The Final Conflict is Over Worship
At the very end of time, the controversy between Christ and Satan will be fought over two competing systems: the true worship of the God who created heaven and earth, and a false system of worship. In Revelation 14:9-11, the most fearful warning ever given to mortal man is presented — and it has to do with false worship.
Why is false worship so offensive to God? Because it strikes at the very foundation of His government. He is the Creator, and according to the fourth commandment of His law, that is the reason we worship Him. The first angel of Revelation 14 commands us to
“worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” — Revelation 14:7.
Worship That Does Not Honor The Creator
Many Christians worship God every week — but not as Creator. How can that be? Because they worship Him on a day that does not agree with His commandments. The fourth commandment calls us to worship God on the seventh-day Sabbath, and notice the reason given:
“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
— Exodus 20:11.
Perhaps the light of God’s Word is penetrating your mind and revealing that Sunday worship is not the same as Creator worship. The reason we worship God is that He is the Creator.
Is There a "Jewish Sabbath"?
If you have been a Christian for very long, you have likely heard fellow believers refer to the Bible Sabbath as “the Jewish Sabbath.” The question we should be asking is this: does the Bible ever use that expression?
The answer is no — not once. Search your Bible software for the phrase. It does not exist. Instead, Scripture calls the seventh day “the sabbath of the Lord thy God” (Exodus 20:10). In Isaiah 58, the Lord calls it “my holy day.” And Jesus called Himself “Lord even of the sabbath day.” — Matthew 12:8.
The Ancient Pattern: Cain and Abel
Return with me to Revelation 14:9-11, the most fearful of all God’s warnings to the transgressors of His law. Notice that the punishment is pronounced because of false worship, and that the transgressors are tormented “in the presence of the Lamb” — in the presence of Jesus Himself.
The Old Testament gives us types of false worship that instruct us today. Consider Cain and Abel. In Genesis 4, the false worshiper killed the true worshiper.
We find the same thing in Revelation 13:15. There is a death decree against all who refuse to worship the beast and his image, or receive his mark. Once again, the false worshiper proposes to kill the true worshipers of the Creator. Nothing has changed since the beginning. The false worshiper will always seek to get rid of the true worshiper, because the true worshiper is a rebuke to false worship.
How Sunday Became the Day of Worship
It is important to realize that Sunday worship came into use gradually. Emperor Constantine issued the first Sunday law in March of 321 AD. Over time, the Roman Catholic papacy passed church legislation to exalt Sunday and suppress the Bible Sabbath. Rome has never hidden this. One Catholic publication stated it plainly:
“Sunday is our mark of authority… The church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.”
— The Catholic Record, September 1, 1923.
Most Protestants are completely unaware of these claims — or of Rome’s role as the little horn power that attempted to change the law of God, exactly as Daniel foretold:
“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws.” — Daniel 7:25.
The Cost of Opposing Rome
The papacy did not only bring in false Sunday worship. During the period known as the Dark Ages, conservative estimates place the number put to death by Rome at between 50 and 75 million people — many of them, like the Waldenses and the Huguenots, Sabbath-keeping Christians.
If you doubt this, look up the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. You will see how brutal Rome can be when she is opposed by Bible-believing Christians.
The Same Spirit Is Rising Again
We urge you to watch carefully, because the same spirit of antichrist is beginning to manifest itself in the United States. There are Christian nationalists today openly proposing a death penalty for those who will not worship on Sunday. This is a striking prophetic fulfillment of Revelation 13:15:
“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” — Revelation 13:15.
The final controversy is not about religion in general. It is about worship — and about who has the right to command it.
The Warning of Elijah
There is another marvelous typology in the Old Testament: the story of Elijah, Ahab, and Jezebel in 1 Kings 18. After three and a half years of famine, Ahab sees Elijah approaching and accuses him of being the troubler of Israel. Elijah’s response? It is Ahab and Jezebel who have troubled Israel.
Notice the indictment Elijah brings: Ahab has broken the commandment of the Lord (1 Kings 18:18). Which one? The one that forbids false worship. Israel was trying to worship both the God of heaven and Baal — and Baal was the sun god. On which day did the pagans worship the sun god? The day of the sun — the day we call Sunday.
You see, nothing has changed. God’s people are still trying to worship Him on a day He never blessed or sanctified, as He did the seventh day at the end of the creation week (Genesis 2:1-3).
How about you? Are you worshiping God according to His commandments, on the day He has blessed and made holy? There is no command anywhere in the Bible to worship our Creator on the first day of the week. Did not Jesus rest on the seventh-day Sabbath (Luke 4:16)? And if He did, why do we have such trouble following His example? Is He not still the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28) — which means the Sabbath is the Lord’s day?
The command stands:
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy… the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God.” — Exodus 20:10.
It is repeated in the message of the first angel in Revelation 14:
“Worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” — Revelation 14:7.
May God help us to keep His commandments, that we may enter through the gates into the city — the New Jerusalem — and have access to the tree of life.
“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” — Revelation 22:14.
A Closing Word
One of the most sobering expositions of how liberty of conscience will be threatened in the future is found in Chapter 35 of the book The Great Controversy. It traces the history of the Dark Ages and the supremacy of the papacy, and verifies the intolerance and persecution that prevailed. It presents the scenario for what will happen when Protestants facilitate the return of the papacy to power in America.
