Satan's Masterstroke

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew God had warned us in the scriptures about it, but the realization of when it took place was like being hit in the gut. I even felt nauseated. This just happened this past week. What happened? I had become aware, after studying the subject for quite some time, of Satan's master stroke in history. How God's sacred calendar had been abolished with the stroke of a pen. The problem was, I had known over time that God's festivals had been changed. I think we all know the Sabbath to Sunday, Passover to Easter Sunday. That just happened a short time ago. But I had viewed them as separate events. When the realization came that all of God's feasts had been abolished in one fell swoop, it caused revulsion in the pit of my stomach. Because of the far-reaching implications this meant. Now, this is very important to understand. I wasn't fully aware of it. It all came together this past week. This is so important for staying in the faith and to pass on this knowledge when it is appropriate. Let's turn to 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 7. Because it does have to do a bit with prophecy. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 7. Paul is talking here that even in his day he realized there was a counterfeit Christianity that was infiltrating the church. He says in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 7, it says, For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Well, here in the context, the lie has to do with everything that is counterfeit to God's law, everything that substitutes God's law. And it has to do with unrighteousness, which is not following God's righteous laws. So there's not a great mystery here. Paul could see there was this infiltration of changing God's laws. It's interesting what the Bible knowledge commentary says about this verse. It says, in this case, the mystery is the revelation of a future climax of lawlessness in the world. Then and now, a movement against divine law directed by Satan was and is operative, but it is being restrained somewhat. And this restraining will continue until the time appointed for revealing the man of sin and the climax of lawlessness. So there will come a time, as lawlessness continues to grow in the world, where God will eventually take away the restraint, Satan will then have his way in the world for a certain time. So let's go back in history to see how it happened, how God's feasts, how the holy days were just removed with the stroke of a pen at a certain time in history. It must have caused great consternation to God the Father and Jesus Christ as they witnessed what was going on at that moment.

And so we have to go back in time to an area there in what is Nicomedia, which was the palace where the emperor Constantine lived. And close by at Nicaea in 325 AD, he convened a general council of bishops, and he would preside that council. He was not baptized. He was not a member of the church, but he decided to go ahead and preside over.

There, several issues were discussed among the approximately 220 bishops. One of those matters was establishing the date of the Christian Passover. Was it to be held as the churches in Asia Minor were doing on the 14th of Nisan?

Or was it to be held on Easter Sunday, as many parts of the west, notably Rome and Alexandria, were doing? At the Council of Nicaea, Eusebius, the historian, was there. And he talks about this issue that was being discussed. It was about equally split among the Christian churches. He says, but before this time, another most virulent disorder had existed, talking about the church, the long-afflicted church. I mean the difference respecting the solitary feast of Easter. There was a controversy there. For while one party asserted that Jewish customs should be adhered to, keeping it on the 14th of the first month of the biblical calendar, the other side affirmed that it should be done on Sunday. Accordingly, the people being divided and the sacred observances of religion, talking about the Passover, confounded for a long period, no one appeared who was capable of devising a remedy for the evil, because the controversy continued equally balanced between both parties. So here we are, 325, and there was still one whole region. It was divided, keeping the Passover and the feast days. And there was another one that was keeping Sunday and the Easter Sunday. It was equally divided at that time. And then he says, to God alone, the Almighty, was the healing of these differences an easy task. And Constantine appeared to be the only one on earth capable of being his minister for this good end. After all, he had the sword. He was in charge of the whole empire. He had thousands of troops behind him. So the determination in Nicaea was to oblige, in particular, the Asian churches, the places of Asia Minor where John the Apostle had been, where Philip the Apostle had been, for them to oblige them to keep the Passover ceremony on Easter Sunday. So this was imposed at that time. By the way, no bishop with a Jewish Christian name is listed as being in Nicaea. When there were many Jewish Christian churches, not one was invited. All have Greek names. Eusebius wrote about the decision, and the credit of having achieved this mighty work, our heaven-protected emperor alone, of all who had gone before him, was able to attribute to himself imposing Sunday and Easter worship. Yes, he did impose it, and he threatened, and he wrote a letter to all those who were not in agreement. They would become heretics. They would have their houses removed. They would be confiscated. They would be hounded. And death would be the sentence. This decision, commanded by Constantine and backed by the Roman sword, might seem incidental, but it had a tremendous impact on the future of Christianity.

So we're going to go and study this just a little deeper. As the book Passover Before Messiah and After brings out, the rule of Sunday, instead of the 14th of Nisan, was not the only Passover rule the political religious leaders made at Nicaea. They further decreed that whenever the 14th of Nisan fell on a Sunday, Christians were to celebrate the Christian Passover on the next Sunday following. This rule was made not out of theological concern to observe Sunday as the proper day, but of the stated concern to put distance between Gentiles and Jews. Talking about Christian, Jewish Christians. Later adoption of the solar calendar put even more distance between the 14th of Nisan and the Christian's new date for the annual observance. This is where the light bulb lighted up.

I found a key phrase in that last sentence of the quote. The adoption of a different calendar than that given by God in the Bible was the master stroke that abolished in one decree by men God's sacred festivals. How could that be?

Let's go back to Leviticus 23 verses 1 through 5. I'm going to read it here where God says, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, they are not of the Jews, they are of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. These are my feasts. These are the ones God established. He doesn't have any others. Others. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do not work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. So God gives it. He establishes a calendar for this to be kept faithfully over time. So all of God's feasts and the Sabbath are inextricably tied together in Scripture. Even the Sabbath Sunday controversy involves God's feasts. It wasn't just a Passover. This was the whole, as they say, enchilada. The whole package was at risk. In numerous references from the second to the fourth century, the weekly Sunday observance was treated by the Roman Church in a similar way as Easter Sunday. The reason given was they were a symbol of Christ's resurrection. Of course, we don't find any place in the Bible where it says we're supposed to keep Christ's resurrection. For a Sunday Easter, Eusebius, the historian I've already mentioned, wrote, while the Jews faithful to Moses sacrificed the Passover lamb once a year, we men of the New Covenant celebrate every Sunday our Passover. So you see, there's this combination of the Easter Sunday with the weekly Sunday.

Consequently, once the Roman solar calendar was adopted as a result of the Council of Nicaea, none of God's feasts could now be kept at the right times.

With the Christian Passover now changed to Easter Sunday, being fixed on a Sunday one week after the 14th of Nisan of the first month, all the other sacred feasts were abolished as well. You could no longer keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread since it began after the 14th of Nisan. So you see, with Easter Sunday, you got rid of the next day being the first day of Unleavened Bread. So now you just got rid of two feasts.

You could no longer count the 50 days to the Feast of Pentecost, starting from the Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread. So now you don't have a fixed date. You're supposed to count from the Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread. If you're not keeping the days of Unleavened Bread, and you already have this Sunday as an arbitrary date, then you're throwing the whole biblical calendar out of whack.

The fall feasts of God could no longer be kept since they depended on the biblical calendar. And so, in this masterstroke of Satan, all of God's feasts, with their vital spiritual symbolism describing God's plan of salvation, were summarily abolished. That, brethren, is what just brought the realization of after Nicaea, a great majority of those called Christians were not keeping any of God's feasts. They were keeping a false system. The mystery of lawlessness had already.

taken bloom and grew enormously.

In the book Passover Before and After the Messiah, it says, as far as the Christian Passover is concerned, the beginning of the Dark Ages can be set at 325 A.D. with the Council of Nicaea. Along with turning their backs on Christian Jews, the Gentiles turned their backs on the Jewish scriptures. They didn't use the Old Testament anymore as a normative reference to keep the feasts. It took a major reformation centuries later, the Protestant Reformation, and to begin to undo the horror and destruction the Church brought on the world when the Gentiles at Nicaea formally adopted the policy of having, quote, nothing in common with the Jews. So the Dark Ages, the persecutions of Jews, of Jewish Christians, of everybody who was a minority at that time, the Crusades and everything, the Inquisition, all of that came, it started at Nicaea.

In this regard, the same authors focus on an important point. The fact that Christianity had never had religious fellowship with non-Christian Jews means the Jews referred to there at Nicaea were Christian Jews. The fellowship from which Constantine wanted the Church to withdraw was fellowship with Christian Jews. So the original Church, composed of Jewish Christians, all of the apostles were Jews. Jesus Christ were Jews. That, of course, formed Christianity. All of them were moved to the side. And now this new system really took over. It had been there from the time of the apostles, this mystery of lawlessness, but now it really grew enormously.

The Church historian Samuel Bakayoke points out, as long as Jewish Christians had influence in the Church, the biblical typology or symbolism and experience of Passover were maintained by the Church. But as Gentile Christians gained control of the Church and promoted Easter Sunday, the biblical Passover themes began to wane, being replaced by pagan symbols and myths that became part of the Easter celebration. So this all started back then.

Another historian, Henry Chadwick, says, it was impossible and so weighty a practical question for diversity to be allowed about the Passover. But there can be little doubt that the quarto decimits, those keepers of the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, were right in thinking that they had preserved the most ancient and apostolic customs. They had become heretics simply by being behind the times because they maintained firmly to the truth. They did not go along with these innovations at that time.

The Catholic scholar Gerald Ruhwurst admits, it is quite generally agreed that the oldest form of Christian Passover was the one celebrated by the quarto decimits. Those were the ones who were the oldest in history. This group, however, would end up becoming a marginal minority, of course, being persecuted, everything being confiscated, driven out. Of course, they would become a persecuted minority. On the other hand, the celebration of a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, talk about Easter, which came into existence in the second century as the result of liturgical innovation. Have you ever heard that before? Oh, yes. Innovation means, oh, let's bring something new out. Let's start something different now. Liturgical innovation. Who gave them the authority to change the dates on when to Passover and all the feast days in the Bible, according to the biblical calendar? Who gave them that authority? Continuing on, he says, this was eventually adopted by the majority of the Christians and regarded by them as normative. That's what reigned now. That's what governed people. But it's good to know the roots of this. Jesse Hurlebut, in the story of the Christian Church, notes what happened after Nicaea. The moral tone of Christianity and power was far below that which had marked the same people under persecution. The services of worship increased in splendor but were less spiritual and hardy than those of former times. The forms and ceremonies of paganism gradually crept into the worship. Some of the old heathen feasts became church festivals. Yes, Christmas and many others, with change of name and of worship. About 405 AD, images of saints and martyrs began to appear in the churches. At first, as memorials, then, in succession, revered, adored, and worshiped. The adoration of the Virgin Mary was substituted for the worship of Venus and Diana. The Lord's Supper became a sacrifice in place of a memorial, and the Elder evolved from a preacher into a priest. Even at the time of Nicaea, all the writings there were about the elders, bishops. It was only later that then there was going to be a priesthood established. That was not the case even at the time of Nicaea. As a result of the church sitting in power, we do not see Christianity transforming the world to its own ideal, but the world dominating the church.

So how does this apply to us today? God had warned that a future ruler and his religious cohort would attempt to change God's calendar and holy days. In Daniel 7, verses 24 and 25, It says, The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom, and another shall rise after them. He shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend he will push to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for time and times and half a time. The times and law in the verses above have to do with the calendar and holy days. The Amplified Bible puts it this way, and he shall speak words against the Most High, God, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change the time of sacred feasts and holy days, and the law, and the saints shall be given into his hand for a time, two times, and half a time. So there are here ominous future implications of what this all means to us.

In chapters 11 through 13 of the book of Revelation, a picture of God's true church is described.

Let's look in Revelation 11.

Here God's church is described in these three chapters.

In Revelation 11, we have the two church leaders at the end time called the two witnesses who will preach the gospel to the world. To a world that is angry, doesn't want to hear. The two end time witnesses of the church boldly proclaim God's truths to an enraged world. Notice it says here in verse 3, and I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy 1260 days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, they're full of God's spirit, and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth, they're representing God's truths, just like Moses and Aaron before the Egyptians.

And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies, they just call that fire down. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. Verse 7, when they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Talk about Jerusalem. But now, in the power of the beast and the false prophet, it is something impure like Sodom and ancient Egypt. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.

And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwelt on the earth with what? With the truth. Just as what we have heard, how Satan has deceived the world. And then, of course, with Christ coming, they are resurrected. And then we go to the next chapter. Remember, the book of Revelation was not written in chapter form. So this is a continuation. So first, you focus on the two leaders taking the gospel at that time. Why? Because the church has already fled to its place of protection, or else it would be completely obliterated.

With internet today, with GPS, with drones, and cameras, people can be identified virtually instantly. We would not survive. The truth would not survive. And so God is not going to allow that, and he's going to take God's people out. During that time of the three and a half years, where the witnesses will be all over the world, God's people will be as we see here. In chapter 12, now God doesn't focus on these two leaders. Now he focuses on a brief history of the church from the time of Jesus Christ until his return to the earth.

And there are four important events mentioned in Revelation 12. Number one is Christ's birth and ascension. This is mentioned in Revelation 12 verse five after talking about Israel being the one where Jesus Christ would be born from, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David. And then it says, number verse five, she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and his throne.

So there we have it, just the birth, the life, and the ascension of Jesus Christ. This is part of church history to situate us. And then, from the time Christ ascends on earth, during that whole period of the church, until the end time period, that three and a half years, there is only one major event described, and it is the church, at a certain period of its church history, it would have to flee for 1260 years.

Notice what it says, verse six, then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1260 days. Now, the symbolism is of days which in Revelation are symbolic many times for years. I've already mentioned, if they would have said 1260 years here, the people in John's day would have said, oh, it's going to take a very long time for Christ to come back.

So the symbolism hides the certain period of time. You can't tell whether it's days or years, but the woman would flee to her place, and it would be a span of 1260 years. Notice what happens after that. Here's the third event.

And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon, and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of all, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. Yes, he's behind all the deception in religion. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having a great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. So you see, the woman that flees had to be in a period before Satan is cast down to the earth. That's the third great event. For what we know, that hasn't happened yet.

And then we have the fourth event, verse 13. Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the woman, talking about the church, was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. Now from Revelation 11, we see that two witnesses are going to be preaching during that same time, three and a half years. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman. God intervened, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went off to make war with the rest of her offspring. Two descriptions of who are God's people, those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They have been faithful witnesses. They have faithfully kept all the commandments of God, including the Passover, the Sabbath. They were not intimidated by a Roman emperor. They did not change God's truths for a lie at that time, although there was great political and military pressure. There was a lot to be lost, but these are faithful people. And that 1260-year period, we date—this is our idea, interpretation, because it doesn't say that—it just says the woman had to flee before the wrath of Satan came, and he was cast down. But we date the church's flight of 1260 years to the Dark Ages, beginning in 325 AD to 1585, 1260 years where the church had to flee for its life. It was a year 1585 when Elizabethan England, Elizabeth I, begins a war with Spain called the Anglo-Spanish War that leads to the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and of England no longer under the threat of Catholic Spain or the Papacy. Sabbath keepers then began to publicly appear in England around that time when religious freedom gained a foothold. Finally, God's people could emerge from their hiding places. The Roman church thought they had destroyed them all and wiped them out.

And then, to finish this message, we go to Revelation 13. Yes, the church is already in her place, but now we see who is persecuting the church during that end time period. That's described in Revelation 13. We have the beast and the false church persecuting God's people and insisting all on the earth must obey and be willing to have a mark placed as a symbol of allegiance. Those who refuse will be hindered from doing economic transactions. Let's read Revelation 13, verse 7 and 8. It says, It was granted to him, talking about the beast, to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. So there is going to be a world government one day. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Those that have the names in the book of life have God's Spirit in them. And then it goes on to say in verse 16, this is about the false prophet, the second beast. He calls us all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. So it is likely since the religious command has already been imposed in the past that one effect of the mark will include keeping the holy days of the Roman solar calendar. Sunday and the feast days such as Easter and Christmas will be imposed. Those who refuse will not be able to buy or sell, which will result in great economic distress and religious persecution. So now you know why I became virtually nauseous when I came to the realization of how Satan with a master stroke abolished God's calendar and the corresponding Sabbath and feast days. How do you feel after knowing all of this? On this day that we are fasting to get closer to God, we have to pray about God's kingdom coming sooner, for it will be in God's kingdom when God's sacred calendar, including the Sabbath and holy days, will be restored and kept by the entire world. Let's go to Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66.

Let's read verse 15. This is a prophecy of Christ returning to the earth. It says, For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots, like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. So he's returning. Verse 22. It says, For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, yes, we're going to be keeping the lunar months, God's sacred calendar, and from one Sabbath to another, not Sunday, not Easter Sunday, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. Yes, now we understand. God's feasts are what we should keep, and how Satan so cleverly substituted. First of all, by taking God's calendar out, that way, none of the feasts could be kept properly, and substituting it with the Roman solar calendar, which would have different feasts that would be added through time.

This is the day when we get closer to God, and also now we have gotten closer to God's wonderful truths in His word.