PREFACE

   Ever since the Reformation began at the beginning of the 16th century, there have been steps taken, in response to directions from the Mighty One, to restore "the Faith which was once for all delivered to the saints," Jude verse 3 RAV. This book, which you are now reading, is the Final Reformation, "the restitution of all things," Acts 3:21 KJV. We do not profess that further Light will not come, for indeed, our Saviour will complete that which He has now started, "He will thoroughly purge His threshing-floor ... He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire,'' Matt. 3:12 KJV.

    This book serves to unveil the Great Apostasy (as Bible translators like to call it) as is described in 2 Thess. 2:312. It reveals to us the "Mystery of Lawlessness" of 2 Thess. 2:7 REV. It reveals to us "Mystery Babylon" of Rev. 17:5, of which much is said in the final eleven chapters of the book of Revelation. It unmasks the "Abomination of Desolation", which our Messiah said (in Matt. 24:15 - and Daniel as well in Dan. 9:27, Dan. 11:31, Dan. 12:11), will be found to be standing in the "Holy Place". In fulfilment of Messiah's promise in Luke 8:17, it unseals the important things that were revealed to Daniel in visions and dreams. Daniel was commanded in Dan. 12:4, "But you Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end." This command to Daniel was repeated to him in Dan. 12:9. This sealing of the book was only up to the time of the end-time, "until the time of the end; many shall push forth, and knowledge shall increase," Dan. 12 4 Hebrew text. The German, Dutch and Afrikaans translations have preferred the figurative meaning of the Hebrew shut (push forth), namely: "do research", and it fits in perfectly with the context of this verse The revelation of the "Abomination of Desolation" (Dan. 9:27, Dan. 11:31 and Dan. 12:11) and all the things "what will be in the latter days" (Dan. 2:28, Dan. 7:18 and 27, Dan 8:17 and 19 and 26, Dan. 10:14, Dan. 11:40, Dan. 12: 1-13), are described for us in Daniel chapters 2,7,8,9, 10, 11 and 12. These visions, revelations, were so shocking that Daniel said, "I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself," Dan. 7:28 NIV. In Dan. 7:15 he said, "my mind disturbed me." NIV. In Dan. 8:27 he said he "fainted and was sick for days." In Dan. 10:8 and 16-17 Daniel further recorded the sickening effect these revelations had upon him, "I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless . . . am overcome with anguish . . . I am helpless, my strength is gone and I can hardly breathe," NIV. That is exactly how we too felt when the Abomination of Desolation, the Great Apostasy, the Mystery of Lawlessness, and Mystery Babylon were unveiled to us!

    The Spirit of Truth was indeed guiding us into all Truth (John 16: 13), convicting us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8). The Spirit was truly declaring to us our transgression and our sin (Micah 3:8). Our Elohim was verily fulfilling His promise of Eze. 36:27, "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." The fire of the Baptism of the Spirit does indeed "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire, " Matt. 3: 12. All the revelations in this book were given to us in a supernatural way, by the Spirit, and subsequent search led to confirmation in Scripture, as well as in reliable sources of scholars of Scripture, of religious history, or of archaeology. Someone has attempted to criticize us for including non-ecclesiastical historians and archaeologists in our search. However, this criticism can be refuted on the very Scriptural example of the Almighty even speaking through an ass (Numbers 22:28), and even using stones (archaeology), as Messiah has predicted in Luke 19:40. It is well known that the Church, from the 4th century onwards, had accepted many pagan festivals, images, idol's names etc., into the Church, with the apology that these things of idolatry have been "sanctified". Therefore, much of the frank idolatrous origin of these things became suppressed, ignored, or explained away. However, honest historians and archaeologists recorded these facts for us, for they were unbiased and merely related their findings. Thus, the very stones of archaeology and history also cry out! The study of the names of pagan idols is greatly impeded by the fact that the pagans diversified the names of their deities, and also disguised their names, and even tried to keep them secret, in order to avoid their opponents getting hold of the name of their idol. Further, Hislop tells us in The Two Babylons, p.122, that "The Pagans were in the habit of worshiping the same god under different names." And, even worse, with the syncretism that prevailed since the time of Alexander the Great, the deities of the various nations became identified with one another. But, in our research, the Spirit of Truth was blessing us by guiding us and leading us— leading us out of this confusion. Another important point needs to be mentioned: The Sun-deity had, and still has, many names. This fact soon becomes very obvious to anyone who starts reading on the subject. In the 4th century, when the fusion of Sun-worship with the Messianic Faith took place, Macrobius wrote, "All gods are only different powers of the Sun" (quoted by James Bonwick, Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, p.276). The details of this assimilation are fully discussed in the text of this book, The Final Reformation.

    This book will greatly help the seeker of Truth to return to the True Faith. The Gift of "discerning of spirits" must be prayed for, in order to discern between the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:6), to discern between the Spirit of Yahúweh' and "the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). Not many will accept the revelations coming forth in this book, "for many are called, but few are chosen," Matt. 22:14. "For the gate is small, and the Way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it," Matt. 7:14 NASB. "Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left," Isa. 24:6. Who are the "few" that are chosen? "Just as HE CHOSE us in Him [Messiah] before the foundation of the world, THAT WE SHOULD BE SEPARATE (HOLY) AND WITHOUT BLAME before Him in love " Eph. 1:4, capitals mine. Read also 2 Thess. 2:13, 1 Pet. 1:2, 14-16. We are chosen by Him to be Separate (holy), for He is Separate (holy). Many are called, but few respond to His requirement, His demand for Separation (holiness). Therefore the "few" are described in Rev. 17:14 as "called, chosen and faithful." How can I know that I am being chosen? Simply by responding to His call "to be Separate" from the sins of the world. Take heed: without Separation no one will see Him—Heb. 12:14. Only those who accept His only-begotten Son as Saviour, and then as his only Teacher (Matt. 23:8 and 10), and only Leader, Shepherd and Overseer (1 Pet. 2:25), will endure to the end on the Narrow Way. They are those who truly come into the binding relationship with Yahúweh, the New Covenant, of which the Law of Yahúweh is still the contents—Heb. 8: 10 and 10: 16. Only they will escape the end-time plagues and final destruction that is to come upon Mystery Babylon.

    This book is meant for those who, out of thankfulness for the Great Redemptive Love shown on Golgotha, can but only respond by loving our Elohim with all their hearts, all their minds and all their souls. They are those who strive to read and obey every Scriptural command, for they delight in doing so. They are those who "live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of Yahúweh," Deut. 8:3 and Matt. 4:4. They are those who no longer read and obey the Word in a "pick as you please" way, no longer in an a la carte fashion. In one sense Scripture is the story of the struggle between True Worship and false or apostate or mixed worship. The message of the Three Angels in Rev. 14:6-12 is a call for reform, a call for sanity. This book details that call for sanity. It appeals to those who have come to know their Saviour personally those who, like us, "serve Yahúweh with gladness", who "rejoice in Yahúweh always". When we have accepted Yahushúa as our Saviour, He lives in us, in our hearts, He and His Father (John 14:23), working in us "both to will and to work on behalf of His good pleasure," Philip. 2:13. He is the One Who reconciles us with His Father (Rom. 5:10,2 Cor. 5:18,1 Peter 3:18). He is the One Who motivates us to do the Will of His Father, to bring us to the place where we can truly say, "I delight to do Your Will, O my Elohim, and Your Law is within my heart," Ps. 40:8. This book is a call to worship the Father not only in Spirit, but in Truth also—John 4:23-24. "Trust and obey, for there is no other Way", should be the song sung from our lips, but also from our hearts.

This book cannot be sold, for Messiah has already paid the price. He has already paid the price on the cruel tree on Golgotha, not only to save us but also to "redeem us from all lawlessness", Titus 2:14 Greek text. However any contributions received, will be used exclusively for the reprinting of further copies and distribution thereof.

    We are greatly indebted to our Messiah Who said "Without Me you can do nothing," John 15:5. We are also greatly indebted to every brother and sister who has supported this, The Final Reformation, by their tithes, by helping prepare the manuscript, and above all: their prayers.

Chapter I - SUN-WORSHIP HAS BEEN FUSED WITH THE MESSIANIC FAITH

The Almighty has turned and has given us, the Christian Church and the Christian world, up to worship the host of heaven, which comprises the sun, the moon, and the stars, of which the sun is the most important. He did this to Israel after He brought them out of Egypt, the land of sin, Acts 7:38,39 and 42. The startling truth is that He has done it again, to us! This is revealed to us in the book of Revelation by our Saviour, in Rev. 12:1—the woman (the Church), "clothed with the sun . . . moon . . . stars." The Almighty delivered Israel up (Act 7:42 NASB) to worship the host of heaven, because they would not abide by, and remain faithful to, the Covenant, the "Ten Words"— Deut. 4:13 Hebrew text, correctly rendered in the New English Bible or Green's Interlinear. Israel would not abide by the "Living Words" (Acts 7:38 NIV or Green's Interlinear) which they received from the Angel on Mt. Sinai, through the mediation of Moses.

    Likewise, our Saviour, the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 8:6, Heb. 9:15, Heb. 12:24), has been seeking to mediate the New Covenant to us. The contents of the New Covenant are the same as the Covenant of old, namely the Law of Yahúweh ¹ (Heb. 8: 10, Heb. 10: 16, Jer. 31:33), of which the Ten Words, the "Living Words" or the Ten Commandments, form the basis or foundation. These Ten Words were given on two tables. The second table with the last six Commandments is the basis of the ethical or social law. The first table with the first four Commandments is the basis of the religious law. The second table is the basis of our love towards our neighbour, our fellow-man (Matt. 22:39, Luke 10:27b, Mark 12:31, Rom. 13:9, Lev. 19:18). The first table is the basis of our love towards Yahúweh (Matt. 22:37- 38, Luke 10:27a Mark 12:29-30, Deut. 6:5).

FIG. 1: The Name of our Heavenly Father in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is best transliterated as IaHUeH, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (see under "Jehovah"). The Hebrew word must be read from back to front. The represents YAHU-, and the final represents -EH or -WEH. (See also References No. 1).

For almost 2 000 years the Church has been striving to get people to adhere to the ethical or social laws The laws of the second table, the love towards our neighbour and fellow- man. But what about the love towards Yahúweh, the first table, the religious laws? These have been shockingly neglected, turned aside, "done away with" or ignored. The very essence of Yahushúa our Saviour's

 

FIG. 2: All authoritative sources agree, e.g. Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, that this is the original form of our Saviour's Name, preserved in the Old Testament as the name of Moses' successor. The represents YAHU-, and the final represents -SHUA. (See also References, No. 6).

 

final message in Revelation chapters 12 to 22 is that of the sad neglect, in fact, even rejection of the "love towards Yahúweh"—the religious laws. At the end of this article we shall study Revelation chapters 12 to 22 in full detail, wherein we shall discover numerous facts that witness to this, proving that we too have been "given up to worship the host of heaven". We have not allowed the Mediator, Yahushúa, to mediate His Father's Law into our hearts and in our minds, especially not the first four Commandments or Words, the religious law, the love towards Yahúweh. The Scriptures repeatedly warn us against the worship of the sun and the rest of the host of heaven, which is simply a form of idolatry, in fact, the most natural thing for natural man to do. These warnings are found in Deut. 4:19, Deut. 17:3, Job 31:26-28, Eze. 8:9- 16, 2 Chron. 14:5. Jer. 44:17, Jer. 19:13,2 Kings 23:4-11, Acts 7:42, and Revelation chapters 12 to 22.

For quite some time we have been convinced of this idolatry of Sun-worship which has been adopted by the Church. We then discovered the honest and unbiased conclusions arrived at by the following four scholars. This prompted us to come forward and to "Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet, tell my people their transgression," Isa. 58:1. Let us read what these scholars said:
The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Second Edition, p. 233, states, "Constantine combined veneration for the 'Unconquered Sun my companion' with that of Christ." This frank and honest statement is confirmed by the three other authoritative sources. One of the most knowledgeable scholars in this field, Franz Cumont, candidly states on p. 288 of his book, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, "The vague deism of Constantine strove to reconcile the opposition of helioatry [sun-worship] and Christianity." John Ferguson, in The Religions of the Roman Empire, p. 56, states, "Constantine's god was a fusion of the Unconquered Sun and Christ the Victorious." Another scholarly researcher, Legge, on pp. 118-119 of Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, relates what happened in the first few centuries of our common era, before this fusion took place, and then that which followed, " . . . the . . . importance thus given to the worship of the material sun, which henceforth forms the centre of adoration in all non-Christian religions . . . All the post Alexandrian legends of the gods were turned the same way, and Serapis, Mithras, Attis were all identified with the Sun, whom philosophers like Pliny and Macrobius declared to be the one supreme god concealed behind the innumerable lesser deities of the Graeco-Roman pantheon. Even the Christians could not long hold out against the flood, and the marks of the compromise to which the Catholic Church came in the matter may perhaps be seen in the coincidence of the Lord's Day with Sunday and the Church's adoption of the 25th day of December, the birthday of the Unconquered Sun-god, as the anniversary of the birth of Christ. It is certainly by no accident that the emperors whose reigns immediately preceded the establishment of Christianity all turned towards the worship of the Sun-god who was looked upon as the peculiar divinity of the family to which Constantine belonged."

Pagan worship is forbidden to the people of the Almighty, even if mixed with True Worship. Many Scriptures testify to this: Deut. 4:13-19, Deut. 12:1-4, Deut. 12:29-32, Deut. 18:9, Lev. 20:23-26, Jer. 10:2-3, Eph. 4:1722, Eph. 2:1-4,2 Cor. 6:17,1 Cor. 10:14-21,1 John 5:21 etc. Notice especially in 2 Kings 17:33 and 41 how True Worship was mixed with idol worship. Note also, that even the high priest Aaron was persuaded by his people to lead them into a mixed worship, Exod. 32:5. The Almighty's wrath was kindled and He wanted to destroy everybody except Moses. Other examples of mixed worship are Eze. 23:38-39, Jer. 7:2 and 8-18.

In an attempt to justify this assimilation of Sun-worship with the New Testament Faith, much appeal was made, especially in the early centuries, to Malachi 4:2, the prophetic promise (interpreted by many to mean the Messiah) of the "sun of righteousness". However, this figure of speech cannot justify the adoption of Sun-worship, just as the figurative reference to the Messiah as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" (Rev. 5:5) cannot justify the adoption of lion-worship!

For primitive man, ignorant of the True Worship and the True Mighty One, it is only natural to start venerating or paying homage to the sun, moon and stars (the host of heaven), of which the sun is the most important, giving warmth to man and animal, and life-giving growth to plants. That is the reason why, when Yahúweh commanded His people to keep the Ten Commandment Covenant, He warned them against the corruption of worshipping and serving the sun, and the moon, and the stars - the host of heaven - things which Yahúweh has divided unto all nations (Deut. 4:13- 19). The Wycliffe Bible Commentary comments on Deut. 4:19, "The worship of the visible and creaturely was characteristic of the Gentile nations whom [Elohim] had abandoned to their perverse folly." Dr. J.H. Hertz, in Pentateuch and Haftorahs comments, "The heavenly luminaries exercised a great fascination upon early man . . . The 'host of heaven' was the dominant influence in Babylonian religion. The Egyptians also reverenced the sun, the moon, and the stars as symbols of deities. Associated with this worship was also the superstition that the heavenly bodies influenced the lives of mortals, a superstition which is not yet altogether extinct . . . [Elohim] had suffered the heathens to worship the sun, moon and stars ...." Because of similar comments by others, the Good News Bible took the liberty of rendering Deut. 4:19, ". . . the sun, the moon, and the stars ... Elohim has given these to all other peoples for them to worship." The New English Bible also relates this verse this way. We do not want to justify this rather free translation, but in the light of Acts 7:38, 39 and 42, as well as Jer. 10:2, it prompts us to carefully heed His warning to remain in His Covenant, His Law, lest we become as the heathen who worship the host of heaven. In Acts 7:38-42 we read of the Spirit-filled Stephen reprimanding his fellow Jews for not keeping the Law (Acts 7:53), just like their forefathers who received the "Living Words" (verse 38 Green's Interlinear and NIV), but the forefathers did not obey the Living Words. Therefore, what happened? Acts 7:42 reads, "Then Elohim turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven ...." In Jer. 10:2 we read, "Thus says Yahúweh: 'Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be dismayed (awed - NEB) at the signs of heaven; for the Gentiles are dismayed (awed - NEB) at them.' " This is astrology and astrological religion, which had its origin in ancient Chaldea (Babylon), and later on moved to Rome, being based on the different paths of the sun through the sky, displaying the sun at the centre of the zodiac. The people of Yahúweh are forbidden to participate in these things which are the customs of the Gentiles. Being secretly enticed by the sun or the moon, or any homage paid to them, is an iniquity and a denial of Elohim—Job 31:2628.

In Eze. 8:3-16 we see the most alarming description of how idolatrous worship is fused with True Worship, especially in verses 14-16 where Sun-worship has been brought into the House of Yahúweh. The Tammuz - worship of v. 14 is just one form of Sun-worship, Tammuz being the incarnate Sun, the young rising Sun as a deity.2 In verse 16 the prophet was also shown the twenty-five men worshipping the Sun towards the East, and that is exactly what started happening in post-apostolic Christianity. This praying towards the Sun in the East is recorded in the writings of Clement of Alexandria (150215), as well as in the writings of his scholar, Origen. They were both guilty of trying to justify this practice, which Yahúweh labelled "wicked abominations" (Eze. 8:9). The Bishop of Carthage, Cyprian, in the year 258 also exhorted Christians to pray to the East at sunrise. On the other hand, in the year 197, Tertullian writing in his Ad nationes 1,13, accused fellow Christians of Sun worship because of their praying to the East and because of making Sunday a day of festivity. Despite this warning by Tertullian, Augustine (354- 430), in his many writings, was repeatedly trying to justify his prayers to the East. This was a regular practice in the basilica of St. Peter in Rome, which caused Pope Leo the Great to make a vigorous attack on this practice in the year 461. However, his objection was ignored and they continued with this in the basilica up to the year 1300, as we shall see later. Another voice in the wilderness was crying out against this practice, that of Eusebius of Alexandria, who wrote, "and not only Sun-worshippers and heretics do this, but also Christians, departing from the faith, mingle with heretics." These important facts are all well documented in Dr. F.J. Dolger, Sol Salutis, as well as in Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, From Sabbath to Sunday.

In Eze. 8:9 Elohim calls this a "wicked abomination". In Deut. 17:3-5 the civil law demanded that those of Israel who were found guilty of worshipping "the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven", were to be stoned to death. Has our Mighty One changed? "For I am Yahúweh, I do not change," Mal. 3:6. He is "the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow of turning, " James 1: 17. The civil laws of the Scriptures are not being applied today, but Yahúweh has not changed and will still mete out the just penalty. "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of Elohim leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of Elohim, Who will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for esteem (glory), honour, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but esteem (glory), honour, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with Elohim. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of Elohim, but the doers of the law will be justified," Rom. 2:4-13. Let us not despise His forbearance and long suffering. Because of His forbearance and long suffering, we have come to salvation —think of it! He is patiently leading us to repentance, repentance from every form of sin. The Law cannot forgive and save us, but the purpose of the Law is to tell us what sin is - 1 John 3:4, Exod. 20:20, Rom. 3:20, Rom. 4:15, Rom. 7:7.

In Deut. 12:30 Israel was warned not to follow the Gentiles in their idolatrous religion, "Take heed to yourself that you do not inquire after their elohim, saying 'How did these nations serve their elohim? I also will do likewise.' " Israel was prohibited the frank worship of idols, as was also the manner in which the idols were worshipped. Not only is frank Sun-worship forbidden, but also the mode, the manner and means by which the Sun was worshipped - the "how". This is important.

We shall now discuss the manner of Sun-worship, the customs and the "how" of Sun- worship, which was fused with the Messianic Faith by emperor Constantine and others that followed, political leaders, but especially religious leaders. In spite of subsequent attempts to justify the adoptions of these components of Sun-worship, their origin is important, and it must be exposed. Let us get complete clarity on the attempts made to justify these adoptions, this "canonization", this "Christianization" or ''sanctification'' of heathen customs, deities or festivals. The Scriptures are very clear on this: These things cannot be "sanctified" - only repentant sinners, humans, can! IGNORANCE OF, AND DEVIATING FROM, THIS MOST BASIC SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLE, HAS BEEN THE ROOT CAUSE FOR THIS GREAT SICKNESS OF "SOLARIZATION" THAT HAS BEFALLEN US, THE CHURCH. We must repent of this great sin if we earnestly seek for a restoration or a revival!

 

Chapter II - WHAT COMPONENTS OF THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN AND THE HOST OF HEAVEN HAVE BEEN ADOPTED?

The following customs or "hows", giving homage to, or veneration of the Sun and the rest of the host of heaven, have been adopted and are even practised today. Although they are still found in Christianity, they are not found in the Scriptures, Old Testament or New Testament. However, a few words or names are found in our translated Scriptures, which are incorrect according to the inspired original Scriptures, as far back as we can trace them. They have been brought into the translations because the Almighty turned and gave us up "to worship the host of heaven", just as He did to Old Testament Israel at various stages, Acts 7:42. He has done the same to us. Read 2 Thess. 2:3-12 too, where the shocking words appear, "Elohim will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie" those who do not believe the Truth!

 

1. SUNDAY

The Supreme Authority on the True Faith is our Saviour Yahushua Himself: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age," Matt. 28: 1820. All modern translations admit this correct rendering: "authority". He is the only One, Who, with the authority given to Him by His Father, can authoritatively decide on all spiritual matters - Matt. 23:8-10, Heb. 1:1-2, Matt. 7:24-29, Matt. 11:29, Jn. 18:37, Jn. 12:48-50, Lk. 9:35, Jn. 6:63 & 68, Jn. 8:31-36, Jn. 3:34, Jn. 14:6, Rev. 19:13, Rev. 19: 16, 1 Tim. 6:3-4, 2 Jn. v. 9 etc. We have no other Supreme Authority. In Colossians and in Ephesians He is repeatedly called the Head of the Body "head" having the figurative meaning of "authority".

What is Yahushua's supreme, ultimate and authoritative verdict on the great controversy between Sabbath and Sunday? First of all, He is our supreme example (1 Jn. 2:6, 1 Pet. 2:21, Jn. 10:27, Jn. 21:19 & 22 etc.) And it was His custom to keep the Sabbath - Luke 4:16; just like the custom that Paul followed too - Acts 17:2, Acts 13:14 & 42-44, Acts 16: 13, Acts 18: 4 & 11. Secondly, Yahushua commands us to keep His Father's Ten Commandments (of which the Sabbath is the Fourth Commandment), authoritatively and very clearly - Matt. 19:17, Lk. 10:28 and Jn. 12:50. Indeed, He clearly says that the keeping of His Father's Commandments is a condition for inheriting eternal life! Again in His final revelation to us, He repeats this in Rev. 22:14, "Blessed are those who do His Commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city." This text has been changed later on to such an extent that the necessity of Commandment- keeping as a prerequisite for entry to the New Jerusalem is here completely hidden. Long before the New Testament books were canonised to form the New Testament as we know it, this correct rendering of Rev. 22: 14 (which stresses the necessity for keeping the Commandments) was quoted by Tertullian in the year 208, and again by Cyprian in the year 251. Yahushua, through John, defines the True Worshippers in Rev. 12: 17 and in Rev. 14: 12 as those who also keep the Father's Commandments. The Apostles also reaffirm this necessity in 1 Cor. 7: 19, 1 Tim. 6: 13- 14, 1 John 5:2-3, 2 John w. 4-6 Rom. 3:31, Rom. 2:26-29, Rom. 2:13, Rom. 7:22, Rom. 8:7 James 2:10-12, Heb. 10:16, and Heb. 8:10. According to James 2: 10-12 we are to keep all ten Commandments, not just some of them. But why not the Fourth Commandment, the keeping of the Sabbath, too? Why was it changed to Sunday? or simply done away with? If Scripture defines the Sabbath as the only sign of Separation (Sanctification)—Ex. 31:13 & 17, Eze. 20:12 & 20, dare we ignore it? Some might argue that the keeping of the Sabbath is not commanded in the New Testament - but it is! If they had only translated Heb .4:9 truthfully, there would have been no doubt. The Greek text reads as follows, "There remains a keeping of Sabbath to the people of Elohim" (see margin of KJV). This is confirmed by Dictionary of New Testament Theology, vol. 3, p. 411 (Ed. Colin Brown). The correct rendering "keeping of Sabbath" is also found in the Emphatic Diaglott, in the Rotherham Version, Henry Alford Translation and Lamsa Bible. This word sabbatismos means "the keeping of Sabbath" and nothing else. Barnes Notes on the New Testament comments, "It properly means: a keeping Sabbath." The authoritative Liddell and Scott's Greek - English Lexicon gives this as the only meaning. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words agrees on this. In fact, almost all Greek dictionaries give this as the only meaning. Why has this word sabbatismos been translated theologically instead of literally and truthfully? The true rendering "keeping of Sabbath" clearly emphasises the present-time obligation, in fact, the exhortation for its present observance. The keeping of the Sabbath now is a type, a shadow, of the world to come. Colossians 2:17 speaks of the Sabbaths which "are [not 'was'] a shadow of things to come". The present obligation to keep the Sabbath, which is a shadow or type of the eternal rest to come, is mandatory, for the Sabbath is the only Scriptural sign of Separation (Sanctification) Ex. 31:13 & 17 and Eze. 20:12 & 20. Remember: without Separation (Sanctification) no one shall see the Sovereign - Heb. 12:14.

Thirdly, in His prophecy on the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:14,15-21), Yahushua foresaw His followers continuing to observe the Sabbath, and He is concerned that they will be confronted with the problem of fleeing on the Sabbath. He said in Matt. 24:20, "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath." Our Messiah clearly foresaw the permanence of Sabbath-keeping by True Worshippers. Yahushua did not abolish the Sabbath, which is part of the Ten Commandment Law. He explicitly stated: He did not come to destroy the Law. The correct and literal rendering of Matt. 5:17-19 from the Greek text is, "Do not think that I came to destroy [or abolish or annul] the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy [or abolish or annul] but to fill. For verily I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law till all come to pass [or be accomplished]. Whoever therefore breaks one of these Commandments the least, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches [them], he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." This word "fill" in v.17 (Greek pleroo) has different meanings when used figuratively. The New English Bible renders it as "complete", and so does the Canisius Translation. This word pleroo cannot mean "annul" or "abolish" here in v.17, because, firstly, then Yahushua would have contradicted Himself in one and the same verse. Secondly, this same word pleroo is used in Matt. 3:15 and Col. 1:25 where it would be preposterous to even suggest a meaning of "annul" or "abolish". The word pleroo in Matt. 5:17 can best be rendered as "fill" or "complete". The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, like others, suggests: complete, confirm, meeting the full requirements, corroborate, establish, totalise or even: fully preach (the best rendering for Col. 1 :25). Others have suggested: execute, or live up to, or comply with, as the best rendering, especially in Matt. 3:15. In Matt. 5:19, the correct rendering of "breaking one of these Commandments the least" (see any Interlinear or the Rotherham Version), clarifies the difficulty created by the ordinary translations and brings it into harmony with all Scripture. In Luke 16:17 Yahushua confirms the permanent validity of the Law: "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fail." Dare we appeal to any other human authority in an attempt to evade Commandment-keeping, including the Fourth - the Sabbath? We cannot over-emphasise Yahushua's statement, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth," Matt. 28:18. He is our only Supreme Authority. He is the only Head (authority) of His Body, the congregation or assembly. Read also 1 Tim. 6:3-4 and 2 John v.9.

What about the Pharisees' accusations that our Messiah was breaking the Sabbath? What about the many allegations made through the centuries that Yahushua annulled the Sabbath? First of all, the Pharisees' accusations did not hold against Yahushua's authoritative replies. When the time of His trial had come, they were no longer attempting to raise this accusation against Him, which had been proven false by Him. Secondly, a thorough study of the New Testament, together with a knowledge of how the Pharisees had brought in added burdens in Sabbath-observance, will clarify any argument. Yahushua was simply refuting the man-made 39 additional traditional laws pertaining to Sabbath- keeping which the Jews had legislated in their Mishnah, Shabbath 7,2. He strongly reprimanded the Pharisees for not keeping the Commandments of Yahuweh while holding fast to their own man-made laws, their traditions, Matt. 15: 3-9 and Mark. 7: 5-13. These traditional laws are still upheld by the Jews today and are commonly known to them as the "oral law". The Dictionary of New Testament Theology discusses this alleged Sabbath-annulling by Yahushua, and then concludes, "We may conclude then, that though [Yahushua] broke through the rabbinic tradition about the Sabbath, there was no annulling of the observance of the day."

Why then has Sunday become the day of worship instead of Sabbath? Why are we not keeping Sabbath while Sabbath-observance will be practised in the new earth by those who have survived the end-time judgment? Isa. 66:23. Who then changed the Sabbath to Sunday? Is the change Scriptural? Cardinal Gibbons in Faith of Our Fathers, 92nd ed., p. 89, says, "You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify." During the many centuries of the Dark Middle Ages the ordinary people had no access to the Scriptures. When it eventually became available to them, because of the Reformation and the invention of the printing press, the supreme authority of the Scriptures was contested. Finally, after debating this issue for many years, the Archbishop of Reggio at the Council of Trent in 1562 set all hesitation aside by openly declaring that tradition stood above Scripture! His words were, "The authority of the Church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed . . . the Sabbath into Sunday, not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority." Canon and Tradition, p. 263. Similar confessions as to the unscriptural origin of this change are to be found in theological works of all the major denominations.

How then did this change come about? All books of history tell the same story: Just before and after the time of Messiah Yahushua, Sun-worship became popular and the Sun-deity was assimilated to all the known deities. All the deities of the nations were identified with the Sun-deity. When Christianity came to Rome a struggle between Sun-worship and Christianity ensued, for by then the Sun-deity had taken over from the older pantheon of Rome. This struggle eventually ended when Constantine fused Christianity and Sun- worship. Even before Constantine fused these two religions, Christianity had already been joined by unconverted pagans and the half-Christian Gnostic sects were thriving. These Gnostic sects were, in a variety of forms, an admixture of Christianity, Neoplatonic philosophy, Sun-worship and the worship of some of the older idols. The difference between them and Christianity (which by now consisted mostly of Gentiles), was at times difficult to determine. Clement, Origen, Cyprian, Jerome, Tertullian, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, were all guilty of justifying certain Sun-worship practices. Also, Ignatius, Justin, Chrysostom and Barnabas all had a major share in promoting anti-Judaism, which made the rejection of the "Jewish Sabbath" an almost natural consequence. At the beginning of the 4th century the conditions were more than ripe for the fusion to take place. Firstly, in the year 313, Constantine, together with Licinius, held a conference at Milan where they concluded a friendly alliance and adopted a policy of universal religious freedom. 12 Some have called these documents the "Edict of Milan". This ended the long-standing persecution of the Christians, giving them the freedom to observe their own form of worship, unrestricted. This promoted a thankful attitude and an affinity towards Constantine, and likewise, he too was beginning to show some partiality towards the Christians. Subsequently he extended further rights and concessions towards them. The next great step further, the decisive breakthrough for Sun-worship, was the famous Edict of Constantine in the year 321.

Let us first consider what influence Sun-worship had amongst Constantine's predecessors, the emperors before him. Elagabalus, Nero, Diocletian and Aurelian were each involved in Sun-worship, especially Elagabalus and Aurelian. Likewise, Constantine's family had been Sun-deity worshippers, and so was Constantine himself. Constantine called the Sun- deity: "Unconquered Sun, my companion". His edict in the year 321 legislated the "venerable day of the Sun" to be a rest day. This rest was commanded in honour of the Sun, and not in honour of Messiah. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible emphasizes the motive of Constantine for legislating the Sunday as a day of rest, and stresses "the general importance of the Sun-god in the Empire. Indeed, this god was the titulary divinity of Constantine's family, and from the fourth century there is an increasing assimilation of Christ to the Sun-god (as Sun of Righteousness), the Christos Helios (cf. Eusebius Life of Constantine 1.4.18; and the notable mosaic of Christos Helios recently uncovered in the tomb of the Julii under the Vatican)." But this theme of "Christ-the-True- Sun" had already been diffusely proclaimed by Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215) in many of his writings. Origen followed in the footsteps of Clement, his teacher, and proclaimed our Saviour to be "the Sun", "the True Sun". Cyprian also called our Saviour "the True Sun''. Because of this, Bishop Zeno of Verona elaborated at great length on Christ-the-Sun as the True Sun, as the Eternal Sun. Some might say that Helios also means the sun as the physical sun. But, all encyclopaedias affirm that, in religion, Helios means the Sun-deity.

This assimilation of our Saviour to the Sun-deity was not difficult, for the pagans of the Roman Empire were steeped in Sun-worship and they referred to their Sun deity as their "Lord" (Kurios). Helios, the Sun-deity, was called "the Lord (Kurios) of the heaven and the earth." Indeed, certain historians have felt that Sun-worship has really given Sunday the name "Lord's day". A. Paiva writes, "The first day of each week, Sunday, was consecrated to Mithra since times remote, as several authors affirm. Because the Sun was god, the Lord par excellence, Sunday came to be called the Lord's day, as later was done by Christianity." Our Saviour was called "Lord" (Kurios) and the Sun-deity was also called "Lord" (Kurios), the "Lord par excellence". So, the name-titles being easy to unite, it made it easier to identify our Saviour's "day" with the day of the Sun-deity! Thus, civically the "venerable day of the Sun" was legislated to be the rest-day. It now only remained for the Church to fall in line with the civil law of Constantine, who, although being a Sun-worshipper, had already showed some affinity towards Christians, especially by ending their persecution. This change-over to Sunday by the Church happened in the year 336 (some authorities give the date as 364) at the Council of Laodicea, Canon 29: "Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day honouring rather the Lord's day by resting, if possible, as Christians. However, if any shall be found Judaizing, let them be shut out from Christ."

Bishop Eusebius (270-338 C.E.), who worked with Constantine, admits the Church's decision to change from Sabbath to Sunday, "All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's day." (Eusebius, Commentary on the Psalms, quoted by Moses Stuart, Commentary on the Apocalypse, vol. II, 9.40.) The Church had succumbed, the fusion was virtually accomplished. The Unconquered Sun, the Sun deity, was proving the merit of its name - it was invincible !

With the accession of the Severan dynasty, Sun-worship had become dominant in Rome. The Sun as deity was a superb symbol and rallying-point for the Empire. "The Unconquered Sun had taken over the role of Jupiter, the Great Sky-god, as protector of Rome and of the Empire." Upon the Sun were bestowed as many attributes and symbols and names of "gods" or "goddesses" as possible. Serapis, the great deity of Alexandria, as well as Mithras and Attis, "were all identified with the Sun, whom philosophers like Pliny and Macrobius declared to be the one supreme god concealed behind the innumerable lesser deities of the Graeco-Roman pantheon. Even the Christians could not long hold out against the flood, and the marks of the compromise to which the Catholic Church came in the matter may perhaps, be seen in the coincidence of the Lord's Day with Sunday .... It is certainly by no accident that the emperors whose reigns immediately preceded the establishment of Christianity all turned towards the worship of the Sun-god who was looked upon as the peculiar divinity of the family to which Constantine belonged." The great scholarly and honest Roman Catholic theologian, Dr. F.J. Dolger, wrote, (I translate), "In his Sunday-law (edict), Constantine probably instituted the meaning of the familiar usage 'Sunday' without far-reaching intent; the expression could be used without causing offence among the pagans of his portion of the Empire. Since the days of emperor Aurelian in the second half of the 3rd century, the Sun-god cult, under the title of Sol invictus, i.e. 'Unconquered Sun', had experienced a tremendous furtherance at the hands of the state. Other pagan cult groups of that time also likened their supreme deity to the Sun-god or completely equated it to the Sun-god. Attis was a Light-deity, Osiris too was Sun-god. Baal Hammon of Carthage was Sun-Baal, Jupiter Anxur of Terracina and Jupiter of Doliche and Heliopolis were all Sun-god, Sabazios had become one with the Sun-god and the Persian Sun-god Mithras had instituted a missionary campaign as no other religion next to Christianity. For all these religious fellowships the imperial Sunday-law (edict) meant a privilege, they all felt themselves honoured when the Sunday was specially feastly dedicated to their deity, the Sun." The Unconquered Sun, which had conquered all other religions, had finally conquered its last major rival, Christianity, by joining it, by being fused with it.

The Messianic Faith, being united with all the Sun-worshipping cults, was to become one strong body which gradually overrun, assimilated and syncretised all remaining obstacles, either by force, or by "assimilation and compromise". The many half-Christian and mostly Sun-worshipping Gnostic sects, heavily leaning towards allegorisation and Neoplatonism, had already influenced or infiltrated the Christianity of Alexandria and of Rome. Clement of Alexandria and Origen had already been quoting freely from the books of the Gnostics Valentinus and Heracleon. Irenaeus, Tertullian and Hippolytus later on also did likewise with the writings of Valentinus and Ptolemy. Already in the year 124 emperor Hadrian wrote from Alexandria (on his visit there) the following, in a letter, "Those who worship Serapis are Christians and those who call themselves bishops of Christ are vowed to Serapis." (Serapis being the Sun deity of Alexandria). The intermingling between Christianity and Gnosticism is typified by the Christian leader Clement's repeated praise of the "true Gnostic", meaning thereby the perfect Christian! Speaking of the Gnostics, Legge states, "Most of them, ,moreover, sooner or later abandoned their Gnosticism, and became practising members of the Catholic Church, who sometimes went a long way to meet them. As Renan has said, none of them ever relapsed into paganism, and in this way the so-called heresies became at once the feeders of orthodox Christianity and its richest recruiting ground. They offered in fact an easy road by which the wealthy, the learned, and the high-placed could pass from paganism to Christianity without suffering the inconvenience imposed upon the first followers of the Apostles ... The Gnostics brought with them into their new faith, the use of pictures and statues . . . and of all the paraphernalia of the worship of heathen gods."And in a footnote, Legge states, "Clement of Alexandria seems to have been initiated into most of the heathen mysteries then current . . . Origen too, . . . professes to know all about the Ophites' [a Gnostic sect] secret opinions." Eusebius, who later wrote, was so upset about these Gnostics being absorbed into Christianity, that he raised his voice in the following words, "savage beasts crept secretly into the Church." Legge comments on Eusebius' statement and adds, "and continued to disseminate their doctrines by stealth.'' Some well-known Church Fathers who came from Gnosticism were: Epiphanius who had been a Nicolaitan, Ambrose of Milan who had been a Valentinian, and Augustine who had been a Manichean for 9 years before joining the Catholic Church. All these Gnostic sects were distinguished by their rejection of the Old Testament Law, some of them even rejecting the Mighty One of the Old Testament, and some of them even equated the Mighty One of the Old Testament with the Evil One! In their rejection of the Old Testament Law, the Valentinian Gnostics even rejected all moral laws, leading to scandalous living. This Valentinianism acted as a half-way house for two hundred years between heathenism and Christianity. The Marcionites were later on refuted, but they also contributed toward the aversion to, and even rejection of, the Old Testament. Sun- worshipping Mithraism, who advanced Babylonian (Chaldean) astrology with the Sun at the centre of it, played a major role in the resultant fusion between Sun-worship and the Messianic Faith. Manes and his followers, the Manicheans, from among whom Augustine came, "looked on Judaism with horror, rejected the Old Testament entirely, and [Manicheism] was not improbably born in an outbreak of anti-Semitic fury." The Manicheans (who were half Christians) kept Sunday in honour of the Sun, and not in honour of the Resurrection day.

However, the Council of Laodicea's directive in the year 336 (or 364), that Christians are not to Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, was apparently only obeyed in Rome and in Alexandria, the two centres where Christianity was infiltrated by, and mixed with pagan religions. Two contemporary historians, namely Sozomen in the year 440 and Socrates in the year 439, both recorded this remarkable situation. Socrates wrote, "although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this." Sozomen confirms this, "the people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week," such a "custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria." But gradually the influence and power of the Roman Church grew, supported by political and civil authorities with their power. Sabbath-keeping dwindled until there was hardly a remnant left, scattered and persecuted.

So, the first contributory factor for the adoption of Sunday instead of the Sabbath, was the assimilation of our Saviour to the Sun, even the Sun as deity, Him being made into Christ Helios, Christ the True Sun, Christ the Eternal Sun. The second contributory factor was the general importance and popularity of Sun-worship that had become deeply rooted in Alexandria and in Rome. The third contributory factor was the strong anti-Judaism that prevailed, as has been mentioned already. The fourth contributory factor was the Eastward orientated prayers and worship. We have already touched on this subject, but we need to study its origin, particularly in order to realise the seriousness of the revelation and warning given to Israel, through Ezekiel, in Eze. 8:9-16, Elohim calling this a "wicked abomination". In verse 16 we read of the 25 men "worshipping the Sun towards the East." Israel was commanded to shun such an abominable practice by rather praying towards Jerusalem, 1 Kings 8:29-48, Ps. 138:2 and Dan. 6:10. In the Law, Israel was sternly warned against Sun-worship, Deut. 4:19, as we have already seen. .J. Dolger, in his comprehensive Sol Salutis, devoted many pages to this Eastward orientated prayer and worship. The Roman Christians, whose ranks were flooded with half-converted believers coming from pagan worship, especially Sun-worship in its various forms, simply continued the practice of worshipping the Sun towards the East, or praying to the Sun in the East. This manner of Sun-worship was a well-known custom of the Manicheans37 and the Mithras-cult, two of the most popular forerunners and cradles of the fused Church. This Eastward orientated Sun-worship had come from Apollo worship, the Greeks, the Syrians (Antioch and Baalbek or Heliopolis), the Persian religions, from India, Babylon, Assyria, Ethiopia, Arabia, Egypt, the Hermetic religion, the Osiris religion, from Carthage (Tunis), the Phoenicians, and Thrace.39 Other contemporary and preceding cults practising Sun-worship were the Pythagoreans, the Therapists and the Magi.40 Prayer and worship towards the East was also practised by Socrates, and later by the Neoplatonists too. But perhaps the strongest influence was that of Alexandria, firstly because of its spreading Serapis-Isis cult (both these idols being identified with the Sun), and secondly and more dangerously, the Hellenised, allegorising, syncretistic Alexandrian Christianity, the product of Clement and Origen. These two teachers, through their many writings, had done much to justify the adoption of Greek philosophy, Gnostic teachings and also Sun-worship, into Christianity. Origen not only called our Saviour "the True Sun", as mentioned before, but both Clement and Origen attempted to justify Eastward orientated prayer and worship. Clement tried to justify this by allegorising Ps. 132:7, 2 Cor. 4:6, and Matt. 4:16 (Isa. 9:2). Origen. his scholar, continued this allegorisation of Scripture to justify Sun-worship, and quoted Zech. 6:12 from the Greek Septuagint, where the Hebrew "branch" had been badly mistranslated as anatole (rising, east or day spring). Justin was also intrigued with this anatole and often quoted anatole as if pointing to the Messiah, also by attempting to identify the Messiah as the "sun" of Ps. 72:17.43 Origen, in his Genesin Homilia 1,5 and 1,8 identified the Messiah with the Sun. Even Tertullian, in the year 197, as previously stated, was perturbed at the praying towards the Sun in the East, but found it acceptable if this was done "on other grounds than Sun-worship"! The other text that was used in an attempt to justify the identifying of our Saviour with the Sun, was the well- known Mal. 4:2, which I discussed earlier. We also read of Origen's Commentary on John, wherein he equates Messiah's resurrection with the rising Sun in the East. They also twisted Matt. 24:27 in an attempt to prove the Messiah's Second Coming to be from the East.45 They did the same with Mal. 1:11.

Justin also encouraged prayer towards the East, quoting the Greek Septuagint's incorrect rendering of Ps. 68:34. As an expression of our longing for Paradise, they also tried to justify prayer towards the East because of the garden that was "planted eastward in Eden" (Gen. 2:8). This is well documented in the writings of Basilius, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Severus, Cyrill of Jerusalem. Archbishoo Germanos of Constantinople, John of Damascus and also Thomas of Aquina. Although Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius and Augustine rejected the heathen belief that the Almighty lived in the Eastern heavens, heathen converts must have been responsible for this continued belief. In the Orient this prayer towards the East was a counter-measure against Judaism. This prayer towards the East was very much alive in the Roman religion in the 6th and 7th centuries and continued right up to the year 1300. F.J. Dolger summarises the outcome of it all, as follows, "The Gentile Christians, with the Eastward orientated prayers, simply retained an inborn custom of their heathen past. They filled this custom with new contents, being freed from heathenism through it and at the same time being made a sign of distinction between Judaism and Christianity." Indeed, this practice probably originated from Brahman India. Ambrosius admitted that this was adopted "from the custom of the Brahmans" (the upper class of Indians).

With this deeply rooted and generally prevailing Sun worship as background, it was easy to accept the resemblance between the day of our Saviour's resurrection and the day of the Sun, i.e. Sunday. Clement, Justin, Ignatius, Jerome and others following, put emphasis on the day of the resurrection, thereby attempting to identify the Messiah with "the True Sun", the One who has been behind it all along! In fact, Firmicus identified our Saviour with the Sun-deity in his writings in the year 343, and Garruci painted our Messiah with sun-rays around His head, thereby clearly identifying our Saviour with the Sun-deity, now being called "Christ Helios", "Sun of Resurrection", "the True Sun". Clement of Alexandria wrote, quoting Menander, "Sun, one must venerate you as the first of the gods; through you we are capable of looking at the other gods." The solarisation became even worse. In the 5th century, the Messiah was not only called "the True Sun", but also "the true Apollo", the age-old Sun-deity of the Greeks! Other paintings and pictures followed, as well as statues and images of our Messiah with sun-rays or a nimbus (sun- disc) about His head. There are a great number of these illustrations to be found in ecclesiastical books.

To summarise: Because of their inborn heathen custom of Sun-worship, and because of anti-Judaism, the Gentiles who became Christians in a nominal way, were easily persuaded to accept "the True Sun", "the Sun of Righteousness", "Christ Helios", "the True Apollo". Emperor Constantine was the one who put an end to the enmity between frank Sun- worship and the Messianic Faith. For many years it remained quite obvious that frank Sun- worship was being adapted to Christianity. The remarks, and concern, by Tertullian, Pope Leo the Great, Eusebius, and also by Cyrill of Jerusalem, testify to this. Cyrill contended against this in 348 C.E., "Let the heresy be silenced which blasphemes the Messiah, the Son of the Mighty One. Let those be silenced who say that the Sun is Messiah, because He is the Creator of the Sun, and not the visible Sun itself." Augustine, who himself had previously been a scholar of the Manichean Gnostic Sect (known for worshipping the Sun all day long as it passed through the sky), also compromised, but cautioned against the frank Sun-worship of the Manicheans and warned, "Eventually we shall yet be taken to be Persians"- the latter being known for their Sun-worship and being the place of origin of the Manichean-cult. The Unconquered Sun, Sol Invictus, Sol Helios became the conquerer! Paul Schmitt, author of "Sol Invictus" in Eranos Jahrbuch 1943 X, ends his article, "The religious polity of Constantine characterised itself in a striking manner by the establishment of Dies Solis (Sun-day), as a mutual feast-day for the heathen and for the Christians, in the year 321. So the heathen, the Christians and Manicheans of the territory of the empire thus had a mutual feast-day, Sun-day, in the sign of Sol-Helios that excluded them from the Jews."

THEREFORE, BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THE COVENANT PEOPLE (ISRAEL) THEY REJECTED THE SIGN OF THE ETERNAL COVENANT: THE SABBATH. ELOHIM EMPHATICALLY DECLARED THIS TO BE THE SIGN OF THE ETERNAL COVENANT BETWEEN HIM AND HIS PEOPLE - Exod. 31: 16-17, The Berkeley Version, Ferrar Fenton Translation, German, Dutch and Afrikaans translations (capitals mine).

DO WE BELIEVE YAHUWEH WHEN HE SAID THAT HIS COVENANT IS "ETERNAL", "FOR EVER"?—THAT THE SABBATH IS THE SIGN OF THIS ETERNAL COVENANT, FOR EVER? HE MADE HIS ETERNAL COVENANT WITH NO OTHER PEOPLE THAN WITH ISRAEL (capitals mine). Israel were the people who received the Covenants, the Laws, the Worship, the Promises from Yahuweh - Rom. 9:4 NIV, NEB and GNB. These precious values were not given to any nation, but to Israel. The Good News Bible in this verse even says of Israel, "They are Elohim's people . . . they have the True Worship . . ." So, what happened at the time of Constantine? By rejecting the Sabbath, the Sign of the Eternal Covenant, the Church rejected the Covenant Law that Elohim has made with His people, Israel - the Ten Words. Therefore Elohim turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, just as He has done previously - Acts. 7:42. Even the New Covenant, the Renewed Covenant, is only promised to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, Heb. 8:8. This might come as a surprise to those who are ignorant of this Scripture. The New or Renewed Covenant is not promised to any other nation! Any convert from the Gentiles has to be grafted into Israel if he wishes to become a "partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree," Rom. 11:17. We will come to that later. Please note: Renewed Covenant is the better rendering, for Heb. 8:8 is quoted from the Hebrew of Jer. 31:31. The Hebrew chawdawsh is derived from the verb chawdash, which means "renew" (see any Hebrew lexicon). Even the Greek equivalent, kainos, is best rendered as "fresh" or renewed".

The day of the resurrection received such eminence, that it became an excuse to justify the change from the Sabbath to the day of the Sun, the Dies Solis, the day of the Unconquered Sun, the Sun-deity of emperor Constantine and of his empire - a rest-day which Constantine had legislated in the year 321 in honour of the "venerable day of the Sun". The origin of the legislation of the keeping of Sun-day is important to know. It is also important to know the origin of the change of Sabbath to Sun-day, namely by the Council of Laodicea in the year 336 (or 364). The keeping of the day of the resurrection may make sense, but this is not legislated in Scripture. However, the fact remains that it has taken the place of Sabbath-keeping, thereby trampling the Fourth Commandment underfoot. Thus, the prophecy was fulfilled of "the horn" ... that "shall intend to change times and law," Dan. 7:25; and the prophecy of the end-time judgment upon the earth, in Isa. 24: 1-6, "Because they have transgressed the Laws, changed the ordinance, broken the Everlasting Covenant," Isa. 24:5. This is the very same Everlasting or Eternal Covenant which we found in Exod. 31: 16, of which the sign is the Sabbath!

We cannot keep some of the Commandments and not all ten of them - James 2: 10- 12 and Deut. 4:2. Our Messiah commands us to keep the Father's Commandments if we are to enter into eternal life - Matt. 19: 17, Lk. 10:28, Jn. 12:50 and Rev. 22:14. He says, "the Word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day," Jn. 12:48. "Let Elohim be true and every man a liar," Rom. 3:4. Likewise, Paul commands us to keep the Commandments "without spot, blameless," 1 Tim. 6:13-14 (the singular word "Commandment" is very often used as a synonym for "Commandments", e.g. Rom. 7:12, 2 Pet. 2:21, Dt. 17:20, Dt. 30:11, PS. 19:8, Ps.119:96, Ex. 24:12, Prov. 6:23, Prov. 13:13 etc.). Peter also strongly admonishes and warns us against "turning from the Holy Commandment" which is the "Way of righteousness" 2 Pet. 2:21. John reminds us that the only way to show and to prove our love towards Yahuweh is to keep His Commandments, 1 John 5:3 and 2 John v. 6, just as we read in Ex. 20:6, Deut. 7:9, Neh. 1:5 and Dan. 9:4. The Great Enemy of our souls has always been determined to keep us in bondage to sin (John 8:34, Rom. 6:16-20,2 Pet. 2:19). Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4), transgression of the law, the opposite to law-keeping (Rom. 7:7, Rom. 3:20, Rom. 4: 15, Ex. 20:20). The Great Enemy of our souls wants to sever us from Elohim (Isa. 59:2, Prov. 28:9) by enticing us and deceiving us to break the Commandments of Yahuweh, thereby preventing us entering the New Jerusalem - Rev. 22: 14, Matt. 19:17, Lk. 10:28, Jn. 12:50. This Enemy never ceases with his efforts to hide from us the Glad Tidings, the real purpose of our Saviour Yahushua's work in us, namely: "For He will save His people from their sins," Matt 1:21; and, "Elohim . . . sent Him to bless you, in turning every one of you from your iniquities," Acts 3:26; and, our Saviour "Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed" ("all lawlessness" Greek text), Titus 2: 14.

The Law cannot save us. However, the Law was given to us by Yahuweh for a purpose, as Moses said, "for Elohim has come to test you, so that you may not sin," Ex. 20:20. After Yahushua had healed the man who had an infirmity at the pool of Bethesda, He said to him in Jn. 5:14, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." After He had forgiven the adulteress, He said to her in Jn. 8:11, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." A sinner that has come to conversion is commanded to "sin no more", to prove his love towards Yahuweh by keeping His Commandments, 1 John 5:3 and 2 John v. 6; to be careful not to "sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth," Heb. 10:26, Numbers 15:30, Psalm 19:13.

We dare not elevate the Sabbath Commandment above the others, but the Scriptures are very emphatic that the Sabbath is the only Sign of Separation (Sanctification). There is no other Sign of the Everlasting Covenant, the Eternal Covenant, given to us in Scripture. If we are outside of a Covenant-relationship with Yahuweh, we are still "outside"! If we do not enter the rest of Sabbath-keeping now, we cannot enter the Millennial Rest - Heb. 4:9, Heb. 4:1-11. "Blessed are those who do His Commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city," Rev. 22:14. The Almighty is calling out to the Christian world: "Awake to righteousness, and do not sin," 1 Cor. 15:34. Shall we not ask the Saviour to deliver us from the bondage to sin, to deliver us from "the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience," Eph. 2:2. "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practises righteousness is born of Him," 1 John 2:29. "Little children let no one deceive you. He who practises righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins, is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of Elohim was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil," 1 John 3:7-8. The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience is the spirit of the devil, the one who holds the sway over the whole world (1 John 5:19 and 2 Cor. 4:4), and who succeeded in getting the True Worship mixed with Sun-worship. The Great Deceiver (Rev. 12:9) had planned and succeeded in his onslaught on the only Sign which Yahuweh gave to us for us to know that we are part of His Covenant-people: the Sabbath. May we repeat Paul's command in 1 Tim. 6:13-14, "I charge you to keep the Commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Sovereign ...," Revised Standard Version. Remember also the writer of Hebrews' exhortation in Heb. 4:9, "Therefore, there remains a keeping of Sabbath for the people of Elohim," Greek text.

Yahushua commands us, "learn from Me" -- Matt. 11 :29, "follow Me" -- no less than 18 places in the four Evangels. John says in 1 John 2:6, "He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." Peter says in 1 Peter 2:21, that we are to follow Messiah's steps. Our Messiah committed no sin (1 Pet. 2:22) and said, "I have kept My Fathers Commandments and abide in His love," John 15:10. He kept the Sabbath as we read in Luke 4: 16, "And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read." Sabbath-keeping was His custom, and Paul walked in His steps and continued in the custom of Sabbath-keeping (Acts 17:2), preaching to Jews and Gentiles alike on every Sabbath (Acts 18:4, Acts 13:42). We also read of Lydia and the other women who "customarily" gathered on the Sabbath to pray (Acts 16:13). Paul testifies of his obedience to the Law in Acts 25:8, "Neither against the Law of the Jews nor against the Temple nor against Caesar have I offended in anything at all." Again he says in Acts 24:14, "so I worship the Elohim of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets." Again he says in Acts 28: 17, "I have done nothing against . . . the customs of our fathers." In Rom. 7:22 Paul says, "For I delight in the Law of Yahuweh according to the inward man," just as the Psalmist who delights in the Law of Yahuweh - Ps. 1:2, Ps. 112:1, PS. 119:35,47,70,77,174.

Man took it upon himself to "change times and law" (Dan. 7:25), to "have transgressed the Laws, changed the ordinance, broken the Everlasting Covenant," Isa. 24:5. However, when He returns, the "Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire,'' Matt. 13:41-42. Thereafter, in the new heavens and the new earth the Sabbath will still be kept by those who escaped the fiery judgment of Yahuweh (Isa. 66:22-23 and 14-17), and "they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me . . . ," said Yahuweh in Isa. 66:24. Read also of the blessed promise for end-time Sabbath-keeping, the promise which includes foreigners (non- Israelites), in Isa. 56:6-7, "Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to Yahuweh, to serve Him, and to love the Name of Yahuweh, to be His servants -- everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My Covenant -- even them I will bring to My Separated (Holy) Mountain . . ."

 

2. EASTER

The word "Easter" in acts 12:4 of the King James Version is a mistranslation of the Greek pascha. All other translations have subsequently rendered it correctly as "Passover". The well-known Barnes Notes comments on this mistranslation in this single occurrence of the word "Easter" in the King James Version, as follows, "There was never a more absurd or unhappy translation than this." Not only is the name "Easter" incorrect, but also the time of the feast. No one would ever think of keeping his own birthday every year on the same day of the week. If I was born on a Sunday, I would not think of keeping my birthday on a Sunday every year. I will keep it according to the day of the yearly calendar and and not according to the day of the week. This is exactly what happened when Easter Sunday was instituted by Constantine's Church. The passover dispute between the Western Church and the more Scripture-adhering believers of the Near East was finally settled by Constantine's Council of Nicaea in the year 325, where it was decided that Easter was to be kept on Sun-day, and on the came Sun-day throughout the world and that "none should here-after follow the blindness of the Jews."58 Prior to that, Polycarp, the disciple of the Apostle John, had learned from the apostle himself that the 14th Abib was the Scriptural day of the year, which had been legislated in the Old Testament to determine the onset of the Passover, which Yahushúa kept the night that He was betrayed. Polycarp, Polycrates, Apollinarius and others contended for the correct calculation of the Passover Memorial Supper (and the events following it), to be reckoned as beginning from the 14th Abib (Nisan). Now, with Constantine taking the lead, the Council of Nicaea decided to reject the Scriptural way of determining the correct date according to the yearly date, in favour of Easter Sun-day, according to a day of the week. Constantine exhorted all bishops to embrace "the practice which is observed at once in the city of Rome, and in Africa; throughout Italy, and in Egypt."59 Another fragment records that Constantine urged all Christians to follow the custom of "the ancient church of Rome and Alexandria."60

The case for the yearly Easter Sun-day was held in common with the case for the weekly Sun-day. Origen wrote, "The resurrection of the Master is celebrated not only once a year by constantly every eight days."61 Eusebius also stated, "While the Jews, faithful to Moses, sacrificed the Passover Lamb once a year ... we men of the New Covenant celebrate our Passover every Sunday."62 Pope Innocent I wrote, "We celebrate Sunday because of the Venerable resurrection ... not only at Easter but ... every Sunday."63 But wherefrom did this Easter Sun-day originate? Any encyclopaedia or dictionary, such as The Oxford English Dictionary, will supply the answer: Easter had a pre-Christian origin, namely a festival in honour of Eostre, the Teutonic dawn-goddess, and as Usha or Ushas, the Hindu dawn-goddess. This Eostre was also known to be the spring goddess and the goddess of fertility. Thus, another form of Sun-worship, another variant in the form of a dawn-deity, Eostre, also called Eastre, Eostra or Orstara,64 became fused with Christianity. This same dawn-goddess was also well known in the Greek Classics (Homer, Hesiod) as Eos (the Roman Aurora) and the Assyrian Ishtar, goddess of the morning. In classical mythology Eos was an amorous deity and the idea of fertility with its fertility-symbols of eggs and rabbits was to be expected. Any reference work will testify to the fact of the origin of Easter eggs and the Easter rabbit or bunny, because "Easter" was not only goddess of dawn but also goddess of spring with all its fertility-symbols and fertility-rites. This word Eos, Eostre, Ostara, is related64 to the Sanskrit and Vedic usra or ushas, the Zendic ushastara and the Lithuanian Ausra, the old Teutonic austron, and the male spring or dawn deity of the Norwegians, Austri, of which we read in the Edda. Most likely this Eostre, dawn deity/fertility deity, is the same as Astarte, which is recorded in the Hebrew of the Old Testament as Ashtaroth and Ashtoreth (the latter being changed because of deliberate Hebrew misvocalisation).65 The name of Astarte was Ishtar in Nineve. She was also known as the "queen of heaven".

Let us further examine the festival of this dawn - or spring-deity. Just like Eostre, the dawn-diety of the Germanic tribes, we find Eos, the dawn-deity of the Greeks, who, although married to Tithonus, was consistently faithless to him, which accounts for the blush of dawn.66 She was known to be the sister of Helios, the Sun-deity, and represented in sculpture with radiant sun-rays around her head.67 Similarly, and probably the same origin of this Eos and Eostre, we find in Hindu mythology the goddess of dawn to be Ushas, daughter of Heaven.68 Other spring festivals were celebrated, with the rites of Adonis or of Tammuz (well known as the youthful Sun-deity) which were held in summer in some places, but held in spring in others, such as in Sicily and Syria, our dead and risen Annointed One being assimilated to the pagan celebration of the dead and risen Adonis (Tammuz). This "weeping for Tammuz" is exactly what Yahúweh included amongst His verdict of "wicked abominations", as we read in Eze. 8:9 and 14 Rev. Alexander Hislop comments on this fusion of the Scriptural Passover Memorial (and the events following it in the New Testament) with that of the pagan spring celebrations: "To consiliate the pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get Christian and pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get paganism and Christianity - now far sunk in idolatry - in this as in so many other things, to shake hands."69 Sir James Fazer similarly comments, "When we reflect how often the Church has skilfully contrived to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen The Annointed One was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen Adonis ... Taken altogether, the coincidences of the Christian with the heathen festivals are too close and too numerous to be accidental. They mark the compromise which the Church in the hour of its triumph was compelled to make with its vanquished yet still dangerous rivals."70 Adonis was known also as the Phrygian Attes, Attis, Atys.71 Attis was beloved by Cybele, the "Mother of the Gods", the great Asiatic goddess of fertility, who had her chief home in Phrygia. Some held that attis was her son. The worship of Attis and Cybele was adopted in 204 B.C.E. by the Romans where the great spring festival in their honour became well known. This festival lasted from the 22nd to the 25th of March, the last day, when the mourning was turned to joy fro the resurrection of the dead Attis. Attis was also identified with the Sun.72 The 25th March was regarded as the vernal (spring) eqinox, and we can easily see how the pagan worshippers of many different pagan religions were reconciled with the Messianic Faith, by means of assimilating a similar commemoration, but which had a different date, according to the day of the year, and not according to the day of the week, the Sun-day. Easter Sun-day, year after year. This was the decision taken by the Council of Nicaea.

Furthermore, not only was the time of the Scriptural feast supplanted by the pagan day's date, but also the rites of the pagan Easter took over, namely the fertility pagan symbols of Easter eggs and Easter rabbits (bunnies), and also the Easter buns, the hot-cross buns. The "buns", known by the identical name boun, were used in the worship of the Queen of heaven already 1500 years before the Christian era.73 They were also known amongst the Teutonic tribes as osterstuopha and moon-shaped ostermane.74 The Mighty One warns His people against this "abomination", as He called it in Jer. 7:10, and as is described in Jer. 7:18. Even the round shape of them with the cross on top represents exactly the very ancient symbol of the sun, namely the cross with a circle around it.75 this was especially known to be the symbol of the Babylonian Sun-deity. The circled cross was also later found on a coin of Julius Caesar, 100-44 B.C.E., and subsequently on coins struck by Caesar's heir, Agustus subsequently on coins struck by Caesar's heir, Aufustus 20 B.C.E., and by Hadrian and other Roman emperors.76

How then were these things ever permitted to enter in? In an attempt to justify this, the Church uses the term "Christianisation". The adoption of these pagan emblems of Easter eggs, Easter rabbits and Easter buns, are explained by The Catholic Encyclopedia, "a great many pagan customs celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter ... The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility."77 This is in direct contrast to the Word of Yahúweh in Jer. 10:2, "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles," and in Deut. 12:30, "do not inquire after their mighty ones, saying, 'How did these nations serve their mighty ones? I also will do likewise.'" Israel was commanded to keep the worship pure and undefiled by destroying everything pertaining to pagan worship, even to destroy the names of the pagan deities (Deut. 12:3), and not even to "mention the names of other mighty ones, nor let it be heard from your mouth," Ex.23:13. The whole subject of Easter, its Sun-day - emphasising date, and its pagan emblems and rites, such as Easter sunrise services, is crowned by the general admission that the word "Easter" is derived from the name of a goddess, the dawn-goddess, the spring-deity, the goddess of fertility.

Let us rather commemorate Yahushúa's Memorial Passover and the subsequent happenings according to the Scriptural calendar, starting on the evening of 14 Abib, and repent of, and eliminate the pagan Easter festival.

 

3. CHRISTMAS — 25th DECEMBER

The fact of the pagan origin of the festival of Christmas on the 25th December, namely, as birthday of the Sun deity, is admitted by all scholars. The Messiah could not have been born in mid-winter, 25th December, as the shepherds were out in the fields, watching over their flock by night — Luke 2:8. In Israel no one would permit their flock out on a winter night. The date of our Messiah's birth has been calculated to be in fall. In any case, we are not commanded to remember the day of His birth, rather, to remember the day of His death. According to Scripture, this is what the early believers did, 1 Cor. 11:26. The Catholic Encyclopedia says, "Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts." Wherefrom does this Christmas on 25 December originate? Sir James Frazer says, "The largest pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25 as a holiday . . . was the pagan sun- worship, Mithraism . . . This winter festival was called . . . 'the Nativity of the SUN.' Mithraism was the fastest growing cult just prior to the year 321 and was the major rival of Christianity. Franz Cumont, perhaps the greatest scholar of Mithraism, wrote, quoting Minucius Felix, "The Mithraists also observed Sun-day and kept sacred the 25th of December as the birthday of the Sun. Many scholars have pointed out how the Sun- worshipping Mithraists, the Sun-worshipping Manicheans and the Christians were all syncretised and reconciled when Constantine led the take-over by Christianity, even if it meant the latter's surrender of most vital Scriptural truths, especially its Hebrew roots.

However, other Sun-worshipping groups were included too, because of the general importance and popularity of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun-deity. Mario Righetti, a renowned Catholic liturgist, writes, "the Church of Rome, to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, found it convenient to institute the 25th December as the feast of the temporal birth of Christ, to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honour of the 'Invincible Sun', Mithras. Sir James Frazer wrote, "If the Mithraic mysteries were indeed a Satanic copy of a divine original, we are driven to conclude that Christianity took a leaf out of the devil's book when it fixed the birth of the Saviour on the 25th December; for there can be no doubt that the day in question was celebrated as the birthday of the Sun by the heathen before the Church . . . transferred the Nativity The mixing of pagan Sun-worship and Christianity is exemplified by the testimony of a Syrian scholiast on Bar Salibi, who said, "It was a custom of the heathen to celebrate on the same 25th of December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part." Practically all the known Sun-deities were born on the 25th December. In S.E. Titcomb, Aryan Sun myths, the Origin of Religions, we find it cited, quoted from primary sources, that the following Sun-deities were all born on 25 December, according to their legends: Crishna (Vishnu), Mithra (Mithras), Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Dionysus (Bacchus), Tammuz, Indra, Buddha. Therein we also read of the Scandinavian goddess Frigga in whose honour a "Mother-night" festival was held at the winter solstice (+ - 25 December), as well as a similar great feast of Yule, where a boar was offered at the winter solstice in honour of Frey.

Thus we find the three great days of Christianity (as it is practised by most today), namely Sun-day, Easter and Christmas, all three having had its origin in the Sun-worship of the pagan nations. "How did these nations serve their mighty ones? I also will do likewise," Deut. 12:30. This is exactly what the true Mighty One, Yahuweh, forbade His people to do. The keeping of days, especially days of festivity, is perhaps the most popular amongst all religions "And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which Yahuweh your Elohim has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage," Deut. 4:19. The New English Bible and the Good News Bible render this more interpretatively, ". . . your Elohim has given these to all other peoples for them to worship." The prophet's warning of Eze. 8:9-16, the "wicked abominations" of Sun- worship which had been fused and mixed with True Worship, is equally applicable for our day. What greater proof do we need of the most alarming fact that Elohim has indeed given us up to worship the host of heaven, especially the Sun! These Sun-worshipping festivity days had been used to win over to the Church, the pagan masses of the Roman Empire in which the Sun was the leading power in the Roman pantheon. The weekly Sun-day, the spring Easter Sun-day, the birth of the Sun-deity on 25 December — all three of these festival days originated from, and were instituted by pagans in honour of the Sun-deity.

 

4. THE CROSS

A prophecy for the end-time is given to us in Jer. 16:19. Jeremiah addresses Yahúweh and says, "The Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, 'Surely your fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.'" The Revised Standard Version reads, "To Thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: 'Our fathers have inherited naught but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.'" But these very lies could keep us from entering the New Jerusalem, as we read in Rev. 21:27, and again in Rev. 22:15 which reads, "But outside are ... whoever loves and practises a lie." The common claim that Sabbath-keeping has been annulled in the New Testament, has been shown to be untrue. this claim is refuted on Scriptural grounds. Likewise, the claim of many sincere believers, who have erroneosly been taught that the Moral Ten Commandment Law has been "nailed to the cross", is also not substantiated by Scripture. These claims have since been made by many in an attempt to justify the adoption of, or the fusion of, Sun-worship with the pure Messianic Faith. Similarly, the keeping of Easter Sunday and Christmas are also not found in Scripture.

Another "later rendering", a tradition of the Church which our fathers have inherited, was the adoption of the words "cross" and "crucify". These words are nowhere to be found in the Greek of the New Testament. These words are mistranslations, a "later rendering", of the Greek words stauros and stauroo. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says, "STAUROS denotes, primarily, an upright pole or stake ... Both the noun and the verb stauroo, to fasten to a stake or pole, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a tow-beamed cross. The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea (Babylon), and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) ... By the middle of the 3rd century A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of teh apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross piece lowered, was adopted ...." Dr. Bullinger, The Companion Bible, appx. 162, states, "crosses were used as symbols of the Babylonian Sun-god ... It should be stated that Constantine was a Sun-god worshipper ... The evidence is thus complete, that the Lord was put to death upon an upright stake, and not on two pieces of timber placed at any angle." Rev. Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pp. 197-205, frankly calls the cross "this Pagan symbol ... the Tau, the sign of the cross, the indisputable sign of Tammuz, the false Messiah ... the mystic Tau of the Cladeans (Babylonians) and Egyptians - the true original form of the letter T the initial of the name of Tammuz ... the Babylonian cross was the recognised emblem of Tammuz." In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 14, p. 273, we read, "In the Egyption churches the cross was a pagan symbol of life borrowed by the Christians and interpreted in the pagan manner." Jacob Grimm, in his Deutsche Mythologie, says that the Teutonic (Germanic) tribes had their idol Thor, symbolised by a hammer, while the Roman Christians had their crux (cross). It was thus somewhat easier for the Teutons to accept the Roman Cross.

Greek dictionaries, lexicons and other study books also declare the primary meaning of stauros to be an upright pale, pole or stake. The secondary meaning of "cross" is admitted by them to be a "later"87 rendering. At least two of them88 do not even mention "cross", and only render the meaning as "pole or stake". In spite of this strong evdence and proof that the word stauros should have been translated "stake", and the verb stauroo to have been translated "impale", almost all the common versions of the Scriptures persist with the Latin Vulgate's crux (cross), a fallacious "later" rendering of the Greek stauros. Why then was the "cross" (crux) brought into the Faith? Again, historical evidence points to Constantine as the one who had the major share in uniting Sun-worship and the Messianic Faith. Constantine's famous vision of "the cross superimposed on the sun", in the year 312, is usually cited. Writers, ignorant of the fact that the cross was not to be found in the New Testament Scriptures, put much emphasis on this vision as the onset of the so-called "conversion" of Constantine. But, unless Constantine had been misguided by the Gnostic Manichean half-Christians, who indeed used the cross in their hybrid religion, this vision of the cross superimposed on the sun could only be the same old cosmic religion, the astrological religion of Babylon. The fact remains: that which Constantine saw, is nowhere to be found in Scripture. We read in the book of Johannes Geffcken, The Last Days of Greco-Roman Paganism, p.319, "that even after 314 A.D. the coins of Constantine show an even-armed cross as a symbol for the Sun-god." Many scholars have doubted the "conversion" of Constantine because of the wicked deeds that he id afterwards, and because of the fact that he only requested to be baptized on his death-bed many years later, in the year 337. So, if the vision of the cross impressed him, and was used as a rallying symbol, it could not have been in honour of Yahushúa, because Constantine continued paying homage to the Sun-deity and to one of the Sun-deity's symbols, the cross. This continuation of Sun-worship by Constantine is of by his persistent use of images of the Sun-deity on his coins that were issued by him up to the year 323.89 Secondly, the fact of his motivation to issue his Sunday-keeping edict in the year 321, which was not done in honour of Yahushúa, but was done because of the "venerable day of the Sun", as the edict read, is proof of this continued allegiance to Sol Invictus. We shall expand on this later.

Where did the cross come from, then? J.C. Cooper, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols, p. 45, aptly summarises it, "Cross - A universal symbol from the most remote times; it is the cosmic symbol par excellence." Other authorities also call it a sun-symbol, a Babylonian sun-symbol,91 an astrological Babylonian-Assyrian and heathen run-symbol,92 also in the form of an encircled cross referred to as a "solar wheel", and many other varieties of crosses. Also, "the cross represents the Tree of Life", 93 the age-old fertility symbol, combining the vertical male and horizontal female principles, especially in Egypt, either as an ordinary cross, or better known in the form of the crux ansata, the Egyptian ankh (sometimes called the Tau cross), which had been carried over into our modern-day symbol of the female , well known in biology.

As stated above, the indisputable sign of Tammuz, the mystic Tau of the Babylonians and Egyptians, was brought into the Church chiefly because of Constantine, and has since been adored with all the homage due only to the Most High. The Protestants have for many years refrained from undue adoration of, or homage to the cross, especially in England at the time of the Puritans in the 16th - 17th centuries. But lately this un-Scriptural symbol has been increasingly accepted in Protestantism. We have previously discussed "the weeping for Tammuz", and the similarity between the Easter resurrection and the return or rising of Tammuz. Tammuz was the young incarnate Sun,94 the Sun-divinity incarnate.95 This same Sun-deity, known amongst the Babylonians as Tammuz, was identified with the Greek Adonis and with the Phoenician Adoni,96 all of them Sun-deities, being slain in winter, then being "wept for", and their return being celebrated by a festivity in spring, while some had it in summer - according to the myths of pagan idolatry.

The evidence for its pagan origin is so convincing that The Catholic Encyclopedia admits that "the sign of the cross, represented in its simplest form by a crossing of two lines at right angles, greatly antedates, in both East and the West, the introduction of Christianity. It goes back to a very remote period of human civilization."97 It then continues and revers to the Tau cross of the pagan Egyptians, "In later times the Egyptian Christians (Copts), attracted by its form, and perhaps by its symbolism, adopted it as the emblem of the cross."98 Further proof of its pagan origin is the recorded evidence of the Vestal Virgins of pagan Rome having the cross hanging on a necklace,99 and the Egyptians doing it too, as early as the 15th century B.C.E.100 The Buddhists, and

 

 FIG. 3: Ancient Egyptian Rot-n-no priests. Note the crosses on the robe, and hanging from their necks.

numerous other sects of India, also used the sign of the cross as a mark on their followers' heads.101 "The cross thus widely worshipped, or regarded as a 'sacred emblem', was the unequivocal symbol of Bacchus, the Babylonian Messiah, for he was represented with a head-band covered with crosses."102 It was also the symbol of Jupiter Foederis in

 

FIG. 4: This is Tammuz, whom the Greeks called Bacchus, with the crosses on his head-band.

Rome.103 Furthermore, we read of the cross on top of the temple of Serapis,104 the Sun-deity of Alexandria.

After Constantine had the "vision of the cross", he and his army promoted another variety of the cross, the Chi-Rho or Labarum or sometimes . This has subsequently been explained as representing the first letters of the name Christos, the being the Greek for "Ch" and the being the Greek for "r". but again, this emblem had a pagan origin. The identical and were found as inscriptions on rock, dating from the year ca. 2 500 B.C.E., 105 being interpreted as "a combination of two Sun-symbols",105 the as the Ax or Hammer-symbol of the Sun- or Sky-deity, and the or as the ancient symbol of the Sun, both of these signs having a sensual or fertility meaning as well. Another proof of its pagan origin is the identical found on a coin of Ptolemeus III from the year 247 - 222 B.C.E.106 A well-known encyclopaedia describes the Labarum (Chi-Rho) as, "The labarum was also an emblem of the Chaldean (Babylonian) sky-god and in Christianity it was adopted..."107 Emperor Constantine adopted this Labarum as the imperial ensign and thereby succeeded in "uniting both divisions of his troops, pagans and Christians, in a common worship ... according to Suicer the word (labarum) came into use in the reign of Hadrian, and was probably adopted from one of the nations conquered by the Romans."108 It must be remembered that Hadrian reigned in the years 76 - 138 C.E., that he was a pagan emperor, worshipped the Sun-deity Serapis when he visited Alexandria, and was vehemently anti-Judaistic, being responsible for the final near-destruction of Jerusalem in the year 130 C.E. Another dictionary relates the following about the Chi-Rho, "However, the symbol was in use long before Christianity, and X (Chi) probably stood for Great Fire or Sun,and P (Rho) probably stood for Pater or Patah (Father). The word labarum (labarum) yields everlasting Father Sun."109

What is the "mark of the beast" of which we read in Rev. 13:16-17, Rev. 14:9-11, Rev. 15:2, Rev. 16:2, Rev. 19:20 and Rev. 20:4 - a mark on people's foreheads and on their right hands? Rev. 14:11 reveals the mark to be "the mark of his (the beast's) name." Have we not read about the mystic Tau, the T, the initial of Tammuz's name, his mark? This same letter T (Tau) was written in Egyptian hieroglyphics 110 and in the old Wemitic languages as ,110 representing the CROSS.110 Different interpretations have been given to the "mark of the beast", and also the cross has been suggested. There has been some research done on the strange crosses found on quite a few statues of pagan priests, on their foreheads. However, these scholars have been unable to come to an agreement. Conclusive evidence may still come (see among others: Dr. F.J. Dolger, Antike und Christentum, vol. 2, pp. 281-293).

Let us rather use the true rendering of the Scriptural words stauros and stauro, namely "stake" and "impale" and eliminate the un-Scriptural "cross" and "crucify".

 

5. CHURCH

This is the word used in most English versions as a rendering of the New Testament's Greek word ekklesia. Ekklesia really means "a calling out", a meeting or a gathering. Ekklesia is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew qahal, which means an assembly or a congregation. Neither ekklesia nor qahal means a building. Tyndale, in his translation, uniformly translated ekklesia as "congregation" and only used the word "churches" to translate Acts 19:37 for heathen temples! Whence the word "church", then? Ecclesiastical sources give the origin as kuriakon or kyriakon in Greek. However, to accept this. one has to stretch your imagination in an attempt to see any resemblance. Also, because kuriakon means a building (the house of Kurios=Lord), and not a gathering or meeting of people, as the words ekklesia and qahal imply, therefore this explanation can only be regarded as distorted, even if it is true. Our common dictionaries, however, are honest in revealing to us the true origin. They all trace the word back to its Old English or Anglo-Saxon root, namely circe. And the origin of circe? Any encyclopaedia, or dictionary of mythology, will reveal who Circe was. She was the goddess-daughter of Helios, the Sun-deity! Again, another form of Sun-worship, this time the daughter of the Sun-deity, had become mixed with the Messianic Faith.

Circe, daughter of the well known Sun-deity Helios. This"Circe" is the identical Old English word for "Church"—see any dictionary.

Some interesting facts emerge from the study of the word circe. The word is related to "circus", "circle", "circuit", "Circean", "circulate", and the various words starting with "circum-". The Latin pronunciation could have been "sirke" or "sirse". The Old English word circe may have been pronounced similarly to "kirke", or even "sirse ".

However, Circe was in fact originally a Greek goddess where her name was written as: Kirke, and pronounced as such—just as in numerous similar cases of words of Greek origin, e.g. cyst and kustis, cycle and kuklos, cylinder and kulindros. The word "church" is known in Scotland as kirk, and in German as Kirche and in Netherlands as kerk. These words show their direct derivation from the Greek Kirke even better than the English "church". However, even the Old English circe for "church", reveals its origin.

Let us rather use the Scriptural "Assembly" or "Congregation", and renounce the word that is derived from Circe, the daughter of the Sun-deity!

 

6. AMEN

The Hebrew of the Old Testament reveals to us that the Scriptural Hebrew word (which means: so be it, or verily or surely) is "Amein" and not "Amen". Likewise, the Greek equivalent in the Greek New Testament is also pronounced: "Amein". Anyone can check on this in Stong's Concordance, No. 543 in its Hebrew Lexicon, and No. 281 in its Greek Lexicon, or in Aaron Pick's Dictionary of Old Testament Words for English Readers. Why then, has this Scriptural word "Amein" been rendered as "Amen" in our versions? Again we can see how the pagans have been made welcome, been conciliated, by adopting the name of pagan deity into the Church.

The Egyptians, including the Alexandrians, had been worshipping, or been aquainted with, the head of the Egyptian pantheon, Amen-Ra, the great Sun-deity, for more than 1 000 years, B.C.E. Before this deity became known as Amen-ra, he was only known as Amen among the Thebians. This substitution of "Amen" for "Amein" was greatly facilitated by the fact that this Egyptian deity's name was pelt in Egyptian hieroglyphic language with only three letters: AMN, just as we find a similar poverty of vowels in the Scriptural Hebrew, which prior to its vowel-pointing by the Massoretes, also only spelt its AMEIN as : AMN. However, with the vowel-pointing by the Massoretes the Scriptural word has been preserved for us as AMEIN. On the other hand, the Egyptian deity AMN is rendered by various sources as AMEN, or AMUN, or as AMON. However, the most reliable Egyptologists and archaelogsits, such as Sir E.A. Wallis Budge,112 Dr. A.B. Cook,113 Prof. A Wiedemann, 114 Sir W.M.F. Petrie,115 and A.W. Shorter,116 as well as some authoritative dictionaries,117 all render the name of this Egyptian deity as AMEN. This AMEN was originally the Theban "hidden god who is in heaven"112 "the hidden one, probably meaning hidden sun".118 Funk and Wagnalls, Standard College Dictionary, describes it, "AMEN: In Egyptian mythology, the god of life and procreation ... later identified with the Sun-god as the supreme deity, and called 'Amen-Ra'." James Bonwick, Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, repeatedly and frankly calls the Sun-deity of Egypt by its correct name: AMEN. He states on pp. 123-125, "AMEN ... is in a sense, the chief deity of Egypt - supreme divinity. Whatever else he be, he must be accepted as the sun ... the hidden god, the solar aspect is clear ... there is the disk of the sun ... the sun Amen ... His identification with Baal ... establishes him as a solar deity ...." Smith's Bible Dictionary expresses AMEN as, "an Egyptian divinity ... He was worshipped ... as Amen-Ra, or 'Amen the Sun'." Herodotos recorded for us how the Greeks identified their Zeus with Amen-Ra.113

Yahushúa calls Himself "the Amein" in Rev. 3:14. Substituting a title or name of Yahushúa with the name o of the great hidden Sky-deity or the great Sun-deity of the Egyptians, Amen, is inconceivable! The difference is subtle, but it is there. By ending our prayers "Amen" instead of "Amein", one could very well ask: Have we been misled to invoke the name of the Egyptian Sun-deity at the end of our prayers?

-But worse is still to come.

 

7. HOLY

The Hebrew word qodesh and the equivalent Greek word hagios, together with their derivatives, have been translated with one of three words, or derivatives, in our older English versions, namely: holy, hallowed, or sanctified. Another word is also used in modern versions, and generally in ecclesiastical literature, namely: sacred. Most of us have the idea that this word has the meaning of piety, or being pious, or to be devout. However, this conception is refuted when we read in Isa. 66:17 of the idolatrous people "who sanctify (qadash) themselves and purify themselves, to go to the gardens after an idol in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse ...." This refutation of the incorrect idea that "holy" means "to be pious", is further confirmed by the shocking discovery that one of the Hebrew words for a harlot (whore) is qedeshah, a derivative of qadash! Likewise, a male prostitute (or sodomite) is called a qadesh in Hebrew. This then causes us to seek for the real meaning of the word qodesh (its verb being qadash) and its Greek equivalent hagios. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 2, p. 817, summarises what most authorities say about qodesh and hagios, ". . . the meaning of 'separation' is paramount ... the more elemental meaning seems to lie with 'separation'." The same dictionary, in vol. 4, p.210, says, "The basic sense of the Hebrew root qadash, as of its Greek equivalent in the Bible—hagios, seems to be 'separateness'." Likewise, Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words repeatedly emphasises the fact of the fundamental meaning of the word to be: "separation" (see under "holiness" and "sanctification"). With the discovery of the true meaning of this word, namely, separate and separation, we can now understand why qodesh is used in a positive sense, a good sense, and that it can equally be used in a negative and evil sense. Someone is, or something is separated unto Yahuweh, or he/it is separated unto evil. Thus, the word qodesh applies to both.
Why then, if the Hebrew word qodesh as well as the Greek hagios both mean "separation", why has the word "holy" been used instead? Is it possible that the father of all lies, the Great Deceiver, had cunningly proceeded with his master plan of bringing idolatrous worship into True Worship? Has the "Mystery Man" behind "Mystery of Lawlessness" and "Mystery Babylon" been active again? (see Jer. 16:19-21, Isa. 25:7, Isa. 30:28, Rev. 17:2,4,5, as well as 2 Thess. 2:7). Indeed, we do find evidence of his veiled, his hidden, his mysterious work. In The Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 5, p. 345, under "Holy", we read, ". . . the primitive pre-Christian meaning is uncertain . . . Its earlier application to heathen deities is found in ON [Old Norse]." Likewise, we read in the big Netherland's Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, vol. 6, p. 455 (I translate), "An explanation of the original meaning, that makes it clear as to how this adjective has obtained the meaning of the Latin sanctus, has not yet been given — For speculations, see e.g. KLUGE, FRANCK AND MURRAY." But we did discover the origin of the word "holy". In G. Jobes, Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols, p. 781, we read, "HOLY: In practically all languages, the word for holy has been derived from the divinely honored sun." We found confirmation in Forlong's Encyclopedia of Religions, as follows, "HOLI: The Great Hindu spring festival .. . held in honour of Krishna, as the spring sun-god . . . a personified woman called Holi . . . Holi had tried to poison the babe Krishna ...." Further revealing evidence was yet to come. In Strong's Concordance, in the Greek Lexicon No. 1506, we found the following: "heile (the sun's ray)"—this is pronounced: heilei. This form is almost identical to the German and Dutch equivalent of the English "holy". The meaning of "halo", the ring on top of a saint's head, now became clear to us. And this was confirmed in J.C. Cooper, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols, p. 112, "NIMBUS, HALO, or AUREOLE: Originally indicative of solar power and the sun's disk, hence an attribute of sun-gods."
The truth of this most disturbing find stunned us. We simply could not handle it. Gradually we came to understand. The Great Deceiver will not make the mistake of diverting the worship towards himself. By just diverting it to the innocent sun, Satan would succeed in his master plan by firstly veiling, and then bringing into the Temple the "wicked abomination", as Elohim had called this Sun-mixed worship (Eze. 8:9-16). It is well known how pictures of our Messiah, of Mary, and of a great number of saints were adorned with a sun-disc (nimbus), or halo, or sun-rays, thereby identifying him/her with the Sun-deity, or even only being taken as blessed by the Sun-deity. With the word "holy" being applied to the Spirit of Yahuweh, called in Hebrew Ruach ha Qodesh the enormous challenge was put to us: Can we continue to use the word "Holy Spirit"? Ruach ha Qodesh simply means: "The Spirit of Separation". Can we continue bringing homage to the Sun, once the truth has been revealed to us, and be found guilty of participating in the "wicked abominations" of Eze. 8:9-16?
In the Scriptures we are warned of Job's similar predicament in Job 31 :26-28, in which Job warns us of this "an iniquity worthy of judgment, for I would have denied Elohim who is above." Have we not been warned in Jer. 10:2, "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be dismayed (awed) at the signs of heaven for the Gentiles are dismayed (awed) at them."? Can we ignore the disastrous result of Israel's disobedience to the Law which caused Elohim to have "turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven," Acts 7:42? We who have entered into the New Covenant, having the Law of Yahuweh written into our hearts (Heb. 8:10 and 10:16), can we delight in His Law, His Words? Do we accept His warning which comes to us in Deut.4:19, "And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you fee driven to worship them and serve them, which Yahuweh your Elohim has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage"? If it has been revealed to US having been led by the Spirit of Truth, that the word "holy" has been derived from the divinely honoured sun can we ignore it? In direct contrast to this "sun-origin" of the word "holy", the Hebrew qodesh and the Greek hagios have nothing to do with the sun or sun-rays at all The Spirit of Truth put the challenge before us: If we love Him Who first loved us, we will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. If we love the Spirit of Yahuweh, we will call Him: The Spirit of Separation, and not "the spirit of the sun". The former is the truth, the latter is a lie if it is meant to be a translation of Ruach ha Qodesh. If the term "spirit of the sun" is devoid of all Scriptural truth how much more is the term "spirit of the divinely honoured sun"?—or "the spirit that solarises", or "the solarised spirit"?

 

8. HALLOWED

Identical to the above is another derivative of this word originating from the "divinely honoured sun." In our versions the word "hallowed" is also a translation of qodesh or qadash, and hagiazo. The word is also found in "halloween" or "Hallow-even", an old pagan British festival which was adopted by the church. The great Sun-image of the Krom-druach was specially worshipped at this season.119 Here again, this word "hallowed" in our versions should be "koshered" to read: "separated".

 

9. SACRED

Although this word is not found in the King James Version, it has been used in some instances in the more recent English versions (e.g. Moffatt's Translation, NIV, GNB, NASB) to translate the Hebrew qodesh and the Greek hagios. In the literature and preaching of the churches, however, it is frequently used, as well as in the word "sacrament". Much of the English language, which is one of the Indo-European languages, viz. Sanskrit. Similarly, the English word "sacred" can be traced back to the Sanskrit "Sakra". What or who was "Sakra"? Larousse, World Mythology, pp. 229, 233, reveals to us that Indra was one of the 12 forms of the Sun-deity, and that he was also known as: "Sakra". This startling information is found in other sources too.120 In this deity, and in the twelfth form, he is called: Mitra, the origin of the later Persian and Roman Mithra or Mithras, who at first was only associated with the Sun-deity, but later on became the Sun-deity himself as Sol Invictus, the unconquered Sun-deity.

 

10. SANCTIFIED

Another word that translates the Hebrew qodesh and the Greek hagios, is the word "sanctified", which, according to the dictionaries, originates from the Latin sanctus. According to Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie, under "Sanctus", the primary meaning and origin is not certain. However, this article quotes a source mentioning Santus as a deity, named deus sanctus, and also states that Sanctus was often used as an epithet or surname of deities (See also this same book's entry: "Sancus"). Augustine in his City of God,121 reveals to us that the Sabine chief deity, Sancus, was called by some: Sanctus. In the Realencyclopaedie, under "Sancus", we read of a statue of Sancus, representing an archaic type of Apollo, the great Sun-deity of the Greeks. At the end of the article it states that, originally, Semo Sancus was Jupiter itself. Another cognate form Sancius was also identified as Jupiter.

Although we have fewer witnesses here than in the case against the words "holy", "sacred" and "hallow", we still have enough evidence that "Sancuts was the name of a pagan deity, even identified with Jupiter and Apollo. Another "wicked abomination", in the form of the words "sanctified" and "sanctuary", had been fused with the pure Messianic Faith, and we must eliminate them.

 

11. THE FISH SYMBOL

There was an upheaval against iconalotry (image worship) in the 8th - 9th centuries, and again by the Puritans in the 16th - 17th centuries. This sin has crept in again and those who love Yahushúa and His Father are again crying out against this sin, which has become less obvious due to the explanations offered in an attempt to justify this practice. Let us investigate the symbol of the fish so commonly displayed on the back of cars.

This symbol is used because Christians are told that it is because we are called to be "fishers of men". However, another popular explanation is offered: It represents our Messiah, because of Augustine's attempt to justify the adoption of another element of pagan worship the Church's syncretism, "Christianising" pagan practices, emblems and even pagan deities. Paganism was mixed with the Messianic Faith. Rev. Hislop states that our Messiah "began to be popularly called ICHTHYS for ICHTHUSI, that is 'the Fish', manifestly to identify Him with Dagon."122 Dagon was the Fish-deity. Augustine, the celebrated church Father, rather childishly, gave his reason for doing this, "If you combine the initial letters of the five Greek words, which are Iesous Chreistos Theou Uios Soter, Jesus Christ the Son of god the Saviour, they make the word ichthus, meaning fish, and the mystic meaning of this noun is Christ, because he had power to exist alive, that is, without sin, in the bottomless pit of our mortal life, as in the depths of the sea."123 But Tertullian was even more frank in his blasphemous identification of our Messiah with a fish, by calling Him, "our Fish" . Tertullian wrote, "But we, little fishes, are born in water according to our Fish (Ichthus), Jesus Christ."124 Why were these Church Fathers so keen to identify Yahushúa with a fish? In The Two Babylons, pp. 252 and 270, we read, "that Ichthus, or the Fish, was one of the names of Bacchus." Bacchus was just on the name for Tammuz,125 the Sun-deity. the adoration or veneration of the fish emblem is clearly and emphatically forbidden in Deut. 4:15-19; and even more so once the hidden truth of the 3rd and 4th century' idolatrous syncretism with the Fish-deity (identifying our Messiah with the Fish-deity), has been revealed to us. Yahúweh will not accept any attempts to justify this, in spite of explanations (totally contrary to Scripture) of how the pagan deities were "Christianised".

Furthermore, the fish, as a pair of fishes, is part of the Chaldean (Babylonian) zodiac, as one of the signs of astral worship with t