44
The Great Controversy 1888
a burden. Now, taking advantage of the false light in which he had
thus caused it to be regarded, he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish
institution. While Christians continued to observe the Sunday as a
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joyous festival, he led them, in order to show their hatred of Judaism,
to make the Sabbath a fast, a day of sadness and gloom.
In the early part of the fourth century, the emperor Constantine
issued a decree making Sunday a public festival throughout the Roman
Empire. [
See appendix, note 1.
] The day of the sun was reverenced
by his pagan subjects, and was honored by Christians; it was the
emperor’s policy to unite the conflicting interests of heathenism and
Christianity. He was urged to do this by the bishops of the church,
who, inspired by ambition, and thirst for power, perceived that if the
same day was observed by both Christians and the heathen, it would
promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by pagans, and thus
advance the power and glory of the church. But while Christians were
gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness,
they still held the true Sabbath as the holy of the Lord, and observed it
in obedience to the fourth commandment.
The arch-deceiver had not completed his work. He was resolved
to gather the Christian world under his banner, and to exercise his
power through his vicegerent, the proud pontiff who claimed to be the
representative of Christ. Through half-converted pagans, ambitious
prelates, and world-loving churchmen, he accomplished his purpose.
Vast councils were held, from time to time, in which the dignitaries
of the church were convened from all the world. In nearly every
council the Sabbath which God had instituted was pressed down a
little lower, while the Sunday was correspondingly exalted. Thus the
pagan festival came finally to be honored as a divine institution, while
the Bible Sabbath was pronounced a relic of Judaism, and its observers
were declared to be accursed.
The great apostate had succeeded in exalting himself “above all
that is called God, or that is worshiped.” [
2 Thessalonians 2:4
.] He had
dared to change the only precept of the divine law that unmistakably
points all mankind to the true and living God. In the fourth command-
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ment, God is revealed as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and
is thereby distinguished from all false gods. It was as a memorial of
the work of creation that the seventh day was sanctified as a rest-day
for man. It was designed to keep the living God ever before the minds