The RETURN Movement International
Petah Tikvah & Scriptural-Truths
Presents …
- YHVH, which is pronounced as YaHVaH or YaHWaH, also we
will use our Heavenly Father’s tile - “Elohim” rather than “God” and we need to remember that
“Elohim” (God) is NOT a name but an attribute, a title! In addition
we also love to use the actual Name of our beloved “Messiah” (written in Hebrew as “Mashiach”
and in Greek as “
- Yahushua
(Yeshua in short) for this is the Messiah’s original Hebrew Name as given
to Him in
Was he Good or just Evil?
This page is quite challenging as it contains
a great deal about the first three to six hundred years after our beloved Lord
and Saviour. We know that the apostles did a wonderful work continuing the
faith and that Yahushua’s followers continued faithfully, no ,matter where they lived! However, there were many
troubled times ahead for them, but in spite of all that, praise be to our
Saviour and the Ruach HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit) ,many
remain to this day and continue in the faith as it was so long ago, even in a
world that follows a whole new doctrine, that was greatly influence by
Constantine and yes his father and his forbears! It is very important that you
both pray and then read this document and the word studies accompanying it, for
it will be enlightening, I pray. May it bless you and be full of revelation!
As far as the history of christianity in general is concerned,
After Messiah’s death and blessed
prophesied resurrection, three days and nights after being placed in to the
tomb, praise be unto YHVH’s Name, His followers carried the Good News of
salvation unto lands near and far. Most of these lands were as we know under
the control of
“Therefore, remember that formerly you
who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who
call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (Israel) remember that at that
time you were separate from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and
foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without Elohim in
the world. But now in Messiah Yahushua you who once were far away have been
brought near through the blood of Messiah. For He Himself is our peace, who has
made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His
purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,
and in this one body to reconcile both of them to Elohim through the stake
(tree - cross), by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached
peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through
Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no
longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with Elohim’s people
and members of Elohim’s household, built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, with Messiah Yahushua Himself as the chief cornerstone.
In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy
However, as it always does, persecution had a
purifying effect on the faithful whether they were located in cities or
farmlands. Problems and trials tend to have an effect, but an effect in varying
ways, for sadly some of the believers were gradually assimilating into the ways
of the world they were living in, that included the
observances of some of the local heathen ways. Much in the same way as far too
many good meaning christians are doing today, for they
celebrate the festival of Easter, and we must not forget that the name is
directly related to the pagan goddess
“Estra.” This festival commenced
thousands of years before the time our precious Lord and Saviour was even on
the earth! The word Easter occurs only once in the KJV, but the Greek word used
in the Word is clearly “Pasha,” which is obviously
“Passover,” yet, the KJV translators used a foreign and pagan word
for an unknown reason and I personally believe that it was by the leading of
hasatan - the adversary! Strangely enough, Pasha is always translated as
Passover on every other occasion in the New Testament, even in the KJV, but for
some reason the greater church due to being followers, rather than seekers of
the truth, adopted this pagan feast to celebrate the death and the resurrection
of He who is the “Easter sacrificed for us” – Oops sorry,
that is not what the Scripture says … “Passover sacrificed for us.”
Sadly, a large number of pagan concepts
entered part of the “Ekklesia” (now called the church) during the first three centuries of the
“christian” era that originated in
At that time,
From there the ideas had a way of going to
What were some of those beliefs that began
infiltrating into the christian religion between A.D.
96 and 304? Let us consider some of these here.
Due to pagan priests cutting
a circular bald spot on top of their heads, done in honour of the solar disc (the sun god). christian leaders, first at
But what did the word say,
“Priests must not shave their heads or
shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies.” Vayikra (Lev)
21:5.
“You are the children of YHVH your
Elohim. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the
dead.” Davarim (Deut) 14:1.
Sadly, this pagan custom continues today by
certain monastic orders.
Approximately at the same time, the so-called “holy water” (based on
the
A large part of what would later become basic
Roman Catholic liturgy came into the church at that time, as the Alexandrian
church copied the Egyptian worship of Isis, the Egyptian Queen of Heaven (Yirmyahu - Jer. 7:18; 44:17-19, 25). Here is how the Egyptian Mother goddess
and her child were worshiped by the pagans of
“The daily ritual of
Then, in the fifth century a very significant
thing happened. The names “
It is interesting to note that the very same
thing happened to “Mithra.”
Just as soon as the essential aspects of Mithraism had been officially brought
into the christian church, “Mithra” disappeared within a century! “Mithra” was no longer
needed, for his worship was now within the christian
church itself with a new identity.
Who was Mithra? In the
In order to better understand Mithraism, we
need to go back in history. The various days of the week were in ancient times
called “the first day, the
second day,” etc. Those were their Scriptural names. However, just
before the birth of Messiah they were given new names: “the day of the Sun,” “the day of the moon,”
etc., in honour of different heavenly bodies. This was known as the “planetary week.”
Each day was ruled over by a different god,
but the most important of them was the “sun
god” that ruled over the first day of the week. It was his day,
the day of the sun, and all the worship of the week had its focus on the
worship of the sun on the first day.
Now, although these names for the week were
relatively new, the worship of the sun god was not. It was one of the most
ancient forms of worship and is represented by solar-disc worship found on
nearly every continent in the world.
Entering
By associating with sun worshipers, the
Israelites frequently practiced it themselves (Vayikra - Lev. 26:30; Yeshayahu - Isa. 17:8).
All during that time, there was no particular
day that was set aside for this heathen worship. But within a few years, prior
to the birth of the Messiah, the various days of the week were dedicated to
specific pagan gods: “dies Solis”
the day of the sun; “dies Lunae” the day of the Moon, and so on.
All through Scriptural times and for centuries
thereafter, the sacred day of the people of Elohim was the Seventh day, the
Scriptural Sabbath for it is the memorial of the Creation and the only weekly
Sabbath ever given in the Word of YHVH Elohim and it has never been changed by
YHVH our heavenly Father, or by Yahushua our blessed Messiah, nor the apostles
who continued to uphold the Sabbath as the Epistles proves!
However, the sacred day of paganism was the
memorial of the sun-god, being the first day of the week. And this day was
called “the venerable day of the
sun.”
Now, this is where Mithra comes in, for just
as the planetary week (each day named
for a different planet god in the sky) played a very important part in
the worship of the sun, thus Mithra became more important as the leading sun
god after the time of the Messiah by so many.
By the beginning of the first century,
Mithraism had become the largest sun-worship cult of the Western World. Within
the next two hundred years, it had become the largest pagan religion in the
It is impossible to properly explain the dramatic
changes that took place in christianity
without mentioning Mithraism, for during the first three centuries after the
death and resurrection of Messiah, it became the greatest pagan rival of the
faith of the followers of Yahushua THE Messiah, who followed the teachings of
the apostles!
And Mithraism was an outstanding counterfeit,
but it was entirely pagan based and it worshipped another god but as you will
read some of its contents are very familiar! It had such
new found features like special religious ceremonies (communion) where their
believers had to eat the flesh and drink the blood of their Christ, for the
circular (sun like) wafer had been transformed into his body, and the wine into
his blood. Also a new special holy day was introduced in the weekly cycle,
which was very different to that of the Scriptures and that the true followers
of Yahushua THE Messiah had always upheld - the “Sun Day,” also there was an introductory baptism of
its converts (in the blood of a slain
bull) as well as several other similarities. It counterfeited the faith
of the true Elohim more cleverly than did any other religion up to that time in
history.
Mithra was especially worshiped by the
As might be expected, with the passing of
time, more and more of the assimilated christians of the Roman Empire had began
keeping the first day.
By the middle of the second century, Mithric
sun worship was very popular among the influential Romans.
Under
Sun worship continued to be the official
religion of the empire until the time of
December 25 – the sun god Mithra’s birthday.
Cumont, Olcott and other scholars clearly show
that December 25 was the date Mithra’s birth.
On that date, his followers held a special celebration of the fact that the sun
was beginning to rise again higher in the sky. (It was lowest at the winter solstice, December 21, and not until the
25th could its rising be clearly seen.) This birthday of the sun-god was
made an official holiday in the
“December 25 was a great pagan festival,
that of
The faithful followers:
Some of the followers in Messiah who were
living in the larger more hectic cities of the empire were gradually leaning
toward the pagan so-called christian practices, while
their rural brethren remained true to the faith as taught by the apostles. The
faithful people of Elohim and His Messiah, were slowly
nearing a crisis and only the intermittent persecutions kept them relatively
pure. But then it was
The Decian
persecution of Messianic believers, those
who had come into faith be it a Hebrew or an ex Gentile, and as I said earlier
both are now “One in Messiah,” began in A.D. 250 and was
ended by an edict of Gallienus in 260. Again, there
was peace for the Messianic’s for a few years, until
In February, 303, he began an intense
persecution of the Messianic’s. Four edicts followed one another in quick
succession, each more severe than the one preceding it. The fourth, in 304,
ordered all the Messianic’s to offer sacrifice’s to the pagan gods
or be slain.
In 305,
In April, 311, an edict of toleration was
extended to the Messianic’s by
We should ask ourselves was
Early in 313,
Eventually the mother of
“He continued to use vague monotheistic
language that any pagan could accept. During the earlier years of his supremacy
he carried out patiently the ceremonial required of him as Pontifex
Maximus of the traditional (heathen) cult; he
restored pagan temples, and ordered the taking of the auspices (by examining
livers of freshly-killed animals). He used pagan as well as christian
rites in dedicating
Yet, in spite of this mixing of christianity and paganism in the
mind of
On March 7, 321 A.D., the first National
Sunday Law in history was issued. This was the first “blue law” to be issued by a civil government.
Here is the text of this,
“Let all judges and townspeople and
occupations of all trades rest on the venerable day of the SUN (Sunday).” The
Code of Justinian, Book 3, title 12, law 3.
Five additional Sunday laws were to be issued
by
When
The very next day after giving his famous
SUNday Law of March 7, 321, as quoted above,
The objective of
It was on the doctrine of Sunday that the
religions of the empire could best unite. Sunday sacredness was common both to
the Sun-worshipers and to compromising christians.
Making that day the sacred day of christendom,
which could then bring the heathen into the newly formed church. And that is
what happened for let’s face it, this new religion was so much like the
old one, but it offered something new.
It is a historical fact that when Constantine
issued this first imperial Sunday edict of A.D. 321, enforcing the observance
of Sunday by the people of the Roman Empire, he was a worshiper of Sol
Invictus, “the Invincible
Sun” (Mithra), yet he was also, believe it or not the “Pontifex Maximus,” the supreme pagan pontiff or high priest
of Roman heathen worship being the state religion. Thus as a technicality, he
and the pagan christian leaders in Rome together worked to unite all under one
new greater church roof, regardless of its pagan heritage.
In another of his six Sunday laws, he gave the
order that the soldiers be marched out into the field every Sunday morning for
a sunrise service, there to recite a prayer as with closed eyes, they had to
face toward the rising sun. Pagan ritual required they face the sun during a
sunrise service as they gave their prayers to the sun god, thus this feature
was required in this Sunday edict and this also became a new addition to
christian worship, right to this day, yet most have no idea of its origin, and
our beloved Saviour would weep each time all those who attend such an evil
service, including sunday the day of “solis” worship, easter and a mass for christ (christmas), which are all
pagan festivals that have had christian emphasis placed on them to hide their
origin’s!
“He (Constantine) sent to the legions, to be recited upon that day (Sunday) a form of prayer which could
have been employed by a worshiper of Mithra, of Serapis,
or of Apollo, quite as well as by a christian believer. This was the official
sanction of the old custom of addressing a prayer to the rising sun.” Victor
Duruy, History of Rome, Vol. 7, page 489.
Careful historians have concluded that
“All things whatsoever it was duty to do
on the (Seventh-day) Sabbath,
these WE (the church leaders)
have transferred to the Lord’s Day.” Commentary
on the Psalms, in Migne, patrologia
graeca, Vol. 23, col. 1171.
Commenting on this heaven-daring change, one
historical writer wrote this:
“Not a single testimony of the
Scriptures was produced in proof of the new doctrine. Eusebius himself
unwittingly acknowledges its falsity, and points to the real authors of the
change. ‘All things’ he says, ‘whatever that it was duty (commanded by God) to do on the
Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's Day.’ But the Sunday
argument, groundless as it was, served to embolden men in trampling upon the
Sabbath of the Lord. All who desired to be honoured by the world accepted the
popular festival.” E.G. White, The Great
Controversy, page 574.
This was the beginning of something new and
ominous for the church. Sylvester (314-337) was the Pope during the reign of
“If every Sunday is to be observed
joyfully by the christians on account of the
resurrection, then every Sabbath on account of the burial is to be regarded in execration
(loathing or cursing) of
the Jews.”
By the year 325,
As soon as church and State unite, the result
always means persecution of religious dissenters. Therefore trouble laid ahead
for the faithful people of YHVH Elohim and His Messiah Yahushua.
Shortly after this, the first recorded church
legislation commanding Sunday was enacted at the Council of Laodicea, which
convened a year or two before
In order to avoid the gradually intensifying
persecution by church and government authorities, many weaker Messianic’s
tried to keep both days. They knew that the Seventh-day Sabbath was the only
weekly holy day in the Scripture, but at the same time, they sought to avoid
trouble with the authorities. For this reason, Sozomen,
a church historian of that time, tells us that many “were assembling together on the Sabbath as well as on the first
day of the week, which custom is never observed at
Sozomen lived a hundred years after the time of
Here is what the church historian,
“Although almost all churches (the
faithful) through the world celebrate the sacred mysteries of the Sabbath week,
yet the christians of
People cannot “cease” to do what they have never done, and so we
can know that even at
But, at the same time, we see that 400 years
after the death of the Messiah, and 100 years after Constantine's linking of
church and State by his Sunday law edict, Rome and Alexandria were the only
places in the world where the pagan
based church only kept the Sun-Day and not the holy Sabbath as commanded
by Elohim.
This is truly remarkable. In spite of decrees
and punishments, church leader threats and governmental decrees, the true
Sabbath found in the Word was still being kept by the faithful Messianic
fellowships, some hundred years after the church-state religious cartel began
enforcing Sunday observance.
We can understand why
“Great as were the favours which
It was May of A.D. 337, the thirtieth year of
his reign, and the emperor felt that the end was near, so he called for his
close friend, bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia to baptize him. He had for decades
decided that he would not be baptized until just before his death.
Only eleven years earlier, he had his
favourite son, Crispus, who had helped him so much in
the campaigns against Licinus, put to death. Shortly
thereafter, his second wife, Fausta, was slain at his
command. His had been a long and an evil life and now it was over, but it will
not be in peace.
But the effects of his life have reached down
to our time. The errors that he helped establish within the greater church are
with us to this day. Without his help, it is questionable whether the Roman
Catholic church-state control of
“Wiser than
The shift from the Scriptural Sabbath to
Sunday was completed by the seventh century, as the Popes, consolidating their
enormous power, persecuted all who resisted their innovations, for the
“Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday but shall work on that day;
but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour,
and, as being christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If,
however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut
out from
Conclusion:
Beloved, the only solution for those who would
seek the true faith is to read and obey the blessed Word of Elohim, for only there you will find the
truth and the pure faith, the only true teaching, which is uncorrupted by the
errors that Constantine and others have tried to force feed into us, and in the
latter days that has sadly happened through blind traditions of men. Why is it
that so many have fallen into the trap of faith, even though we did really mean
well and entered into it with a good and well meaning heart, beloved it is
because we were born into a Ready-Made world, and we do tend to accept those
things that have always been, that includes teachings and yes, may I say it
names, etc. Also, and this is sad, but we tend to listen but often we are just
not seekers of the truth and the Word is there and we really so need to get
back to the source and check and double check what YHVH Elohim is saying to us.
Man will lead you astray, just look at those who have said that the world would
end on 21 May 2011, well I knew that for it could not! Why? The Word told me
so, very simple! All you have to understand is the simplicity of the prophetic
Feasts of YHVH as written in Vayikra chapter 23, it is as simple as that, and I
will have a complete series covering the Feasts online!
May YHVH Elohim bless and keep you in the palm
of His hand, In the blessed Name of Yahushua the
Messiah!
Ministry Elder & teacher:
“Teach me Your
way, O YHVH. I will walk in Your truth.
Unite my heart to fear Your Name!”
Do you have any questions? You are welcome to
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including KJV/NKJ/NIV/Hebrew/Greek translations by the Webmaster, and Messianic
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