Kerry's paper--4

[True-believer]

claimed that God had showed her that the Catholic Church changed the day of worship for Christians from the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday. A few Adventist theologians, as a result, studied their way out of Sabbatarianism and began to publish anti-Sabbatarian papers and books. Significantly, two out of the three major sources cited by the leaders of The Worldwide Church of God for its decision to renounce Sabbatarianism were written by former Adventists, Robert D. Brinsmead and Dale Ratzlaff.

It should not come as any particular surprise to you, then, that top Adventist leaders have also known for long time that there are impossible biblical and historical problems with Sabbatarianism. What will surprise you is that top Adventist leaders knew these things well before 1888. These early Adventist leaders were the constant target anti-Sabbatarian challenges for several years prior to 1888. Thanks to the habit of putting their poorly researched and even laughable (at times) rebuttals in writing, they left a careless paper trail of “smoking gun” documents that prove exactly what they knew and when they knew it about the biblical and historical impossibilities of the Church's Sabbath theology. These documents have now come back to haunt Adventism, just like the internal memos of the tobacco companies did to the claims of their top executives that they knew nothing about the health problems and addictive characteristics of their cigarettes.

If I did not have facts to work with, I could not have put together this sordid history for you. All my primary sources except for one are instantly accessible to you on-line except for one document. This document, quoted in one of my primary sources, is available from the Andrews University Library. The FACTS can not be refuted. The interpretation of these facts is limited on all sides by the constraints of logic, common sense, principles of linguistics, and the facts of history. A picture of the incredible-but-true history of Adventism's long war against the TRUTH about the Sabbath emerged as I began to “connect the dots” between the reality I found in these Adventist and Adventist-related documents and the myth I had been taught by the Church.

The Adventist version of the Sabbath myth is so complicated that you will find, as you begin to connect the dots for yourself, that there are many connections to make before you can make any sense out of the developing picture. The deception goes further than you might imagine-- even to the groundless claims of the historical significance of dates like 538 BC and 1798 AD, that have been shamelessly used by the Church to show prophetic periods of time essential to linking the Sabbath Myth with the Church's claim to be the only true Church in the last days. Upon close inspection it is clear that nothing of definitive significance happened on these dates, but that is another story in itself. Now, Adventism must quietly concede that Christians ceased to worship on the Jewish Sabbath hundreds of years before there was a Roman Catholic Church or a pope! The ramifications of this one fact, alone, open a Pandora Box of trouble for Adventism. Together with the evidence from these documents that prove that Adventist leaders have known the facts about the impossibilities of its Sabbatarian model from the very first few decades of the Church's history, we have proof beyond reasonable doubt that the Church has been guilty of a willful perversion of truth. This deception has been relentlessly pursued through the Church's massive propaganda campaign of disinformation over the past 120 years. Even Hitler's propaganda minister, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, would be envious of the success of this program.

[John317]

cl The deception goes further than you might imagine-- even to the groundless claims of the historical significance of dates like 538 BC and 1798 AD, that have been shamelessly used by the Church to show prophetic periods of time essential to linking the Sabbath Myth with the Church's claim to be the only true Church in the last days. Upon close inspection it is clear that nothing of definitive significance happened on these dates, but that is another story in itself....

The above statement about 538 and 1798 is absolutely untrue.

By the way, Kerry did not get the date right. It was not 538 BC. Of course there was nothing that happened on that date. But SDAs have never said anything about 538 BC. The date that begins the 1, 620 years is AD 538.

I just completed an exhaustive study of the historical events surrounding AD 538. That was the year when the Ostrogoths became so insignificant that they were no longer able to mount any kind of competition against the power of the papacy to rule the churches in the west. They were driven out of Rome and were described afterwards by the historian Gibbons as a "weak, defeated people." When Rome was practically deserted and without defense, the Ostrogoths invaded the city of Rome and took it for a short time again, but they were driven out again and never returned. Not long after that, the Ostrogoths disappeared from history.

Therefore the year AD 538 is a very reasonable year as the one when the papacy began to rule the churches in the West, because before then, the papacy was in competition with the Arian powers for control of the church. There is no question at all that 1,260 years from A.D. 538 brings us to the very time when the papacy was apparently destroyed by Napoleon's army in 1798. Say what they want, these are the stubborn facts of history. Let them deny all they want, it's still the truth.

[John317]

....Now, Adventism must quietly concede that Christians ceased to worship on the Jewish Sabbath hundreds of years before there was a Roman Catholic Church or a pope! The ramifications of this one fact, alone, open a Pandora Box of trouble for Adventism. ...

I have read the books of ancient church historians, Socrates and Sozoman, with my own eyes-- books that are readily available to anyone-- which say that up to the fifth century, most of the Christian churches were still celebrating the mysteries on the Sabbath. It is a well known fact that Christians met on both Sunday and Sabbath in those centuries, beginning in the second century. In Rome the leaders discouraged Sabbath keeping by having the people fast on the Sabbath but feast on the Sunday.

[John317]

claimed that God had showed her that the Catholic Church changed the day of worship for Christians from the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday.

It is a fact that the CAtholic church helped to encourage, and was instrumental in, the change from Sabbath to Sunday. Chapter 3 of The Great Controversy is true.

No one has denied that there were also political influences at work, and no one has said that the papacy alone was responsible for the change.