Christians Compromise With Pagan “Sun Worship” Practices And Adopt “Sunday”

By Gera’el Toma

 

“Before the coming of Messiah, all the Eastern nations performed divine worship with their faces turned to that part of the heavens where the sun displays his rising beams … The Christian converts … retained the ancient and universal custom of worshiping toward the east, which sprang from it.” Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, century II, part II, ch. IV, par. 7.

“Sunday (Dies Solis, of the Roman calendar; ‘day of the sun,’ because it was dedicated to the sun), the first day of the week, was adopted by the early Christians as a day of worship.” Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, Art. “Sunday.”

“We all gather on the day of the sun … on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.” From the “Church Father,” St. Justin. Quoted in the New Official Catholic Catechism (1994), p. 524.

Following in the steps of ancient Yisra’el, Christians in the 1st (latter part), 2nd and 3rd centuries “hid their eyes” from YAHUAH’s Sabbaths (see Ezekiel 22:26) and adopted pagan traditions associated with sun worship.

The Church “in Rome” becomes the Roman Catholic Church

Before the Jewish Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., a strong Christian Church was planted through missionary efforts inside the city of Rome itself in the heart of the Roman Empire. Paul wrote his letter, “The Epistle of Paul to the Romans,” to those early believers “in Rome.” Romans 1:7. But because it was surrounded by paganism inside the world’s mightiest capital, this Church soon experienced a “falling away” (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3) from the purity of the gospel and meta-morphed into the wealthy, politically savvy and powerful Roman Catholic Church. This transition especially too

k place during the time of the Emperor Constantine (4th century) who favoured the Roman Catholic Church above all other YAHUSHA’s Followers.

Constantine, Catholicism, sun worship and the Sabbath to Sunday change

In 312 A.D., prior to his pivotal victory over his rival Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine became a “Christian” after claiming to see in broad daylight a vision of “a cross above the sun” with these words emblazoned, “in hoc signo vinces” (by this sign conquer”). After defeating his enemies and becoming Emperor of Rome, Constantine presided in full royal pomp over the “First Council of Nicea” in 325 A.D.

A shrewd political genius, his scheme was to unite paganism and Christianity in an effort to strengthen his disintegrating empire. Constantine knew that pagans throughout the empire worshiped the sun on “the first day of the week,” and he discovered that many Christians and especially in Rome and Alexandria also kept ‘Sunday’ because Messiah rose from the dead on that day. So Constantine developed a plan to unite both groups on the common platform of Sunday keeping. On March 7, 321 A.D., he passed his famous national Sunday law:

“On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.” Source: Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; trans. in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol.3 (5th ed.; New York: Scribner, 1902), p.380, note 1.

And another source: “Let all judges and townspeople and occupations of all trades rest on the venerable day of the Sun [Sunday]; nevertheless, let those who are situated in the rural districts freely and with full liberty attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it so frequently happens that no other day may be so fitting for ploughing grains or trenching vineyards, lest at the time the advantage of the moment granted by the provision of heaven may be lost.” The Code of Justinian, Book 3, title 12, law 3.

Now a professed Christian, Constantine nevertheless remained a devout sun worshipper. “The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine,” notes Edward Gibbon in his classic Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. xx, par. 3.

Constantine even printed coins which “bore on the one side the letters of the name of Christ, on the other the figure of the sun god.” Arthur P. Stanley, History of the Eastern Church, lect. vi, par. 14.

Again, Constantine’s promotion of Sunday observance was part of his definite strategy to combine paganism with Christianity: “The retention of the old pagan name of dies Solis, or ‘Sunday,’ for the weekly Christian festival, is in great measure owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects, pagan and Christian alike, as the ‘venerable day of the Sun.’” Stanley’s History of the Eastern Church, p. 184.

“The Jewish, the Samaritan, even the Christian, were to be fused and recast into one great system, of which the sun was to be the central object of adoration.” Henry Milman, The History of Christianity, Book 2, chap. 8, Vol. 22, p. 175. In 330 A.D., Constantine moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople (modern Istanbul), thus preparing the way for the Roman Catholic Popes to reign in Rome as the successors of Constantine.

As the Papal Church grew in power, it opposed Sabbath observance in favour of Sunday sacredness and made the day change official in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 363-364). Constantine’s plan was successful and the result of his Sunday law was now fully accepted and adopted by the Papal Church, and the Sabbath to Sunday change was complete.

Some correctly teach that Constantine only instituted the first Sunday law, but they very conveniently fail to acknowledge why and the remainder of the story. The Council of Laodicea around A.D. 364 decreed 59 Canon laws. Canon XXIX: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” (Percival Translation).

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Her priests have violated my Torah, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Shabbathoth, and I am profaned among them.
YECHEZQ’EL (EZEKIEL) 22:26

About The Author

Peter Michael Martinez

Released into Ministry in 1995, Apostle Peter Michael is an Emissary of the New Kingdom of YHWH, Elohim of Israel.