The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 33

The European Union in Prophecy
prohibited. The people were forbidden to read it or to have it in their houses, and
unprincipled priests and prelates interpreted its teachings to sustain their
pretensions. Thus the pope came to be almost universally acknowledged as the
vicegerent of God on earth, endowed with authority over church and state.
The detector of error having been removed, Satan worked according to his will.
Prophecy had declared that the papacy was to "think to change times and laws."
Daniel 7:25. This work it was not slow to attempt. To afford converts from heathenism
a substitute for the worship of idols, and thus to promote their nominal acceptance of
Christianity, the adoration of images and relics was gradually introduced into the
Christian worship. The decree of a general council (see Appendix ) finally established
this system of idolatry. To complete the sacrilegious work, Rome presumed to expunge
from the law of God the second commandment, forbidding image worship, and to
divide the tenth commandment, in order to preserve the number.
The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further disregard
of Heaven's authority. Satan, working through unconsecrated leaders of the church,
tampered with the fourth commandment also, and essayed to set aside the ancient
Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2:2, 3), and in its
stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as "the venerable day of the sun."
This change was not at first attempted openly. In the first centuries the true Sabbath
had been kept by all Christians. They were jealous for the honour of God, and,
believing that His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its
precepts. But with great subtlety Satan worked through his agents to bring about his
object. That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a
festival in honour of the resurrection of Christ. Religious services were held upon it;
yet it was regarded as a day of recreation, the Sabbath being still sacredly observed.
To prepare the way for the work which he designed to accomplish, Satan had led
the Jews, before the advent of Christ, to load down the Sabbath with the most rigorous
exactions, making its observance a burden. Now, taking advantage of the false light
in which he had thus caused it to be regarded, he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish
institution. While Christians generally continued to observe the Sunday as a joyous
festival, he led them, in order to show their hatred of Judaism, to make the Sabbath
a fast, a day of sadness and gloom. In the early part of the fourth century the emperor
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