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Ireland did not accord with the Roman church in keeping Easter on the same Sunday, till
about the year 800. Nor was the Roman way fully received in France, till it was settled
there by the authority of Charles the Great ..." (Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian
Church, p. 1151).

These are startling facts -- but they ought to make you wake up to the truth! It is high time
we learned exactly what has happened to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to the practices of the
New Testament Church of God these past 1900 years!

True Christians Kept Passover

The New Testament reveals that Jesus, the apostles, and the New Testament Church, both
Jewish- and Gentile-born, observed God's Sabbaths, and God's Festivals weekly and annually!
Take your Bible and carefully read Acts 2:1; 12:3-4 (remember the word "Easter" here is a mis-
translation in the King James Version -- originally inspired "Passover," and so corrected in the
Revised Standard Version); Acts 18:21; 20:6, 16; I Corinthians 16:8.

Eusebius, historian of the early centuries of the Church, speaks of the true Christians ob-
serving Passover on the 15th of Nisan, first month of the Sacred Calendar.

"A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from
an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon [after sunset], on which day the
Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Sav-
iour's Passover ... the bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom
handed down to them. He himself, in a letter which he addressed to Victor and the church
of Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down to him: "'We
observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have
fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord's coming, when he shall come
with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the
twelve apostles... and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who re-
clined upon the bosom of the Lord ... and Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and mar-
tyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia ... the bishop and martyr Sagaris ... the
blessed Papirius, or Melito ....All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover [after
sunset] according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith' "
(Ecclesiastical History, book V, chapters XXIII and XXIV).

But as the false, paganized church grew in size and political power, decrees were passed
in the fourth century A.D. imposing the death sentence upon Christians found keeping God's Sab-
bath, or God's Festivals. Finally, in order to keep the true way of God, many Christians (compos-
ing the true Church) fled for their lives.

But another large portion of the true Church of God, failing to flee, yet remaining true to
God's truth, paid with their lives in martyrdom (Rev. 2:13; 6:9; 13:15; 17:6; 18:24).

They loved obedience to God more than their lives! Do you?

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