Changing Times & Laws

December 23, 2004

Hi Bob,

Our recent SS studies on Daniel 7 and the message of the Little Horn has got me making more connections with these time issues in Passion Week. The reason the Little Horn is condemned is because he thinks to change times and laws. Daniel 7:11, 25. The law he wants to change is God's law.

Theologians of the SDA church have explained the "times" he wants to change as the Sabbath to Sunday issue. That certainly is one of the time changes the Roman Church has bragged about. See The Faith of Our Fathers by James Cardinal Gibbons, (1876) pages 72-73, and The Faith of Millions by Rev. John A. O'Brien, (1974) pages 400-401.

But, the Aramaic word in Daniel 7:25 is "zemnim" and literally means "appointment times". This includes all the time God asks us to reserve as time for Him - all the festivals of the Lord expressed in Leviticus 23. In a broader sense, it would apply to any appointment time.

Did Jesus have an appointment with death? Certainly! Did He have an appointment with the resurrection? Certainly! Has the Little Horn been actively promoting different times than what actually happened so he can deceive the very elect? Certainly! We would be foolish to think otherwise.

Some 400 years before Jesus was born the pagan religion of Ashtoreth began the Easter Sunday morning sunrise service in celebration of the mythical resurrection of Tammuz complete with Easter lilies. Every year Tammuz would die in the fall and be resurrected in the spring. See Ezekiel 8:14. Early in the second century the Roman Church stopped celebrating the Lord's Day in connection with Passover and began keeping it in connection with the pagan festival of Easter. (The Lord's Day was the annual celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on the Day of First Fruits.) See The History of the Church by Eusebius, pages 170-174 for some of the arguments.

In A.D. 190 Victor became Bishop of Rome and demanded of Polycrates, the Bishop of Smyrna, that the Christians in Asia stop celebrating the Lord's Day in connection with Passover and start keeping it in connection with Easter or be excommunicated.

Scripture is clear that Jesus was resurrected after the close of Sabbath -- in the evening, the first available moment at the beginning of the week. The Little Horn has switched that teaching to match the pagan traditions of Easter that Jesus was resurrected on Sunday morning -- the first available moment to worship the sun at the beginning of the week. The Little Horn then uses that as the basis for changing the worship of God on His Sabbath to their Sunday and to completely abandon the celebration of the other festivals of the Lord. And all Christianity has followed him - including the SDA church for a major part of the Little Horn's argument.

What an incredible deception! By twisting a few words and ignoring a few key facts, the entire story is changed to support the overall change in the appointed time Jesus died and was resurrected, and the weekly and annual times God wants us to reserve for Him. Think of how many sincere Christians are promoting the message of the Little Horn. The deception is incredible!

Keep searching and sharing.
Jerry