WHO CHANGED THE LAW OF GOD?
By Roswell F. Cottrell
ABOUT 555 years before Christ, it was revealed to Daniel the prophet, that the great antichristian power, the abomination of desolation, should think to change times and laws. Dan. 7:25. That power was not fully developed till 538 years after Christ, being 1093 years after the prophecy was given. The laws mentioned must be the laws of God; for the changing of them was to be a distinguishing mark of that power; and the changing of human laws would not distinguish that power from any other government under heaven. And it must be the moral law, the ten commandments: for the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross 500 years before this antichristian power was matured. To predict that this apostate, antichristian power should think to change the moral law of God, is as much as to tell us that that law is unchangeable; a fact of which no intelligent reader of the word of the unchangeable God should need to be informed. In fact, the prophecy of this attempted change is a pledge that the law should not be changed before the rise of that power. Now, if the papal power has not meddled with these laws of God to change them, we cannot prove that it is the power alluded to in the prophecy; for if it cannot be proved that it has fulfilled each characteristic specification given, it is not the predicted power; neither can it be shown that the prophecy has been fulfilled at all; for no other power has fulfilled it; and in this case the prophecy has failed, or otherwise the power must yet arise to fulfill it. Again, if that power has attempted to change the law of God, it must have taken place 500 years after Christ had changed it as some teach, and since he has left no record of the change made by him, it is utterly impossible for us at this time to distinguish the work of Christ from that of antichrist. Christ does not work in partnership with antichrist; who, then, made the change? Who changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week? Was it He of whom it was foretold that he should "magnify the law and make it honorable?" or he of whom it was said that he should "change times and laws"? Let each answer for himself. "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law."—Christ. "Q. How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holy days?" "A. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday." "Had she not such power, . . . she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority." These witnesses agree with each other, and each is in perfect harmony with the prophecy. Who, then, changed the law? Christ, or antichrist? The unprejudiced believer in the Bible as a divine revelation can give but one answer to this question. Having the evidence before him, he cannot charge upon Jesus Christ the work of antichrist.