The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 460

The European Union in Prophecy
ninth hour, but determined to set it aside till Monday, found, the next day, that it had
been made into loaves and baked by divine power. A man who baked bread after the
ninth hour on Saturday found, when he broke it the next morning, that blood started
therefrom. By such absurd and superstitious fabrications did the advocates of Sunday
endeavour to establish its sacredness. (See Roger de Hoveden, Annals, vol. 2, pp. 528-
530.)
In Scotland, as in England, a greater regard for Sunday was secured by uniting
with it a portion of the ancient Sabbath. But the time required to be kept holy varied.
An edict from the king of Scotland declared that "Saturday from twelve at noon ought
to be accounted holy," and that no man, from that time till Monday morning, should
engage in worldly business.--Morer, pages 290, 291. But notwithstanding all the
efforts to establish Sunday sacredness, papists themselves publicly confessed the
divine authority of the Sabbath and the human origin of the institution by which it
had been supplanted. In the sixteenth century a papal council plainly declared: "Let
all Christians remember that the seventh day was consecrated by God, and hath been
received and observed, not only by the Jews, but by all others who pretend to worship
God; though we Christians have changed their Sabbath into the Lord's Day."-- Ibid.,
pages 281, 282. Those who were tampering with the divine law were not ignorant of
the character of their work. They were deliberately setting themselves above God.
A striking illustration of Rome's policy toward those who disagree with her was
given in the long and bloody persecution of the Waldenses, some of whom were
observers of the Sabbath. Others suffered in a similar manner for their fidelity to the
fourth commandment. The history of the churches of Ethiopia and Abyssinia is
especially significant. Amid the gloom of the Dark Ages, the Christians of Central
Africa were lost sight of and forgotten by the world, and for many centuries they
enjoyed freedom in the exercise of their faith. But at last Rome learned of their
existence, and the emperor of Abyssinia was soon beguiled into an acknowledgment
of the pope as the vicar of Christ. Other concessions followed.
An edict was issued forbidding the observance of the Sabbath under the severest
penalties. (See Michael Geddes, Church History of Ethiopia, pages 311, 312.) But
papal tyranny soon became a yoke so galling that the Abyssinians determined to
break it from their necks. After a terrible struggle the Romanists were banished from
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