Seventh-day Adventists and Women's Ordination

This issue is heating the SDA church up.



Even Washington Post has commented on this.



My opinion as a former Adventist about the SDA crisis of Women's Ordination:

Okay, first off, understand my heart is really in this for them. I think this is a pivotal time and I am praying about this. I love my Adventist brother and sisters in Christ. This is not coming from a point of anything but truly wanting them to unify with the entire Body of Christ. I want the best for them.

So, some philosophy for a minute. I have read over and over where Adventists who are pro-Women's Ordination that think people who don't want it are being old and stodgy. And visa versa. They say unity above everything. They mock those who feel so passionately about this one way or the other that they are willing to walk over this. I say walk! Do not compromise on this if you believe it to be a moral issue! If you don't, you shouldn't make fun of other people's sincere heartfelt beliefs on this. 

It is the HEIGHT of hypocrisy for Adventists to put unity before truth. Isn't that the entire reason they broke off from other churches? Remember they are Protestants! They base everything on the fact that one doesn't compromise--you break from a "wrong" church. Isn't that why they won't unify with their brothers and sisters in other churches? They are the first to break out in hysteria if anyone else suggests that unity should usurp moral principle or conscience.

If you believe this to be a moral issue. Walk out. Protest. Don't compromise on moral issues. 

Now, having said that, I don't believe for the SDA church this is a moral issue. (And may I stress strongly, I believe it is a moral issue... just not for the SDA church.) Within their framework, within their heterodoxy, they are already so far from the mark of truth, that this doesn't even register compared to their other theological errors. This is like the Amish arguing whether they should allow computers in their businesses or not.

Secondly, and away from the first point, I see this as a possible great awakening for our SDA brothers and sisters. If there is a division... is it possible (and I tends towards romanticism probably) but what if... what if this helps open the eyes of a few Adventists and they join the full Body of Christ? What a miracle that would be?

Am I being overly hopeful? Is it a sin to want disunity for another denomination? I feel awful. It is like hoping someone will take a fall on their first motorcycle ride so they won't get back on and possibly kill themselves one day. I don't know, I am truly praying for the right attitude.

As much as I believe in the unity of believers, Adventism is a sect who refuses to take advantage of the spiritual wisdom of their older brothers and sisters in Christ. They are the petulant teenagers of Christendom. If there is any break in their stubbornness--perhaps they will find their way back home. Even a few....

I ask everyone out there--former Adventists as well as Evangelicals and Catholics, etc.--to please pray for the SDA church at this time. May God's will be done and may their eyes be opened to the wholeness of truth of the gospel. 

SDA Church Invites Catholic Priest to Preach for Lent

Answer to SDA Video about Catholic Bishop's Confession

See yesterday's post.

Adventists have always misunderstood both Christian history and Catholic doctrine. They continue to re-circulate ancient quotes as if they are authoritative for Catholics and often without any understanding of what the Catholic writers even mean.

I would like to take the quotes read from this Seventh-day Adventist actor playing the part of a Catholic bishop and analyze them one by one.

Before we do, let's look at the transcript right before the beginning of this clip. SDA televangelist John Carter claims: 

46:06 And my friend who is here today is going to come and he's going to read Mr. Vincent Morton he's going to come and read from the official writings of the as they call it the holy Roman Catholic Church. Listen to this, these are the unadulterated statements from Popes and other Roman Catholic leaders.

This is patently false as you will see. None of the quotes that follow (which are on the clip) are "official" in the sense that they represent the understanding of the magisterium of the Catholic Church and Christian history. 

The Five Quotes in the Clip

Two quotes are by Catholic Redemptorist (that's what the CSSR is) Thomas Enright : 

48:03 I have repeatedly offered $1000 to anyone who can prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible, it is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The Catholic Church says no by my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And lo the entire civilized world bows down in a reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church. T. Enright C.S.S.R. in an electorate Harford Kansas,  February 18th, 1884. 

51:25 I have repeatedly offered one thousand dollars to anyone who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday IS the day we are bound to keep, and no one has called for the money. It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest from Saturday, the seventh day, to Sunday, the first day of the week, T. Enright, C. S. S. R., in a lecture delivered in 1893.

(3ABN, Carter Report, The Priest's Confession, Part 2, Program transcript. Series code: CR, Program code: CR001105)

Note the similarities in the two quotes. The transcript gives very little information to track down the source. When I googled them, I discovered the quotes in anti-catholic sites but with differing sources. I tracked them down to the earliest SDA publication that I could find. The Signs of the Times, August 5, 1907, p. 489:

Papal Claims 

"...I will give $1000 to any man who will prove by the Bible alone that Sunday is the day we are bound to keep. . . . The observance of Sunday is "The Pope's will stands for reason. He can dispense solely a law of the Catholic Church. . . . The church changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and all the world bows down and worships upon that day, in silent obedience to the mandates of the Catholic Church."— "Father" Enright, of the College of Redemptorist Fathers, Kansas City, Mo., in Hartford (Mo.) Weekly Call, Feb. 22, 1884.

"The Catholic Church says, No! By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And, lo, the entire civilised world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic Church !"—'Father" T. Enright, C.S.S.R., of Redemptorist College, Kansas City, Mo., in American Sentinel, June 1, 1893.

Please note the sources are different in the video and in Signs of the Times (Hartford, Mo. vs. Hartford, Ks). Even the wording has changed somewhat. Yet the Signs of the Times gives additional information that make it easier to verify the authenticity of the quote.

Therefore, after investigation we can dismiss the quotes because: 

• There was no record of a Redemptorist named Thomas Enright at that time. (The Catholics keep records.) [NOTE: update--someone sent me a link of a obituary of a Redemptorist Timothy Enright that may the guy.]
• The Signs of the Times second quote sources the American Sentinel which is problematic because the Philadelphia newspaper shut down in 1840.  

[* UPDATE: A man sent me a link with a scan of two letters where this man "Father Enright" challenged that he would pay anyone who could find a proof-text for Sunday. However, the scan of the letter never indicated that it was in a lecture. ("Lecture" must have been a typo) So, the guy may be a legitimate priest, we however are not sure about the context of the personal letter.]

Let's deal with the other three quotes as a group because they are all legitimate Catholic writers in legitimate Catholic periodicals. 

49:03 The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant by virtue of her divine mission changed the day from Saturday to Sunday the Catholic Mirror, Sep. 23rd, 1893. 

49:22 Question, which is the Sabbath day? Answer, Saturday is the Sabbath day. Question, why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Answer, we observe Sunday instead of Saturday, because the Catholic Church in the Council of Laodicea 336A.D. transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday. Peter Giermann, Converts Catechism, 1910, page 50. 

50:01 Question, have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept? Answer, has she not such power she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her. She could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week for the observance of Saturday the seventh day. The change for which there is no scriptural authority. Stephen Keenan, 'A Doctrinal Catechism' page 174, [1846]

These three publications, even with the nil obstat  or imprimatur in no way gives them the authority of the Catholic Church. It just means that there is no heresy that the bishop could find in the book. These labels are not infallible and never were thought to be. Catholic books with the thumbs up from bishops can and do have these "thumbs ups" removed. Samuele Bacchiocci's book was eventually stripped of its imprimatur. 

Think about this, a hundred years from now someone trying to prove the SDA church hates science and no members can believed in evolution may publish this quote to prove it:

"As long as you stick to the Bible (and Ellen White's books and articles) you will not go wrong. For those among us who have already decided--despite the Bible and Ellen White--on evolution, there are plenty of other churches for you. Ours isn't one." Cliff Goldstein, Adventist Review July 24, 2003

Cliff Goldstein is a bona fide leader of the SDA church. He is an employee of the General Conference and speaks for the church. The Adventist Review is a church publication, right?

Actually, Cliff is expressing his opinion, even in this church publication. Catholic priests can do that and do so all the time. The above quotes are just that. The quotes in the clip are from individual Catholics giving their opinions even in Catholic periodicals. But they cannot be used to prove Catholic doctrine. 

Let me explain just a bit more. The Sabbatarian Sabbath was really not an issue for a thousand years. Sixteenth-century puritans began arguing among each other about a Sunday Sabbath or a Saturday Sabbath. Even priests in America and Great Britain were drug into the argument without being educated, because frankly, sabbatarianism wasn't high on their priority list. 

So, if you truly want to know what the Catholics believe, don't go back any further than Pope John Paul II's encyclical, Dies Domini. He dealt thoroughly with this subject and this is the official,  (as John Carter said earlier) "unadulterated" Catholic doctrines. Use this to form your understanding about Catholic beliefs on the Sabbath. 

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_05071998_dies-domini_en.html

Those quotes are simply not relevant to the subject. 

The bishop is fictional. 
The authority given these quotes is fictional. 

If you want truth... what Catholics really believe? To the current Catechism and Magisterium you go! Ask the Vatican!

The strange case of Adventism and sexuality

by David Read June 16, 2013

We [Seventh-day Adventists] are, as a practical matter, pro-abortion...

God has commanded us to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28; 9:1), and Scripture portrays children as a blessing from God (Gen. 33:5; Deut. 7:14; 28:4, 11; Psalm 127:3-5; 113:9; 128:1-6; Prov. 17:6; John 16:21; 1 Tim. 2:15; 5:14). 

A recurring scriptural motif is the barren woman who, in answer to her prayers and through God’s power, is made fertile and bears a child. This was true of Sara (Gen. 18:9-15; 21:1-6), Rachel (Gen. 30:1-22), Samson’s mother (Judges 13), Hannah (1 Sam. 1:1-20), and Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-25). In Scripture, children are greatly sought after, a cause for rejoicing, and fondly cherished.

Interestingly, the prophets write of God having formed them in the womb, and called them to be his messengers while still in utero. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:12. “Yet you brought me out of the womb . . . from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” Psalm 22:9-10. Of Jeremiah, God says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jer. 1:5. Isaiah testifies: “Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. . . . And now the LORD says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself.” Isa. 49:1, 5. Paul states, “But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles . . “ Gal. 1:15. Samson’s mother began preparing him for his future calling while he was yet in the womb, by eating a special diet during her pregnancy. (Judges 13:7, 13-14) These passages clearly imply that personhood begins before birth; a person is a person, capable of being designated for a consecrated purpose, while yet in the womb.

One who accidentally causes a premature birth or a miscarriage is subject to a fine (Ex. 21:22-25), but Scripture does not seem to have contemplated a situation in which someone would intentionally kill a baby in the womb. Yet there can be little doubt that abortion is contrary to a biblical and Christian world view. Scripture condemns the ritual killing of children as a “detestable practice.” (Lev. 18:21; 2 Chron. 28:3, 33:6; Ezek. 16:20-21; Jer. 7:31; 19:3-6; 32:35). In most pagan cultures, including ancient Greece and Rome, it was perfectly acceptable to abandon unwanted babies to die of exposure. But just as a Christian Rome eventually outlawed gladiatorial combat, she eventually, in 374 AD, also outlawed the pagan practice of exposing unwanted babies (the ancient practice most comparable to the modern late-term abortion). The Christian consensus about babies is that they are not to be killed, in the womb or out of it.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has an ambivalent official statement about abortion, which speaks of an unborn child as “a magnificent gift of God,” while also seeking to preserve “the personal liberty of women” to toss that magnificent gift in the trash. But there is nothing ambivalent about the Church’s involvement in the abortion industry. We are hip deep in the abortion business. Elective abortions are performed at many Adventist hospitals, but the real history has been made by individual Adventist doctors. Dr. Edward C. Allred, a graduate of La Sierra University and Loma Linda University, founded “Family Planning Associates” and personally aborted well over a quarter of a million babies. Dr. Allred made the abortion business very lucrative by spending no more than five minutes with each expecting mother. “We eliminated needless patient-physician contact,” he told one reporter. Allred owned 23 abortion clinics, which generated $70 million in annual gross revenues and $5 million in annual profits. When Dr. Allred retired from the business, he sold it to another Seventh-day Adventist, Dr. Irving M. “Bud” Feldkamp III. (Dr. Feldkamp is a dentist, not an OB/GYN, but he recognized a profitable business when he saw one.)

Although Allred’s fortune was built on aborted babies—and he continues to own horse-racing venues which he has stuffed with slot machines—his money was plenty good enough for his alma mater, La Sierra University, which named the “Edward C. Allred Center for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship” after him. La Sierra’s board is chaired by Pacific Union President Ricardo Graham; other union officials and three conference presidents also sit on the board. If these men approve of taking blood money from a mass abortionist and naming a “center” after him, it cannot reasonably be argued that the SDA Church is ambivalent about abortion. We are pro-abortion. We seem to consider abortion as wholesome as motherhood and apple pie.

The church’s pro-abortion stance has consequences. It is often argued that high standards are an impediment to church growth, but all of the research and empirical evidence suggest that people are attracted to churches that have high standards and make demands on their members. Our failure to take a Christian position turns people off, including many Adventists. Teresa Fry Beem was a Seventh-day Adventist anti-abortion activist, one of four children of a prominent family in Keene, Texas, where I grew up and was educated. Teresa became so frustrated with the church’s stance on abortion that she converted to Roman Catholicism. She’s written a book entitled, “It’s Okay Not to be an Adventist,” and has founded a “former Adventist discussion group” on Facebook. It’s hard to know how to respond to the Teresa Beems; abortion is a needless and indefensible stain on the Adventist Church.

....

The Sexual Revolution brought about radical changes to the sexual constitution of the developed world, discarding a traditional Christian view of sexuality and replacing it with a pagan view of sexuality that is based upon the idea that anything consenting adults want to do with each other is normative and acceptable. Because of this cultural earthquake, Christians in the developed world can no longer coast along with the dominant culture. And yet that is exactly what Seventh-day Adventists have done in the areas of sex roles, abortion, and divorce and remarriage. We must not continue to drift along with an increasingly pagan larger culture. As Seventh-day Adventists, we need to open our Bibles and, in humble submission, learn what Scripture teaches about sexuality. It seems late in the day to transform our sexual subculture, but the first step in solving any problem is to admit you have one. We have one.

The strange case of Adventism and sexuality

[This blogpost contains only the parts of the article. The comments to his post are enlightening to read if you are a pro-life Adventists. Just go to the link above.]

The Sabbath: More Important than Adventists Even Know

Holy Saturday, the Final Sabbath: An Anti-type of the Death of Christ


Christians have been commemorating the last Sabbath since the beginning. Only, instead of observing the Jewish weekly Sabbath as a command, Holy Saturday is a yearly Christian tradition to remember Christ in the tomb during the passion week, the day before Christians celebrate the resurrection. It is said that St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, gave the first Holy Saturday sermon and we still have copies of that sermon passed down to our time. Some of this ancient sermon is recorded here:

"What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.”

The last Sabbath Christ spent in the tomb. His body rested in death. And its importance is vastly more than a day. This Sabbath, the Sabbath of salvation, was prophesied all the way back at creation. 

The meaning of Sabbath slowly unfolded through time as recorded in scripture. Let's return to the Creation story and the first day of rest.

Genesis: The Seventh Day

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Gen. 2: 1-3

God rested on the seventh day. Our Creator needs no rest, for He is spirit. His rest, in fact, was not for Himself but to show us that one day He would rest again. His first rest pointed to another rest in the future. 

This seventh day of creation week was unlike any of the other days, for the scripture records each day with a evening and a morning. The first six days had an opening and a closing. Each day began with the light dimming (evening) and ended with the light dawning (morning). 

Only with a cycle of both darkness and light was there a complete day. With the evening and the morning, it was finished. But, in the creation account, the seventh day had no external boundaries. It had no beginning and end like the other days. The seventh day rest day was not finished. That was for a very important purpose. To find the purpose of the open-ended seventh day of creation we need to know what a seven day cycle meant.

The Seven Day Cycle

Sevens in scripture point to cycles of completion. The seventh in all cycles signals the end, the finish of whatever was taking place. Whether it was a week, a time period for healing or taking a vow, often the Bible speaks of a seven day cycle. When the ceremonial cycle of seven was finished, another cycle began. 

So in creation, God began a cycle of seven days that didn’t quite end. The seventh day did not complete the cycle of both evening and morning. 

The creation week ended... but not quite, for the seventh day rest began but never ended. In a sense we can say the seventh day began with the evening but there was no record of the cycle being completed. As if God was saying, “The morning has not yet come.” The cycle of God’s physical creation ended, the heavens and earth were done... yet, the rest He began was not finished. 

There was something more....

God rested the seventh day, a rest that was not yet completed... 

Then this rest began to unfold in Israel's history.

Introduction of the Sabbath Rest

In Exodus 16, the newly freed people of God were tested in the wilderness to see if they would obey God. The test was the manna. One day a week, at the end of a cycle of seven, manna would cease falling from the heavens. The bread of angels would rest. On this day of Sabbath rest or “ceasing” Israel was not to work nor to even go outside (Ex. 16:29), as if Sabbath was kind of a rest of death. In fact, Israel was commanded not even to light a light! They were to stay inside their tents as if they were in a tomb.

Then more rules were added:
No gathering, no working.
Stay inside.
Slaves rest.
Animals rest.
All Israel was commanded to cease.

Almost as if Israel was playing out a part of death by this Sabbath rest.

This rest was a sign for Israel, it pointed back to the seventh day of creation. That same seventh day that wasn’t quite finished. That day of evening and yet no morning, when God rested. 

Israel was given a test of resting, almost as if the test was joining God in His resting of creation. A rest that seemed like a death. No light. Stay in tent. No work. Total rest, like death.

In fact, if you did not cease from all work and stay inside your tent and complete the command of a seventh-day rest, God commanded your own physical death. (Ex. 35:3)

The end of this cycle of sevens was holy. To profane the sign of God’s rest at creation, meant physical death. As Israel wandered in the wilderness awaiting the promised land, Sabbath was not a day to go out at look at nature. It was not a day to enjoy. It was a solemn rest, just as if it were a preparation for Israel’s death. 

So to recap: Sabbath (rest/ceasing) ends a seven day cycle of completion before a new cycle begins. This rest of God did not end at Creation. Something wasn't complete. And a similar rest, given to Israel, remembered the open-ended rest of creation and also resembled death. Could these Sabbaths be a Old Testament antitype of Christ's death?

The Sabbath Death

All those endless cycle of sevens for the people of God which ended in a ceasing, a night without end, a rest that never seemed to complete itself. These cycles started over again each week, each seven years, and each seven/sevens of years (the Jubilee). There was never an eighth day. 

The eighth day in scripture means a new beginning. The eighth day was also a prophecy of the first day of a new heaven and a new earth. An eighth day would mean the end of the old cycle and a new would begin. 

Okay, think about this: since Israel was given all these cycles of sevens ending with a Sabbath rest, could they not have some ceremonial significance that pointed to Christ? After all, many of the ceremonies, like the Passover, the sin offerings, the Exodus that were indeed Messianic prophecies. 

Could not this cycle of seven, ending in a Sabbath rest (that resembled death) point as a sign to the Savior and the rest He was bringing? 

Many would agree it was. However now add to that sign of Messianic rest with the creation open-ended seventh day.

God’s rest at creation began but was not finished until He would rest in the tomb. The first seventh day rest would culminate in the last seventh-day rest on that Great and Holy Saturday when Christ would enter the tomb. As an ancient writer (perhaps even St. Peter himself) spoke about this Great and Holy Sabbath:

“Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps...Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep.... He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son. The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross.  ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: 

Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise. ‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

`I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you. ‘But arise, let us go hence.’ “ (From ancient homily, “For Holy Saturday: The Lord’s Descent into Hell,” http://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010414_omelia-sabato-santo_en.html).

Holy Saturday Proclaimed, “It Is Finished!”


God’s rest at creation began but was not finished until He had conquered both Heaven and Hell, both the seen and the unseen, the physical creation and the spiritual creation. With the Sabbath rest of Holy Saturday, God’s rest was finally complete. It was finished. All those Sabbaths Israel was figuratively in the tomb with Christ, pointed to the ultimate fulfillment of the end of the cycle of sin. The end of the seven of sin, the seventh day was finally over. Now with the dawn of the eighth day, the evening of the seventh day was finished! The morning and the true light had come in Jesus. Our Messiah. Our Christ. Our Savior.

Sabbath was to proclaim (as a sign) what God was going doing for us through His rest--begun at creation. He was going to suffer the depths of the underworld, the tomb, the dark rest of no light, just as the sabbaths commanded for Israel.

Now a new heaven and a new earth has come. The cycle of sin is over and the Sabbath of death has been fulfilled. We continue to remember the Sabbath, that great commandment of God for the Jews, only we do it now through the lens of the New Covenant. We now commemorate Holy Saturday once a year (as a Christian tradition) as it takes us to the completion of the seven-day cycle of creation.

And now we remember that then, as Holy Saturday’s tomb trembled the rest of death is over. The curse is lifted and sin has been conquered. 

We are now living a new cycle and its day of commemoration isn’t the tomb, but the SUN RISE!! THE MORNING HAS COME! With Christ’s resurrection, the cycle of creation was completed and now a new kind of rest was brought in. No longer a physical rest, but a rest in the completion of Christ’s salvation.   


The Sabbath was Israel's sign that the Messiah would fulfill the law and the prophets by His death and entombment and finish the long cycle of unaccomplished rest. They entered the prophecy of the tomb by ceasing their labor each Sabbath. 

Christ was bringing in the New Covenant rest that was to be found in Him. "Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." And Christ entered the tomb and the final Sabbath was finished.


Morning has broken and we are living in a new day and a new creation. A day of life. A cycle of morning and the Son that will never end. 

Did Catholics Change the Sabbath

JimmyAkin

Did the Catholic Church "Change the Sabbath"?

BY JIMMY AKIN Thursday, October 11, 2012 9:17 PM Comments (3)

Did the Catholic Church "Change the Sabbath"?

You sometimes encounter the charge that the Catholic Church wrongly "changed the sabbath" from Saturday to Sunday. This claim is often made by Seventh-Day Adventists, for example. But even if one isn't accusing the Church of wrongdoing, the question can still arise: Why do Catholics worship on Sunday rather than Saturday? Here's the story . . .

What Day the Sabbath Is

First, let's clear away a potential source of confusion. While it's true that people sometimes speak of Sunday as "the Christian sabbath," this is a loose way of speaking. Strictly speaking, the sabbath is the day it always was--Saturday--though it should be noted that traditionally Jewish people have celebrated the sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Sunday is a distinct day, which follows the sabbath. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:

2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ.

Why We Celebrate Sunday

That same paragraph explains why we celebrate on Sunday. For Christians the ceremonial observance of Sunday replaces that of the sabbath. Properly speaking, we're not celebrating the sabbath on Sunday. We're celebrating something else, but it's something that the sabbath points toward. As the Catechism says, the Jewish sabbath announces man's eternal rest in God and prefigures some aspects of Christ. Sunday thus fulfills what the sabbath pointed toward.

The Lord's Day

What we are celebrating instead of the sabbath is "the Lord's day." That's something Christians have celebrated since the first century. In fact, in the very first chapter of Revelation, we read that John experienced the inaugural vision of the book on "the Lord's day." He writes:

I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet [Revelation 1:9-10].

And he goes on to describe the vision of Jesus Christ he received. For our purposes, the important thing to note is that he speaks of the Lord's day as an already-established thing. He expects his readers to know what it is. So, when is it?

 

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/did-the-catholic-church-change-the-sabbath#ixzz295mwrVDc

The Adventist Auschwitz

I have never encountered a place like Keene, Texas anywhere. Good people, really nice and good people live there. But few people who grew up or lived there for any amount of time come out alive (metaphorically). To call it the Adventist Auschwitz sounds highly and offensively dramatic, but you don't know what I know about the place and if you did, you would use the same language.

Something is wrong, evil about that town. It is a haunt of demons who prowl around harassing and devouring the innocent people there.

If you live there, get out.

My family hates when I talk about Keene this way because they think I am insulting the people which is totally misunderstanding me. I want people out because I love them and think the world of them.

Yes, I know horrible stuff happens everywhere, but nothing like in Keene. Ninety-five percent of people who spend years living in Keene have a life that is hell and ruined by various evils. I lived there for twenty years and saw the outcomes--the suicides, the suicide attempts, the sexual promiscuity, the rape, the incest, the sexual abuse of minors by both family member and religious leaders and the forced abortions when the youth get pregnant, the affairs, the divorces, the satanic groups, the mental illness, the communal deception, the drug abuse, murder (even murder!), the hopelessness, the wanton life of evil cloaked under religion. Consciences are seared as a hot iron and when someone lives too long in Keene they become deaf and blind to it.

Because I was a person people, for some reason, went to with their horrors, I found out more than probably most of the pastors there. If you live there, you probably won't know how bad it is until it is too late. I heard all the stuff I just wrote BY THE VICTIMS themselves--there is nothing I have written that was second hand.

If you think people just make this stuff up, I say... okay, perhaps some of the stuff I heard was from people who just made it up... fine. But then Keene has a different problem. It is full of liars and mental derangement. It is a city of mental sickness. But then we must ask why?

You drive through Keene, or even move there, and the first few years are fine. It seems like any sweet little old-fashioned town. People are SO nice and they have great traditions, unique traditions. Yet, somehow the longer you are there, the darkness shows itself. It's weird and I can't describe it. It's as if a shadow of demonic forces begin to follow a person around. It is a vortex and the nicer you are... the more you are targeted.

Of course there are a few who live blissfully ignorant of what goes on in Keene and think it a sweet place. And if you are a retired SDA leader and can stay out of everyone else's life and live like a monk--then you will probably be fine. But just don't look under the sweet overcoat of Keene or you will see things you never wanted to see. And then you will be culpable if you don't cry out.

If you live in Keene today:

GET OUT!! Do not live in Keene and for God's sake don't let your kids grow up there. Something wicked that way comes...

Adventists Face Abuse of Minors

http://www.atoday.org/article/1361/news/august-headlines/abuse-is-a-challenge-for-the-adventist-church-new-campaign-is-launched-to-counter-it


Though Adventists claim sexual and physical abuse is not at "crisis" level in their church... (many former SDAs and current SDAs would vehemently disagree)... at least the church is now beginning to openly deal with it...

Abuse is a Challenge for the Adventist Church; New Campaign is Launched to Counter It

Submitted: Aug 22, 2012
By AT News Team

Although the number of cases has not reached the crisis level that it has in some denominations, the Seventh-day Adventist Church does face an incidence of abuse suffered by its children and teens sufficient to result in the launch of a new, world-wide campaign. In a scan of public records over the past 30 days, Adventist Today found at least four serious cases of sexual abuse, physical harm and even murder by ministers, teachers and lay leaders. This is not a scientific sample and it is not intended to imply that this is a typical period, yet it is disturbing.

A 23-year-old Fifth Grade teacher in an Adventist elementary school in St. George’s, Grenada, was arrested during the last week of July and charged with murder. According to the Jamaica Observer, the remains of a 19-year-old young woman were found in a refuse container along with a weapon and personal belongings. An autopsy showed that the woman died from strangulation and bleeding. To date, there is no report of how the young teacher pled in court.

Last week a 46-year-old man in Berrien County, Michigan, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pled guilty to sex crimes against a nine-year-old girl which occurred at the Niles Westside Seventh-day Adventist Church. He was also convicted of failing to register for prior convictions of criminal sexual misconduct. The prosecuting attorney was quoted by the South Bend Tribune, “He’s done this before. He said that he couldn’t control himself with children.” There was no comment about why he was allowed to have contact with children at the church.

On July 29 The Times of India reported that a female teacher at the Adventist school in Virudhunagar allegedly hit a seven-year-old girl with a wooden ruler causing injuries that made it difficult for the girl to walk home. “Police sources said they had filed a complaint under section 323” of India’s criminal law and “section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000.” An unnamed police official is quoted as stating that the teacher had “accepted that she caned the girl.”

On August 20 the tabloid London Daily Mail and the South Africa Press Association (SAPA) wire service both reported that Elder Steyn Venter, pastor of the Adventist church in Bloemfontein, South Africa, had been fired for “improper advice” in marriage counseling. The newspapers reported that he had encouraged young couples to engage in public nudity and kept photographs in which at least one couple appeared naked. Elder B. M. P. Ngwenya, president of the KwaZulu-Natal and Free State Conference, told the Die Volksblad newspaper that the pastor had been fired.

Among those who might have access to statistics on cases of this kind, no one was willing to give Adventist Today any hint if this is a typical month or not. What is widely reported is that the Adventist Risk Management (ARM) insurance company owned by the General Conference used the occasion of the recent North American Division Teacher’s Convention in Nashville to launch the Seven Campaign, a “grassroots” effort “stop child abuse.” In February ARM had launched a Child Protection Plan and it has presented recommendations that led to the adoption of strong prevention measures in the NAD Working Policy over the last decade or two.

“We want to not only make it clear that we stand against child abuse, but we want to get our members talking and actually engaged in spotting and preventing misconduct,” an ARM spokesman told the Adventist News Network (ANN), the official news service of the GC. He stressed the involvement of local church members as a major goal of the campaign in his comments to ANN.

Yet, to some observers the initiative stumbled out of the starting blocks when convention planners pulled the plug on an Adventist group that is involved in anti-bullying efforts. Someone to Talk To is an independent organization pulled together by Carol Grady, the wife of an Adventist minister, who has written a book entitled My Son, Beloved Strangerabout her gay son and the problems he faced growing up in the Adventist denomination’s schools and youth ministries. Her group had applied to be one of 160 organizations that had exhibits at the convention. Because her web site does not take the official position of the denomination regarding gays and lesbians, she was told she could not participate.

An article about refusing Grady as an exhibitor appeared in The Huffington Post and a response was released by the denomination, stressing that the NAD Office of Education provide eight contact hours of in-service education on bullying during the convention, including a preview of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, “a whole-school program that has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying.”

The Church “recognizes that every human being is valuable in the sight of God, and we seek to minister to all men and women in the spirit of Jesus,” the statement quoted from the denomination’s position paper on homosexuality. “We hold that all people, no matter their sexual orientation, are children of God. We do not condone singling out any group for scorn and derision, let alone abuse.”

“Being a gay, lesbian or bisexual teenager in the United States is risky business,” pointed out Elder Ryan Bell, senior pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church. “According to the 2009 National School Climate Survey nearly 85 percent of LGBT teens report being harassed in school and nearly two-thirds report feeling unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation.” Adventists and other Christians have found it difficult to balance a belief that homosexual behavior is sinful and a belief that all people should be respected and treated without discrimination.

At the same time, it is clear that there are problems of abuse and violence that do not appear to be related to tensions over sexual orientation. “Sexuality and spirituality are both powerful things,” one veteran pastor told Adventist Today. “All human beings are sinners. It is only by God’s grace that things do not go wrong more often than they do. This is why those of us who are preachers must constantly hammer on the duty of compassion and the core doctrine of grace. If we let off the emphasis, more people get hurt.”

Sexual Abuse

Most Holy and Merciful God, Abba Father, please give me the grace to write this with love, truth, compassion and with the purpose of honoring You as I wish to honor your dear children.

I knew this post was coming somewhere deep in me. But I dreaded it. Oh God, help me. My conscience will no longer allow me to dismiss this, belittle this problem or leave it for someone else to write.

There is rampant sexual abuse in the Seventh-day Adventist church. If only a small percentage of the cases I personally have been told are true, then this is a problem of such serious and prevailing nature as to demand attention.

For years, these are the things that have gone through my mind:

1. These Adventists and former Adventists are just lying for attention or they are grossly exaggerating the problem. They are bitter against the church and want to hurt the Adventists.

2. There is something mentally wrong with these people--emotional instability.

3. If I say something publicly, it could cause so many people to be badly hurt and some people falsely accused. The last thing I would ever want to put on someone is a false accusation of sexual abuse. People lose children, marriages, careers, are ostracized and live in deep depression after being falsely accused. God in heaven, please, I beg of you pour out your grace of truth on this subject so no innocent person will be ever accused of this.

4. There is no--or little--way to prove any of the cases I have heard. The victims themselves admit that it is a he said/ she said situation. Many were children when it happened and have zero interest in revisiting the memory or the person. So, to write about something you can't prove is something I try very hard to avoid. However, the anecdotes are becoming so numerous as to demand a voice. I am sure I have heard more than a hundred cases, ... I haven't kept count. But a large number....

Once, while still an Adventist, I called a SDA televangelist and expressed my concern about this subject and asked him what we, as a church, can do. He admitted the problem was grave, and yet offered no solution. He left the conversation saying something to the effect that what they need is to focus on forgiveness.

Well, yes.... of course. I agree. Forgiveness is an important step in a victim of sexual abuse. But what about the perpetrator? Should we not expose him or her and put them in jail? I honestly don't think the leadership of the Adventist church have any idea how severe this problem is. I think they imagine it is about an inappropriate touch, or an inappropriate remark. I can tell you, very few stories approach innocuousness. We are talking about systematic incestuous rape, violent rape or sodomy by SDA pastors, principals, teachers, Sabbath school leaders, Pathfinder leaders, etc and SDA fathers and even mothers....

Frequently, these girls have had to go to the emergency room, at times they are taken by the perpetrator or another SDA leader because of physical damage. I have heard numerous stories from girls who were secretly taken to get abortions by SDA Bible teachers, or church leaders to prevent the story from becoming public.

Lest any of you think I am drudging this up to hurt the SDA church as a former, stories began while I was in an SDA boarding academy. Most of these girls did not blame the church itself, but properly blamed the perpetrator and are loyal Adventists today. So this isn't about bitterness or attention for them. Nevertheless, at some point, you have to ask if there isn't an intrinsic problem with the church who considers themselves the sole remnant that covers this up to prevent scandal.

I am aware this happens in other churches--after all, I'm Catholic! The fact that this happens in other churches in no way minimizes the responsibility for Adventists to deal with this most heinous problem among their own children. Learn from the Catholic scandal and root out this problem and deal with it. You can see from the Catholic Church, we survived! It is possible to survive such a terrible blow. (I can't be as optimistic about the victims though.)

Think of the words of Our Lord, Jesus Christ when He said, "In as much as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it to me."

Let us Christians not turn a blind eye to our children. This abuse ruins their lives and often leads to drug addictions and sexual immorality. It can lead to serious mental problems and abuse. Often, victims attempt suicide! Some of these Adventist victims are today in jail, in psychiatric units, on the streets, isolated, alone and internally screaming with pain. Many others are walking in SDA churches as emotional corpses who cannot deal with reality, whose marriages are wrecks and the victim's spouse is taking the hit for the perpetrator's actions.

The multitude of stories I am privately told, if--as I wrote--if even a small percentage are true, it should awaken the greatest horror in Adventists. They should demand a church wide investigation into this and see how extensive and damaging it is. 

My heart continues to break for these women. Please, Christians out there, daily pray for these wounded souls, their families and their perpetrators.

God, have mercy on us all.

Babylon Has FALLEN--COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE

“I am a very special to God. I am part of a small group of children who have divorced their parents. They were corrupted, therefore, I was told by an angel to leave them. After all Jesus said,

For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law: and a man's foes [shall be] they of his own household. Matthew 10: 35, 36

I was told that everyone who truly loves Jesus will one day leave their corrupted families. The mark of true love for Jesus is to divorce your parents and “be ye separate.” One day, beloved children, one day a great deception will befoul the true waters of Christianity that claims that unity is of God. The host of heaven weep for sorrow at the deceptive promise of Christian unity. For that was never the intention of God, and will one day come from the mouths of the fallen stars.

Prepare your hearts for this great deception. Divorce is truly godly. Family unity, no matter how sweet and loving it may appear is only a terrible false Christianity. A Scarlet Whore from the Babylon of the family unit is going to one day arise and proclaim my words are from the evil one. This will be a terrible test. 

No matter how your parents plead that they love you, their words are from the darkest abyss, do not listen. Flee the fallen Babylon which is the family unit.” 

SEE, as you look around the very evidence of Babylon! Babylon has fallen! Flee from her. The family is corrupted beyond measure. She is drinking the draughts of the foretold prophecy of John. The angel’s message is FLEE from Babylon.

“But, but...” came another voice of hysteria, “but how can you say that?! Where is that in scripture!? You are preaching something that Jesus never preached you are distorting the gospel! Jesus told us that the world will know we are Christians by our love one for another. He also prayed for that we all may be one.”

Calmly the child, with a great look of righteous pity and a wide-eyed glance at the woman’s pearl earrings, responded, “But true Christians ARE the ones who divorce, don’t you see dearest? Jesus meant that we are to be unified in our HEARTS about being separated! 

Has God so blinded you of truth that you cannot see the plain Biblical teaching? Only those who have divorced  and fled from the home of their corrupted parents will be marked with the seal of God in the last days.” 

“You are teaching falsehood!! No one listen to this! It is evil!” the woman cried out.

Obviously, by your tone and unchristian attitude, you give yourself away as the very people I was warning those who love the Lord about. You are one of those fallen angels I predicted--and you are aligning yourself with the Whore of Babylon. You prove me correct by your very accusation! Wouldn’t it be safer just to flee from the Babylon of the family and be separate? Why risk it? 

The Biblical revelation of Christ, the message of Revelation, speaks of the last days great apostasy and disregarding of God’s commandments. At the very heart of Christ, the first thing He did after creation, on the sixth day, was create man and woman. It was only AFTER sin entered the world that man took the woman and slept with her. Look it up! The Bible, in Genesis clearly says that Adam knew his wife Eve AFTER they fell in sin.

At Sinai, Moses told the men to refrain from intimacy with their wives before coming into His presence. This clearly shows that the golden thread between creation, Sinai and the last days is the evilness of marriage.

Therefore the very act of marriage--the act of family and its coming corruption will be the test of Christianity. COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE! Those who preach the importance of the unity of the family, may seem good now, but it will be clearly shown in the last days that they are of their father the Devil. He is the father of lies and scripture warns that on this point, “even the very elect will be deceived!” 

“But what about love!? What about family!? We’ve always taught that as Christians! The covenants of God with His people are to unify us, not separate us!”

Yes, but in the last days, we know a great falling away will happen, and those of us who wish to remain faithful to Christ, who want to worship God as the remnant who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus, will worship as Jesus worshipped the Father--as a single man--rejecting his parents. It is by His example we must live--no family ties. We must be separate, a unique remnant who reject all those who claim Christianity but will never hold to the truth. 

The GREAT DEBATE: Worshiping on Sunday: the first 3 Centuries

I would like to invite Seventh-day Adventists or any Christian to enter this debate.


CALLING ADVENTIST APOLOGISTS! Come and post your evidence for this important topic. It is silly for me to be arguing your side. We want to be fair to you....! Since Doug Batchelor just wrote a book having a debate with himself, I thought we would invite him here to debate another person. 


If it is not against God's will for us to worship on Sunday today, what scriptural evidence can you bring to the debate that backs up your prophecy that one day worshipping on Sunday will be against God? 

That is your claim. Defend it Biblically.

The topic/proposition being debated is:

Christians worshipped on Sunday for the first three hundred years of Christianity before the time of Emperor Constantine

To avoid confusion, two generic names will head each side:

Non-SDA Christian Apologist 

The Proposition/Positive side (Non-SDA) should attempt to prove this statement.

vs. 

Adventist Apologist 

The Opposition/Negative side (Adventist) should attempt to disprove this statement.

*******************************************
RULES:
Sources that will be accepted are:

•  The Bible: (Catholic and Protestant) mainstream translations such as ASV, KJV, NIV, NASB, RSV, etc. No paraphrases.
• Primary sources: Sacred and secular writings of the first three hundred years. 
• Secondary sources: Generally accepted ecclesiastical histories such as written by Eusebius, Bede, Schaff, etc.

Only sources accepted by mainstream Christian churches will be allowed. Sources, when possible, should be easily available for referencing. Internet links are encouraged.

All comments will be reviewed before posting and those with clear, logical arguments will be posted. Sarcasm, insults or rude comments or comments that are deemed irrelevant or illogical will not be posted. Please be clear and concise, keeping all comments related to the topic. Editors may cut your comments if too wordy or redundant and correct spelling and grammatical errors.

We will attempt to give equal time (space in this case) for both sides.
********************************
 All are welcome to post in the debate. Questions will come at the end, so as you watch the debate be thinking of questions you wish to ask of either side.
_____________________________________

OPENING STATEMENTS

Non SDA Christian Apologist:
The proposition of the debate is to prove that the early Christians worshipped on Sunday. 

Why is this debate important? Because the Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches that the only day of corporate worship that God approves of is the seventh day, Saturday. Their last-day prophecies include a test of Christianity based upon what day you worship God. They predict a law will be passed that forces everyone to go to church on Sunday. Those who attend church on Sunday will receive the Mark of the Beast and will not be saved. Seventh-day Adventist who remain true to God's appointed Sabbath will be imprisoned, tortured and even killed by those who go to church on Sunday.

This elitist doctrine that teaches Sunday is the wrong day to worship wounds us all, permanently cleaving the Body of Christ in direct disobedience to Christ's command that we unite as Christians. 

The proposition is not about a sabbath rest day. It is a debate to prove that Sunday has always been a day of worship for Christians. There is no Biblical evidence, no prophecy, that worshipping on Sunday was, is or ever will be wrong.

We will be looking at historical evidence to prove that indeed, the early Christians from the time of the Apostles up until the time of Constantine worshipped corporately as a body of Christ on Sunday.

If the early church worshipped on Sunday before the time of Constantine then:

• Worshipping on Sunday will never be a sign of disobedience to God’s laws nor will those who worship on Sunday receive the Mark of the Beast. 
• The SDA Sunday law prophecy is not from God and causes a unchristian elitism and disunity in the Body of Christ. 

Again, we remind those reading that this is not a debate about Sabbath, so please keep all comments within the structure of the debate topic. This is about worshipping on Sunday. Thank you.
__________________

Adventist Apologist:

Since there have been no counter introductory statements, I will attempt to write one for the SDA side. I will happily remove mine and insert an Adventist Apologist side when I receive one.

This is indeed, for the Adventist, a very important subject. And since you have narrowed the field of debate considerably, I feel we cannot get at the heart of the matter. For, as an Adventist, the heart is a rejection of the Sabbath, not worshipping on Sunday. No Adventist believes it is wrong to worship on Sunday or any day of the week. 

There are differing opinions within Adventism about when Christians began to worship on Sunday, and there are differing opinions about how trustworthy primary sources are when using historical accounts outside of scripture. 

So, defending the SDA position, I will point rather to scripture instead of early Christian writings. What man wrote just doesn't really matter, it is what God thinks that is important. Just because the early church practiced something, doesn't give it positive proof that it was of God.

The SDA side will attempt to prove that there are two faulty lines that you have drawn:

1. You presume, Teresa, that even if the early church celebrated the Lord's Day on Sunday, that they did so in obedience to God. It is very possible they worshipped on Sunday to avoid persecution or as a concession to Rome.

2. You also presume that if the early church did worship on Sunday that it somehow negates an end-time scenario where a day of worship is the test for Christians. Your assumption is a non-sequitor.

As an Adventist Apologist, I will attempt to prove that:

• First, there is no definitive Biblical proof that the early church worshipped on Sunday. That interpretations of certain texts that may give that impression are debated even among non-SDA theologians. 
• Secondly, there is Biblical proof that a rejection of the Sabbath commandment (the 4th commandment) as a last day test of Christian fidelity to Christ is firmly rooted in scripture. 

Thank you and we are looking forward to a vigorous, logical and Christian debate.

[We will be keeping this Opening Statement available for an authentic Adventist Apologist.]

_________________________________

SECTION ONE: Presenting of the Evidence

Non-SDA Christian Apologist:

Mr. Adventist Apologist, I think you have made two very good points and one of them I must address in my evidence. I agree that I should prove that the early church went to church on Sunday, not out of fear, not out of coercion or compromise, but as a part of following the Apostle's directive. I think we can do that. And I think I can do that with scripture alone, even if I will add to that evidence plenty of primary sources of individual Christian historical accounts.

Your second point, that it is a non-sequitor to assume just because the early church attended church on Sunday does not automatically negate an end-time prophecy pivoting upon a day of worship. Good catch.. you are correct. 

But then I must point out to you that it will be your responsibility to prove that the scriptures do indeed specifically indicate a day of worship as a last day test. You cannot base such a monumental and divisive doctrine on a whim--you will have to prove such a test with direct biblical evidence.

Okay to begin, I must start with the Old Testament because it builds a foundation of worshipping God on Sunday that is used by the Apostles when they meet for worship. Remember at that time the early church was mainly Hebrew. They carried forth a lot of the elements of worship into Christianity. Even worship on Sunday.

The Hebrews in Jerusalem did not have one day a week they worshipped corporately. They worshipped daily at the temple. We know this not only from Old Testament sources, but new. The writer of the book of Hebrews recorded: 

Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship. Hebrews 9: 6 

Please note that divine worship is happening daily! (See also Heb. 7:27 and 10:11) 

Every Sunday there was worship going on. All day long people would be coming to worship and give offerings and sacrifices. Everyday worship occurred. Every Sunday worship was going on in the Temple.  Once in the Promised Land, only three times a year was there a mandatory holy assembly for all Israel at the Temple and they would often fall on Sunday.  (Lev. 23 convocation on the weekly Sabbath is debatable, many Hebrew scholars says that this particular command for a weekly Sabbath was only during the Tabernacle period in the wilderness, for travel logistic reasons.)

Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 record the Feast of the Unleavened Bread (Passover) and specifically called a “memorial” and a holy assembly. It is commanded to be kept as a permanent ordinance. On the first day is a “holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you.” (v. 47)  “All the congregation of Israel are to celebrate this.” 

Leviticus records the seriousness of this, “any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people.” The holy convocation of Passover can occur on Sunday. The last one being 2008.

And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath [Sunday] the priest shall wave it. Lev. 23:11

The day of Pentecost, another holy assembly can occur on Sunday. Leviticus 23 requires  

On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. 

You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath [Sunday], from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath [Sunday]; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.

Sundays as well as Saturdays were considered holy assemblies. One was not pitted against the other. See also Number 28:18. 

This year, in 2012, the Jews will celebrate the two holy convocations of Pentecost on Sunday. 

There has never been a time that worshipping on Sunday would be considered going against the commandments of God. God would not have required His holy assemblies of all Israel to occur on Sunday if this were wrong. 

There is no indication anywhere within the pages of scripture that would suggest that any day is a wrong day to worship God. Or that there would be a last day test on a day.

Now we go to the New Testament.  Does the New Testament specify a day, and only one day we should worship God? No!

Where is He who has been born King of the Jews ? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him. Matt. 2: 2

This does not specify a day. Would Joseph have sent them away if they arrived on a Sunday? 

Nothing Christ did can be dismissed as accidental. Everything He did and when He did it was significant. Jesus went to the Temple daily to teach. (Mark 14: 49). If worshipping on Sunday were somehow wrong, wouldn’t Jesus have cleansed the Temple specifically on that day and explained to everyone that Sunday was the wrong day to worship God? 

On Sunday, Jesus conquered death by rising and showed Himself to His followers as the Divine God! (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; John 20:19) On Sunday, Thomas worshipped Him! (John 20:27-28). That evening, on Sunday, Jesus worshipped with them at the Communion meal (Luke 22:19; Luke 24:31) and gave them His Holy Spirit and His peace then commissioned them to be the leaders of His Kingdom by forgiving sins (John 20).

The church was born on a Sunday at Pentecost. (Acts 2: 41)

And if this isn’t enough, these two text alone should wrap up this subject:

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, Acts 2: 26 

And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Acts 5: 42. 

Every single day the disciples came together to worship, including Sundays. How do you think there were souls being added to their number, being baptized daily? (Acts 2: 4, 47) These early Christians were very Jewish in their rituals and worship of God would be included in all of these baptismal rites. They worshipped every single day including Sunday. There is no evidence anywhere that they avoided worship on Sunday if it were wrong.

Paul worshipped God by having a communion service and preaching on Sunday. (Acts. 20:7)

Then we go to early historical accounts by Christians: 

In the early part of the second century, maybe as early as the lifetime of the Apostle John (c.100-130), a Alexandrian Christian leader named Barnabas wrote a letter to an unknown audience. Although the letter was not considered inspired; it was widely read among Alexandrian Christians as authoritative and historically accurate. In this letter, the presbyter acknowledges that, “we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead.” This letter shows how early the church was celebrating the Lord’s Day, Sunday. 

Scholars are confident about dating Ignatius’ letter to AD 107. As the third bishop of Antioch who was taught by the Apostles, he was held in great respect for his courageous martyrdom. He clearly shows the early church’s ideas about worshipping on the day of “new hope,” Sunday:

 ...living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him...let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]" "Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians," 

Justin Martyr was a second generation Christian and one of the earliest known Christian apologists. He wrote, in the mid second century less than fifty years after the death of the last apostle (First Apology, ch. 67):

And on the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read....But Sunday is the day on which we all hold a common assembly, because it is the first day of the week on which God...made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead.

The Apostolic Constitutions, dated sometime in the second century commands that “On the day of the resurrection of the Lord--that is, the Lord's Day--assemble yourself together without fail, giving thanks to God and praising Him for those mercies God has bestowed upon you through Christ.”

Bishop of Lyon, also a mid 2nd century Christian leader, also tells us that the church worshipped on Sunday--all the way in Gaul, “The Mystery of the Lord's Resurrection may not be celebrated on any other day than the Lord's Day, and on this alone should we observe the breaking off of the Paschal Feast.”

Going down south to Greece, we find the Bishop Dionysius writing in AD170 to the church in Corinth that they pass Sunday, “this holy Lord's Day, in which we read your letter, from the constant reading of which we shall be able to draw admonition.” Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 4, Ch. 23

At the end of the 2nd century, we travel farther south to Egypt where Clement, the Bishop of Alexandria, records that the Christian, “keeps the Lord's day.”  Bk 7, Ch. 12. And Bishop of Africa, Tertullian records this in his Apology, “We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath.” He even refutes the pagan claim that the early church worshipped the sun, because they worshipped on Sunday, “[It is supposed] that the sun is the god of the Christian, because it is a well- known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity.” The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, p. 123.

All you have to do is type in the person into google and you can easily find the original source. 

Israel was called by God to corporately worship on Sunday. The early church met to "break bread" or hold communion worship services on Sunday--in fact every singe day. There is no indication anywhere in any writings that they were compromising their beliefs. There is no evidence anywhere, no cry from a prophet or pastor that condemns Christians for worshipping on Sunday. 

Therefore I cannot find a shred of evidence anywhere that God would, all of a sudden, 1800 after the dawn of Christianity suddenly give a new reading of scripture and a new vision of Christianity to a small group of Seventh-day Adventists condemning worshipping on Sunday. 
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First presentation of evidence for Adventist Apologists is open for anyone now....please send in your position comments now.