The following is an excerpt from one of the most compelling body of evidences, ever, as compiled by Yohanan Adoniyah in The Original Doctrine According to Yahshua
“In the year 321 A.D., Emperor Constantine used imperial power to impose Sunday as a day of worship for all men. Can you see the irony, here? The head of the beast, to whom Satan has given his power, implementing the law of Elohim, and showing people the right way? This is totally impossible. Here is an exerpt from the Codex Justinianus, III., “Constantine to Elpidius. All judges, city-people and craftsmen shall rest on the venerable day of the sun. But countrymen may without hindrance attend to agriculture, since it often happens that this is the most suitable day for sowing grain and planting vines, so that the opportunity afforded by divine providence may not be lost, for the right season is in short duration.” (March 7, 321).
To make sure the message was heard loud and clear another edict followed, which stated that no man was allowed to Judaize under penalty of death. What does it mean to Judaize if not that faithful men of Elohim resisted Constantine’s edicts and persisted in the doctrines which were once and for all delivered to the saints. Rome literally waged war on Elohim’s commandments. The above decree clearly shows that Sunday or the day of the sun had already occupied a venerable place in Rome, the center of sun worship. It had a great religious meaning for the people of Rome. This edict had been one of the Roman Church’s means of removing “all obstacles lying in the way of the Gentiles.” (24) That decision, as you well know, would have a universal influence on all the churches that came via Gentile Europe. “They had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols, says YHWH.” Among traditional “believers”, it is no more a question of what the Bible says, but what is decreed and instituted by so-called “Church Fathers“.
Two church historians, J. Danielou & Henri Marrou, who are themselves Catholics, have this to say, “Ignatius’ polemic against the observance of the Sabbath shows that at Antioch, at the beginning of the second century, believers were continuing to observe it.” Those believers have known those who knew Yahshua; they knew the blessed Apostles; and Elohim’s Apostles taught them. Where do you stand? How come the Apostles have already earned their crowns, having followed the laws of Elohim, and you, you are told not to? Who is lying? It seems to me what is good for the Apostles is also good for you. How much do you really thirst for Elohim’s kingdom? Does salvation mean so much to you that you are willing to do everything in your power to use your time to find the TRUTH, and live in the TRUTH, even if you have to give up everything that you own on this earth? All roads lead to Rome, but there is only one narrow, bumpy, and difficult, yet straight road that leads to the Kingdom of Yahweh. Will you walk this road with Yahshua?
The Historical Facts Corroborate The Bible
One of the first signs of that church’s struggle for power over the rest of the true assemblies is found in the book of Eusebius, The History of the Church. Keep in mind, Eusebius was a Catholic priest born in 260 A.D. He reported on a “controversy of great significance”. It is about the Passover festival. The believers of Asia had been keeping Passover according to APOSTOLIC TRADITION. They kept the festival on the 14th day of the first month (Nisan), at evening. But in Rome and some other places under the Roman Church’s supervision, it wasn’t customary to keeping the date of the feast according to the Bible’s fixed-time.
The Church of Rome, where a monarchical episcopate in the authority of a one man despot was the established form of government, sought to convince the already feeble churches of Asia to change their way of doing business and accept the Roman Church’s newly instituted tradition. Pretending to be endowed with direct authority from Elohim, Victor, the bishop of Rome made a violent move against those few believers of Asia Minor. They strongly refused to comply with the Roman Church’s demand.
Eusebius recorded the following letter, which he said he copied from the original letter written by the Asian bishops themselves. And that confession is very important. We urge you to read and seriously think about its content.
“We for our part keep the DAY scrupulously, without addition or subtraction. For in Asia great luminaries sleep who will rise again on the day of Messiah’s advent, when He is coming with glory from heaven and shall search out all His saints — such as Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis with his two daughters, who remained unmarried to the end of their days, while his other daughter lived in the blessed Spirit and rests in Ephesus. Again there is John, who leant back on the Master’s breast, and who became a sacrificing priest … a martyr, and a teacher; he too sleeps in Ephesus. Then in Smyrna there is Polycarp, bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, the bishop and martyr from Eumenia, who sleeps in Smyrna. Need I mention Sagaris, bishop and martyr, who sleeps in Laodicea, or blessed Papirius, or Melito the eunuch, who lived entirely in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in Sardis waiting for the visitation from heaven when he shall rise from the dead? All of these KEPT THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF THE MONTH AS THE BEGINNING OF THE PASCHAL FESTIVAL, in accordance with the Gospel, not deviating in the least but following the rule of Faith. Last of all I too, Polycrates, the least of you all, act according to the tradition of my family, some members of which I have actually followed; for seven of them were bishops and I am the eighth, and my family have always kept the day when the people put away the leaven. So I, my friends, after spending sixty five years in the Master’s service and conversing with Christians from all parts of the world, and going carefully through all the Scripture, I am not scared of threats. Better people than I have said: ‘We must obey Elohim rather than men’ ”.
One can clearly see, here, a new institution trying to change the way of an old institution. But the faithful disciples refused to. Would you bend to the Roman Church? If you would not, where are you now? How did you get there? Will you obey Yahweh, “after carefully going through all Scripture” or do you prefer to stick to the roman tradition? This was not the only controversy in which the Roman Church showed her teeth. That church was not only against some of the apostolic teachings, but even some of the heresies they earlier rejected they later on accepted and dogmatized.
Now meet Bede or Baeda. The erudition of this highly regarded church historian needs no introduction. In his book Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the Church, this monk testifies that up to the 7th century there were still believers who refused to give up their way of keeping Passover in exchange for the Roman Church’s Easter. Read their startling testimony, as recorded by this faithful catholic priest, on pages 180-189. It came from the lips of their opponents, represented by Abbot Wilfrid, “who had gone to Rome to study the doctrine of the Church”: “Far be it from us, argued Wilfrid, to charge John with stupidity, because he literally observed the Law of Moses at a time when the Church [not the Roman Church] followed many Jewish practices, and the Apostles were not able immediately to ABROGATE the observances of the Law once given by Elohim, …John following the custom of the Law, used to begin the Feast of Easter on the evening of the fourteenth of the first month, not caring whether it fell on the Sabbath or on any other day.”
This is among the best historical proofs we can have regarding Irishmen and Scots keeping the Passover Feast Day, yearly, on a different date than that of the Roman or Italian Catholic tradition because, they asserted, this was how they received it from those who themselves had received the tradition from, probably, the Apostles themselves. The Catholic Priest agreed and confirmed the undeniable truth of the Apostle’s foundation (teaching and practice), but –amazingly– the Catholic theologian, Wifrid, believes that John continued to do what Yahshua used to do because the early and only true Assembly “couldn’t immediately abrogate the Law once given by Elohim”. He who reads with intelligence surely knows that nowhere in the Bible has it ever been given to the Apostles, or any man for that matter, the right to add or retract from Elohim’s words or commands. Secondly, the position of the Gentile Church was, then, that these commandments pertained to Jews only, which attitude they passed unto those who followed their theology, by force or by choice. Finally, the literal observance of the Law of Yahweh — to be more correct — included both the practice of the physical dimension (consisting of burnt offerings, drinks, libation, and all kinds of sacrifices) and the spiritual dimension (the physical having been fulfilled at the stake). The New Covenant writers understood that they were no more under the rudiments of the Law. Wilfrid’s blunt statement has surely misled the audience to rest their case on the popes’ “infallibility”, for at the conclusion of that Synod, the King of England ordered that the Catholic tradition be maintained by everyone, high and low.
History is full of irrefutable evidences of TRUE believers’ strong continuity in the biblical and apostolic observance of the Feast. “In the first place, it is certain that Christian communities, in the strict sense of the terms, continued to observe Jewish feasts, but we know that in Judaism, at that time, there was a great diversity of calendars, so the Christian communities reflected these divergences. It seems, moreover, that the majority of Christian feasts were transformations of certain Jewish feasts. Was this at the beginning of the second century? One thing is certain, the celebration of the 14 of Nisan, the day of the Jewish Pasch, by the believers of Asia. The observance extended to groups in Palestine, Syria and Rome. Those who kept it were called the Quarto- decimans.” (25)
In the rest of the document, the writers continue to show that another group focusing on Sunday [the Sunday of resurrection], later on, rivaled with the first. And “It is this group which finally prevailed over that of the Quartodecimans.”
“… The Judeo-Christians continued to celebrate the Jewish feasts, a custom which probably remained.” The truth is they were simply following in the footsteps of their Savior.
What stronger evidences can any sincere believer ask for?
At the death of Apostle John, the last pillar of truth, those other believers with itching ears that were already listening to other teachings, began to promote Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection. This leads to the most drastically outrageous ordinance in that new church ecclesiastical calendar by the Harlot Woman’s leaders. And though they confirm the truth about what they have done and why, many still turn a death ear. They prefer to hold on to their forefathers’ tradition and religious culture. You must avoid such attitude at all cost.