“Though agitation for the Roman
innovation may have begun during the
episcopates of the Roman bishops Sixtus I and Telephorus (in the reign of Hadrian, AD 117 to138), Roman Catholic tradition definitely points to Pius I as the bishop who instituted the holding of the Lord's Supper on Sunday in the yearly celebration of the ecclesiastical Pascha. A well-known, unabridged, modern English dictionary has stated that Pius I is traditionally believed to have instituted the observance of Sunday by Christians.” Ibid, p. 107.
Thus we see that it was Pius I that brought Sunday exaltation to the seventh day
Sabbath keeping Christian churches in Rome. He did it by the use of a Sunday Passover. Again we are told.
“There is a tradition that he [Pius]
first caused Sunday to be observed
by Christians. Pius I was bishop of
the Roman church from about AD 143
to 158.... One notable happening listed
by Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, in his Chronicon is this: ‘It was commanded by
Pius that the Lord's resurrection should
be celebrated on the Lord's day [Sunday], which was confirmed by later pontiffs.” Ibid, p. 108.
Still later to Pius I, Victor I also decreed that the passover should be celebrated on
a Sunday as decreed by Rome. Many churches in Asia and other places refused, at which Victor, disfellowshipped all
these churches as if he had control of them. This shows that a Sunday Passover was being used by the bishop of Rome to seize control of these seventh day Sabbath keeping churches. We are told.
“In the last decade of the second century Victor I, bishop of Rome, persuaded a few other bishops to join him in drawing up an ecclesiastical decree that Sunday should be made the principal day in the observance of the annual ecclesiastical Pascha. This aroused a storm of controversy …” Ibid, p. 162.
“The Roman party had deviated from ‘the tradition of an ancient custom’ by taking away from it something and adding to it something else. That is, the Roman
party was charged with alteration and
innovation in the celebration of the
ecclesiastical Pascha. On the other hand, the Roman Church and its partisans
insisted that the holding of the Lord's
Supper should be deferred until the
Sunday following Nisan 14, and that
then the fast should be terminated.
Victor I and the bishops siding with him drew up an ecclesiastical decree, that the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord should be celebrated on no other but the Lord's day [Sunday] and that we should
observe the close of the paschal fast on this day only.” Ibid, p. 165.
30. Because the churches refused Victor I's command as erroneous, and that he did not have and authority to tell them what to do, he disfellowshipped all those churches.
“Thereupon Victor, who presided over
the church at Rome, immediately
attempted to cut off from the common
unity the parishes of all Asia, with the churches that agreed with them, as
heterodox, and he wrote letters and
declared all the brethren there wholly
excommunicated.” Ibid, p. 164.
Although the bishops of other churches spoke to Victor and by this restrained him, yet he was able to capture many churches to his Sunday Passover. Here is what we are told.
“Hence, the geographical areas represented by Eusebius as being on the Roman side in the time of Victor I were (1) Rome, (2) Gaul, (3) Pontus, (4) Osrhoene, (5) Alexandria, and (6) part of Palestine, plus (7) a man in Corinth.” Ibid, p. 170.
32. However the battle between Sunday
Passover churches in the orbit of Rome, and other churches that observe a 14th
Nisan Passover continued and would not be settled until the advent of Emperor
Constantine many years later. Here is what we are told.
“And so the Paschal dispute was to remain unsettled until the nominal conversion
of the Emperor Constantine I, who would make an imperial decree, in AD 325, to
enforce the observance of Sunday by
Christians as the big day of Paschal
festivities.” Ibid, p. 174.
33. As the second and third centuries ended and the fourth began this Passover
Sunday that was celebrated only on one Sunday of the year (the Sunday after the 14th of Nisan and the full moon), was
decreed to be followed as a practice every Sunday by the church of Rome in a Church Council. Here is what we are told.
“The regional church council held C.A.D.
305 at Elvira, near Granada, Spain, is
the earliest synod on record for that
country. One of more than forty
ecclesiastics attending it was Hosius,
bishop of Cordova, who later served the
Roman Emperor Constantine I as his
adviser on church affairs. He did not,
however, preside at this synod. This
council's more than eighty decrees are
severe. Canon 21 decreed: If anyone
dwelling in a city should not attend
church on three Lord's day [Sunday], let him abstain [from the communion] for a short period, so that he may appear to
be reproved. That is the first recorded
instance of a church council legislating
in favor of weekly observance of Sunday, and it is the earliest record of penalty being imposed upon anybody for not attending church on that day.” Ibid,
p. 236.
This statement shows quite a lot about
the churches in the Roman Empire being
captured into Sunday exaltation keeping away from the seventh day Sabbath. These points need to be carefully considered.
i. Sometime in the third century, the Sunday Passover began to become a regular festival not to be kept only once a year, but to be kept every Sunday.
ii. What indeed is Sunday keeping as
kept by all Sunday exalting churches? It is a Sunday Passover made a
regular observance on the first day of each week—Sunday.
iii. Thus by the third and fourth centuries, many of the churches were keeping
the seventh day Sabbath and at the same time observing a weekly Sunday Passover.
However it was Emperor Constantine
under the influence of Sunday exaltation
bishops that then decreed a Sunday law in 321 A.C.B. A Sunday law is merely a weekly Sunday Passover required by the law for all citizens to keep.
“The first Sunday law known to have
been issued by a civil government was
that decreed by Constantine the Great on March 7, 321.” Ibid, p. 255.
“Thus Constantine issued at least six civil edicts concerning Sunday observance: (1) the law of March 7, 321, which ordered courts tradesmen and townspeople to rest on Sunday: (2) a law in June of the same year, which permitted emancipation of slaves on Sunday.” Ibid, p. 257.
36. Clearly, a Sunday law is indeed a weekly Sunday Passover being made to imitate the rest provision of the seventh day Sabbath as required by law for all to observe.
Observe this explanation chart.
Then Constantine also passed a law
enforcing a yearly Sunday Passover for
all the churches in the Roman Empire to
keep. This act would capture dissident
churches to the church in Rome for fear of
penalty.
“What was in effect a Sunday law for
Easter was issued in 325 by Constantine
in the form of a lengthy imperial letter in connection with the Council of Nicaea.” Ibid, p. 256.
“ ... a law in 325 which enjoined upon all Christians strict adherence to the decision of the council of Nicaea concerning the
annual celebration of the ecclesiastical Pascha on Sunday.” Ibid, 257.
“The synodical letter sent out by the
Nicene Council stated that all the brethren in the East who have heretofore kept the [Paschal] festival when the Jews did, will henceforth conform to the Roman and to us. Since the time of Victor I the Roman bishops have decreed and anathematized, but their verbal blasts could not compel the Quartodecimans and others to conform to their dictates. Now Sylvester I, the
Roman bishop, had the backing of a decree by a major synod and an edict by a civil power willing and ready to use the law-enforcing agencies of the state to punish dissenters. The Quartodecimans and
others who differed with the Roman
church in teaching and practice concerning the observance of the ecclesiastical Pascha now had to face a new opponent—the
imperial might of Rome. The emperor's edict could be used as a cudgel to
oppressed and destroy Christians who
followed their convictions in this religious matter.” Ibid, p. 278.
38. This decree from the government indeed marked a turning point for the church of Rome, it now had the aid of the state to
capture the churches that refused to
accept its Sunday Passover and thus exalt Sunday against the seventh day Sabbath. We are told.
“But when the emperor convened the Council of Nicaea and collaborated with
it against Arius and his followers, and against those Christians who observed the ecclesiastical Pascha on a day other then Sunday, it marked a major turning point in Church history.… This is the first example of civil punishment of heresy; and it is the beginning of a long succession of civil
persecutions for all departures from the catholic faith.” Ibid, p. 279.
We can now summarize the results of
the history we have looked in the following important points.
a. Easter Sunday is not a Sunday that
celebrates the resurrection of Christ. It is a relic of a vehicle that was used by the church of Rome to capture seventh day Sabbath keeping churches and turn them into Sunday exaltation churches like Rome and Alexandria.
b. By decrees, councils, and the aid of
the Roman government the church
of Rome was able to use its Sunday Passover to capture and change seventh day keeping churches into churches
exalting Sunday thus giving the church authority over them.
c. The church of Rome replaced the
seventh day Sabbath by use of its
yearly Sunday Passover, when it was made a weekly first day event reviling
the seventh day Sabbath.
d. Sunday, the first day of the week, crouched as a passover, meant a new world. And so the church of Rome used it to bring a new world in the Roman world, a world in which the bishop of Rome had the assumed authority of Christ; and the Church took over the empire.
e. The final capture of all religions in the world will be attempted when a global Sunday law is enforced. This is the new world that Sunday as the first day means.
FIN.
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