. By
leading America to abandon the
great code of moral behavior,
Satan has gained control of this
country. Our printing
presses roll out billions of evil
magazines offering the bodies of
young men and women to those
having an appetite for sexual
immorality. Those having an
insatiable thirst for money and
possessions have plenty to feed
the appetite on in the form of
idolatry. People
interested in gossip and slander
find food for their depraved
souls in the supermarket checkout
line – food suitable to
their warped senses. Some
interested in these awful
pleasures have a hard time
deciding what to read, for there
is more available than any
perverted mind can possibly
absorb. The printing
industry of America has been
taken over by Satan and he feeds
Americans with soul-destroying
garbage!
Hoe ironic! The
printing press was invented for
the express purpose of printing
the Bible! Radio and TV
development in America exceeds
any other nation on earth and
Satan has gained control. These
great and extensive powers
promote evil on every channel by
the minute. We may talk
about environmental pollution,
but it is far behind the
pollution of our hearts and
minds. The very airwaves
have become polluted!
Satan has almost
succeeded
The devil has
counterfeited every truth in the
gospel! This is why the
trumpets must sound and the
144,000 appear. Jesus will
gather His remnant through a
proclamation of the gospel.
Do you want to be part of the
gospel movement?
The gospel is
called “eternal” or in
the King James Version,
“everlasting”, because
it has always existed! It
has not changed, for God has not
changed. What is changing
is our understanding. We
now see and understand more of
God’s holy word – the
Bible!
Your turn
Just as surely as
knowledge has dramatically
increased during the past
century, our knowledge of the
gospel has also increased. If
you believe this seminar has
treated the Scriptures fairly and
if you see the reasonableness of
the gospel message presented
here, you need to do three
things:
First, completely
dedicate (or rededicate) yourself
to Jesus. This simply means
that you are willing to be what
He wants you to be, willing to do
what He wants you to do and
lastly, willing to go wherever He
sends you. This is what the life
of faith is all about.
Secondly, you need
to hear this seminar again.
You’ll pick up many things
that you missed the first time
you read these lessons.
Lastly, find a
friend who is open to this
material and share with him or
her some of the wonderful truths
you have learned.
Your active
support, influence and dedication
to the gospel will cause
heaven’s choir of billions
of angels to rejoice. The
angels are anxious to come and
receive us from this planet.
Jesus is anxious to deliver us.
Since the only thing we can take
with us to heaven is our
friend’s, lets win as many
as we can! Come, be
a part of the remnant while there
is still mercy!
“ The hour
has come for you to wake up from
your slumber, because our
salvation is nearer now when we
first believed. The night
is nearly over; the day is almost
here.” Romans
13:11,12
Quiz:
- Name the
five elements of the
gospel.
- Do you
believe this seminar
deals fairly with
scripture?
- Do you
intend to read over these
lessons again?
- Are you
willing to completely
give yourself to Jesus?
- What can
you do to share this with
friends?
- Are you
ready for the events
described in Revelation?
Notes:
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