Program 70Constantine’s Deception

Welcome to WLC Radio, a subsidiary of World’s Last Chance Ministries, an online ministry dedicated to learning how to live in constant readiness for the Savior's return.

For two thousand years, believers of every generation have longed to be the last generation. Contrary to popular belief, though, Christ did not give believers “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, he repeatedly warned that his coming would take even the faithful by surprise. Yahushua urgently warned believers to be ready because, he said, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:44]

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

* * *Part 1: (Miles & Dave)

Miles Robey: Hello! To all our faithful, and our first-time listeners: welcome to World’s Last Chance Radio. I’m your host, Miles Robey.

Dave Wright: And I’m Dave Wright. Thanks for tuning in!

Miles: We’ve got a really interesting topic for today’s program. It’s about history’s greatest fraud. All of Christendom has been affected by it and yet, hardly anyone knows about it.

Dave: Frauds, from an intellectual standpoint, are quite fascinating. They’re a complete deception and yet, they can deceive the smartest of people!

Miles: Before we jump too deeply into that, though, I want to give a quick explanation to those joining us for the first time. On WLC, you won’t hear us use the generic titles of “lord” or “god” to refer to the heavenly Father. Instead, we always use His personal name, which is Yahuwah, or Yah. The name of the Son is Yahushua.

El, eloah and elohim are Hebrew titles that refer to the Father.

Dave: Speaking of frauds, have you ever heard of Nitocris?

Miles: Nitocr— … Nito-what? Is that some sort of cold medicine or something?

Dave chuckles: No. You’ve heard of Herodotus, though. Greek historian from the fifth century BCE?

Miles: Yeah, yeah. Or, as my son rather disrespectfully puts it: one of those Ancient Dead Dudes.

Dave: Right! Well, according to Herodotus, Nitocris was an ancient queen that apparently had a rather wicked sense of humor. She built a tomb for herself right over one of the main gateways into the city of Babylon and had an inscription carved into the stone.

The inscription said, quote: “If any king of Babylon hereafter is short of money, let him open my tomb and take as much as he likes. But this must be done only in case of need. Whoever opens my tomb under any other circumstances will get no good of it.”

Miles, amused: Let me guess: the next king of Babylon decided that he was short of money?

Dave chuckles: You’d think, right? But no. According to Herodotus, her tomb remained undisturbed until the reign of Darius. He didn’t need the money, but he didn’t want to use the gate underneath Nitocris’s burial chamber. Furthermore, he thought it was a waste to have treasure just lying there untouched. So, he ordered the tomb broken into.

Miles: And what did he find?

Dave: Besides the remains of Queen Nitocris? He found another inscription. This one said, quote: “If you had not been insatiably greedy and eager to get money by the most despicable means, you would never have opened the tomb of the dead!”

Miles laughs: So, there wasn’t any treasure in there.

Dave, laughing: Nope! But she’d had people believing there was for who knows how long.

Miles: You have to admit, a fraud like that’s a work of art! That’s hilarious!

Dave: There’s actually a larger fraud. And, unlike Nitocris’ practical joke, this fraud is still going strong nearly 1,700 years after it was started.

The thing is, it has influenced the actions of all of Christendom … and they don’t even know it.

Miles: So, what was it?

Dave: A complete calendar change that set in motion a series of reactions which, in turn, has influenced when both Judaism and Christianity worship.

Miles: Both of them? Judaism, too?

Dave: Judaism, too.

Miles: That’s huge. So, how did this happen?

Dave: We have to go clear back to the fourth century. This was a time of upheaval and huge change in the Roman Empire.

The emperor, Constantine the Great, was a brilliant strategist with a political agenda. He wanted to unite the two most influential factions in his empire: the pagans and the Christians.

Miles: What about the Jews?

Dave: They were a despised minority without much influence.

Now, the way Constantine united the pagans and Christians was by finding a common ground between them. This was Sunday of the pagan, planetary week.

Miles: Okay. Back up for a moment. Where were the Jews in all this? Were they worshipping on Saturday?

Dave: No. The Jews were still using the luni-solar calendar of the Bible. We’ll get to them in another program. For now, just know that they were not using the Julian calendar, which means that they were not worshipping on Saturday.

Miles: Okay.

Dave: The thing that most people don’t know, is that when Julius Caesar established his “Julian” calendar, the week was 8 days long. Because the world is now united in using the same civil calendar, it’s easy to assume that anciently, everyone used the same calendar. But this isn’t so.

Even within the Roman Empire, there were regional differences in the calendar. The point I want you to understand is this: the Julian calendar in use during and immediately following the life of Yahushua, still used an eight-day week. It was only later that the pagan planetary week supplanted the eight-day week.

Miles: In other words, the Jews and early Christians would not have been using the Julian calendar for calculating the Sabbath or the first day of the week, resurrection day.

Dave: Correct.

Miles: So when did the Julian week transition to a seven-day week? You said it was the pagan, planetary week, so they obviously didn’t get the seven-day week from the Bible.

Dave: No. The planetary week, named after the seven pagan, planetary gods, definitely came from paganism.

Eviatar Zerubavel, an Israeli-born sociologist and professor at Rutgers University, has written a number of books on the standardization of time. I have here his book, The Seven Day Circle: The History & Meaning of the Week.

Would you please read the highlighted quote on page 46?

Miles:

The decline of the eight-day week coincided with the expansion of Rome. . . . The astrological [planetary] and Christian seven-day weeks that had just been introduced into Rome were also becoming increasingly popular… There is evidence indicating that the Roman eight-day week and those two seven-day cycles were used simultaneously for some time.

Dave: Notice: Zerubavel distinguishes between the planetary seven-day week, and the Christian (or Biblical) seven-day week. Okay. Go on.

Miles:

However, the coexistence of two weekly rhythms that were entirely out of phase with one another obviously could not be sustained for long. One of them clearly had to give way. As we all know, it was the eight-day week that soon disappeared from the pages of history forever.

Dave: This wasn’t an immediate transformation. But the point I want you to draw from this is that when the Julian calendar adopted a seven-day week, it adopted a pagan seven-day week, not the Biblical seven-day week. This is important because the weekly cycles were different.

Miles: What do you mean?

Dave: They don’t align. The first day of the Biblical week does not coincide with Sunday on our modern calendar.

Here’s another quote I’d like you to read from the scholar, Franz Cumont.

Miles:

It is not to be doubted that the diffusion of the Iranian [Persian] mysteries has had a considerable part in the general adoption, by the pagans, of the week with the Sunday as a holy day. The names which we employ, unawares, for the other six days, came into use at the same time that Mithraism won its followers in the provinces in the West, and one is not rash in establishing a relation of coincidence between its triumph and that concomitant phenomenon.

Dave: In other words, our modern seven-day week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., comes from paganism, not Scripture. In fact, archeological evidence shows the early Christians were double dating their sepulcher inscriptions, giving both the solar Julian date and the corresponding date on the luni-solar Biblical calendar.

Miles: That’s interesting. I never really thought about it, but I guess I always just assumed today’s seven-day week has just cycled down to us from Creation.

Dave: I think most Christians assume that, but it’s not true.

Miles: So how did Constantine use this to his advantage?

Dave: First, he enacted a series of laws that honored the day of the Sun, dies Solis, or today’s “Sunday”. On the original planetary week, Saturday had actually been the first day of the week. Sunday was the second day of the week and Friday was the seventh day.

The sun, however, was Constantine’s personal symbol. He had Sol Invictus (or, “Unconquered Sun”) inscribed on his coins and it remained his personal motto all his life.

Exalting Sunday was acceptable to pagans and something on which some Christians had already compromised. By the second century, many Christians (particularly in the west) had already come to revere Sunday as the day of the Saviour’s resurrection. This was the opening Constantine needed for uniting paganism and Christianity.

Miles: So, Sunday was the common ground Constantine found between pagans and Christians.

Dave: Apostatizing Christians, yes. I’ve got another quote I’d like you to read. It’s from Roman and Christian Imperialism by J. Westbury-Jones.

Miles: It says, quote:

How such a law would further the designs of Constantine it is not difficult to discover. It would confer a special honor upon the festival of the Christian church, and it would grant a slight boon to the pagans themselves. In fact there is nothing in this edict which might not have been written by a pagan. The law does honor to the pagan deity whom Constantine had adopted as his special patron god, Apollo or the Sun. The very name of the day lent itself to this ambiguity. The term Sunday (dies Solis) was in use among Christians as well as pagan.

Dave: Again, this new seven-day week came from paganism, not the Bible, but it was how Constantine was able to unite the pagans and the Christians.

And scholars know this! Christians may be ignorant of the facts of history, but scholars aren’t.

Here. Read this quote from Michael Rostovtzeff’s The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire.

Miles: “The time was ripe for a reconciliation of state and church, each of which needed the other. It was a stroke of genius in Constantine to realize this and act upon it. He offered peace to the church, provided that she would recognize the state and support the imperial power.”

Dave: It worked. Pagans and Christians became united. The problem was, it also brought to the boiling point a matter of disagreement between Christians, and that is when to celebrate the Saviour’s resurrection.

Miles: What do you mean?

Dave: Well, up until this time, many Christians, especially in the east, were still worshipping on the seventh-day Sabbath as well as keeping the annual feasts of Yahuwah calculated by the Biblical luni-solar calendar.

Even many who had embraced worship on Sunday still used the Biblical calendar for calculating Passover.

Miles: So, in other words, the argument was over which calendar to use for figuring out when the resurrection occurred.

Dave: Exactly. Robert Odom wrote a book entitled Sunday in Roman Paganism all about the Christian adoption of pagan timekeeping.

Read the quote, here, I have marked.

Miles:

Since the second century A.D. there had been a divergence of opinion about the date for celebrating the paschal (Easter) anniversary of the Lord’s passion (death, burial, and resurrection). The most ancient practice appears to have been to observe the fourteenth (the Passover date), fifteenth, and sixteenth days of the lunar month regardless of the day of the [Julian] week these dates might fall on from year to year. The bishops of Rome, desirous of enhancing the observance of Sunday as a church festival, ruled that the annual celebration should always be held on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday following the fourteenth day of the lunar month. … This controversy lasted almost two centuries, until Constantine intervened in behalf of the Roman bishops and outlawed the other group.

Dave: The problem was that, although the Biblical week and the pagan week were both the same length, the weekly cycles were different. The weekly cycle on the Biblical calendar restarted every month on new moon day. The Julian calendar, of course, had a continuous weekly cycle.

Miles: Oh, I get it. So this meant that the Biblical Passover on Abib 14 could fall on any day of the Julian week.

Dave: Right. As a result, Abib 16, the day of the resurrection, did not always fall on Sunday. The paganized Christians wanted to celebrate Christ’s resurrection on the Julian calendar, and they wanted to coordinate it with a pagan fertility celebration called Easter.

Miles: So, what did they do?

Dave: Well, they drew up a decree, proclaiming that all Christians should observe the resurrection on Easter Sunday, rather than the Passover of Abib 14.

Miles: Incredible. That’s the amalgamation of Christianity and paganism right there. We’re going to take a quick break and when we return, I’d like to hear some more details of when and how this was done.

We’ll be right back.

* * *

Advertisement

At World’s Last Chance, we understand that following truth can exact a very high price.

Yahushua said that gaining the kingdom of Heaven was like a merchantman who gave up all that he had in order to obtain a pearl of great price. In other words, the cost of following truth “no matter what the cost” is . . . everything.

This may sound courageous in theory, but it can be scary when your job—and your ability to earn a living, or get an education—is at risk.

If you find yourself in a difficult situation at work or school, World’s Last Chance can help. On our website, we have articles that can teach you the skills needed for negotiating accommodation in both work and school.

We also provide examples of letters that can be used when writing to employers or school administrators.

Check out “Worship & Job Conflicts” on WorldsLastChance.com.

Once again, that’s “Worship & Job Conflicts” on WorldsLastChance.com.

Let us help you get accommodation for time off work or school to worship Yah.

* * *Part 2: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: Aaaand we’re back!

So, Constantine united pagans and Christians by exalting the day of the Sun.

Dave: Correct.

Miles: When was this done?

Dave: Well, he actually passed a series of laws that elevated Sunday. But the deathblow to the use of the Biblical calendar for religious observance actually came at the Council of Nicea in the fourth century.

That was when the observation of a pagan holiday—Easter—ostensibly honoring the Saviour’s resurrection supplanted Yahuwah’s feast of Passover which commemorated Yahushua’s death.

Here’s a quote from Book 5 of Eusebius’ work, Church History. Would you read it for us, please?

Miles:

Synods and assemblies of bishops were held on this account, and all, with one consent, through mutual correspondence drew up an ecclesiastical decree, that the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord should be celebrated on no other but the Lord’s day [Sunday], and that we should observe the close of the paschal fast on this day only.

Dave: Now, you have to understand that there were plenty of apostolic Christians, especially in the east, that were still using the Biblical calendar. These sincere believers immediately protested the decree of the western bishops.

Miles: Yeah, that’s rather highhanded of a handful of bishops to just decide and make a decree for all Christendom.

Dave: Polycrates of Ephesus was an early Christian bishop who was faithful to the pure religion of the apostles. He wrote a letter sent to Victor, the bishop of Rome, in which he declared his firm belief in continuing to use the Biblical calendar for observation of Passover.

His letter is of particular importance to Christians today because it lists John the Beloved and the Apostle Phillip as keeping the Passover!

Miles: That’s really revealing because most Christians today dismiss Yahuwah’s feasts as nothing more than the Jews’ feasts.

Dave: I know! And yet, not only did the apostles keep the feasts and the weekly Sabbath, but so did devout Christians for hundreds of years!

I want you to read this other quote from Eusebius’ Church History. Go ahead.

Miles: Okay … he says, quote:

But the bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom handed down to them. He himself, in a letter which he addressed to Victor and the church of Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down to him:

Okay, now he’s quoting Polycrates, apparently. He said, quote:

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 . . . and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and . . . fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr . . . All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith.

Wow! What an amazing quote!

Dave: It really is. What Polycrates is saying here, is that the apostle Philip, John the Beloved, and Polycarp, who was a disciple of John and who learned the gospel from him, all observed the Passover—not Easter—and they calculated it by the Biblical calendar!

Polycrates was trying to reason with the bishop of Rome. He’s saying: “Look, the apostles, and all these direct spiritual descendants from the disciples, used the Biblical calendar for calculating Passover. They didn’t use the Julian, and they certainly didn’t observe the pagan Easter!”

He’s trying to get Victor to see reason here.

Miles: You combine this with sepulchral inscriptions of the early Christians that give both Julian and luni-solar calendar dates, and it’s logical to conclude that they kept the weekly Sabbath by the Biblical calendar as well.

Dave: Absolutley! If the believers in Asia were refusing to give up the Biblical calendar for calculating Passover, it is probable that they had likewise refused to forsake the true Sabbath calculated by that very same calendar.

Miles: So, what did Victor do? Obviously, Christendom isn’t still using the Biblical calendar. And Easter is one of the biggest days in the Church calendar!

Dave: Well, according to Eusebius, the bishop of Rome did what popes have done ever since: he promptly excommunicated them.

Miles: How could he even do that? It’s not like there were organized denominations back then like we have now.

Dave: No, but already the bishop of Rome had a lot of influence and with influence comes power. Here, read this next quote from Eusebius.

Miles: All right. He says the Bishop of Rome, quote: “immediately attempted to cut off from the common unity the parishes of all Asia, with the churches that agreed with them as heterodox; and he wrote letters and declared all the brethren there wholly excommunicate.” Unquote.

You know what this reminds me of?

Dave: What?

Miles: Revelation 2. The letter to the church of Ephesus. We hear the phrase, the churches of Asia, and today we think the far east. But he was talking about the Levant. Ephesus was one of these churches in “Asia” and it was commended in Revelation 2 for its faithful adherence to truth as well as its rejection of error.

I want to read it. Give me just a second to find it here … Okay. It says:

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love….

But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. [Revelation 2:1-4, 6]

What I find so fascinating about this, in conjunction with what you’ve been saying, is that the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was a form of antinomianism. Basically, it taught that you can sin because the law of Yah is no longer binding. And what does the Catholic Church teach?

Dave: That the law was nailed to the cross and thus the Sabbath was just for the Jews.

Miles: Right! Right!

Anyway. Go on. This is just very interesting. You can see how paganism in the west was battling against the faithful churches of the east.

Dave: Those seeds of faithfulness, commended in Revelation 2, were still going strong in the fourth century!

All right. It’s important to note that there was never any argument over when the resurrection actually occurred. Both sides acknowledged that it occurred on Abib 16 of the luni-solar calendar.

Miles: Unlike Christians today, they were well aware that they were dealing with two different methods of timekeeping.

Dave: Precisely. So, the disagreement between the paganized Christians of the west and the apostolic Christians of the east was over when to celebrate it.

Miles: Oh, I get it. Because dates are established by calendars, ultimately, it was an argument over which calendar would be used to determine the celebration.

Dave: You got it. Christians have known for a long time that the westernized Christians adopted pagan practices, but we’ve never before realized that the foundation for this amalgamation was based on the pagan calendar: the Julian calendar.

In order to truly unify the Christians and the pagans, the observance of the crucifixion and resurrection had to be transferred from the Biblical luni-solar calendar to the pagan, Julian solar calendar.

As we said earlier, Constantine actually passed a series of laws exalting Sunday. Four years after these decrees, he convened the Council of Nicea, in 325, to settle this debate.

Miles: Passover on the luni-solar, Biblical calendar, or Easter on the solar, Julian calendar.

Dave: And what they decided was to stop observing the Saviour’s sacrifice and resurrection on the 14^th, 15^th, and 16^th days of Abib on the Biblical calendar, and instead, made it a celebration on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the Julian calendar … and not just any Sunday, but the Sunday that corresponded to the ancient, spring fertility rite of Easter.

And since the bishop of Rome wanted more power, he threw the weight of his influence with the emperor and supported Constantine’s agenda.

Miles: But his agenda was for political purposes! He just wanted a united empire!

Dave: Yeah, and that’s precisely why the bishop of Rome sided with the Emperor. He had a political agenda, too: he wanted more power and influence and he saw the way to get that was to be accepted by the pagans.

Miles: Well, makes sense. In a diabolical way, it makes sense.

Dave: Earlier, I had you read a quote from Michael Rostovtzeff’s Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire. He clearly understood the political agenda driving Constantine’s interference in religion. Here’s another quote, from page 456, I’d like you to read.

Miles: Quote: “By the time of Constantine, apostasy in the church was ready for the aid of a friendly civil ruler to supply the wanting force of coercion.” Unquote.

So, this is what catapulted the Church of Rome into such a powerful position during the Dark Ages.

Dave, agreeing: Like John Dahlberg-Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Constantine was adamant that Jewish calendation should no longer be used for calculating Christian observances.

I’ve got another quote I want you to read. It’s kind of long, but it’s powerful. You know how Christians today assume Saturday is the Sabbath because that’s when the Jews worhip?

Miles: Yeah.

Dave: Well, Jewish scholars are well aware that Saturday is not the Biblical Sabbath. This quote I’m going to have you read was written by Heinrich Graetz in volume 2 of his History of the Jews. It was even published by the Jewish Publication Society of America. It clearly reveals Constantine’s agenda at the Council of Nicea.

Miles:

At the Council of Nice [Nicea] the last thread was snapped which connected Christianity to its parent stock. The festival of Easter had up till now been celebrated for the most part at the same time as the Jewish Passover, and indeed upon the days calculated and fixed by the Synhedrion [Sanhedrin] in Judæa for its celebration; but in future its observance was to be rendered altogether independent of the Jewish calendar…

Dave: Did you catch that? The Biblical calendar was no longer to be used!

Now, this next part, Graetz is quoting Constantine. This is why Constantine virtually outlawed the Biblical calendar for use by Christians.

Miles:

“For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforward let us have nothing in common with this odious people; our Saviour has shown us another path. It would indeed be absurd if the Jews were able to boast that we are not in a position to celebrate the Passover without the aid of their rules (calculations).” These remarks are attributed to the Emperor Constantine . . . [and became] the guiding principle of the Church which was now to decide the fate of the Jews.

Unquote.

Hm. So is this why Jews today worship on Saturday?

Dave: Ultimately, yes. We’ll have to cover that aspect of it in a future program, but yes. This is where it started.

Constantine accomplished three things and the ripple effects are still felt today:

1. He standardized the planetary week of seven days making dies Solis (Sunday) the first day of the week, with dies Saturni (Saturday) the last day of the week.

2. He exalted Easter and guaranteed that the true Passover and the pagan Easter would never fall on the same day.

3. He exalted dies Solis as the day of worship for both pagans and Christians.

Miles: So that’s how “Easter Sunday” entered the Christian paradigm as The Day of Christ’s resurrection. And, by extension, that’s why most Christians to this day worship on Sunday.

Dave: Yes. Unfortunately, the corollary to this realignment of time calculation was that the day preceding Easter Sunday, Saturday [Saturn’s day], became forever after The True Bible Sabbath.

This is the true significance of Constantine’s “Sunday law” and it laid the foundation for the modern assumption that a continuous weekly cycle has always existed.

Miles: Incredible! And this assumption has spread throughout all of Christianity! There are something like 600 Protestant denominations that worship on Saturday [Saturn’s day]. They obviously want to honor Yahuwah, but they’ve got no clue that they aren’t, in actuality, worshipping on the Biblical Sabbath!

Dave: Constantine’s actions actually favored the pagan faction of the empire. However, the corrupt bishops of Rome were able to spin it. They presented these actions as favorable to Christians.

Miles: That quote you had me read earlier sums it up best: “By the time of Constantine, apostasy in the church was ready for the aid of a friendly civil ruler to supply the wanting force of coercion.”

Dave: And that’s how the true luni-solar calendar, handed down from Creation and Moses, was lost: simply to further the political aspirations of the bishop and the emperor of Rome.

Miles: And Satan won. It’s so sad. Incredible.

All right. Don’t go away folks. When we return, we’ll be answering your questions sent in to our Daily Mailbag. Stay tuned.

* * *Mid-point call letters:

You are listening to World's Last Chance Radio.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

* * *Advertisement 38

One of the hardest experiences anyone ever has to go through is losing a loved one in death. There simply are no words to describe the sense of loss, guilt, pain, regret. Loneliness!

Further compounding the problem is the uncertainty that many feel, not knowing what happens after death. Others worry that a loved one is hovering close, WATCHING everything they do.

Yahuwah has not left us in ignorance about what happens at death and the truth is very comforting. If you are interested in learning what the Bible teaches about death, watch “Rest in Peace” on WorldsLastChance.com or look for it on Youtube! Once again, that’s “Rest in Peace” on WorldsLastChance.com.

* * *Daily Mailbag (Miles & Dave)

Miles: Today’s Daily Mailbag letter is coming all the way from Las Condes, Chile!

Did you know that Chile’s Atacama dessert is the driest place on earth?

Dave: Really? I didn’t know that.

Miles: Yeah. Some weather stations there have never received any rain since record keeping began!

Dave: Wow, that’s dryer than the Sahara!

Miles: Okay. Santino Ramirez writes: “I am a Protestant raised in a Catholic country. I’ve heard of the “Immaculate Conception” but don’t really understand what it is. Could you please explain what it means?”

Dave: Let’s start by defining the word “immaculate.” We typically use it only when referring to something that is perfectly clean or spotless.

Miles: Pure.

Dave: Yeah, pure. Do you know anyone or can you think of anyone whose character you could describe as “immaculate.”

Miles considers: Well … my grandmother was an incredible lady, save for her temper. Whew! [laughs] Never known anyone to have a temper like that. Didn’t see it very often, but when she got going, watch out!

Dave: So, not immaculate.

Miles: No. Great lady, but she’d agree she wasn’t “immaculate.” I mean, can a person even be immaculate? After all, Romans 3, verse 23 tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of Yah.

Dave: You’re right. Turn to Isaiah 59 and read verses 1 and 2.

Miles: “Behold, Yahuwah’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your Eloah, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

Dave: Precisely because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of Yah, precisely because our sins have separated us from our Maker, we need a Mediator who is perfect and that, of course, is Yahushua.

Now, would you read 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21?

Miles: All right … It says: “For He [Yahuwah] made Him [Yahushua] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of Yah in Him.”

Dave: This doesn’t mean that we’re immaculate. It simply means that Yahuwah imputes the Saviour’s righteousness to our account. So, when Yahuwah looks at us, He doesn’t see our sinfulness. He sees the perfection of the Saviour’s righteousness covering us.

My point is: you’re right. No human being can, in his or her own power, be immaculate. It is only through faith in Yahushua that His immaculate state is accounted to us.

Catholics, however, have a different understanding. Official Catholic dogma states, quote: “The blessed Virgin Mary to have been, from the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Savior of Mankind, [was] preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

Miles: So Catholics believe she was sinless.

Dave: Yes.

Miles: But that contradicts Romans 3:23!

Dave: I know, but that’s what they believe. But it’s more than that. Catholics believe in a doctrine called “original sin.” This is the belief that everyone has inherited sin. Not just inherited tendencies to sin, but inherited sin itself. Therefore, even a newborn baby is sinful.

Miles: Okay.

Dave: Catholics believe that because Mary was to be the mother of the Messiah, Yahuwah miraculously preserved her from being tainted by “original sin.” That is what they mean when they refer to the “immaculate conception.”

Miles: Oh! I thought they were talking about Yahushua’s conception.

Dave: That’s a pretty common assumption, but no. They’re talking about Mary’s conception. Specifically, that she did not have imputed to her “original sin.”

The problem is, this belief contradicts Scripture. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20 says: “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.”

Miles: That’s an all-inclusive statement, so it obviously would include Mary, too.

Dave: The doctrine of an immaculate conception is not taught in the Bible. Quite the opposite, the Bible teaches that everyone—including Mary—are sinners in need of a Saviour.

Miles: Actually, Mary herself said that!

Dave: Really? Where?

Miles: In … here. Luke 1, verse 47. This is after the angel has told her she would conceive by the Holy Spirit and this is her response. It’s beautiful. She said, quote: “My soul magnifies Yahuwah, and my spirit has rejoiced in Eloah my Savior.” Unquote.

Now, if Mary were sinless, she wouldn’t need a Saviour, would she?

Dave: That’s a good point. She admitted to needing a Saviour just as much as any of us.

So, to summarize, the idea of an Immaculate Conception has nothing to do with the conception of Yahushua. Instead, it refers to the conception of the Virgin Mary, saying that, from the first instant of her conception in her mother’s womb, she was free from original sin.

Now, either this is right and the Bible wrong, or …

Miles: Or Mary was a sinner just like the rest of us.

Dave: The only way for anyone—including Mary—to be immaculate is to come to the Father, just as you are, and accept by faith the righteousness of Yahushua to cover our sins.

That’s the only way.

You already read Romans 3:23, but let’s read it one more time in context. Would you read verses 21 through 26 of Romans 3, please?

Miles: Got it right here. It says:

But now the righteousness of Yah without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of Yahuwah which is by faith of Yahushua Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of Yah; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Yahushua:

Whom Yah hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of Yahuwah;

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Yahushua.

Dave: That is the only way any of us, including Mary, can ever be immaculate and it’s all by faith in the merits of the blood of Yahushua.

Miles: Like Paul said in Ephesians 1, verse 6: He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

That’s all we’ve time for today, but keep sending us your questions and comments. We love hearing from our listeners. Just go to WorldsLastChance.com and click on Contact Us to send us a message.

* * *Daily Promise:

Hello! This is Elise O’Brien with your Daily Promise from Yah’s Word.

James Jeffers was born in Newport, Rhode Island in the United States of America on November 5, 1798. His father was a sea captain who had served as a privateer during the American war for independence. Privateers were privately owned ships authorized to attack the enemy in times of war.

When he was only 17, James took to the sea as well. It wasn’t long before James was, himself, involved with privateering. Not much later, and he joined his fellow crewmates in a mutiny. The men quickly decided to become pirates, attacking other ships and stealing their cargo.

James tried to hide his identity by calling himself Charles Gibbs. As the Pirate Gibbs, he was widely feared. He was infamous for the violent and brutal way he treated prisoners.

In late November of 1830, James, along with three other pirates were captured and imprisoned to await trial in New York City.

Shortly before his execution on April 25, 1831, James confessed to having been involved in the deaths of up to 400 people. He said that after his first murder and plundering his first ship, his conscience tortured him. He felt so guilty! But, after a few more years, and many more murders, he could rob a ship, kill its entire crew, and go to bed and sleep soundly all night long. That is how hardened his conscience became! As his crimes increased, his remorse and guilt decreased.

A hardened conscience will, eventually, lead one to commit the unpardonable sin because sin hardens the heart. It kills even the desire to repent.

If you have sinned to the point that your heart feels hard and you don’t even want to repent any more, it’s not too late!

Yahuwah knows what sin does to the heart and has made provision even for that. In Ezekiel 36, verses 26 and 27, the Father promises: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

If you have sinned and refused to respond to the drawing of the Holy Spirit, if you sense that your heart has become hardened like stone, don’t give up! Yahuwah has promised to take away your heart of stone. He is the Creator, so He can recreate! He will give you a brand-new heart that is sensitive to His drawing. All you have to do is ask.

We’ve been given great and precious promises. Go, and start claiming!

* * *Part 3: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: The devil’s delusions and deceptions are so encompassing, you’d think after a while, you could reach the point of nothing surprising you anymore. I have to say, though, that this bit of forgotten history just … I don’t know. It’s appalling.

It’s huge. It completely changes your understanding of history and what we’ve assumed was the Sabbath and when Yahushua was resurrected.

Dave: The thing is, though, it’s not truly “forgotten history.” The scholars know. Historians know. Jewish scholars know. They admit it!

It’s the average person on the street, the average Christian in the pews on Sunday or Saturday morning, who honestly thinks they’re honoring Yah, that have no clue. It’s really sad.

Miles: Everyone should know this!

Dave: They really should. The calendar you knowingly use to calculate your day of worship reveals who has your loyalty.

Miles: It’s not legalism. It’s loyalty. If you’re in a loving relationship, aren’t you going to do everything you can to make the other person feel loved, and valued, and appreciated? Well, they’re not going to if you deliberately go against their stated preferences. Even if you love the other person, you can’t do the exact opposite and say, “It’s OK because she knows I love her.”

Same holds true for the Father and the Son. We’re not honoring Yahuwah when we worship on Saturday, knowing that it’s a false Sabbath. And it doesn’t honor Yahushua to worship on Sunday when, number one, that’s not the day on which He was resurrected. It’s a day that honors the pagan sun god.

And two, it’s a day promoted by a politically motivated emperor, and a power-hungry, corrupt clergy that has no divine sanction whatsoever!

Dave: Now, obviously, there are many very sincere people who are living up to all the light they have, and Yahuwah accepts their love and devotion. He can read what’s in the heart.

But knowledge is being increased. And not just on the correct interpretation of prophecy, but on truth itself.

Miles: This is vital information, folks. Can you really honor Yahuwah if you are worshiping Him on a day calculated by the papal Gregorian calendar, which itself is an adaption of the pagan Julian calendar?

Constantine’s promotion of the Julian calendar for worship purposes was specifically designed to create a separation between Christians and Jews. It was rebellion at its most blatant.

Miles: One thing I want to bring out here, Dave, is that this change of worship from Sabbath to Sunday is something Catholics openly admit to. In fact, they openly claim it’s their sign of authority!

The August, 1900, edition of the Catholic Press, in Sydney, Australia said, quote: “Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles…From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.” Unquote.

So, don’t be fooled, people! Sunday is not the day of Christ’s resurrection and you’re not honoring Him by worshiping then. Furthermore, once you’ve been made aware of the real issues at stake, you can’t claim ignorance. You’re now responsible for the truth you know.

Dave: The truly exciting thing is that, just as Daniel was promised, knowledge is being increased and that knowledge centers on the importance of worship, Isaiah 58 even contains a prophecy about restoration of truth. Would you turn there really quickly, Miles, and read verses 12 to 14?

Miles: “Those from among you
Shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.”

Dave: A breach was made in the law of Yah when the Catholic Church declared that the divine law had been nailed to the cross and that people were to worship on the pagan day of the Sun.

But we have the opportunity to restore the Sabbath to its rightful place!

All right, what does the next verse say?

Miles: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath—“

Dave: See? It’s all about the Sabbath!

Miles: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of Yahuwah honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words,

Then you shall delight yourself in Yahuwah;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
The mouth of Yah has spoken.”

Dave: This is the work Yah’s people are called to do today: restore the Sabbath. Honor Him by worshiping on His holy day, calculated by His luni-solar calendar. And when we do this, we will be honored with the heritage of Jacob our father.

Miles: Join us again tomorrow, and until then, remember: Yahuwah loves you . . . and He is safe to trust!

* * *Sign off

You have been listening to WLC Radio.

This program, as well as past episodes of Radio WLC, are available for downloading on our website. These are great for sharing with friends and Bible studies! It is also a wonderful resource for those worshipping Yahuwah alone or at home. If you would like to listen to Radio WLC programs, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com.

Click on the Radio WLC icon at the top right of the homepage. This will allow you to download the episodes in your preferred language. There are also articles and videos available in a variety of languages.

Join us again tomorrow for another truth-filled message on WBCQ, at 9330 kilohertz on the 31-meter band.

World’s Last Chance Radio! Preparing a people for the Saviour’s soon return!