TIMES AND LAWS CHANGED

The Bible shows what is right and wrong. When the Bible is taken from people, Satan works as he wants. Prophecy said the papacy was to "think to change times and laws" (Dan. 7:25). The papacy began this work quickly.SRme 1.1473

Pagans had always worshiped idols. To help pagans accept Christianity, images and objects from the past were gradually introduced into the church. Finally a general council made a law establishing this kind of Christian idol worship. To complete this unholy work, Rome removed the second commandment from the law of God. The second commandment forbids image worship. To keep the original number of the ten commandments, the tenth commandment was divided into two parts.SRme 1.1474

The spirit of accepting paganism opened the way for further rejection of Heaven's authority. Satan changed the fourth commandment also, and tried to remove the Sabbath that God had blessed and sanctified. Satan wanted to put in its place the holiday observed by the heathen as "the venerable day of the sun."SRme 1.1475

Satan did not try to make this change openly at first. In the early centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians. The Christians believed God's law to be eternal and unchangeable [cannot change]. The Christians earnestly guarded the sacredness of the law. With great slyness Satan worked through evil people to attack the law. Sunday was made a special day in honor of the resurrection of Christ. This caused Sunday to come to the attention of the people. Religious services were held on Sunday. But the people still thought Sunday was for recreation. Only the Sabbath was truly a holy day.SRme 1.1476

While Constantine was still a heathen, he ordered that Sunday be a public holiday throughout the Roman Empire. After Constantine became a Christian, he still strongly supported Sunday as a religious day. Constantine's law about Sunday was a pagan law. But now that Constantine was a Christian, he still supported this law. Sunday was honored, but this did not stop Christians from believing the true Sabbath was God's holy day. Something else must be done; Sunday, the false sabbath, must be thought equal with the true Sabbath. A few years after Constantine's order, the Bishop of Rome gave Sunday the title of "Lord's day". So the people were gradually led to think Sunday was sacred. But Christians still kept the seventh-day Sabbath too.SRme 1.1477

Satan had not completed his work. Satan was determined to gather the Christian world under his control and to show his power through the person he chose. This person was the proud supreme bishop who said he represented Christ. Satan worked through half converted pagans and ambitious church leaders. Satan worked through church members who loved the world. Very large councils were held at different times. In these councils people in high positions of the church were gathered from all over the world. In nearly every council meeting the Sabbath that God had set up was made less important while Sunday was made more important. Sunday, the pagan holiday, finally was honored as a divine institution, and the people said the Bible Sabbath was an old idea of Judaism. The people who kept the Sabbath were said to be under a curse.SRme 1.1478

Satan had succeeded in raising himself "above all that is called God, or that is worshipped" (2 Thess. 2:4). Satan had to change the only divine law that clearly shows all mankind the true and living God. In the fourth commandment God is shown as the Creator of the heavens and the earth. As Creator, God is different from all false gods. God gave the seventh day as a day of rest to remind human beings of the work of creation. The seventh day was planned to continually remind man that God is our Creator, the One to be reverenced and worshiped. Satan tries to turn people from loyalty to God and from obeying God's law. Satan especially hates the commandment that shows God is the Creator.SRme 1.1479

Protestants now say that the resurrection of Christ on Sunday made Sunday the Christian Sabbath. But no one can show from the Bible that Sunday is the Sabbath. Jesus and His apostles did not honor the resurrection day. Keeping Sunday holy began in that "mystery of lawlessness" that Paul said had already started its work in his day. Where and when did the Lord choose Sunday, the sabbath of the papacy, as His sacred day? What good reason can be given for worshiping on Sunday when the Scriptures do not tell us to worship on Sunday?SRme 1.1480

The papacy was firmly established in the sixth century. The papal government was in the capital city of the empire, so the Bishop of Rome was declared to be head over the entire church. Paganism had been replaced by the papacy. The dragon had given to the beast "his power, and his seat, and great authority" (Rev. 13:2).SRme 1.1481

Now began the 1260 years of papal rule prophecied by Daniel and John (Read Dan. 7:25 and Rev. 13:5-7). Christians were forced to make a decision. Christians could give up their loyalty to God and accept papal ceremonies and worship, or they could choose to keep the faith and suffer persecution. If Christians kept the faith, they might spend their lives in prison cells. They might suffer cruelties, beatings, or death. The words of Jesus were then fulfilled, "You will be handed over by your parents, your brothers, your relatives, and your friends; and some of you will be put to death. Everyone will hate you because of Me" (Luke 21:16, l7, TEV).SRme 1.1482

The faithful Christians were persecuted more than ever before. The world became one big battlefield. For hundreds of years the true followers of Christ tried to find safety in living far from towns and cities. The prophet John says, "The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days" (Rev. 12:6).SRme 1.1483