“Only those who have read carefully the history of the growth of papal power will ever know how powerfully the controversy concerning Easter served in the hands of the bishops of Rome.” (B.G. Wilkinson, Ph. D., Truth Triumphant)
Shortly before He died Jesus said to His disciples, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. …this do in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:15, 16, 19)
From the New Testament record we see that the Christian Church did continue to celebrate this day for several centuries after Christ’s resurrection. We even see record of Paul keeping it with his converts way up in Asia Minor. Here is one example, among several:
“At Philippi Paul tarried to keep the Passover. Only Luke remained with him, the other members of the company passing on to Troas to await him there. The Philippians were the most loving and truehearted of the apostle’s converts, and during the eight days of the feast he enjoyed peaceful and happy communion with them.” {AA 390.4}
(Paul’s churches in Asia Minor are going to come up again as we follow this history.)
Unfortunately, shortly after the last of the apostles had died a sharp dispute broke out between Paul’s churches in Asia Minor and the bishops of Rome and Alexandria over the date for Passover. Here is how it started:
“In the second century the aims of the sun-worshiping emperors and those of the Alexandrian theologians ran parallel. There was an ambitious scheme on foot to blend all religions into one of which “the sun was to be the central object of adoration.” Speaking of the influence of pagan philosophy on early church writers, Schaff says, “We can trace it…even in St. Augustine, who confessed that it kindled in him an incredible fire.” Approving in their hearts the conciliating attitude of the pagan emperors and the mass methods of Alexandria’s evangelism, the bishops of Rome decided to eclipse any public attraction which pagan festivals could offer.
“Seated in the empire’s capital, from the height of their pedestal of influence, they determined to bring together Easter, a yearly festival, and Sunday, a weekly holiday sacred to the worship of the sun, to make the greatest church festival of the year.
“The controversy over Easter, which was to rage for centuries, now began.
“God had ordained that the Passover of the Old Testament should be celebrated in the spring of the year on the fourteenth day of the first Bible month. Heathenism in the centuries before Christ had a counterfeit yearly holiday celebrating the spring equinox of the sun. It was called “Eostre” from the Scandinavian word for the goddess of spring, from which we get our word “Easter.” Since the resurrection of Christ had occurred at the time of the Old Testament Passover, a custom developed of celebrating it yearly, though neither Christ nor the New Testament provided for it. This rivaled the pagan spring festival. However, the fourteenth day of the month of the Passover could fall, as now, on any day of the week. The eastern churches celebrated the resurrection of Christ annually two days after the Passover feast. They commemorated the resurrection on whatever day of the week the sixteenth day of the month fell. This was in harmony with the way the Bible regulated the Old Testament Passover feast.
“In addition to their yearly spring festival at Eastertime, sun worshipers also had a weekly festival holiday. As was previously pointed out, the first day of the week had widespread recognition as being sacred to the sun. The bishop of Rome, seeking to outrival pagan pomp, assaulted those churches which celebrated Easter [i.e. Passover] as a movable feast. He determined to force Easter to come on the same day of the week each year, namely, Sunday. By this he would create a precedent which only a devout and scholarly opposition could oppose. By this he would appeal to the popular prejudices of his age, be they ever so incorrect. By this he would claim to be the lord of the calendar, that instrument so indispensable to civilized nations. By this he would assert the right to appoint church festivals and holy days. By this he would confuse and perplex other church communions, more simple and scriptural than he. Only those who have read carefully the history of the growth of papal power will ever know how powerfully the controversy concerning Easter served in the hands of the bishops of Rome.” (B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, Chapter 9, brackets added)
(See also, Great Empires of Prophecy, p. 383; by A.T. Jones)
c. A.D. 6 – A.D. 100
According to Polycrates, John the Revelator (A.D. 6 – A.D. 100) still observed Passover on the 14th day of the 1st month. John the Revelator was the last surviving apostle, and he died somewhere around A.D. 100.
c. A.D. 117 – The controversy begins
Only a short time after the last of the apostles died, Pope Sixtus at Rome, as well as “Anicetus, and Pius, and Hyginus, and Telesphorus” had begun following a new tradition. They did not observe Passover on the 14th of the month. “They neither observed it themselves, nor did they permit those after them to do so.” (Irenæus, in a letter to Pope Victor) Instead they observed it on the first Sunday after Passover.
c. A.D. 130
(I’m going to diverge slightly here to give a brief history of how the truth was probably passed down from the Christians in Jerusalem all the way to the Sabbath-keepers in America.)
About A.D. 130, Emperor Hadrian began a severe persecution of the Jews. To avoid being mistaken for Jews, the Christians in Palestine abandoned the Mosaic Law and chose a new bishop who was a foreigner and not a Jew. A group of Christians called the Nazarenes could not agree to abandon the Law, and so formed a separate society in Peraea (starting at the city of Pella, where they fled before the destruction of Jerusalem, see GC, 30.2). Here they continued to honor the Sabbath and other laws given in the Old Testament. (See Mosheim’s Ecc. Hist., Book I, Cent. I, Part II, Ch. V.)
“As late as the eleventh century Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida referred to a sect of Nazarenes, a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time. Modern scholars believe it is the Pasagini who are referenced by Cardinal Humbert, suggesting the Nazarene sect existed well into the eleventh century and before.” (Wikipedia, article: “Pasagians”)
“One portion of the Waldenses were called Passaginians, probably because they lived high up in the passes of the Alps.” (G.I. Butler, The Change of the Sabbath, p. 143.1)
“After what has been said of the Cathari, there still remains the sect of the pasagini. They teach Christ to be the first and pure creature; that the Old Testament festivals are to be observed– circumcision, distinction of foods, and in nearly all other matters, save the sacrifices, the Old Testament is to be observed as literally as the New– circumcision is to be kept according to the letter. They say that no good person before the advent of Christ descended into the lower regions; and that there is no one in the lower regions and in paradise until now, nor will there be until sentence has been rendered on the day of Judgment.” (Gregorius, of Bergamo, about A,.D. 1250, against the Cathari and Pasaginians:)
“However, the accusation that they practiced circumcision has been repeatedly proved to be false. Writing of the Passagians, who are taken to be a branch of the Waldenses, David Benedict says:
The account of their practicing circumcision is undoubtedly a slanderous story forged by their enemies, and probably arose in this way. Because they observed the seventh day, they were called, by way of derision, Jews, as the Sabbatarians are frequently at this day; and if they were Jews, it followed of course, that they either did or ought to circumcise their followers. This was probably the reasoning of their enemies… .” (B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant)
“We have seen that the Waldenses, during the Dark Ages, were dispersed through many of the countries of Europe. And so also were the people called Cathari, if, indeed, the two were not one people. In particular, we note the fact that they were scattered through Poland, Lithuania, Sclavonia, Bulgaria, Livonia, Albania, and Sarmatia. These countries are now parts of the Russian Empire. Sabbath-keepers were numerous in Russia before the time of Luther. The Sabbath of the Lord was certainly retained by many of the ancient Waldenses and Cathari, as we have seen. In fact, the very things said of the Russian Sabbath-keepers, that they held to circumcision and the ceremonial law, were also said of the Cathari, and of that branch of the Waldenses called Passaginians. Is there any reasonable doubt that in these ancient Christians we have the ancestors of the Russian Sabbath-keepers of the fifteenth century?
“Mr. Maxson makes the following statement:-
“”We find that Sabbath-keepers appear in Germany late in the fifteenth or early in the sixteenth century according to ‘Ross’s Picture of All Religions.’ By this we are to understand that their numbers were such as to lead to organization, and attract attention. A number of these formed a church, and emigrated to America, in the early settlement of this country.”” (J.N. Andrews, History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week, p. 467.2)
So here we can trace, in a few paragraphs, the long history of how the truths of God’s word were passed from the Nazarene Christians in Jerusalem, all the way down to the Sabbath-keeping Germans in America. Considering that my ancestors were Germans who originally came from Russia, I can’t help wondering if some of them may have been these Sabbath keepers referred to above.
Now we will turn our attention back to the Easter Controversy, and how it developed through history. We just saw that in A.D. 117 the Bishops of Rome had begun a new tradition and were no longer observing Passover on the 14th day of the month. Now we will see what took place next.
c. A.D. 142
“While he [Pope Pius I, c. 142 – c. 154] was bishop [of Rome], his brother Hermas wrote a book in which he set forth the commandment which the angel of the Lord delivered to him, coming to him in the garb of a shepherd and commanding him that the holy feast of Easter be observed upon the Lord’s day.” (The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis), trans. By Louise R. Loomis, Sect. XI, Pius I, pp. 14, 15. – As quoted in the SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 9, p. 361)
c. A.D. 154
Polycarp (ca. 69 – ca. 155), a disciple of the apostle John, went to Rome to discuss with Bishop Anicetus the day to observe Passover.
“Neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe what he had always observed with John the disciple of our Lord, and the other apostles with whom he had associated; neither could Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe it as he said that he ought to follow the customs of the presbyters that had preceded him.” (Irenæus, in a letter to Pope Victor)
(Notice that Polycarp was following the example of John, the disciple, and the other apostles; but Anicetus was following the custom of “the presbyters that had preceded him.”)
c. A.D. 195
“Victor I, the bishop of Rome, assembled provincial synods up and down the Mediterranean coasts to come to an agreement on the date of Easter. Clement, at the head of the school of Alexandria, brought decision in favor of Rome’s attitude by publishing a summary of traditions he had collected in favor of Sunday observance. Clement went further. There is no record of a writer daring to call Sunday the Lord’s day before him. This Clement did. At the same time Victor proclaimed it to all the nations around the Mediterranean. He knew that the pagans would agree to a fixed yearly spring festival and that those Christians who were becoming worldly would do the same. Therefore, he issued his decree ordering the clergy everywhere to observe Easter on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. A lordly command issuing from one bishop over others was something new in the world. ….The shock was so astonishing and the resistance to it so pronounced that the historian Archibald Bower describes this assumption of power as “the first essay of papal usurpation.” The Church of the east answered the lordly requisition, declaring with great spirit and resolution that they would by no means depart from the custom handed down to them. Then the thunders of excommunication began to roar. Victor, exasperated, broke communication with them, pronounced the clergy of the East unworthy of the name of brethren, and excluded them from all fellowship with the church at Rome. Here was a gulf created between the eastern and the western churches, a gulf which widened as the bishop of Rome grew in power.” (B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, Chapter 9)
Following is part of a letter from Polycrates of Ephesus to Pope Victor, in Rome:
“We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate. He fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia, who fell asleep in Smyrna. Why need I mention the bishop and martyr Sagaris, who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius, or Melito, the Eunuch who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in Sardis, awaiting the episcopate from heaven, when he shall rise from the dead? All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said ‘We ought to obey God rather than man.’”
“He then writes of all the bishops who were present with him and thought as he did. His words are as follows:”
“I could mention the bishops who were present, whom I summoned at your desire; whose names, should I write them, would constitute a great multitude. And they, beholding my littleness, gave their consent to the letter, knowing that I did not bear my gray hairs in vain, but had always governed my life by the Lord Jesus.” (Polycrates, in a letter to Pope Victor and the church of Rome)
c. A.D. 195
Pope Victor immediately attempted to excommunicate Polycrates and the other Asiatic bishops for not celebrating Easter on Sunday, but was finally persuaded by Irenæus to make peace with them. (Eusebius. “Church History”. Vol. 5)
c. A.D. 198
“Synods and conferences of bishops were convened, and without a dissenting voice, drew up a decree of the Church, in the form of letters addressed to Christians everywhere, that never on any day other than the Lord’s Day [Sunday] should the mystery of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead be celebrated, and on that day alone we should observe the end of the Paschal fast.” (Eusebius. “Church History”. 5.23., brackets inserted)
A.D. 100 – A.D. 300
Over the span of centuries after the last of the apostles, John the Revelator, died, the church began to drift away from the “faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 1:3) The Seventh-day Sabbath was replaced by Sunday; and the Feast Days were replaced by Christmas, Easter, and other such holy days of the Catholic Church. The Christians began observing the pagan feasts, except with new names and new symbols. As time went along there were still Christian groups in different places who still kept the Sabbath and the Biblical holy days, but the majority of the church had abandoned them.
The pagan feast of Saturnalia became Christmas.
The pagan feast of the god Attis became Easter.
The pagan “Feast of the Dead” became “All Souls Day” (now called Halloween)
This is what Paul had warned the Galatians about many years before in Galatians 4:8-12. “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” (see also EGW comments on this verse in Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, p. 286).
“The new law has it’s own spirit…and it’s own feasts which have taken the place of those appointed in the law of Moses. If we would know the days to be observed…we must go to the Catholic church, not to the Mosaic law.” (Catholic Catechism, quoted in a Signs of the Times, Nov. 4, 1919)
From The Catholic World:
“The church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season…The sun was a foremost god with heathendom. Balder the beautiful, the White God, the old Scandinavians called him…Hence the church in these countries would seem to have said, “Keep that old, pagan name. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.” And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus. (The Catholic World, March 1894, p. 809).
c. A.D. 321
A Sunday law is enacted ordering tribunals, shops, and workshops to be closed on the day of the sun.
“A law of the year 321 ordered tribunals, shops, and workshops to be closed on the day of the sun, and he [Constantine] sent to the legions, to be recited upon that day, a form of prayer which could have been employed by a worshiper of Mithra, of Serapis, or of Apollo, quite as well as by a Christian believer. This was the official sanction of the old custom of addressing a prayer to the rising sun. In determining what days should be regarded as holy, and in the composition of a prayer for national use, Constantine exercised one of the rights belonging to him as Pontifex Maximus; and it caused no surprise that he should do this.” — Duruy.
c. A.D. 325
The Council of Nicea made the first universal Easter Sunday law, commanding that Easter be observed on the first Sunday after the Passover. The eastern Asiatic churches finally bowed to the mighty power of Rome and consented to celebrate Easter on the Sunday after the 14th of the 1st month. Following is a letter from the Council of Nicea to the Churches:
“We have also gratifying intelligence to communicate to you relative to unity of judgment on the subject of the most holy feast of Easter: for this point also has been happily settled through your prayers; so that all the brethren in the East [the Asiatic Churches] who have heretofore kept this festival when the Jews did, will henceforth conform to the Romans and to us, and to all who from the earliest time have observed our period of celebrating Easter.” (A letter from the Council of Nicea to the Churches, quoted in “The Two Republics” by A.T. Jones, p. 319, brackets inserted)
“Rome’s custom replaced heaven’s statute in the fourth century A.D.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, pages 1062 -1063)
Following is part of the Emperor Constantine’s letter to the Churches concerning the decision of the Council of Nicea:
“It seemed to everyone a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy solemnity, who polluted wretches! Having stained their hands with the nefarious crime, are still blinded in their minds. It is fit, therefore, that rejecting the practice of this people, we should perpetuate to all future ages the celebration of this rite in a more legitimate order, which we have kept from the first day of our Lord’s passion even to the present times. Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews…and to sum up the whole in a few words, it is agreeable to the common judgment of all that the most holy feast of Easter should be celebrated on one and the same day [meaning Sunday].” (Constantine’s Letter to the Churches, brackets inserted)
c. A.D. 364
The Council of Laodicea made the first Sunday Law commanding all Christians to rest on Sunday and work on the Sabbath.
“Canon 29. Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.” (Council of Laodicea, Canon 29)
c. A.D. 386
Apparently even at this time there were some Christians who were still resisting the power of Rome and observing God’s Festivals. John Chrysostom (ordained a saint by the Catholic Church), in his “Homilies Against the Jews”, vehemently denounced Christians for keeping the Feasts like the “pitiable and miserable Jews” did. At this time the anti-Jewish sentiment was very strong and it was very unpopular to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath or God’s other Festivals.
“The festivals of the pitiful and miserable Jews are soon to march upon us one after the other and in quick succession: the feast of Trumpets, the feast of Tabernacles, the fasts. There are many in our ranks who say they think as we do. Yet some of these are going to watch the festivals and others will join the Jews in keeping their feasts and observing their fasts. I wish to drive this perverse custom from the Church right now….But do not be surprised that I called the Jews pitiable. They really are pitiable and miserable….they failed to accept the yoke of Christ, nor did they pull the plow of his teaching. Another prophet hinted at this when he said: “Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer”. And still another called the Jews “an untamed calf”. Although such beasts are unfit for work, they are fit for killing. And this is what happened to the Jews: while they were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for slaughter.” (John Chrysostom, Against the Jews, 1:6)
(c. A.D. 177)
Somewhere about A.D. 177 missionaries from Asia Minor traveled to Ireland and “laid the foundations of the pre-Patrick church.” (Yeates, East Indian Church History, p. 226). They brought a pure gospel, very different from that which Rome taught. (B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, p. 81)
(Remember that the Churches of Asia Minor, which Paul founded, were still keeping the Passover and the Sabbath, and other doctrines, contrary to the teachings of the Roman Church. They apparently brought these with them to Ireland, as we will soon see.)
A.D. 360
Patrick, the great missionary to Ireland, was born about A.D. 360. He became a Christian after being a prisoner in Ireland, and later returned to that country to spread the gospel he had learned. He kept the Seventh-day Sabbath, as did the Churches he founded. (B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, p. 95) He started many training schools in Ireland, from which missionaries went out to many of the surrounding countries.
(Considering the evidence it also seems very likely that Patrick also kept the true Passover (or Easter as some had started calling it) instead of the Catholic Easter, since we know from history that the missionaries he trained not only got in trouble with the Roman church for keeping Sabbath, but also for observing a different “Easter” (i.e. Passover) than the Catholic Church.)
c. A.D. 553
Around this time Columba, a student trained at one of Patrick’s school in Ireland, left for Scotland as a missionary. He founded a prosperous missionary school on the island of Iona. He succeeded in evangelizing Scotland with the gospel. (B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, p. 103) It appears that Columba kept the Sabbath and Passover just like the many faithful before him. The Churches started by Columba also later came into sharp conflict with Rome because they kept the Seventh-day Sabbath and refused to observe the Catholic Easter. (ibid., p. 112)
A.D. 634
The Irish were keeping Passover “on the fourteenth moon with the Hebrews.” Therefore Pope Honorius, and afterward, John, Counselor of the Apostolic See, wrote letters to the “nation of the Scots” (Irish) “earnestly exhorting them not to think their small number, placed in the utmost borders of the earth, wiser than all the ancient and modern churches of Christ, throughout the world; and not to celebrate a different Easter, contrary to the Paschal calculation, and the synodical decrees of all the bishops upon earth.” (Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Book 2, Chapter XIX)
A.D. 664
At the Synod of Whitby, King Oswiu of Northumbria (part of England and Scotland) ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practiced by Iona and its satellite institutions.
The following is part of the dialog between Colmán, Bishop of Northumbria, and Wilfrid, a priest who had “gone to Rome to learn the ecclesiastical doctrine.”
Colman said: “The Easter [Passover] which I keep, I received from my elders, who sent me bishop hither; all our forefathers, men beloved of God, are known to have kept it after the same manner; and that the same may not seem to any contemptible or worthy to be rejected, it is the same which St. John the Evangelist, the disciple beloved of our Lord, with all the churches over which he presided, is recorded to have observed.” (brackets inserted)
Wilfred replied: “The only people who stupidly contend against the whole world are those Irishmen and their partners in obstinacy the Picts and Britons, who inhabit only a portion of these two uttermost islands of the ocean.”
Coleman responds: “It is strange that you call us stupid when we uphold the customs that rest on the authority of so great an apostle, who was considered worthy to lean on the Lord’s breast and whose great wisdom is acknowledged throughout the world.”
Wilfred replies: “Far be it from us to charge John with stupidity, because he literally observed the Law of Moses at a time when the Church followed many Jewish practices and the apostles were not able immediately to abrogate the observances of the Law once given by God.” (Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Book 3, Chapter XXV, brackets inserted)
c. A.D. 716
The Catholic priest, Ecgberht, was directed through a vision, in which a dead, Catholic, teacher appeared, to go and teach the Churches on the island of Iona (the ones started by Columba) the truth. So he set out to teach them how to keep the Catholic Easter and the tonsure. Sadly they finally lowered the standard raised by Columba and accepted the doctrines of Rome. (Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, Chapter IX & XX)
A.D. 1058
Malcom III became king of Scotland. His wife, Margaret, a devoted Catholic, began a relentless mission to destroy the Church of Scotland, which had been started by Columba. Interestingly, she began her mission of destruction by passing legislation enforcing Sunday and Easter.
“How little does the public suspect that religious legislation to enforce Easter and Sunday has often been the method of choking the life out of a liberty-loving church.” (B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, p. 112
A.D. 1156
On this date Pope Adrian IV issued a bull to King Henry II of England, authorizing him to invade Ireland. Thus the Catholic Church gained power over Ireland and worked to destroy the Church Patrick had raised up. (B.G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, p. 98)
c. A.D. 1590
Around this time we know that the Bosnian Cathars (or Cathari) were keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath and the Feast Days. As we saw earlier, Cathari was another name for the group that the Albigenses belonged to, and probably also a name used for the Waldenses. They had a hymnal called “The Old Sabbath Songbook”.
“The hymnal was written in Hungarian … It consisted of one hundred and two hymns. Forty-four for the Sabbath, five for the New Moon, eleven for Passover and Unleavened Bread, six for the Feast of Weeks [another name for Pentecost], six for Tabernacles, three for New Year’s, and one for Atonement, and twenty-six hymns for every day purposes.” (Samuel Kohn in Die Sabbatharier in Siebenburgen, pp. 62-67)
Samuel Kohn also states, “Furthermore they celebrated the three main Jewish Feasts: the celebration of the unleavened bread for a week and the Feast of Tabernacles, for which they had provided several songs which tell the history and the meaning of the celebration concerned. In particular the first of these celebrations, which they tended to call Passover in the Hungarianised Hebrew term, was held in great admiration among them. They ate only unleavened bread during the time, ‘although they had not come out of Egypt themselves with the Jews.’ They observed the first and seventh day as high holidays, and the days lying between them, which were designated weekdays of the Passover after the literal translation of the Hebrew designation usual ‘with the Jews’, demi-feast days. This celebration had for them, apart from its direct Biblical meaning, in addition the significance of ‘the future redemption’ which Jesus will bring when he comes again to establish the millennial Kingdom of God. One of their Passover hymns refers to this deliverance of which the deliverance of the Jews is a reminder. The memory of the marvelous release of Israel from Egypt encourages them in their faith in ‘a still more splendid future release.’…They celebrated all of these Jewish celebrations, however, as they so seriously stress at every opportunity, in order to obey the teaching and example of Jesus. They sanctified the Sabbath because one who does not do so does ‘not participate with Christ in eternal life.’ They celebrated ‘the Feast of the Passover of Israel according to the instruction of our Christ,’ and the Feast of Tabernacles, because whoever observes it ‘belongs to Christ.’” (ibid, pp. 106-107)
Kohn also states that they did not observe the holidays of the Catholic Church. “The Christian holidays, which, according to their opinion were not prescribed in the Bible, but were the ‘inventions of the Popes’ are left completely disregarded by them.” (ibid, p. 108)
Here are some verses from their hymn book:
“All pageantry not from the Bible Word
Most certainly arrives from Italy!
Of this truth we bear witness, hearts bestirred
As far as Rome itself, the Pope’s city.
Just ask the Pope! He shall himself confess
His celebrations do not come from God,
The Jewish statutes God alone will bless
Where Popes unholy refuse to trod.
He may claim that the Bible is divine,
But his grand liturgies are not found there.
He does not say they are not Rome’s design,
Invented for the god-man’s idol prayer.
However held, Passover in God’s Word
As we can clearly read what God commands
Pope Victor changed, the Jewish rites interred,
Wrote innovations with unholy hands…
Instead of Sabbath, they Sunday hold,
The Passover into Easter transform;
Whitsuntide they boldly make the celebration of the
Fiftieth day (Pentecost)…”
(Bosnia Cathars 1588-1623 Samuel Kohn: Die Sabbatharier in Siebenburgen Ihr Geshichte, Literalur, und Dogmatik, Budapest, Verlag von Singer & Wolfer, 1894; Lipzig, Verlag von Franz Wager, p 80.)
The Time of Restoration Begins – A.D. 1798
The 1260 years given to the Little Horn, who had thought to change times and laws, ended in 1798. His power over the world was broken. The time was at hand for every divine institution to be restored. The breech made in the Law must be repaired:
“In the time of the end every divine institution is to be restored. The breach made in the law at the time the Sabbath was changed by man, is to be repaired. God’s remnant people, standing before the world as reformers, are to show that the law of God is the foundation of all enduring reform and that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is to stand as a memorial of creation, a constant reminder of the power of God. In clear, distinct lines they are to present the necessity of obedience to all the precepts of the Decalogue. Constrained by the love of Christ, they are to co-operate with Him in building up the waste places. They are to be repairers of the breach, restorers of paths to dwell in. See verse 12.” (PK 679)
A.D. 1833
“The last of the signs appeared which were promised by the Saviour as tokens of His second advent…Thus was displayed the last of those signs of His coming, concerning which Jesus bade His disciples: “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” Mt 24:33…Many who witnessed the falling of the stars, looked upon it as a herald of the coming judgment, “an awful type, a sure forerunner, a merciful sign, of that great and dreadful day.”” (GC, 333) This took place on Nov. 13, 1833, ten years before the antitypical Day of Atonement. This was probably the fulfillment of Feast of Trumpets.
A.D. 1844, Oct. 22
On this date the great Antitypical Day of Atonement began in the Heavenly Sanctuary. Jesus moved from the Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary into the Most Holy Place to begin His work of cleansing the Sanctuary. The Advent Movement began at this time. They were many times referred to as the “Seventh-month Movement”. GC, ch. 24
A.D. 1846
The Adventists discovered the truth that the Seventh-day Sabbath had not been nailed to the cross and was still supposed to be kept. The restoration of the damage which the Little Horn power had done during the 1,260 years was starting to be repaired! GC, ch. 25
c. A.D. 1850
Ellen White wrote of those who passed through the experience of 1844: “I saw that these waiting ones were not yet tried as they must be. They were not free from errors. And I saw the mercy and goodness of God in sending a warning to the people of earth, and repeated messages to bring them up to a point of time, to lead them to a diligent search of themselves, that they might divest themselves of errors which have been handed down from the heathen and papists. Through these messages God has been bringing out his people where he can work for them in greater power, and where they can keep all his commandments.” (1SG, 155)
(Which of the errors handed down by heathen and papists do we still need to be divested of?)
A.D. 1902
In this year Father T. Enright wrote a letter, dated April 26, 1902, stating clearly that the Catholic Church was the power who had abolished the Biblical festivals.
“I still offer $1,000 to anyone who can prove from the Bible alone, that I am bound under pain of grievous sin to keep Sunday holy. We keep Sunday in obedience to the law of the Catholic Church. The church made this law after the Bible was written; hence the law is not in the Bible. The Catholic Church abolished not only the Sabbath, but all the other Jewish Festivals.” (T. Enright of the Redemporist fathers of the Roman Church, in a letter dated April 26, 1902)
A.D. 1919
The Catholic Catechism states:
“The new law has it’s own spirit…and it’s own feasts which have taken the place of those appointed in the law of Moses. If we would know the days to be observed…we must go to the Catholic church, not to the Mosaic law.” (Catholic Catechism, quoted in a Signs of the Times, Nov. 4, 1919)
Dan 7:25 “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”
c. A.D. 1950
Some Seventh-day Adventists in India and Indonesia were observing the feast days around this time, according to the testimony of local pastors.
A.D. 1976
The SDA Bible Encyclopedia of 1976 states:
“The word “Easter” is from Eastre, Anglo-Saxon name for the goddess of spring… mindful of the pagan origin of the day, SDA’s do not celebrate Easter. In 1887 Uriah Smith wrote that Easter ‘savors of the customs of the Protestant Church not wholly weaned from Mother Rome.’” (p. 405)
“The SDA Church does not follow the Christian, or church, year of festivals and fasts, and hence does not celebrate Christmas as an ecclesiastical festival… SDA’s have ignored Christmas as a church festival because of the absence of any divine command to observe the day… Dec. 25 was chosen by the Roman churches late in the fourth century to coincide with the “birthday of the sun,” the pagan solstice festival.” (p. 284)
A.D. 1993 – The Easter controversy is still alive and well
The new Catechism of the Catholic Church urges Christians to make laws regarding Sunday and the other Catholic holidays.
“2188. In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sundays and the Church’s holy days as legal holidays.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1993)
“Past history will be repeated; old controversies will arouse to new life, and peril will beset God’s people on every side.” {RH, August 31, 1897 par. 7}
Will the Catholic Church succeed in legislating it’s holidays along with Sunday? Will there be persecution against those who don’t keep them?
A.D. 1994
The World Council of Churches (WCC) reported on the first meeting in Faith and Order’s study programme “on the role of worship in the search for Christian unity”:
“Besides the work already done on baptism, eucharist and ministry, the churches need to address the renewal of preaching, the recovery of the meaning of Sunday and the search for a common celebration of Pascha as ecumenical theological concerns. This last is especially urgent, since an agreement on a common date for Easter – even an interim agreement – awaits further ecumenical developments.” (T.F. Best/D. Heller, eds., So We Believe, So We Pray: Towards Koinonia in Worship, Faith and Order Paper No. 171, WCC Publications, Geneva 1995, pp. 9-10.)
A.D. 1997
The World Council of Churches published a lengthy document about it’s efforts to establish a universal date for the celebration of Easter/Passover among the Christian Churches of the world. (Ibid.)
A.D. 1998
Pope John Paul II issues his Apostolic Letter, “Ad Tuendam Fidem” (To Protect the Faith), which was designed to insert new codes into Canon Law, the new Canon 1436 is a cause for great concern. It states:
“Canon 1436 – § 1. Whoever denies a truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or who calls into doubt, or who totally repudiates the Christian faith, and does not retract after having been legitimately warned, is to be punished as a heretic or an apostate with a major excommunication; a cleric moreover can be punished with other penalties, not excluding deposition.
“§ 2. In addition to these cases, whoever obstinately rejects a teaching that the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops, exercising the authentic Magisterium, have set forth to be held definitively, or who affirms what they have condemned as erroneous, and does not retract after having been legitimately warned, is to be punished with an appropriate penalty.” (Pope John Paul II, May 28, 1998, Apostolic Letter, “Ad Tuendam Fidem”)
The Roman Catholic saint and theologian, Thomas Aquinas, wrote,
“With regard to heretics…on their own side there is sin, by which they deserve not only to be separated from the church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death.” (SUMMA THEOLOGICA Part II of second part, question 11, article 3, Vol. 2 page 440).
This eerily calls to mind the words of Spirit of Prophecy in the book The Great Controversy:
“The Roman Catholic Church, uniting the forms of paganism and Christianity, and, like paganism, misrepresenting the character of God, had resorted to practices no less cruel and revolting. In the days of Rome’s supremacy there were instruments of torture to compel assent to her doctrines. There was the stake for those who would not concede to her claims. There were massacres on a scale that will never be known until revealed in the judgment.” (GC 569)
A.D. 1998
Next Pope John Paul II issues his letter “Dies Domini” in which he urges Sunday laws to be made.
“66. . . . When, through the centuries, she has made laws concerning Sunday rest, (109) the Church has had in mind above all the work of servants and workers, certainly not because this work was any less worthy when compared to the spiritual requirements of Sunday observance, but rather because it needed greater regulation to lighten its burden and thus enable everyone to keep the Lord’s Day holy. In this matter, my predecessor Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical Rerum Novarum spoke of Sunday rest as a worker’s right which the State must guarantee. (110) . . .
“67. . . . Therefore, also in the particular circumstances of our own time, Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy.” (John Paul II, Dies Domini, May 31, 1998)
Again we are reminded of the words of Ellen White:
“…a movement to enforce Sunday observance is fast gaining ground. Marvelous in her shrewdness and cunning is the Roman Church. She can read what is to be. She bides her time, seeing that the Protestant churches are paying her homage in their acceptance of the false sabbath and that they are preparing to enforce it by the very means which she herself employed in bygone days….Rome is aiming to reestablish her power, to recover her lost supremacy. Let the principle once be established in the United States that the church may employ or control the power of the state; that religious observances may be enforced by secular laws; in short, that the authority of church and state is to dominate the conscience, and the triumph of Rome in this country is assured….We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution. (GC 380-381)
c. A.D. 2002
The World Council of Churches reported that the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) was again focusing on the need for a common date for the celebration of Easter.
[Source: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/ecumenical-movement-in-the-21st-century/non-member-churches-ecumenical-organizations/councils-of-churches.html]
Conclusion:
“Only those who have read carefully the history of the growth of papal power will ever know how powerfully the controversy concerning Easter served in the hands of the bishops of Rome.” (B.G. Wilkinson, Ph. D., Truth Triumphant)
“Past history will be repeated; old controversies will arouse to new life, and peril will beset God’s people on every side.” {RH, August 31, 1897}
Speaking of past history we read: “Many of the exiles suffered persecution. Not a few lost their lives because of their refusal to disregard the Sabbath and to observe the heathen festivals.” {DA 28}