Constantine and the Week

Daniel 7:25

The Witty Invention that Changed Times and Laws

“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

Could one man, empowered by empire and ambition, truly alter the divinely ordained fabric of time?

In the fourth century A.D., Constantine the Great, formally known as Caesar Augustus, initiated a sweeping reform that would echo through history. Building upon the earlier changes of Julius Caesar, who in 45 B.C. had already severed timekeeping from the lunar cycles that once defined biblical sacred time, Constantine took the transformation even further. Between A.D. 321 and 325, he codified and legislated a perpetual seven-day weekly cycle, one entirely disconnected from the New Moons and Sabbaths established in the Torah’s divine calendar as set forth at creation.

This was no mere civil adjustment. Rather, it was the foundational step in engineering a new rhythm of worship for his emerging “Christian” state religion. Cloaked in the imagery of the resurrection, Constantine’s calendar appeared to honor the Messiah, but in truth, it displaced the Creator’s appointed times that detailed the Plan of Salvation as synchronized to the sacred work of the Messiah, in favor of imperial control. Was this a genuine transformation of sacred law, or a masterful illusion, effective only in the minds of those who would follow after the Roman beast?

Daniel prophesied of a power that would “think to change times and laws,” and indeed, Constantine’s reforms were embraced by the world with near-universal compliance. Yet, neither the heavens nor the throne of YAHUAH Alahim has altered its reckoning. The Most High still calls His people to come out of Babylon, to abandon the counterfeit systems and calendar constructs of emperors, theologians who have inherited error, and the traditional guardians of the lie, and to return to the time-kept truths called into existence at creation. The Creator’s ordained time-measuring alone remains written in the heavens and recorded throughout Scripture.

This article traces the roots and repercussions of that momentous change. Was Constantine’s calendar shift a victorious usurpation of divine order, or merely a mirage that has deceived generations? The answer lies in the foundational evidence of the Old Testament Scripture, history, astronomy, and the enduring call of Yahuah to restore His long-lost truths and return to Him, to walk in His ancient paths.

Julius Caesar Removed the Moon from Measuring Time

Roman time-measuring was systematically detached from the lunar cycles that had defined sacred time since creation. The removal of the moon for measuring years, months, the count of weeks, and the count of days began nearly 400 years before Constantine, by Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.

“In the mid-1st century B.C., Julius Cæsar [Roman Emperor] invited Sosigenes, an Alexandrian [Egypt] astronomer, to advise him about the reform of the calendar, and Sosigenes decided that the only practical step was to abandon the lunar calendar altogether. Months must be arranged on a seasonal basis, and a tropical [solar] year used, as in the Egyptian calendar.” Encyclopedia Britannica, The Julian Calendar, Paragraph 1. https://www.britannica.com/science/calendar/The-Western-calendar-and-calendar-reforms

From 45 B.C. onward, Julius Caesar, following the advice of the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes, eliminated the lunar phases from all time-measuring. Since that date, the Roman Empire has maintained this TOTAL DIVORCEMENT OF THE MOON from their time-measuring, except when locating Easter Sunday. This ensured it never fell on the same day as the Jewish “Wave Sheaf Offering, as recorded in the Torah Law of Scripture. Never again would the Romans or their calendar utilize its lunar phases for demarcating the start of YEARS, MONTHS, the count of WEEKS, and the count of DAYS. To all appearances, they were now free to do as they pleased. Moreover, they wanted nothing to do with the Yahudim (Jews), whom they hated, or their lunar calendar, which was ordained by the Most High.

Council of Nicaea in A.D. 321-325

Fast-forward nearly four centuries, and within the opulent marble halls of Roman authority, a dramatic religious transformation unfolded. At the five-year summit of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 321–325), a new religious order was meticulously crafted. Central to this reformation was the complete abandonment of the ancient Scriptural astro-luni-solar calendar, including its observance of the lunar-based Sabbath, marking a sharp departure from the calendar rhythm historically honored by the Hebrews since the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. In its place, Rome instituted a purely solar planetary calendar, deliberately constructed to replace the time-centered statutes of the Hebrew Torah. Alongside this calendrical shift, the Romanized figure of “Jesus Christ” was introduced to supplant Yahusha HaMashiach (the authentic Hebrew Messiah), effectively replacing the Creator’s ordained system of lunar-appointed worship cycles that were foundational to the Scriptural Plan of Salvation.

Many other doctrines were spawned at that council, including the Trinitarian doctrine, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. These last two were crafted as replacements for the biblical lunar date-stamped Passover (Pasch) on the 14th day counted from the full New Moon and the 16th, the day of the resurrection. Each harbored a new replacement theology of the Roman pagan kind. All that was left to do was to sell it to the empire and beyond. And for those who weren’t buying, he utilized force under the penalty of death.

Thus, with its unending cycle, the planetary week was designed and legislated to replace the Scriptural week, initially marked by quarter lunar phases, as set forth at creation, which was proclaimed and counted from one full New Moon to another. Here is the evidence for this.

In 321 A.D., Constantine, emperor of Rome…by civil enactments made “the venerable day of the Sun,” which day was then “notable for its veneration,” the weekly rest day of the empire…The enforcement of the weekly observance of Sunday gave official recognition to the [NEW] week of seven days and resulted in the introduction of it into the official civil calendar of Rome. The Romans passed that calendar down to us, and in it we have still the ancient planetary titles of the days of the week. Odom, op. cit., p. 243-244, emphasis supplied.

Council of Laodicea, Forty Years Later

Forty years later, in A.D. 363-364, under the rulership of Julian, the last Constantinian Emperor, the Council of Laodicea convened.

The popularized version of Canon 29 from the Council of Laodicea is central to Sabbatarian doctrine. Unrecognized by most, this Canon has been FALSELY translated, perpetuating “Sunday sacredness” as the first day and “Saturday” as the seventh day of the biblical week sequence:

“Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s Day [Sunday] they shall especially honor, 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 Christ.” Council of Laodicea, Canon 29

Two important points can be drawn from this ancient quote from the Council of Laodicea.

Sunday, the first day of the new Roman solar calendar, is here introduced as“The Lord’s Day.” This connection is never made in Scripture or prior to A.D. 321 for two reasons: 1) The earliest Roman cycling planetary week was eight days in length. 2) Later, when the eight-day cycling week was first modified prior to Constantine and A.D. 321, the order of its days was changed. But until then, Saturday was the first day of the week and Sunday was the second, as shown in the image below. It was only after that date that Sunday became day one and Saturday day seven.
There is a translation error as highlighted in red above. It has been consistently ignored by translators and Theologians alike for nearly 1,700 years. Whether intentional or unintentional, it has served as a convenient lie, helping cement Sunday as the first day of their continuous weekly cycle invention, and Saturday as the seventh day of that same week. Then, when the Jews, under pressure from the Romans, ultimately adopted Saturday as their seventh-day Sabbath, the deception was complete. Now, all the world universally perceives that the Roman solar calendar with its Saturday as the seventh day, is one and the same as the one ordained at creation, as recorded in Scripture, and always kept sacred by the Hebrews (Jews). Yet, to the discerning mind, it is all smoke and mirrors.

The Evidence of a Falsified Narrative

The following exposé may shock many Saturday Sabbath believers who have trusted the English translation of Canon 29.

According to Karl J. von Hefele, a Catholic Bishop and scholar, in his book, History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents, reveals that the word “Saturday” (dies Saturni) DOES NOT EXIST either in this Greek or Latin text. Instead, the word “Saturday” was falsely supplied in the English translation to replace the word Sabbato, which describes the “ancient Hebrew lunar Sabbath only.” Please do not believe me, but do your due diligence and check this out for yourself.

Here is the original Latin text:

“Quod non oportet Christianos Judaizere et otiare in Sabbato [Sabbath], sed operari in eodem die. Preferentes autem in veneratione Dominicum Diem [Sunday] si vacre voluerint, ut Christiani hoc faciat; quod si reperti fuerint Judaizere Anathema sint a Christo.” Council of Laodicea, Canon 29 (Latin version)

“Christiani non oportet judaizare et otiare in Sabbato [Sabbath], sed operari in eodem die; Dominicum [Sunday] autem honorare, et, si possunt, in eo otiare, ut Christiani. Quod si reperti fuerint judaizantes, anathema sint a Christo.” Council of Laodicea, Canon 29 (Latin version)

Here is the same quote in Greek:

“Οὐ δεῖ Χριστιανοὺς Ἰουδαΐζειν καὶ σαββατίζειν [Sabbath], ἀλλ᾽ ἐργάζεσθαι τῇ σαββάτῳ· [Sabbath] τὴν δὲ κυριακὴν προτιμῶντες, εἴπερ δύνανται, ἐν αὐτῇ μηδὲν ἐργάζεσθαι· εἰ δὲ Ἰουδαΐζοντες εὑρεθῶσιν, ἀνάθεμα ἔστωσαν τῷ Χριστῷ.” Council of Laodicea, Canon 29 (Greek version)

Here it is in English from Google Translate that is somewhat different than we show on the previous page, yet it maintains the term “Sabbath.” No reference is made to the Roman planetary god of Saturn or relating to Saturday, which was a new method of measuring weeks in a continuous cycle that ignored the New Moon of Scripture:

“He does not see Christians Judaizing and Sabbath-keeping, but working on the Sabbath; but preferring Sunday, as much as they can, they do not work on it at all; but if Judaizing is found, let them call Christ anathema.” Council of Laodicea, Canon 29 (English version from Google Translate)

When the Julian calendar was being enforced upon the early believers between the 1st and 4th centuries A.D., for religious purposes, absolutely no one confused the word “dies Saturni” with “Sabbato.” Everyone then recognized these two terms as unique names for two separate days, as found on two distinctly different time-measuring calendar models.

It is only as this evidence from history has been forgotten and overwritten during the translation, with the pretext of the theory of Saturday’s sacredness being changed to Sunday, that Saturday has been assumed to be the seventh-day Sabbath of Scripture.

Only as the historical record has been obscured and overwritten through translation, under the pretext of shifting sacredness from Saturday to Sunday, has Saturday come to be mistakenly regarded as the seventh-day Sabbath of Scripture.

This is partly due to the fact that the planetary week was adopted in A.D. 358 by the Yahudim (Jews) in conformity with the demands of their Roman Constantinian captors. Coupled with this, the promotion of the entire Roman calendar model throughout the land shows why ALL THE WORLD has now followed the Beast into a fraudulent pagan worship rhythm, wholly unaware of its origin. How crafty was this?

“These . . . eventually led Jewish rabbis to call Saturn “Shabbti,” “the star of the Sabbath.” It was not until the first century [4th century correction] of our era, when the planetary week had become an established institution, that the Jewish Sabbath seems always to have corresponded to Saturn’s Day [Saturday].” Rest Days, Hutton Webster, p.244

“This planetary week was paganism’s counterfeit of the true, biblical week instituted by the Creator in the beginning of earth’s history. In the counterfeit week employed in ancient paganism “the venerable day of the Sun” was esteemed by the heathen above the other six days because it was regarded as sacred to the Sun, the chief of the planetary deities . . . Just as the true Sabbath is inseparably linked with the biblical week, so the false Sabbath of pagan origin needed a weekly cycle. Thus we have found that the planetary week of paganism is Sunday’s twin sister, and that the two counterfeit institutions were linked together …” Odom, op. cit., p. 243-244, emphasis supplied.

Constantine applied Deis Solis (Sunday) to the Resurrection of our Messiah as His contribution to replacing the Scriptural calendar, which had been utilized previously by the Yahudim (Jews). The monumental outcome, to the untrained eye, ignorant of history’s past, was that the Scriptural seventh day (Sabbath) must be “Saturday” of the Roman calendar. This was accomplished simply by ensuring that every year, Easter occurs on Sunday, the first day of the new Roman planetary week cycle. So, by extension, it caused Saturday (Deis Saturnis) of the same week cycle to appear to be the seventh day, which had never been so, according to Scripture.

“The long-term effect was that ‘Easter Sunday’ entered [established the new] the Christian paradigm as ‘The Day of Christ’s Resurrection.’ The corollary to this realignment of time calculation was that the day preceding Easter Sunday, Saturday, became forever after the [perceived] ‘True [seventh-day] Bible Sabbath.’ This is the true significance of Constantine’s ‘Sunday law’ and it laid the foundation for the modern assumption that a continuous weekly cycle has always existed.” eLaine Vornholt & Laura Lee Vorholt-Jones, Calendar Fraud, “Biblical Calendar Outlawed.”

In other words, in time, the observance of Easter Sunday was cemented as the memorial of the Messiah’s resurrection. At the same time, the preceding Saturday was recast in the Christian mind as the authentic seventh-day Sabbath. Constantine’s decree did more than enforce Sunday rest; it restructured sacred time itself and fostered the enduring illusion that the weekly cycle had flowed without interruption from antiquity.

Those who continue to spread the propaganda that the sacredness of Saturday was changed to Sunday in light of this revelation are no longer expositors of truth but merely guardians of the lie.

Neither Saturday nor Sunday

When the historical and time-centric facts of the Julian (and later Gregorian) calendar are comprehended, it becomes apparent that Sunday is not the only false worship day established upon paganism. For Saturday, dies Saturni, now attributed to the sacred Sabbath of Scripture, is now discovered to also be an outright lie. FAKE NEWS!!! The mere fact that it is the seventh day of the man-made Roman continuous weekly cycle sets it in opposition to the original and authentic lunar appointed seventh-day Sabbath of Torah Law of Scripture, as ordained to be portrayed by counting from the full New Moon, the start of each lunar month.

NEWS FLASH! Neither Saturday nor Sunday nor the rhythm of their continuous weekly cycle are mentioned even once in Scripture. As a result of the historical and biblical evidence, neither can be the true Sabbath, as they are both fruits of the same fraudulent Roman calendar system built upon the premise of only two kinds of days that cycle without end, despite the existence of the New Moon Day as a third kind of day.

The fact that the New Moon day exists as a third kind of day, which is neither a Sabbath nor a workday (Ezekiel 46:1-3), automatically breaks the cycle of seven-day weeks every 29-30 days. And because each kind of day is counted from the same full New Moon measuring line, there are never overlapping days. Add to this the 30th day that occurs approximately six times each lunar year, and you have four kinds of days that make it impossible for the seven-day week to cycle without end.

As a result, neither Deis Saturnis (Saturday) nor Deis Solis (Sunday) was implemented by our Creator in the beginning. Both terms are linked by the same illegitimate planetary week, introduced by Emperor Constantine for the sole purpose of destroying all things Hebrew (Jewish). This hatred of the Jews and all things in the Old Testament Torah Law is fully supported by the Creed of Constantine. Neither the term Saturday nor Sunday is found in Scripture nor in their systematic, continuous seven-day cycle. Yahuah Alahim ordained His LIGHTS in the shamayim (heavens) to beacon, SIGNS (Sabbaths), LUNAR APPOINTED DATES (#4150 – mo’edim), DAYS, and YEARS (Genesis 1:14).

Constantinian Creed

Creed of Constantinople Church

“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.

The Roman Constantinian Creed overtly identifies that the foundation of their new Christian religion was proactively designed to have NO CONNECTION to anything taught in the Torah (Law) or the entire Old Testament Scriptures. This creed is evidence that neither Saturday nor Sunday was ever designed by Rome to accurately align with the original calendar model of the first week of Creation or anything after that, as presented in Scripture. Instead, with the creation of their new sacred EASTER HOLIDAY, they combined it with their newly ordered Sunday, causing it to appear that Rome’s continuous weekly cycle meets the Scriptural standard, with Sunday as the first day and Saturday as the seventh.

So the question is, was the sacredness of the authentic and original seventh-day Sabbath, as ordained by our Creator, ever changed from Saturday to Sunday? NO! NO! A THOUSAND TIMES, NO! … for the very reason Saturday was NEVER the SABBATH!!!

The Constantinian Emperors achieved a significant milestone in the fourth century A.D. by eliminating the Torah (Law) and all things Jewish from their new Christian religion, and by creating a calendar standard based on the sun rather than the trinity of sun, moon, and stars. This afforded them the freedom to craft their own spurious sacred day on an entirely different time-measuring calendar model wholly divorced from the New Moon and lunar phases. It was this stunning impostor calendar model that was proactively proclaimed to ALL THE WORLD by the Roman Catholic mother Church and her daughter Protestant Christian churches alike.

Two Unique Week Models

The planetary week legislated by Constantine that remains divorced from the lunar cycles can NEVER be the ambassador for the FATHER OF LIGHTS (James 1:17) or the first week of Creation, as all His units of TIME are beaconed by the LIGHTS or counted from them. Read more on Three Kinds of Days. Click to enlarge the illustration.

So now let me ask you, is there weighty evidence that the continuous weekly cycle was fabricated by man and not ordained by the Creator? Yes! But the removal of the moon began nearly 400 years before Constantine.

Who are the Victims of Roman Propaganda?

All these years later, we have ALL been naïve victims of the deep-seated Roman propaganda from the moment of our birth. The prophetic WORD identifies that “ALL the world would follow after the Beast” (Revelation 13:3). There are almost no exceptions among the nations and organized religions. Only now can we see how this does not exclude the Worldwide Church of God, the Seventh-day Adventists, the Jews, or any other Sabbatarian group, as Saturday CAN NOT be either the Creator’s authentic seventh-day Sabbath or the antidote to receiving the MARK OF THE BEAST!

Strikingly, Saturday is Sunday’s twin sister, and together as a GPS, they pinpoint the Roman Beast calendar and its stylized week as the very SIGN that causes ALL, both small and great, rich and poor, to receive its Mark. How? Because it symbolizes rebellion against the Creator Yahuah Alahim, the highest, while it signifies honor to Satan, who receives worship according to this pagan system.

The Real Antidote to Receiving the Mark of the Beast

If worshiping on Saturday is NOT the antidote to receiving the MARK OF THE BEAST, as Seventh-day Adventists teach, then what is??? This is answered thoroughly in the following articles:

The Mark of the Beast or the Seal of Yahuah Alahim?

Our Journey Out of Babylon

The Bride in Waiting

Weighed in the Balances and Found Wanting

Once presented with the other half of the story, we can see the full picture and make an informed decision. We can either remain captives of the Beast Power via this witty calendar invention that includes ALL the “Christian” daughter churches or use the keys of the Creator’s astro-luni-solar calendar to unlock our prison doors and escape to freedom. Only one choice will grant you admittance into His Eternal Kingdom through the East Gate (Ezekiel 46:1-3).

“It should be noted that the oldest dated Christian [Roman Catholic] inscription to employ a planetary designation belongs to the year 269 A.D.” Inscriptiones Christianae urbis Romae, ed. De Rossi, 1861, i, No. 1.

There is simply NO RECORD of the Hebrew people maintaining an unbroken, continuous weekly cycle, utterly removed from the trinity of LIGHTS in the shamayim (heavens) when they were obedient to Yahuah. Not only is there no record, but like a GPS unit, the layout of all the lunar appointed Feast Days was intrinsically tied to two things simultaneously. First, Feast Days are consistently tied to their count from Rosh Hashanah (New Year’s Day in spring), which is also the full New Moon Day, and second, they were tied in proximity to the lunar seventh-day Sabbaths that always occur on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of each lunar month without exception.

Thus, we have two witnesses in Leviticus: Years, Months, Weeks, Sabbaths, and Days, which are all perpetually designated by the moon and her unique lunar phases. Only one calendar system is the Creator’s Standard, setting forth its ordained principles from Year to Year, month to month, and Sabbath to Sabbath (Isaiah 66:23).

Each time Israel went into captivity, they lost the oracles of truth given to them for safekeeping, which included their unique calendar. This is evidenced by the fact that it occurred in Egypt, Babylon, and later in Rome. As a result, we have all been sold a bill of goods that has turned out to be fabricated. And although there are ties that bind each person to this false rhythm of worship, each has a choice to make. Will we follow the sure word of Torah (OT) and Brit Hadasha (NT) Scripture as honored by Moses, David, Daniel, Isaiah, and Yahusha, our Messiah? Or, on the flip side, will we allow the modern voices of Popes, presumed Prophets, Pastors, and denominational organizations to keep us on a perpetual detour by way of a falsified calendar and erroneous week cycle?

Evolution of the Week Days

The image below illustrates the evolution of the seven-day week. Before the current order of weekdays on our modern Roman calendar, it once followed this order. Saturday, represented by the planet Saturn, was the first day of the weekly cycle, while Friday, represented by the planet Venus, held the position of the seventh day.

Here is another image illustrating the evolution of the order of the planetary days of the Roman pagan week cycle, which is different from the one above.

Today, we must decide whether to continue adhering to a pagan “Saturday” Sabbath theory that has evolved over the years. Although it highlights a purported week that cycles without end since creation, that ideology cannot be supported by Scripture by name or by its rhythm. There is no evidence that the continuous weekly cycle has any ties to the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Yet there is much evidence to the contrary.

Likewise, folks can remain content with the tradition of “Sunday sacredness.” Still, according to the facts of Scripture, history, and astronomy, both Saturday and Sunday are sibling daughters of pagan sun worship that, from its core of calendar fraud, stands in mutiny to the Creator Himself. This continuous weekly cycle and erroneous planetary days turn out to be the tie to Babylon and the wide paved pathway leading ALL THE WORLD to receive the Mark of the Beast. For as Scripture is the revealer of the lunar Sabbath truth, both astronomy and history validate it.

This subject is worthy of prayerful and diligent consideration, as it may be that the calendar you choose will determine your eternal destiny. Those who truly love and honor their Creator and Savior will desire to align the rhythm of their soul temples with His principles of TRUTH alone.