The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 347

The European Union in Prophecy
In the very bosom of the Decalogue is the fourth commandment, as it was first
proclaimed: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor,
and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou
shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy
maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus
20:8-11. The Spirit of God impressed the hearts of those students of His word.
The conviction was urged upon them that they had ignorantly transgressed this
precept by disregarding the Creator's rest day. They began to examine the reasons for
observing the first day of the week instead of the day which God had sanctified. They
could find no evidence in the Scriptures that the fourth commandment had been
abolished, or that the Sabbath had been changed; the blessing which first hallowed
the seventh day had never been removed. They had been honestly seeking to know
and to do God's will; now, as they saw themselves transgressors of His law, sorrow
filled their hearts, and they manifested their loyalty to God by keeping His Sabbath
holy.
Many and earnest were the efforts made to overthrow their faith. None could
fail to see that if the earthly sanctuary was a figure or pattern of the heavenly, the
law deposited in the ark on earth was an exact transcript of the law in the ark in
heaven; and that an acceptance of the truth concerning the heavenly sanctuary
involved an acknowledgment of the claims of God's law and the obligation of the
Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Here was the secret of the bitter and determined
opposition to the harmonious exposition of the Scriptures that revealed the
ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. Men sought to close the door which
God had opened, and to open the door which He had closed. But "He that openeth,
and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth," had declared: "Behold, I
have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." Revelation 3:7, 8. Christ
had opened the door, or ministration, of the most holy place, light was shining from
that open door of the sanctuary in heaven, and the fourth commandment was shown
to be included in the law which is there enshrined; what God had established, no man
could overthrow.
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