How theThree Angels Messages Relate to the End Times

Little Known Events and Lessons Learned about Religious Freedom

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge". Hosea 4:6

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future". John F. Kennedy

Background

It is important for us to understand the sweep of history to understand the present times. The Roman Senate in Christ's time ruled supreme. Religion was licensed by the state. There were no individual rights as we would know them today. There was no protection from the majority. Israel was an occupied territory That is why Jesus said "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above". John 19:11.

That is why we have the admonition in Acts 5:29 "We ought to obey God rather than men." Christians considered themselves dual citizens, even after Emperor Constantine baptized his whole army, and the church and state were combined. Emperor Constantine has the honor of being the first to pass a law honoring the "venerable day of the sun".

Many laws and traditions we have today go back in history to English common law. February 3, 2015, marked the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta (http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/6-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-magna-carta), which helped to bring about the end of the concept of the divine right of kings. King John was forced to sign the document because the barons pressured him and the pope had excommunicated him. The document also guaranteed such individual rights as the right to trial by jury of one's peers.

The Protestant Reformation came about a few hundred years later. The Diet of Spires, in 1529, codified the idea that in matters of conscience the majority has no power because Scripture is the ultimate authority. The beliefs that were born in the Protestant Reformation had a direct effect on the influence of the priests over the people. We now come to the time of the settling of America and the idea of a country without a king, and a church without a pope. The United States is a completely unique country in history in terms of individual rights and freedoms. But, the reality didn't always match the ideas. For example, Puritans fled the Anglican Church to the United States and then proceeded to persecute Quakers.

"When William Penn's band of Quakers sailed past the colony of Massachusetts, they nearly fell prey to a seventeenth-century inquisition. Listen to this order from Cotton Mather, the famous Puritan clergyman. There be now at sea a ship called 'Welcome', which has on board 100 or more of the heretics and malignants called Quakers....The General Court has given sacred order to...waylay the said 'Welcome'...and make captive the said Penn and his ungodly crew, so that the Lord may be glorified and not mocked with the heathen worship of these people....We shall not ony do the Lord great good by punishing the wicked, but we shall make great good for His minister and people. Yours in the bowels of Christ. Cotton Mather." Quoted in The Rise and Fall of Antichrist, George Vandeman, Pacific Press Publishing Assn, Boise, Idaho, P 60.

What also carried over to the United States was the almost universal belief in Sunday as the "Sabbath of the Lord". Early Christian leaders universally believed that Sunday was the Lord's Day. This was the time period that so-called Blue Laws came into being. That brought about some drastic results:

• Newly elected President George Washington was stopped by a tithingman while traveling on a Sunday (called the Sabbath at that time).
  
• The tithing man in a New England town was an unique kind of officer, the connecting link between the secular and the spirtual. For it was his function, as his name implied, to have ten families under his charge, and 'diligently inspect them', especially on the Sabbath, to see that they regularly came to meeting, and with foxtail wand keep them awake when they were there....He had to make complaint of all disorders and misdemeanours committed therein; to report to the justices all idle persons, profane swearers, Sabbath-breakers and like offenders....report those who profanely behaved, lingered without doors at meeting-time on the Lord's Day."
  The Pilgrim Fathers of New England and Their Puritan Successors, John Brown, 1906, P352.
  
• In 17th century Connecticut, one could have body parts cut off or receive the death penalty for "Sabbath breaking".
  http://www.snopes.com/language/colors/bluelaws.asp
  
• "Captain Kemble of Boston, Massachusetts, was in 1656 locked in the public stocks for two hours for kissing his wife on the Sabbath (Sunday) after spending three years at sea. The charge? "Unseemly behavior." Quote from Liberty Magazine.
  http://www.libertymagazine.org/article/sunday-laws-in-america
• The first Sunday law in America was the Virginia Sunday law of 1610, which read: "Every man and woman shall repair [go habitually] in the morning to the divine service and sermons preached upon the Sabbath day, and in the afternoon to divine service, and catechizing [teaching the principles of Christian dogma and ethics], upon pain for the first fault to lose their provision and the allowance for the whole week following; for the second, to lose the said allowance and also be whipt; and for the third to suffer death." G. Edward Reid, Sunday's Coming, 77. http://www.sundaylaw.net/studies/truelife/liberty/persecution.htm
• In 1671 the Plymouth Colony passed a Sunday law in which death was the fate for dissenters.
  http://www.sundaylaw.net/studies/truelife/liberty/persecution.htm
• In 1646 the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law compelling the people to attend church on Sunday, and invoked the death penalty for those who denied the inspiration of the Bible.
  http://www.sundaylaw.net/studies/truelife/liberty/persecution.htm
• In 1739 Delaware put Sunday violators in the stocks for four hours.
  http://www.sundaylaw.net/studies/truelife/liberty/persecution.htm

History of Sunday-Keeping in the United States

Commenting on Revelation 13, Uriah Smith says "The sea is a symbol of "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." Revelation 17: 15. A beast is the Bible symbol of a nation or power. It sometimes represenis the civil power alone, and sometimes the ecclesiastical in connection with the civil. Whenever a beast is seen to come up out of the sea, it denotes that the power arises in a thickly populated tenitory if the winds are represented as blowing upon the sea, as in Daniel 7:2-3, political commotion, civil strife, and revolution are indicated. By the dragon of the previous chapter, and the beast first introduced in this, we have the Roman power as a whole brought to view in its two phases, pagan and papal; hence these two symbols have each the seven heads and ten horns. (See comments on Revelation 17:10.)"
Daniel and the Revelation, Uriah Smith, Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, 8, Tennessee, p. 561

It was the political power in the prophecy (United States) that passed legislation on the state level to enforce Sunday laws in this country. It was federal power through legislation that was discriminatory in the stories that follow on this page. No detailed explanation of Daniel 2, 7, or Revelelation 13 will be undertaken on thse pages to explain that the religious power behind these laws was the Catholic Church. There is enough material elsewhere to cover this. The aim of this web site is to show that persecution has happeded and the legal precedent for future persecution is already in place! The aim is not to blame individuals! There are Christians who love the Lord in EVERY church and the purpose here is not to condemn individuals.

Other Factors

A classic Supreme Court case in 1890 was Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints vs United State, 136 U.S 1, 49. At issue was the Mormon Church's desire to practice polygamy. The finding was in part "The organization of a community for the spread and practice of polygamy is, in a measure, a return to barbarism. It is contrary to the spirit of Christianity and the civilization which Christianity has produced in the Western world."

It is also good to be reminded that the Constitution made no prohibiation on individual states and the establishment of religion. We often forget that at the time of the writing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights there were six states - Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and South Carolina - that had officially supported churches.
George Goldberg, Church State and the Constitution, The Religious Clauses Upside Down Washington, D.C.:Regnery Gateway, 1984, (10)

Trail of Tears

In 1800, the Cherokee Indians lived on land in Tennessee, North Carolona, Georgia, and Alabama. They were part of what was called the "Five Civilized Tribes" ie Cherokee, Creek,Chickasaw, Choctaw,and Seminole. Eventually, all of these tribes were forced to move from their land by the U.S. government. The removal of the Cherokees was a product of the demand for arable land during the rampant growth of cotton agriculture in the Southeast, the discovery of gold on Cherokee land, and the racial prejudice that many white southerners http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/cherokee-removal

The generalizations of the Cherokee Indians (and others) as a 'noble savage' springing up from those days were not true. They sued in federal court to keep their land. A quote from the Supreme Court case brief will illustrate:

30 U.S. 1, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia,1831

"They have established a constitution and form of government, the leading features of which they have borrowed from that of the United States, dividing their government into three separate departments, legislative, executive and judicial. In conformity with this constitution, these departments have all been organized. They have formed a code of laws, civil and criminal, adapted to their situation, have erected courts to expound and apply those laws, and organized an executive to carry them into effect. They have established schools for the education of their children, and churches in which the Christian religion is taught; they have abandoned the hunter state and become agriculturists, mechanics, and herdsmen; and, under provocations long continued and hard to be borne, they have observed with fidelity all their engagements by treaty with the United States."
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/30/1

But, the case went against them, or, rather, the Supreme Court did not rule at all because "The Supreme Court does not have original jurisdiction to hear a suit brought by the Cherokee Nation, which is not a "foreign State" within the meaning of Article III". (The Cherokee Nation is not a foreign state in the sense in which the terms "foreign state" is used in the Constitution of the United States.)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/landmark_cherokee.html

The desire for land, a desire for profit from cotton production, and outright discrimination drove the decision to evict the Indians from their land.

Japanese Relocation Camps

110,000 Japanese men, women, and children were forcibly placed in relocation camps. The intent was to remove the Japanese from the West Coast, ostensibly to reduce the possibility of sabatoge. The vast majority were American citizens. In actuality, the Japanese-Americans had amassed vast land holdings in the agricultural heart of California. In the broad scope of WWII, with millions of men and women fighting in far-off lands, this story may seem insignificant. But, it will show that the greed and prejudice of a few can cause the "system" to do prejudicial things. Of course, the reason for the removal of all Japanese Issei and Nisei from the West Coast was an overt case of national security interests being served, but there were other forces at work. The Japanese owned land and produced crops that were very lucrative to say the least. The hysteria that existed in California after Pearl Harbor was used to provoke authorities to remove the Japanese-Americans from their property.

Because this event is not broadly known and is certainly not taught in schools, some background is in order.

Under the laws that existed at the time, someone could have lived in the United States for decades and have children who were U.S. citizens, but hold the status of enemy alien because the law did not allow the person to apply for citizenship. Japanese-American farms in 1940 were worth $72 million ($1.2 billion in today's dollars)and $6 million in equipment. Per acre their farms were worth $279.96, in contrast to the average value of $37.94 for all California farms.
http://www.fear.org/RMillerJ-A.html

In a meeting at the Presidio of San Francisco on January 4, 1942, attended by the military authorities and the US Attorney General Bendetsen, General De Witt, head of the military forces on the west coast, said "We are at war and this area-eight states- has been designated as a theater of operations. I have approximately 240,000 men at my disposal....{ There are} approximately 288,000 enemy aliens...which we have to watch.... I have little confidence that the enemy aliens are law-abiding or loyal in any sense of the word. Some them yes; many, no. Particularly the Japanese. I have no confidence in their loyalty whatsover. I am speaking now of the native-born Japanese-117,000-and 42,00 in Calfornia alone.", Concentration Camps USA: Japanese Americans and WWII, Roger Daniels, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., New York, p47. This statement only demonstrtes the prejudice of those in charge. To that point there had been no acts of sabatage in the United States by the Japanese.

Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt on February 19th, 1942. It authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. In the next 6 months, over 100,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were moved to assembly centers. They were then evacuated to and confined in isolated, fenced, and guarded relocation centers, known as internment camps.

Finally, in 1944, the men were allowed to form a fighting unit and fight in the war in Europe. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team won more purple hearts for its size than any other unit in American history. Their motto was "Go for Broke". All of this while there families were in relocation camps. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

Their legal status of those in relocation camps was also questionable. Martial law was never declared, and there were those who wondered if the relocation of Japanese without martial law was legal. (Courts said it was). The California attorney general at the time was Earl Warren, later to become Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was his belief that the war itself nullified the constitutional rights of Nisei (first-generation Japanese)simply because they could possibly present a clear and present danger to society. The western part of the United States was placed under military command. The Western Defense Command was commnaded by General De Witt. He ordered subordinate commanders to ignore court orders anyway, unless his headquarters gave specific authorization. This included writs of Habeas Corpus

Habeas corpus is a centuries old right in English common law going back to the 1600s. It simply means "produce the body" or words to that effect. In other words, a competent authority must produce a good reason to incarcerate someone. One's personal freedom is the most basic right our country has. General De Witt
Concentration Camp USA: Japanese Americans and WWII, Ibid., p130.

McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420 (1961)

In McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420 (1961), the United States Supreme Court upheld a Maryland law that banned the sale of most merchandise (other than milk, bread, fruit, gas and other petroleum products, medicines, newspapers and, notably, tobacco). While acknowledging that the original laws were “motivated by religious forces,” the Court concluded that “in light of the evolution of our Sunday Closing Laws . . . and of their more or less recent emphasis on secular considerations [including a day of rest for labor], it is not difficult to discern . . . that presently they bear no relationship to establishment of religion . . . .”
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/12/blue-laws-come/

Summary

A book on race relations published during WWII was written by a visitor to the United States and had the following quote, generalizing about Americans: "So we find that this American, who is so proud to announce that he will not obey laws other than those which are "good" and "just," as soon as the discussion turns to something which in his opinion is bad and unjust, will emphatically pronounce that "there ought to be a law against . . ." To demand and legislate all sorts of laws against this or that is just as much part of American freedom as to disobey the laws when they are enacted. America has become a country where exceedingly much is permitted in practice but at the same time exceedingly much is forbidden in law".
An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, Gunnar Myrdal, 1944, Chapter 17

The same principles of discrimination and prejudice are involved whether the object of the hatred is race or religion. The Mcgowan case has already established a precedent that Sunday is legally no different than any other day. Since that is the case, there will be no sympathy for Sabbathkeepers when persecution comes. The now deceased United States Supreme Court justice, Justice Antonin Scalia believed that internment camps will happen again.
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