The Falling Away of 2 Thessalonians 2

This Scriptural Calendar study focuses on the fulfillment of the falling away, the apostasy that the Apostle Paul wrote about in 2 Thessalonians 2.

Many people apply the ‘falling away‘ on 2 Thessalonians 2 to the end times, but the Apostle Paul was pointing primarily to what took place in the 4th century, which still impacts our beliefs today.

After centuries of persecuting Messiah’s saints during ten persecution periods, the enemy figured out that the more that they attacked physically, the faster Messiah’s Ekklesia grew. So the enemy changed strategies to seek to destroy Messiah’s Ekklesia from within.

The primary strategy was to create Romanism, the false Christian religion that teaches a false gospel and combined Rome’s pagan god beliefs with the veneer of the Scriptural faith. After centuries of being persecuted, many of Messiah’s saints came under strong delusion and believed the lie, and joined with the church of Rome.

The enemy’s strategy at the Council of Nicaea have been very effective, as the leader of the faux Christian Church, the son of perdition popes of Rome, have misled billions of Catholics.

The manmade holidays of Easter and Christmas served to replace Yah the Heavenly Father’s Holy Feast Days, which continues to mislead many believers.

Those who have come out of Roman Christianity may believe that they’ve come out of the false teachings that were created by Emperor Constantine and the Roman bishops, but this study will show that there’s more to the story.

During most of the first century, the Romans observed an 8-day week with the days named after letters of their alphabet. Then in the latter part of the first century, the Romans started using a 7-day week with Saturday as the first day of the week, Sunday the second and Friday the last day.

Then during the Roman councils of the 4th century, Constantine changed the calendar to make Sunday the first day of the week and Saturday the last.

Saturday Sabbath followers correctly point out that the Roman leaders changed the calendar and that they claim the authority to dictate a Sunday Lord’s Day.

But what they fail to understand is that Constantine did not change it from Saturday to Sunday, as Messiah’s saints and the Jews did not observe it on Saturday.

Saturday wasn’t the 7th day of the week prior to the 4th century.

I prove that Saturday is not the Scriptural Sabbath in this study: A Repeating 6/1 Day Cycle Is Invalid

Constantine’s mission was the push aside Yah’s Holy Feast Days and Sabbaths, and enforce the Roman calendar, holidays and Saturday Sabbath. To do this, he needed the cooperation of the Jews.

Constantine blended the Scriptural seven day week with the Julian concept of a continuous weekly cycle, and added the veneration of the pagan sun god from Mithrasim to create the Roman calendar that’s still used today.

It’s clear that the Jews and followers of Messiah were not observing a Saturday Sabbath before the 4th century, as Saturday was the first day of the week, not the seventh day. They were using the lunisolar Sabbath calendar, which doesn’t feature any set day on the pagan Roman calendar.

Constantine forbid people from following the lunisolar Sabbath calendar, which features Sabbaths that are based on the cycles of the sun and moon.

Constantine forced them to observe a solar-based calendar, which featured a repeating cycle of seven days.

He did this under the thread of being subject to death for disobedience and there was a great falling away from Scriptural truths, as believers compromised with Rome, after many years of being persecuted by the Roman Empire.

But the believers in Messiah were not the only ones who apostatized.

In 358 AD, Jewish Sanhedrin patriarch Hillell II compromised with Rome when he provided a mathematically-based calendar that would harmonize with the Roman Sun-based calendar, while appearing to still be based on the luni-solar Scriptural roots.

In order to avoid persecution by Rome, the Jews exchanged Scriptural lunar Sabbaths for the popularized Roman unbroken-cycle-of seven day weeks. This causes their Sabbaths to be out of sync with the New Moon Days and with the holy appointed Feast Days.

Since then, Jewish leaders have developed ‘Rules of Postponement‘ to make sure that while following the Roman calendar, that certain Holy Days are not adjacent to the Saturday Sabbath.

But their ‘Rules of Postponement‘ are not Scriptural, which confirms that the Rabbis are not using the Scriptural Calendar for the seventh day Sabbath!

To make the switch from observing Yah’s Holy Feast Days to pagan-based holidays, from the Scriptural Sabbath to Saturday, Constantine issued creeds to enforce it.

Keep in mind that during the previous centuries the followers of Messiah had endured relentless persecution from Rome, and now they are being exalted to positions of power and treated well, so they are susceptible to compromise.

In 366 AD, at the Council of Laodicea, the Sabbath was abolished and replaced with Sunday worship. The bishop of Rome authoritatively confers the name of Lord’s day upon Sunday.

Canon 29 – Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day honoring rather the Lord’s day by resting, if possible, as Christians. However if any shall be found judaizing, let them be anathema for Christ. (Mansi, II, pp. 569-570, see also Hefele Councils, Vol. 2, b. 6)

Constantine declared:

“I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened breads and sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews, and all the other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspirations, purifications, sanctifications, and propitiations, and fasts and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants, and observances and synagogues.

Absolutely everything Jewish, every Law, rite and custom and if afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Cain and the leprosy of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable.

And may I be an anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with Satan and the devils.” (Stefano Assemani, Acta Sanctorium Martyrum Orientalium at Occidentalium, Vol. 1, Rome 1748, page 105)

Furthermore, any follower of the ‘Jewish Messiah’ who wished to join this ‘holy community’ was compelled to adopt a different set of rules and customs. Subsequently special creeds were drafted, to which the saints would have to swear such as:

“I accept all customs, rites, legalism, and feasts of the Romans, sacrifices. Prayers, purifications with water, sanctifications by Pontificus Maximus (high priests of Rome), propitiations, and feasts, and the New Sabbath “Sol dei” (day of the Sun, ), all new chants and observances, and all the foods and drinks of the Romans. In other words, I absolutely accept everything Roman, every new law, rite and custom, of Rome, and the New Roman Religion.”

We see the grand influence of Constantine and the Roman bishops, which still misleads people today.

Constantine helped create a false Christian religion which today misleads 1.3 billion Catholics, and serves to hide the Scriptural faith.

Constantine created the pagan-based holidays of Easter and Christmas which deceives most believers today, and serves to hide Yah’s seven Holy Feast Days.

And Constantine created a false Sabbath day on Saturday with the help of Jewish leaders, that causes people today to follow Jewish fables.

But during the last few years, I have witnessed people returning to the ancient path, to the truth about the Scriptural calendar, and the importance of the Father’s Holy Feast Days. I believe that the Spirit is moving in these last days to prepare the set-apart ones of the end times, for the return of Messiah.

When Messiah commanded that people ‘come out of her’ in Revelation 18, He wasn’t just pointing to coming out of the Roman Catholic Church and coming out of pagan based holidays, but also to coming out of false teachings about the Scriptural Sabbath.

I pray that you will go through all of the studies on this website to see the enemy’s deception, for we want to be spotless when Messiah returns.

Before we discuss observing the calendar, we need to talk about the elephant in the room, that the solar cycle used to be 360 years and the lunar cycle was 30 days.

Next Biblical Calendar Study: The Perfect 360 Day Solar Cycle

Related Prophecy Studies:

The Falling Away of 2 Thessalonians 2

The Son Of Perdition Of 2 Thessalonians 2