Bible Study 17
- What was Satan’s ambition?
Isaiah 14:14 - When men turned from worshipping God, what did they worship?
Deuteronomy 17:3
Jeremiah 10:2 - What was the particular god of all heathen worship?
The sun.
Exodus 32:1-8
The calf was the Egyptian sun god
Numbers 25:1-4
The golden calf was a representation of the sacred bull called Apis, which the Egyptians worshipped, and with which the Israelites had necessarily become very familiar during their long sojourn in Egypt. Concerning this god Apis and what it signified, we find the following: ‘Apis, the bull worshipped by the Egyptians, who regarded it as a symbol of Osiris, the god of the Nile, the husband of Isis, and the great divinity of Egypt.’ (Chambers Encyclopaedia.) ‘All the mysteries of the Egyptians, and their whole doctrine of the future state, attach themselves to this worship (of Osiris). Osiris was identified with the sun… Sun worship was the primitive form of Egyptian religion, perhaps even pre-Egyptian.’ –Encyclopaedia Britannica. - Who was being worshipped in all heathen worship?
Deuteronomy 32:16-17 - Why did the devil want worship?
To be like the Most High. - When God’s own people, Israel, turned from Him, what did they do?
2 Kings 23:4-5
Jeremiah 7:17-19, 9-10
Ezekiel 6:4 (margin, sun images)
Ezekiel 8:16 (sun worship) - What day was dedicated to sun worship?
‘Sun-day, so called because this day was anciently dedicate to the sun, or to its worship.’ Webster’s Dictionary. - When they turned to sun worship, how did they treat God’s Sabbath?
Ezekiel 20:13, 16, 24. - What message did God send to them to save them?
Ezekiel 20:19
Jeremiah 17:21;27 - When Christ was on earth, were the heathen still worshipping the sun?
Rome ruled the world, and sun worship was the principal form of worship. - What did Jesus and all associated with Him observe?
The seventh day. Sabbath.
Luke 4:16
‘Centuries of the Christian era passed away before the Sunday was observed by the Christian church as a Sabbath. History does not furnish us with a single proof or indication that it was at any time so observed previous to the Sabbatical edict of Constantine in AD 321.’ – Sir William Domville in ‘Examination of the Six Texts.‘ - What change did the apostle Paul say would come over the church?
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 - From what would the church fall?
From the standard of the Word of God.
Acts 20:29-30
What would come into the church then?
The man of sin.
2 Peter 2:1-2
2 Thessalonians 2:3 - What would this power attempt to do?
To change the law of God.
Daniel 7:25
Does the Roman Catholic Church claim to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday?
‘On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people residing in the cities rest, and let all work shops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such preparations, the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls, each of them for the second time.)’ – Codex Justinian, cited in ‘History of the Christian Church.’
‘Unquestionably the first law, either ecclesiastical or civil, by which the Sabbatical observance of that day is known to have been ordained, is the edict of Constantine, AD 321.’ – ‘Chambers’ Encyclopaedia,’ article ‘Sabbath’.