By Ivor Myers

he biblical Sabbath falls on the seventh day of the week, not the first. That change came as a result of tradition, not the Bible.

It happened on an official level around A.D. 300. The emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. In this act, he sought to merge his empire, a mixture of pagans and Christians, into one unified system by making Christianity the official state religion.

History tells us that one of the ways Constantine mingled paganism with Christianity was by merging pagan festivals with Christian meaning. This had a direct impact upon the observance of the Ten Commandments, and for purposes of this discussion, the Sabbath of the Bible.

“Though Sol Invictus (meaning ‘The unconquered Sun’) was indeed a pagan Roman god, and had been featured on Roman coins, Constantine co-opted this pagan heritage along with the Judeo-Christian following of the Ten Commandments by granting a day to honor God and rest for man. As the Roman Empire gradually converted to Christianity, Sunday became the natural day for the Sabbath and rest since Romans were already accustomed to Sunday as their day off” (https://www.historyandheadlines.com/march-7-321-sunday-became-christian-day-rest/).

World Without Sabbath

The change of the anti-oppression symbol is not insignificant. The Christian church in the Dark Ages became an oppressive entity because this one commandment was changed. Had the true Sabbath been observed during this period, the church would not have persecuted the millions it did in the name of Christianity. It would not have oppressed the poor through indulgences and taxation. Why? Because the Sabbath was the anti-oppression symbol. Having done away with this commandment, however, the state—with the church’s blessing and participation—created a breach that would lead to one of the greatest oppressive forces in the history of the world.

“The Church regulated and defined an individual’s life, literally, from birth to death and was thought to continue its hold over the person’s soul in the afterlife. The Church was the manifestation of God’s will and presence on earth, and its dictates were not to be questioned, even when it was apparent that many of the clergy were working far more steadily toward their own interests than those of their god. . . . Even so, the Church repeatedly crushed dissent, silenced reformers, and massacred heretical sects until the Protestant Reformation (1517-1648 CE) which broke the Church’s power and allowed for greater freedom of thought and religious expression” (https://www.ancient.eu/Medieval_Church/).

The Church’s hypocrisy and abuses would ultimately lead to the French Revolution in the late 1700s. France rejected Christianity and replaced the first four commandments with the “goddess of reason.”

Religion of Reason

Reason, philosophers and revolutionaries cried, would now be “[a] civic, naturalistic religion of the French revolution, dedicated to the worship of Reason and Liberty and intended as a substitute for Christianity.” The main complaint is stated thus: “The revolutionary extremists, who were trying to de-christianize the country, claimed that Christianity was too otherworldly to oppose tyranny…” (https://www.ancient.eu/Medieval_Church/).

In other words, the church set the example and created the perception that the Christian’s only concern was in loving God. In its “otherworldliness” it turned a blind eye to the hypocritical treatment and oppression of the neighbor. As a result, many rejected the first table of stone in preference for a morality without God.

The French Revolution rejected spirituality, and physically forced out traditions, relics, and observances, starting with public worship.

“In October 1793, public worship was forbidden and over the next few months all visible signs of Christianity were removed, a policy pursued with particular enthusiasm by revolutionary armies eager to seek revenge on the institution that harboured so many counter-revolutionaries. Church bells were pulled down and melted, ostensibly to help the war effort, crosses were taken from churches and cemeteries, and statues, relics and works of art were seized and sometimes destroyed. Such iconoclasm caused considerable concern at official levels, not least because of the destruction wrought on France’s artistic and cultural heritage. On 23 November 1793, churches were closed, to be converted into warehouses, manufacturing works or even stables. Streets and other public places bearing the names of saints were given new, often Republican-themed names, and time itself was recast to further repudiate France’s Christian past. The Revolutionary calendar started with the advent of the French Republic (Year 1). The names of its months reflected the seasons and its ten-day week eliminated Sunday as a day of rest and worship” (https://www.historytoday.com/archive/french-revolution-and-catholic-church).

Christianity had no place in the Republic.

In rejecting Christianity, France, in essence, declared itself atheistic. This was the result of the missing link that would have declared to the church that love for God is manifested in how we treat our neighbors. The violence of the French revolution, with its mobs, and burnings, and chaos resulted directly from Christian hypocrisy and neglect of the fourth commandment.

“Far from attaching the hearts of the citizens to the state, this religion detaches them from it as from all other things of this world,” said Jean Jacques Rousseau, the leading philosopher of the time. “[A]nd I know of nothing more contrary to the social spirit.” Rousseau spoke for many when he denounced Christianity as an ally of oppression: “Its spirit is so favorable to tyranny that it always profits by such a regime…Having rejected the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, the revolutionaries in France turned toward other deities: liberty, equality, fraternity, and “the rights of man.”

Ironically, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville confirmed the worst fears about the events in France. “Because the Revolution seemed to be striving for the regeneration of the human race even more than the reform of France,” he wrote, “it lit a passion which the most violent political revolutions had never before been able to produce.”

The revolution, he said, took on the appearance of a religious crusade. “Or rather, it itself became a new kind of religion, an incomplete religion, it is true, without God, without ritual, and without life after death, but one which nevertheless, like Islam, flooded the earth with its soldiers, apostles, and martyrs” (https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/two-revolutions-for-freedom).

The floodgates of sin flowed freely through the breach of God’s law. With this history, we are now set to see how this played out in America from its inception.

IVOR MYERS is a pastor, author and Bible teacher. You can learn more about his ministry at www.powerofthelamb.com