One of those early childhood questions that no one answered was “why do we worship on Sunday?” I was very good at math. I knew that Sunday was the FIRST day of the week, not the 7th day of the week. I was very good at logic. I knew Sunday was not the 7th day of the week. But no one ever took the time to explain to me the history of the conversion between the Sabbath and Sunday worship. Probably because no one really knew (1950s – no internet, and our little local library didn’t have much in it).
So who changed the 7th day to the 1st day?
Long before Jesus arrived on earth, pagans worshiped on Sunday. It was the day the sun was worshiped. The Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medo-Perisnas, the Grecians and the Romans were sun worshippers.
Acts shows us that the first Christians were Jews, and the earliest church is classifiable as a messianic sect within Judaism. The disciples were frequently found in the temple, continued to observe the law, circumcision, Sabbath worship and the food laws.
So, you see, there were 2 conflicting factors….the pagans who had been worshiping on Sunday, and the new Christians and the Jews who were worshipping on the Sabbath.
In the 4th century Constantine saw that half the people worshiped on Sunday – pagans, half kept the Sabbath – professed Christians/Jews. He wanted to cement the 2 factions. He published 2 edicts – the first enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday and the second directed the regular consultation of the auspices – a pagan practice.
Fact: Constantine was a pagan to every inch of his body. He was a non-discriminatory heathen. Constantine worshipped all the gods - especially Apollo the god of the sun. He held the title Pontifex Maximus which was the title of the high priest of paganism. These and other considerations make it clear that Constantine's form of Christianity was actually a modified version of mystery religion. - The Mystery of Iniquity that had been at work since the time of Babel.
Constantine saw something that the emperors before him did not see - the opportunity to make peace through compromise. He never really converted to Christianity. But what he did accomplish was to convert Christianity to paganism. He was a pawn in Satan's hand to pervert the Christian faith with all of paganism's trappings.
On March 7, 321, Constantine gave forth his Sunday law:
“Let all the judges and town people and the occupation of all trades rest on the venerable day of the sun (Dies Solis); but let those who are situated in the country, freely and at full liberty, attend to the business of agriculture; because it often happens that no other day is so fit for sowing corn and planting vines; lest the critical moment being let slip, men should lose the commodities granted by Heaven.” Right there we find the genesis of Sunday keeping in the Christian Church.
The church followed the leadership of Constantine, and in the year 364, at the council of Laodicea, passed a law requiring that Christians must “not Judaize by resting on Saturday.” Eusebius, a noted bishop of the church, states, “All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day.” Here, then, it is plain that a human hand, and not a divine, changed the Sabbath. Eusebius says, “We have transferred.”
Finally the Sabbath was crushed, and Sunday, the pagan holiday, was instituted. Henceforth, it was espoused by the church, and supported, as it is in our day. Doctor Eck, the astute lawyer and champion of the Church in its controversy with Martin Luther, admits, “The church has changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday on its own authority, without Scripture, doubtless under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
And that got me to thinking, what do Hebrews call the days of the week on their calendar?
- Yom Rishon = first day (gentile’s Sunday)
- Yom Sheni = second day
- Yom Shlishi = third day
- Yom Revi’I = fourth day
- Yom Chamishi = fifth day
- Yom Shishi = sixth day
- Yom Shabbat = Sabbath day, day of rest
They just go by numbers!
When the Gregorian calendar was established, the names of the days were taken from planets and gods
Sunday – Sun’s day, day of the sun
Monday – Moon’s day, day of the moon
Tuesday, Tyr’s day. Tyre was a god of combat and heroic glory in Germanic paganism, day of Mars
Wednesday – Day of Wodan, more commonly known as Odin, the highest god in Norse mythology, a prominent god in England until the 7
th century, day of Mercury
th century, day of Mercury
Thursday – Thor’s day, Germanic god of thunder, day of Jupiter
Friday, Day of Frige, the Germanic goddess of beauty, an incarnation of the Norse goddess Frigg, day of Venus
Saturday – Saturn’s day, Roman god associated with the Titan Cronos, father of Zeus and many Olympians.
Why on earth did that happen???? Another one of Satan's ways to rule this earth.
I think it’s pretty obvious that we are not to worship the sun:
Deut 4:19; 17:3
II Kings 23:5
Job 31:26-23
Ezek 8:16 - most clearly against sun worship...God says, "I will deal with them in anger: I will not look on them with pity or spare them."
But of all things – to worship on the Sun’s day? Not to mention that scripture clearly states that we are to keep the Sabbath forever (it's a commandment, you know?)…if you worship on Sunday….it’s pagan.
What are other symbols of sun (pagan) worship? Feel free to google them, but here’s my list:
Churches that face West (members face east to worship
Statues with sun burst coronas (liberty)
Facing east to pray
Facing east for any part of a religious service
Obelisks – honor the sun god
Sunrise service – face east
And a most interesting thought:
Marks of the sun:
It’s interesting that a lot of the “old time” church buildings were built facing east and you walked straight in and faced west to worship. Yet they had other items such as an obelisk (steeple). And all of them worshiped on Sunday.
I always hated Easter sunrise service. Nothing at all to do with the fact that we got up when it was pitch black, drove forever to some place outside that was freezing cold....it was that the sun hurt my eyes something horrible when I looked into it. I have to wonder if that was God's way of protecting me? While others were praising their sun god, I was wincing in pain, looking down, unable to look to the east. To this very day, the morning sun hurts my eyes if I look to the east. Praise Jehovah. Praise Him that even though my questions were not answered when I was a child....He still led me where He wanted me to go. Amazing grace.
If you know it’s pagan, if you know it’s against scripture, why do it? If you know that God will deal with you in anger, if He will not look on you with pity, or spare you.....why do you still do it? If you face the east in any part of your worship, if your building has a steeple on it, if there's an image with a sunburst on it, it is pagan. And if you want to continue to worship that way, at least acknowledge that you are pagan.
And because He commanded that you keep the Sabbath and a pagan ruler made the change to Sunday, know that if you worship on Sunday, you are pagan.
It's never to late to learn what scripture really says and to change your daily life to be more of what He tells us to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment