Kerry's paper--2

[True-believer]

My greatest fear is that my readers will read a few paragraphs or a few pages, or even a few sections, and, for one reason or another, will make a decision not to finish the paper. While the final picture proves that the Sabbath doctrine is counter to the major themes, principles,and facts of the Bible, you will not be able to comprehend the enormity of the Sabbatarian deception to which you have been subjected until you have connected all the dots together in your own mind. As I will say later in this paper, the facts are beyond question and their interpretation is constrained on all sides by logic, common sense, principles of biblical interpretation, linguistics, and the facts of history.

The New Sabbatarianism of Doctors Bacchiocchi and MacCarty has so changed the rules of the “game” that Adventists-- even most Adventist leaders-- do not even know where the battle fields are in their war against the new anti-Sabbatarian movement. These anti-Sabbatarians have brought to light facts that Adventists have never had to deal with before, such as the problem of the Hebrew linguistics of Genesis 2. There is so much-- so much-- that the typical Adventist just simply does not know, and these things have changed the location of the battle front forever. The absurdities of the New Sabbatarianism are astonishing, and it should always be remembered that this New Sabbatarianism is the Adventist Church's last stand against the inroads the new anti-Sabbatarian movement-- the irony being that it was the absurdities of the New Sabbatarianism of Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi that launched the anti-Sabbatarian movement that Dr. Skip MacCarty's new book, In Granite or Ingrained? (2007), is supposed to counter with the very same approach Dr. Bacchiocchi used 30 years earlier!

As a prospective reader, I hope you are Berean in your thinking. Real TRUTH can stand on its own. Even if you do not come to the same conclusions I have, you need to at least come understand the New Sabbatarianism of your own Church. You are going to have some fast talking to do, now, if you are honest in presenting the Sabbath “truth” to potential converts. The New Sabbatarianism departs sharply from that of the traditional Sabbatarianism of the Adventist Church in profound ways that will amaze you. The simple principle of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” requires that you tell the the WHOLE truth and NOTHGING BUT THE TRUTH about the New Sabbatarianism that became official Church teaching in 2007 and has been its unofficial endorsed teaching since 1977. If you don't tell them the TRUTH, they may leave the Adventist Church later when they find out and be very angry with you in regard to the deception.

The first section of the paper, about the first 20 pages, gives you a history of the Adventist Church's dealings with Sabbath issues. I have spent three years researching this history, and I am shocked beyond amazement with what I have uncovered. The second section of the paper is a study of Sabbath issues that affect both traditional Adventist Sabbatarianism and the New Sabbatarianism of Doctors Bacchiocchi and MacCarty. Included is a point-by-point rebuttal of the key arguments of both theologians, which should prove interesting to most readers.

Finally, you will notice there is a certain amount of repetition and review. The major arguments of this paper are almost certainly new and largely incomprehensible to most Adventist readers. The repetition and review will help to interlock the pieces of the puzzle and connect the dots for readers who are unfamiliar with these concepts. I have tried to write this paper in the manner that would have appealed to my own (former) Adventist mind-set. My approach is simply to use the principles of logic-- easy principles, such as “You can't have your cake and eat it too.” Applying that kind of logic in its most basic form, if I am correct in the basic points as presented in this paper, it is IMPOSSIBLE that the Sabbath is a requirement for Christians. In order to continue in the belief that Christians must keep the Jewish Sabbath, a whole new set of valid defensive arguments would have to be created to counter my arguments. After having been an Adventist for over 50 years, I can not possibly comprehend how that could be accomplished. For example, if there is proof from Hebrew linguistics that Moses nixed even the possibility of his Hebrew readers “seeing” a Sabbath commandment in Genesis 2, Sabbatarian scholars must find some way to prove that Hebrew linguistics do not

[John317]

In order to continue in the belief that Christians must keep the Jewish Sabbath...

The Bible never refers to the Sabbath as "the Jewish Sabbath."

So far, I'm not at all impressed with Kerry's scholarship, or with his analytical and writing abilities.

[Gerr]

Quote:

Finally, you will notice there is a certain amount of repetition and review. The major arguments of this paper are almost certainly new and largely incomprehensible to most Adventist readers.

Wow! Amazing how someone comes forward to suddenly claim better comprehension & insight than anybody else!