“Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have prescribed” [Isaiah 10:1]. [Zephaniah 1:14-18; 2:1-3, quoted.]

Christians in the dark ages suffering persecution for keeping the Sabbath;

“Some have suffered torture because they would not rest when others kept Sunday, for they declared it to be the holiday and law of Antichrist.” – Sebastian Frank, AD 1536.

By this time in history the Seventh day Sabbath was severely under attack.

Council, Moscow, 1503 : “The accused Sabbath-keepers were summoned; they openly acknowledged the new faith, and defended the same. The most prominent of them,…were condemned to death, and burned publicly in cages, at Moscow, Dec 17.1503- H. Sternberfi, Geschichte der Juden

“This zeal for Saturday-keeping continued for a long time: even little things which might strengthen the practice of keeping Saturday were punished.” – Bishop Anjou, Svenska Kirkans Historia after Motet i Upsala.

“The famous Jesuit, Francais Xavier, called for the Inquisition, which was set up in Goa, India, in 560, to check the ‘Jewish wickedness’ (Sabbath-keeping).” – Adney, The Greek and Eastern Churches p 527,528.

“Some of you, contrary to the warning, keep Saturday. You ought to be severely punished. Whoever is found keeping Saturday, must pay a fine of ten marks.” – History of King Christian the Third (of Norway 1544AD), Niels Krag and S. Stephanius.

“Aiphonse, king of Aragon, etc., to all archbishops, bishops, and to all others…We command you that heretics, to wit, the Waldeneses and Insabbathi (those who keep the Sabbath), should be expelled away from the face of God and from all Catholics and ordered to depart from our kingdom.” – Marianae Praefatio in Lucam Tudensem and quoted in Macima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum Vol 25 p 190

‘The Pope has authority and has often exercised it, to dispense with the command of Christ.” Decretal, de Tranlatic Episcop. Cap.( This is very true as he did away with God’s seventhday Sabbath and replaced it with his own first day or Lord’s day….the day of the Sungod.~kh)

‘The Pope has power to change times, to abrogate (change) laws, and to dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ.” Decretal, de Tranlatic Episcop. This , my friends, is blasphemy. The pope believes that he can forever change the laws of the very Creator without retribution. Notice this very similar wording in the book of Daniel:

The Sabbath-keeping “Jews” in the early Roman Empire were treated poorly, as fools and superstitious second class citizens. They were unfairly taxed by their Roman ‘masters’ (Vespasian 69-79 AD, Domitian 81-96 AD, and Hadrian prior to his outlawing of Judaism in 135 AD). The Sabbath became to the Romans a disgraceful symbol of Judaism and they regarded it as superstitious folly. The Sabbath is ridiculed by all of the oppressors of God’s people this is revealed to be true in Israel’s history by Jeremiah in Lamentations 1:7 -Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

Acts 16:13 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted [thither].
16:14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard [us]: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

Acts 13:42, 44 “And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next. And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God.”

Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

Acts 15:19-29 Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the GENTILES who are turning to God, 20 but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality,from things strangled, and from blood. 21 For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

“All things,” he says, “whatever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s Day.”—Robert Cox, Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties, page 538.

The decrees of councils proving insufficient, the secular authorities were besought to issue an edict that would strike terror to the hearts of the people and force them to refrain from labor on the Sunday. At a synod held in Rome, all previous decisions were reaffirmed with greater force and solemnity. They were also incorporated into the ecclesiastical law and enforced by the civil authorities throughout nearly all Christendom. (See Heylyn, History of the Sabbath, pt. 2, ch. 5, sec. 7.) {DD 26.2}

“Let all Christians remember that the seventh day was consecrated by God, and hath been received and observed, not only by the Jews, but by all others who pretend to worship God; though we Christians have changed their Sabbath into the Lord’s Day.”—Ibid., pages 281, 282.

“Up to the time of Christ’s death, no change had been made in the day;” and, “so far as the record shows, they [the apostles] did not . . . give any explicit command enjoining the abandonment of the seventh-day Sabbath, and its observance on the first day of the week.”–A. E. Waffle, The Lord’s Day, pages 186-188. {GC 447.3}

Roman Catholics acknowledge that the change of the Sabbath was made by their church, and declare that Protestants by observing the Sunday are recognizing her power. In the Catholic Catechism of Christian Religion, in answer to a question as to the day to be observed in obedience to the fourth commandment, this statement is made: “During the old law, Saturday was the day sanctified; but the church, instructed by Jesus Christ, and directed by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so now we sanctify the first, not the seventh day. Sunday means, and now is, the day of the Lord.” {GC 447.4}
As the sign of the authority of the Catholic Church, papist writers cite “the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; . . . because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin.”–Henry Tuberville, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, page 58. What then is the change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the authority of the Roman Church{GC 448.1}

Romanists declare that “the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church.”–Mgr. Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, page 213.

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/history/sabbath_history1.asp

http://www.truthontheweb.org/sunday.htm

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/history/History_of_the_Sabbath.pdf

http://www.remnantofgod.org/sabhist.htm