HOLY SABBATH -3

The Plan Continues

When Satan heard the Promise in the curse pronounced on the serpent, he knew that God was going to instigate a plan to rescue the fallen race from his clutches. He determined to stop it from being successful.

Before the Flood, Satan's efforts to bring about a worldwide rebellion against God were almost completely successful. Even the lessons of the Deluge were not long remembered. Satan again led the children of men step by step into bold rebellion. Again he seemed about to triumph, but God's purpose for fallen man was not to be set aside.

God called faithful Abraham, of the line of Shem, And separating him from the idolatry of his family, gave him a knowledge of God’s plan for the benefit of future generations.

Centuries came and went. People were born, lived and died, most of them in rebellion against their loving Creator. From time to time prophets were raised up and sent with messages to point the people to the Promised Messiah to come. Satan did all he could to distort the messages of God and lead people to misunderstand Him.

But those who cared enough to study the prophecies, were blessed.

Prophets sought to call attention to the meaning of the sacrificial ceremonies, and the promise of God concerning the coming of the One the sacrificial system pointed to. In this way the world was kept from universal rebellion.

Satan studied carefully the messages of the prophets, concerning the Messiah. Carefully he traced the words that outlined with unmistakable clearness Christ's work among men as a suffering sacrifice and as a conquering king. Then he worked to confuse and blind men to these same messages so they would not recognise their Saviour.

These prophecies caused Satan to fear and tremble; yet he determined to thwart, if possible, the merciful provisions of God for the redemption of the lost race. He worked to blind the eyes of the people, so far as might be possible, to the real meaning of the Messianic prophecies, in order to prepare the way for the rejection of Christ at His coming.

Over and over, Satan led the people of God to unite with the world and idolatry. It was done by getting them to mix some of the ‘better’ beliefs of the heathen into the worship of the true God and always led to a complete apostasy from the Word.

Finally the prophet Daniel actually gave the time the Messiah would begin his mission. Now Satan roused all his efforts to make sure the people would not be ready for this event. He was most successful in leading the religious leaders of Israel to join with the Greeks and study their philosophy at Alexandria, in Egypt where there was a huge University.

Eagerly these spiritualistic ideas were seized upon and combined with the Hebrew scriptures. This, along with mysticism and magic brought back from their Babylonian captivity, made the simple truths of God’s Word into a muddle that most thought they could never understand.

Most people just left the keeping of their souls to the Religious leaders and obeyed them in a slavish fashion. Few studied for themselves. Only the ‘educated’ class, who had been to the universities and studied Greek philosophy and heathen mysticism were considered worthy to interpret the Scriptures.

And these could not agree with each other. They disputed loudly on street corners and market places and the common people looked upon them with awe and reverenced these ‘learned men’.

One thing all agreed on, was that the Messiah was coming to make Israel into a great nation that would rule the world!

Darkness had settled on the earth through ignorance of the Scriptures. Everywhere pride and oppression reigned and the cruel working of Satan was seen on every hand.

Satan laughed at the success of his plans and when Jesus was born, the angels found only a few shepherds and some heathens in a far country looking for his coming.

Multitudes were sitting in the shadow of death. Their only hope was for this gloom to be lifted, that God might be revealed.

With prophetic vision David, the anointed of God, had foreseen that the coming of Christ should be "as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds." 2 Samuel 23:4. And Hosea testified, "His going forth is prepared as the morning." Hosea 6:3. Quietly and gently the daylight breaks upon the earth, dispelling the shadow of darkness and waking the earth to life. So was the Sun of Righteousness to arise, "with healing in His wings." Malachi 4:2. The multitudes dwelling "in the land of the shadow of death" were to see "a great light." Isaiah 9:2.

The Messiah was to vindicate God’s Law, He was to show to the world the Law in flesh and bones. The wrath of Satan against that Law would fall in full force upon Him.

Always through the ages there has been a small remnant that understood God’s Word of hope. Descendants of that holy line through whom a knowledge of God had been preserved, strengthened their faith by dwelling on the promises. Yet their hearts were filled with sadness as they thought of the sufferings He must endure in order to fulfill the divine purpose.

How different from the teachers of His day was the Saviour to conduct Himself among men. In His life, no noisy disputation, no ostentatious worship, no act to gain applause, was ever to be witnessed. The Messiah was to be hid in God, and God was to be revealed in the character of His Son. Without a knowledge of God, humanity would be eternally lost. Without divine help, men and women would sink lower and lower. Life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world. Man's necessities could be met in no other way.

Satan raged like a savage beast when Christ came to earth to dispute his claims- no sooner was the babe born in Bethlehem then he led Herod to try to slay him!

Through the ages, Satan’s false religion, through its pomp and ceremonies and sensual attractions had led most people into darkness. Most of the children of Israel refused to live without these perversions in their lives.

Now in the intellectual class of worldly philosophy, he had a weapon that worked against even the more spiritual as they sought through this channel, opened by the enemy himself, to increase their influence and by thinking they were getting ‘new light’ they embraced the old darkness in a different form.

It is attractive to the human heart to be admired and looked to as ‘wise’ and ‘special’ and the leaders of Israel jumped for the bait. By putting light for darkness and darkness for light, Satan held them in an iron grasp.

Satan watched his chance to overcome Christ- if he could lead Him to sin, in the tiniest bit to depart from the will of His Father in heaven, Satan would win and all would be lost.

How he hounded the path of the Saviour, making His steps difficult, truly it could be said, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…” Isa 53:3

At the time of Jesus’ Baptism, He went into the wilderness to fast and pray. Satan waited his chance and when he saw Him faint and weak - he attacked!

He came in the form of an angel of light and tempted Jesus as he had so successfully tempted others through the years. He was sure Christ would fail as had all others. He tempted Jesus to disobey His Father’s wishes, to make Himself a God. He tempted Jesus to ‘show off’ and be presumptuous.

Finally he tempted him by appealing to His senses, he used his powers to carry Jesus into a high mountain and give him a hypnotic vision of the splendor and richness of earth, then he told the Savior, “You do not need to suffer, you can join me and together we will rule the world! Just worship me and all this will be yours!”

But the Savior resisted the devil by the Word of God, and he had to flee the scene defeated! Jesus could have sinned! Jesus was in human flesh, not like that of unfallen Adam, but weakened by centuries of transgression, He suffered under the great law of heredity. He had no special advantage. He did not use any power that is not readily available to us through the Word of God! He overcame through the power of His Father and we can overcome through Him!

It did not end there; all through His earthly sojourn, Jesus was hunted by the hounds of hell, but never once in look, thought or deed did He disobey His Father or break His Holy Law.

The Life of Christ was like a flood of light to the dark sinful world and as the Gospel went forth to the world under the Power of the 3rd Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, Satan trembled for his kingdom.

Through faith in the Saviour and by looking to Him where He pleaded the merits of His life and blood for mankind in heaven before the Father, Himself the sacrifice, Himself the Priest, more and more people renounce the kingdom of Satan.

Viciously Satan stirred up cruel persecution but it only spread the Gospel faster and further. A whole new set of sacred writings were written; we know these as the New Testament and the truth went like wildfire!

Quickly he switched tactics and began the same plan he had used for years against Israel – he brought in those with a love for worldly pomp and splendour. He brought in those who were ‘highly’ educated in heathen practices. By getting these to assume Christianity but not be sanctified by the truth, he led others to think that the heathen ways had merit after all.

Compromise, intermarriage, the desire for the entertainments and fun of the heathen celebrations, wanting worldly acceptance, adding to the simplicity of the gospel, and excusing it on evangelistic grounds, all permeated quickly into the movement raised up by Jesus. Within only a century, apostasy was rolling big-time and some even presumed to rewrite scripture to suit their own ‘educated’ ideas!

How quickly this all happened is shown in the words of Paul where he said that he knew that after his death ‘grievous wolves’ would come right into the flock and warned of the ‘Man of Sin’ that would rise.

Even the Beloved John, who lived longer than any other disciple, was spurned in his last years by churches led by false teachers who were seeking their own honor and not that of Christ!

In the fourth century, Satan’s toil paid off and his masterpiece of deception rose on the very sight of his most powerful heathen temple, the Vatican. (Place of the divining serpent) Quickly now he hurried his best Sun-worship tactics into the apostate church and the few faithful in heart were either killed or fled away into the less populous areas.

Sun-worshipping practises and other heathen ideas seeped in gradually; those who opposed them were killed, thrown out of the churches, or compromised for the sake of ‘peace’. But many fled into distant areas and kept the light of truth burning through the Dark Ages of Papal supremacy.

Satan gained a triumph when he led the Emperor Constantine to claim to embrace Christianity, while remaining a devoted worshipper of the Sun god – Apollo. His purpose was to unite all religions and thus strengthen his kingdom and the bishop of Rome worked with him gladly on this project. The first Sunday laws were passed by Constantine and gradually keepers of the true Sabbath found themselves persecuted more and more. About the only thing even remotely Christian that Constantine accepted was the symbol of the cross and that was in sun worship from ancient times and not found in the church of the apostles!

Many know the history of the Great Apostasy, but few realize that hatred of God’s authority as shown in His Holy Sabbath Day was a prime mover of events. Satan led the Jews to make themselves odious to the world and through raising persecution against them, Satan tried to blot knowledge of the true Sabbath from the earth. Now you know what is behind ‘anti-Semitism!

Groups hidden in the areas far from Rome kept alive the knowledge of the True Gospel and 7th-day Sabbath, They also had the True Scriptures, but more and more Satan led Rome to hunt these down and destroy them. Of around 150 million people martyred by Rome through the Dark Ages, many kept the True Sabbath!

As most of the Reformers actually came out of the Roman church to stand for the truths of the Bible, it was an easy thing for Satan to blind them to the

importance of the 7th Day Sabbath.

As the counsel of Trent met in the 1500s to decide what to do about the Protestants, they found a loophole in the armour of these stalwarts for truth; it was the keeping of the Sunday. The Roman church well knew that Sunday keeping is not found in the Bible and proudly they claimed the change of the 7th Day Sabbath to Sunday as the mark of their authority! Now Catholicism triumphed as they pointed out that the Protestants kept the Sunday THEY had instituted, and did not go by ‘ Sola Scriptura’ as they claimed!

Now- I want to take you behind the scenes to look into some of the revealed plans of God. Few people as they read the Bible or history, realize that there is a huge plan running like clockwork behind it all - and the wheels are turned by our Loving God as He seeks to save all who will be saved.

As you have learned, God chose not to destroy Satan and sin immediately because if He had, many others would be led to doubt and think Satan was right. He allowed Satan to work out his proposed methods – until all could see the results!

HOWEVER- there were limits put to the time he would have to play his evil games of cruelty! There are two amazing time prophecies found in the Bible, they are both in the book of Daniel and one of them appears also in Revelation. Jesus referred to them both when He was among men.

One is found in Daniel 8:14, and talks about a period of 2,300 days. In prophecy a ‘Day’ equals a year of real time, and so this prophecy outlined 2,300 years. The start was when the final decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem in 457 BC. The first section clearly pointed out when the Messiah would begin His ministry.

The end of this time prophecy reached to 1844! This was the plan of salvation on a time-table. Now there is a second time prophecy in the Bible that appears 7 different places! It is a 1260 day/year time period and you can see it on this next chart:

It was the midnight of the world! We call it the Dark Ages.

Jesus spoke of it when He said; “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.” Mt 24:21,22

The days were ‘shortened’ by the reformation but ended in 1798.

Revelation talks about this time: Rev. 13:5-7 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Daniel describes it this way: 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.

These both speak of the 1260 day/years. This was a period that God allowed for Satan to show off his masterpiece; the apostate, sun-worshipping, cruel, counterfeit ‘Christian’ church! Notice it would think it could ‘change times and Laws’ – There is only one law that deals with time - the 4th commandment!

1798 saw the ‘wounding’ of this ‘Beast power’ as the general of Napoleon, Berthier by name, marched into Rome and took the Pope from his throne and declared the Papacy ended. The Bible describes it like this:

Rev. 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

1798 marked the loss of political power by the Papacy, it continued as a religion and although that Pope died a captive another soon took his place. But the political power had been broken. However it immediately began to seek to regain what it had lost. We are told the wound will be healed! When will this be?

Remember, Satan has never slacked his plan to destroy the 7th Day Sabbath and those who keep it from the earth. It is his purpose to have all deceived by false religion and that True Sabbath, when kept in the light of the gospel and God’s Holy Word – is powerful to dispel the darkness of error! Clearly a SHOWDOWN is coming!