by Maurice Goulet
Copyright 2006 Desert Publishers
It amazes me when I hear people acknowledge the warnings of the
Weather Channel or CNN and the Local News yet refuse to believe what has been
written in the Bible. God has given a clear blueprint of the things to come yet
there are only a select few who believe what has been written.
Soon
this world will be thrown into a time of great tribulation. God's word tells us
that, before the end, there will only be a small number who will stand firmly
on the Rock of Truth in preparation for the crisis that is soon to over-take
the earth.
The Coming Crisis is the continuing story of two groups
presently on the Earth, the called and the chosen. Jesus Christ said that many
are called but only a few are chosen. He said that wide is the path that
leadeth unto death and there are many on that road while narrow is the path
that leadeth unto life where only a few are found.
Israel as well as
the majority of those in Christian denominational religion fall into the
category of the called. The chosen are not a particular religious denomination
but are those who throughout all ages have stood faithful to God and His Word
and have not been seduced by the doctrines of religion.
When the last
page in the Bible was written many centuries ago, an amazing story began. It is
a story of faithfulness amid apostasy and persecution. While many of God's
people stood true to Bible principles, there were others who lived like the
world and soon were hardly distinguishable from the rest. Persecution by the
non-Christian world kept many close to Christ and to what He had taught them in
Scripture. Apostasy was serious. Pagan ideas and teachings were rapidly coming
into the church. By A.D. 250, worldliness was sweeping into the early church in
an ever-increasing flood.
John Wesley once wrote, "Condemn no man for
not thinking as you think. Let every one enjoy the full and free liberty of
thinking for himself. Let every man use his own judgment, since every man must
give an account of himself to God. Abhor every approach, in any kind or degree,
to the spirit of persecution. If you cannot reason or persuade a man into the
truth, never attempt to force him into it. If love will not compel him to come,
leave him to God, the Judge of all."
The beginning of the end came
March 7, 321 A.D., when Emperor Constantine issued the first National Sunday
Law in history. This was the first "blue law" to be issued by a federal
government. Here is the test of Constantine's Sunday law decree:
"Let
all judges and townspeople and occupations of all trades rest on the venerable
of the sun [Sunday]; nevertheless, let those who are situated in the rural
districts freely and with full liberty attend to the cultivation of the fields
because it frequently happens that no other day may be so fitting for plowing
grains or trenching vineyards, lest at the time the advantage of the moment
granted by the provision of heaven be lost. Given on the Nones (seventh) of
March, Crispus and Constantine, being consuls each of them, for the second
time."-- The Code of Justinian, Book lll, title 12, law 3.
Five
additional Sunday laws were to be issued, within a very few years, to buttress
this, his basic one. It is of interest that, at the very time that Constantine
was issuing these Sunday laws, he was embellishing the Temple of the Sun in
Rome: and, in the same year that he proclaimed his first Sunday law, he made
several decrees maintaining pagan practices. Pagan priests decided the most
superstitious practices. The day after enacting his first Sunday law, quoted
above, Constantine decreed that priestly examination of the entrails of freshly
killed chickens should help determine government decisions. It is also
significant that a close examination of this first Sunday law, of Constantine,
does not mention Christianity but does use the Mithraic expression, "venerable
day of the sun" (venerabili die solis), which was one of the hollowed Mithraic
titles for their sacred day, Sunday, the first day of the week. It was one of
the mystical names for the day of the sun god. Both the heathen and the
Christians understood this.
Constantine was a compromiser, determined
to bring the religions together while, at the same time, maintaining close ties
with all of them. The objective was ecumenism, to unite the various religious
beliefs in the most acceptable way. In Sunday keeping, he hoped to unite the
nation in an enduring religious unity. The first step was to require by a
national decree, one day in the week when worship would be offered to the
various gods. Although this first Sunday law spoke of a weekly rest day from
employment and did not mention religion or worship, yet the purpose was clearly
there and the objective was fully met.
It was several decades before
the faithful believers fully realized what had taken place. But, by then, it
was too late. Constantine had won, the faithful had lost, and the church was
taken over by the world.
This now brings us to the next step.
Persecution of believers on a scale never before imagined possible. Beginning
slowly at first, it gradually swelled with the passing years, and continued for
centuries. In fact, by the time of Martin Luther, nearly everyone in Europe was
Catholic. For more than a thousand years, the leaders of the established church
had worked intently to crush anyone who had differing views. And they very
nearly succeeded.
In the Bible, Jesus warned His followers to beware
of "tradition". Tradition is man-made inventions that have no warrant in
Scripture. It is only as we stay by the teachings of the Bible that we are
safe. By the beginning of the third century, tradition was already reshaping
and misshaping apostolic Christianity.
This same pattern has been
repeated several times in history. And it will be repeated again. Now, amid
deepening corruption and apostasy in our nation, we are rapidly moving in that
direction ourselves!
Back in the Dark Ages, men and women were willing
to die for what the Bible said. Are you willing to stand today for the same
truths? Will you stand for the faith of your fathers, the faith given you by
the Creator of the heavens and the earth?
Consider for a moment if you
will the Preamble to the United States Constitution.
"We the people of
the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity to ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America."
It was done! It was grandest of all human documents. But
then our founders realized that something was missing! Thomas Jefferson,
writing from France, declared that the Constitution was incomplete. A "bill of
personal rights" must be added, guaranteeing to each citizen certain
inalienable rights that the government could never be allowed to take from him!
Other leaders agreed. They knew past history well. Indeed, they had only but
recently come out of intense personal and religious persecution of the American
Colonies. They were the children not only of the persecuted but also of those
who had persecuted them.
What you have just read is but a small
portion of "The Coming Crisis". This highly acclaimed 111-page PDF book is
available to you at no cost. Simply request your free copy today at the website
listed below.
About the Author: Maurice Goulet is the Founder of http://www.BibleWays.com and the Author of Lord Of Darkness ~ Lord Of Light. To Download your free copy of "The Coming Crisis" go to http://www.CBNHope.com
